CeasarsDad

Very important about the scale.. Make sure you weigh him the same time everyday. This would be best after his morning Poop and before he eats.. Ceasar is tipping the scale these days at just about 480.. He lost 20 grams a couple of weeks ago and has not regained it.. I guess it was baby fat..

Heather, You have some really nice stuff of your bird. Clearly you love photography. I don't think your composition is bad either. Feel free to chime in here when someone has questions. I think your photography skills are excellent. Keep on shooting and posting.. I want this thread to grow to be one of the biggest ever on this forum.. I have my reason why that is.. <br><br>Post edited by: CeasarsDad, at: 2007/05/12 21:39

Talon, OK, The ones that are dark clearly the meter is still seeing the bright background and exposing for that. We are gonna try a different approach here since 9% partial is still too much. You need 1% spot in these situations. I want you to look at your exposure compensation control. Let me know when you have this and we can start playing. Just for starters. When you see the background bright like in the first 2 photos you need to increase the exposure compensation +1 to +2. Remember this easy formular. Light=lighter and dark=darker. This means if your background is light you INCREASE exposure compensation. Light = Lighter. If your background is darker like a performer on stage with a black background you would DARKEN the exposure compensation. Hence Dark =DARKER.. Got it?<br><br>Post edited by: CeasarsDad, at: 2007/05/12 19:49

Hi again. this is getting to be a habit.. Go to the food forum and read the posts about Harrison's diet. It is widely known to be the best there is when it comes to feeding parrots. I suggest you get you bird on that diet as soon as you can. All the other "stuff" IS wasting money. You should also visit www.harrisonsbirdfood.com You are gonna waste money in the beginning. It take time to convert your bird to Harrisons and their stuff has no preservatives so it can't be left in the bowl for days on end. Don't put vitamins in his water. A good diet will negate the need for any. There.. see that, I am already saving you money.. :laugh:

Ceasar goes to bed when we do.. That would be around 11 or 12. We never covered ceasar and I have no problems. Ceasar's cage is in our Den. We often watch TV until very late hours.. If you look over at ceasar his head is tucked under his wing and he is fast asleep.. Even with noise in the room. Some say Greys need 12 hours of un-interuppted sleep. I don't know about that as Ceasar has never gotten that in all the time we have him. He is bright and fresh in the morning and ready to play and talk all day long. He does take a nap in the afternoons. We also often don't close the cage at all. Ceasar will play around and when tired he will retreat to his sleeping perch and go to sleep. Regarding sand perches. A vet told me not to use them because they cause callouses on their feet.. You are much better off using large natural wooden perches so his nails are dulled naturally. If you get the proper sized purches you won't have too much trouble.<br><br>Post edited by: CeasarsDad, at: 2007/05/12 06:48

Hi Talon. Since I am not a Harrison foods expert I can only tell you and others what I did to get Ceasar to switch from the trail mix he was on to Harrisons' Adult Lifetime Fine High Potency.. Like others I had lots of trouble getting my Grey to switch. I was worried that he wasn't getting the necessary food amounts daily so the first thing I did was to buy a gram scale off Ebay. I think I paid $19 for mine.. Really cheap and I would consider it a necessity for any bird owner. Now, the purpose of the scale is to watch your Greys weight of course but you want to monitor how much he might lose. If at any time he loses 10% of his weight you switch back to what he was eating. You are looking at a weight loss of about 40 grams for the average Grey. Not alot of weight at all. Now, if you are gonna start change over you must stick with it for a couple of days. If you quit right away because you think your Grey isn't eating you will never convert. There are a few kinds of Harrisons. You have course and you have fine.. You also have regular and high potency. Greys can eat either so you need to have a bag of course and a bag of fine in both regular and high potency. 4 bags.. Why? because you don't know which he will like.. To make matters worse there is still another type called peppered and that also comes in 2 types.. yep.. Course and fine.. The trick is to find out which kind they like. It's a good thing that this food comes in 2 pound bags. You can get all types and see what one they like. I began with course. Ceasar ate some but had trouble. I switched to Peppered.. Ceasar didn't like em.. Then came the Fine mix. At last he would eat them. I started by feeding him some pellets out of my fingers. I kept doing this until he refused more. His bowls got filled with this.. Monitoring his weight showed no loss.. He also got his veggies and fruits. He wasn't eating veggies just yet but he loved the fruits. You have to almost force the new foods on him. Imagine a child that was use to only eating ice cream and candy. Then that child was forced to only eat health foods.. You can see that the child would not be happy at first.. but after a short time he will readily eat the good stuff.. The scale is most important. Do not try this without it. You can't see 40 grams of weight loss.. You must weigh daily. I thought Ceasar would never convert.. I was wrong. I think you can convert Talon.. If you REALLY want to that is.. Good luck<br><br>Post edited by: CeasarsDad, at: 2007/05/12 06:37

Hi there and welcome to the forum. Congratulations on your new Grey. The things you are describing are normal for a Grey that just came into a new environment. Take it really slow. Do not towel her now. Wait, allow her to realize that she is in no danger from anyone in the home. It's good she is coming out of her cage. It's also good that she feels safe inside her cage. These are normal behavioral traits. It's important for you to understand that time for us is way different then time to them. What seems like forever for us is really just a short time to them. You need to give the bird time to relax.. You will see this "enough" time happening. After that it is important that you assert yourself as flock leader. You should begin with the step up command and get her to purch on your finger. Move away from her cage when you achieve this as she will want to get back to it. Walk away from it and into another room. All the while your telling her how she is a good girl and that you love her.. Repeatedly. If you hear her growling don't worry. They do this. try having her step from hand to hand.. After a Short lesson return her to her cage still telling her good girl. Soon she will realize you are no threat. Over time.. and it could take months but most likely weeks.. You will see a change in her and she will become easier to handle. Whenever you take her away from her cage and then return her.. Give her a favorite treat.. Everytime.. There are lots more things you could do so I'll sign off and allow other to contribute.. Good luck and welcome again<br><br>Post edited by: CeasarsDad, at: 2007/05/12 06:10

Just sharing some "best practices" when it comes to feeding our Greys Veggies. I think we all agree Veggies are important to our Greys overall health and good looks. What I have found to be really easy to do it to buy bags of Frozen Mixed veggies. In the morning I take a hand full of these and put them in a glass filled with water. Next it goes into the Microware for 1:45. While they are still on the hot side I hand feed them to Ceasar. He LOVES stringbeans and carrots. After he eats a few pieces the rest goes in his Veggie bowl.. Doing this I am assured that he is getting his share of the needed nutrients his body requires. If there is any left over veggies later in the day I then switch the next day to Fruit. If he ate all his Veggies he gets more Veggies the next day. There have been many studies that show African Greys will regulate their diet to exactly what they require. The trick is making sure you have most of the foods he might need available for him. Veggies and Fruit are an important part of this basic food stock.

alie wrote: Just a follow up to your post from last year. I was wondering, how have you done with your Grey and the switch to Harrison's. I went through this and have some ideas for you if you're interested.

No problem there Jtullos2. Greys often do this even when they are 1 year old and older.. Ceaser is still doing this and he is 1 this month. I am sure some of our other members will chime in on this one. BTW.. Welcome to the club.. B)

Hey Talon.. Are you reading this latest post from FairY.. Interesting isn't it..

ZoesDad wrote: Hi ZD Thanks for the compliments. I appreciate them very much. Yes, you are correct about the aperture setting. The smaller (larger aperture number) the more of the subject is in focus. The trick is to get just the subject in focus and not much of the background. Depth of field preview is perfect for this. I am using the Nikon D2Xs with pro glass. Sometimes I use a tripod but all of the photos I have on this site are handheld shots. Regarding your 3mp camera. Don't let that fool you. I was in the front row of a Bon Jovi concert last summer. I was only allowed to bring in my pocket camera. No pro cameras were allowed. I got GREAT photos you would not believe were taken by a point and shoot. Perhaps i will post them here one day. Regarding your "bluish" look when you take flash shots. This is happening because the White Balance of your camera is not set correctly for flash. There should be away to fix that.<br><br>Post edited by: CeasarsDad, at: 2007/05/11 20:40

I want to also discuss the effect of aperture on the look of the background. When you want to isolate your subject from the background chose an aperture with a smaller number like 2.8 instead of something like 8.0 or 11.0 Here's an example using Sonny my Sun Conure as subject. (Thanks sonny ) The background was the ugly wooden fence of my next door neighbors' house. Notice the aperture of 2.8 has blurred the background to the point where you can't tell what's there at all. Makes for a very pleasing photo http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u97/venuto/DSC_3021.jpg<br><br>Post edited by: CeasarsDad, at: 2007/05/12 21:49

Speaking of low angles. It's amazing how little you see of this perspective. Here's another example of a low perspective shot. Here's Xena again. http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u97/venuto/xena033007.jpg

MARIR wrote: No problem what so ever.. I could go either way on this one. In fact I would rather an older bird find a loving home then a baby. A baby will almost always find a new home.. An older bird has to deal with the stigma of... well ... being older.. Just like an older dog. Not everyone that goes to to buy a dog is interested in an older dog.. That's also a shame but it is fact.. A baby has "less" issues to deal with then an "older" bird. But, that being said, there is no guarantee that a baby will develop into a loving companion. An older bird could show his real personality when in the proper state of mind. Just like you suggest in telling the OP to go to a neutral room. This makes me think of the Yellow Nape I had. When this bird was a baby he was a BITER. So bad he turned my hands into chopmeat.. If I knew now what I knew then I would have NEVER taken that bird home. I was NEVER able to break him of his tendency to bite.. He did turn out to be a brilliant talker but you could not handle him "most" of the time.. Where is all this going? My belief is that once a bird develops his basic personality it very difficult if not impossible to change it. Just like people. You ever heard the saying you can't change people. That goes for birds too. Can you improve upon it's tendencies.. Yes. Change a nervous biter into a cuddley puppy.. NO..

DFH, I use to have Discus. Very interesting fish. My tank didn't look anything like yours.. Yours is actually beautiful.

Hi Monique. That little stinker.. I thought there was something different about her that day... :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Hi Splint101.. I LOVE the low angle you used in making these captures. Wonderful look and quite nice resolution on these. Good job. One thing you might try next time is to perhaps "reflect" some light on the head of your baby if she/he is in the shade like this again. If a reflector is not available fill flash would also add a nice look in that kind of photo. Thank you for adding your wonderful shots to our Photography Thread. I look forward to seeing more of your work as I can see you are a lover of fine photography..

That's a very nice capture DFH.. Good job on that one.

I have to agree Marir. So far I love it here. And I think that feeling is only gonna grow. The forum software is amazing.. when you get use to it that is.. Hang in there Talon. You will find the software just as easy as that "other" place..

You should see the rest of the body.. Seriously, this little Cedar Waxwing is a darling. We raised her from a featherless baby that had falled from her nest. Now she is part of the family around here. Gets along with Ceasar just fine and most times can be found sitting on someone shoulder.. I love her dearly..

Here's a shot I posted somewhere else but I wanted to bring it into the Members Photo Thread. This is Ceasar caught shaking his head. It looks really weird doesn't it? It's a real rare catch so I am happy I got it. http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u97/venuto/D2X_0191.jpg<br><br>Post edited by: CeasarsDad, at: 2007/05/11 13:59

Hi Splint101. Yes you can use flash around them no problem I would suggest that if you have the kind of flash that has a pivoting head you could try bouncing that flash off the ceiling. This would make for a very nice, soft light on your Grey.

Hi Talon. Regarding that other forum. I know exactly what you mean. When a forum admin says something like. "and it doesn't matter how many members we lose" you know you are not in the right forum I'm starting to find my way around. I can tell you that this forum software is beautiful. There are so many small things it does that it's becoming a pleasure working with it. I hope you feel the same after you get to know it better. Anyway, it good to see you again and I hope you like the forum..

We can fix that.. don't worry.