Talon

Koekie, I meant no harm or insult in my comment earlier. I just want to clarify a bit so nothing is misunderstood. I DO believe that birds should not be clipped, but that is my own personal opinion not to be argued here or ever. We all do what works best for our situation and I have complete respect for the decisions that others make although I may or may not agree. The reason i couldnt bring myself to watch is because i have heard soooo many cases where a 'clipped' bird is out like yours is, and the owner is all confident that their bird can not fly, and next thing you know, they get frightened, a wind gust comes and their bird is lost forever. Inhave personally spoken to people who this has happened to. Just 2 months a gon, i consoled a complete stranger on the phone who lost her beloved bird and i was helping via internet trying to help her find her bird. I asked her how her bird escaped, and she said , " her wings were clipped and i took her out on my balcony like i do every day after work, something startled her and she flew between the bars on my balcony and is gone...." I hear these stories over and over. The furnace repair man was at my home to fix it and he told me how he had a cockatoo whose wings were clpped, he went outside while it was on his shoulder like he always does, and the wind came along and it flew off never to be seen again. It is just MY opinion and my belief that a clipped bird isn't any safer than an unclipped bird. right or wrong, I am stubborn and that is how I feel. I don't fault anyone here who feels otherwise, it just doesn't sit right with me. Having said all that, I feel you are a WONDERFUL owner, caring, loving, very attentive to your birds and their needs. I can see you are always researching and trying to give your birds the best life possible. I commend you for that and have the highest respect for you. I have 4 kids of my own, 12, 17, 19, and 22 years old. So the fact that you are only 16 and treat your birds the way you do, I am in awe of you and you should be proud! Your birds certainly are lucky to have you as their parront! I so much enjoy your pictures and videos. Keep them coming and I am happy to have you a part of our family here!

As I posted in the Photography Room, my daughter dyed my bijon with food coloring...he is pink!! This is a terrible video, but you can hear Nilah yelling as our pink dog was in the kitchen, and she was in the living room. This was after about a half hour or so....

Today, my 19 year old daughter (who has been itching to do this for several years) thought it would be fun to dye one of our bijon's.......so after much research on her part making sure it was safe....she dyed him with red food coloring......here he his: Well, after she dried him off with the hair dryer, the 2 of them came prancing down the stairs......much to our surprise, the birds took off screaming their heads off and flying as they were yelling thru the entire house! They are frantic! Our other bijon is still white... Rikki is a bit startled, but is remaining calm and just looking with caution, and hanging out on our shoulder. Talon is perched on the top of the curtain and screeching that african grey screech they do when they are very frightened as she stares down at the dog. Nilah on the other hand is flying and screaming like I have never heard! She keeps yelling, " NOOOOO, MAKE IT STOP, OH MY GOD!!, NO NO NO NO NO NO, UGH," and then words I cant make out, then she starts all over again. I have some video of Talon & Nilah yelling, I will post it later on for you to hear. I am stunned at their reaction to our dog. They have since calmed down a bit, but when ever he goes in the same room, they either fly away, or Nilah starts screaming at him!

Yup, been there done all that. A single mom while husband worked all the time and was never home...Had to be the one to shovel all the snow on front of the barn doors and chip away at the ice so you could open them to get in and feed the animals.... It is fun for a while, but gets old as you get older....

Just thought it was cute, not meant to be that serious...

He is beautiful. A tag is much smaller. I have never measured my birds, I only way them, but they are all different sizes. He looks very happy and healthy!

I couldn't agree more with what Dan said.

This thread is funny with the farmhouse, the horses, chickens etc. the tractor tires and tractors..........I say this because YOUR wishes are my worst nightmare..........you see, I was married to a vegetable farmer, lived in an old farmhouse, had the horses, free range chickens, a pig, cows, etc. Always had the tractors, farm equipment everywhere, the dust always coming in thru the windows of my house, ( cause of course, old farm houses don't have AC, or enough current to run one....I would open the windows in the summer. I had the mud constantly being tracked into the house and when my 4 kids were little, it was soooo hard to keep the floors clean while they crawled around. Then we grew the farm and had over 30 employees working, they had to park their cars somewhere, eat lunch somewhere...it was ALWAYS in my yard!!! Things became so bad, my daughter wouldn't swim in our pool because of the people around gawking, my kids weren't comfortable playing outside, nor was I. We were watched, had NO privacy, and that is the tip of the iceberg. Thus after 20 years, I bought my own house on a quite road,trees all around, privacy, built a horse barn and moved myself, my kids and our horses out of the farm house into a NEW house (clean) without the husband! Now divorced, NEVER do I miss the farmhouse, the tractors, the mess everywhere!!!!! There! Got that out... Just be careful what you wish for! LOL!

It doesn't look like anything serious. Could be, he bumped it with his talon. Or occasionally, they get a stubborn feather out of place. I don't think you need to worry about it. If e is eating and acting fine, then it's ok

That was great! I don't know wat it is about those green balls and their need to kill them. Love watching him play upside down!

That is wonderful.....

Janet,you don't realize it, but you two are already friends.

I find it much easier to read an amazon than a grey, they really wear their heart on their (wing) sleeve.......he DOES trust you, but remember, one day in his past, he trusted a human and that trust was terribly broken. It will take several baby steps like you are doing, and he will realize that you're different and he will trust you completely, he already is trying,which is HUGE for him! Your patience is tobe commended. If Louie had any other owner, I don't believe he would ever be able to trust and love again,you are making his life a happy one and he sees it. He also sees that you are allowing him to do it on his own terms and in his own time. That will build a bond like no other.

I can't watch a bird outside with no harness......I don't believe a bird is totally safe no matter how clipped their wings are. Just my opinion based on the horror stories I hear regarding others

Wow! That is great to see. I saw several very telling signs in Louie. One, he has a history of being terrorized by the human hand, you can see it in his body language. All he knows from his past is to bite to get that human hand away before it does harm to him. Second, I see him listen and watch your reactions and wondering why you don't pull away by his intimidation. Third,I see him listening intently to you, wanting to trust you, but yet his past telling him not too, but he decides to listen to your encouraging voice and step up onto your hand! Wonderful accomplishment for both you and him! Then....I see a bite like i have felt when Nilah gets mad at me for not listening to her ....a big bite trying to get you to do what he knows from his past, but you don't! Excellent patience on your part! Those bites are not like a grey bite, I find amazon bites to be much more hurtful and requires willpower to not react so they feel they have one the battle! Nice work!!

Borrowed from a FaceBook friend.. Checking out at the supermarket recently, the young cashier suggested I should bring my own bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment. I apologised and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days". The cashier responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations". She was right about one thing--our generation didn't have the green thing in “Our” day. So what did we have back then? After some reflection and soul-searching on "Our" day, here's what I remembered we did have.... Back then, we returned milk bottles, pop bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles repeatedly. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the green thing back in our day. We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go half a mile. But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day. Back then, we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw-away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 240 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right. We didn't have the green thing back in our day. Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of Wales. In the kitchen, we whisked & stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not polystyrine or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right. We didn't have the green thing back then. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the green thing back then. Back then, people took the bus, and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest pizza place. But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then? Please post this on your Facebook profile so another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smarty-pants young person can add to it.

Hmmmm My iPad is having trouble loading it I will try again later. Is your grey on a harness?

Beautiful drawings and you are highly talented!

I am resurrecting this thread. I recently bought an EZ play stand for Talon that is on wheels, has 2 bowls on a T-stand with a tray to catch crumbs etc. based on the reviews I read, many said to order the medium as the small had the tendency to tip over. I was very excited about getting it as I could wheel it over to the front door for Nilah to sunbathe in also! It came, I put it together and it is much bigger than I expected......I will find a different use for it. So I a heading to Home Depot to get supplies to make my own. I was going to get PVC but after seeing this thread, I now know to get CVPC! I amso glad I saw this!!!!! I didn't realize PVC was toxic! I hope others will see this so you know as well!

This is greyt! Thank you for posting this.

Very cute! Love your set up there He is one lucky bird!

Judy, YES, I bought that specifically for Nilah! And you are right, it will take me the rest of the year to recover..... Of course, I only put 1 toy on Rikki's cage. She was hysterical over all the new things in the bags....I took one out and she wouldn't go in that part of the house the entire day! Of course, they barely make it to the cage before Nilah destroys them! Talon is curious, but not interested in getting too close. It will be 2 years before I go thru them at that rate!

I posted the pictures of what I bought in the Anticipated Trip thread