Talon

I am waiting for my birds to finish making their mess all over my kitchen table while eating their toast and English muffin... They seem starved today! I have noticed, if I am at work and don't get home for dinner with the birds, on those nights, my daughter covers them for bed. The next morning they are starved!!! God forbid they eat their own food in their cage at night. If they eat with me, they pick the next morning.

It is te mange for sure. They will die from the mange as they will get weaker. The mange will eventually shut down tir organs.....

I guess I wasnt clear in my post. I have been taking my birds to the same vet just to clip the needle point off when us humans can no longer take it when they are on our shoulder, or arm. Only seems to be an issue in the hot summer weather when we are all in shorts and tank tops. This is something I have done for as long as I have owned all my birds. They dont mind, it is not traumatic. My vet is very careful and very kind. It WAS his assistant that was new and held Rikki too tightly. Rikki was not really upset, never is. None of the birds were traumatized by a routine visit they are used to. There was no dremel used. Only a small pair of scissor/clippers. The problem was she was being held too tightly. It was ME that was the most traumatized. I have tried the emery board, doesn't really work for us, and I do not towel my birds unless absolutely necessary for giving meds.

Thanks, sent email to the tech dept. to fix asap!

My birds do a good job of wearing their nails down on all the different perches and play trees. On average, their nails seem to get pointy after 12-14 months. When they are like needles and leaving scratch marks on me from perching on my bare skin, do I have just the tips clipped. They do very well at the vets, and having to take them once a year helps in them in getti g used to the car ride,vet, office etc. they really don't seem to mind, but this time, I believe it was inexperience help that did it. I was the one most traumatized. They very much LOVE car rides. I tend to take Talon out for rides mostly as she enjoys it the most.

Same in my house, I cut my first one in half and hung it in my living room, Nilah liked it, but didn't use it much after a while, do I took it down and it sits in my basement...boings are everywhere here too!

Tried the emery board...think I will stick with the vet only when needed....

Thanks Judy and everyone. It still hurts and breaks my heart everytime I think of it. Poor Rikki was blinking away the tears so fast, and they were red falling from her face.....her eyes got so watery...I am going to buy a dremel and see if I can use it for a second or 2 on them as they are perched. I never want her to have to go thru that again. Although I have many types of perches that are supposed to help file their nails. After about a year, they all have needle like talons...

I took my 3 to the vets a couple of weeks ago for their yearly nail clipping. I won't do it myself. Their talons were like needles. Rikki of course was nervous as they all were, their was a new vet tech there. She held them in a towel around the neck like usual, Rikki kept blinking over and over cause she had blood tears! It was awful for me to see this happening to me sweet Rikki! I had just read about them in the last Bird Talk magazine so I knew what they were, but I was so upset....this never happened before. The vet knew I was distraught over it and kept trying to reassure me it happens, and this was nothing compared to a few he has coming in. He was quick to tell the vet vet tech to lighten up and not hold her so tightly cause it raises their blood pressure and this will happen. I was a bit angry that it happened, as it never has before, and felt horrible for Rikki. She was fine when she was done, but as usual, the excitement made them all very tired and quiet for the rest of the day.

Lol! That would be my reaction too! My amazon loves peppers, my cag, won't even go into the same room, they make her eyes water......

Nice Judy, I like how it folds up so nicely.

Judy, you are right, Piper hisses at me alot! The last 2 weeks he starts whistling, talking and sounds like a car trying to start repeatedly for about 1/2 hour at night. I put my birds to bed around 8-8:30pm but he wants to stay up late. He starts around 9:15ish and carries on being so vocal, I cant put him to bed until after that. I think he was owned by a male teenager, cause he is up late, starts getting very vocal late, and whistles the Zelda video game them song. He also HATES to be covered at night, I have a lite blue sheet that I only partially cover, and he hates it and hisses at me, but I want him to have quiet time for bed.

Yes, Judy is correct. It is a night fright. They scare the daylights out of you when that happens, cause we dont understand what has happened!! I keep Talon in my room in a sleep cage, covered by a navy blue sheet, but keeping it partially opened on both sides, a soft towel on the bottom of her cage, as many times she has fallen during one of these episodes, and ALWAYS a nite light next to her cage. I have tried with out the light, but they get worse. Usually, when it happens, I FLY to her cage, open it as I am calming trying to reassure her all is ok, then I DO take her out, comfort her as she is usually breathing very heavy. She will chirp at me, and I do this for a short time, just until I see she is calm, then I make her go back into her cage and tell her its still night time and time to go back to bed. Then I cover her a but less and go back to bed. I dont want to keep her out too long and encourage this in any way. Se has suffered from night frights ever since she was a baby, and I have had her since 8 1/2 weeks.

Aww. yes, the bully stage.....my 3 have gone thru it as well. I have a small tag, a cag and the almighty (in her mind) amazon. Mostly, it is my amazon who tries to be the bully. Unless they are getting too carried away, and fighting or biting, I do not intervene. They need to work out their flock issues as wild birds do (IMO). The attention they get when they try to bully only enforces the behavior. The behavior will curb itself once they find their place on the totem pole and you may find as time goes on, there are times when the lower position bird has had enough and asserts themselves, then the bully is so surprised they dont know what to do. At least that's how it has worked in my house. I NEVER give the bully attention, I take the victim away, making the bully jealous? ...

Wow Judy, your Gypsy is so different than Piper! Piper has one of the worst tempers I have ever seen in a bird.....he still cant fly do to her poor clipping, so if he falls while climbing or he jumps off your hand and ends up crashing to the floor, he screams and yells and carries on for the longest time yelling at me. If you upset him, jeez......he hollers and yells for quite some time...... and it happens in a split second!! I never saw a bird carry on like he does. glad he isnt a human, it would be awful listening to that kind of yelling and carrying on...

Since its been about 2 months, I wanted to post an update. Piper is doing well. He still doesn't seem to li,e me much. He hisses at me sometimes, but yells at me when he wants the morning toast. He does have a thank you whistle after I give him some. He will eat out of my fingers if I am holding gnfood for him. He is very vocal and lets you know exactly what he wants. It's amazing how well he communicates his wants and needs to us. One day he was screaming in the morning, he usually does this if I am not fast enough at fixing breakfast for all of us and my birds, ( we share oatmeal and toast), so I didn't really pay attention as this was pretty normal. Finally I went over to check, and he was screaming as he was looking out the wi Dow, so I thought he wanted it open,as I was opening it I saw it...a sick mangy fox very close the to deck of my house, Pipers age is next to the window there. He alerted us like a watch dog, I got my 22 and went outside as he was walking slowly over to our colts paddock. They were about 5 feet apart, the fox wouldn't scare or run off....I didn't not want to shoot him......finally he wandered slowly off into the woods. I probably should have shot him, but I am an animal lover and find it hard. Don't get me wrong, if he tried to hurt any of my animals, he would be dead instantly..... Also, Piper LOVES my daughter. he will sit with her, let her pet his head and loves to get kisses on the top of his had from her. He puts his head down while she kiss kiss kss kisses him.......oh well. They pick their favorites!

That's a nice video. Thank for sharing. They look so happy nd content!

I have no experience with traveling with my birds, but that looks like a nice set up. Seems big enough, but easy to carry.

I have one, my birds hate it. I bought another one made of fisherman cotton rope from Oliver's garden, that one is nicer and seems to be a hit. Although my cag would never go on it, and my tag will if I put her on it, but she doesn't like the shakiness of it, my amazon loves it.

Good decision....I weigh my birds only every couple of months or so.

That looks so cool. Love it.

awww.i know exactly how that feels. I really do think it's worse for you. My birds behave the same way when I have days I have to do tat.

Congrats! He's beautiful.

This is or I should say, was my newest blackberry. I had this for almost 2 months.......the latest one out........and probably my 20th one due to the, breaking or mostly my birds getting them. I took really good care of this one, except this one time when I had it on the charger and buried under a dish towel so my birds wouldn't get it......NILAH watched me and went after it when I wasn't looking. I immediately put in an insurance claim and they were on BO.....I needed a phone THEN!!! So it cost me another$200 and a new phone line. I now have 2 phones to pay for until the contract runs out. Thank you Nilah!!!!

Very good for for thought. I think every one of us learned something from your post. Thank you!