spookyhurst

Is this kind of what you're looking for? http://www.birdsafestore.com/Products/Plastic-Parrot-Stand-Cup--12oz__STANDCUP2.aspx http://www.birdsafestore.com/Products/Plastic-Parrot-Stand-Cup--8oz__STANDCUP.aspx Here's some that are stainless steel instead of plastic: http://www.perchfactory.com/category.html?UCIDs=1333456

I purchased my dog from a pet store, and although he is a wonderful dog, it is something I would never do again. If I ever get another dog, it will be from a rescue. I take Spencer to the dog park all the time, and have met many wonderful dogs that came from shelters and rescues. My TAG came from a rescue. The reason I adopted had more to do with timing than anything. I had researched greys and come to the conclusion that I wanted a TAG. I was waiting for one to become available, and the rescue got one in before the breeder had any available (the breeder never did have any more TAGs, so I really made the right choice). I happened to check my email really late one night, and the rescue had just sent out a list of available birds. I quickly emailed back (before anyone else could get a chance to ask for her ) and said I wanted Nikko. We drove down and picked her up a week later. However, I didn't do anything that great by "rescuing" Nikko. She's a fantastic bird who didn't need rehabilitating. If I hadn't adopted her, someone else would have in short order. Nikko was 4 when I adopted her, which I thought was a really good age. I missed out on her baby stage, but I also got to skip the terrible twos B).

Nikko is almost fully flighted now and is becoming a little too confident. She usually fusses and flickers her wings when she wants to go somewhere, such as from my lap to the coffee table. But now, she has figured out that it only takes a couple flap of the wings to get over there herself. She also flew up onto the niche above the front door while no one was in the room. This could have been disastrous because there is a stain glass art piece (one of my dad's favorite Frank Lloyd Wright pieces) and a Galileo thermometer (one of those glass thingies with water and spheres in it) that she could have easily knocked over. I think we're going to need to clip a couple feathers on each wing so she doesn't get so much lift.

Nikko has performance anxiety. I've been trying to get her on video retrieving her nut from a "Birdie Kerplunk" toy, but whenever I get the camera out, she just sits and stares. By the time she gets the nut out, many many minutes have passed. Maybe I can figure out how to trim out all the boring parts and post an abbreviated video.

Here's another video: http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=49750&cl=4066744&ch=61492&src=news

Awwww, what little sweethearts :kiss:!

Very true Judy, I've heard cockatoos can be a handful, especially if they're male. If Sophie has no bird experience, there are lots of nice smaller birds. Budgies and cockatiels have a lot more personality than some people give them credit for (I started out with 2 budgies), and conures (my 3rd bird) are also a good choice if you don't mind the noise . A wonderful first bird would be a Pionus. They had a great article on them recently in Bird Talk. If I ever get another bird, the Pionus is high on the list.

This is tough. I don't know whether to enter my baby doves picture, baby swan picture, mean ostrich that bit me picture, or egret picture. Hmmmm...okay, the egret won. He's sitting on a lightpole in front of our house. He has his neck crunched down, so he's not quite in all his glory, but still looks pretty regal .

Lidia is in Ireland. I wonder if Joshua would like a new friend? At the very least, she might know someone who is interested in adopting a grey. Has she been on the boards lately?

If you want a bird you can cuddle with, you might be better off with a cockatoo. They are big time cuddle bugs, whereas greys aren't known for being cuddlers once they mature. A Goffins might be a good choice, as they are one of the smaller Toos. I adopted Nikko when she was 4 years old. She stepped up for me (and everyone else) right away, but it took 2 months before she would let me touch her a little bit, and even then she would only allow a short touch to the head. After a few more months, she allowed me to tickle her neck and head, and pet her back, but only on her terms. Sometimes she can be kind of snuggly, but it's not typical. As far as training goes, I don't think a bird is ever too old to be trained. Especially if you use clicker training. Even the most scared and abused bird can benefit greatly with clicker training.

Another Alex video: http://www.alexfoundation.org/alextheparrot.mov And a funny Alex story: Thus we are trying to get him to sound out refrigerator letters, the same way one would train children on phonics. We were doing demos at the Media Lab for our corporate sponsors; we had a very small amount of time scheduled and the visitors wanted to see Alex work. So we put a number of differently colored letters on the tray that we use, put the tray in front of Alex, and asked, "Alex, what sound is blue?" He answers, "Ssss." It was an "s", so we say "Good birdie" and he replies, "Want a nut." Well, I don't want him sitting there using our limited amount of time to eat a nut, so I tell him to wait, and I ask, "What sound is green?" Alex answers, "Ssshh." He's right, it's "sh," and we go through the routine again: "Good parrot." "Want a nut." "Alex, wait. What sound is orange?" "ch." "Good bird!" "Want a nut." We're going on and on and Alex is clearly getting more and more frustrated. He finally gets very slitty-eyed and he looks at me and states, "Want a nut. Nnn, uh, tuh."

Here are Alex's 3 appearances on Scientific American Frontiers: please click here Copy and paste the link if clicking doesn't work for you. Post edited by: spookyhurst, at: 2007/09/09 03:55<br><br>Post edited by: FairY, at: 2007/09/09 08:03

This is so terribly sad! I just love Alex. Irene must me absolutely heart broken {Feel-bad-0002006A}.

My cousin's conure flew out the door once, and into the neighbor's tree. The neighbor, who was drunk, said he would get the bird. He climbed the tree, fell out, and impaled himself on a tree branch. My cousin went over to the tree and yelled, "Dammit bird! You get down here!" The bird came right down :laugh:. Then my cousin (who has some EMT training) had to patch up the neighbor :side:.

Man, what a story :ohmy:! I'm sooooo glad you got Jake back safe and sound! I bet he has new found appreciation for having food and water delivered to him at regular intervals. Poor little guy. What a terrible ordeal for you all to go through.<br><br>Post edited by: spookyhurst, at: 2007/09/04 06:06

Thanks Judy! I'll have to mess around with the video and see if I can make it a little bit clearer. It also seems to be "speeded up" for some reason :blink:. I have another video I need to upload too. It's of Nikko getting an almond (yes, she loves almonds) out of a "Birdie Ker-Plunk" toy. Come on people, upload those videos and pictures! You all don't want Nikko to win again do you ?

The original video was too large to upload, and in my attempt to make the file smaller, the quality suffered a lot. But here it is, Nikko pulling up a rope and chewing through a dixie cup to get to her almond. She takes her sweet time playing with the cup, so you'll get bored long before she gets to (and accidentally drops) the nut . Redone entry (shorter and better quality, but same trick): http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e373/spookyhurst/Nikko/?action=view&current=Nikko_Nut.flv Original entry: http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e373/spookyhurst/Nikko/?action=view¤t=Nikko_Rope.flv<br><br>Post edited by: spookyhurst, at: 2007/09/15 07:12

This was posted at another grey forum about a year ago, so this perhaps isn't an uncommon tragedy. I know someone whose macaw hung itself by wedging his head through the door of his cage, so make sure your doors are secure too. Hello, I just wanted to warn others just in case this might happen to them. My African Grey, Eagle, Died yesterday. His neck was broken and he laid motionless on the bottom of the cage. I knew something was wrong when I couldn't see him standing on his perch. From what I can tell this is what happened: I cleaned his cage and the top of the bird cage has a latch. I unhooked the latch so I could put one of his favorite plastic hanging toys from the top of the cage. It wouldn't fit between the bars of the cage since the width was smaller than the toy. So I put the toy up, shut the top without latching the top not thinking anything of it because how could a bird push the top of the cage open? Anyways, from what I can tell he must have pushed his head through the opening partially then became trapped with his neck between the cage top and the other part of the cage. His neck was all twisted and he didn't move. His claws were clenching the bottom of the cage motionless and his eyes were closed. I called his name "Eagle" and he opened his eyes for me one last time to say goodbye then he closed them again and never opened them. I was sobbing along with my wife. I took him next to a tree and buried him, so there was no more pain if any in his body and sobbed like a little baby. It was so traumatic to me and my wife. I still walk by his grave and call his name and whistle to him to let him know I am there. I don't think he caught his neck between the hanging toys because he has always played with them with no problems. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this but I just thought I would warn others to not leave the latch undone at the top of the cage.

Count me in as very impressed too MrSpock {Feel-good-000200BB}. Wish I had access to some tree branches. I've been wanting to build Nikko a foraging tree for some time. She has had to settle for a gym made out of PVC pipe though.

I almost bought one once. However, Nikko is so touchy about new perches (she got upset over a new perch that was identical to another perch she sits on), that I figured she would probably never get on it. I'd buy it for her if I knew she would sit on it, but since they're kind of pricey, I'm hesitant.

For a list of what kind of tree branches are good/bad, visit this site: http://www.mdvaden.com/bird_page.shtml It's quite a comprehensive list. The same site also tells about different methods to clean the wood. You could potentially use a bleach solution, a soap solution, or "lightly" bake the branches in the oven. I use a Grapefruit Seed Extract solution to clean Nikko's perches, so I bet this would be a really good method to clean the branches (much much safer than bleach). Here's an excerpt from the above site about cleaning: Cleaning Wood: One philosophy says clean bird perch wood before it’s used by soaking for an hour or two in tub of water with a cap of household bleach. Then rinse the wood in clean water. Another philosophical camp says the Chlorine bleach method may cause an occasional sickness or fatality. Maybe that’s due to too strong of a solution. The second philosophy may use mild soap and water solution followed by rinsing with clean water. Both of those viewpoints agree about allowing wood to dry thoroughly, including drying exposed to direct sunlight, provided the drying environment is clean. Oven drying needs to be hot enough to kill microorganisms, but cool enough to avoid combustion.

I agree with everyone, Bri will be fine for 10 hours. Maybe you could leave a couple foraging toys in his cage that would help keep him extra busy. If he's spending time extricating an almond from it's "prison," the time will fly by for him .

Nikko is 6. We've done a good job of keeping her from overbonding to any one family member. It's rare for her to try to regurgitate or do the "wing drop." She also has a good 12 hours of sleep at night (she actually requests to go to bed around 7:30 PM and get up at 7:30 AM), which probably helps. We really don't want her to start laying eggs though, so dark boxes will have to remain off limits. She's so crazy about cardboard. Today I got a small box in the mail (only about 6" x 3" x 3"), and when Nikko saw it sitting on the coffee table, she went nuts. She kept leaning towards it until I put the box next to her on the couch, where she pounced on it and started ripping it apart. Of course, her overzealousness sometimes gets her in trouble. She was on the kitchen table this morning, and spotted a newspaper in one of the chairs. She ran to the edge of the table and leaned towards the paper, but the placemat she was standing on flipped off the table and took her with it. She ended up in the chair on her back, with the placemat on top of her, her little feet still clutching the edge. She just laid there, with the placemat pulled up to her "chin" like a little blanket. Too bad I didn't have the camera out B). Nikko certainly does tend to get her way. In fact, whenever Nikko or the dog gets their way, someone in my family will say "Got my way, Got my way!" in a sing-song voice :side:. Spoiled animals!

Nikko was very disgruntled over the lack of a box to play with this morning. She peeped and fussed, and nothing would pacify her, not even an almond. My mom finally took the flaps off a box so that it was completely open on one side, and let her play with it. She was quite happy to be ripping and tearing again, but there was no darkness to hide in, so hopefully she wasn't thinking about nesting. Nikko's main hobby is shredding, whether it be cardboard, newspaper, or a pinata. She thinks that all 3 of these items are EEEVVIILLLLLL and must die horrible deaths :angry:. Silly bird :silly:. We do hang strips of cardboard on her gym for her to tear apart, and tear she does.

Nikko is a 6 year old female. I guess we'll have to take away the box. She is going to be VERY ticked off, because she just loves chewing them up. What about her Jolly Ball? She just got it recently, and hasn't climbed inside yet, but she's very interested in it. She peers inside and puts her foot up on it. I suppose it's just as bad as a box for encouraging nesting behavior .