spookyhurst

You've got a tough job ahead of you CD, there are WAY to many cute pictures being posted! I love Talon in the lettuce .

Nikko likes to "help" me game too! Of course, her helping usually means that I end up dead or slamming a car into a wall or something :ohmy:. I know what you mean about never having anything for yourself. If I have a sandwich or something, Nikko just waddles over and starts eating off of it. At dinner, she has a perch by the table. She isn't allowed a water dish due to the fact that she likes to jump in it and start bathing, so I offer her water from my glass throughout dinner. She's always back-washing crumbs into it :sick:. As for taking pictures, how bout leaving your camera in plain sight for awhile. Maybe Brian will get used to its presence and not notice so much when you try to photograph him? I need to do this myself with the video camera.

More pictures everyone! They're so dang cute {Love-000200BF}! Nikko isn't still-camera shy, but she's video camera shy. I have yet to get any good video of her. The comic strip picture came from Nikko believing she was being ignored. My mom and I were sitting on the couch and she was reading the paper. Nikko climbed onto her knee behind the paper, and finally got impatient and "broke on through." I think Brian is an adorable name too! It makes me think of Brian the dog on Family Guy :laugh:.

Oh, Nikko loves to share her pictures . Where do I start: Okay, that's it. I won't hog the thread anymore :blush:.

Okay, the guidelines that Bird Talk gives are: 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoons for cockatiel-sized birds 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons for senegals and conure-sized birds 1 to 2 tablespoons for amazon-sized birds 1 ounce for macaws and large cockatoos They said that you should feed small amounts of many types of food to give your bird a better chance of obtaining the wide variety of nutrients they need. Otherwise, they might fill up on one type of food to the detriment of another. They give an example of a sick cockatiel who came into the bird clinic, and who was eating 2 tablespoons of scrambled eggs. They said it was the equivalent of us sitting down and eating a dozen eggs.

And it's round 2. Ms. Dove is in the tree again, and in the same nest . My dad is little bit perturbed. He's been waiting for a month for them to move out so that he can trim the tree. He's thinking of evicting them :angry:.

Here is a list of things I've compiled to help with a picky eater. Hope something from on here will help: • Include your bird in the preparation process of chopping your fruits and vegetables. Feel free to offer them a piece. You soon will see how excited they become in anticipation of the good things to come. • The see-it’s-not-poison-approach: Eat fruits and veggies in front of the bird. Show it how tasty the stuff is (even if it isn’t). Keep doing this until the bird looks curious, if not green with envy. Then try the finger-food technique below. • The finger-food technique: Offer bits of veggies in your fingers. Or, if you can do it without getting yucky human saliva on it, have one end of the food in your mouth and the other by your bird’s beak, thereby proving to your paranoid bird that it’s not poisonous. Also try giving hot wet foods fed from your fingers. Oatmeal is excellent for this purpose, as are cream of wheat, grits, any hot cereal, polenta, warm pieces of fruit, mashed sweet potato, and whole grain bread mixed with baby food veggies or fruits. • The green paper approach: Weave leafy veggies, like romaine lettuce, in the cage bars (or stand some on the cage). If your bird likes to chew holes in paper, then it might just mistake it for green paper. You can try spinach, kale, and other dark leafy greens, too. Also try weaving millet sprays and other pliable fruits and veggies into the bars of the cage near the perch. • The fake green seeds approach: Put broccoli heads out where the bird can nibble on it (or offer some in your fingers). Broccoli heads, in particular, tend to look like a collection of green seeds. I give my birds entire broccoli stalks (with all but one of the floret sets cut off for the humans’ dinner), and they sometimes rip off all the flowers and strip the stalk. If you leave the stalk on the cage-top, the birds can play with it there (and you’ll probably have to go retrieve it from the floor when they push it off). • Feed other foods too: Like plain spaghetti, bread, boiled egg, and low-fat crackers. Though not veggies, encouraging your bird to be adventurous with other foods will encourage it to be adventurous with crisp green and orange things, too. Try spaghetti dangling from fingers, set on a shoulder, sitting on a plate, or curled on top of a bird cage. • The play-thing approach: Make veggies look interesting. Use a knife to make a thick piece thin enough for a small beak, and give it interesting projections and things that could tempt a birdie to nibble on it and generally treat it like a toy. Maybe some of it will wind up in the bird. • Shish-ka-bob skewers: Skewering veggies and fruit onto a metal pole, and hanging it in the cage, may entice a bird to nibble foods good for it. Use things like wheels of corn, apple and orange quarters, and bell pepper chunks. If the bird wants to remove a shish-kabobed veggie from the cage, it will need to rip it up into pieces to drop it to the cage bottom, and in the process, it will be likely to taste the veggie, and may even ingest a bit. The same goes for food that is tied to a perch. Also try hiding bits of food inside a leaf of romaine lettuce secured with a tooth pick to tempt a bird into interacting with toys, and perhaps into trying the hidden food. • Unshelled nuts, such as whole almonds, can serve as food toys. • Whole foods are inexpensive entertainment that offer nutrition as well. Try suspending whole apples, squash, sweet potatoes and coconut halves in the cage to stimulate interest and to keep your busy beaks happy. • Take a carrot or a beet, preferably with the top (greens) still on, and make a hole about ¾ of an inch from the thick end. Put a short piece of sisal through it. Take a carrot peeler and peel down the side of the carrot without removing the peels. Do this all around the carrot or beet and you will have a carrot mop that your bird will hopefully play with and sample. • Take a thick woody carrot, preferably with the greens still attached, and place it high up in the cage. Notch or wedge the end without the greens between the bars until it is secure, or secure with screw and washers. If it’s the highest perch in the cage, your bird is sure to investigate it. Eventually, they usually rub their beaks on their new perch and then bite and chew on it. Chances are, once they start chewing on it, they will learn to eat carrots. • Brussell sprouts on the stalk hung in the cage usually winds up as a half eaten swing. In the case of very timid birds, try hanging a fruit or veggie outside of the cage, almost out of the parrot’s reach. What parrot do you know that won’t reach for something it thinks that you don’t want it to have? • Warm vs. Cold: If your feathered friend does not enjoy a particular vegetable, try offering it steamed. You can also puree it in the food processor till it is a “pudding” consistency. Often times, parrots will enjoy a specific produce item served warm on a spoon. • Try different shapes and forms of food. If you want a bird to eat carrots, offer them both raw and cooked, as well as mashed, diced, sliced, julienned, grated, peeled, and even whole. Young weaning parrots can learn a lot about food and how to manipulate it if given a whole carrot with the nutritious green tops intact. Some birds really relish corn wheels (corn on the cob, cut into round pieces) and others prefer corn cut into long pieces. Other birds prefer the corn cut off the cob. • Is the fruit ripened? Some birds do prefer some fruits just before they ripen. Some like them sweet and juicy. • Is the fruit expired? Parrots know if the fruit is good or not • Is the fruit out of season? Some birds won’t eat it if it is. • Is your bird a “clean beaky” bird? Your bird might be dying to try that sweet piece of Cantaloupe, but he sees the juice is dripping down and is thinking, “Too messy for my taste.” • Instead of putting veggies and other nutritious foods into a separate dish, it may be beneficial to mix it into the seed mix, so that the bird runs into it while fishing for the seeds. If your finicky eater likes one particular food, such as corn, mix it with whatever food you want the bird to eat. In order to get the corn, he must taste the other foods that you want him to try. • A bird may prefer to eat bits of carrot mixed into special birdie muffins or bread, baked just for your pet, even though it won’t go near grated carrot in its bowl. • Try plumping up dry foods, such as shelled sunflower seeds, millet sprays, shelled almonds, and corn. Most birds cannot resist plumped corn which can be made with whole shelled corn or popcorn, soaked overnight and cooked until it is triple the normal size. Millet sprays can be simmered for fifteen to thirty minutes to change the millet grains from dry to moist and chewy, which is more like fresh millet. • Try adding a little almond butter or quality peanut butter to other nutritious foods that you want to introduce. By placing nut butter in the hollow of a celery stalk, and then slicing it into short sections to prevent choking on the celery strings, a bird that likes nut butter often discovers that the crunch of celery is enjoyable too. • Show me the bird that can turn down a “nut butter/applesauce/whole wheat bread” sandwich. Use almond butter or peanut butter with the lowest sugar content, and unsweetened applesauce on Brownberry Whole-wheat or Brownberry Nut bread. Any wholegrain bread is suitable. One sandwich can be cut into eighths for manageable-sized pieces. • If a bird will not try sprouts, try soaking the sprouts in a favorite flavor of juice, such as peach or pineapple, or squeeze sections of pomegranate fruit onto the sprouts. The color can sometimes get them interested, and the taste of pomegranate is irresistible to most parrots. • Hot and Spicy: Does your bird love chili peppers? Try adding dried chili peppers to cooked sweet potatoes. This may encourage your feathered companion to taste test a healthy vegetable. • Sweet and Tangy: Does your bird love tart apples? Shred up some Granny Smith Apples and sprinkle them over another fruit you want them to try. They will love to find the surprise underneath the apples. • For the Garlic Lover: Mince up some garlic and add it to your broccoli. Stand back and watch your bird ravage it. • Crushed ice added to ground up fruit: makes for a refreshing fruit shake. Try it with Papaya, Mango, or Pineapple. • Broccoli or Carrots: Steam it with some fresh lemon juice and serve. • Fruity Oatmeal: Add a teaspoon of ground up papaya or apple to some warm oatmeal. Your bird will love to try it. (Note: Replace milk with either water or Soy Milk. Also measure the temperature, a bird’s crop can be burned if the temperature is too high. Keep it under 105 degrees.) • Aloe Detox by Natureade can sometimes restore the appetite of a picky eater in only one or two doses. It can be ordered online and added to formula or soft foods. • As a last resort, B-complex vitamins can stimulate the appetite. One would need the advice of an experienced breeder or an avian vet to determine the dosage. If used properly, the B-complex vitamins can make a noticeable difference in appetite.

Oddly enough, I just read an article about portion control in the June issue of Bird Talk magazine. They actually mention scrambled eggs as well. I'll have to dig the magazine out and post what they recommend (I'm thinking it was a tablespoon or so for a grey).

Nikko also loves scrambled eggs, and the yolk from hard boiled eggs. I wouldn't give Casper the whole thing though. I usually give Nikko a teaspoon or so, and she wolfs it down as fast as she can.

I'd love to watch Talon for you . You better move to Arizona! Nikko likes to whistle along when the radio is on. Some songs get her more excited than others. She likes lots of bass/drums/rhythm.

Thanks for the input! Nikko's total protein levels were great, so I was thinking the higher albumin was probably not an issue. Glad to hear that's most likely the case. Also, since it was a long car ride to the vet, and we had to wait a while before we got in. Nikko could have been just a little dehydrated when the test was done. Overall, I was pleased. It gives one piece of mind to know that your bird is considered "normal."

Do you know for certain it is a male? Maybe your bird is a female, and the others are male, which could explain the size difference. I have a female TAG, and she is only 290 grams.

I took Nikko to the vet last month to have a check up, and they ran a blood chemistry panel. I got the results in the mail yesterday. All the numbers came back pretty good. The only two abnormal readings were that her albumin was a little high, and her phosphorous was a little low. Anyone know what that means? I'm also going to need to slightly modify her diet to increase calcium and potassium a little, and decrease sodium a little. The numbers were all in the normal range, but a little close to the edges. Nikko's going to have to cut back on her junkfood intake, namely tostito chips :whistle:.

Very cute pics! I love the red leaves, they add nice color . My doves flew the coop the day after the last picture, sorta. They got out of the nest, and are now living on the ground :ohmy:. They spend a lot of time under a rosebush without much cover, and at night the parents roust them into the shelter of a paddle cactus (which is also housing a couple bunnies and about 17 quail eggs). We were concerned, because we have 1 cat that lives next door, and 2 that live behind us. Luckily though, we found out that all 3 cats are on house arrest. The 2 cats beat up the one next door pretty bad, so they've all been put in the house indefinitely. Now if they can keep away from the coyotes, they should be able to finish growing up. We put seed and water out front everyday to try to lend them a hand.

The local pets stores by me also have nada for birds. I make a lot of my own toys. My favorite place for buying parts (they also have plenty of toys:)) is Grey Feather Toys http://www.greyfeathertoys.com/. I stock up on lots of rope, leather, and wood parts from them. Windy City Parrot http://www.windycityparrot.com/ is another good one. I recently made my first order from Birds Just Wanna Have Fun http://www.birdsjustwannahavefun.com/index.php. If you've ever seen the DVD Captive Foraging, they carry all of the toys featured in it. The Perch http://www.theperchstore.net/ is also very good, and frequently have free shipping specials. I believe today is one of those days too . The last one that comes to mind is That Pet Place http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/index.web. This is where I buy all of Nikko's pinatas because I can't find them cheaper anywhere else. Shipping is a bit high, so I buy 20+ of the large ones at a time.

My little robin (Rock) wasn't visited by his parents. In fact, he was ignored by all birds. Once I released him, he never seemed a part of the bird world, and kept coming back to hang out with us humans. He would "help" my mom work in the yard, and watched my dad build an addition to our deck. One day, my dad was just about ready to start up his table saw when Rock landed on it :ohmy:. We took food out to him 3 times a day or so. In a tragic ending, Rock was killed. I found his demolished little body, his legs were broken into several angles and most of his feathers had been torn out. Poor thing was still alive at that point too. I've never gotten over the poor little thing . In happier news, here's the new dove photo. One week after the first one, and they don't even look like the same birds. It's amazing how fast they grow. There isn't any room for mom and dad to sit in the nest now. They kind of shove their bodies in a nook right by the nest at night.

Actually, we always joke about how the birds think I'm a baby stealer . I once found a baby robin, and kept him in a cage on our deck until he was grown. Birds, especially blue jays, would sit and watch me in what seemed to be a disapproving way :dry:. The other day, I had Nikko outside in her Adventure Pack and my mom said the dove was going to start the baby stealer rumor up again, "See, she already's taken one, don't leave your babies alone!" :laugh: I keep my closet light on at night so that Nikko can see a bit when she climbs down for her midnight snack/drink. My closet has a small window in it (weird, huh?), so maybe the doves like having that bit of light to by too.

We have a pineapple palm tree in our front yard (right outside my bedroom window). Doves like to build their nests in there. The tree is fat and short, so it's easy for me to watch them from my window and to take photos. The mom and dad don't seem to mind that we look at them. In the past, the mom and dad have never left the babies alone (they take shifts, so when one flies in, the other takes off), but with this batch, they frequently leave them for parts of the day. I was able to walk right up to the nest to take this picture. The beaks look soft and rubbery: Yesterday, I saw her regurgitating for them. Maybe I can catch that on video in the next few days :sick:.

There are a lot of great videos (and a few crappy ones from proud but oblivious parents ) on YouTube. I don't have any up, because Nikko has been less than enthusiastic when ever I get the video camera out. I've got some great photographs of her, but the only kind of good video of her is one where she is taking a bath. Speaking of bird videos, there are a pair of doves with a nest outside my window. Yesterday when I looked out, she was feeding the babies :sick:. I'm hoping to get some video of that in the next few days. I have snuck some photographs of the babies while the parents were away (the nest is in a short palm tree, so I can walk right up to it), so I'll have to post a pic soon. They're ugly, but cute, and their little beaks are really weird looking :huh:.

Nikko doesn't really pay attention to the tv. However, when she is left alone, I'll leave either the Cartoon Network or Disney Channel on to keep her company. She also might be a basketball fan. Usually, she is ready to go to bed around 7:00 PM. But when my mom is watching basketball, she is content to sit with us until 8:00 PM, and even then, it's usually me that encourages her that it's bedtime.

Nikko is in love with my dad, but he generally doesn't pay any attention to her. The vet said this is probably a good thing, because she might overbond to him and start laying eggs. The other day, my dad sang her the Popeye theme song, and she started regurgitating. He screamed and ran away. He probably won't sing to her again :lol:.

To go along with Talon's tv topic, does you grey have a favorite song? Nikko likes songs with lots of bass and drums in it. The other day, she was dancing to Faith No More's "We Care A Lot" and 50 Cents "P.i.m.p" (she's a big fan of "fiffy" ). She also loves it when I sing the "Oo-De-Lally" song from Disney's Robin Hood. I just change the lyrics to be, "Nikkie Beak and Robin Hood are running through the forest, Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally Golly, what a day." Sometimes I substitute Spencer James (my dog) for Robin Hood.

Nikko really likes butternut squash, which is probably the healthiest thing she will eat. She also likes white potatoes cooked in a form, wholewheat bread with a bit of peanut butter on it, oatmeal with soymilk and flax seed in it, cheese, eggs, almonds, pine nuts, and occasionally will eat fish. I've been working hard on getting her to eat more vegetables. She is at least taking a bite out of each of them, so hopefully she will eventually develop more of a taste for them.

I want some video proof of this Talon :laugh:. That's got to be a sight to see!

It depends on the bird. Some are very nervous at the sight of anything new, and others are ready to tear into them. Your bird will let you know which category he falls into . Nikko's favorite toys are birdie pinatas. I've had a difficult time finding anything else that interests her. The problem is, these pinatas cost about $7 a piece, and she has become so good at ripping them apart, it's starting to hurt the ol' pocketbook. But she enjoys them so much, I just keep buying them, and then weeping as I watch $7 get torn to pieces in a day or two .