zandische

I have a Kenmore Plasmawave - large size and a small size. I love these purifiers...they work amazing. I use the small one for our bedroom and for an extra boost if we have guests who are sensitive to pet dander - the few times we have turned them off you really notice the dander building up quickly. They are also very sensitive to airborne chemicals/vapors. We leave them on auto which is usually fine unless there is a serious concern about air quality, and then we will run them on high. If there is a change in air quality the display shows a orange light until it has sufficiently filtered the room. http://www.kenmore.com/kenmore-plasmawave-trade-large-room-air-cleaner/p-03285450000P?prdNo=2&blockNo=2&blockType=G2

goldilocks, certainly none of us can tell you what to do, you have to decide what is right for you and your family. But I'll tell you about our girl, Seraph, who came to us at 16 weeks old with a "weird claw", which we were told was a result of that "toe" being bitten while she was in the nest. No one is really sure what happened, but our girl has permanent nerve damage in that foot that causes her pain from time to time depending on how much she uses it. It's also her dominant foot and she has trouble extending/contracting the digits which makes it tough to grip things. She doesn't like to walk much, presumably because it causes her pain to fully extend the talon and put her weight on it. We let her claws grow a little sharper than her brother so that she can hang on to perches and shoulders much better, and she seems to do better with wider perches than those more appropriately sized for her petite feet. All that being said, the nerve damage hasn't slowed her down one bit. Once she learned to fly she has been in heaven, I chop her food smaller for her so she can grip it better, and between both our birds she is the one that hangs upside down and does the most acrobatic tricks. We named her "Seraph" because she is truly an angel and not a day goes by that we don't thank God that she's with us.

It's a place called Amargosa Valley, sorry, I guess that's the eastern edge, my navigational skills leave something to be desired. Amargosa is a little valley surrounded by sharp peaks covered in fossils. The Amargosa river comes to the surface nearby at a little place called Ash Meadows, which is a permanent marsh full of deep pools of turquoise water and lots of pupfish. And somewhere close to that place is Lizard rock, an outcrop of pure white rock that is amazing to stand on under a full moon, and if you look closely at it you will realize it is the huge, fossilized remains of an ancient coral reef. Oh yes, I like all kinds of rocks too, what are the odds...

Hahaha! Oh my, I am still laughing! Thank you for the big welcome though ;-) To be completely honest, my hubby is from a gorgeous patch of dirt near the western edge of Death Valley, where they mixed the cowboys and Indians in his family so they all just decided to be outlaws instead, and he is not looking forward so much the desert again (I believe he mentioned dirt, dust and more dirt a few times as well...) but the first time I ever laid eyes on the desert I was in love with it unlike anywhere else I've been. So I'm looking forward to the new adventure, if not the high utility bills! One thing I am excited about are the growing seasons and being able to finally go completely natural and possibly full scale with my growing activities, but I'm going to have to do some reading on water saving techniques first I think. Oregon is beautiful but I'm ready for some of that blue stuff for awhile!

We are relocating to Phoenix next month and I'm wondering if there are any people on the board from that area with suggestions for a favorite bird store and vet close to the Chandler or Maricopa areas? Thanks!

There's not much I eat (or my birds) that isn't home made or made out of a plant of some sort. :-) Thanks for clarifying! By the way, have you found that yogurt helps their health in any significant way, or do your fids just like it?

Well Jay, I can appreciate that you disagree and I always value your opinions, but I would disagree that problem behaviors are completely separate from tricks and talking...for the most part they are all, in my opinion, learned behaviors. This method is very well known in the bird world, popularized most notably by Barbara Heidenreich. "No" does not work with my bird, never has. The idea of using positive reinforcement does involve conditioning because you are rewarding good behaviors so they don't develop bad ones. I think we could all agree that positive reinforcement is a good thing...The key difference is that you aren't just waiting around for a good behavior to magically happen, you are taking an active role in showing the bird what you want to happen in a way that makes it beneficial for both, and the goal is to try to make every interaction a positive one (a reward doesn't just have to be food either) so that bad behaviors simply don't happen. You have to start somewhere to build trust with a bird that has none and training provides a consistent focus both both human and bird, which leads to a sense of security. I guess I fail to see how this is a bad thing...this method has been a lifesaver for me and my bird and has actually created a deeper bond between us because of the trust we've developed. Anyway, we can disagree of course, respectfully and without biting Having multiple options to try will help the OP find the best method for their situation.

If someone brought out their pet tarantula, I would politely but firmly relocate to at least ten feet away at all times. I don't know about you, but all the spiders I've ever known can jump quite well, and I'm pretty certain I have special "jump on me and eat me please" spider pheremones <shiver> Everything else, I can handle! Well, maybe not bears. But that's only because they're big, mean, and actually DO eat people on occasion. Ahem.

This is SO Gryphon, LOL!! When he wants to step-up he will shake his talon at me as if to say, very impatiently, "I'm WAITING!!!" Any other time, the above rules apply

You can also try to have treats in an accessible place and as soon as that phone rings or you decide to make a phone call, walk over and give your bird a treat ON his cage/perch/playstand. If he stays there for a couple of minutes while you are talking, give him another treat. If he dive-bombs you, use the arm-swoosh to divert him and as soon as he goes back to his cage, give him another treat. People should hear themselves talking on the phone sometimes - they get very loud, animated, excited, etc, and all your bird sees is that you are paying A LOT of attention to something else and not them The biting/aggression is a way to get you to give all that excitement to them and it works - you yell or shout because you're surprised by an attack. By giving treats while your bird is in a safe place and you are on the phone, you help your bird learn that you are still putting him first AND that it is better for him if he stays where he is. If you run away to another room when the phone rings, you are just making that need for attention (and the resultant bad behavior) even worse.

Jay, your information is somewhat confusing. Why (as I have seen elsewhere on this board) would we suggest giving yogurt to birds when kefir contains the same (and more) strains of probiotic bacteria? The nutritional profiles of real kefir vs. greek yogurt are virtually identical, minus the additional strains of bacteria. Should we not be giving yogurt to birds? If it is safe to give plain/greek yogurt to our birds then I would think fundamentally, it would be safe to give homegrown kefir too, except that there are more strains of bacteria in the kefir and that is really where my question lies. Kefir colonizes the human gut whereas yogurt (and store bought kefir versions) do not, generally. I was hoping someone might have some sort of understanding of whether or not the bacteria in a probiotic like this would be potentially harmful to the digestive tracts of our birds. http://users.sa.chariot.net.au/~dna/kefirpage.html *It should be noted what I am talking about is not store-bought kefir, which has things added to it to make people like the taste. This is made with whole milk and nothing else. There is no added sugar or sodium and any sugar naturally present in milk is in the form of lactose, which as you noted is mostly (if not completely) digested by the same bacteria that digest lactose in yogurt.

Both are very good points. I would add that we as humans tend to personify the meaning behind why our birds do the things they do and that can get us into a lot of trouble, especially when it comes to working with abused/aggressive/angry birds. It's important to re-establish trust with these birds, but keep in mind that "trust" does not necessarily mean, "You're a wonderful person and I love you," but in a Grey's world, means more of "I'm confident that every time I do X, Y action will occur." I have some experience that may help, and even though I'm a relative newbie to the methods I describe below, it has turned my terrordactyl into a bird that I not only trust to be on me but can handle with ease - in less than 4 months. (To be fair, I've had Gryphon from 16 weeks old so we already have a certain level of bond.) We don't have a perfect relationship and he is not a velcro bird by any stretch, but our relationship has become one of mutual respect and a willingness to work together. I sometimes make mistakes or push him too far but rather than try to eat my hand like he used to, I now get a gentle warning nip or "bump." Someday, I hope to not even have that. I fell in love with my 4 year old CAG, Gryphon, the first time I laid eyes on him. Unfortunately, Gryph has not always loved me back. As he has matured from a baby he has become increasingly aggressive toward me, to the point that I could no longer handle him. I have visible scars on my hands and arms, my upper lip was nearly bitten in half, and my bottom lip, eyes, nose and cheeks have all suffered wounds. I anguished over re-homing him and I just accepted that he hated me, or was hormonal, that I had done something to him inadvertently, or it was just something he was always going to do. To protect myself from serious injury, I had to cease interaction with him - which of course, is the opposite of everything I wanted to be able to do. But the real problem was two-fold - my bird had learned to bite me, and I was trying to figure out "how to tame him" instead of looking at how to just prevent it in the first place. Do you know what the word "tame" means? It means to subdue, to make submissive and docile, to make domesticated. Greys are anything but domesticated, and they certainly never see themselves as less than anyone else in their flock. Flock members may hold different positions of note (such as leader, mate, sibling, lookout etc), but Greys are all socially equal in the flock. The bottom line is that you will never be able to "subdue" a Grey, but you can teach him to interact in ways that make you both happy. As a last ditch effort in January before re-homing Gryphon, I took a parrot behavior class by an avian behaviorist who works with my local vet. Her methods are not new - it's positive-avoidance-reward training, but I had never understood it so succinctly before. The main idea is that by the time your bird has bitten you it is too late to correct the problem - the desired effect has been achieved and the parrot, at least, thinks he has won. Telling your bird "bad bird" or "no" or "don't bite!" at this point achieves nothing, so it is better to just walk away and evaluate how to improve the next interaction so the behavior doesn't occur again. Therefore, you want to seek to avoid negative behaviors by shaping positive interactions through generous rewards. A second key component of this method is separating "behavior" from "emotion." Behavior is any action the bird takes in a given situation. You may classify his various behaviors into good or bad categories, but the bird doesn't care - all he cares about is that Behavior A produces Reaction X. Reaction X, by default, is always the desired outcome. And it certainly doesn't matter why Behavior A occurs, only that Reaction X is what happens after. Ever notice that no matter what your bird does, he always acts as if he is in the right? That's because every action the bird takes is deliberately done to produce a desired effect. He doesn't ever make mistakes! Good or bad means nothing to the bird so long as the outcome is what he intended to happen. So how do you change those bad behaviors into something good? For example, the bird wants you to leave him alone, so he lunges at you when you try to come over to him. There could be a hundred reasons WHY he doesn't want you around, and you could spend countless brain cells trying to figure it out - but the only thing that's actually important in this equation is that by backing away/leaving when he lunges you have effectively produced his desired reaction. Now, you could choose not to leave, but chances are that if you stay in the vicinity of a lunging bird without giving him a reason to change his mind about you, he's going to go from lunging to biting you. That's definitely not progress! Now, reverse the perspective, and lets say that every time you come near your bird's cage you offer him a treat. It won't matter one bit to your bird why you suddenly felt the need to drop by and give him treats, only that every time you do, he is going to get something he wants. The difference in this scenario is that you are BOTH getting the desired reaction (you stop getting lunged at and he gets tasty treats.) Given time, that kind of system could produce a situation where the bird starts stepping up in order to get treats, and who knows where that could go? The point being, you are teaching the bird that every time he interacts with you, it's a positive experience for him. You completely avoid any kind of negative interaction, and everyone gets rewarded. Positive-avoidance-reward. A good place for you to start with Larry is just establishing a routine of treats to find out what he likes. If you give him a treat and he immediately throws it on the ground, offer something new. He may not trust you at all and so anything you offer him will be immediately discarded, but just keep offering treats until he realizes that he wants something you are giving him. It's great that you're sharing your food and giving him healthy food to try - keep that up! Once you have established that you are a source of something he wants, you can start training him to accept your presence near him by offering that as a reward. And once you have established that sense of security in your presence, then start working to get him to step up for you. Once you've mastered the basics of trust in you and stepping up, then worry about getting him to let you touch him. Try to be understanding that this is a lot for Larry too - he has 25 years of learned behaviors to correct, and while Greys are very smart, it may be slow going. Sometimes, he may just want to be left alone and you need to respect that - again, a positive experience is any time you are both getting what you want. It means being willing to adjust expectations and give a little. An example is: the other day Gryphon was being super aggressive toward me when I tried to put him in his sister's cage (which he can't escape from) before I went to work. He was nipping at me - he rarely tries to bite hard anymore, another benefit of our relationship building - and kept flying from the play stand to his own cage, where I had already locked his sister in. This is a dangerous situation because they like to fight through the bars, and he's gotten hurt before that way. I was in a quandary - he would accept no treats from me and tried to lunge whenever I tried to lure him away. But, he was in real danger of getting hurt and I needed to get him down fast. I stepped back, took a breath, and examined his behavior. He was puffed up, pinning his eyes, strutting and flipping his wings, and pounding on the top of his cage - all things he does when he gets territorial. His behavior was territorial aggression, and it's not hard to guess that the desired outcome of which is that everyone nearby (both me and his sister) should back off! I realized suddenly that this was happening ON his cage and while it is common for us to switch cages with them all the time, he had decided that TODAY he wanted to be in HIS home, and no amount of persuasion from me was going to change his mind. Now, I could have demanded my will be done (ie, tried to tame/subdue/make him submit) but really, all I wanted was for my bird to go in a cage so I would not be late for work. It meant I would have to add extra tape to his doors, but it was still what I wanted to happen. So I stood calmly for a moment and talked to him in loving tones until he stopped displaying. Then I cautiously opened up the cage and removed Seraph. Immediately, he settled down, went inside and began to eat his breakfast. He even gave me a kiss through the bars. Problem solved - I got my bird in a cage so I could go to work and he got the cage he wanted. Even thoughi it wasn't the ideal interaction, I consider it a win for both of us. There's much I can do next time to be aware and better prepared so he doesn't have to display to get what he wants. Good luck! Just be willing to let him move at his own pace and eventually, I think you can help Larry feel comfortable with you.

I love the Phobeak! "terror"dactyl indeed...this was from last night (after the notary left) when both birds wanted to find out why I was browsing FB and NOT making them bird dinner. (because regardless of what time I get home, it is always time to make bird dinner.) To me, this looked like a classic velociraptor hunting technique...the cute one is being a decoy for the evil one, but which one is cute and which one is evil?

I have been making and drinking Kefir for awhile now and have been wondering if it is ok to give to my birds. Kefir is a natural probiotic drink made by culturing milk; the bacteria strains feed off the lactose and fat in the milk which cultures the milk and makes it extremely easy on human digestion. As someone with lactose intolerance and a whole host of other issues, Kefir has been instrumental in improving my health. It's very similar to plain yogurt but with a ton more probiotics in it. So far, I have refrained from giving it to my birds because the purist in me says that probiotics are not a natural part of their diet and since bird digestion is somewhat different from human digestion, these kinds of things may not be good for them, but I have heard of some people giving their birds yogurt on occasion with no issues. What do you food experts think? Do any of you culture kefir and give it to your birds?

So last night I had a notary out to my house to do some signing paperwork for our new house. And Gryphon, true to form, had to show off by playing escape artist from his cage. Well, of course escaping was only the beginning - it was MUCH more fun to lead me on a chase trying to get him back into his home (without getting bit) while the notary looked on in a bored fashion. Finally, I put an almond in his bowl and figured one of two things would happen - either he'd go in for the almond and I could lock him back in, or he'd fly over to me when he realized he was being ignored and then I would HAVE him. Mwahaha. So, I apologized to the notary and sat back down to sign my paperwork, not giving it another thought - until Gryphon decided to fly over to me. All at once the notary screamed, covered her head and nearly ducked under my kitchen table. When she realized she had not been dive bombed and that my bird was calmly looking on from my shoulder, she crawled back onto her chair, looked at me with pure terror on her face, and said, "I don't really like birds that much." It was all I could do not to burst out laughing right then and there. I know birds are not for everyone and I try (TRY, being the operative word where Gryph is concerned) to keep my birds confined around people I don't know/trust, but I would have never thought in a million years that a one pound Grey could cause someone so much terror! I'm still laughing today.