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.

Timbersmom - I too have wondered if it is only diet, and naively I hope that he's finally just decided I am "the one." And by that, I mean I hope he is maturing into, as Nancy says, "the bird I hoped he would be." But even when he was a baby, Gryph was never much of a snuggler, so all this canoodling and desire for interaction is all new territory for us so I think I agree, I'm just trying to trust his intentions and see where it goes. He's seen the vet recently, had bloodwork and a physical and he appears to be healthy all around. Maybe he is just going through bird puberty? LOL. If so, I hope this is the adult stage! Nancy - thank you for your words of encouragement! It makes me so hopeful to know that other people have gone through similar situations and their bird has matured and they've been able to share a rewarding relationship. That feeling of being loved by your bird is just so amazing and you and Sophie are lucky!

Just wanted to give everyone an update on Gryph's behavior issues. For those who don't know, Gryph is 3.5 years old and has been with us since he and his sister came home to us at 4 months old. He has been going through what I believe are hormonal cycles about every 2-4 months for the last year. He basically becomes extremely aggressive during these times. This behavior is only demonstrated toward me, and to my husband he is just as sweet and gentle as can be. To his sister, he does a classic bird dance and acts like he wants to court her (but she has already made up her mind about my husband, so she acts disinterested, for the most part.) No amount of patience or other behavior modification technique has worked on my part, and for roughly 2 months at a time I can't interact with Gryphon without fear of losing body parts. Once the hormones pass he settles down and we can interact again. However, things have made a dramatic change. He is doing really well, which is confusing and amazing me every day. Gryph has gone from crazy monster to now velcroed to me any time he is out of the cage. Most of the time he acts like he wants me to feed him, which involves him sitting under my chin and begging with his beak open. If I don't respond, he reaches up and either grabs my lip or tries to stick his beak in my mouth, albeit gently. I thought at first that this was baby behavior, but I am now starting to think it is a mate behavior. I am trying to cultivate the pre-begging behavior into "kisses" for a more healthy interaction so that we don't get to the feeding stage. He has not bitten me once (over a month now, yay!) and has become extraordinary gentle, letting me touch him anywhere, which before was almost never allowed. He has begun preening my hair (which he -never- did before) and he is mostly content to sit on my arm at chest level (the better for begging to be fed, apparently) but occasionally crawls up to my shoulder and "snuggles" up against the side of my head. (This was another Gryph no-no...he was content to sit on the shoulder, but didn't like touching my head.) These changes started after I decided to eliminate seed entirely from his diet and feed primarily sprouts, fresh veggies and soaked grain. I did some research into hormonal parrots, and while it seems greys are not known for getting hormonal, other birds are apparently very affected by saturated fat, high protein and most human food. Breakfast & lunch consist of sprouts, dinner consists of fresh foods & a Volkman soak mixed with Red Palm Oil. He is not allowed saturated fat or animal protein of any kind except in the form of healthy nuts like almonds or red palm oil. During the day he has a full spectrum light on him and I also started putting him to bed earlier, even though this means less interaction time between us. From almost the first week of this change to his diet and schedule his behavior altered. Before, I would get home from work and he would be a basket case, bouncing off the walls until 9 or 10 pm when *we* finally went to bed, with rarely any interest in some 1 on 1 time. Now, I get home and he immediately zeroes in on me, and by 7 pm he is tucked up on my arm or my shoulder, content, bruxing and giving me the "blinky" eyes. Before, he was extremely cage and toy territorial (to me only), now, he willingly steps up from the cages and doesn't seem to mind if I play with him and his toys. The change in my bird is dramatic and although I would say a majorly positive one, it IS a little unsettling - sometimes I feel like I'm living with a bipolar bird and I wonder when Mr. Hyde is coming out again! I'm going to continue with the changes we've made and see how things go - I really want to foster this positive interaction but I am worried about encouraging a mate type behavior. So, we're just taking it slow.

I did some research into this very topic and this is what I came up with. Here's my original post on it - http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?194210-Scented-candles&p=240768#post240768 Based on this research, any chemical, vapor or vaporized oil could be potentially harmful. Cooking oil sprayed into a pan while fixing dinner could be harmful. So could stale air. Obviously, it's nearly impossible to create a perfect environment for our parrots' needs, but it is very possible to do things to mitigate the harmful effects of living indoors - such as reduce or eliminate their chemical exposure, improve airflow and air quality (with a HEPA particulate filter.) If you understand the science behind why birds' lungs are sensitive, it helps you understand why a glade plugin is just as dangerous as lysol spray or candles. I love my candles too, but I love my birds more. Also, I get a lot more complements on "how nice my house smells" with a little cinnamon and cloves or strawberries and orange peels simmered in a crockpot than I ever did with the carpet fresh powders, glade plugins, candles, febreeze, etc. My husband tells me I'm a little paranoid about these things, but in my view it's my responsibility to be paranoid, so please take my advice with a grain of salt

Zoom - It's a well-known phenomenon that sometimes animals seem to sense earthquakes before they happen. There is published research on this as well, although I don't think any of it yet proves a specific ability. However, I do know that my mother in law had a cat that could do this. They lived in the middle of the southern Nevada desert and the cat would predict earthquakes as far away as northern Cali. Usually 1-3 days before an earthquake the cat would go into hiding under the bed, and then would not come back out until after the earthquake happened. He was an otherwise sociable, lovable cat, and he never hid unless there was an earthquake. Chezron - great info, thank you! I will definitely keep an eye on this now that you posted it...I do think he gets plenty of calcium in his diet and he has a "bird light" indoors, but it is really good to be reminded to pay attention to this.

Many of you know about the difficult times Gryphon and I have been having. I am convinced some of that is due to hormones (which fluctuate REALLY high sometimes) and the rest is just due to the fact that he and I are still learning how to understand each other. He seems to have a lot of "wildness" in him and maybe that will never go away, I don't know. He is so completely different from his sister, who loves everyone and wants to cuddle with everyone, stranger or no. How can two birds from the same clutch, raised the same way, be so different?! I do love him for his wildness, but sometimes it really tests my patience One thing about Gryph is that he has night terrors sometimes. Birds don't sleep like humans do - when they roost, they go into a sleep state that they are incredibly slow to wake from. When he gets spooked and falls off his perch, he falls like a rock because he is effectively, still asleep. And when he hits the bottom, well, his body reacts instinctively and he tends to bounce off the sides of his cage - an instinctive reaction that would be a last ditch effort in the wild to avoid a ground predator. I can only imagine this must be a horrific experience for our poor birds. So when I woke up suddenly this morning due to a loud crash and bang in the living room, I knew without doubt that my bird had fallen off his perch. Usually I will wait to hear that he's moving around (and thus semi-awake) before I go check on him because occasionally I have run to the rescue and caused more stress by scaring him again when I draw back his cage cover. But this morning, after the initial crash, I didn't hear anything. So I jumped out of bed and went to rescue him. I drew back the cover slowly and peeked at him. He wasn't on any of his perches. He was still at the bottom of his cage, stunned by his fall. He looked up at me though, and I reached in and without a word he stepped up. I put him on my shoulder and we went over to the couch (a safe place) to sit down and de-stress. There are not many moments that happen where I can say Gryph and I are one and the same. I've had those moments with another bird, they are called "bonding moments" when you feel, without a doubt, that you and your bird seem to share the exact same wavelength. Normally when I rescue Gryph he sits on my shoulder until his heart stops racing and he gets sleepy again. He doesn't want more than that. But when I sat down with my poor, frightened bird this morning, I turned my face into his body and he leaned his head against me too. For half an hour we sat like that, human and bird, sharing a quiet connection of both mind and body. Eventually he drew back and fluffed his feathers and picked at my hair, and that's when I knew he was feeling better. I gave him a kiss and put him back on his perch in his cage and then I too went back to bed, feeling like I'd just gotten the best gift in the world! When we woke up again at a more reasonable hour, he came right out and gave me kisses, then immediately wanted some scratches (which is not typical - usually he wants to run right over to his sister's cage and get her up, and THEN, maybe, he will deign to notice me.) Then it was back to normal Gryph, running off to empty his toy boxes and chase his sister and be, in general, an unruly teenager. But for a few moments today I had the best bird in the world

Oooh, I love the idea of the chinese food boxes as foraging baskets! And Sarasota - great idea to hide nuts and treats in there. Perfect!

An idea my hubby came up with to "recycle" the cardboard boxes our k-cups come in. We like the coffee and apparently the birds like their boxes. Directions: Take 1 empty K-Cup/tassimo pod/other box. Stuff it full of old foot toys, treats, sisal, treats, straws, etc. Tie it or otherwise attach to perch (this is just stuck in one of their play boxes but will probably need to be tied down.) Let your birds tear it apart!

CLB or anyone...could you post a pic of how you secure your doors? Gryph is in his sister's cage right now because he gets out of his old one, (he would unscrew the bolts and take his doors completely off until I put locking nuts on them) and she is in his because she hasn't figured out how to unlatch the doors. I really want to get a new cage that is bigger for Gryph, but I'm worried about the doors being unsecured again and this one seems to be working for now. If I could figure out a good clasp to lock them down that would be perfect! I currently have doors like this:

The floor time is a fairly recent development. It started because my husband likes to put on his shoes by first picking up his shoe and holding it while he pulls the laces loose, and as soon as Gryphon saw that the shoe + laces + floor = super bird fun, it has been a "game" to fly down to the floor at find the nearest shoe/foot/ankle ever since. It's kind of funny, because if they drop a foot toy they will sometimes fly down to pick it up too. Gives new meaning to teaching your birds to pick their toys up when they're done with them Just fyi - floors can be very dangerous unsupervised, as there is a lot that they can get into (power cords, baseboards, furniture etc), other pets can get them (thankfully not in our house at least) and just stepping on your bird is a huge danger if you're not paying attention. I don't let them down there if I can't directly supervise what they're doing, just fyi! ALWAYS know where your bird is and what he's doing. Just a friendly public service announcement

It got me!!! hit and run...hurry...get away before the human can retaliate! Ahh, the joys of getting to play with your birds