matt314159

{Feel-good-0002006E} You all crack me up! Wow. I'm glad I joined such a fun group.

I also just got a motorola Q on sprint. I have unlimited data. I bet I could make the nannycam work from windows mobile, then I could keep an eye on it all the time. The nerd in me is getting excited about setting up something like this.<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2007/06/22 23:20

Caspersmum wrote: How can people be so sick? That made me sad just reading it. y'all have given me lots to think about. The fact that she has done it despite us telling her she is out of line in doing so, really chaps my hide. She seems like she's left ponti alone pretty good the last few days, but I'm worried about what goes on when nobody else is home. The second I hit submit, I had a brilliant idea. Maybe i should get one of those hidden nanny cams and set it up in the living room so I can keep an eye on things from afar!<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2007/06/22 19:15

Monique wrote: What a good idea! Ponti LOVES my help in cracking open the pin feathers, as long as they are out far enough and ready. If I try to pinch one that isn't ready she bites me and says, "Owwwww" and then puts her head back down, like, "that one hurt, but try for some other ones, would ya?".

Rae, thanks for sharing that. She knows who her mamma is! Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. It's so frustrating that some people just can't seem to learn how to act around animals, and especially birds. You can't just treat a bird the same way you treat your dog. And greys are a little on the neurotic side, anyways. If I catch her messing with ponti again I think the gloves are going to come off. I wish there was just some way to get my cousin to realize WHY what she is doing is wrong, and get her educated about the way parrots think and act. It seems like if she understood that, then the problem would go away. But if it means me taking her housekey back and telling her she's not allowed at the house alone, then thats just the way it will have to be.

great information everybody! as for toys, we've found that sometimes the simplest things work best. A soda bottle-cap, for instance. Or an old paperback novel for her to shred. Also, lots of baby toys. We were at Bracken's Bird Farm in Redlands, CA, not long ago, looking through their bird toys, and the lady pulled us aside and suggested we just check wal-mart for baby toys. They're made with non-toxic (to humans anyway) materials, and they're really cheap. And as long as you use common-sense when choosing them, that's a favorite way to go. Ponti has a bendable worm/rattle that she loves, as well as a plastic set of keys on a keyring, and a plastic phone with buttons that play different sounds when you press them. Keeps her entertained for hours. Just make sure the toy is safe for them to tear apart, because that's what their ultimate goal is, anyway.

I browsed the titles and did a couple searches but I didn't quite find what i'm looking for. I'm in a frustrating situation right now. We recently had an extended family member (my cousin) move into our house so she could go back to college full time without having to worry about working full time to support herself. Unfortunately, she and the bird do NOT get along. She is far too pushy with ponti, she goes right up to the cage, talks loudly, and exhibits a generally overbearing demeanor with ponti. Then she gets frustrated when ponti tries to bite at her. Far more troubling, however, is how she treats ponti when nobody else is at the house. And I've even caught her doing it when she thinks nobody else is looking. When my cousin is watching TV in the living room, and ponti is being loud, whistling, and carrying on (as she normally does), my cousin does pretty much whatever she thinks might shut ponti up. This includes yelling at her, shaking her cage, hitting the cage, throwing pillows at ponti's cage, etcetera. I have sat my cousin down and told her the rules for being around the bird, and even tried to explain the fact that negative reinforcement with birds just DOES NOT WORK, and yet she doesnt seem to get it. Even after she agreed to leave the bird alone, I have caught her doing it again. What should I do? I'm a firm believer that education is the best way to go, but despite my best efforts, she just doesnt seem to be able to learn how to properly act towards parrots. Is there any training material, literature, videos, etcetera, that I could get ahold of to help my cousin understand how to behave around Ponti? I'm honestly afraid to leave ponti and my cousin alone at the house togeter, for fear that she will hurt ponti, or ruin all of ponti's training and turn her into a wild, frightened bird, instead of the tame, loving, friendly and cheerful bird that she is currently. Any suggestions? I'm all ears. And if you suggest kicking her out of the house, believe me, it's crossed my mind.<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2007/06/22 02:23

haha I didn't know anybody from here had see them. That's cool. It's funny, I only did the first one on youtube, and my mom liked the idea so much that she taught herself how to use our digital camera and windows movie maker and went to town, and did the rest on her own. maybe one of these days I'll try getting a few more put up.

Ponti loves a shower every morning. We mist her with a spray bottle, and she loves it. Her bad foot gives her a hard time staying on a perch, so we don't take her into the shower, and she won't bathe in a dish, but she loves her mist. IN fact, now, when she wants a bath, she'll ask for it. she says, "Want a bath?" and then fluffs her feathers and makes a "psst psst psst" sound that is exactly like my spray bottle, and say stuff like, "ohhh, feels so gooood", or "get the belly!" So we get the spray bottle out, open her door, and she stands right in the front and take a shower with us spraying her. When we tell her "get the belly!" she stands up tall and puffs her chest out, to let us get the front of her better. It's really cute.

Hey everyone, I'm new here, but I thought I'd pitch in my two cents right off the bat. our 18 month old CAG, Ponti, has her own little "sleep cage" that she goes in at night. Ponti had previously had a broken leg and she now has one foot that has been sort of "gimped out"...it doesnt grab too well, and she is sort of prone to falling off her perches during the day. Assuming that it would only be worse at night, we started putting her in a travel cage (maybe 24" x 18" x 18") with towels on the ground and a single rope perch that is only about 2" off the floor of that cage. Around 8 o'clock every night is "snuggle time" which she really looks forward to. As soon as the sun starts to go down, ponti starts saying things like "are you ready to go beddie-by" or "8 o'clock is beddie-by time for little baby birdies" or any mutation of either...we sit down in the recliner together, I have a basket of her favorite toys in my lap, and we watch tv together until 9 or 9:15. She will stand on the edge of her basket and play with toys, or sometimes, just sit there and let me scratch her head for the entire time. Then, about 9:15 or so, we put her in the travel cage, take her into the bedroom, cover her, and turn off the light. she goes right to sleep. our house has some interesting sleep schedules...my dad gets home around 11:30pm from work, and doesnt go to bed until about 1 am, which is usually around the time I go to bed as well. if we were to leave her in the living room, she'd never get the sleep she needs. Then about 6 or 6:30 am, she peeks out from undeneath the towel and starts saying things like "gooooood morning!" or "I seeeee youuuuu". She starts soft, and then gets progressively louder until she wakes one of us up and we take her into her big cage for the day. She's chipper and excited for another day. It's almost disgusting how happy she is for morning to be here. I've never seen anything that was such a "morning person (bird)" Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2007/06/16 04:43<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2007/06/16 04:44