Echo's Mom

OMG I love the pics!!!!! Those baby grey eyes!!!! Just adorable! You have been given LOADS of advice and all of it AWESOME! I have one piece of advice that I haven't seen posted yet ... make sure Zoe has SOME alone time. I'm not sure if you and your wife work or not, but you don't want her to get so attached to you that she freaks out if no one is around. This is especially critical when you first bring them home (just like a puppy!) Everyone spends every minute with the "baby" and then after a couple of days / weeks life sets back in and suddenly those 12 hours a day you were spending with the baby are down to 5 or 6 (A much more realistic time frame!) Have so much fun with Zoe ... the learning experiences she will go through as she explores her surroundings and you and your wife are unbeatable!!!!!

OK, I'm definitely boring, probably shouldn't even be on this list !!!! 1 TAG ... but I do have one cat and one dog ... and that's three animals LOL ... They all get undivided attention, which would be the same if I only had three birds and no cats / dogs!

I'm so sorry for your feelings ... I've never been in that situation, but I can still sympathize with you ... I think you have been given the best advice ... literally - do nothing - forget about it ... That seems to be the advice there is for ANYTHING out there! If you really want true love, quit looking for it and it will find you! If you really want happiness, quit looking for it, and you'll suddenly realize it's already there! I think the more you stress about it the worse you are making it for both of you! One of my other parrots I use to have - a little quaker named Ellie, came to be with a broken leg and a broken wing - they had healed but very badly. I did at first feel sorry for her, you'd have to have a heart of stone not too! BUT ... I spent a couple of weeks watching how she got around and then got creative and made her cage and area just for her ... her cage was longer rather than higher ... there were longer shelves and not as many perches. She actually had a nest in to sleep in (she never laid any eggs thankfully!) so that she could give her one "good" leg a rest. After that, I just let her be ... made minor changes every now and then to something ... and she had a blast re arranging her home to suit herself ... She was a great little bird and quite the trooper for her "handicaps!"

It was super hot and muggy this afternoon, so we all chilled in the house for a couple of hours ... well, except for Echo of course ... She was to busy exploring The second picture she is exploring under the frame of her large white perch ... such a character! (She then proceeded to tear up ALL the newspaper that I just placed under there!)

I know you don't really know me very well since I just joined here ... but I do live in Ottawa, and would be happy to have my name as an emergency number so that Dorian doesn't get shipped somewhere ... 5.5 hours is NOT that far away! And worse case scenario (for Dorian) he could live out his life with me and Echo ... and get to fondly glare at the cat and dog from his perch on the other side of the room! I have arrangements with the breeder that I got Echo from that she would take her back ... I'm only 43, but I make arrangements for ALL my pets as soon as they enter my home!

LOL ... and I love the "feathered brick" comment ... too funny!

Acappella ... I hear ya - only YOU know what is good for Dorian ... it was just a reminder that popped in my head when I read your story. The look of pure joy on little Ellie when she figured just what she could do with those wings was beautiful!

A while ago I had a little quaker and she had the ability to fly, but not the knowledge. I took out the air mattress, filled it up with air, covered it in blankets and sat on the floor and "tossed" her onto the air mattress. OK - that sounds horrible, but it wasn't LOL ... I was giving her a "lift" and she would flutter down (about 8-10 inches). Once she landed I held out my hand and she'd come hopping over and I asked her ... wanna do it again? And she'd chirp and bop her head up and down ... and we'd do it again. After a couple of days of this, she got the hang of it and was actually flying down, instead of fluttering. I went up a bit higher, and a bit higher over the next couple of weeks, and before I knew it ... I'd "tossed" her onto the air mattress and she started flying around my room! It was a bit chaotic for a couple of minutes as I was trying to catch her ... but if you could have seen the look on her little face! She was bopping her head up and down and chirping and hollering wow wow wow ... it was incredible! It didn't take much longer for her to figure out how to fly ....!!!

I don't think it's a bad thing, but I've never had to deal with anything like you are. I've used step up from the beginning (again, I've Echo since a baby, so no negative issue with her) ... but yes, there were times when she wouldn't step up on to my hand and I needed her to. This is when I started "training" Echo to step up on to her T-Perch (I used almonds and pistachios - yes, I bribed her LOL). There are times when I need to put her in her cage (for example if I'm sewing but need a break, I'll cage her for 10 minutes or so - if I leave her loose she'll just wreak havoc on my project LOL). I'll ask her to step up onto my hand a couple of times, and if she won't then I get the T-perch and a nut. Half the time all I have to do is pick up the T-perch and she flies onto it! She has yet to fly away from it (even when I've gotten close to her with it). She always always always gets a nut when I've put her in her cage. (I did learn to wait til she was IN her cage before giving her the reward - I started giving her the reward as soon as she stepped onto the T-perch and she would take the nut and fly off! LOL ... little brat!) MAYBE, just MAYBE, you could work towards that?

Echo came home yesterday around 4:00. I saw Kat pull into the driveway and went outside to meet her. As soon as she got out of the car and Echo saw me she hollered out HI MOMMY. Brought her into the house and down into her room and as I was trying to open the door she was going nuts on the latches (she CAN open them if she really wants out!) And she's hollering OUT OUT OUT, want OUT ... finally get it open and she hops out and flies up on to her perch. Kat and I were just chatting and Echo starts flying around the room and singing Echo's Back ... Echo's Back ... it was hilarious! We are both cracking up laughing and she says her boyfriend is thrilled that Echo is back home! She gets all the birds going at 6 am (this is when Kat goes in to wake them all up and feed them) ... they are so loud the her b/f can't sleep through the racket LOL She's going back in June for another weekend LOL I have another dog workshop to attend!

It's Monday afternoon, and while I would usually have Echo right about now, I don't ... Kat lives in the country (about 45 minutes from me) but works about 10 minutes away from me. She emailed me this morning to say ... OMG i'm so sorry, but when I was putting the parrots in the car, I forgot about Echo. I'm reading this at work, and I cracked up laughing. And I was wondering, how the heck do you forget about the noisiest parrot you have at the house? She was in a bit of a panic on getting Echo to me tonight because she lives so far away, and I just emailed her back and said, Relax! Echo can home tomorrow night, not that big of a deal! And I'll admit, after such an intense weekend with the dog and the workshop, I have lots of laundry and cleaning to do, that Echo would probably have more fun with the birdies than watching me clean!

That's AWESOME! Super huge congrats to you for continuing to work with him!!!! I'm sure he's thinking ... HMM, what was it that I was so afraid of? THIS is awesome!!!

I'm leaving tomorrow (Friday) right after work for a workshop with my dog for the weekend. My parrot sitter, Kat, came to pick Echo up after work today. Echo was a riot! She saw Kat and yells NO NO NO. I said, Echo, mommy has to go away for the weekend, so you have to stay with Kat. I'll see you Monday after work. I tried to pick her up off her boing, but she was having none of it. So, I picked up her T-perched (she ALWAYS steps up on to that) and she steps onto it and I hold out my finger and she comes on to my hand. I'm chattering away to her - telling her how much fun she is going to have and then I pop her in the carrier. She hollers out NO NO NO ... I said, Echo, I will see you on Monday after work. SILENCE for a good 30 seconds. Kat and I are looking at each other, and we are both waiting for it ... we know what's coming ... BYE BYE MOMMY .... hahahahahahahahaha and she cracks up laughing! I have to say this evening has been VERY quiet without her chattering and whistling away! It's so nice for me to have such an awesome parrot sitter! Such a relief so I can actually go away for a weekend, and not worry! And Kat LOVES Echo ... she says that Echo gets ALL the birds going first thing in the morning! They are such characters!

I always get a little YEAH in my head when I see "Canadian" on the forums LOL Yeah, Echo's pretty awesome! I'm very grateful that I don't have the issues that I hear / read about with so many people. I also have my german shepherd, and she is definitely MUCH more demanding of my time LOL ... no couch potato owner when you have a GSD

HMMM, not trying to be a wet blanket or anything, but after being told by people on the forum that this behaviour is VERY NORMAL (and yes, mine still does this!) would you not wonder why he's stopped? For me, I would be more concerned that he's not as vocal anymore ... Just my two cents! Echo still does this every morning, and I LOVE it ... if she was to stop doing it, I would automatically think that something is wrong.

HMM ... can you take everything out of his cage? OR will he bite you? I'm just wondering if there is something in his cage that in his mind is now the MOST scariest thing ever???? And if it's close to the door which is why he could be afraid to leave? I'm reaching here!!!

This is old, but we're in Season 2 ... and I adore them! I've read the books twice myself, and am in love with the series ... they have picked awesome actors !!!! You can definitely tell that Diana is on hand to make sure it follows the story line!

Can you put a perch in the cage and have him step up on the perch and then try and bring him out? Did you put a new / different toy near the door of the cage and he's not liking where it is? You could try taking EVERYTHING out of his cage, and see if that helps ...

This thread was hilarious ... an oldie but a goodie! I'm a bit of a "hermit" in that I don't like having people over at my house. It's "my" place - I am surrounded by people all day, and I so enjoy just coming home and being with my small zoo. Echo knows one swear word - the S bomb. And I'm surprised she doesn't know more. I do all my crafts (mainly quilting) in the same room as Echo and yes, I have dropped pretty much every swear word that exists and made up others in her presence. Echo is with me until one of us dies, so I don't really care if she picks them up or not (honestly, I think it's hilarious, and sometimes wish she would pick up more of them but no such luck for me!) I was cleaning her cage and dropped her ceramic bowl and it shattered. I yelled SH** pretty loudly and then cleaned it all up, and went on with the rest of cleaning. Next day when I was cleaning her cage she pushed her ceramic bowl OFF the top of her cage, it dropped to the ground and shattered ... she then yelled SH** at the top of those birdie air sacs ... I admit it ... I cracked up laughing. Usually when I let out a string of curse words she just starts laughing and laughing and laughing ... The irony! A grey is living in a household where cuss words would be fully permitted and found highly amusing, and I can't get her to do it!!!!

OH WOW, I missed this thread completely, so glad I caught it this morning!!! You have an awesome breeder! Mine did the same for me with Echo. I got weekly (sometimes random ones throughout the day too!) updates about her. And little blurbs in the email about what Echo was doing when she took the pic, etc. It's so nice to watch them grow into those wings! I've also kept Echo flighted, and in one of my homes the back door for me was a bit of a concern. I also had a dog, and that's the door the dog used to go in and out of the backyard. I didn't want to have to put Echo back in her cage every single time. I bought beaded curtains and hung them in the door frame. Mine were VERY flamboyant and Echo did NOT like them AT ALL. They weren't beside her or anything, but she didn't like the pattern, so she never flew over there to check them out. For me, that solved my concern about Echo flying outside when I opened the door for the dog. AND, even if Zoe likes the pattern, the beaded curtain LOOKS solid, so she wouldn't try and fly through a wall! OH the joys of baby parrots!!! You are going to have so much fun! And you're going to be scared poopless!!! I did tons of reading, research, met with other people who had parrots, etc. and I was as prepared as prepared could be ... and stuff still happens! Don't panic, just breathe and move on!!!! The less you panic, the more calm Zoe will be.

Yeah, there's not much Echo is afraid of LOL sometimes I wish she had just a TAD of fear of some thing - like not afraid to fly and land on ANYTHING ... She is however, absolutely terrified of black lamps LOL I tried for three years to put up the black lamp that I had bought for the bird room ... nope, she won ... i had to give it away! Quilting is my wintertime hobby - it's a long time hobby in Ottawa - I get to quilt for at least a solid 6 months, so Echo really benefits from a lot of "me" time. In the summer she gets to come outside in a small travel cage and watch me garden! Not as thrilling I'm sure, but she does like to make lots of noise and copy the wild bird calls!

OH I do realize just how complicated it can be to work with a parrot with issues, I was at work and wanted to read your story but saw 156 pages and went WOW ... can't get away with reading all that today LOL I will definitely keep reading through it at a sedate pace!!! Hats off to you, and others, who take the time, make the effort and keep the patience to keep working with our wonderful creatures and bring them to a place of trust, peace and happiness!

WOW! I want to be one of your parrots!

Yeah, I should have put my disclaimer in there ... She only did that ONCE and I was lucky to get the picture ... I moved the cat's bowls after that to another room!

And a couple more! Why the parrot and dog are not allowed out together! (Nothing happened, but Kyleigh has that "stare" so no chances being taken at all! Echo with my last cat - they LOVED each other, it was awesome! Echo with my last dog - they adored each other too - Echo would call her over by name and feed her, and preen her!