Echo's Mom

WOW, that seems young to me ... Echo's breeder wouldn't let me bring her home til she was at least 18 weeks. Anyway, I would put all the perches near the bottom of the cage, and like Neoow mentioned, put lots of towels / blankets at the bottom to cushion her when she falls off her perch (she WILL fall off!) Adult greys have fallen off their perches, so don't panic!

Neoow - your GSD was gorgeous ... there's something about those long flowing coats that is so pleasing to the eye (and yet, such a PITA to keep pretty!)

Can you post a pic of your gsd? I know it's a grey forum, but dogs are my second passion!!!!

Echo got along BEAUTIFULLY with my last two cats and my last dog. Seriously, they were the best of buds. She would preen the cats / dogs heads, ears, feed them her food, call the dog, get the dog to do tricks, it was wonderful to watch them interact. Sadly, my current cat Raylan (who is part siamese) has WAY too much interest in Echo. He is declawed (I got him from a cat sanctuary in October last year, he's about 4-5 years old) but I'm pretty sure he had to eat birds and mice to survive before someone found him. Kyleigh, my long coat german shepherd (NOPE, not a mix!) believes that Echo is lunch in a box. And that would be her lunch. While my dog is very well trained, and very well behaved, Echo is fully flighted, and has never had a negative experience with a cat or dog. With the HUGE amounts of interest that both current cat and dog show Echo (you know ... that fixated stare?) I simply don't trust either one of them with Echo's safety. Echo's room is 15x30 so she has plenty of flying space during the day when I'm at work, and she's out of her cage (she only has a night cage to sleep in). Two to three times a week I bring her upstairs (I put the dog in the backyard, and lock the cat up in my bedroom) and Echo gets to fly around the living / dining and kitchen area. It's a big circle. She swoops around the circle, screeching like a banshee, lands on the chandelier, and then is off again. She does that for about 20 minutes before she tires of that game, and wants to do something different! It's quite the sight and the racket!

Another thing you could do is "dress" it up a bit with things that Zazu likes. After you have hidden it for a couple of weeks / months ... add some fun stuff to it - balls, etc. whatever Zazu likes to destroy and then hang it somewhere away from his cage. My TAG, Echo, loves her boings. BUT, they have to be the multi-coloured ones. I bought the plain boring coloured ones and she freaked at it. I remember looking at her and thinking SERIOUSLY? You're attacking it? It looks just like the one you destroyed. AH, but NOPE! It wasn't exact - there were NO colours on it. So, I bought shoe laces and tied a bunch of them around the boing ... she LOVED it ... and then she took all the shoe laces off ... and I had to buy more!!!!! The cost of the boing is still more expensive than the cost of shoelaces I've had to buy and replace! Good luck, Marion

Good afternoon all! I have an almost 7-year old TAG that I've had since she was about 5 months old. She's a great parrot, and I'm very thankful that I don't have 90% of the problems that I keep reading and hearing about!!! Just this past weekend I decided to go "cageless" with Echo. I have to admit cleaning a bird cage is NOT on my list of things I like to do. And, I'm very fortunate in that Echo has her own bird room (Echo and I share space - my computer and sewing room are in the same room as her). She is fully flighted, and has yet to destroy things that cannot be replaced, or easily repaired. I bought two long tables so the total length is 15 feet and placed newspaper all over the bottom. Put two of her perches on the tables, and in the corner, put a small end table on the table, and then put a 3x3x3 foot travel cage. This is now her sleeping cage. She has two perches, a food and water bowl, a shreddable toy and that's it! She is out of her cage at 6 a.m. and quite amusingly, she now puts herself to bed around 8 - in her cage and last night she even closed the door! She is not a huge talker, she does get going every now and then, but she is SUPER camera shy ... every time I try to take a pic of her doing something, she just stops. Funny greys! Echo and I share our home with a cat and a dog as well (pics below).