danmcq

Totally enjoyed the videos of Khan. Thanks for sharing them. :-)

GreYt video of Emma. LOL - You sound like a teacher "That is NOT acceptable!"or a Southern Sheriff saying "What we have here, is a failure to communicate" ....Hahahahaha. Emma is just being the inquisitive and outgoing Grey She has always been. :-) Thanks for sharing this video.

GreYt photos and video of Emma enjoying that new swing. Thanks for sharing it. :-)

Another wonderful Poem to a much loved Family member here that has indeed gone to EXTREME efforts and even dangers to get the medical care necessary for their much loved Rishi. They have set a new standard of just how willing Parrot lovers are to go that extra "Mile" for the well being of a much loved Grey.

GreYt Poem Julie! It expresses our Forum family feelings and love for Jay, Maggie and their baby Spock very well. :-)

They are definitely empathic. But, I am not certain they would not appreciate the feeling and emotion of empathy. They display it themselves and "Hurt" with us when we are sad or sick. Example: I have been suffering from an excruciatingly painful bout with sciatica running form my hip to toes. I i have never had such debilitating pain in my life. Dealing with sever pain and trying to get insurance approvals for everything is a very trying event. Then to top it off, I had an MRI scheduled for 730am Tuesday morning...they called at 7:05 and informed the system had gone down and it would take 2 weeks to get the part and the system back online. Ive been working from home for 3 weeks due to this and to be honest the owner is getting upset with me. I MUST go to work this coming Monday come hell or high water and will. Well this MRI issue pushed me to tears of frustration and anxiety. As I sobbed, Dayo flew to my shoulder, gently leans over touched my cheeked and licked a tear from my face. He then nestled his head against my cheek and sat quietly. His empathy amazed me and also brought me quickly out of the little "Helplessness" bout I was feeling. So, it is my opinion that having empathy for them when they are down is appreciated. The good news is I finally got "Approval" from the insurance "Gods" at another imaging center and had it done yesterday afternoon.<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2010/02/06 17:11

I also want to clarify my statements in the other thread in the Amazon room regarding foods and false information found on the internet at literally 100's of sites. Many just list everything they "Think" is toxic. Sometimes it is not the actual item we feed, but the plant, tree etc. and their respective leaves, stalk or bark. It can also be due to where they grow and what is sprayed on them or possible bacterial contamination. An example is Tomatoes. I have seen them listed as toxic on several sites. The tomato itself is not toxic, but the stem and leaves are. Another example is grapes. Grapes are most the time sprayed with insecticides and sulfur to prevent mold. Some sites list Grapes as a poisonous food item. They are not, but care must be taken to thoroughly wash them to remove these poisonous toxins from the skin. This is also true of just about any produce you feed your bird. Always wash it thoroughly to remove any harmful residual poisonous chemicals or even worse ground grown items like strawberries, squash, cabbage etc. They can have very harmful bacteria on them that can kill or give you bird a serious bacterial infection. I must also say, so called "Organic" food can be infected with Bacteria just as any other veggie and should never be offered until completely washed.

My Thoughts on this topic. Should any of us, as responsible pet owners take a risk, even if it MAY be low in regards our much loved critters diets and over all health? Right off the bat, I want to state I will not take any risk with my pets health. I only want to consider "Facts" and not "split hairs" at what level of gestation of a given item will kill your bird or other critter. First - Everything I state below is relative to body weight and the "Dose" a given critter intakes. It is also relative to the different digestive systems of critters and their ability to actually open or chew a given item such as a small seed or LARGE pit. Parrots have powerful beaks and when they encounter any seed or pit, their instinctive response of course is to crack it open to get to the meat inside. Dogs - They just chop once and swallow, they do not thoroughly chew any food. So a seed will just go through it's system "Whole" come out the other end and POOF, they just completed the natural cycle of seed spreading. :-) Humans, we do chew all our foods thoroughly and will grind those seeds and thus digest all contents of the seeds, releasing all the poisons into our system. However, do to our body weight, we would need to eat a HUGE quantity of poison seeds to become ill or die. Seed containing fruits that your bird should never be given the seed or pit: Apples - Cyanide poisoning. Apricots - Cyanide poisoning. Plums - Cyanide poisoning. Peach - Cyanide poisoning. Nectarine - Cyanide poisoning. Cherry - Cyanide poisoning. Citrus - Cyanide poisoning. Avocado - Skin and pit definitely poisonous. The meat is highly debated... I chose NOT to allow any pet to eat it. Veggies: Onion - Contains a chemical named N-PROPYL DISULFIDE which denatures hemoglobin. This will DESTROY RED BLOOD CELLS. Eating onions can cause ANEMIA, JAUNDICE, and BLOODY URINE. ***Much of the information pertaining to ONIONS and the effect on red blood cells pertains to dogs. There is not conclusive evidence that it will do the same to blood cells in parrots. At this time it is suspected that ONIONS may be unsafe to feed to your parrot. Until more study has been done you should be aware that there MAY be a potential hazard in having your parrot eat onions.*** *** My bird does eat spaghetti etc. that has small amounts of onions, however while eating if I see him getting close to one, I remove it*** Garlic - Same issue as Onions. *** I do allow my bird to eat meals prepared that have small quantities in them*** These are all proven facts in the veterinarian community online you can find. The key is either a quantity of zero food items that contain any of the above, or moderation and careful tracking of the quantity you let your bird have in anything you know that could be detrimental to your birds health. So this sums up my take on these items and and risks I am willing to take with a few of them.

rbpittman wrote: Wonderful news and a joyous occasion!!! Congratulations Dixie and Robin, well done!!! :-)

Hahahahahahahahaha Dave - That was much better than my answer. :-) Because Air Traffic Control had not given permission for take off......

Thats not good news. We are all pulling for you!! Has the vet said anything further regarding the illness?

Mr. Spock, You hang in there and use your Vulcan powers to get well soon. We are all keeping you in are prayers my friend.

Great Video! That would really SUCK!! But, gave me a good laugh, thanks!! :-)

Than is infuriating! Their lackadaisical attitude has severely delayed your baby getting proper attention. It is so good to know we have people like Dave here that gave you the right advice on how to treat her while waiting for the vet. It is obvious your doing a great job and your beby is responding well to it.

This is a great thread with many comments by ALL to truly consider. AS TPU has indicated and I have found myself. There are a TON of links on the internet when you search for any specific question. Then each of those contains a TON of comments and thoughts of which are mostly based on what each person has "read" or "heard". None for the most part are based on scientific fact. I agree as Talon put it, that it is better to error on the side of caution if in doubt. An illustration of this, is the Advacado for example. There is a TON of links and books that list them as "Poisonous" to our FIDs, which is correct if the entire skin, meat and seed were consumed. However, the poisonous material is actually the skin, not the meat. Atleast from various scientific data you can find in a search on the web. However, in the scientific data as related to bird consumption, there is some "unknown" if eating the meat often enough would lead to "Possible" poisoning. So, I choose NOT to let my Fids enjoy some good old Guacamole when we have it. Thus erring on the side of caution for now. I am absolutely impressed with the reasoning TPU put forward in using fruits etc. in their natual form to help prepare our birds for survival in case of escape. Great thoughts and information to use!!! :-) Again, great thread and keep it going!!! :-)

It's always precious precious to see the miracle of life. :-) Thanks for sharing these adorable photos.

Jayd wrote: Poor Spock! I know it wrenches your heart to have do to what is "Best" for Spock. He doesn't understand it, but the bottom line is, it is for his health and well being. Keep up the great work Jay and know that your all in our thoughts and prayers.

My advice - Let the Grey "Pick" you in your visits. Then the decision is left to which ever TAG or CAG selects you. :-) I guarantee you, if you do this, the relationship with it is one that you may never build with one you just choose yourself.

edillon5063 wrote: Good to hear from you again. Obviously, he either picked up on your emotions or something was done trying to get him back in the cage that diminished the trust level. So how did you get him back in the cage? Time will heal trust levels and your going to have to show patience to gain that back. It sounds like you are doing the right things in continuing the relationship at the level he will allow. Just keep capitalizing on that and offering to let him out and respect the space he wants when he just wants to climb to the top and hang out. Time and patience will undo most anything that has affect our much loved FIDs. :-)

Completely understand your feelings Julie, since I and Kim feel the same about Dayo and fret over him. You mention rescuing one that is older versus one you bring up from baby stage. It is a completely different feeling and love level between the two. As you probably know, we rescue Dobermans. The love we have for a Doberman raised from 6 weeks old versus one that was rescued is a different level. What I mean by this, is raising anything from a baby seems to form all the emotions tied to birthing a child, versus adopting one. You do them both out of love and you do love both. But, the love for the birthed or raised from infant seems to be connect to a very deep emotional and mental connection in our minds and hearts. It is hard to explain, but I think everyone knows what I am trying to describe. Would we do anything and everything for an adopted pet or child? Absolutely! But, for some deep down reason, we do not "Fret" over them and even have nightmares at times over them as we do our raised from infant children and pets.

Dave007 wrote: Ok - Why did the Zon walk to the other side of the road?

Talon wrote: Indeed we are Penny. I am now monitoring CrAzy Jill's activity due to the apparent mental breakdown she is suffering again. Jill does add some "Spice" when she has a set back. :p I know I have full confidence and respect for Jay and Maggie in continuing the fine job they have done with this room. It is always a joy to read the posts here. :-)

Loved the video, Alfie is certainly into learning and getting all the "Gusto" out of her love and relationship with David. Read the comment on you tube. That person is just "Jealous" and it's hard to understand why they even posted on your video other than to create an emotional response. Thanks for sharing this. I always love to watch Alfie. :-)

Elvenking wrote: Your intuition is correct. Most the books and people that just automatically state to clip your bird is the very old school of thought. This is probably due to people in early years that bought a parrot thought of it more like a puppy or other flightless critter. It is my personal belief more birds are harmed every day due to being clipped. They will jump off their cages for example and split their keel. They can not flee from a cat or dog coming at it. They can not flee from an object falling towards, like a person on a ladder...yes this really happened. A person was up on the ladder hanging something the bird was down on the floor watching and he fell on it. A flighted bird would have been gone before he hit the floor. The bird obviously was killed instantly. Birds fly every day with out running into things. They are masters of flight. If they weren't, you would see birds dead all over the place from flying into tree branches, telephone poles etc. They actually process vision 4 times faster than humans. Thats why they can be flying 30 miles per hour through a tress and swoop and swerve through it. A human would hit dead smack on the first branch at that speed. The birds respiratory and cardio-vascular system is entirely built around flight and the oxygen flow required for it. A clipped bird is not nearly as healthy or coordinated as a flighted bird. Your Grey will learn fast, just as you have described he is already. Hope this helps in your dicision. :-)

Whew! Glad I don't own a Zon.