danmcq

Wow Mike, I know that sick feeling very well. When a Parrot takes flight, you didn't think he could, and then they FLY!! Then looked for him almost 48 hours before finding him. Your message is an important one. NEVER think your bird cannot fly because he has been clipped!! Thanks for sharing that. :-)

Welcome Mike!!! It is great to have you here :-) Looking forward to seeing the post regarding the "hair raising adventure" you mentioned. Seasons greetings to you also!!

Hahahahaha Sandra, that was a great story. These Greys can induce panic evidently in us, with as little as a whisper. :-) Thanks for the warning B)

LOL that is cute Heather :-) Thanks for sharing that.

Hi Christina, Yes, non-parrot owning visitors must be educated on how to interact (if allowed at all) and what NOT to do, before introducing them to your Parrots. People just do not understand Parrots if they have not been around them. They think of them as another pet like a Dog or a Cat that they have kidded, poked fun at and perhaps even terrorized with what they think is funny. You just experienced what most of us Parrot owners have. People just think we are crazy for the way we treat and protect our Parrots. They do not understand their intelligence or sensitiveness to people poking at them, waving their arms at them or getting in there face saying Polly want a cracker!! UGH - So I think we all know what you mean. If I have Dayo out at some point when company is here, I either hold him on my shoulder or Arm and tell the guest's how they may interact with him. I have family coming over at various times of every week and they have all been taught the "Way of the Parrot". If one of my Parrots do not want to interact, they know they need to just back off and let them be. To hell with the Parrot might bite them, they have to watch out for ME :evil: Hope this helps...your not alone :-)<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2007/12/26 21:26

Welcome Jenny!! It's great to hear you and your husband are going to re-home this wonderful Grey Smokey. Your doing the right thing in researching the various aspects that owning a Grey requires. The diet, as you have said, should contain seeds, pellets, plenty of veggies and fruit. The first thing you will need to do, is to purchase a large cage for Smokey and place it in the most frequented room by your family so He will know he is part of the flock. It sounds like you are already going down this path, since you have already purchased a play-gym. :-) When you first bring him home, it will take a few days or weeks for him to adjust to his new home and flock. The great thing is, your Husband has already started establishing a good relationship with Smokey, as you should try doing also before bringing him home. Does he know the step-up command to allow you to easily remove and place him back in his cage? If not, this is the first and foremost thing to teach him. Supplements are not needed as long as you provide a good diet of veggies, fruits,pellets, seed mixes etc. Bathing can be accomplished in a few different ways such as taking them in the shower with you, purchasing a shower perch for them or using a spray bottle filled with Aloe Juice which will sooth and moisten their skin and remove the white dust they produce. You can find in-depth articles on our forum by doing a search for bath, aloe, etc. for topics you wish to explore. Of course, all of us are more than happy to answer any direct questions you may wish to start a topic on. :-) Welcome to our Forum and Family here!!<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2007/12/26 17:09

Pre-programmed...I like that LOL I'll bet you are having a blast!! We'll be looking forward to hearing more of you adventures with your new baby. :-)

Great Christmas Tari, and there is more food, goodies and goodtimes than one can seem to handle in one day. :-) Best wishes and Merry Christmas to you too!!

Beautiful Snow Gecko Heather. :-) Thanks for posting the photos.

Perhaps just sit with him close to the cage and let him wonder around it, if he feels compelled to. This being the first time at your home and seeing a strange new Cage is probably a little mental overload for him in just a few hours of being there. If he feels secure with you, then by all means just enjoy him and make it a pleasant and special day at your house. That way when he comes back again, he will have nothing but good memories. :-)

Wonderful news OhSnap!! :-) It sounds like things are going great for the day. How long before you can bring him/her home for good?

Welcome Jon and (((Echo))) :-) It seems others have already posted answers to your question regarding bathing. The only additional information I can provide is for you to check out a search on "Aloe". MRSpock (Dave007) wrote a great post on using Aloe Juice, how to apply it and suggestions on how often. If you just brought him home today, I am surprised you could even tear yourself away from him long enough to post :-) Exciting, isn't it? :-) I'll be looking forward to see the photos when you post them.

Merry Christmas to you and family too Ziggy!! What a great looking flock of Human children you have there. Thanks for posting this nice Christmas setting portrait I assume your Wife took since she's not in it :-) I hope all your dreams and wishes become reality for you and your family this Christmas season.

That's great news Terri, on Bella and Jiggy!! The Avian Vets confidence and experience with Parrots makes all the difference in the World. Those Parrots can sense very accurately, whether a person is timid or confident in themselves in a heartbeat. I would love to see some photos of those two, when their up to no good B)

Elmo it is...YEAH!!! :-) Atleast you didn't name him Sue ...B)

Welcome Shaq!!! We'll look forward to hearing and seeing photos of you and Mr. Pickles. :-) There is a ton of information on this forum you can find via a search or of course at anytime, there are plenty of us here who are more than happy to answer any questions you may have. Again, Welcome!

I think Chapalla (Reta) hit the nail on the head. Dayo, now 8 Months old. Is no longer the little panting baby wanting food, security and constant attention. As he matures, I see a change similar to that of a human child. They become "Aware of Self' and realize they have the ability to pick and choose. Thus, there becomes a time for everything. A time to wake, a time to eat, a time to play, a time to explore, a time to snuggle and scratch and a time to "leave me the hell alone". An example would be; If Dayo is sitting on his play-stand happily preening away or chewing it to slivers of wood. If I approach and just thrust my hand forward for him to step up. One of two things happen; He steps up or he reaches quickly down and gives a quick, firm nip letting me know he doesn't want to step up. :-) He is becoming more independent and sure of himself, which is natural and healthy. It is sad to see the cute snuggle-bunny baby grow into a teen, but it is the way of all creation. It is also wonderful to see them exchange the clinging to us for attention and security, to confidence, self mobility and personality of who they are. The magnificent Congo Grey in all it's glory, for which it was destined to become. It think we all need to respect their individualism, personality, likes and dis-likes and give them their space to be who they are, not who we want them to be. :-) Just love them unconditionally, for who they are.

Hi Birdmom. Sure, I would be happy to. Ballasts are the skinny black box you see inside the lamp fixture (if you've opened and looked inside) that converts and controls the current and voltage (electricity) the fluorescent tube needs to fire the Gas contained inside. Magnetic Ballasts are the simplest sort of ballast and works something like an inductor. A basic inductor consists of a coil of wire in a circuit, which may be wound around a piece of metal. Magnetic ballasts modulate electrical current at a relatively low cycle rate, which can cause a noticeable flicker. Magnetic ballasts may also vibrate at a low frequency. This is the source of the audible humming sound people associate with fluorescent lamps. Electronically switched ballast designs, use advanced electronics to more precisely regulate the current flowing through the electrical circuit. Since they use a higher cycle rate (frequency), you don't generally notice a flicker or humming noise coming from an electronic ballast. Different lamps require specialized ballasts designed to maintain the specific voltage and current levels needed for varying tube designs. DC voltage is a constant voltage, unlike AC which is alternating current. Basically, this means that DC would be a flat line, say at 12 volts, like your car battery. AC, at 120 volts, would be a sinusoidal voltage alternating from a positive 60 volts to a negative 60 volts, which totals 120 volts and 60 times per second. If you looked at it on an oscilloscope, it would look like ocean waves basically. So, the alternating AC your home is powered by, causes the flickering due to the cycles per second (cyclical rate) the tubes are fired at. An incandescent lamp, can be lighted with DC power which is not cyclical, and thus no flicker is observed what so ever, due to the filament staying at a constant brightness. Also, AC powered incandescent lamps do not flicker due to the filament heating up to the "white hot" metal point and the cyclical AC power does not produce as noticeable flicker due to the filament barely reducing in brightness (cooling down)between cycles, unlike the pronounced flicker seen in fluorescence due to the instantaneous "Black Out" when the gas looses it's charge every 60th of a second. The bottom line is, your Zoo-Med may have an electronically switched ballast. You could find out by simply calling the manufacturer. I hope I did not ramble on too much. I had a hard time relating some fairly basic technical concepts in general public terms. If I had a lab with camera's like the old "Mr. Wizard" show, I could have "Shown" you what it took hundreds of words to describe in about 2 minutes :-)<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2007/12/24 15:04

That's wonderful Lisa!! Bro Bro and your family will have a great time of it, I'm sure. :-) We did the same thing with Dayo in respects bringing him home for 4 or 5 hours at a time for the last 4 weeks of his weaning process. When he came home permanently, it was as if he just knew this was home. Best wishes on Christmas Day and have a great New Year!! I can't wait to hear an update on the first visit home. :-)

Have fun Kristin, I know you will enjoy the family time and of course the huge diversity of eateries, shopping malls and the plethora of other things you just don't have on Maui. :-) Andrew - I think you got the short end of the stick here. ;-) Happy Holidays to you both!!

Here ia a good link in relation to Avian sight and hearing. There is a huge variance between species, as you can see. http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/RITCHISO//birdbrain2.html

birdmom wrote: Interesting Birdmom. As human sight goes, a frame-rate of 16 per second is perceived as true natural motion to us. Thus, strobe lights are adjustable between varying flashes per second, depending on the amount of delay we wish the audience to see between movement when the strobe flashes between 1 to 16 times per second. If (and it is totally possible) animals and birds can visually detect a higher frame rate or cycles per second. Then a light powered by our 60 hertz (cycles per second) electricity could induce a strobe effect to them. If some animals and birds can indeed see the time interval between cycles above 16 per second, our lighting systems must drive them bonkers :-) Now, I am going to see if I can find any research on the animal and bird optical studies of frame rate detection...B) Thanks for posting this, it is interesting. I just may need to switch to hew electronically switched ballasts for my fluorescents. They have them available upto speeds of 27,000 cycles per second. Another fix, would be to switch to DC powered lighting, which is not cyclical and remains at a constant voltage.

LOL Kelly - It sounds like it was quite the dance. You should get a video the next time he starts busting a move. :-)

No, it's not sunburn. Greys blush and the pink tone is natural when they do so. Dayo does it too and other Greys at the breeders also blushed back when we were visiting Dayo there.

Good luck with your move Penny. I can't add anything to what others have already offered in terms of advice or ideas. A move is always a little chaotic and routine breaker until the dust settles. :-) The plus in all this, is the "Flock" is moving and that is the most important thing in Talons life. :-)