danmcq

Hi Kali and Welcome!!! We'll look forward to hearing more from you and seeing photos when you have time to post them. :-)

Oh Greylover, I am so saddened to hear hear this. Thank you for posting the great Poem. Please know your loss has affected us all, as I am certain others will be posting also. You take care my friend and know you are in our thoughts and prayers.

Tari - I am so sorry to hear of this sad news. You and your Husband especially are greatly affected by this, I'm sure. Just know that you and your Husband are in our thoughts and Prayers.

CD - Welcome back!!!! VERY nice Photos of your much deserved vacation and cruise. Thanks for taking the time to post all those. :-)

Congratulations Judy!!!!! Sorry it's a little late, but you know whats been going on in my world. You are amazing!!! :-)

Hi Talon, As you know, we are very excited and relieved to have Jake back. :-) I can not imagine someone just not looking for their lost Parrot or any other Animal for that matter. Their very lives are pretty much dependant upon us humans that raised them as domesticated birds. Kim and I have decided we are going to clip both Jake and Dayo wings to the point they can only flap down at a 45 degree angle to the floor. Presently they can both fly with their clips, but just limited in how much altitude they can gain. We have grandchildren coming over and I am sure that anyone with kids 15 and below know, they fling a door open and leave it open with out a thought. We have decided based upon this, clipping is the best way to ensure Jake and Dayo will be the safest in our home. I really would like to have them both flighted, indoors of course, but our environment dictates clipping for the Parrots safety. :-)

Yep, I agree with all other Forum Members. CD or Talon, maybe it would be a good idea to just delete this post? I don't think we want new users that are interested in our forum to think we allow this type of thing here. No offense directed at you Staggy, but I'm certain you understand. :-)

Since Dayo and the Clutch were around 10 weeks old, they have all made following sounds. 1) Little Peeps, varying in length and tone, when they want your attention. 2) Panting like a nursing baby that can't find it's nipple. 3) Squawks with different volumes 4) A clucking sound, that kind of reminds me of a chicken, but they do it when you pick them up and start giving them neck scratches for example ..like they are very happy and feel safe. 5. The famous Growl, very loud and alarming...even my dogs back off :-) 6. Somekind of clicks with their beaks when they seem to be very content. 7. Faint noises as the play or just stare at you..can't explain all the different variations. I'm sure I have forgotten 1 or 2, but these are the main ones all 6 in the 2 clutches we were around made. It seems as they age and start picking up sounds and vocabulary, these baby sounds tend to go away. At least from what I have seen on videos and descriptions posted on this Forum of sounds their Greys make when their older between 1 and 2 years old.<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2007/09/04 15:43

Oh Miltie, I am Sooooo happy and excited for you!!! Thanks for getting photos of your new CAG so quickly. We'll look forward to all the stories you will have to tell of him/her as it grows. :-) Also, I am sorry to hear about the turmoil you were going through. It's really good to have you back again with Baby Grey at Home!!!

I'm so excited for you!! I remember those milestones just a couple of Months ago as Dayo grew and changed. :-) Time will go faster than you think and all of a sudden, you wait is over YaY B)

Running a 100% so far on DNA is the only way for 99.9 percent certainty. :-)

That is so cool Talon. B) I love hearing stories like that about our amazing Greys. They are so human like sometimes. :-)

Talon - Thanks for your kind concern and comments. I wrote such a lengthy detail, hoping that IF anyone experiences a Parrot fly away, they will have some idea to go by. :-) Judy - You didn't make me cry :-) I was so emotional of possibly cutting short the life of a parrot that would normally live 30 years down to just 2 years, due to my negligence. When I do something that causes harm, I do a lot of soul searching, "If I had only's" etc. while doing my best to reverse it, if possible, the event caused by my poor judgement. So, once the battle was over, I then became very emotional while analysing what I could have done differently. I am still emotional over this and am now going over how I can prevent this from ever happening again. If Jake was flighted, he could have had the experience, practice and skills to have flown down to us with no problem. If Jake's Wing clip had been performed shorter, to where he could only flap furiously down at a 45 degree angle, it would not have happened. If I would have kept his Cage closed, instead of opening the Top for his enjoyment, it would not have happened. If's........once I am not so emotional, I will decide IF I am going to Clip or let Jake and Dayo become fully flighted. I must weigh out each Pro and Con, then make the decision that is best for our home environment and the amount of people coming, doors, sliding doors opening etc. I know to Clip or not to Clip is a highly charged discussion, but I am going to address it, in a separate topic. It will based more on the environment the Parrot lives in, rather than what the ability to fly may or may not mean to the Parrot. :-) I really appreciate the close knit family we have on this forum. I do not believe I have ever experienced this in any online community!! We just Love you all unconditionally !!! :-)<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2007/09/03 19:24

Thank you all for you support, prayers, positive karma, concern and good advice on items to try and coax Jake down with. :-) I have many thoughts regarding this terrible experience and am still digesting and weighing risk factors now regarding letting both my Parrots becoming flighted or even only clipping their wings to the point of being able to maintain level flight. But, enough of that, the resulting decision I come to. I will post in a separate Topic, once I have it sorted out. The finding and rescue of Jake yesterday was quite a learning experience. One thing I find odd, is the first day he flew away, he did not return any of our calls, even though we now know he was only 75 feet away from us in a huge Pine Tree. Yesterday morning at the first hint of light, when we started calling Jake, he returned a call once he could see us about 40 feet away from him. One thing to note: A Green Parrot is just about invisible in a Green Tree. The only thing we could see of Jake once we had an auditory direction, was the Peach colored quarter sized spot on his forehead IF he was looking in our direction! In retrospect, I believe he was so afraid of being out of his environment and not yet too a dehydrated point severe enough that he would be suffering. He saw no reason to give away his hiding place to the over flying Crows, Blue Jay's, Mocking birds and the occasional Hawk or a Strange Human. Now, when we first saw him and were trying to call him down at 630am, he would not fly down to us, even though he was only 20 feet high in the pine tree in a neighbors backyard and he could see his Cage from that vantage point. The neighbor awoke and came out to see what was going on and offered to let me come over. I brought a 20ft long 1/2 inch PVC pipe with me to be viewed hopefully by Jake as a perch. When I extended it up to him asking to "Step Up", he first considered it, but then became fearful due to it being bouncy at that extended length and flew and disappeared over another house, much to our horror! It took 2 hours of walking the streets and calling Jake to locate him once again. It seems after to "Fright", he once again became "silent", until his thirst and hunger drove him to return our call. He was now in a very overgrown Chinese Elm about 45 feet up in it. We called and coaxed to no avail. Then I decided even if it hair lipped the Boggy Man, I was going to roll Jake's cage down to that persons yard and camp out. The Lady of the house came out about an hour later and first said "What the Hell?", then I just pointed to the tree and explained, she then became helpful and concerned immediately. Jake would look at his Cage, and "Talk" to us constantly, but would not climb or fly down. He would move around very awkwardly and obviously FEARFUL of falling!! He always ended up climbing higher, rather than down toward us. So then the wheels started turning and I came up with the idea, that if I just had a 40-45 foot long pole, I could reach him. But, I did not want to "Spook" him again. I finally realized Jake loved his Playtop and would readily climb up on it, if I carried it to him. So I have a Pool cleaning pole about 20 feet long. I talked to one of my other neighbors and they had one also. We connected the two poles together and then using Radiator Hose clamps, firmly attached Jake's Playtop to the pole using one of the Perch support Poles. We then climbed up the ladder and precariously moved the playstand on top of the pole up through the tree's very thick growth maneuvering it carefully to avoid it getting snagged by a branch. Once the Playtop reached jake's level, he readily climbed on it!! As we started carefully lowering the Pole gently maneuvering it down through all the branches, it became snagged. We started working it down sliding it along the branch, then the perch gave way that the branch was snagged on (We couldn't see from below as the bottom of the playstand obstructed our view completely) and Jake being fearful of falling hopped off and climbed back higher into the tree. We got the playstand down and tried piecing it back together aligning the nail staples that came out and also used the duck tape to add more rigidity. We raised it back up to Jake again and much to our dismay, would not get on it. I can only assume he no longer trusted it as a solid perching place. We tried several times with the same result and it was starting to scare him and I became concerned he was go to Fly on us again. So at that point, the only options I had, was to be patient, talk to him, offer him food like Peanuts etc. to try and coax him down. This turned into a 6 hour ordeal. Kim brought me a lawn chair (I would not leave or remove my eyes from Jake, due to the fear of him flying and not knowing where he went). She also brought me water, my cellphone etc. and I guess kept you all updated on the situation :-) The temperature was climbing fast again and was around 102 by 1pm. Jake kept talking to me and looking at his Cage and food and listening to me ring the bells on some of his favorite toys, but he would not climb down, only up!! I and Kim were becoming VERY FEARFUL as the heat climbed. We did not believe Jake would make it through a second Day with no water or food. So, Kim went back to the house and called the humane society. They then patched her over to the Fire department and they patched her over to the Police. The Police department then stated that due to it being a domesticated Parrot, out for over 24 hours and not able to feed or water itself would die, was considered an emergency (unlike a cat or dog) and they would dispatch the Animal Control ASAP. While waiting for them to arrive, Kim came back down and started calling Jake and shaking his food bowl up high in the air where Jake could see it. He finally started clumsily trying to work his way down the tree and was kind of falling from branch to branch in that thick growth. He would stop and hang on for dear life, but Kim with her sexy voice and food bowl shaking in her hand, was more than Jake could resist. He finally wound up only 20 feet from the ground. Right at this point, the Animal Control officer arrived. I explained situation and when he found that Jake could fly, I could tell he was horrified and had no clue as to what he was going to do!! So, seeing that Jake was so close to the ground with no more branches in the way, I told the Officer that we had this 40 foot pole with the playstand attached. He of course jumped on that information. The good idea he came up with, was to have us put his favorite foods in the playstands bottom and raise it ever so slowly up to Jake so he could clearly see the food. We worked out the plan of who's doing what and where. He raised it up while Kim coaxed Jake. The closer the playstand got with food in it, the more he became unaware of his fear of falling. He just wanted that wonderful food that was coming so close to him. He became so engrossed with the food, that he jumped on the playstand once it was about 6 inches from him. The fear was, in getting that Long Pole down to Cage level meant SLOWLY angling it down to where it was almost a 75 degree vertical angle. We were VERY fearful Jake would fly once he was pretty much upside down. But, much to our surprise, he was so focused on eating, that he didn't care what angle he was at. Once we had the playstand portion down to the Cage top, he climbed right in and drank more water than you would think a Parrot could hold!! He was obviously very thin from mainly dehydration, I believe, unless they can lose 20 percent body weight of muscle and fat in 26 hours? With this kind of weight loss and the dehydration point he was at, there is no doubt he would not have made it through another 106 degree day. I also know that all your suggestions of having the Cage out, food in view and most importantly having faith and hope that he was still alive to continue a full focus search was the key factor in our finding Jake!!! I thank you all again for your kind and wonderful support through this ordeal.<br><br>Post edited by: danmcq, at: 2007/09/03 15:33

Wing Clipping and the false feeling of security..... Jake is gone and probably dead. :-( As I have read several times and therefore known this for a long time. A wing clip is no guarantee your Parrot cannot fly when frightened. Unless of course, you clipped to the point your Parrot drops like a rock, which would be dangerous to him. Jake my Peach Front Conure, flew off at 10am yesterday morning. His wings were clipped a few months ago. He could only maintain level flight for approximately 10 feet and downhill from there(apparently). We had Jake out on our Patio, sitting on top of his Cage under the water misters taking his morning shower which he loved so much. We have been doing this since April, when it became warm enough (80 degrees) to do so. I was sitting out with Jake watching him, when our Doorbell sounded it's tune and one of my Dobermans started running circles around the bottom of Jakes Cage (6ft tall) in an alerted fashion. Jake became nervous as I watched and suddenly flew maintaining a level flight about 30 feet to our 6ft fence landing feebly on the top and then losing balance and falling to the neighbors side; so it seemed from my view as I was already up and running towards the fence. When I got there, looking over the fence (I'm 6'3) and calling Jake. There were no squawks and no sign of Jake!!! So I went over into the neighbors yard calling for Jake visually scanning the ground, pool, shrubbery and tree's, with no sighting. I checked the other neighbors in back on a third house down with no sound or sight of Jake. He had simply vanished in an instant! I wandered around the entire neighborhood calling and listening for his squawk to no avail. I talked to neighbors and gave them his description etc. This was at 10 am and it was already 85 degrees and by 3pm it was 106. I do not imagine Jake lived through this heat as he was used to a normalized home temperature of 78. We continued calling him and watching trees, walking the neighborhood etc. the rest of day and evening. Weve had his Cage out in open view for him. Now, sitting here at 4 am, I hope, but cannot imagine that he is still alive, after 6 to 8 hours of 106 heat with no water or food source and that he will return or we will find him. But......I still hope, it hurts :-( The reason I posted this in the African Grey room, is due to the fact that this is more about ensuring your Parrots wing clip is sufficient enough that they can only gracefully flap down to the floor at a 45 degree angle and for ALL to check that regularly. Otherwise, the false sense of security you have, will ultimately result in your heart being broken and worse...The guaranteed death of your much loved Parrot unless found!!

LMG - Your are absolutely correct in advising all to lock them if the have any doubts. In fact, just for peace of mind, I am locking mine also. :-) In fact, we are starting to lock our front Cage door also, as a precaution so neither Dayo nor the dogs could somehow get it open. Better safe, than sorry.

Interesting story and I remember reading one almost identical to it around 4 months ago on either anfricangrey or theafricangrey Forums, of which I belong to both. I am not certain if this story is true and was suspicious of the first one I read, but it's possible. My cage opens up like that also, but it is so big that those henged scallops on Top weigh too much for a Grey to open and the latching mechanism is one that could not possibly be opened from the inside as it is a pull out and turn type of lock. If true, that would be a shocking sight!

It sounds like you have a fine Grey there. It sounds like the Store guy was a very good salesmen ;-) I have never heard of Feather Color being affected by diet. A good wash may lighten them up a little though, since you mention she is dirty :-)

LOL - Good one Tari!!

Nice quote Laurie, Thanks! :-)

Cool Idea for a competition LMG!! :-)

Thats good news Falconeer!! How old is she and how did you get her? Looking forward to the Photos :-)

Hi dblhelix, Great advice and example. You have a much patience. :-) I think the only thing that keeps you going is the focus on the end result, not how much time it is taking. That Say's a lot about you in a very positive way! :-)

Thanks for posting this Monique!! I have never heard of him, but his work is magnificent, to say the least. We will be purchasing some of these works and mostly Africa themed. We presently have many of Ansel Adams works and enjoy them immensely. My Wife is a Tiger and Gorilla Lover, so of course we have several works of art a long those lines. Now, you have given us another source of wondrous art. Thank You !!! :woohoo:

That all sounds like tons of fun Monique!!:woohoo: So you two are more into the sports/outdoor adventures, which there is a ton of stuff to do, as you have listed. I would add one thing to the water sports "Must Do" and that is take a on a Faaassssstttt Cigar Boat...WaaaaHooo. :-) Cuban Food is delicious, I especially like the way they prepare their Beef and Chicken dishes, mmmmmm mmmmmm and if you can find a nice place with a Cuban Band playing, you really feel like you are in Cuba. You guys sound like kids again, all this stuff to do and explore and only so much time to do it ALL :woohoo: