Kya

I do, but if I put mine through a food processor, they won't eat it, so I spend quite a bit of time daily preparing it for them. Kya is more picky than Gracie Lou, my Chihuahua waits patiently for his rejects. Gracie Lou will eat anything fresh. My staples are kale, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, bananas, apple, (always apple - Kya never shuts up about apples) and I keep a bag of Oats Groats on hand to sprinkle on top. Occasionally, (about once or twice a week) I will cook whole grain pasta, and drizzle coconut oil on it, then add cayenne pepper and some other spices for a little flavor. And yes, I usually have to throw a few bits of apple in with it to get Kya interested. It doesn't work for me to prepare a large batch and freeze portions. They won't touch it once it's frozen. And, they prefer it a bit on the warm side, so I always have to add something cooked, usually sweet potato. My version is like chop but with larger chunks. I am so envious of those who can get away with batching and freezing it. The birds eat before we do most evenings.

The "don't bite the Momma" talks are Kya's own phrase. He will say it to himself over and over again, and it usually preceeds a good chomp. I say "no bite" to him, but never "don't bite the Momma". I asked his previous owner if he said it to her, and she said no. He evidently put it all together himself. He will also say a very boisterous "OUCH" after he tells himself NOT to bite me. Last night, it was "Give me a kiss, Boo Boos" - like I was going to put my lips near him - everything was plural yesterday for some reason. He kept saying "Wanna grapes, Kyas?" No clue where Boo Boo came from, either. It's nice to have contact with his previous owner so I can figure out where some things come from, but she had him all of his life, so some things have us really puzzled. For instance, he occasionally announces "I'm Frank McGrath". That was her father in law, he tried to get him to say if for years, but he wouldn't. He calls my daughter Alex - her name is Tia. She's very pretty and he makes a total fool out of himself every time she walks in the door. We have several expos around here, spring and fall. We only go to buy toys, perches, play stands, that type thing. But of course, it's hard NOT to look at the birds, being bird people. I honestly think it was the crowd at this one, the others are smaller scale and I have never seen the birds looking so stressed. We won't go back to that one. It's a really cheap way to buy supplies, if you don't have time to make toys yourself, and there are a couple of vendors that I really like to do business with. I know a lot of breeders in our area, and none of the reputable ones go to any of the fairs. Although I don't condone breeding when so many are in rescue, I have to at least admire the fact that they educate and find suitable homes for their birds. We also have a lot of what I call "bird flippers" in this area, and they make me furious. They snatch up the big parrots cheap when someone is desperate and at their wits end - usually telling the owner that they are small scale rescue, then they take them to the expos and sell them for astronomical prices. I know who they are, and I won't even buy toys or supplies from them. We only buy from people who do not have birds there. The little macaws broke my heart. I wonder how many will actually survive being hand fed by an inexperienced person who got a bargain on a macaw. When I saw them in the Rubbermaid containers with lids on them, I felt sick. I am experienced at hand feeding, but I would not take on a larger parrot to hand feed.

Will it ever stop raining??? My husband and I took the week off to start work on the outside aviary, but this weekend has been a bust - non stop flash flooding. I have plenty of other things to do, but being outside was at the top of my list. Yesterday, we went to the Exotic Expo in Nashville. It absolutely kills me to see all of the birds terrified in those cages, some of them going home with so many who are clueless as to what they are getting into. The rescue that my husband and I help out - the one that Gracie Lou came from - met us there. They told us that in a couple of months, they will be overrun with birds purchased on an impulse at this very expo. It made me sick to even look around the expo. There were lots of baby macaws, still hand feeding, up for sale, tons of cockatoos, lots of breeder pairs of pretty much everything. They all looked so sad and terrified at the crowd. There were so many people walking around with their own parrots with harnesses, and it was disturbing, considering the risk for disease transmission. Our shoes are still outside, our clothes came off of us and into the wash as soon as we walked in the door. I cannot imagine taking my birds there and walking around with them and touching everything. I overheard vendors (trying to sell the baby macaws - there were at least 50 of them) telling clueless people how easy it was to hand raise them, and how they would give them a lesson in hand feeding and they would be good to go. Needless to say, my husband and I and the ladies from the sanctuary grabbed our toys, perches and bulk foods and high tailed it out of there. Surprisingly, we saw one grey - a Timneh. He was so terrified over the crowd that I had to look away. Karen, I think an Amazon would be a great companion. They are so beautiful, and so smart. I had a friend who had 2, went through a messy divorce, didn't want to separate them, and begged me to take them. If I had room and more time, I probably would have, but by that time, we were already considering another grey, and I just thought it would be best to pass. I regret doing that, but if I had, I probably wouldn't have gone ahead and gotten Gracie Lou, and that would have been a travesty. I do believe you can win them over and make them "your / his" bird, you just have to handle things differently. The other night, Gracie Lou and Kya were on their play tops to their cages. My husband walked over to talk to both of them and Gracie Lou started waving that leg, which means she wants to step up. No one can resist Gracie's leg wave! Before he realized what he was doing, he stuck his arm out and up she stepped. She quickly scanned the room, spotted me, and started crouching and raising her wings to fly to me, even though she would have probably crashed before she got there. I jumped up and met her halfway, she landed sort of on my shoulder after sliding off my head, got her bearings, looked right at my husband and said "Nooooooo" - as if it was his fault she wanted to hitch a ride. Today, she and I were in the kitchen working on the island preparing dinner. She was snacking on bell peppers and brussel sprouts, neither of which Kya will eat, and making her water noises every time I walked near the sink. She was totally content and happy, it was as if we had been doing this her whole life. Kya was in the den with my husband, but I kept noticing him peeking around the corner. I was getting ready to turn the stove top on, and didn't want any injuries, so I took Gracie Lou back to her cage top. I had no sooner gotten back in the kitchen than here came Kya, soaring straight at me. He landed on my shoulder and promptly bit my jaw. No blood, no glory, but he got a good grip on my skin and twisted hard and for a split second I saw stitches in my very near future. I have no idea what spurred that on. Maybe it's hormones, maybe he doesn't really love me but doesn't really want Gracie to love me, or maybe he just got angry because he was missing out of food he does not like. I calmly walked into the den and handed him over to my husband, where he sat and lamented "No bite the Momma" over and over again for about 10 minutes.

GreycieMae is adorable! Kya came out with a new one this week. I guess sometimes we don't realize how often we say something until they prove it to us. He's announcing "THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" in my voice.

Another thought...I'm all about losing the guilt...It may be that the blood was already dried in the injured area, and the misting just made it run and appear fresh. It could have happened before that wonderful enjoyable bath!

So very true! I did not discover my dander allergies until it was too late. I sneeze a lot, Gracie and Kya mimic my sneezing, I take my Claritin, vacuum A LOT, and go on with life. I thought my allergies were just the normal allergies I always have, until we added a second. We have found ways to work around it - lots of misting, humidifier, and changing out the paper frequently and it seems as if we always have a dust buster or vacuum running, all supervised by the dynamic duo. Would I change anything? Well, of course, I wish I wasn't allergic to dander, but people deal with allergies all of the time, for less important reasons. I may buy stock in Kleenex.

All is going well with Gracie Lou and Kya. I need to upload some new pics to share and will try to do so this weekend! Gracie becomes more vocal every day, and we're constantly surprised by the things she says. I also find it so neat that although she does seem to be picking up some words from Kya, we can easily tell who is talking from the other end of the house - their voices are so very different. She is still argumentative with him, no matter what he says, she says "Noooooooo". Outside their cages, they pretty much ignore each other, and we are happy with that. At least they don't dislike each other. It seems greys in general get along with each other, but I think their human bonds interfere with their species bonds to an extent. In reality, I'm not sure either of them are aware that they are parrots. I did expect some issues having a male and female as far as hormones go, so far their indifference towards each other has been a pleasant surprise. Kya is very bonded to my husband, he really seems to have a way with the larger parrots. (He was a woman's bird before he came to us, and absolutely terrorized her husband.) He is much better with me than he used to be, but I am basically just his short order cook unless my husband isn't around. So, of course, when we got Gracie Lou, I had really high hopes that she would be my bird. We were also told that Gracie preferred males over females, so I knew I had my work cut out for me, and my husband and I devised an approach to the whole situation. I am happy to say that it seems to be working well. He interacts with Gracie Lou, but only on her cage or play stand. He will pet her and give her scritches (which she adores), but he will not ask her to step up or move her. Her flying is not great, I am not sure why. She never lost her flight feathers but perhaps the loss of the other feathers on her back and tummy affect her flying ability. Or, since I don't know much about her previous life, maybe she doesn't know that she can fly. Regardless, she is dependent on us for transportation, so I have always been the chauffer. The other night, I realized that we were always letting them out together and spending time with them together, and decided to take Gracie Lou off into the bedroom for some girl talk. She had never spent any real time in the bedroom, other than a quick walk through with me to grab something. I put her on the bed with some foot toys and stretched out beside her. She quickly went straight for my shoulder, got as close to my face as she could, and checked the room out from her safe spot. For a few minutes, she was totally silent, just taking everything in. Then she began what I can only describe as whispering in my ear. I had no idea what she was saying, but she was repeating the same thing, over and over. As her confidence grew in the new room, so did her little voice. She never left my shoulder, but she did clearly say "It's okay", which is what she had been whispering all along. She talked herself right through it. It was a very proud moment for me, and now we go in there and spend some girl time daily. Oh, these baby steps really tug at my heartstrings...

What about using a large dog crate for traveling? They are collapsible and you could store them easily when not in use. The tray in the bottom slides out, but is usually plastic so you might need to replace it with newspaper or whatever you normally use to line the bottom of the cages. And, you should be able to buy one of those locally, without worrying about shipping. I have small travel cages for both of mine that we use to take them outside with us when we are working in the yard or just hanging out, but they are not large enough for a few days of not being allowed out of the cage. They would work great for overnight trips with us, because they would be allowed out in the hotel room.

We have...Twice...They always manage to disappear. I think it's because they are those "break away" collars and as much time as she spends in the trees, they are always getting caught on something. Then, they do their thing and break away.

One of my rescues came to me because his previous owner of 9 years had asthma, and developed COPD. She kept everything very clean and misted Kya often, but the dust still aggravated her breathing to the point that she had to rehome him, and I lucked out. She did NOT use an air purifier, and I know that is supposed to help if you purchase a good one. I run a humidifier between their two cages and also mist them regularly to keep dust down. But, if your breathing is compromised, I would really give it some serious thought. They really are social birds, and I cannot imaging keeping one outside. My two are happiest right in the middle of all the chaos of our household. I would just hate to see you get him and realize that it was affecting your breathing and then have to rehome him. It would be very difficult to do with a bird that was not really tame, and it would be hard on you to make the decision, and more change for the grey. I can tell you from having two that the dust is a huge issue, but between my husband and I, we are able to keep it under control. They are amazing, and it is great to see someone weighing out the commitment and doing their homework. They can be on a schedule, it just may take them some time to get used to it. If this one has never had much human interaction, getting him on an "out of cage" schedule will be easier. We have other pets, and our birds know that the second we crate the little dogs, their cage doors will be opened. We try to do everything very close to the same time every day - we both work outside the home and on weekdays, the schedule is pretty strict. Weekends are more flexible, and they know when the weekend hits. Feeding them a healthy diet truly does help with your diet! A couple of weeks ago, I was chopping up a bunch of stuff for them and decided to go back on Weight Watchers, thinking how easy it would be to prepare my foods for the next day while preparing theirs. Mine will not eat any chop that has been frozen, it has to be fresh for them every day or they won't touch it.

I think you are 100% right! When we go to leave for work, if I kiss Gracie goodbye first, Kya is showing off and pressing his face against his cage saying "Give me a kiss! I love you!" (Gracie doesn't say Give me a kiss...Yet...she seems to be learning a lot of words from Kya.) Kya has been exposed to outdoors in his previous home, he loves it. She took him outside all of the time, unharnessed and unclipped. I'm not so worried about him. I don't think Gracie has had that kind of exposure, so we will take it slow with her. We plan on trying it tomorrow - temps hitting 80 and we have tons of yard work to do, so it will be a good time to try it out. Our evenings are still cooler after work, so we haven't done it yet. I was at work this week and got a text from the man who mows our yard. He said they were quite confused because they were weed eating under the window and kept hearing someone yell "Nooooooooo!" and "Stop it. Stop it right now." He said they kept looking around but there was no one in sight. I told him to look through the window, as we raise the blinds during the day by the cages, and he would find his boss. Neither of them like anything going on outside their window - poor guy thought we were trying to stop him from weed eating.

I will definitely do that! Most of their time will be spent outside late in the afternoons, closer to dusk. Never thought of a mister! You know, they actually make industrial size fans with misters built into them. My husband uses them at work.

Well, things are still going well with Gracie and Kya. I have not attempted to change her name because I cannot come up with anything else that suits her - she just looks and acts like a Gracie. The Chihuahua is still confused, but when I think about it, she's always been confused so it's really nothing new. Kya has been a feathered ball of hormones for a couple of weeks - he is generally all about my husband, but since he has seen me working with Gracie, he's decided I just may not be the devil, so he has started showing an interest in me. He's still definitely my husband's boy, but at least he isn't trying to take a finger off when I change out his food and water, and he asks me for kisses all day long, and delivers, with both of my lips still intact! Gracie is becoming more social, and will sit on my arm for hours - we are working our way to the shoulder, as I was told she loved to be on the shoulder. We have a little showdown of stubbornness every time I try to get her to step up - she will nip at me, but I don't flinch and it really doesn't hurt, I just keep offering my arm. If she's being especially stubborn, my husband can get her to step right up and then hand her directly to me, and everything is fine. Figure that one out... She is NOT a great flyer, so we are having to be cautious about putting her into situations where she would want to fly. I don't know if it is because of the plucking - she never plucked her flight feathers, or if she was just never allowed out of cage enough to learn how to fly well. When I think about that being the case for 19 years, it makes me want to cry. I've just heard too many horror stories of parrots hitting the ground too hard and cracking their breast bone, so I feel like she is my bubble baby. We purchased two really nice travel cages and are hoping to get them used to getting out and about and being a bit more social, just waiting for nicer weather. Today is perfect temp wise, but very windy, and I don't want their first experience to scare them. I think Kya will do well with it, but we may have to take it slow with Gracie. Oh, how I wish they had both been introduced to harnesses when they were young. If they enjoy it, I have a friend who has a double stroller that she used for her twins, and I think the travel cages will fit nicely in it, so I can take them walking with me in the evening. Here's to hoping Kya can limit his curse words to whispers! (He knows how to whisper, all you have to do is say "Whisper, Kya" and he will repeat "Whisper, birdie" and for about 10 minutes, he whispers. After that, all bets are off!) We are hoping to start on a small outdoor aviary for them soon, but we have had so much rain and so many severe storms that we have had to rethink how we are going to do it several times. They will never be in it unless we are outside with them, but we want to build it underneath a huge oak tree we have in our yard and and falling limbs may be a problem with these storms. We want to build something strong enough to withstand that happening. But with Kentucky summer heat, it has to be shaded. If anyone has any pics or thoughts, they would be welcome.

It can be so hard to find that balance when you work full time, I know. I find my two are very "schedule" oriented, and as long as I don't veer off course, everything goes well. We also have two small dogs inside, and two outside, so when we come in at 5:30 pm, we have to divide our evening with everyone. It works, but it took everyone awhile to adjust. Weekends are a free for all in our house, and we toss the schedule to the wind. Glad to hear you figured out a way to have it all! Alfie sounds happy, and you sound happy. That's a pretty good thing when it comes to parrots and humans.

We live in a wooded area, so I know all about mice. We have two outdoor cats, one who is too lazy to move more than 5 feet from the food bowl, and one that is such a good huntress that we cannot have any small wildlife in our yard without it being in danger. Last year, she had kittens (before we realized she was old enough to have spayed) and we came home one day to find that she had added 3 moles to her kitten pile. They were dead, so I'm not sure if she was offering them up as food or just thought she might nurse them back to life. Yesterday, she killed a squirrel, and it really upset me. It isn't the first one, and won't be the last, but I know there are babies all up in our trees and I worried myself sick all day over it. I don't have to say this, but we do not have any mice... I am having a hard time dealing with the fact that we are no longer able to put out our bird feeders, and the squirrels really upset me, so we are considering putting her in the witness relocation program at my daughter's farm. I am way too sensitive for this. She belongs on a farm. Of course, that still leaves us to deal with the feral cats in the area, but I've never seen one stalk and kill like she does. Ever. Quakers are the cutest things, but I think from what I have heard, a lot of them have attitude problems, especially with bonding. They are illegal to own in the state I live in, so I have never had one. They seem to be loaded with personality.

We just bought two travel cages for our greys, knowing that the harnesses we have might result in finger loss for us. I feel like Kya will deal with exposure to new things well, not so sure about Gracie, but we bought 2, none the less. I plan to take them with us out on the lake on a friends pontoon, once I make sure both are okay with the travel cages and smaller adventures. Alas, it will have to be on a day that my friends grandchildren aren't with them - Kya's foul mouth prevents that.

It sounds like you're seeing some improvement. I am happy to hear that. So do they think the original puncture wound was self mutilation, or is this a new area? I am so sorry that both of you are going through this. I have seen several advertisements on fb for these cloth cones people are making and selling. Not sure how well they would work with a bird that was determined to get to the area, but later on, once she shows more improvement, it might be something worth trying. They are really quite cute and look like those multi layered things you used to see on court jesters in movies. Just not sure how functional they are... I hope things continue to look up. You have to be exhausted.

I always lock doors before opening cages, and although I have ceiling fans in every room, they are always turned off or the door is shut when the birds are out. Everyone who comes to our home (including my adult children) knows to give a call before they get here, so we can secure everyone. Our two just don't fly that much, just from room to room to stalk my husband and myself. But we still just don't take any chances.

I would call the vet and ask if you can have more of the metacam, if you can't take her in right now. Our vet is pretty easy going with anti inflammatories. I've also always heard that cayenne pepper is good for inflammation / pain in birds. I give it to my gang because they love it sprinkled on their pellets, but it's something that is worth a try.

Your dogs are beautiful! We have a rescue that is half Australian shepherd, half blue heeler. Talk about high energy! I cannot wear her out, but she can wear me out in 30 minutes and send me straight to the couch!

I agree with Talon, the grey has to be out of the cage. You mentioned a previous owner, perhaps he / she was tame at one time? If so, you have some hope of taming him again. If not, it might still work out, but he really does need out of cage time once removed from a large aviary type situation. I'm not sure about the eye. Do you know the age of the bird? If you can't see it, it wouldn't be cataracts, that would show as a white film over the eye. I would not hesitate due to the vision issue alone. Birds will sometimes "drop" their tail feathers when frightened, and that might be what happened. Or, another bird may have removed them for him. If he isn't plucking elsewhere, he probably didn't pull his own tail feathers out. Even during a molt, they shouldn't lose all their tail feathers at once. I'm always for the underdog, so nothing you have mentioned would deter me, but I do have a question. Do you have any rescues / sanctuaries in your area that adopt? Here, they are always vet checked and have a clean bill of health before being adopted out, and normally you only pay vet fees for adoption. If you have this option, I would be more inclined to go that route.

You are 100% correct, but Kya came to us over a year ago with a horrible diet. The first morning we had him, he demanded a pop tart for breakfast, and had pretty much lived on peanuts and sunflower seeds. He was a mess, and has come a long way. He will eat the fruity Zupreem pellets, but that is the ONLY actual pellet he will touch. I actually buy a really good formula of Vitakraft that has no sunflower seeds and mix it half and half with Roudybush Crumbles. The crumbles are so tiny that they are disguised in with what he believes to be seed, so he gets that. Gracie is actually a very good eater, and has helped quite a bit on the fresh foods, as I have their cages side by side and food bowls facing each other, so they stare at each other and eat. I did actually consult with the vet on the calcium, Kya gets minimal amount, Gracie is getting more until she's fully feathered again, if she is fully feathered again. At the rate her feathers are growing back, I have no doubt she will be. Because she is a female, I will probably continue her calcium supplements at the minimal amount that Kya gets now. I never give up. We've had Kya for over a year, and I continue to offer him new things, especially since little Gracie likes everything. He isn't too fond of anything green, and is terrified of strawberries, but has now started to eat a bit of egg, and will eat some whole grain pastas and loves corn. He wouldn't touch any of this when we got him. But he certainly has made progress! I would love to have them both on a better pellet diet, I don't care much for the Zupreem fruit, but am comfortable with the Roudybush crumbles. Just wish I didn't have to disguise them!

I have a really hard time finding nuts in the shell in this area, except around the holidays. Gracie loves to shell her own nuts, I'm not sure Kya would know what to do with anything other than a peanut, which he doesn't get anymore since coming to live with us. Both love almonds, those are their favorites. I'd always heard to use pine nuts for bribery, they really don't excite either of my greys. They will eat them, but are not good blackmail. Do you all order your nuts online, or are you just smarter than I am and stock up when available?

I can't take Gracie's away, either. I know it encourages nesting behavior, but she enjoys it so much that I am powerless! Right now, at this stage, we're pretty much letting her get away with murder to make her feel happy and secure!

I don't really want to change her name, but looking down at this little confused Chihuahua makes me feel guilty! I have been trying to think of something that sounds similar to Gracie, but all I can come up with is Macy, and that doesn't really fit. (I love the name Gracie - that was going to be my son's name until he surprised me with that extra part, and it was my mother in laws name - one of the finest people I've ever met.) We've tried calling her Gracie Lou and calling the Chi "Bug", which has always been her nickname. Ahhhh, well, Gracie (bird) doesn't seem confused at all. :cool: