Tricky

Lately I've been taking him outside for sunshine almost every day and I've noticed an awesome feather improvement! Jacques always picked his chest feathers to the point where his whole chest was ONLY down. After a few weeks of sunshine, this is what he looks like:

Anyone excited for the movie to come out?

It took about six years and a very long absence (first year in college) for Jacques to really warm up to me to the point that he would beg for head scratches, etc. I went through a lot of biting, but now he is affectionate (mostly) and doesn't freak out when I touch his back or wings (I know not to pet him there, but it's nice to know he won't freak out in case I ever need to)... Yeah... It took a while.

*Is 19 years old and chooses not to think about this* But Jacques would probably stay with my mom or with my best friend.

My grey doesn't like bath time at all... What I've been doing lately is spraying him with a spray bottle while we're sitting outside and he is in his travel cage (nowhere to escape, hehe) It's hard to soak them with a spray bottle but you'd be surprised to see how well it works once you've been spraying for a minute. Letting them get the steam from the shower is good for them as well, although I don't know if that really counts as a bath.

This morning when I got up he'd torn up almost all the newspaper squares on one side, so I think he likes it

Haven't seen him play with it yet, though I just put it in about an hour before bedtime... It usually takes him a while to decide to tear into toys... I'll let you guys know when he decides to give it a try, though

I'm trying the sunshine treatment as well right now, I take Jacques outside in his travel cage and sit on the front steps (it hasn't been hot here so I haven't been worried about the shade yet, it hasn't even been all that sunny which is a bummer) It's kinda nice to sit and watch passing cars stare at him, hopefully they can all multi-task and watch the road... The odd thing is that whenever we're sitting outside, he CONSTANTLY begs for head scratches! Just like my boyfriend...

Happy hatchday Slater! I have to admit, I haven't a clue what my grey's hatchday is... I imagine it's on some papers somewhere, but my family is so disorganized, who knows where those are... =\

Oh, so they had three P's as well! Well I like my name for it better Yes, I'm definitely just going to make bird toys from now on...

After seeing lovemygrey's Paper Pandemonium toy that Emma liked so well, I decided to make my own, homemade version. I've named it P-P-P-Pandemonium because not only is it made out of Paper, but also Pony Beads and Plastic straws. I know. It's clever. Here's a couple of pictures:

Well today I went to the Dollar Tree and picked up a few things (like those plastic straws)... One thing I bought was a set of some colorful plastic shot glasses, the ones that are taller and skinnier than the usual ones. I chopped up some carrot, broccoli, apple, and put it in one of the cups along with a few pieces of dried spaghetti and one bit of cheese (which I made sure Jacques saw me include =P ) It was pretty entertaining to watch him try to pick everything out, unfortunately most of the carrot and broccoli he tossed aside =\ and he didn't seem to interested in figuring out how to get to the bottom of the cup when his beak could no longer reach the foods... But it did keep him entertained, so I think i'll continue to try it...

Decided to just buy a new spiral rope perch, as well as replaced his old, fraying rope perch with a nice new one AND a new cement perch to try and help keep his nails trim. His cage looks quite nice again, although I have to go search for some more toys!

I do... we should have an african grey facebook group as well. =]

What sorts of things do you get from the dollar store? Seems like a great idea, I'd just be worried I might pick up the wrong thing with the wrong kind of paint, or something along those lines...

"i took my seed catchers off when I started moving the cages from room to room. Both of my fids are pretty neat about their food and don't drop much outside of their cages. Sully, my ekkie will even carry his food over to his food bowl so that if it drops it lands in the bowl and not the bottom of the cage. So for me, the catchers are just a bother." ...Lucky! I wasn't aware that greys & being tidy with food ever mixed... As for us, my mom took the seed catcher off of Jacques's cage a long time ago because it just became covered in poops and didn't catch much of his food anyway.

Makes me want to draw a portrait of Jacques... oh wait, my friend from school has my colored pencils... in florida. lol

that's amazing jungledreamz! did you make the playtree?

Dave, what kind of trees did you get the branches for your playstands from? I have a lottt of trees in my yard. Also, is there any kind of hardware that would be harmful?

Ah. I don't really think there's a good way to save it then (or if there is, it'd be way too much work.) I guess I'll just have to get a new one and tell my family to stop storing birdie stuff in the basement... I can't wait til I have the money to give his cage a nice makeover

Large parrot-related structures (aside from his cage, of course) eventually get in the way and are stored in the basement. I recently brought up his... Well it's not a playstand, because it basically consists of one perch and a bowl that I screwed into a table... from the basement and cleaned that off, and today I decided to venture down there to get his travel cage so I can start bringing him outside in the sun. Well, as expected, it was pretty gross. Covered in dust, etc. So I brought it outside to hose it down, and that's when I realized... the tray that slides into the bottom to hold newspaper or whatever has vanished. I have no idea where it went. Why does something like that get separated from it's rightful place anyway? (On the bright side, I found a food dish I'd been looking for.) The main point/question of this post is: His spiral rope perch has been in the unfinished basement as well. It wasn't on the ground (at least, it wasn't when I found it) but our basement flooded recently and who knows what's growing down there. My question is, how can I assure that it's safe for Jacques, and also, would that be safe to put inside his cage? there's really no spot to hang it anymore (there used to be, but now there's a desk beneath it)... Jacques loves the rope perch I put in his cage but it's starting to fall apart (it used to be an X, now it's just an I... and the middle is starting to fray). Everyone keep your fingers crossed that I can find a summer job and buy Jacques some new cage furnishings...

JungleDreamz: Hahaha I see the paper towels now. I've never heard of lining a cage with sand but it really did look like it in the picture!

I would imagine that he raises them and releases them into the wild, although I didn't ask him about his plans. I applied to work at the pet store that the person who took him in owns, so hopeefullyyyy I will get hired and then I'll be able to hear all about the process. =] I don't know the guy personally, though, except for meeting him briefly when we gave him the bird. I'll ask my friend who knows him better to keep me updated, though.

Eye-catching title... how'd you make the little slideshow thingamajig?

WOW the pictures of me on here are OLD! Please, please have some updated ones. (If I can find any normal pictures of myself...) Well, no normal pictures, but here are a few recent ones... vvv(a really cheesy picture of me with my boyfriend around christmas time)vvv vvv(senior year of high school)vvv vvv(prom)vvv Sorry, I didn't know how to make the pictures any smaller, at least without me having to edit them myself...