kiwibarb12

i agree with terri - you do appear a bit timid when asking him to step up. I really never gave Beckette a choice - i would put my hand in and pretty much demand that she step up. The other thing i would do is have something in my other hand to distract her if she looked as if she was going to bite. Just to be clear - i got bit - but not giving her a choice was the way to go for me. I also let her decide on other things- like, if i was going to the bedroom, i would tell her what i was going to do, and offer to take her. if she stepped up fine, if not, i would go do whatever. The way i look at it, its kind of like raising your kids - you choose your battles. Stepping up from the cage was one i was going to win, no biting was another, and the rest we negotiated.

I have heard about birds with water bottles that didn't know what they were and almost dying of thirst. If you do put in a water bottle as well as the bowl, you might make sure that your bird knows what it is for. I haven't done it myself but i would think you would need to show her/him how to use it - i would think that using your finger to show your bird how the water comes out. I wouldn't use only the water bottle unless i had for sure seen my bird use the water bottle for its intended purpose - as opposed to all the unintended purposes it will use it for. hehe.

oh - i don't use the perch any more. I only used it while she and i were getting used to each other - and when she was feeling particularly obstreporous and bity - like when i was going to put her in the cage when she didn't want to go. :woohoo:

One thing you need to be aware of with the perch is that the bird has to know what it is before you try to use it - with Beckette i left it on the top of her cage so she could see it and touch it, and know it wasn't an evil snake thing that was out to get her. She used to be very intolerant of new objects, and had to have time to get used to them. The other thing is that it needs to be big enough for your bird to stand on comfortably - ie. appropriate for her foot size. I would think a wooden spoon would be too small for your grey to balance on comfortably.

Beckette loves ripping up boxs - I just give her a small box to rip up. I won't give her a big box because she laid an egg and became egg bound. scared me to death.

Something that really worked for me with the stepping up and down was using a wooden perch instead of my hand to get my grey off her cage. If she was inclined to bite, she bite the perch - not me! :laugh: It really takes a while for you and your bird to bond. I had Beckette for two years before i didn't have scabs on my hands from her little "love" nips. It took me a while to read her body language. And i didn't take it personally when she did bite me. It wasn't because she didn't love me - i just wasn't doing what she wanted! I was being a bad parrot parent!

very cute quaker. I love them - they are feisty, opinionated, loving and all around good guys. I loved mine - and she didn't care for the other humans in the house. They do think they are a lot bigger than they really are, so be aware that they tend to write checks that their feathery tails can't cash. :lol:

Your grey making a fuss when you and the senegal are out of the room may well be him worrying because his flock is out of his sight. Give him a whistle when he calls to let him know that you haven't abandoned him. It will make him feel more secure.

Time out works well for me - Beckette gets put into her cage, and I go and do whatever, then let her out after about10 minutes. She doesn't bite much anymore.

hehehe - when I was a kid, I would lick it off my finger - and the cats and dogs would go onto the counters to get it. Never had to worry about cleaning the knife off :whistle: I finally did give Beck a taste on whole wheat/grain bread, and since I just put a scrap on, I figured it wouldn't do much harm. How come the little horror won't eat anything else with that much enthusiasum!

Will he eat birdie bread, or scrambled egg? I give my guys scrambled egg fortified with red palm oil, frozien veggies, and small bird pellets. Its as if they don't notice the pellets. Beckette and the "G" boys both love birdie bread,, and spend hours reducing it to crumbs, and I put pumpkin , dried cranberries, raisins, freeze dried veggies, chopped apple etc etc , along with flaxseed, wild rice, oatmeal in it, along with anything else I have on hand. I call it my whatever bread. had to giggle about the expression on Romo's face after trying the pellets. I have received a few of those in the last couple of years, especially since Beckette was on a purely seed diet before me. In two years I have got Beck eating scrammbled egg, birdie bread, mash, oatmeal( maybe- seems that most of it goes into cement on hte cage!), occasionally baked potato, and a bit of organic baby food veggies over the birdie bread. And even though you aren't supposed to I have had the best sucess at getting her to try something new by leaving it in her cage all day. I gave all the guys fresh corn-on-the-cob today, and you would have thought I wanted them to ingest poison.!Fussy buggers! Persistance would seem to be the key, and good luck:P

I actually thought about patio funiture, but , man, that wrought iron doesn't conform to the body!!!!! Of course, the cats and birds couldn't eat or shred it.

you can vaccinate your adult birds. One thing that my vet pointed out to me was that bird shows , while a lot of fun , are a perfect way to transmit polyoma. She said you don't even have to touch the birds to get the virus on you, and from you to your birds. scared me to death because I had been at a birdshow a couple of weeks ago!

You know - camoflage would be perfect! Get what you like then find a slip cover that fits. I had slipcovers for my couch when I had cats and dogs and kids at home, and it might not have got washed as often as it needed, but it was able to be washed!

Oh how narrowminded of you Birdgranna. and this from a nation that declared boiled ocra eatable. :laugh: Of course, every nation has its "ukk" foods. But vegemite? - you either love it or hate it. I gave some to a (american)friend to try - and he went and brushed his teeth.!!How rude!!!:pinch: My f-i-l loved the stuff. Even I wondered what was wrong with him.

Wring his little neck. I promise he will never scream again, and you could do the whole dead parrot routine from Monty Pythons flying circus. Oh . . . . wait, are you looking for real solutions? Dang - Hmmmmmm Do you tell your birds that you are leaving to go to work? This sounds a little goofy, but everytime I leave the room I tell my guys where I am going and how long i am going to be. If I leave the house I tell them where I am going and how long I am going for. I think it gives them an idea of time, and the passage of time, and they can understand that. And plan their day around it.

Sounds sexual to me too.. just don't encourage it, if your bird is female, she may start laying eggs, and while that is not necessarily a problem, she may end up eggbinding. If i were you I would read up on the signs and symptoms of eggbinding in conures..They are probably pretty much the same for all birds, but see if there is anything specific for your bird. my eleven year old grey decided to lay an egg or two- and became eggbound. Luckily I noticed it fairly early, and my vet was able to extract one and the second one broke inside her. The shells passed eventually - thank god. Its just one of the things you have to look for. :laugh:

One thing you might also consider is that egg laying doesn't always happen with onset of sexual maturity. Beckett waited until he was eleven to lay her first eggs, and became egg bound. TG my vet was able to save her, but things didn't look too good for a while (broken shell inside her, too high to pull out) Now I look sideways everytime she gets a little hormonal. She pretty much sighs ever time I check her vent for the feel of an egg. She thinks its undignified, but that I am just a bit on the weird side- you know, bird molester- but since I am the source for cashews, she puts up with it.

that would be a boing. and if there is a foot of wire exposed, then it is time to buy a new one. my guy loves to chew on those too. Its a pain in the patootee to buy new ones but really, they are cheaper than toys, if you consider how long they last.

I figure in the wild greys eat bugs, so meat is our version of bugs. Beckette likes the tip of a chicken wing - she likes it so much that she will take it into her cage, so that no-one will take it from her!!:laugh:

You can get a polyoma vaccine for you babys for $40 a visit, for a total of two visits. Not that I think or know what killed your baby, but polyoma kills a lot more baby birds than adults. This is more a FYI for all other baby bird owners.

need more info - how old is she, how long have you had her, did something happen when all this began? From hindsight, I realise that I have taught Beck to expect head scritches when she is on my shoulder and she grabs my glasses. Now if she wants scritches she grabs my glasses. I would much rather she asked, but we have established this pattern, and it isnt too awful that I can't live with it. I was wondering if something like that went on with you - birds scream, you run over to see if she is dying, bird gets reinforcement for act of screaming, so keeps doing it.

oh yeh - meat and potatoes are one of Becks favourite things. She has actually swiped meat off my plate before, and not little pieces, then got ugly when I reclaimed it. The guests laughed theirselves onto the floor. Joe was mildly disgusted. All in all it was really funny.

you know- if you miss finding a poop and it dries, it is really easy to get up by scrapping at it into dust then vacuum. hehehe- kind of like kids and noses and jeans. Disgusting, but managable.

Maybe you should growl at him until he does. B)