Makena

I never like to bash any companies... but after talking to a couple of members on here I really think you guys need to know about this. As we live in Hawaii buying bird products is very hard (we have 2 TINY pet shops on our island). Basically anything we want we have to pay an enormous amount of money to have shipped out here. So we found; www.birdcages4less.com and decided on this cage; http://birdcages4less.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?page=B/PROD/Large_Bird_Cages/PA5737 It looks great in the picture and with an extra $140 in shipping it cost us $440 to get out here. Well it came... yesterday... and let me tell you it is a huge piece of junk. Not only did it arrive damaged (completely bent in spots with some rust) but it is horribly made. Nothing is welded, so the bars move around (not so great for a little climber like Makena). There were numerous places where sharp pieces of metal where sticking out that had to be filed down. You cannot leave the front door open as poor little Makena found out the hard way :angry: I was in the kitchen (which is 3 feet away from the cage) and I heard Makena screaming like he has never screamed before. I ran over to the cage only to find that he had pulled the door shut with his beak over his toes and was stuck... If I hadn't got there when I did... ahhh... I don't even want to think about it. I love that little bird soooo much and if something were to happen to him because of a cage I bought I couldn't live with myself... We did call the company and they are sending us some replacement parts as well as a $100 store credit. I will try to contain my excitement No amount of replacement parts or store credit can fix that cage. So here is a warning for you guys... and please be careful about the cages you buy. If anyone has any good suggestions of places to buy cages ONLINE please let me know... as I am in the market :pinch: Thanks Loviechick for your great suggestion earlier!

Aww... too bad. O'well, I will try not to fill your email box up too much! What is the size limit?

Thanks CD for posting that! Let me know when the "submit movies" link is working... I have plenty more where that came from!! He is trying sooo hard... sounds like R2D2 if you ask me!! It is funny because he could care less about the playstand on top of his cage.. but he loves the sitting on that tray table!!<br><br>Post edited by: Makena, at: 2007/08/08 04:20

Just came across this adorable guy on You Tube. I guess you could say he is one "lucky" bird... Well traveled anyways!

For some reason here in Hawaii it seems every commercial is some obnoxiousness little jingle... Apparently that is the only marketing campaign that is successful around here! For example... This one is constantly on the radio... Get a car Get a truck Get a SUV Get a car Get a Truck Get a SUV Get a car Get a Truck Get a SUV At Jim Falk Motors of Maui.... Arggg.. if I hear that one more time!!! :pinch:<br><br>Post edited by: Makena, at: 2007/08/07 19:38

Ha! Makena isn't talking yet, but we are very careful what we say around him! Like today when I broke a glass I managed to let out a very loud "uh oh"... Wasn't exactly what I wanted to say, but almost as satisfying! I imagine they pick up things from the tv/radio? I find myself muting annoying commercials

Ha, Makena does the same thing! I am glad to know it is perfectly normal. He gets so into it sometimes I worry he is going to hurt himself! Then 5 minutes later he gets bored with it and is all cuddly again... ahhh.. gotta love the AG's!

Ha, Makena does the same thing! I am glad to know it is perfectly normal. He gets so into it sometimes I worry he is going to hurt himself! Then 5 minutes later he gets bored with it and is all cuddly again... ahhh.. gotta love the AG's!

Ok so I guess I will put a picture of myself up... This picture is too funny not to share! I was holding a beer and right as my fiance snapped the pic Makena reached over to try and bite it! Don't worry he didn't get any, I would never share a drop of my beer!

Quit bothering me when I am trying to eat!!! :angry:

He really gets into his food!

My fiance giving lots of kisses!

Makena's new cage...

That camera has about 5 seconds before it is going to be chewed up!

Makena after his first real misting of the squirt bottle... He actually really loved it! <br><br>Post edited by: Makena, at: 2007/08/07 06:39

Aww... thanks Lidia! Just let me know if/when you have any recipes! It is pretty easy... you just have to have the "very overpriced" program to do it. Luckily I have it as I need it for my job! I have had bear meat before too. The trick is cooking the heck out of it for many hours. Bears are very muscular creating some VERY tough meat. Once you cook it thoroughly it is close to beef but a little bit more gamy. I tried it in a cooking class one time...

Thanks for more good advice! You what I was just thinking... As a food scientist I do nutrition label development for food companies. If there is anyone on this board that would like to know the nutrition facts of their homemade grey foods I could easily run an analysis. All I would need is a recipe and I could tell you results based on FDA standards. And I could calculate it out into whatever serving size you want! I do it all the time for meals I make! If I am making lasagna or something and want to know the nutrition facts I just plug it in! Just something I can bring to the board! Let me know if anyone has any recipes they are interested in finding info about.

Thank you so much Lidia! I don't really know why he thinks it is problematic either... I think at one point someone told him it wasn't a good idea and now it is stuck in his brain. I will work on converting him What about tofu as a source of protein? We eat a lot of it around here... I have tried giving him a small piece and he wasn't interested, but I figure if I was to cut it up into small pieces and mix it in with other foods he might eat it! That makes sense about the yogurt as yogurt is relatively low in lactose due to the cultures consuming it. Another question is mushrooms (ones that are fit for human consumption)... Are they actually dangerous to birds or just not recommended? Ahhh... so much to learn. It is funny because I am a Food Scientist and my fiance is a Nutritionist. Unfortunately we "specialize" in people and are trying to learn as much as we can about healthy eating for our little Makena!

I have a few questions for you guys... I noticed someone said they give meat to their bird. For some reason my fiance seems to think that isn't ok, I am not sure why. I told him I have been reading about people doing it and it is fine but he still says no. Any thoughts? He also seems to think giving dairy to birds is bad. Any thoughts on that as well? I am so happy to hear about people giving them foods off their plates as I have been doing this each night. I find it is really helping to learn what Makena likes. I found he is a HUGE fans of peas! We are happy about this as we have been trying to sneak veggies in his diet. Also the other night I handed him a small piece of a french fry and he went crazy. He was trying to fly on my plate to get more! As they were salted I only allowed him the one small piece. He seems to really like crunchy things like croutons, popcorn, romaine lettuce, toasted bread, etc. We have some really healthy wheat bread that I like to toast for sandwiches. I will break him off a piece and he loves it! We are still learning what he likes and love hearing about what everyone else feeds their birds!! Keep it up!! Thanks!!

As we live on an island getting a bird was hard. We did a lot of research trying to find a breeder in Hawaii because we didn't want to have a bird shipped... We finally found a breeder but he was on another island. He told us he had 3 to pick from so we flew over there. We went in thinking one was going to "pick us" and it would be easy. We spent 3 hours with the birds trying to get a feel for them. Well, we loved all 3 and wanted to take them all home! Finally we decided to pick the more mellow bird as it matched our personalities the best. Makena has yet to sexed, although our breeder "thinks" he could be a boy. So far he has bonded with both my fiance and I (I am the female) and doesn't seem to care who holds him, although he is only 12 weeks old. He is getting more comfortable in our house and is becoming more independent everyday. When he is in a bad mood... He lets us both know it. So far he hasn't picked favorites. We will see as time goes on. I would have to agree with dblhelix, pick the bird for the bird, not the sex... I am sure we will get Makena sexed some day, but right now we could care less. We are just happy to have a healthy beautiful bird!

Haha.. that is funny :laugh: We started putting Makena on his back right away and doesn't seem to have a problem with it. We have also been trying to pull his wings out from time to time to get him used to that. At first he didn't really care for it, but now he doesn't mind <br><br>Post edited by: Makena, at: 2007/08/04 19:28

Makena's feathers are a violet/purple color. Especially if you hold him up in the light you can really see it. It is mostly on his underside and legs. I tried to get a picture, but I don't really have the best camera so it didn't really come out. I will keep working on it though. It is really pretty... has anyone else seen this? He is 11 weeks old and it seems to be getting more apparent.

Our baby is 11 weeks and he is still hand feeding 1-2 times per day. Usually in the morning we give him a blend of fruits, nuts and pellets ground up in the food processor. At night we give him just the formula. He doesn't really do the bobbing thing, he chirps. He starts doing this really cute squealing thing when he wants food. In fact I will bring him in the kitchen when I am preparing his food and he practically falls over himself to get to the syringe. He eats around 40ml per feeding. He is very interested in the dry pellets although it looks like he is just grinding them up and not really eating much. He isn't interested in veggies at all yet, but will munch on a little bit on fruit. Good luck!

It was only about 2 minutes of lurking for me! I actually googled "African grey forum" because I was interested in being able to talk to people about my grey and this was the first site to pop up! Once I realized it was a wealth of information from good people there was no turning back!

I am sooooo excited to have found this board! We just brought home our CAG chick (Makena) last week. He will be 3 months old on Tuesday and we couldn't be more in love with him!! My fiance has raised parrots his whole life but this is my first time with one, and his first time with a Grey (he always had macaws). We live on the island of Maui but we found Makena from a breeder on Oahu. We are still hand feeding him, but supplementing his formula with fruits and dry food to try and wean him off. His favorite fruit so far is papaya which is good as there are plenty of them around here! It is amazing to watch him learn how to do new things, you can see the excitement in his eyes. The day we got him he couldn't even perch and now he is climbing all over the place, sitting on our shoulders and trying to fly. He is also a little chatter. He loves to sit on his perch and ramble on, although he isn't making out any words yet! He loves to cuddle and likes to climb up my chest and sit under my chin and fall asleep. He already thinks he owns the place and loves to run all around and check things out (under plenty of supervision of course)! We love our little guy so much and are very much looking forward to growing old with him I am very happy to have found this site as I am sure I am going to have many questions as time goes on! Mahalo to everyone who contributes to this board!