Ronda477

Thank you everyone! It was a huge deal for us! Patience really does pay off! And Tyco's mom, I believe you were here when I was here a while back. Just have to jog your memory some lol. I've been MIA for about the last 7 or 8 months lol

Wow I can't tell you how long it's been since I have been here! I see a couple of familiar names for who's online, so hopefully some of you will remember us and all the problems we were having last year. We have come a LONG WAY!! Lets start with the biggest problem SweetHeart lol. She has done a total 360! As most of you know she is the bird that I brought home with high hopes, that was my first mistake. She had a terrible terrible flight! And instead of letting her settle in, I should have comforted her just like her breeder would have done. That didn't dawn on me until much later, here is this bird in a new home, missing her "mom" that gave her soo much attention and we are just letting her settle in. I was afraid of the beak and the growling that went with it! I should have stood my ground and tried to comfort her. Well we took the long way around! It is almost a year that we have had SweetHeart. She was a year old in May 2008. Now that we have Casper our Goffin's Cockatoo and sees all the attention he gets by being pet and held, she hopped off of her stand and came over to my table where I sit, she has always done this but this time it was different. She gave me her happy chirp she does when she wants something. Now don't get me wrong I have always given her plenty of attention by talking to her and feeding her treats, but as far as petting goes, she has never liked it! Well she gave me her chirp, and I asked what she wanted. She than bent down her head and rubbed it against my hand. I was shocked! So I picked her up, which by the way she never ever had a problem with me doing, she just never wanted to be pet lol. But I picked her up and she chirped again. So I went to go pet her head and she put her head down for me, and ruffled all her feathers forward for me so I could give her really good neck rubs like we do Casper! I was soo excited I was shaking!! I stopped cause I didn't want to press the issue, and I didn't want it to be her idea that I stopped. Than she gave me a chirp again! So I repeated this process again! She now comes every evening for her neck rubs! I learned too that her beak isn't soo bad. She has bit me once pretty good, enough to bring tears to my eyes, but that's when I was forcing the issue with trying to let me pet her. I was trying to take the tough love road, and that just didn't work too well. I got to pet her but not by her letting me willingly without growling. Now after much much time and patience, she loves to be loved on! She even sits here and falls asleep on my hand while I'm petting her head. She tries to help me too, she will put her foot up and scratch her head, I guess to get double the enjoyment lol. Now on Casper. What a ham! He is still as goofy as he was when he was a baby! He will tolerate the kids, but he is kind of nippy with them so we have to be careful, but that is expected with any bird so it's not a huge deal. He absolutely loves his neck scratched lol. He thinks he gets neglected and will take a toy and start to pet his own head lol. Now keep in mind this bird is far from neglected lol. He gets loved on all day long! He does it too cause it makes me laugh hysterically. And as we all know Cockatoo's will do anything for attention! I can't believe how destructive he is! In a matter of 3 seconds he took my husbands $100 fancy remote control and tore all kinds of buttons off of it! lol. The only problem we are having with him is he won't stay on his cage at all! We try to let him out and play every day, but can't turn your back on him for 1 second, so he gets out mostly in the evening for quality time with everyone. He wants nothing to do with the other birds, Sweetheart would love to come on over and play with him, she gives him her happy chirp and he does nothing but lunge at her, so we have kept them separate! Molly our Quaker is still here! She is doing good. We have had our little booger for 10 years now. She is 13. She is the same old Molly lol. Although since we have added new birds to the home, she lets more people handle her instead of just being my husband's bird. But she's still moody as ever lol. Spike our Cockatiel that we got for my daughter's 12th birthday is doing really good. WE found out that he is a she lol. But she still keeps the Spike name lol. I have one very good piece of advice for anyone out there struggling with their parrot. Please just give it time!!!! Don't give up! Talk and love on your pet as much as they will tolerate, they will come around! It can be like our situation and be a year down the road! But I can't tell you the reward it will be! It is worth everything! Don't know how much I'll be on here cause I started a rabbit farm lol. If you type in The Bragg Lionhead Farm, you will see our site! And all our pretty bunnies! But I wanted to come on here and say hello to a couple of good friends I had on here as well as update everyone on the BIG progress we have made! Oh and SweetHeart is talking away too, not a whole lot but she is def getting there! I have to say too that she is def my bird!! Which turned out just fine lol. Everyone can hold her, but when it comes to being loved on, I'm the only one that can do it! Which suits me just fine! I hope everyone is doing well! Would love to hear from anyone old and new to the forum! Maybe that will keep me here a little longer lol. Take care!!

LOL I think we have the same problem, he does this thing that sounds like complaining to me (but I call it something else lol) but he just goes on and on like an old lady lol. Than he will let out a yell here and there. I have always read they are very loud birds but soo far he just lets out these quacks lol

Well everyone I thought it was about time to come here and update you once again on our little Cockatoo! He is no longer little lol. What a clown he is! I am soooo glad we got him! He is more amusing then the TV, half the time we don't even watch it anymore we are too entertained by what he's doing lol. I hope you like the pictures and I will post links as well to all the videos we have taken! He will be 20 weeks old this Friday. He is growing like a weed! I think he finally is weaned! We were doing night feedings and in the past 4 days he has been doing really well, I think for the most part anyway they were comfort feedings for him that we were doing. I had read that some Cockatoo's like that comfort feeding for up to a year. We had no problem doing it because it just bonded him closer to us anyway, and it actually bonded SweetHeart to us more as well cause we gave her little nibbles as a treat in the evening and she even did this little happy whistle lol. But Casper is doing very well! Hope you will check out my videos and let me know what you all think of how big he has gotten! Here is a link for SweetHeart and Casper together~ Here is a link for Casper being in the front yard for the first time with his harness on!~ I was told this is his own little sound he makes lol, it sounds like a duck. ~ edited by: Ronda477, at: 2008/06/03 22:35

Thank you everyone! The kids are having a great time with them. We went to our first rabbit show at the beginning of May and they loved it, so next time it comes around I am going to let them show them. And they want to show them at the county and state fair this year so I will let you all know how that went. And yes Tracy they are calming to have, I love going out and just brushing them and petting them. I think I am very addicted lol. I had one when I was little as well, but nothing like these. Mine was one of those big white ones with the red eyes, I think it was just a meat rabbit. These Lionheads don't even get over 4lbs lol. But thanks for taking a look!

As far as the size for parrots, normally it's 3/4 inch. Here is a link for some ideas on toys for them. http://www.cheepparrottoysntips.com/toyindex.html#playgymsperches

Well I don't know Dan, after a year with SweetHeart and all the problems we have had with her, when we brought Casper our Goffin Cockatoo into the family she has become much closer to all of us. I know it could have went either way and we are lucky that it went the way it did, but I think she just has her own personality and doesn't like the cuddling. And that's where Casper comes in lol. He is the biggest cuddle bug ever! I was worried as well with adding another bird to our flock and I wouldn't change it for the world. But everyone's time is different, I'm sure in the future you will be like most of us with MBS lol.

Well the kids and I started a hobby. I was going to raise some parrots, but didn't think the kids could really help a whole lot with them because they are soo fragile when little! So we got into bunnies! Some of you may remember when we added our first little bunny before Thanksgiving last year. Well we decided to go with his breed because there seems to be a ton of people that have never even heard of the "Lionhead" rabbit. Here is our website (that no way interferes with a parrot site) it is all our bunnies! http://bragglionheadfarm.webs.com/ Feel free to sign my guestbook and take a look around at our new little babies we just had on the nursery page!

SweetHeart was a year old on May 10th!!! We brought her home on Oct. 26th.

Sprouts are awesome, all my birds love them! Just be careful in the summer months cause they sour faster. But they are very nutritional. I go to the store and buy a bag made for bean soup, it is a 15 bean mix that comes with some kind of ham seasoning, I throw the seasoning out and make the beans for all my birds.

That is great! Trust me I know all to well how exciting all those little baby steps can be! After almost 7 months I still get excited when I cross new barriers with SweetHeart. Congrats to you!!

Hey Heather! I found it a relief as well. I know we all worry about what we do with our birds and for one I was glad to read that article. It put my mind at ease a bit.

LOL No hard feelings, like I said that is the way I was told as well, and like Tiffani said (mammafawkes) I think it matters to what you have in your home and your conditions. Cause for one we have dogs, cats, kids and other birds lol. It is kind of a must for our birds to step up and not always because we want to hold them it's for their safety because of the zoo we have lol. But for each their own, and no there are no hard feelings at all Pchela we are all here to give our opinions and our experiences.

I just have a cheap harness for SweetHeart, I have not tried the paper towel yet, and I plan on it, I was excited and wanted to take her out with me, I put it on her, which she didn't like very much and than took her outside, thinking that she would just pay attention to the outside and not her harness. I was dead wrong. She tried to eat her harness trying to get it off. So three minutes later, I didn't want to see her freaking out, and was hoping she would just be like oh wow, I'm outside instead of what is this on me, but she didn't so I came back in and I took it off. I will attempt to do it slowly this time around and not freak her out. I take her by the screen door every day and she is sooo interested with the outside, I thought maybe she would just forget it was on her and pay attention to the outside. So don't be a fool like I was and be in a hurry lol.

I apologize for giving the advice about making the bird step up, this is what I was told and honestly I never ever have had a trouble with SweetHeart our almost 1 year old TAG. She steps up to everyone. Our Quaker on the other hand is a different story and we have been told with any bird that if you get the upper hand when it comes to the step ups than accidents won't happen such as if you let them go in the past, and the bird flies over to another bird cage and here comes that bird inside the cage ready to get a toe, and you ask the bird to step up to save it and he doesn't step up he can get his toe bit or even lose it if it's a bigger bird inside the cage. Which I think is very true. If he was trained to step up than he will do so on command and can avoid dangers when they arise. That's what we were told and I thought it made good sense? I do not force train any of my birds, or she would be trained by now lol. I know you weren't saying I was, but I myself now am wondering what I did wrong, because she is still not wanting to be pet, but than again I know they aren't cuddly so that could just be her. But I do apologize if that was bad advice, it just made sense when a bird was in danger that if they wouldn't step up you could have many more problems on your hands.