BMustee

yes, as long as she hesitates with Tbird there will not be a very good relationship between the two. Hovering her hand over the bird is also not good. All parrots know when someone is scared or unsure and take full advantage of it. Greys and Macaws seems to be more sensitive to it than other parrots and if they know that someone will pull back their hand if nipped at then they will do it and learn to do it harder with time. If I were in your shoes I would limit contact until your daughter is ready to take a bite. Is your daughter young? I don't know many parrots (other than cockatoos) that like kids...little hands move to fast for them.

Well, if this cry has gotten her attention from you or anyone in the house it is being used as a way to get a rise out of you. The biggest mistake it seems everyone makes is to "try" ignoring the offending noise. If you start and stop ignoring noises it only reinforces the noise. Parrots are very smart and learn that if they just keep making a noise a little longer it will eventually get your attention. As for our part in this "game", people don't stick to things if they don't get results right away. When it comes to breaking attention getting issues it always get worse before it gets better. I had a Sun Conure that learned to scream from my step mom...she would yell at it through the door if he screamed a little during the day. It became an all out screamer in under a week, but it took two weeks to get the screaming to start to get under control. So basicly what you need to do is any time she makes the noise you need to leave the room and do not re-enter the room, say anything, or give any kind of attention to her until she stops the noise. Give praise to any noise you want her to make...because you want her to replace the bad behavior with good.

Elmo has days that she does the same thing, but not very often. I let her hang out in the bathroom when I'm on the computer and sometimes I just don't have time or I'm just not in the mood to put up with the "look at me look at me" deal. She will come flying out of the bathroom onto the bed and is just into EVERYTHING!!! I give her a few chances to stay where I want her and if she won't listen I put her in her cage. She is never mad at me for putting her in there and she normally ether gets a bite to eat or takes a nap. It gets the point across that I'm the boss and what I say goes.<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2008/08/01 05:01

I know...We are SOOOOO great!!!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: This is one of the best places for info that I have found.

{Feel-good-0002006E} Now that is too funny. I wonder if that happens?

Yes, an ingrown feather would need to come out. I'm thinking now that the ingrown feather would have been pretty irritating and that just might have been causing the start of the plucking issue again. And yes, plucking feathers does hurt...I have had to pull a few at work and the yelp every bird has let out I can tell it does. That's another reason I won't pull a feather just because it has let out a little blood. The worst blood feather issue I have ever delt with was one time the one macaw broke a blood feather only about 1/3 of an inch from the skin and it was bleeding all over the place. There wasn't enough feather for the one girl I was working with to grab it with the forceps so I told her to hold and I got out the needle nose pliers, pulled the skin as far back as I could and was able to remove the feather stump. A little flower in the hole and he was good as new.

Hahaha, yeah your right...and if someone is Googling the topic of bird poop removal then they are in the same boat.:laugh: :sick: :silly: I like to use the Clorox2 in the wash and I don't know if thats what keeps away the poop stains but it sure does keep my whites white...even after being pooped on.:woohoo: :silly:

If a plant is listed as toxic anywhere treat it as toxic. Some lists out there are not as complete as others so don't go by if a plant is on every list.

If there was only a drop of blood I would not put her through the trip to the vet. As for the spoiling, I did the same thing with Elmo after he fledged. Her weight didn't go up as much as I wanted so I gave her more nuts than you would normally give till her weight got to where I wanted it...at a wopping 384g hahaha! You can slowly take away nuts and seed and bring in more pellets. Be sure when you suspect plucking to act like nothing is going on. The more of a fuss you make over it the more it will happen. The only time I would MAKE the bird let me inspect the area is if the blood was still dripping. At that point you want to get a second person to ether hold or look. Take a towel and play peek-a-boo and grab the bird under the jaw, making sure not to hold around the breast. being held makes for much easier and faster inspections. It can be done with only one person but it is more difficult alone.

The drop of blood could be that when she was preening she could have opened up the hole from the pulled blood feather. All the fuss could have started the plucking as well...if a feather comes out and there is a big hub-bub over it that can cause picking. The constant trips to the vet that are high stress could also contribute.

Elmo gets the same way. When a few flights grow out she gets real cocky and is an absolute monster!!! Right now she has 1 feather on one wing and 2 on the other that have just grown out but she hasn't realized they are their yet. As soon as she does we're going in for a clip.:laugh:

Hahahaha, now everyone in cyber space knows I'm a port-o-pot for all the birds in my store! I normally only treat with Poop-off if I'm at work and I don't want a huge macaw poop all down my leg all day, but the poops that go down my back are normally unnoticed until I get home...unless someone lets me know about it.:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I do trims at my work and I would say 95% of birds we do not trim the beak, and of the 5% that we do trim I wold say 90% of those trims are done only becase the owner requested to have it done. Most birds don't need it done because they keep their beaks in shape from eating, chewing, and grinding. Most of the birds that NEED a trim have something wrong with them like fatty liver. It doesn't hurt to ave the beak "cleaned up" but if you don't want it done it doesn't need to be. B)

Greys normally wean around 12 to 16 weeks. Some will wean earlier and some will wean later. I would not wory about it being weaned too early...at 3 months it's around the time it would wean on it's own. He will be a bit nervous his first few days so that is nothing to worry about ether. He might not eat all that much ether, but as long as he is eaing a little that is good. After a week or so he should feel more comfortable and settle in.

What kind of pellets are you offering? You could try weaning pellets...Almost all birds will eat them. I give veggies and fruit on their own ether in the morning or at night and keep pellets and seed in the cage all day. Here is a link to the kind of scales you should get. It should weigh in grams...not pounds. http://www.birdsafestore.com/equipment.aspx

Well, I get pooped on all day long at work and it seems that the normal green poop does not stain, but if it's a colored poop from pellots (sometimes they will poop red from eating a butt-load of red pellots) it can stain. I use Poop-Off with an old toothbrush...it seems to work the best at getting everything out.

With dogs, you give them shots for everything they can catch. With birds the most devistating illnesses there are no vaccines for...like PDD or PBFD. Letting people walk around the birds not knowing what they have at home could wipe out their aviary, so that is why they are closed. Plus, in my area there are a lot of bird thefts so you never know if someone that come to look at your baby birds for sale is really looking for a new baby or to see what kind of money you have in parrots. A friend of mine was a parrot breeder and had 300 parrots at one time and you can only imagine how much all those birds were worth. As for pet stores...it's kind of a store to store type thing. I work at Pet Kingdom, and we only buy parrots from reputable local breeders. We have a list of breeders we have black-balled because babies have come to use with infections or from word of mouth from people that have delt with them and had bad experiances with their babies. When you go into a store, look at the condtions. Are the cages clean, are the water bowls nasty, and do the birds look healthy? I got my grey from a local breeder but all but 3 of my finches are from my store. I have fallen in love with a few of the parrots there and if I could I would not hesitate to buy them. On the other hand, I have heard of some nasty stores that no matter what I would never buy from. I also would never buy from a chain store that would buy from bird mills. One thing I do like about good pet stores is that the birds are socialized with many people and if it is a good store they will want to make you happy...because like any buisness you have to treat your customers right.

It does seem to be a grey thing to flap like there is no tomorrow. Anything that's secure is fine for them to "flap" on. Elmo seems to like to get on top of his cage and act like he's trying to fly off with it.:laugh:

You are right on the odds of the birds breeding isn't great...you should worry more about the two birds just liking eachother first. I tell everyone that wants to get into parrot breeding that unless you know how to hand feed and will be able to hand feed a clutch of babies 5 times or more a day. If you have a full time job that probably means you can't feed babies all day, everyday, for weeks at a time.

Greys are always dropping down feathers. When they molt they lose the normal feathers. It's normal for a young grey to shed down on a daily basis.

Sounds like he had a great first day with you. Keep us posted and be sure to get some picsB)

Like others have said if he isn't eating much on his own you can go back on a night feeding for a week or so to see if he just needed a little more time. Also, just because they bob on your fingers and food does not necessarily mean they need to be hand fed. We have a baby grey at the store that has been weaned for about a month or so now and he still bobs on fingers, and Elmo bobbed fingers and toys for some time after he weaned. I would not feed a seed mix with Sunflower seeds though...they will pick them out and before you know it that's all they will eat. I give Elmo human grade unsalted hulled sunflower seeds ONLY when trick training...never as part of his regular diet. I do give him a seed mix with Safflower, which does have the same fat as a Sunflower but doesn't have the great taste. They are harder to open than a sunflower and have a bitter resin inside the shell, so they don't go strait for them...it's actually the last thing in the mix Elmo goes for.

Like Tracy said, some birds are just more prone to damaging blood feathers than others. We have two young B&G macaws at my work, both just over a year old, and one is ALWAYS damaging a blood feather. What we do when we see blood is take him to the back and examin the feather. If the feather is just a little bloody and is only bleeding a little (like he just knocked it on something) we pack it with flower...the blood is normally coming from the top of the shaft where the feather itself it exposed. If it is broken and hemorrhaging pretty good then we will remove it. Just today all the birds got spooked and hit the floor (all 11 macaws) because of a "Floating Orb of Death"...aka a ballon...and sure enough he damaged a blood feather. It slpattered all over me and the wall when he put up a fight about getting held for inspection but the feather was not damaged to the point of needing removal. We packed it, made sure the bleeding had stopped, and put him in his cage for the rest of the day. One thing to remember when it comes to birds that are chronic blood feather damagers is that when you remove a blood feather another one is coming in right behind it and chances are that one will be damaged as well. So really you are better off trying to keep the feathers that are already half way grown out so you have less time before it becomes a normal feather.

Hahaha, I know! Paul tries to act like he doesn't like Elmo but when Elmo is playin' around with him I can tell he loves her. Even though Elmo loves my b/f she always cuts out of the action to come say hi to mommy...so I'm not too worried about it.B)

{Feel-good-0002006E} Thats too funny! I can just picture the look on Tyco's face! Elmo likes to yell at my boyfriend. The other night he was laying on the bed and Elmo would step up on his leg and go running full speed at him yelling "EEEYYY...STOOOP IIIIIT!" and when she gets to his face she gives him a kiss and walks away like nothing happened. Elmo did that about 5 times and needless to say I don't think I have laughed that hard in my life!