BMustee

Elmo really likes having his feet played with. Sometimes he even likes me to chew on them...he'll be chewing his nails and then he'll stick them in my mouth:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: .

Elmo knows the "Hold on" and "Here we go" commands and holds on tighter when I say it. He's good with reading my body when we are walking, but when we go for a car ride (he rides on my shoulder sometimes) he will slip when I turn, slow down, or accelerate. He caught on to those verbal cues very fast. As for the eye injuring, read the tread "worst injuries ever" for a good reason not to let your grey on your head.

I got a grey because on their intel and their not so clingy steriotype. I didn't want a really needy bird like a cockatoo or a loud bird like a Macaw or Amazon. I can't lie, I loved the fact that they were the best talkers in the parrot world, but I really didn't care if the grey I got would talk. Elmo has become quite a talker, with a vocab that seems to get bigger and clearer every week. Right now Elmo's contact call it "I love you", and hearing a pet call that out pulls on every heart string.

I've treated all my finches with Ivermectin not too long ago for mites because I had two females drop dead on me within a week of getting home. Maybe I should retreat them.

Yeah, it sounds like she was just shocked from the cage fall. I bet she will be just fine. Sense you have Gouldians I wanted to ask you something. I have two males, two females, and when I first got them I could hear them sing. Now I can't hear them. I can see the throat moving, but thats it. I've had them about 6 months, and I can't remember the last time I heard them...did you have anything like this with your?

I use diluted bleach at home and at the pet store. For the cages I can NOT live without my poop-off. It's safe around the birds and OMG does it work. I dilute it half and half with water because it works just as good and I get twice as much. Is Florida too long of a drive for you Mary? Hahahaha!

I bet she did see it. I'm sure once she knows the cat is gone she will be fine again, if not sooner. As for Milly, if she is looking better than I bet she will be fine. Just keep her safe and under observation for a little while longer. If she starts acting depressed I have a trick that might work till you are able to get her a partner. My first set of finches was a set of Zebra, and they loved eachother soooo much. One morning I got up and found the male on the flood dead and the female snuggled up next to him. I didn't want to get another male right away because I wanted to quarentine the female to be sure of her health. She was really looking sad, and wasn't acting the same. I decided to put a picture mirror in her cage and sure enough she perked back up. She actually seemed disapointed when I took the mirror out and replaced it with a new handsome male. If your Milly seems to get depressed you should try that.

I'm sure that was one of the hardest times of your life, and I really hope Kiko helps heal the pain.

Thank you all so much, it means a lot. I'm taking her tomorrow to have a private cremation. My dad will be selling the house in a few years and I can't bare the thought of leaving her behind. It's going to be so hard to hand her off, I still can't believe she is gone and although it sounds SO stupid I still feel like she is going to wake up and be fine. It's going to really sink in that she is really gone. I have lost a few animals before...one I was too young to really know what was going on, and my dog buddy was put don't at the vet due to Cancer. I was still really upset, but I think finding Angel really made things hit me harder.

Geesh, I couldn't believe it...I thought you were getting rid of Cosmo from the title too. I was like, "No way, he LOVES that bird!" Good to see you had a nice trip and that Cosmo did well with you away. The first trip is always the worst! hahaha

Thanks, I still choke up when I talk about her. It's been so strange not having her around.

My beloved cat Angel passed away last week late in the evening. She went in her sleep of old age, she was 19. We got her when I was 4 so I don't really remember not having her around. I knew it was coming...she was turning up all over the place in new sleeping spots, like she was trying to find the perfect spot. I know she is with Buddy now, and I'll be with them again.

LOL, my Elmo eats like a horse! When I was hand feeding her I had to put her in a head lock so she wouldn't bob off the table! Females are only picky when there is a man around! Hahaha

Alright, I'm waiting! Where are the new pics?!?:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

That is so sad. I have 14 finches in total, and 4 of them are Gouldians. Like Tari said, cat saliva will kill birds (and most small animals) in less than 48 hours when it is in the blood stream. When a rabbit is bit you can normally try treatment with massive doses with antibiotics, but for how small finches are there is almost always internal damage caused by the bite. Sorry to say there really isn't anything anyone can do. As for the female, I would keep her in the "sick cage" with something soft like a towel on the bottom with the heat lamp. Heat does wonders for our small feathers friends and really helps when they are stressed. You might want to try giving her a broad spectrum antibiotic like Ornacycline (pictured below). I have had two of my Gouldians look like they were going to die and after treatment with that medication they are doing better than ever.

madisimmons wrote: How long have you had Sammie? If he is still close to a year and a half he may still have some baby tail feathers...any of them have dark tips still? How about a leg band? Most bands will have the year of hatching and the state they were hatched in on them.

7-8 years is an average, it's not set in stone. Humans will hit puberty anywhere from 8-14, but most people would say around 10-11 is the average age for puberty. Thats why eye and feather color is an APPROXIMATION on age.

Elmo was DNA'd a few months ago and he is a she, but she was already calling herself a "good boy" so I stuck with caller her a he.

Trick training is GREAT for greys and suns. I had a Sun and he really liked learning and doing tricks. On days he seemed to get unruley I would sit him down and trick train him for 15-20 minutes and it would straiten out his tude every time. Elmo is unreal with how fast he learns tricks, and it's great one on one time for him.

A baby bird will have black eyes, but at about 5 months they start to lighten up. After the eyes begine to change you can tell the bird is still under a year because of the dark tips on the tail feathers. Around the time they turn one they begin to molt out the baby feathers and will get the solid red tail feathers, so if you see a gray eyed grey with one or two solid red tail feathers you know it's about a year old. As Dave said, when they hit sexual maturity they will get the yellow tint to the ye, which lets you know they are older than 7-8 years. Other than those few milestones you can't tell the age of the bird. Elmo is 1 year 2 months and has grey eyes and two tail feathers that are solid red.

I got Elmo, a CAG, at 6 weeks old. Elmo was the best eater of the two and was a little larger, but Elmo is the oldest of the clutch. I gave Elmo his name because when he really gets into playing I roll him on his back and he looks like a tickle-me-Elmo doll. I had Elmo sexed a few months later and Elmo is a female. I still call her a he because we're both used to her being called a boy...plus she says "who's a good boy? Elmo's a good boy." So if you called your grey Jack, it wouldn't matter if it was a girl or boy. As for being cuddly, greys are not known for being cuddly. Most baby greys don't seem to mind being cuddled, but as they get older they might not like it too much anymore. Elmo was cuddled all the time as a baby, but now he doesn't like extended touching on his back, wings and tail. I can still touch him in all those places to check for injury, feather growth, and stuff like that, but he really only enjoys head, neck and feet scratches...yes feet, Elmo's a freak. I'm not sure what your expectations of a parrot are, but if you are looking for a cuddler you may want to look into a type of cockatoo, caique, or some of the conures because they are more affectionate in physical ways than greys stereotypically are. I'd hate to see you and your future grey be disapointed in eachother because of something like this. As I type this, Elmo is on my back attacking my hair and yelling "Don't you do it! Stop it!" What my hair ever did to him is beyond me, but he's having a ball back there!:lol: :woohoo:

I love Turkey Vultures...they're one of my fav birds. Yes Turkey Vulture, you are awesome!

I find that older birds do best when they pick their next owner. I have had a bunch of "second hand" parrots in the store and I actually liked them more than the babies. One example was a 5 year-old B&G macaw that was cage bound. We clicked right off the bat, but she hated some of the other girls. She would perch on my shoulder and gurg up food for me...nasty but sweet.:laugh: :sick: . She clicked with a couple that came in one day and she is now in a loving forever home. I have tons of stories just like that with so many birds, that I believe if you don't mind not getting a cute little baby that you SHOULD look into an older, second hand bird. Ask the owner if you could come over and meet the bird first before you buy/adopt it. If it doesn't seem like a good fit than keep looking, but if you hit it off it could be a keeper. I got a baby grey because the local rescue didn't have any and the owner called her breeder friend that takes in her unadoptable birds and had him call me...the rest is history.

First, if your grey is dropping like a rock then they clip was not don't right...a parrot should be able to glide to the floor at a 45 degree angle. Greys are heavy body birds, so their clip should be below the covert feathers, not at them, especially if the bird was not able to learn how to fully fly. I would be more worried about the keel bone than the feathers. A keel bone break is a nasty injury for a parrot. Here is how you should have your greys clipped. If your grey's clip is close to the picture above then he should be fine. Give him a little time to get used to the way you walk and he will be able to perch on you with the best of them.

Parrots will tremble their feathers for a number of reasons. Chilly, happy, nervous...the key to knowing what the reason for it is to read the rest of the body language. If your grey is acting sleepy and beak grinding with a little feather tremble, then he's content. If he is backed as far away from the action and seems on edge then it is nerves. All parrots do it and it's more likely to be from "emotions" than illness.