BMustee

Is he beak grinding and chewing his tounge or does it look like he is panting and making a clicking noise when he breaths?

LOL...now that you say that Elmo will make the noise that the phone makes when you DIAL a lot when he isn't with me. When I call my b/f I normally go out on the porch and take Elmo with me so he must associate the dial noise with going outside!

You get on the table and then you notice the person giving you the massage has a wicked rash on their hands... I wish the election was done and over with.

You get your wish and don't work...but life as a Hobo is hard. I wish I was able to move into my new place today!

Elmo is proof that it can be done. If I put him somewhere he will stay there 97% of the time. Like what everyone else has said, every time he jumps down, put him right back up...every time! He will sometimes come looking for me when I leave the room for a minute, or if he is on the shower rod he will fly over to me if he sees me on the bed, but that's normally after he's been up there for 20 minutes or so and finally got bored talking to himself. :laugh:

I've never given Elmo the sugar cain ether. He gets to shread all my junk mail so by the time he gets through that he's pretty much all shreaded out.:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

I tried the covering thing when my Sun started screaming and it is only temperary and just added to the problem. Walking over to the bird and moving it can also be seen as a reward...they think "You came and saw me, even if it was to just move me." I know how you feel with everything going on at once, I feel the same way many days and want to just crawl under a rock and never come out! I'm very glad that you feel more impowered after reading our posts.

It took 3 times for the epidurals to work on me. To tell you the truth I would not have been able to deal with the pain from having all that extra fluid in my spine if it wasn't for the pain killers.

Also, the United States put a ban on the importation of birds back in I believe 92, so anyone in the US should never look into birds overseas anyways.

Also, a few side bars. When he starts screaming...EVERYONE must leave the room. Make sure the kids and mom know the rules or else all you efforts are in vain. Like Dan and Judy have also said, figuring out what changed when he started screaming could really help spreeding things up. Think of anything that happened within a 2 week window of the behavior change. Lastly, please don't give up on him. I know it is very hard to deal with him but he needs a hero in his life to take the time and change his behavior. If he doesn't get that he will be doomed to being bounced from one home to another, all the while getting worse and worse. One thing you can do when it is just too loud and you feel like you can't take it is put on a set of ear muffs like machanics and people that work around aircraft wear. You can wear Ipod earbuds under them too so all you would hear would be your fav tunes. You can get them at tool stores. I have a pair that I would wear when I was in the paint booth painting cars because the noise level in there was too much sometimes. If you can't find any in your town I would be willing to mail you mine.

Well, I know you said "don't tell me to ignore it" but that is the ONLY way to brake screamers. When he starts screaming you have to leave the room. Don't look at him, make any indication that he bothered you, just walk away and don't return till the noise has stopped for a minute. I had a Sun that became a screamer because my step mother would yell back at him when I was not home so it got reinforced to scream when he wanted someone to talk to him. It took me a little while to brake it but it happened. I'm not bashing you so please don't take it that way, but when you broke down and started scolding him I'm sure that set back any improvment greatly. Lets say he screams for 30 minutes at a time. When he starts screaming and you leave the room he might start by screaming for 45 minutes, then go to an hour, and so one. If you NEVER break and do not re-enter the room till he is quite it will start to decrease in time, but if one day he screamed for an hour and a half and you walk in while he is still doing it he has just leaned to scream for an hour and a half to get you to come to him. This can be VERY hard but is the only proven way to do it. Also, when he is making a noise that you like, reinforce that. Give him attention, treats, time out with you...anything that he likes. He will begine to associate the "good" noise and start to replace it for attention. Also, the kids screamig and such needs to me minimized. A loud house leads to a loud bird...they learn the volume levels. The key to it all is consistency...all day every day. You can't change the training pattern at all...not even if you have totally lost it and feel like you have to do something else.

Congrats on the new Too! I would love to expand my flock...right now I only have 11 birds LOL! I really wish my living situation was different a few months ago or I would have got a B&G named Sunshine...she was best macaw EVER! I got to disagree on the cockatiel bites though...I prefer to get bit by Macaws rather than tiels because the beak is so big that it feels like the presure is displaced. I got nailed by a rouge tiel the other day at work and I had to leave the showroom because my eyes were tearing and my hand would not stop shaking from the pain! I must sound like such a wuss for that one. :laugh: I must say though that most tiels and budgies don't really try to go for blood like the one that got me, and I would say that 97% of the ones that come in for trims are the sweetest little birds. I bet your daughter will love it!

Yeah, the Pedialyte is for dehidration prevention in kids and it replaces electrolytes in the system. The aviary I got my Star finches from told me to give them the plain/original kind instead of water the first day home. From my understanding it's not as packed with sugar as the other stuff.

It sounds like he is doing OK. Two of the three baby greys at my work don't really get into the morning feeding and then are little piggies for their night feeding. They are about 15 weeks, and it seems they are just about ready to drop the morning feedings.

Sleeping on her belly is normal for a baby. Elmo would do it all the time. He did it till he was about 15-16 weeks old. I got some very cute pics of it too.

Connie wrote: {Feel-good-0002006E} Yeah, have everyone place bets! I'll call the lab and you all can call your bookies. Elmo does look like a female but he(she) looks just like Daddy. One of these days I will DNA him.

{Feel-good-0002006E}

I know this sounds mean but why did you buy a baby grey and know nothing about weaning? This is the most delicate time in it's life...it can be killed by a number of things done wrong while feeding and if not abundanced weaned it will be a very scared adult and could become a plucker. At 4 weeks old the only thing that should be on your mind is keeping it alive. He won't wean till 12 to 18 weeks...long after it's feathers have come in and flying...yours can't even walk yet. Have you ever hand fed a baby bird before this one? Is the person you bought the baby from still in the picture or did they just send you on your way never to talk to you again?

If she is gaining altitude then yes, take off the next two feathers.

I know that Pedialyte is good for birds if they are being shipped, sick, or over stressed.

1 – I am certified in Collision Repair and Refinishing and can really find my way around under a hood. I worked as an Oil and Tire changer for a year or 2 after I graduated from Tech School. I also fixed my first car after the door got smashed and did a total body paintjob on it. I am also a MacGyver mechanic and can fix my car enough to get it home with a rubber cap, steal wool, and a clamp! 2 – I play 6 instruments with most of them being self-taught. I am most accomplished playing my Cello. I won a number of competitions and always played first chair. 3 – I am also a great artist, and went to the Cypress Lake Center for the Art high school. I’ve had a major artist block the last year so I haven’t done anything that great in a while. 4 – No (human) kids, not married, and have been with my boyfriend Paul for 7 years…I’m almost 23 (will be on the 8th) so I have been with him sense I was 15. I’m not sure if I want to have kids of my own (I saw what id did to my mother figure) and I might adopt a kid or two from Russia/Ukraine once I’m married and am all settled down. 5 – When I was a kid I was a dinosaur freak! When the teacher went around the room and asked everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up I stood up and said, “I want to be a Paleontologists!” I bet she never expected that out of a 5 year old. I think that is why I love birds so much; they are the closest living relatives to the Dinosaurs. 6 – I still have all my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman, My Little Pony, and Dinosaur toys from when I was a kid. 7 – I have bulging discs in my back and get sciatic nerve pain a lot. I had to have cortisone epidurals in my spine for a while to try and relieve it. 8 – My legs are the opposite of bowed…I have Knock-Knees. This causes me to get tendonitis all the time in my IT bands, and might be why I don’t have kids…LOL! It’s funny that I have them because I rode horses a lot when I was younger. 9 – I were a size 10 in men’s shoes! I’m only 5’6 so my feet are just freaky big for no reason. 10 – I want to go back to school one day to become a Sheriff Officer and one day a detective. 11 – I support our troops over seas! My brother just left for Iraq today.

I have read the the sugar cain is good for a treat once in a while, but like people shouldn't get it very often. They sell a sugar cain stick treat at my store, and I would imagine they would be at others. As for the Palm nuts, I have never seen them. Where do they sell them at?

Ohh, that is so good to hear that Rey is doing good. The mental image I get of him coming out of his carrier is adorable. My Elmo never gained as much weight back after fledging as I would have liked so I started giving him a nut mix called "Boca Nut-No shell" along with his pellots. He LOVES it and he put on some weight after I started giving it to him...I had to cut it back a bit because I don't want him getting fat on me...LOL. You should give it a try and if your local pet store doesn't have it get the human grade nut mixes with no salt. Elmo seems to really like the walnuts and pistachios. As for the out of cage time I bet it is hard for him to realize you want to take him out because of his sight, so maybe try getting him out and then letting him decide after that where he wants to go. There is this one Buffons macaw at my work that we call Oscar and he can be very difficult to move from the “pit” he says in during the day and his cage at night and I found that with him, and almost all parrots that are biters and difficult to move, you need to butter them up for a little bit before you handle them. Try scratching his head for a while and really read his body language. If you can see he is really enjoying the contact and is relaxed go in and try to pick him up. It works like a charm every time I pick up Oscar, and I bet that is also why I am one of the only people that CAN handle him…I let him tell me when he’s ready. You could also use a towel draped over your arm if he does not like to step up on your hand/arm. There are a few parrots at my work that I believe were abused before they came to us and they are scared of hands and will scream when an arm is put in their cage. As soon as the arm is covered they step right up and are happy as can be.

That sounds adorable!

LOL...it seems in every picture of someone’s grey that is posted there is evidence in the background of some type of home decor that has damaged or destroyed!