BMustee

hahaha...yes mother. :laugh: :kiss:

Like Judy said, you need to ignore and leave the room when he starts to scream. It WILL get worse before it gets better...thats why everyone says they "tried" to ignore it. Once you start your have to follow through too. If you have been ignoring and out of the room for 45 minutes and then you give in or yell back you have just tought the bird to scream for 45 minutes and then some. I cured a screaming sun conure with this method so it does work as long as EVERYONE is firm and leaves the room and gives the bird no attention at all.

They are too cute Erika. I really want to add Ethel to my flock but I would be a bit worried about letting them get that close...concidering Ethel beak is bigger then Elmo's head.:laugh: That is really cool that your flock gets along as well as they do...and look so darn cute doing it too.

My CAG at 2 years is 403g, but when she was under a year she was around 385g. At 7 months the weight gain from the fledging stage would be over so a steady weight is a very good thing. As he gets older and fills out he'll put on a few more grams but I'm betting will never be a 500 grammer...unless he gets fat.

Yeah, time got away from me there...I've been so busy with the store babies, Elmo, and the finch.

Most people think that the small birds aren't smart but I know he knew I was helping him because he is actually pretty comfortable with me. It was so funny, when he was on his pain killers he would let me know when it was time and start making all the noise he could. I had to use a diabetic syringe with the needle removed to give his meds and he would bite down on the tip and drink it drop by drop. I've medicated a lot of birds from cockatiels to cockatoos and they have never been as easy as this finch. We were all laughing about it at the store because he was acting like a junky...and I was his dealer. :laugh: Before I put him in the big cage with all the other finches I had to keep him in a little travel carrier and I felt bad that he was all cooped up in it for so long so I let him free fly in the room for a little bit. I do this with all my finches and when they are done they fly back to the cage but he surprised me by flying around the room and when he was done he flew back to me and landed on my chest!:woohoo: That made all the work worth while.

The huge Buffons Macaw at my work does the same thing but from the top of the cage. It's pretty funny to watch.

Here are a few clips I've finally gotten of Elmo! This one is of Elmo watching Elmo and singing along. This one is him being goofy and singing along with the TV. edited by: BMustee, at: 2009/01/09 06:43

As most people that know me know that I have a real soft spot for the tiny birds and have a flock full of misfits as it is, when the other day I inspected a little Owl finch and to my horror the poor thing had a leg band slip down over his foot and has cut off the blood supply. That Monday his middle toe was already black and I tried to open the split band that was around the foot...only to have blood start gushing everywhere!!! I just about freaked because these birds are so small they really can't afford to loose much blood to begin with so I packed the foot in flower and was able to get the bleeding to stop. The next day I go to check him out again and a second toe had turned black and it had gotten stuck to his torso from the blood/flower mix. I tried running warm water over him to free the leg but it was caked on like cement so I then had to cut the feathers away from his belly before he ripped the skin trying to free his limb. At that point I looked at the leg again and saw more dead tissue and there was a bubble of infection between the band around the foot and the band still on the leg. I knew there was only one option for the little guy...amputation. I told Steph that we needed to take the leg off and when she realized I was talking about doing it myself she brought up that the shock of cutting off the leg could kill him I wasn't so confident in my backyard surgery skills anymore. I started looking online for information on "do it yourself' amputation and was shocked that there was not one site with any viable info on it...who would have thought that you can find videos of two girls eating bodily fluids, secretions and excrements out of a cup and yet nothing on "at home" amputation. After talking with Steph again I decided to give my Avian vet...Dr. McKelvie...a call and see if he could give me some pointers. I talked to the girl at the desk and told her I needed to talk to Dr. M about doing an amputation she said she could 'schedule me in'. I was like 'no, no, no...I need to know HOW to do an amputation!' She went and asked him while he was in surgery and I can only imagine the look on his face when told he had a call about 'instructions on removing a leg' and he told her to just have me come in and he would take a look at him. I rushed him down to see him and was just in time for him to be coming out of surgery and went back to an exam room to meet with him. He took a look at his bound foot and wanted to see if he could save it before we took the leg so off to the O.R. we went. I was kind of suprized when Dr. M whipped out the anesthesia, I don't know why but it was kinda funny to see him put this tiny little bird under the muzzle cup till he passed out. The to keep him 'under' the vet tech had to rig an extention tube with the finger off a rubber glove to keep his head in the gas. Dr. M then took wire cutters and took off the bands. The leg had obviously been broken from the band because the foot was just dangling so Dr. M took the foot in his fingers plucked it off. The dead tissue going up the leg came off along with the foot and just the itty bitty bone was left. He took a pair of surgical scissors and snipped it off and then super glued the stump to close it up. He gave him an injection of Batril to fight any infection still in his system and then mixed him up some pain killers. After he woke up we gave him his first dose of the Butorphenol (which I have to give him every 4 hours) and he didn't fight it at all and as soon as we put him back in the carrier he started using the nub to get around, was making his little beeping sounds and was eating. It's been a few weeks and he is now in with all the other finches and is getting really good at using his one leg and nub to perch. It helps that I already have a Zebra that had a badly broken leg that healed upside-down and made the cage "handicap excessible" for him. Here is a pic of his amputated leg. <br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2009/01/09 06:34

He does not need the hand feeding...at 7 months and weaned once he is not going to waist away. I know your not going to like how this sounds but it's not the birds problem...it's yours. All baby birds have a drive to become independent and weaning comes very natural. People are what get in the way of this. You didn't say how many times you are feeding the little guy but what you need to do it cut it to just onvce at night and give it a little while and then only give it to hi now and then if you want to still give baby food for future medial reasons. You should also buy a gram scale and weight him every morning...that way you can see if he drops a lot of weight because the only other reasons baby birds don't wean is because of infections or other illnesses and weight loss would gie you the first heads up. Caring for 40+ birds on a daily basis I can tell you that most of the food you offer to them is going to be waisted by dropping and making soup in the water bowl...it's what they do. It's not a reason to continue hand feeding at 7 months old.

I'm going to have to go along with everyone else and say that you shouldn't go back and see him...and I would think it even worst to bring him in while the new owners are going away for days or weeks at a time. Look at it from the birds point of view...he's taken away from his owner and brought into a strange new home. He gets settled in and all of a sudden in pops the original owner...and then they are gone again...then he's back with the original owner for a week...and then gone again. That would be more stress and heartbreak for me to put my grey through if hell freezes over and I had to rehome him. Once the bird is rehomed that should be that and if you want to still see him have the new owners send you pictures. The other issue is if the couple you are thinking of giving him to are right for a grey. Most people that have larger birds really don't do much travel...and greys take separation from their owners really hard. If they are the "globe trotting" type I would look into a more home-body type owner to rehome your grey to.

I got my greys cage on Ebay and it's just as good quality as the cages we sell at the pet store I work at. It's not a "name brand" cage like California or Dinesty but I actually like mine more...plus it was half the price.

I agree with what Dave has posted. I do not breed greys myself so I won't add anything but Dave has been breeding greys for some time now and really knows what he is talking about.

Back to the Poop-Off... I love the stuff, and I clean poop for a living so I'm not dealing with 2 or 3 birds worth of poop but over 30 large birds worth of poop. I have found that hot water will work to clean poo but you have to wait and let it soak, but if you make a 50/50 mix of poop-off and water it works just as good as strait up poop-off and saves me a LOT of time when I'm cleaning the "pits" at work. I may be ringing a bell for liking the stuff but sense I have been using it I've been able to clean all the perches, toys and rails SOOOOOOO much faster.

Ohhhhh yes....the EYE!

I would say he is bonded to you. It also sounds like he is going through one of the brat stages and just wants to see how much he can get away with. I would say to not give in to him. If you want him to go in his cage don't let him fly away and stay where HE wants. That tells him that what you say doesn't matter. Be firm and let him know who is boss. When he nips at you don't pull back...and him bowing his head is a kind of "birdy sorry" because he knows that is not allowed. Elmo will beak butt me...not a bite or a nip but just hitting me with his beak...and right after when I tell him NO or give him the eye he will bow his head. I don't scratch him right away but after a few second I do accept him apology and rub his head.

I have fed baby greys that have weaned at 9-10 weeks...it's not that unheard of. Some take longer, Elmo didn't wean till he was 18 weeks, but others really like solid food and drop the formula as soon as they can. Just be sure to watch them eat and check the weight often.

All baby greys do it. Some seem to stop pretty quick but others will do it for longer. We have a TAG at the store that is about 1 1/2 years and he still digs ALL the time.

Mine is Bernadette...but I go by Berna most of the time. Mustee is my last name if anyone has been wondering why in the heck I would have a handle of "B Mustee" No, I don't stink, just got stuck with a weird name.:laugh:

Hahaha...I'm sure they will. I love the setups I have for the little guys. I HATE seeing finches and Canaries in cages that they can't fly in. Plus I let them fly free in the room while I clean the cages...with Elmo locked in the bathroom:laugh:

I also Like Carlos...it means "Free Man" Dante...means "enduring" Ike...hebrew for "He laughs"

Sense everyone else has a B name and I know how Amazons can be I would name him Brutus or Boris.:laugh:

LOL! Right now they prob. hate me! I'm sure it's not fun getting treated for mites.

here is a pic of the setup for the canaries. and here is one of the finches.

SAY HELLO TO THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE USA! This is truly a historic day.