Tee

I'm glad that you brought up this subject! This is something that I've been wondering about too. A friend's avian vet told her to use a product called GSE (grape seed extract) as a disinfectant for the cage. I bought some, but I'm wondering if it really works as a disinfectant. Has anyone else heard of or used this product?

Peel and chop them into the size of a small grape. You can steam them in the microwave for easy cooking and they will retain more vitamins. Put them in a shallow bowl, add a few tablespoons of water covered with plastic, and cook until tender. After they are cooled, spread them out on a cookie sheet and freeze. This will make it easy to take out as many as you need. Offer them daily.

A powder coating makes cleaning the cage easier and it will last longer. Most important thing to look for when buying a cage is the bar spacing. The bar spacing should be at least 3/4 to 1 1/4 inch for parrots. While visiting an Avian Rescue I seen a beautiful umbrella cockatoo that had a split beak. The owner of the rescue said that it had been housed in a cage where the spacing was too small and the bird had gotten its beak caught in between the bars. Now each month, they have to take it to have the beak trimmed. They may be able to have surgery preformed in order to have the beak grow back right. But for right now, it will be considered a permant resident, because most people does not want to deal with the expense.

We got our 4 year old TAG (Rosie) from our son out in CA back in the fall. Rosie had been checked by an Avian vet before we brought her home to Illinois. We decided that it would be best if she was checked out by an avian vet here locally, so we made an appt. and took her this past weekend. I felt as if the vet was way to rough on Rosie and was not happy with the way the vet held her. After the 20 minute ride home we let her out of her carrier and she threw up (we didn't feed her before) and she has not seemed like the same bird since. We know it was not car sickness, because she had traveled all day on an air plane back in the fall and the trip didn't phase her. For the past 3 days now, has been quiet, not eating very well, and as I said she doesn't seem the same. Before when she would get mad or want something, she would ring the bell in her cage like crazy, but now she just sits there. This is the only Avian vet within 70+ miles from us. We are begining to think that maybe we'll skip the annual trips to the vet and find someone else that knows how clip wings, nails, and etc. We are not sure if we want to have her go through that again! Tee

I was able to find aloe vera juice at our Walmart, it was on the shelf with the laxatives. I'm not pushing brands, but the only brand they carry is Fruit of the Earth and it is not 100% aloe, it is 99.8%. We named our TAG, Rosie, but "Dusty" would have suited her better! Tee

We got our 4 year old grey (Rosie)from our son a few months back. He told me that the bird's diet consisted of Kaytee's seed blend and junk food. When I told him that I was going to change her diet, he told me that I could try, but he didn't think she would go for it. The first few weeks I gave her less seed and more of a variety in foods each day. I know that it always doesn't work, but I had to do something! Before the airline would let the bird on the plane (CA to IL), it had to checked with the vet. The vet told my son that the bird was way over weight and to change her diet. The weight is just too much on their legs and heart. I had to think of it as if I was over weight and had to stand on my legs for the rest of my life. We let her out of the cage a couple of times each day to keep her active. I haven't had her weight checked yet, but she now dances when I say "Happy Feet"! We have only had her for a few months, but I couldn't imagine our house without her!

I was told that a seed diet is not healty for any bird, seeds can cause them to become over weight. You can buy a bag of Nutriberries at most pet supplies stores and they can have one berry a day as a treat once a day. Their diet should consist of one fruit about the size of a large grape once a day. If it is eating vegetables I wouldn't worry about the percentages! There is no set amount of pellet food that they should eat. I keep the pellets in my grey's cage as a back up, in case my schedule gets a little hectic. Usually if I keep her in fresh vegetables(mash recipe)she eats very little of the pellet food. As with people and potato chips, I think she just likes the crunch. I hope that this helped a little. Tee

I have the same problem with my 4 year old TAG. If we are gone for the day, it will hold it until you let her out in the evening and then you had better run! The company that makes the cages calls the attatchment a seed catcher, but we know better! Tee

A few months ago, our 14 year old cockatiel passed away and our house was just not the same. My son, who lives in CA insisted that we adopt his female grey, since he could no longer give it the attention that she deserved. My husband made a round trip plane ride out to CA to bring her home safely to IL. We have only had Rosie (three yrs. old) for two weeks now but she seems to be settling in. My son had three roommates and Rosie uses four different male voices. During our dinner is when she talks the most, but we can hear her from the other room. She is a closet talker so she rarely talks while your in the same room. Some nights at dinner I think we laugh more than we eat. It is a riot trying to figure out what she is saying and who's voice she is using. I'm still a little skittish about handling her since she has been raised with males. But I'm giving her plenty of space and I hope that in time she'll learn to trust me. In the meantime, I'm enjoying her company! I'm glad to have found this site, I'm sure that I'll be in here a lot! Tee

I feed our grey a mash that I make. drain & rinse: 1 can red kidney beans 1 can pork n beans (remove pork) 1 can regular corn 1 bag of frozen mixed vegetables 1/2 bag of frozen cut broccoli 3 steamed sweet potatoes (peeled and chopped) shredded cabbage (stinks, but they love it!) fresh chopped vegetables that are in season cook 3 cups macaroni (drain) cook 1 1/2 cups brown rice 1 1/2 cups of dry oatmeal Mix all in one bowl. This can be frozen in small sandwich bags or containers. Remove from freezer and let thaw. This will last our grey for at least two months. I thaw about 1/3 cup, add a small handfull of dry cherrios, and an oyster cracker. Add one piece of fresh fruit(about the size of a large grape). Once a week she gets a small amount of peanut butter on her cracker, wheat toast, egg, or a bit of cheese. I still give her some things from our regular dinners, which will make the mash go even farther. The mash should be removed from the cage within 12 hours. (Its a tug-of-war each evening with her bowl!) I replace it with pellet food to hold her over until the next morning. She always has a bowl of the Zupreem fruit blend in her cage. A friend of mine that owns an avian resuce gave me this receipe. She said that she has never had a bird that will refuse to eat it, regardless of the size.