Nychsa

Thank you Raposa Even though Bella can drive me to distraction sometimes, I'm pretty sure we both love each other very much! Thank you for the well wises Lyric - Doc is doing much better, and he's more careful going outside now! Before he would just storm out, feeting moving faster than his brain! I'm glad he's being more careful and watching his step. I can totally appreciate the imp-to-smoocher you experience with Lyric! Bella does that too - sometimes right after I tell her "no, no!" :laugh:

That's great! Bella and I have another thing going on that's actually turned out quite well for me :laugh: I love fresh cherries, but you know that whole thing with the pits is so bothersome. Bella and I were eating our cherries one day and I noticed all she does is break off the stem, make a slit down the cherry and pops out the pit and discards the rest most of the time. Sometimes she'll actually suck the juice out of the cherry. But for the most part, she's only interested in getting the pits out of the cherries. So we've got a whole new thing going on - she takes breaks the stem off and takes out the pit and I get to eat the cherry! This is a fabulous arrangement :woohoo: !

It's my understanding that eating together is an important flock behavior, so I have always let Bella eat from my plate. She gets her food on the edge of my plate. That food has no salt on it, or anything else that's not good for her. She does seem to have a preference for meat though!

Thanks Dan! With the summer weather in full swing, we also have thunderstorms here. I can't make out if they upset Bella and Jiggy or if they seem to be "ok" with it. When a thunderstorm gets going, Jiggy and Bella really start chattering at the top of their lungs. But, they don't seeem stressed out. Anyone have any insight into how thunderstorms affect the babies?

I too believe it's very important to be comfortable with the methods and approach of a breeder. I believe Bella's confident and outgoing personality got a good boost from her early days being hand fed. I got her from K and K Parrots (www.kandkparrots.com) Their process is a little different than some of the other breeders. K and K Parrots is not the breeder. They work with one breeder (have been for the past 18 years). The breeder brings the babies to Kathy and Karen to hand feed, socialize and place. Kathy and Karen, who are both nurses by trade, provide such a fabulous environment for the babies, it's clearly full of love, warmth and care. When I brought Bella home, she knew how to step up, "no bite", and how to step up on the stick. She's very confident and outgoing and was a huge love bug - which Kathy and Karen told me she would be because she loved to snuggle with them. So that told me they take the time to love up on the babies. If I had it to do over, that is the kind of breeder I'd go to again.

Toni, I can appreciate you wanting to stick by your decision - but I did want to make a comment re: little birds being "boring"... That certainly can't apply to conures! Their personalities are bigger than life! Jiggy, my conure, manages to wrap every guest we have around his little foot and he comes up with things that just keep you rolling! Take today for example - I put fresh paper down on Bella's playtop. In addition, I'm trying to get her to play with a new rope toy so I tied paper towel strands all over it as she loves to shred paper towels, and I hung it on the side of one of her ladders. Well, Jiggy thought this whole thing was a great jungle idea, and he started crawling underneath Bella's paper. But! Instead of just enjoying his paper hide out, he decided to engage in guerilla war fare and pop out from underneath the paper and nip Bella in the foot and duck back under again and make off! :laugh: Needless to say she got furious with him, so when her beak got a little to close to his noggen, he ran to hide behind the new toy that she's still wary of, and won't get that close to it yet - and he knows it! :laugh: When you ask him what he's doing, he does his "Jiggy dance" and says "keh, keh, keh, keh, keh" he'll fly over to me, sit on my shoulder and give me a HUGE gigantic kiss, pressing his little beak onto my face, and then he's back to terrorizing Bella! My dear - that bird is certainly not boring!!! :laugh:<br><br>Post edited by: Nychsa, at: 2008/07/06 21:28

I always thought the Blue Fronted Amazons are the easiest to get along with...

Wow Dan, do you have any sense as to why that is - re: the Amazons ending up in the rescues more than others? It seems Amazons are a bit easier to keep?

That's a great tree! I think a grey might need slightly thicker branches, at lease mine would :laugh: She's a "sturdy" girl :laugh: As for noise - I think there are a number of people who have greys in an appartment. While my grey is constantly jabbering about something, she really "sounds off" in the morning and at dusk. In the morning she pipes down once I have her breakfast ready. But when she does sound off it's not screeching - in fact she rarely screeches (usually only if I'm trying to take something away from her that she's not suppose to have). She's usually jabbering about something. She goes through all the sounds and words she's heard through out the day. When I leave the room she yells for me "MAMMA!!!!!!!" But it's not screeching. I've also had her with me in a hotel and there were no problems with that. My little conure screeches though! Now he'll give you a headache! But somewhere I seem to remember reading that the African breeds are not as loud as the South American breeds. So, if it were me, I don't think I'd be concerned about the noise.

Hi there Toni, I bet you're going to fall in love with the Amazons too! :laugh: When I decided to get involved with parrots I was very torn between the Amazons and the Greys - that is until I visited the breeder and the little greys were all over me and the Amazons eyeballed me with suspicion! So, I figured my karma must be with the greys and that was that. But the Amazons are a hoot - funny as all get out!

applepatch wrote: Wow, sounds like your second one belonged to someone if she/he's domesticated and friendly. I imagine in Hawaii you should be able to find out what the deal is what that bird no? (as in who she/he belongs to etc..?)

siobha9 wrote: What a great quote! "some things you can only share with a grey" That's so true!! I still want to play Laith's video for Bella and video Bella yapping back at the video - you've got to see that Siobha! We might be able to get them on web cam talking to each other :laugh:

siobha9 wrote: Hi there Siobha! I've fallen for the old post resurfacing as well... it too was a year old post that for some reason appeared and I found myself merrily talking to myself until Judy and Dan saved me from myself :laugh: So.. I can appreciate how that happened.... Re: flaming - I was referring to gbdb's post. I can appreciate that she has strong feelings about the rehoming issues. There have been some posts on here that really caused my hair to raise, but I kept reminding myself - "thank goodness they're asking a bunch of parrot lovers about this and not just taking this and running with it!"

M2MM wrote: here here M2MM! By the way - I love that name Kumiko.. I bet he's as gorgeous as his name

I think Dave's points are well taken. gbdb_kcb one of the things I've really appreciated about this forum is the that everyone feels they can safely express what's going in their lives and with their greys without getting flamed. I think it's really important to keep that kind of "safe" environment for people to come talk. Just think if people are afraid to post because they'll get flammed, we'd never have an opportunity to provide assistance, advice or anything else. I don't know what Demonio's circumstances are - for all we know he might be out of a home himself right now! But if the situation is just such that he can't keep his grey, then maybe we can assist him by providing tips on how he can best vet new homes. My only advice to you Demonio would be - times are tough right now and someone who could provide a good home may not be able to come up with $1200 all at once. You may want to consider either dropping your costs a bit or allow someone to make payments.

lovemyGreys wrote: Thank you re: Doc Tracy We're all quite relieved that he's pulling through. You certainly have love all over - and Millie - well, what is there to say - one big bundle of joy!

HeatherStrella wrote: I know exactly how you feel Stella - I love Bella more then words can describe as well. Well, since she seems to be able to tell so quickly when the apple cart is upset, I'm going to make sure we keep the snakes away from the dogs and anything else that could upset things at arm's length!

Hi there Dan, Judy - we just brought Doc home - last night his blood work showed that he had stabilized, swelling is gone, infection is under control and he's as bouncy and happy as possible to be out of the hospital. What a fright that was.... Thank you for the concern Dan you're right - she is family, and they do seem empathic - frightening thought though! I'm not sure I want to pass everything I'm experiencing on to her! Judy - to me of course Bella is very special and her antics are a riot. But what I'm really grateful for is that she seems to have a strong personality. While I was in a negative place, she didn't get dragged down with me but rather as Dan put it, she "hovered" and kind of took a "I'll take care of you Mom" role :laugh: If she had a more fragile personality, she may have been dragged down with me... but, she showed me that she will not sit by and let me brood by myself. She was going to be with me and in good spirits, and we'll take on the world "together". She amazes me!<br><br>Post edited by: Nychsa, at: 2008/07/05 18:33

Goood Morning everyone! To our US Friends - Happy 4th of July - to our British friends - Sorry!! But we've kissed and made up since 1776 right??? Well.. I'm wondering - do you sometimes feel your grey is also your best friend? I've really had this feeling this weekend. My greyhound Doc got bit by a water moccasin and has been in the hosptial for the past 3 days. Obviously this has been a very upsetting event and I've been in a constant state of worry since Thursday. I wanted to sit and ponder this, think about it, dwell on it. But my little best friend Bella wasn't even letting me go there. Since Thursday she's decided to be a one bird stand up comedy show. Every time I was sitting around brooding she started doing something so absolutely bizzarre that I couldn't help but laugh. She followed me around every where, and when I picked her up one time - I kid you not, she pressed her beak against me cheek and made the kissing sound! She was sitting on the window sill talking to herself "Hi Bella! Hi Bella!", then she would hold an enitre conversation on the couch bobbing up and down, lifting her foot while talking(nothing like watching your bird pontificate! I think she's been watching too many pundits on CNN!) - and then she snuggled and snuggled and snuggled. I can't help but think she could tell I was disturbed and she was going to stick by me. I was so grateful for her company and I thought - this is how one feels about a life long best friend How does your grey share your life with you when the going gets tough? Do you find that they help you through? Terri

Hi, Dovetailing on what Berna is saying re: finding out more about your birdes - Just from what I've learned about AG's to date, it seems to me that breeding AG's is NOTHING like breeding dogs or cats. I think if I were in your situation, I might do a good deal of research, reading and thinking about the situation before going into it. There's the whole hand feeding element to it, socialization etc.. Also I'd worry about how to place the babies well.. Do you already have people who are interested in babies? There seem to be tons of birds in rescues and that means without actually having a good home for babies, you may be find one of your babies in that kind of situation.

Hi Adelt I think most greys seem to be leary of new toys and it does indeed take a bit of time for them to get used to it. When I introduce a new toy to Bella's environment (her cage and playtop) she does the same thing - she freaks out. But I've found if something isn't associated with her environment, but with the common areas, like the living room, bedroom or kitchen, she's totally curious about it and begins to play with it. So, when I get her a new toy I put it in the living room with me on the couch and I play with it. In addition, I ignore her and pretend it's all about me and my fun. Eventually she can't stand it and she has to come look. She always tastes things first LOL, so she sticks out her tongue and tastes the new toy. Eventually I can put it into her play space. I also can introduce new toys without a problem to my conure. Once it is in his cage for a while, Bella gets very curious about it and starts playing wiht it in his cage. So, with Bella, it has something do with putting something in her cage that seems to offend her. I dont' know if that is the same with yours, but maybe you can try introducing things some place other than his cage? Cheers! Terri<br><br>Post edited by: Nychsa, at: 2008/07/05 00:54

How fun Heather! I think I'm going to borrow your idea! Bella isn't interested in store bought parrot toys as much as she is in everything that's mine or doesnt' seem like it's meant for a parrot :laugh:

Tycos_mom wrote: Pat! That's what I have - exactly like that and Bella opens the darn things!! That's why I'm so frustrated! Can you believe it, when I first got that cage, I thought all these mechanisms were totally overkill - boy, what did I know at that time! I may have either created this problem or helped it get to a point of no return. Bella and Jiggy are the first birds I've ever lived with. So, I was really concerned I do everything really right by them. So, while reading about the grey's intelligence, I really felt a compelled to ensure Bella receives stimulation and challenges. I was really concerned that an animal that smart would suffer if she's not given the opportunity to use that mind. So, I bought and I make mind teaser toys for her. She has to open, lift, twist, search, unravel, push a lever etc.. to get to her special treats - and Bella, who loves food, will do what ever it takes to get to her walnuts! So.. in my neurotic craze to keep her stimulated, I may have created my own problem with these darn latches! I know she's at least learned to keep messing with something until it "gives" in to her. I'm not going to trick her on this one - I need to do something like get those heavy ceramic bowls - do something that she can't "figure out" and is simply physically not possible for her to do!<br><br>Post edited by: Nychsa, at: 2008/07/04 15:48

LOL Dan, yes, Bella is like my son when he was 2 years old. The difference is, he didn't make me laugh as much as she does. Bella is so animated when she's into something, I'm busting my ribs laughing! Maybe that's why I'm not making any headway getting her to knock it off. Now when ever I say "knock it off" she yaps back immediately "knock it off" Or if I frown at her and tell her "no, no", she barks at me :blink: As for the dogs eating the mess - well.. I have greyhounds and they are SO finicky - I'm not sure I could convince them to eat oatmeal. Now when Bella is eating chicken, they are ON IT!:laugh:

Yes the screw top's are on her mobile playtop and she HATES THEM !