Nychsa

Dave - I'll keep the acrylic in mind Re: cleaning up - they do enjoy their blue berries so much and I keep reading how healthy they are I guess I'm just going to be cleaning! The oatmeal is a bear to clean as well. Bella manages to fling that everywhere! Just this evening we were sharing our evening orange - that's become like a regular ritual, and as I was looking at your wonderfully clean spaces she did a couple of good flings and I had orange fiber and juice all over my keyboard :laugh: I had to laugh! The poop I clean up with the wipes off the leather couch. Bella has taken to using that as an extended perch and if I put something down to protect it, she gets rid of it girl friend prefers leather. Lucky me :blink:

Ah ha ha Berna!!!!! What a hoot!!! Now I'm not sure what I'd do with Elmo! I think I'd put him in front of the mirror and laugh at him and see what he does! He does really seem to have a dark sense of humor :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Ok Dave, I have another question - how on earth do you keep your parrot spaces so spotless?????? I seem to be cleaning all the time and never get ahead! Every time I get the cages finally spotless one of them drops the bomb, flings food, tears up some toy, throws fruit shells around (those are the toughest - those darn blue berry stains are terrible to get out!) And of course I'm forever running around with disinfectant wipes cleaning up the little droppings every where! So what is your secret????

Great information Dave! Those table top perches look like a great project! Tallahassee has so many wonderful old oak trees with very intersting looking branches. I think I might just do a project and make a table top perch. Karma to you!!!!

lovemyGreys wrote: Hi there Tracy! She was in the shower again with me this morning She seems to be doing ok with it - if anything, she's really onery (as usual :blink: ) She's really into play wrestling and dangling from my fingers and swinging around. Lately I've had to pay close attention to what she's doing when she's on the couch behind me because she'll just grab on to my hand, regardless of where I put it and drop herself, assuming everything is going to be just fine ! Today I moved my hand right as she was reaching for my fingers and she tumbled into my lap :laugh: So, now I understand when she lifts her little foot and bobs her head up and down she wants me to swing her upside down :laugh: But when we play wrestle like that I also hold her upside down holding her both my hands and massage her body under her wings and she really seems to appreciate that right now. I think maybe all those areas are a little itchy and a good rub feels good. Cheers! Terri

Tycos_mom wrote: Are you kidding! I keep ALL of them except the downy ones! :laugh: I think my grand daughter and I will make a picture or some memorabilia with the feathers.

Bella only eats upside down when she's popping open one of her toys that has a walnut inside. She rolls over on her back, holds the toy in one claw and then twists the top off with the other and then she munches upside down :laugh: She does like hanging upside down, particularly from my fingers, she likes to dangle back and forth and she'll snatch anything she can when she's doing that.

We have a Java tree perches which are shaped irregularly as Dave describes. But I also have one perch in each cage that has a rough surface so it helps keep their nails trim. Interestingly, but Jiggy, my conure, and Bella my CAG prefer to use that perch when they turn in for the night! As for treats - I'd have to say chicken legs. Bella goes nuts for chicken legs. If you heat them up, she can smell it and she starts doing her tutitah dance on her playtop perch, she goes through her peak-a-boo's, barks, coughs and finally she can't stand it and she flies over to me and starts nibbling on my toes until I'm ready to serve her a chicken bone! We have a whole eco circle going with those chicken bones. I get to eat most of the meat, then Bella gets the bone (of course with meat on it - she loves chicken). She chews off the cartalidge, and drops it on the floor. She then pulls the marrow out of the bone with that pointy little beak of hers. She grinds the rest of the bone down to meal which she drops on the floor. That mess is then cleaned up by the dogs :laugh: One happy chicken eating family!

Well, let's see - I thought about a month ago that Bella was starting to molt. She's still molting! If I pet her or scratch her neck, a feather comes off and T I find myself holding one of her lovely feathers The other day two of her trimmed flight feathers came off. Those were quite thick! But the new feathers are coming in quickly and her new flight feathers are beautiful! I know someone said they molt all year round, but this more significant molting does come to an end at some point no? I have downy feathers all over the place and tiny little ones!

Well, I'm not sure that's true that there is no legal recourse. It would depend on the state. You'd need to look into your state's particular laws. I know a number of states have laws that address implied assurances, and agreements reached based upon good faith. There may also (potentially) be a case to be made re: negligence. It might be worth calling the human society to see if they have someone who can conduct an inspection of the breeder's practices and see if there aren't more issues that need to be addressed with this breeder. As others have mentioned, this so called breeder obviously doesn't have the bird's best interests at heart if she's releasing them at 9 weeks and is feeding them hot formula. A small claims court would more then likely hear the case as it relates to implied assurances and agreements, and my sense is it could go either way. But a small claims court wouldn't really cost you much and it might shed some light on what is going on with this breeder. But I would check with your state's laws first and see how such transactions are dealt with in the law.

I think the resounding advice is, the puppy and the grey should not be left under any condition unsupervised - period. I have to greyhounds, both 7 years old. They are quiet, and gentle dogs, and do very well with the birds, but I still would never leave them alone with each other. If I can't see them, the birds are either with me in another room or they are secured in their cages. Even a dog who is accostomed to the birds is prone to sudden actions and it only takes one quick move of a dog to kill a grey. I won't take that chance under any condition.

Bella and I give loud air kisses to each other. Her air kisses are hilariously loud and sound awefully salatious! I do kiss her neck and blow rasberries on her belly when we play. My biggest problem with Bella is she tries to get into my mouth with her beak. I clamp down my lips and move my head away, but she tries furiously to get her beak into my mouth, so I usually have to move her away. It breaks my heart because I don't want her to think I don't love her and I know birds show love by regurgitating for each other, so I try to give her a treat afterwards.

(((((((( Siobha))))))) here's a huge hug! I'm sure you needed one after that!!!

What wonderful names! Wonderful thread idea Spooky, it was a pleasure reading all the names and their meanings I was initially going to name Bella - Tashi. Tashi means good luck in Tibetan (my conure's name is Jigme which is also Tibetan and means Fearless, and anyone who knows Jiggy knows that is the perfect name! His nick name is Alexander - his motto - attack it no matter how big it is, or what ever it is!!) When I met Bella, the only thing I could think was "beauty".. she was SO regal, and beautiful and the name that kept coming to mind was Bella - Latin for Beauty. If there were a name Rascal-Beauty that would be the best fit. But at that time I had no idea what a rascal she'd turn out to be!

That is a wonderful observance!! When I first joined the bird club here in Tallahassee, they had an FSU biologist give a presentation on hummingbirds that they were tagging. They've been able to determine that they travel annually from Alaska to Florida and from South America to Florida!!! Is that an amazing trek or what!!

How cute is that! Wow Talon is a beauty! She has such a regal face!

Pchela wrote: You have to get a good beat going with the right tunes! Since we're an NYC influenced house hold, we dance to typical NYC dance music, and electronica. That seems to get everyone moving :woohoo: But your guys are still pretty young... Bella moved in when she was 4 months, and I think she picked the dancing up from Jiggy two months later. Jiggy, who is 1 month older then Bella, is a natural clown, and found out that if he does his "Jiggy dance" everyone will stand around him admiring him. Nothing could be more desirable for a conure then having ALL the attention!

casper wrote: I guess that means you and I are both in the closet! Do you have a match? I have a candle. :blush:

danmcq wrote: :blink: :blink: :blink: Ok - this is where I'm at a clear disadvantage having grown up in Europe - I have NO idea what was in the closet in Vegas!

Dave007 wrote: Ok, you're going to get me in trouble here! I just got a visual of Bella chasing Doc and Dream (my grehounds) around with a little whip!

siobha9 wrote: This I want to see on video! Your dancing, not the birds :laugh: ! Your house sounds like a total mad house;) :laugh: :silly: :laugh: :laugh: It is a mad house sometimes! My grand daughter is coming to stay with me for a week and she always spins the birds up. She spends all her free time with them talking to them non-stop. I think the voice Bella makes is my grand daughter's, she sounds like a little girl when she speaks :laugh:

Tycos_mom wrote: Wow!! That's awesome! You must be totally pumped! Video, video video!! Bella always watches when I play any grey videos, I swear she can tell it's another grey!

Dave007 wrote: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: When we're doing our "dancing" my partner starts shaking his head, then he looks out the window to make sure none of the neighbors are watching. He says "you know if the neighbors see you that's it, you're off to your own little padded room!"

Dave007 wrote: Oh my! Do you think they're getting into their mom's nighties while in that closet?? Naughty Naughty!!!!!:ohmy:

When I brought Bella home the breeders for warned me that she was already quite gabby and they anticipated she'd start talking quickly. She was 4 months at the time. They were right, she was quite gabby. But the first thing she said that I could understand was "Jiggyman what the hell!", and she said that when she was around 6.5 months. She also said shortly after that "good morning Doc" (my Greyhound's name is Doc) and then she said "I don't knoooooooowwwwwww" So, needless to say, we were all pretty dumbfounded! She's a 1 year now, and she seems to go in cycles with the phrases she likes. Right now she's big into "peak-a-boo", and she'll say that with all kinds of variations "peak-a-peak-a-booooooooooo" etc... She seems to make a song out of it :woohoo: She picked up my saying "beep beep" to the dogs, so she runs around going "beep beep", and if I leave the room she'll scream for me "Mama!!!!!!!!!!!" (thanks to my daughter teaching her that one!) Talking seems to come with interactions and play. The interactions are things she observes us do and then she puts it into her own context and says it. For example I didn't know she knew how to ask where I went until she freaked the cable guy out and said "where did she go?" when I left the room! The poor cable guy found me and said "I know this sounds wierd, but I think your bird wants you" :laugh: Play learning comes from things like dancing together. I have dance music playing quite often, and if I'm cleaning the house or doing other chores, I'll stop every now and then and dance (bob up and down :laugh: ) with the birds. They really get into it. One time I flapped my arms and I said WINGS! Bella stopped for a second, and observed me closely, and then the next thing I knew, she flapped her wings. I was totally delighted! This now has an added advantage that when I give her a shower, and I say "wings" she'll actually raise her wing so I can get underneath her wings! I'm trying to teach her "feet" during our dance, but that hasn't quite worked out yet. She does "feet" when she wants to have them massaged, so I don't know if she knows what I mean when I say "feet" and we're dancing and she just doesn't want to lift her feet, or if she hasn't made that connection (namely that my feet are my equivalent to her feet) Either way, her intelligence is breath taking, and I marvel at her ability to figure something out so quickly. We're literally in a race now every time I fill her lock toys with goodies, one has two locks, she beats me to it every time and I can only lock one key and of course she pops that right open and gets the walnut. So, I'm going to have to start making things a little more complicated for her. Maybe something like a shell game and see if she will follow where I put the nut and how I mix them up. Either way, she seems to love these brain teasers and it keeps me on my toes having to design new things to keep her stimulated!