Acappella

Maggie, please tell Jayd that I have him in my thoughts and I hope the move to hospice is a positive one. In my experience they are very good at caring for pain, so hopefully Jayd gets some relief. E-hugs to you both.

Sorry to hear about the diagnoses but glad it was caught early. I hope you heal quickly. ❤️

I just logged on after an absence and saw this. I hope she is healing quickly.

All my love to you both.

Someone experienced with birds will be able to towel a bird to do a nail trim. My groomer is terrific with Dorian. For her nail and beak trims are a two person job, one holds the towelled bird, one does the trimming, then I come in and rescue him from the bad ladies lol. Believe me, he's trying his best to bite them during this process. Is there a bird club in your area. Contact a member and ask them who they use. I found mine by asking in a pet store that has a resident, and aggressive, amazon. Knocking him out is just too risky IMHO.

I used to steam clean the carpets in dad's home and I wouldn't bring Dorian upstairs until they were 100% dry and the smell had vanished. Open up the windows to help get the smell out. I'd do it before the weather turns and you can take them outside.

Mika is a good healthy looking grey. I can't offer much advice on the terrible twos because I got Dorian after he'd been through them, but do a search in the training room. There's a thread in there about body language of a grey. Maybe you shouldn't allow him on your shoulder for a while.

I WANT A BABY GREY!!!! Ok, I got that out of my system. Casper is do darn cute! I think it's going to be fine, so long as you always treat Issac as top bird, feed first, out first, etc... I know you know the drill. I love the visual of two huge cages, and one small tv. Speaks volumes about your priorities. lol Have fun with your cuddler. Just watch out. They may join forces and plot to take over the home. Oh wait, too late.

I agree, he's not a shoulder bird for now. You don't want any extra piercings. The best way to avoid bites is to get to know his body language so that you can predict when a bite is coming. There's a good body language thread in the Training forum room. Take a look at it. I got bit this morning because I didn't check Dorian's body language before I moved in for a kiss. I just wasn't thinking. He usually wakes up in a lovely mood, and is all sweet and cuddley, but he sure didn't today. If he starts climbing up to your shoulder, block him with your other arm. Keep him on your hand with your hand held higher than your elbow so that your arm forms a V shape. Most birds don't like to climb from a high point to a lower one, so this may stop him from trying to climb up to your shoulder. Like Timbersmom said, he may not always be truly biting you, but using his beak to steady himself. Check out Barbara Heidenreich at Good Bird Inc. She's got books, lectures, workshops, all sorts of subject matter on how to train your bird using positive reinforcement. She's very well respected in the industry.

Congratulations on welcoming Diego into your home and out of his horrible situation. Sounds like he's well on his way to bonding with your husband. Be grateful that his contact call is something subtle like a microwave beep. Sometimes they chose truly unfortunate contact calls, and then you have to do a lot of work to train it out of them. I don't see anything wrong with picking him up with a dowel. Just this morning the first thing Dorian did was nail me in my bottom lip for no other reason than he woke up on the wrong side of the perch today. So I'm using a perch to pick him up and move him around. Bite me once, shame on him, bite me twice . . . Sometimes I can just take the bite but this morning my chronic pain condition is especially bad and a bite would be agony. If you do want to start training him and you to step up on your hand do what Talon advised and make the skin on your hand hard to get hold of. I believe you'll know when you have enough trust built up to move to your hand. One thing, I'm not sure I'd allow him onto a shoulder yet. You don't know him very well, and on a shoulder you can't see him to read his body language. Neither you nor our husband want any extra ear, nose, or cheek piercings. If he starts to climb up, divert him with your other hand. When he's perched on your hand, hold your hand higher than your elbow so your arm forms a V shape. Most birds don't like to climb down from a higher spot. This worked for Dorian. He doesn't even try to get on my shoulder any more. Sorry about the wing clip. At least it sounds like he knows what his wings are for. Dorian came to me with a bad clip, which I allowed to grow out, but he's never tried to fly. I don't think he was ever allowed to fledge. I'd love to hear the sound of flapping wings around here, but it looks like I'll have to settle for being a birdie taxi lol. You'll just have to make his environment safe until he can protect himself by flying.

Welcome to you and Mocha. If he's having trouble gripping his perches try wrapping some vet wrap around them, it may help. Just do it with smaller diameter perches like you said you were going to get. On the step up thing, I read once that it's easier to train if you do it in neutral territory away from his cage, like maybe in a bedroom or a bathroom. Have you found a treat that he'll do anything for yet? Some like pieces of walnut or almond, some like pine nuts. Odds are you'll find something he loves. My Dorian is in the minority. There's nothing that will make him step up consistently, but for his first 2 years here he wouldn't step up at all, so we've made some progress. Have fun getting to know your new addition, and if you can't find an answer to a question in the archives ask, and someone will respond.

I'm so glad you and your son were able to get this poor grey out of that horrible situation. It sounds like maybe he was well cared for until he was left alone with the husband, because he seems to know what a good home looks like. Hopefully he'll continue to thrive in his new environment. Now you just have to work on not falling in love with him so that you can re-home him when he's ready lol.

I'm with Greywings, I don't see any shame on that face. If anything he looks proud of his work.

Welcome home Tau! He's soooo cute. I know Aura's death will always leave a hole in your heart, but I'm glad you've been able to welcome another grey soul into your life. Is Tau any braver about new toys than Aura was?

Dorian doesn't swear. I caught my brother standing in front of his cage one time saying "shit head, say shit head" once, and he was no longer allowed unsupervised time with the bird after that. Our nursing home in town had a parrot for years. He came in with a resident and then, when the resident died he became the nursing home bird. He was known as Tony the swearing parrot. He (the parrot) had a dreadful vocabulary but everyone seemed to get a kick out of it. Some people do find swearing in a bird funny, but it could potentially make re-homing a bird harder. If you want to stop the swearing just don't respond to it, especially with laughter. They love to do things that get a response from us. Don't let her see or hear you respond to the naughty words, and then when she says something positive give her plenty of praise. This can take a while. I'm in the middle of trying to extinguish a sound here with Dorian and it's taking forever. Then again, he's slow on the uptake lol. You'll probably hear lots of things as she unpacks her suitcase. Sit back and enjoy.

So sorry you lost your baby. She knew she was loved and cared for, and you did all that you could for her. Please know that we here are thinking about you.

I'm sorry, I can't help you with your profile problem, I haven't changed my profile picture for a decade lol. Thank you for taking in this partially naked little bird. Glad to hear her diet is already improving. I'm afraid you won't be able to start to build trust until after the medication is over. As long as you have to towel her to give meds it's going to be traumatic for her. You've got the right idea in showing her how you are with your other birds and letting her observe her new environment. Trust me, she's processing all this new information at light speed. Don't push the hands on stuff at the start. It'll come in its own time. Sit by the cage and talk to her, read to her, just spend time by her letting her get used to your presence. Make sure the other members of the family spend time around her cage as well. You don't want a bird only you can handle, especially as she's already showing signs of being partial to you. Just let her observe her new home for now. Relationship/trust building takes time. Again, thank you for rescuing this little soul.

What a sweet picture, I'm jealous. Dorian's gone off scritches so I have to sneak them in here and there. Enjoy your cuddle bug.

Welcome and thanks for re-homing. Sounds like you have a bird like my Dorian who was never allowed to fledge and therefore doesn't really know what his wings are for. I think the hanging on and flapping is adorable and a good indictator that he may fly one day. As for the stepping up, it took Dorian over two years to step up onto my hand. He came out of a pet store where many children, and frankly some adults, used to poke cat toys and fingers through the bars of his cage, so he came to me very afraid of hands. He would also step up from the floor but never from his cage. My first success was very much controlled by him. He decided that one of the outside perches on his cage was his step up perch, and that when he went to that perch he was ready to be picked up. I don't remember how long it took me to realize this, but the dumb Hooman finally clued in. Just continue to offer your hand as an option to him, and if he doesn't choose to step up that time just tell him that's ok and walk away until the next time. Your wife took an absolutely gorgeous picture of Smokey. I mean, yours were good, but . . . Of course, you both had a good subject. Smokey is beautiful. Keep browsing around the forums, asking questions, and tuning into grey time. Again, welcome.

Wow. A blue and gold would be my dream bird, but it will always have to be a dream in my case. I just don't have the room. A pet store in town has a resident blue and gold named Cloe, and I go in to visit with her. She comes with an interesting history. The owner of the pet store sold her as a baby 24 years ago. Now one of her owners, the one Cloe was bonded to, has died, and the family got in touch with Phil to see if he was interested in taking her back. They're not looking for a new home, they're going to keep her. Unfortunately their grey started plucking when she arrived and she's (the grey) a bit of a hot mess. They've gotten her about $300 dollars of stimulating, preening and shredding toys to keep her occupied, but they're afraid it's become a habit now. I say "Go for it"

Just when you think they're settled in and they've got nothing new to show you... Nothing cuter than a soaking wet grey.

When I changed Dorian's cage I assembled it where he could see me and it. I did it across the room from him and then moved the cage closer until he got scared, and left it there or a couple of days for him to get used to. I gradually moved the new cage closer to him until I could put it like Jayd said, open door to open door. Let him see you put food and a favourite treat in the food dish, and then wait him out. It may take a while for him to explore the new cage because he's been cage bound. Just be patient. If he's preening in front of you Jayd is right, it means he's getting used to you. It's a very good sign. Keep up the good work!

I think I'm starting to see why your country has so little faith in a health system administered by the government. They really need to come up here and see how we do it. When I said we haven't the best record with our vets I meant annoyances like the leg/no leg thing I mentioned. I wish you could come to Canada and get care. Forget being a vet, just being a senior would get you better care. I'm so sorry you have to deal with all this stress on top of not being well. I'm seriously sending good thoughts your way. Love, Marguerite

I'm going to bed now, but I'll answer tomorrow, K?

We have a political satirist up here named Rick Mercer, and he does a bit every week called Rick's Rant. One week it was about how we're treating our veterans. He has a friend who lost his legs below the knees in Afganistan. In order to get disability benefits, every year he has to prove that he's still disabled. Think about that for a second. It's like every year they're asking him to prove that his legs haven't grown back! When my dad was palliative with me the last year and a half of his life it opened him up to a whole lot of care. In home nursing, physio, PSW's twice a day, doctor's calls, oxygen, no cost prescriptions, anything we needed. There's an emphasis here on quality of life in end of life care. It's better than the care you get if you're NOT dying lol. The fact that the VA and your politicians have forms and procedures for complaints about the VA speaks volumes about how often they get complaints. What about trying to get the media involved. A story on the local news might light a fire under their butts.