KatB

Hmm, looks like Soldier and Coco might be thinking about becoming mates? Are they male and female? Great photo, can't wait to see more!

True-- but in the wild they're high up in their tree branches, surrounded by the other 200 members of their flock for protection. They also don't have electricity in the wild to keep the lights on and prolong the daylight. They go to sleep when the sun goes down and wake when the sun comes up. In the wild, that would be 10-12 hours sleep a day. In my house, it's maybe 8, at best. So if I cover the cage, it delays the time when the sun comes up and gives the fellow a bit more sleep time. An aside -- I've also read that many times behavior problems and nippy birds can be traced back to lack of enough sleep. I found that to come close to home, as sleep is a precious commodity in my house!

Zsa Zsa Gabird LOL I like it!

I ran across the Chet Womach site in the past, too, and came to the same conclusion. He may be perfectly legit, but the site is too much like a snake oil salesman for my tastes. Here's a link to the site where I found the clicker training material I'm using. http://www.avitrain.com/

I just started clicker training with my 21 month old TAG. He's catching on so fast it's blowing my mind. My question is "would he be learning this quickly without the clicker?". I tend to think yes, but the clicker is working so I'm going to stick with it at least for a while. His two "tricks" (both learned within the past couple of months) are 1) poop on command and 2) following the pointer. According to the training manual I'm reading, getting him to follow a pointer (or target, they call it) is the basis for teaching lots of other behaviors.

This afternoon I brought Oliver into my office as I always do, as he loves to go there with me. This time as we passed through the door he panicked and squawked and flapped and tried to climb up my neck. Someone had turned the ceiling fan on and he saw it as a giant predator. I don't usually have it on, evidently I haven't had it on with him in the room yet. My point is that you might want to look carefully for some change in the environment around his cage, even something as innocent as a ceiling fan could be terrifying to him.

The people I got Oliver from complained that he would peep all night. I don't think they knew covering the cage was an option. I have been putting a black sheet over his cage every night since he came to live with me (3 months now) and he appears to be comforted by it. When he sees me bringing the sheet out he gets excited, hanging upside down from the top or climbing on the bars -- I'll tickle his belly through the bars and I would swear he giggles -- then I put the cover on and he goes silent immediately. If I peek under the cover, I'll see him on his sleeping perch with one leg tucked up, ready to sleep. I do leave the bottom 12 inches or so uncovered, so if he wants to see out he can go to the bottom of the cage and look out. I should point out that it isn't pitch black under there. It's darker than the rest of the room, but still enough light to see. I think the benefit is to give him the illusion of being in a protected place, as if the cover were some sort of solid wall keeping the boogie man out.

I found Oliver in one of the scarier neighborhoods around here - the kind of place you don't go into after dark, and preferably not alone in daylight. He was living in an apartment that reeked of mildew and had been surviving in a roach-infested cage on a diet of stale Hartz seed mix from the grocery store's pet section. He made me think of Dickens' little orphan Oliver Twist and I could just imagine him becoming a flighted pickpocket ...

LOL, we ALL deserve karma for the pain and suffering these hooked beaks have inflicted on us! :lol:

Thanks, Judy -- That felt good!

Hey, Judy, I just replaced one of your karmas. Not that you'd notice it with the stockpile you have

Hey, Tickle, you'll be suprised at how quickly your grey learns what "poop" means. I don't think it took Oliver more than a half-dozen trips to the potty-place over two or three days before he was fairly consistently going on command. These guys are so smart!

Yay, Terri, good move forward! Oliver is still in the same place. He'll go when I tell him to, even if it's just to squeeze out the tiniest bit. But it's up to me to remember to take him where I want him to go often enough to keep the urge from hitting when he's in a no-poop zone. If I can just teach him to only go on newspapers I'll be happy. Then I would just have to be sure to have a paper nearby wherever he hangs out. Happy New Year, everybody!

Periodically, Oliver will wash his head and beak (and everything within a 3-foot radius) by splashing away in his water bowl. If I try to "help" (he spells that "i-n-t-e-r-f-e-r-e") by giving him a bigger bowl of water or replentishing the water he's splashed out, he stops. Maybe Bruce's suggestion of always keeping a 'bathtub' available to her will do the trick. Also, in another thread, there was talk of grey's loving to play in ice water. Maybe a ice-cube floating in the swimmin' hole will encourage her.

Thank you! I love a non-ambiguous, straightforward and confident answer

I have a question about the aloe vera juice. I have been using a commercially sold bath spray, but I'm running low so I went to Walmart this morning and bought a gallon of aloe vera juice (Fruit of The Earth brand, 99.8% pure, from organically grown, cold pressed aloe, no sugars, starches or thickeners). Is this the correct product? It appears to be intended as a drink... Sashagirl mentioned there's a difference between juice and distilled liquid. Which is which?

DebT wrote: I know exactly what you mean! Seems like everything is a controversy with these birds. The article I read that suggested the walnuts gave two lists, an A list and a B list. Flax seed oil was on the A list and walnuts and red palm oil were on the B list. The author said I should choose one from each list to combine in the diet. Like you, I have a hard time being sure who to believe, but here's the link to the article if you're interested. http://community.livejournal.com/featherpicking/33122.html

By the way, I can't remember if flax seed oil has been mentioned in these threads concerning plucking and feather condition? I got the recipe for Oliver's breakfast from one of Sally Blanchard's articles, and it includes a drop of flaxseed oil. She seems certain flax seed oil is what keeps her birds' feathers in top condition. Another article I read suggested serving a small amount of crushed walnuts along with the flax seed oil, indicating the walnuts contain something that complements the flax seed oil.

Yay! Here's something Oliver is good at! At least, he isn't bad at it I, too, take Oliver into the bathroom with me when I shower. I don't take him into the shower itself, he doesn't seem to be ready for that. I do put him on a tabletop perch on the vanity and leave the shower door open so he can see while I ooh and ahhh and talk about how good the water feels. When it's time for his shower, I put the tabletop perch in the bottom of the shower stall and put him on it. He knows a shower is coming, so if I just put him on the floor of the shower he runs. On the perch, he stays put long enough for me to spray him. He does bite at the nozzle and he is irritated with me for doing it, but he doesn't get outright pissed. Sometimes if he really isn't in the mood for a shower, he'll squawk and flap when I approach the shower with him. At those times, I take the perch out, put him on it, then put it into the shower with him already on it. So far, the second approach has always worked...

So you got a jump start on your new year's resolutions, huh? Cross off the "name the bird" item! Elmo is a great name for The Bird With No Name!

Also, you might want to pick up a bottle of Camicide for shooting the buggers that come out into the open. I found it at my local exotic pet store, in the bird dept. It is advertised as being safe to use around birds, though I would of course take normal precautions. It comes in a pump bottle, so you don't have to worry about the aerosol overspray. Works wonders.

Oliver says to tell you that you are no longer his friend. :lol: Seriously, I'm glad you posted this. I try not to give Oliver many grapes, but I usually end up giving him a couple a day 3 or 4 times a week. In other words, if I give him one, I usually follow it up with a second. He loves them so! But I will restrain based on your research. Thank you for digging into the subject for us, birdmom.

I've never heard of that, Joe. What happens then? Do they eat the butter and die, or does it make them go away? Or do they go into the glass and get trapped? I have to know the rest of the story! :woohoo:

Glad you're back, Joe. Merry Christmas!

Flip Wilson? Ah, Dave, what memories that evokes B) Sandy, another way to tell -- if your grey lays an egg, it's a female. :laugh: