chezron

Seawee wants a crawfish!

Wow! What a set up you have at your house. Parrot Heaven! Your birds look very content. Congratulations! My Amazon and Grey visit each other's cages, but if one of them doesn't like it then the other moves off pretty quickly with no battles or blood shed. Pancho, the Amazon, sometimes eats in Brutus' cage. I bet your Greys will be very happy together.

Brutus and Jimpster compete on who can fly faster when I call them. Sometimes Brutus adds in flight difficulties and he feels he deserves extra points for doing a tricky move. I always recognize their expertise in the air. They are always so proud of themselves! It sure is fun to watch them fly.

I am so glad and relieved that the vet visit went well. I can just hear Peck breathe a sigh of relief now that his beak and nails have been trimmed. Good for you both! Keep the stories coming! I love reading about Peck, especially from someone who is such a good Mommy!

I rarely watch TV and I hate commercials, so I listen to commercial-free music on the internet. They don't get much exposure to "talking."

Since my husband left, Brutus has been making up words. He used to learn all of his vocabulary from husband, and I guess he misses the input? He makes up words and then he says them with GREAT conviction, like the meaning is common knowledge. He say the new words all of the time now. His words sound like: Blech, smarss (rhymes with Mars), ohssse (rhymes with dose), focker (rhymes with rocker), and others. Sometimes he uses them in sentences. He just said, "Esh focker, and then "focker focker." I don't swear around them so it is definitely not f**ker. Do your parrots do this? And, if they do what does it mean? I obviously am a slow student!

I am thinking of having a whole house fan installed to help defray A/C costs. All of my friends SWEAR by them to delay using A/C. Anyway, one of my neighbors has an old whole house fan and she turned it on, and it has really powerful suction. I am worried now that it could hurt the birds if they flew too near the inlet. Do any of you who own a grey also own a whole house fan? Of course i can make sure they are in their cages when i run it, but since they are so rarely IN their cages that could be difficult.

Judy gram, He really, really is a sweet heart! I love my little boy so much! He is six years old now and definitely out of the terrible twos. He doesn't fling his food as far as he used to and I am glad about that.

Greywings, I am not sure "WHO" is training who. I think I am a good student

This is what happens. Brutus will swing his head around and touch the skin between my nose and my lips with his closed beak, while I make a smacking sound. He will do this many times a day, usually several times in a row. He seems to like the contact. He will even say, "Brutus wants a kiss" i think it is sweet. I wish I had a picture. Also if I say "Wheel of Fortune" he will fly to my hand because he knows he gets head scratches during the show, so anytime is show time!

Don't worry about flight training or talking! Both will come in time. His time table may be a little slower than you would like. Brutus is six now and he is an expert flyer. I love to watch him make split second changes to his flight path to avoid obstacles, etc. He is just a master and he knows it! It makes him so proud of himself, and I'm a proud Mama too.

Hi Cedric, I have a Quaker, a Grey, and a Panama Amazon. My Grey loves the Quaker. They horse around all the time. You know the bossy Quaker personality! Even though the Amazon (Pancho) and my Grey don't interact, Brutus, the grey, talks about Pancho, and I am sure he would miss him if he were gone. Brutus, the grey, picked me, I looked for over a year before I found him, and I knew at once when I picked him up. It is also really important to give them a good diet of fresh organic vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes with a little nut, meat, and eggs. Keep in mind to feed my guys takes a lot of time and preparation, not to mention it costs money to feed them well! I also learned from my vet about the importance of taking them, especially the grey, out into the sunlight, several times a week, for at least 20 minutes. This makes sense because they evolved at the equator with 12 hours of sunlight every day! Keep the time and effort required to have healthy parrots in mind when you think about owning parrots. I probably spend 3-5 hours a week shopping for and preparing food. At my vet's suggestion I also feed them a cooked chicken drumstick BONE once a week for the nutrients. My guys are beautiful and I think not at all neurotic, and really calm (for the most part). I believe their diet, and exposure to outdoor sun really plays an important role in how well-adjusted and calm they are. I think you need to do some soul-searching and determine if you can give them the time they need. Remember, you are single now, but girlfriends have a way of changing your priorities. I got Pancho because his former owner's new girlfriend couldn't stand birds and so he sold him to the pet store I bought him from. Poor little Pancho sat in a dingy, unlit cage for three years before I got him. Just some food for thought! Good luck with your process.

Sweet story! Thanks for sharing.

Hi Nancy, I have been returning to this thread in hopes of finding good news for Zoey. My thoughts were with you both. I am so sad that she never recovered. The pain you must go through is tough. At least you loved with your whole heart and didn't hold back even though the pain now is intense. I think to love that much is worth it. Please know that others share your grief.

Brutus is my little comedian. I totally think they know it when they are being funny. I think they enjoy being funny, AND I think, they think, we are WAY too serious.

Brutus blushes frequently. I take it as a positive sign. Look at the white area around the eyes it turns pinkish. Keep up the good work Quirky! Patience and kindness work wonders!

I am thinking of you both and hope Zoey gets better.

So happy for you and Gracie!

Beware! They are ALWAYS watching! you caught them, ahem, red-handed.

I am thinking of Zoey and hope she gets better. I am sorry you have to go through this.

Though not the same as a hanging gym, I have an atom hanging from the air vent. I put a piece of plastic tarp underneath and I clean the tarp. The gym Dan has looks great! I didn't know those existed. My grey especially likes to hang upside down and twirl.

Jeff, That experience sounds really traumatic! Sorry you had to go through it. Good thing you had your empathetic Gracie!

That was so funny! I am glad he is okay.

Brutus helped me in the kitchen yesterday. As I was baking a cake I lined up things for him to "help me with" to keep him busy. First, he removed the top from an empty container of cream, then he removed the knots from the string ties in my produce bags, then he dropped all of the cloth shopping bags, one-by-one, on the floor, then he removed the tissues, one-by-one, from the box, and finally, he shredded the peel of a recently eaten orange. He was a big help! After baking the cake I had to clean the floor of bags, tissues, and orange peel. Thanks Brutus! I bet your grey is a big help in the kitchen too.

"She LOVES her bedtime stories. " That is so cute! i will have to try that.