LisaM

If you buy "used" online, you might not know for sure, but if you buy a new cage from a reputable company online you can be assured of good quality and safe for the birds. A lot of people like the King's cages and Island Cages. Your profile says you're in Ft. Lauderdale...one idea would be to call Parrot Jungle Island in Miami and ask if they know of any quality bird supply stores in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area where you could find a good cage. Good luck! You can find good used ones though online but you have to personally check them out and I would clean thoroughly and spray them down with a disinfectant really well before bringing into your home. Lisa

I took in a 12 year old female CAG about 18 months ago. I am very lucky in that she had very little baggage whatsoever. She was in a loving home that just knew they couldn't care for her like she deserved anymore so wanted to find someone who could and would. Within a couple weeks she started picking up words and phrases from our house (like "Go lay down" when our dog starts whining"). She still stays things that we haven't heard before and we've never said as far as I know so she's kept that somewhere inside from her previous home(s) (the woman had gotten her from a rescue organization so we don't know her history for her first 6 years really). Fortunately nothing too bad (yet!) :-). Also, I'm taking her age as I was told just as she did from the rescue org. I guess it doesn't really matter as hopefully she'll live out a few more decades anyway. She's never bitten (well, once...but my husband deserved it for not paying attention) and settled into our home within a month. Not telling you what you should do, just letting you know that not all rehomed birds have major issues. Sometimes it's just a really good home that for whatever reason want or need to find a new home for the bird. Often it's because they love the bird and care for them that they want them in a better place than they feel they can provide. You can tell sometimes by how many questions they ask YOU about what you know and how you would care for them and your experience and if you have an avian vet picked out and what kind of cage do you have and do you have a playstand and...I was on the phone for over two hours before the woman agreed to have me come meet with her and the birds in her home. She asked me to bring pictures of my home and where I would be putting the cages, etc. I knew she really cared about the home she was sending her birds into (it was actually my CAG and male ekkie at the same time). Lisa

Tee - I used to use a drop or two of GSE in the water bowls in my finch aviary. There were multiple birds in there and it was what my vet recommended to try to keep bacteria growth down in the water between changing it (i did change it in the morning and evening every day). The birds would bathe in the same dishes as they drank so it was just an extra precaution. I have heard of people mixing a solution with some GSE and water and using that to disinfect. Nutrobiotic GSE is available on www.nutriteam.com site. That's the one I used. That side has links to all the benefits of GSE and the many uses for disinfecting toothbrushes and cutting boards to cleaning houses to taking internally for sore throats and much more. I don't think the brand is important. Many co-ops and natural foods places may have this by their personal care products. Lisa

1) My husband is an aspiring Opera performer (tenor) 2) I was in the Army National Guard as a Medic and a Behavioral Science Specialist during Operation Desert Storm in the early 90's. 3) I lost 70 lbs two years ago (and have gained 20 back - yikes!) 4) I have degrees in Criminal Justice and Psychology, which have absolutely nothing to do with my job as a Production Manager in a medical device company (well, sometimes each may come in handy a bit!) 5) I hate the word "moist"...always have, always will. 6) Our 10 year old basset hound won 1st Place High in Trial at the 2005 National Basset Obedience Trials. 7) I have a very irrational fear of sharks in that it really only bothers me when I'm flying over the ocean in an airplane...for some reason not while I'm scuba-diving IN the ocean. Must have something to do with how I died in a former life...:-) 8) I'm a diehard MN Vikings fan who secretly wanted to see the Packers make it to the Superbowl this year (shhhh...don't tell anyone!) 9) We just started a civil trial this past Tuesday after a 4-year legal battle with a building contractor who put an addition on our home 4 years ago. Horribly stressful. 10) I can't stop my infatuation with Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs. I'm not really trying to though.

I use a product called Oxyfresh. I get it from our local parrot supply stores (Parrotislandinc.com and thesoaringspirit.com are their websites, but I live nearby so I go in person). It is what they both use for cleaning their bird cages and their entire stores. It's a concentrate that is mixed 1 Tbsp to 32 oz of water and comes in a 32 fl oz size so it lasts forever. It is bird-safe and kills a ton of stuff...as in the following story... I used to have many finches (lady gouldian, owl, cordon blue, etc) in a large aviary. They started dying one every couple of months. After the third one died I brought them to the University of MN for a necropsy. Turned out they had avian microbacterium something or other (it was awhile ago so I forgot exactly what it was). At any rate, it was highly contagious to humans with compromised immune systems and other birds. Fortunately I kept my parrots in an entirely different room at the time. I worked with an avian vet who was in tears when she called me to say after calling her peers around the country that my only real option was to euthanize the whole flock unless I wanted to keep putting my parrots in danger (and potential visitors to my house). It was super expensive to pay to have birds tested and then even more to treat them and the treatment may or may not be effective. This was not something feasible for me to do with 16 finches so I did the most difficult thing I'd ever done, even though it was really the only option for me. I did have my parrots tested (and tested again 6 months later) and they were "clean". The whole reason for this long story is that the vet said I would have had to get rid of any carpet if I had any (I didn't) and recommended that I clean my whole house with Oxyfresh in order to kill the bacteria. I told her that it was what I used on all my bird cages, supplies and really my whole house anyway. She felt that was a big contributing factor as to how I avoided having my parrots catch the disease from the finches. That and I always performed any care/feeding/maintenance on the parrots first before the finches so that helped with the "bio-security" aspect of not passing something from the finches to the parrots also. Sorry for the long message. From a functional standpoint, I spray this on any dried poop and within a matter of minutes it wipes right up with a paper towel. I actually prefer it to poop-off as I don't really like the smell of that stuff. It works equally as well, if not better, in my opinion. Oh, and in case anyone is interested in a one-stop cleanser, the bottle itself says it can be used as body shampoo, bubble batch, shaving cream, spot remover, dish soap, "And Much More!". It actually says nothing about cleaning houses or bird supplies. But it works and was recommended highly by my vet and my local parrot-supply shops. Okay, it was a little more than two cents worth, but I hope it helped. Oh, and just wanted to mention that Windex has an ammonia-free version now...I will wouldn't use it around birds but thought I'd throw it out there. Lisa

Ronda - we have a male eclectus. We call him our Teddy Bird. He will go to anyone. Both of my kids can handle him easily (9 and 6 y/o). He has never even attempted to bite anyone. We can touch him anywhere. He is the only one of our parrots with "shoulder priviledges". He's a complete doll. I would definitely consider them if you're not sure about another 'too. Lisa

If there is anyone on here who has figured out how to keep up with the floor mess around a cage, please fill the rest of us in! :-) I'm still wondering what I'm going to do when my dog passes away because I know she does a lot of the floor cleaning for me! That's an awesome step for Dorian! You may be surprised to find yourself wishing back to the days when he would stay put for awhile. I'm always hearing little birdie feet running across the hardwood or tile floors in my house. If I leave the room for more than a few minutes, they come looking for me! (okay, it's actually really cute).

I have a 13 year old female CAG who definitely prefers women, particularly me. She will step up to my husband but he's the only man she will do that to. She will go to any adult woman and to my 9 year old daughter. I am the only one she puts her head down and lets skritch her neck though. She let my mom do it once but we're thinking that it was because it was late in the evening and for a few minutes she thought it was me. (he he he). She figured it out after a few minutes and has never let her do it again. We've only had her for 1 year and a half and the woman who had her before us for 6 years said she was fearful of men (her husband was never able to hold her). She was in a rescue shelter prior to that so we don't know her history to know if anything happened that turned her off from men when she was younger. Probably not helpful but it's one example of a female CAG who has chosen a woman (me) as her best bud. Lisa

You're right. I was imagining a small bottle of red oil. What I found was a large mason type jar with this weird stuff in it. I'll have to grab some and see. I need to look more into how it would impact my ekkies though or if it's too much fat for them because my littlest girl is such a piggie that she'll go eat some of my CAG's food any time she feels like it. Thanks. Lisa

I was at a Fresh and Natural Foods store buying sprouting seeds/beans for my birds and saw a big jar of Red Palm Oil. I don't remember the brand but it might have been something with "Safari" in the name. It was reddish (which I would imagine) but it had tiny little pieces of orange fleshy stuff in it...it does look a little like the stuff in the palm nuts. Is this the right Red Palm Oil? I was imagining something very different than that. Lisa

Sorry for the really long post, but this is copied from another site and it has helped people with birds that were not trusting to start building that trust. I do this often with all my birds (it's fun!). My two ekkies will initiate it with me now. My CAG doesn't always blink along but she does about 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time she just looks at me like I have three heads. :-) Good luck! Lisa ----------------------------------------------------- Here is a description by Mary Nogare of how to play the "blinking game": The blinking game is a game to play with your parrot that simulates parrot body language believed to express comfort, security and trust. The idea of using this body language is to communicate in a way that a parrot instinctively understands as a bridge to trustbuilding. You can do this any time and anywhere - even if you are just trying to convey a gentle "I love you" to your parrot - on a playtree, on your hand, or on/in a cage. We will describe it with the bird inside the cage, since that is a good place to start with a bird that is wild, afraid, not used to humans, not used to nice humans, etc. With her inside her cage, enter the room with a happy, gentle smile and expression on your face. Speak gently and calmly to her and praise her. Go near her cage but not right up to it. Ensure she can see your face and eyes. Greet her (so you are sure she is looking at you). Then slowly close your eyes. Hold them closed for a count of three and then slowly open them. You don't have to open them sssslllllloooooowwwwwwlllllllyyyy - just open them gently - don't "snap" them open. Then repeat. Watch her for a second, but ensure your gaze is gentle - even if you have to lower your eyes just a little and not look at her straight-on (this can be an important step for a frightened parrot - when your bird trusts and knows you, you can look "straight-on" - just keep the gaze gentle). She may blink back. It may be a quick blink. Blink back in the slow blink described. Praise her gently. She may now give you a longer blink back - maybe fluttering her eyelids just a little bit. By closing her eyelids for any length of time, she is showing you trust and is responding to your overture of trust. Do it one more time...blink slowly, praise gently. Watch for her response. End of session. You don't want to overdo it. Next time you try it (whether from inside her cage or from a playtree, etc), she may respond more quickly with a long blink of her own. Praise her and repeat the blink.... If you do the blink from a place away from the cage (where she is out of the cage) ensure your face and nose are sufficiently far away that if she should spook, she will not lunge and grab you by your handy nose-handle while your eyes are closed. Eclectus typically would not do that, but it is best to be safe. Sometimes, the birds will blink, hold their eyelids closed for a second, then open them just a tiny bit to see if your eyelids are still closed. After she is comfortable responding to your blinking, you can keep your eyes shut for a bit longer - birds seem to enjoy that, and will also lengthen the time they keep their eyes shut...sometimes peeking as above. After she is used to communicating with you in this way, you will find that you can play the "blinking game" even from across a room - as long as she can see your face and eyes, she can see the exaggerated blinking of this body language communication.

I have a 13 year old basset hound (they're supposed to live 10-12). She is very well-trained (well, for a basset who could care less, that is). She will lie on the floor and just watch or totally ignore the birds if they're walking around. The birds have climbed onto her back while she's laying down and she just sits there. She will actually give them several feet of space if she has to walk by them. THEY seem to trust her 100%. I trust her 99.9% that she would never, ever do anything harmful to the birds. However, even as confident as I am, that .1% chance that something freaks her out, the birds "beak" her or screech when on her or something out of the ordinary, I do not have them in the same room unless either me or my husband are right there. If they are near each other we are within arms reach). It just wouldn't be worth it for the small inconvenience of either taking the dog out of the room or caging the birds. Dan - I can only imagine that your heart skipped a few beats when you saw that happen! It's so easy to forget when "all is well" in the house and you just have to run for a second. I know I have done that many times and though nothing has ever happened like what happened with Chloe and Dayo it could have. I'm glad Dayo was unharmed physically by the event. Lisa

www.drsfostersmith.com has what they call a "safety pumice perch". It has a smooth top and bottom and just the sides have the pumice. I have one in each of my birds' cages and they love them. One of my girls' nails grew so fast I can't keep bringing her to the vet (plus it's winter and I don't want to bring them outside if not an emergency). I looked at all of my birds on their perches and their feet don't touch the rough stuff, just their nails. It has worked wonders on all of them and we have no problems holding any of them anymore and no more unwanted skin piercings on our hands/arms! :-) Lisa

Christo - I did order the bird-elicious food from them to add to my dry mix. My ekkies both love it...and again my female ekkie will charge over to my CAG's cage to try to eat hers (it's a different species mix though so I'm not letting her even though it's probably still okay). My grey will only eat it right now if I hand-feed her little pieces or if I add warm water to it and make it the consistency of chunky baby food...they ALL love it then! It has a lot of great ingredients (and nothing that required a Google look-up to see what it is!). I'm still trying to wean my grey off the Pretty Bird African Grey pellets she loves so much. It's a slow process but the more things I can get her to eat, the better. I did get her to try a little of the palm nut fruit...but I had to take the nut itself out and dice up the fruit more. Lisa

1) Scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef 2) 2-3 week vacation taking in the entire country of Chile (South to North). 3) African Safari ending with a jaunt up Mt. Kilimanjaro. 4) See my husband perform on stage in an opera...he's a tenor! (He started this interest a few years ago and now works with various coaches 5-6 times per week). I would be so happy to see him accomplish his dream. 5) I'm with you guys on seeing the kids grow up to be great adults and parents. Laurie - have a blast in the Keys! My dad lives on Big Pine. We love it down there! Key West is awesome for people watching and everyone is very friendly. Lisa

A whole egg seems like a lot for one bird...how frequently do you give them that? Also, what specifically do you give for the treats and the goodies? I have found that my birds (CAG and 2 Eclectus) all consume between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of food each day total...and much of that is thrown on the floor for the dog or just out of the cage because they feel like it. There is always some left as they just take nibbles out of veggies and fruits and don't consume all their "dry" mix either. Sometimes the only evidence of consumption is the crumbs they leave behind. There are days when I think mine didn't eat hardly anything but then they look like they're always having a little bite of this or that. As long as her weight is good, I wouldn't worry about the volume of food she is eating as much as the quality and variety of the food she's getting. Unless she's overweight, I don't think having too much food in there is a problem for anything but your pocketbook! :-) Lisa

There are truly different "cold" temps. Also, my dad calls from the Florida Keys and apologizes for complaining about when it gets down to the 60's... 60 degrees to him probably feels the same as 10 degrees does to me! So I say to him if the worst thing going on is that we have to complain about the weather than all is going pretty well, right? Wherever you are, keep warm...and that means different things to different people in different places, right? (like the three girls who were wearing yellow bikini tops at the Packers/Giants game last night...apparently they REALLY wanted to get on TV. It worked.) And Joe - I really didn't want the Giants to win but as a Vikings fan I had to cheer for them vs. the Packers! And then I REALLY had to hope the kicker made that final field goal attempt after missing the other two (even though the second wasn't really his fault). I felt so bad for him. Take care, all!

That is so cute! None of my parrots ever hang upside down unless it's from my fingers. And then to hang upside down facing away from the toys and then sticking his head between his legs...quite a smart cookie you got there! :-)

Great idea to just use the one nut for both of them instead of wasting two each try! Yet another "palm strike to one's own forehead" moment. :-)

Let's see if this works...tried to make the picture smaller. Nope, that didn't work either. I give up. You guys will just have to trust me that both of the subjects in the picture are adorable! :-)<br><br>Post edited by: LisaM, at: 2008/01/21 00:04

I don't have one of me either (I'm always the one taking the pics/videos). This is our 9 y/o daughter and our 9 y/o SI Eclectus, Max.<br><br>Post edited by: LisaM, at: 2008/01/20 23:48

-11 degrees this morning here when my husband had to leave the house(not counting the windchill factor...the "feels like" said -24). Crazy cold. We call this the 5th season in MN. (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Way Too Freakin' Cold!). Fortunately I've been hanging out in my slippers and sweats inside all day! And hey, warm thoughts going out to all those Packer fans tailgating before the game! Lisa

Well I got my new Bird-elicious foods and the palm nuts today. My CAG wouldn't have anything to do with them. My female SI just about lost her mind when I walked into the room and dropped a palm nut into my Grey's treat bowl. I don't think it even hit the bottom before she flew over to the Grey's cage and ran towards the bowl. I took her back to her cage and gave her one in her treat bowl and she proceeded to rip into that thing and shred it like mad. I don't think she actually consumed much at all of the fibrous fruit but boy did she have fun! It happened so fast I didn't even have time to get new batteries put into my camera to take a picture. I did end up smashing them up a bit so they could see what was on the inside but the other two (male SI and CAG) just looked at me with their "you've gotta be kidding" look. As for the Bird-elicious food itself, again my female SI devoured it, which is great. She came into my family after having 3 1/2 years of a diet of almost all seeds and a poor-quality pellets. Thankfully she'll just dive into anything new so transitioning her hasn't been a problem (still not great on fresh veggies but if I chop them all up super fine and mix together she'll eat them). I like the fact that you can mix the foods with warm (filtered) water to soften it up as my male and CAG are more likely to try new foods if they're of the "cooked" variety. I also like the fact that they have no added vitamins and no preservatives, pesticides, artificial coloring, sugars, starches...everything in the ingredients list is actually identifyable without a dictionary or a google look-up! I'm going to keep trying with my CAG on the palm nuts (and I think I may need to limit them to a couple a week for my ekkies...need to check with the vet on that). I hope she starts to enjoy them. I'm sure it will happen in time. Lisa

Jim - take it from someone who ended up waiting about 4 YEARS from the start of "wanting a parrot" to actually taking one into our family...it is well worth the wait to be sure you have the information and the lifestyle that is conducive to building the relationship these wonderful birds require. Read the good stuff and the "pain in the butt" stuff, because you'll get plenty of both! :-) It's best to know what you're getting into so you can prevent having to find a new home for the bird. I'm glad you've decided to wait. It's a hard thing to do when you're excited about it but it is the best thing for both you and your future companion. Lisa

One of the things that worked for my husband when we first got our birds and my CAG wouldn't have anything to do with him was for me to be playing on the floor with her and then when I got up and walked away (still talking to her but not taking her with me) she wouldn't want to be on the floor anymore. She hates being on the floor alone so she would go to anyone if she's in that situation. Enough times (can't say how many) of him "rescuing" her and he was able to approach her in more situations (first from the play stand, then from the outside of her cage, then from the inside of her cage). We have had her for a year and a half (she is 13) and she still won't let him skritch her and I don't know if she ever will, but she does let him pick her up now). Just don't push him. It can take awhile (up to weeks/months) for any bird to get comfortable in a new home, and I think it's even more difficult for greys. Good luck! I'm sure you will soon find Boo a very rewarding addition to your family, even if he doesn't "warm up" to everyone equally! Please keep us posted on Boo's progress and integration into your home and into your life! Lisa