birdhouse

I admit I feel guilty to some degree. But it's kind of like the type of guilt when male friends & I don't agree about our relationship. Fortunately, it doesn't impact my relationship w/my fids & they get over it a whole lot faster ( until the next time anyway). To the best of my knowledge, they don't hold a grudge. lol And the trade off, I hope, is quality of life as compared to being in the wild. They're pretty much always safe. There's always good food & lots of it. They're healthy. Many more days than not, they seem at least to be pretty happy about their idyllic if not perfect existence.

All those who voted to see the pics... take it back before you see something you can't un-see. Trust me! And once it's too late, & you can never again look at a sponge w/o cringing a little, my humble suggestion is to use a dish cloth/rag from then on. They rinse & dry very well, so they aren't the little germ incubators that sponges are. You almost wash them clean by hand after each use. Periodic soak in a little vinegar & a bit of time in the sun to disinfect. No poop to settle in the bottom of the washing machine. No poop in the dishwasher. And no cross contamination w/human food clean up if you use a different one for the birdie clean up & another for the people food.

Yeah, I've always felt badly for PA. Seems like no matter where the worst of the winter weather comes from, it always goes through PA. I would think you'd really have to have a pret-ty high tolerance to live there. No matter how used to winter any area is though, there's not much to do about ice & blizzard conditions except dig out after it's gone. Unfortunately much of what was left behind after our first blizzard froze in place & more feet of mess kept coming. Many more. When I say there's no place left to put it, I mean they're seriously talking about dumping into the waterways. Isn't that lovely!?! The meteorologists forecast two, sometimes three fronts at a time. A rather ugly cycle of snow & ice storms, blizzards & most recently brutal cold. Now you guys are in the cross hairs, too. I know just to make bad matters that much worse your storms tend to ice also. The good news is that it's pretty likely going to come & go a lot more quickly than our lot at least. But still, not quickly enough for people w/dinged up cars & downed fences (:eek: ...really sorry about that!). 'Misery may love company', but I wouldn't wish this on anyone. Hope your snow days are done while they're still "fun". I certainly wouldn't argue w/you, SterlingSL. I'm reasonably convinced the Stork dropped me. I'm thinking, I was originally supposed to have ended up right about here. :cool:

Oh my aching back! Sadly, that isn't even a polite figure of speech. Sheer madness to think that just about 3 wks ago, it was so outrageously warm for January in New England. It was actually 53 °F & we all thought we were so lucky. No idea that 2 wks later it would be -6 °F! I don't even remember wind chills of -35 °F before this. Which is not to say I hadn't block it out of my mind, though! lol Hard to think we might have to outlive 3 months of this exceptionally brutal winter since we can easily see significant snow into early May. Crazy thing how the pictures literally don't measure up unless you actually know what you're looking at. But we're down to 3'ish feet of snow on the ground thanks to some freezing rain & a couple of "warmer" days. There are 6 foot tall drifts are all over though. I can't help thinking the ground is certainly going to seem a very long way down if this stuff ever goes away!

Awww! Congratulations! So where's the pictures??

Somehow I missed the part of this thread where aviary got finished. That's so gorgeous. I know you've said it was a lot more time & money than you'd originally planned. But do you feel like it was worth it in the end? It certainly looks like it's going to give everyone a lot of pleasure for a lot of years. Us too, I hope. lol In other words, got any recent videos?

Been thinking about this since I read it. Wish I knew a ref in that area. And the way things are in New England, people that might drive surprisingly far just can't because of the extreme situation w/the snow (brutal!). This also reminded me of when I first got Kura. Among their other offenses, they'd had her in that size cage. I set her up in a big bird cage & she just couldn't handle it. Ekkies are admittedly clumsy & she had apparently been there for most of her first year which no doubt helped stunt her coordination. But she initially took some super scary falls until I had brains enough to switch to a cage that was way too small by conventional standards. It took several cages & the better part of a year for her develop adequate strength & coordination for a normal cage for a bird of her size. Wondering if any of these guys are going to have similar issues?

My apologies in advance to TL's, but desperate times & all... The smaller birds are "shelve-able". Maybe put them back into temporary, smaller containment? This would only be for a couple of months vs euthanasia is forever. For that matter, no matter how harsh it may sound, the bigger guys are used to something a lot less than wonderful. Can you put them up in something smaller than ideal for the time being? Again, it's only for the short term. Once you get the big aviary in place, everyone will be all set.

That is a wonderful gift! Maybe even a little sweeter because of it's history! Congratulations!!

Wow! Think I've said that before. lol But Wow!

"Flipped a switch" is exactly how I describe Phenix' attitude adjustment during mating season. Normally, he's, well, complicated. ") We've been together for 25 yrs, but he had a checkered past before that. Wild caught & diagnosed as "terminally insane", he's come a long, long way. But he's a biter & he has trust issues. Prickly...? Yes! Cuddly...? No-o! Worth the effort...? Absolutely!!! If your fid is like mine, the next month'ish would be a very good time for new advances. I think you did wonderfully by getting on the floor. There's some debate about height & dominance. I don't know what I think about that. But I feel strongly that a scared bird doesn't get any comfort from being towered over & can you really blame them? I think the biting spree you endured was huge for a few reasons. You stood your ground & got a whole new classification in your grey's eyes. It also established that, at heart, she's not as mean as she might be. If you tried that w/Phenix he would have sent you to the emergency room. No exaggeration. To him, that would have read as confrontational & defiant. The longer it continued, the more he would have been frightened into an escalated response. I don't let him get the last lick in a contest of wills. But it does need to be a dialogue w/him. Oh, & he's got a filthy temper once he gets going. Especially in the beginning, he'd go into a blind rage that nothing could placate. All bad when that happens. Your baby is still deciding about the new flock. She only had the one home w/a parront who fed & weaned her. She's actually given you quite a bit of positive interaction since the beginning. Your relationship is probably always going to be forward & back because that's just how grey's are. They're so smart, incredibly emotional & in some ways you could swear they were almost human. But they are Greys & make no mistake! That's shorthand for hard to decode. Time + Patience = Success ...thing is there's no limit to the amount of time or patience & success is relative. lol You've got some very good instincts & should be pretty pleased w/both yourself & your fid at this point. It sounds like you have a lot of potential together. In the meantime, if you start to question it, you can always come here for reinforcement. :cool: You're both doing an awesome job! Keep up the good work!:cool:

Sorry no one was around to help while Echo was actually having problems . Glad to hear he's okay, though.

I'd always read it was just better to avoid waxed cups all around. Among other things, the wax contains BPA & is petroleum based. Human studies suggest food from these types of containers may also contribute to heart & digestive among other types of disorders just from the small amount of chemicals they leach into our food & drinks. http://preventdisease.com/news/14/030514_Your-Stomach-Digestive-Tract-Can-Collect-Significant-Amounts-of-Wax-By-Using-These-Daily.shtml And that little vid is much too cute!

Murfchck just posted a spaghetti treat off Felix' face book page. There are a bunch of potentially interesting warm & cold drink recipes posted there, too. https://www.facebook.com/FelixLaFollett/notes

Thanks! That sounds fun. Some of the other things on that page look like the might be worth trying, also.

Isn't it fun! So awesome for both of you that Alfie actually enjoys getting new toys! You must have done something very right w/him. ") Like those grass mats. Nice that whoever markets bird toys has finally realized they like all the different colors, textures & shapes. It wasn't so long ago that everything was wood blocks & plastic links. We just got a pretty huge bunch from Amazon over the holidays. They were on sale & I was using them to pad orders up for free freight. Now, everything I got practically is ridiculous prices. But they made out while it lasted! http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?202183-Very-Fun-Amazon-Order!&p=312727#top

Traffic allowing, I'm about 15-20 min from Providence. And most of us around here would have trade places w/you in a NY minute. Most everything, w/the exception of schools, may have been back to business as usual on Wednesday. Not like we're supposed to be effected by a little snow, being New England & all. But the reality is getting around is a nightmare. I have a front wheel drive car & I had to back it 1/2 mile up hill to get out of my neighborhood, yesterday. I also had to dig a guy out of the snowbank by my house. He was just trying to take the corner & skid in the slop even though he was going like no miles per hour. It would probably have taken another week before we actually got some semblance of cleaned up. But we've got more weather forecast thru next week. It's not going to be fun around here for a good long while. You may not know how lucky you guys were. But cheer up. Odds are there will be some kind of cataclysmic weather in your future, given the scary number of "super storms" we've had lately.

Oh, that moment was so yesterday! The whole episode wasn't probably even a blip on her radar. She nailed David because ...he was there? ...he looked at her funny? ...she thought it might be fun to watch his reaction? Whatever. But she was most certainly fine long before he'd gotten over the adrenaline surge. Now it gets interesting. Let's see if he's got the stuff to get back on the perch, I mean horse w/o flinching.

They're huge!!! I can't get over them being so naked & so big! Wow I'm so glad you & everyone else post baby pics. TU

Well, Marguerite/Dorian, let's just leave it at, " Bwahahaha!!!" (& we could use a villainous, mustached emoticon lol) Dee, it's almost perverse for you to use the term "snow birds" there & especially right now. In this part of the world, the phrase refers to anyone smart enough to spend the cold months in someplace like Florida. Not for the poor fids who belong to parronts who just aren't that clever! And Pixie says "thank you" to everyone who thinks she's so cute. Lucky me she's an absolute sweet heart too.

There's maybe a half dozen drifts behind that one & the pic just does not do it justice. I'm going to guess they're all at least 6 ft high. For a point of reference, if you look down the hill (in the bottom left) there's a fire pit of about 6 rows of castle stone. My earlier post was facetious, but also true, strictly speaking. SE MA & RI or the "Southcoast" in native speak, is just in a better position in that type of Nor'easter. We got a wallupping but were still better off than Rockport, Marshfield, Plum Isl or anywhere on "the North Shore". They're the ones who had the sea wall breach & tidal flooding during the blizzard & we all feel very badly for those poor folks! I'm also starting to wonder about Penny/Talon, too. That area did get the full 3 ft & I thought she might have checked in by now. Hope all is well there. SterlingSL, dear, not that we don't appreciate the contributions already made by the great state of TX, since that's where this whole mess, rather front originated in the first place. But could y'all either send us that front, too or maybe just keep it to yourselves if you catch my meaning!?!

Unhappy = Broke & she still needs some tinkering, apparently. If we had a nickel for every time that happened well, we'd be able to pay for all the band aids anyway, right? I always feel bad. But in this case maybe you shouldn't feel too very sorry for him. He obviously hasn't been paying attention all these years, has he? lol

Tell you what Judy; we've got a storm coming in on Friday & another one Sunday. I'm quite sure no one would complain if you wanted to take either or both of them off our hands. You're welcome to it. We'll still be busy trying to clean up what we've already got.

Phenix' first big cage had that scroll work on the top & bottom. He lived in it w/o issue for many years. Whenever it finally needed to be replace, I changed styles purely by accident. Many, many years later, as information started becoming so much more available, I started to read about the potential hazards of this design. And I will admit that I ignored it every time. Even more years later, Kura "happened". She was a totally unplanned parronthood, to the extent that I didn't even have a cage when I brought her home. Luckily, a friend had an ancient, but quite serviceable cage in a forgotten corner in the basement. It was in fact, almost identical to Phenix' old cage & I borrowed it gratefully. Barely a week later, I was standing right next to Kura 's cage when all hell broke loose behind me. She was impaled, screaming & thrashing. She'd managed to hook the tip of one of those scrolls up into the "hole" directly behind her beak. I was lucky enough to "pop" it out & free her w/o injury. But it was very obvious it could have killed her in pretty short order. It was horrifying. If I live to be 100 yrs old, I will never stop getting sick to my stomach every time I think of it. And of course I realize now it could have happened to Phenix anywhere along the way, as well. I cringe every time I see that style of cage. There's no doubt at all that it should never have been sold in the first place, let alone still be on the market. Very, very scary & dangerous!!!

The forecast calls for a little snowing & blowing & it's all "Epic this!!" & "Historic that!!" from those weather people. Really. It's not like the 10 below wind chill was the real temperature! That was almost 20 degrees warmer! And the 36" of snow they forecast was just way off! We barely got more than a couple of feet. I will say, the wind did pick up a bit. It may take the rest of the day for that freight train sound to stop ringing in my ears. It caused some drifting, too. But I'm pretty sure in a couple of weeks, a month tops, you won't even be able to tell. ...all that worrying for practically nothing. ")