Janfromboone

Yep, thats how it starts. Before long you won't be able to shut him up.

That's funny. I hope you can get a video of that.

Thanks all for the birthday wishes.

Tobie also leaves the red out at times. "Tobie's got a butt" We should get them together so they can sit around discussing butts. Ha Ha.

Thanks for watching for all the birthday wishes. I think he does know what he's saying. I think he chatters nonsense alot too, but he does understand alot. They are all so smart.

I took some video of Tobie on his birthday. All he wanted to do was give kisses. Yesterday was his 3rd birthday. Why am I all squeezed up???? http://www.youtube.com/user/Janfromboone

Loved this video of the happy bird in the shower. I'll show it to Tobie so maybe he'll see how it's supposed to be done.

Thanks for the encouragement. We saw the avian vet today and she felt that we should just give it some time and not do anything different except she suggested misting him if he is fussing over his feathers. Because this all happened in the spring she wonders if Tobie's awakening sexuality might be part of the chewing problem. I never actually see him chewing now. He also could have hurt the wing, clipping it on furniture or the doorway in flight and chewed at the sore wing. Who knows.

Very scary. I had seen this video before. It is very frightening to think that could happen. The avian vet that I spoke with about hawk attacks said that she has seen birds that were attacked through a cage that was outside. Something to think about though is that this bird was cared for by people and therefore had no fear of people. You would think that it would have second thoughts about coming that close to a human to get prey, if it was wild.

Unfortunately I didn't get Tobie's birthday video put together today. The only thing we did today to mark his birthday was play and talk alot and (I didn't plan it this way on purpose) go to the avian vet. I can't beleive how much fun this bird has given me in these short 3 years.

Wonderful solution to the battle of the harness.

This should be part of the sticky "why not to buy a parrot. It was so funny and so true. Why do we do it? I don't know but it is soooo totallly worth every minute.

definitely looking cute!!!

Did you make the toy for him. He is so entertained.

The hawks are mainly daytime hunters. My dogs are always with me when Tobie is outside with me. I've also wondered if their presence would give a hawk second thoughts. I guess it would depend on how hungry the hawk was.

Yes, I really think we create a mess when we clip our greys. I think being clipped at such a young age is a great part of Tobies problem.

Tobie turned a little pink when I had him out one day. I didn't notice it until the next night. He was sunburned. The thing I most worry about when I have Tobie outside is Hawks. I recently went to a bird meeting by Phoenix landing. There was an avian vet there that told about some of the cases she had encountered in her practice. She told about a woman who had her bird with her on her porch (covered porch, I think it was) and a hawk flew down and attempted to get the womans bird. The bird escaped by flying under her car which was in the driveway. Other people who have had their birds out in cages in the yard have brought them in with bite wounds from a hawk that attacked them in the cages. I guess they had left the birds out unsupervised. I've been out with Tobie when he suddenly starts to peer upward. I never could see anything, but he sure does.

Yes, I just checked and he took his first flight January 30th or so and so he has been flying quite a few months. About four months of flight before he lost those two flight feathers that ended it. Most of that time he was fully flighted. Only the past 4 weeks had I noticed that he couldn't maintain altitude and then he lost the last two feathers in the last two weeks. I'm hoping this is just a postponement. It's disheartening though. He has a blood feather coming in - probably a feather lost some time ago because it's between the last third of the wing and the second third. He has done some chewing on it already. He seems so happy and relaxed. I can't figure it out.

I didn't know whether to post this - It's kind of a downer. It's only fair to others who are struggling as I was with trying to help my bird who chews feathers gain flight. I looked for my post "Tobie takes flight" to try to recall when Tobie did first fly but couldn't find it. He had started getting pretty good with his landings and building confidence. He had broken a couple of feathers in his tail and had a gap in his right wing ( the one he used to chew ) by this spring. I wasn't sure if he was chewing again or just breaking them when he would have a rough landing or get too close to the furniture with a wing. Then he broke another flight feather and I could see the chew marks on it. That left only two flight feathers past the widening gap. Amazingly he still could fly but would just not go as far. Then like dominos he broke (maybe chewed) one then the other. He now is flightless. The only good news I can offer is that he doesn't crash hard to the floor like he did before he gained flight. He still has enough feathers in the wing to coast out and land. He's going back to the vet but I don't know at this point what she will be able to offer. I am so glad that he had the opportunity to fly though.

Cute video! you got my vote

What a fabulous story. I think sometimes things happen for a reason. Lucky bird!!

I'd love to see a video of Hawkins singing along and at only 6 months. They just get better and better.

I would have thought it was blood too. Glad Dave has some experience with pasta sauce.

Tobie has done two lately that I think he knew what he said and ment what he said. I was trying to put him in his harness one afternoon after work to take him out but he was being stubborn. I finally gave up rather than have a battle and said to the dogs "OK lets go outside". Out we went to throw the frisbee etc. I came back in and as I walked past Tobie he shouts out "Lets go outside". So I gave the harness another try and out we went. Today I came home from work and was distracted as I walked past Tobies cage. He brought me out of my reverie by shouting out "open the cage". He combined phrases by changing "Open the door" to "Open the cage". He has never said "open the cage".

I think the green is beautiful on Alfie