Big_Squishy

I actually just bought two air purifiers from BlueAir. They really have helped me out with my alergies and athsma they cut the dust down in the house significantly. I did a good amount of research before I got mine and I found that BleuAiroutletstore sells refurbished purifiers that hold the same warrenty as their news ones. When I got mine I swore they were new not a mark on them and spotlessly clean. I own two BlueAir 450E's that filter dust, dander as well as odor and fumes. The house smlls even cleaner than before. It even has a sensor mode that will lower or increase the fan speed depending on the amount of dust or odor in the room. Each of these two will cycle the are in a 365 SQft room. The filters are good for about 6 months with a monthly vaccum but they cost about $150.00 each to replace. To me it is worth it.

I am really not sure which I would choose. There are several things I would take into consideration.: 1. The health risk associated with boarding your bird. Most boarded birds are kept in the same room as all of the other boarded birds, There is the risk that another of the birds there may have mites or some illness that they pass on. If the place that you would board your bird at is clean and has a good health record, it might not be a bad choice. I would see if you can find someone who has used their services and see what they thought of it. Also I have a hard time believeing that these places spend quality time with the birds. I would expect that they would be most concerned with cleaning the cages and feeding. Other than that I am not sure how much more I would expect them to actually do. With hireing someone to come to your home depending who they are and how familliar they are with handeling birds may lead to other questions. Do they know what they are doing? Will you bird allow them to interact with them? Are they going to just clean the cage and feed your bird the same as most boarding places would do? Is it cheaper and safer to have inhome care or board. I am sure you may get much better responces here soon. I just wanted to offer up some of the questions I might ask if I would in your shoes. Good luck and welcome to Greyforums.

BoBo makes that same sound and it kills my head, for him that is I want attention sound. We try to ignore it and really wish we could find a way to discourage it.

Ahhh, see I said I was not an expert LOL. I learned something today too. Also I was apparently typing all of this at the same time everyone else posted, they gave much more solid information. Mine was just Opinion. Thank you for the heads up ray

I am not the expert, but I can definatly say that the oil heater is not the best idea. Oil heaters put off fumes that can greatly affect your birds respatory health. BoBo enjoys temps in the low to mid 70's but at night in our home my heater is set for 68. We just make sure there is not draft, the window near his cage is covered with a blanket to keep the chill down and he does well. I am sure you will get more replies here soon, but In my opinion stay away from the oil burning heaters.

I had a towel in the bottom of BoBo's cage the first few months until he decided to destroy it and the next one we put in. I thought a dog had gotten to it lol.

Another method but is slower , place the bottle in a container of really hot water and it should begin to return to a liquid state. The same works with coconut oil.

I really hope this does not come out wrong, but might it be a dominance related thing, besides the fact that you and Twizzle are still rather new to each other? I think posture, your ability to hide your fear of being bitten, you level of patience and a certain level of persistence and insistence are all things I have learned have to find a balance. I frequent two major bird stores here in San Diego and I like to go there just to see the other birds. I am by no means well eduicated like Dave, Judy and several of our other top members here, however I feel pretty comfortable attempting to handle most any bird. Out of the 40 to 50 birds in our closest bird store I have found only 2 or 3 that I can not get to let me hold them and pet them to some degree. Even some that have been rescued and are known biters. I am afraid to get bitten but you wouldn't know unless I told you, I am pretty good at hiding it. Another thing that may make a differance is how you hold yourself while attempting to pet Twizzle. Are your fingers all close togeather, fanned out where your fingers are not all pointing the same direction? From what direction you you try to pet Twizzle? When BoBo hasen't let my wife pet him full on with her hand I have her hold him with her non dominant hand and with a loose but not baggy long sleeved shirt on (gives you a little protection) I tell her to keep her fingers close togeather semi cupped and with BoBo held close to her body used the forarm to lightly pet his head bringing her arm around as if she were going to hug him, arm higher than his tail but lower than his head to start. He may bite at it alittle but after a second BoBo seemed to accept this a little easier and after some time he would allow my wife to pet his head with her hand. I have tried this with out neighbors and even our 7 year old son and have gotten reasonable results. Just some food for thought, I have no idea if it will work for you but seems worth a try.

I agree and not to mentiont that in my experience anyone selling birds or attempting to via internet spam are most likley scamming.

What Irks me the most how people that have never been in the military scrutinize the military and the people in it. I guess those rights they exercise everyday defend themselves.

I have a few friends that do some video and editing work. I asked for some inputs and it was sugested that you might look into first an external mic for the camera you already have so you can keep the camera further away from your bird, while still allowing for the back ground tv, music etc to be on. having the mic further away from the sourse of the back ground sound may balance it out some. Also if you are looking at new cameras a rather in expensive one is the Panasonic PV-GS150 (have seen on ebay for around $200.00), from what I am told there is an external mic port and you cal also monitor the cound of what ever you are recoring with headphones at the same time so that you will know while recording what the sound will be like. This is all just word of mouth but thought it might help you some.

I so wish I could get BoBo accustomed to the harness, maybe some day I will live in a place where we won't need one. Great pictures, Happy new Year!

I leave the grate in as well. BoBo will go down to the bottom from time to time but he doesn't avoid anything anywhere, so if it is there he will step in it. Our cage is powder coated and no they are not indestructable but are very tough. When cleaning the grate for BoBo's cage which is about 4' X 3' I take it and put it in the shower and run the hottest water I have on it for a minute or two and then using only a cloth or plastic brush or scrub pad I get what is left and then rinse again with hot water. Helps to disinfect it and it also dries faster. I only change the paper every other day, but then again BoBo only spends the night in his cage so it's the paper under the perches that I have to change daily. I personally believe it to be safer for our escape artist bird and helps to keep some of his toys cleaner

We will definatly have to get Hip and go Hippie and see if this will work. I am a bit concerned that he will find interest in them as toys being that we often string plastic beads on leather strips and hang them around for him to chew on and play with. But I like the idea and we will see how well it works for us. Thank you for the idea. and all of the inputs.

BoBo even trys to fly through the curtains and blinds, our House is very well lite but the curtains and blinds are drawn 95% of the time to make the impact hurt less. He knows the window is there even though we cover them. Our living room where BoBo spends most of his time is about 25' X 10' including the dining room. That is where BoBo spends most of his day. He has a giant perch I would say suitable for a Macaw even. We originally started out with 3 additional perches but thought that maybe there were too many options. We have it narrowed to just one perch thay we are trying to entice him to fly to. I place him there after his has done his buisness on the large perch. Once he gets bored he chooses a window and brains himself. Rinse and repeat. His cage is in a 11' X 11" room along with his cage. He can fly circles in that room but always ends up in the window or blinds, no cloth curtains in that room yet. I see what you and Dave are saying and just struggeling to think of how to adapt it to our home.

BoBo was clipped the day we brought him home, as per the policy of Our Feathered Friends and A Bird Haven bird store. They will not sell a bird to a new owner unclipped unless they can proove they have experience enough to deal with a flying bird in their home. We have kept BoBo clipped for the past two years and to give everyone in our home time to adapt to having to keep doors windows and other house hold objects propertly secured to prevent harm to BoBo. BoBo is well exercised, but I am sure that like you said he still lacks suficient strength and experience to fly where he originally intended to. I fear for his neck,beak and face. many times he will hit hard enough to leave cuts on his face and a big Dust print where he strikes the windows. I would feel less fearful if he varied his targets showing some sort of realization that one particular target or another is impassable. Besides letting him pull the TV off the stand onto his head until he learns do you have any sugestions that may help us make the windows less appealing and his other perches more appleaing? I have tried food and toys near the perches, and placed items that he doesn't like near or around the windows. Sometimes I think it is helping but others time it seems to make things worse. Thank you for responding Dave, You always have great input I just fear that there has to be more I can do without clipping his wings again.

It's been a while but I mentioned about Letting BoBo's wing feathers grow out. We have adjusted how our home is set up, Taken pictures down, cleared off shelves, placed window decals on every window and given him a few additional options of perches around the house. Here is the problem. He trys to fly through windows. Those wilth decals, those with the vertical blinds drawn and those with curtains drawn. I can not get him to stop and he is really going to hurt himself. Any ideas how I might be able to get him to understand that he still can not fly through windows?

Thank you! Judy Dear my BoBo is a boy But I won't tell him you called him a girl I had been having computer problems but did not originally intend to do a slide show, Some people just don't have the time to sit through it. I have thousands of photos of BoBo not as many as I do of my wife and my son but getting there. I use a Cannon 30D camera with a 17 - 200 multi focus lense. I am still learning how to take good pictures with it even though I have had it for 3 years now lol.

http://s1082.photobucket.com/albums/j375/Big_SQUISHY76/?albumview=slideshow This is a slide show of some of my photos. Will break it down some and situate them where you don't have to leave the site to see some of them.

I never thought to give BoBo anything other than water. I never let him drink anything out of my glass, I read somewhere on the site that there is something in our saliva that can harm them or make them ill. BoBo gets tons of liquid from the fresh fruits and veggies he has throughout the day. Is there something that he is not already getting that I might want to serve to him to drink?

BoBo turned two in Febuary and I have really noticed some changes in his behavior. The first thing is that he seems to be afraid of everything. Every sound he hears or any movement that is not made by me he gets on the defensive and although he moves closer to me for what I assume is protection, he ends up biting me. After that I will put him on his perch to go wash the blood off andbefore I even get 5 feet away hes trying to fly to me. (trying = wings clipped which I am considering not doing again on a trial basis) I will pick him up and he will want to be all snuggeld close and then he bites me again. BoBo has begun throwing his food everywhere, not anything like he has done before. Him and my son eat the best in our house and nothing has changed with his diet, Very well balanced and makes me wish I could afford half the veggies and fruit I feed him for myself. BoBo still eats well, he will hop down on the floor and eat what he has thrown down not to mention what food we regularly hand feed him. BoBo has also begun to fight with his toys. and I mean fight. I thought at first it was fun but am really not sure not being he will make the same sound ( quaks and screeches) he makes when he is scared out of his mind. Very violent and destructive, he will even attack them so much that he will get scratches on his head and around his beak. He also has an over developed desire to climb on our hurricane fan and sit there. If I wasn't worried about his feet I would only have a problem with how far the fan flings his Poo and where, The fan is normally ppointed at me Grrrrr I am not sure if these are normal terrible two behaviors but it has been very hard to adjust to him acting this way. Any Ideas???

Ahhhh I C!

I don't grab his beak and give him a kiss. I normally include it when I am scratching his head or he is snuggled up against my chest.

I can't bring myself to kiss BoBo without my hand on his head. I know I wouldn't react well to a bite in the face and would not want to accidently hurt or scare him.

What is a FID?