LabRat00

I need some advice on what to do with my 11 month old baby cag. Yesterday, when I got her from her cage, I noticed a large chunk of feathers missing from the front side of her neck. I looked around her cage and couldn't figure out what had happened to her, until later when I put her back in her cage, and the minute I closed the door, she hung herself on the side of the cage, wimpered and reached down and yanked out a chunk of feathers. I THINK she is just doing this for attention, but I don't know. I HAD to work this morning, and was afraid of what I might see when I got home, and sure enough, she has plucked out all the feathers across the front of her neck now. Aside from leaving her out of her cage all day, which I don't want to do for safety reasons, I don't know how to stop this behavior. Obviously, I know that giving her her way, is not the right thing to do, but I really didn't want to compromise her beautiful feathers. In the past, she has always, twisted herself into a pretzel, and wimpered whenever she didn't want to be in her cage, or if we didn't turn out the light right at bedtime, but I never gave into her manipulating me in that way, so maybe she has found a better way of getting her way. idk. HELP!!!

Oh I didn't know that pet stores didn't carry it. I just thought it was because I am unfortunate and live in a small town in Washington state. We only have one Avian Vet in my town, and I didn't even think to check there.

What site do you guys buy your harrisons pellets from? I have tried giving my bird zupreem, which is the only pellet brand that my small town sells,and she hates them, so I am willing to go online and buy some, but was wondering what site has the best prices? Also does anyone know of a good site to purchase nuts in the shell? I bought some at christmas time and found out that my grey LOVES whole almonds, but we ran out, and now they aren't selling them whole in the store anymore. I have looked at a couple different places online, but the shipping is outrageous! What would be even better is if I could buy from a place that sells pellets, and whole nuts. THanks guys.

Whenever I put punky in her cage and she doesn't want to be there, she digs on the bottom of her cage and then she clings to the sides and twists herself up and then gets "stuck" and makes these little crying/whining noises. So of course I go over to make sure shes okay and she gets out of her contorsion quickly. I'm pretty sure this is an attention getting thing, but even if I ignore her, she still does it. It makes me sad when she cries like that. Also when I cover her cage at night and if we aren't being quiet enough for her, or I don't turn the lights off right away, she does that. So i'm just curious if anyone elses birds do this? Or do you have any ideas of how I can deal with this better?

I was in kind of a hurry this morning to leave the house and start my car because my daughter and I were running late to get her off to school and there is tons of snow on the ground. When Punky saw me walking down the stairs to leave she flew after me. I was just going to leave her on the ground for a minute with my daughter because i'd be right back in after starting my car, but to my surprise she flew all the way down the stairs and tried to land on me. It was like her desperate attempt to not let me leave. It was so cute.

OH one thing I forgot to add that we still should be worried about. Don't forget about fumes from cookwear that our family members might be using. Make sure noone is using the non-stick stuff as it is really harmful for our babies.

Nope. Sounds like it's a good environment, and i've read that you should take your birds places to get them well socialized. I have already planned to take my baby to my sisters house with us today (for thanksgiving) because I don't want to be away from her all day, and there will be soo much good food that our babies will love to eat. Have a good one!

My baby's nails have become really sharp lately. I don't think they need trimmed, just filed. My boyfriend seems to think that a human nail file would work on her nails. Is there a bird nail file I could buy? Or should I purchase a special perch so that her nails don't get this way? She is scratching up my arms pretty bad and it hurts, so any advice would be great. Thank you all.

Thank you all for answering my question so quickly and putting me at ease. I guess I just want to make sure that she is happy as can be. I'm not sure what we are going to name her yet. I really like the name Zahara, but am worried that it is too difficult for her to learn. Anyone have any suggestions on names?

I just got my 4 month old baby grey two days ago. I am curious about her digging at the bottom of her cage. It's just funny, really, watching her climb down to the bottom of her cage and just dig away at her paper. But why is she doing this?