pearllyn

Man!! Would I love to see that video!!!

Voice recognition for our birds? Oh my , the possibilities are endless!

What a great update Dee. Kopi really does sound like the sweetest most joyous little soul to have in your lives. You've been so patient with him and it's paying dividends. And what a great breakthrough that he is taking a treat from David. Looking forward to hearing about the next milestone. x

Hi Chris and Matt, Well done on getting the fleas under control - they would be ehard to get rid of if they got a hold of the place. So sorry to hear about your rats, how upsetting to lose all three the same day. I've kept rats myself and they are great pets - so intelligent and funny.

A MAN AND THE EAGLE THIS IS BEYOND, AWESOME ! This is the kind of story you need when it seems like the world is spiraling out of control. Not many people get a picture of this proud bird snuggled up next to them Freedom and Jeff Freedom and I have been together 10 years this summer. She came in as a baby in 1998 with two broken wings. Her left wing doesn't open all the way even after surgery, it was broken in 4 places. She's my baby. When Freedom came in she could not stand and both wings were broken. She was emaciated and covered in lice. We made the decision to give her a chance at life, so I took her to the vets office From then on, I was always around her. We had her in a huge dog carrier with the top off, and it was loaded up with shredded newspaper for her to lay in. I used to sit and talk to her, urging her to live, to fight; and she would lay there looking at me with those big brown eyes. We also had to tube feed her for weeks. This went on for 4-6 weeks, and by then she still couldn't stand. It got to the point where the decision was made to euthanize her if she couldn't stand in a week. You know you don't want to cross that line between torture and rehab, and it looked like death was winning. She was going to be put down that Friday, and I was supposed to come in on that Thursday afternoon. I didn't want to go to the center that Thursday, because I couldn't bear the thought of her being euthanized; but I went anyway, and when I walked in everyone was grinning from ear to ear. I went immediately back to her cage; and there she was, standing on her own, a big beautiful eagle. She was ready to live. I was just about in tears by then. That was a very good day. We knew she could never fly, so the director asked me to glove train her. I got her used to the glove, and then to jesses, and we started doing education programs for schools in western Washington . We wound up in the newspapers, radio (believe it or not) and some TV.. Miracle Pets even did a show about us. In the spring of 2000, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I had stage 3, which is not good (one major organ plus everywhere), so I wound up doing 8 months of chemo. Lost the hair - the whole bit. I missed a lot of work. When I felt good enough, I would go to Sarvey and take Freedom out for walks. Freedom would also come to me in my dreams and help me fight the cancer. This happened time and time again. Fast forward to November 2000, the day after Thanksgiving. I went in for my last checkup. I was told that if the cancer was not all gone after 8 rounds of chemo, then my last option was a stem cell transplant. Anyway, they did the tests; and I had to come back Monday for the results. I went in Monday, and I was told that all the cancer was gone. So the first thing I did was get up to Sarvey and take the big girl out for a walk. It was misty and cold. I went to her flight and jessed her up, and we went out front to the top of the hill. I hadn't said a word to Freedom, but somehow she knew. She looked at me and wrapped both her wings around me to where I could feel them pressing in on my back (I was engulfed in eagle wings), and she touched my nose with her beak and stared into my eyes, and we just stood there like that for I don't know how long. That was a magic moment. We have been soul mates ever since she came in. This is a very special bird. On a side note: I have had people who were sick come up to us when we are out, and Freedom has some kind of hold on them. I once had a guy who was terminal come up to us and I let him hold her. His knees just about buckled and he swore he could feel her power coarse through his body I have so many stories like that. I never forget the honor I have of being so close to such a magnificent spirit as Freedom. Hope you enjoy this.

Hi there, Well done for taking on an older grey - he was clearly in a situation which wasn't suiting him. The biting will possibly subside as he becomes more comfortable with his new surroundings - don't rush him but let him come round to you in his own time. The plucking is maybe a trickier fix, depending on wether it's being caused by a physical or emotional problem. Get the vet to give him a thorough check up to rule out the physical, then hopefully in time, as with the biting, when he feels secure, loved, safe, stimulated and happy in his new home the plucking may stop. Good luck with him and do let us know how you come on.

Hi Barbara, welcome to you and Neo - what a great name for your baby, very apt.

I don't get it! :confused:

Alfie did this with me for a while too. If it's any consolation to you, she doesn't now - I very rarely get bites from her and when I do, I can see them coming a mile off so it's my own fault for persisting. When this biting started with Alfie, it was really bad, she meant it and drew blood every time - I posted about it when it happened and was very disheartened and upset by it. I took advise from members here and started to give her a timeout in her travel cage. I must stress though that this is not something I did lightly, and the timeouts were only for maybe five minutes at a time, and ONLY ever for hard biting, NEVER EVER for anything else. It nipped it in the bud, Alfie learned very quickly that biting led to her being on her own and she has largely stopped it. David is still her favourite but the 3 of us get on very well together and I'm happy with the situation. Murphy is still pretty young isn't he? He's pushing boundaries to see who he can boss about, but hopefully you will find a way through it and come out the other end, a happy family.

Lol Spock, you little vandal!! Mind you, I can't talk - Alfie once threw my mobile phone off the sideboard and it landed in the dogs waterbowl - which by a small miracle was empty at the time!!!! Birds, eh!!!

Like you we let Alfie follow us around the house. She can pretty much go where she likes when we are in the house - the only out of bounds place is the kitchen and the bathrooms. She can fly up to the top landing and sit up there for a bit, or go downstairs and sit on the bannister. We have quite a large open plan dining/living room and she sometime just does the crazy bird flight round there. We also take her out on her harness regularly while the weather is ok to let her fly outside.

Could he be looking for his old family? He sure is wanting something. It's times like this when you wish they could just tell us what they need! He really is a beautiful bird.

You can get little UV lamps which you can move around - they're very handy and don't take up much room but provide the full spectrum.

Pepper is gorgeous - these are beautiful photos.

What a handsome fellow Pepper is. As the others have said, let him come to you in his own time and don't rush him - this is the best advice. He is going to be sad for a while as he misses his family, just try to keep his mind occupied with lots of nice toys - it sounds like he has plenty. Another thing that might be worth mentioning, if you must change his name, try to do it gradually and overlap the new one with the old one - he has enough new things to deal with at once without adding a new label to the list! Good luck with him, he looks gorgeous and I'm sure with plenty of patience and tlc, he will prove to be an adorable member of the family.

What beautiful animals you have Crystal - Loki is particularly striking with her amber eyes - they're all gorgeous.

Wow - that is just incredible! I wonder if this bird was one of the many who dive bombed me when I visited the islands over the summer lol - I'd be honoured if it was!!! Great article Jill, thanks for sharing.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned here yet, but ParrotAlert are now taking registrations. I hope I will never need to use it for myself, but they could be a valuable resource for lost/found/stolen birds. It's free to register and all they need is an email address and a rough idea of where you are (you can be as specific as you feel comfortable with, but the more precise you can be the more effective the service will be. http://www.parrotalert.com/

Hi DonaldLL, The Aviator does come with a line attached - it's around 5' and is elasticated with a wrist loop for added saftey. The actual flight line you have to buy seperatly. I have both the harness and the flight line and they work well together. You can get info on the flight line here. http://www.theparrotuniversity.com/aviator_flightline.php

That's kind of what struck me at first Janet - If Alfie's heard me say that word in context once she'll be lucky. I don't recall ever putting the word with the sound for her like i did with the piggy and the chicken etc. That's why the firt thing I thought of when she did it was telepathy! They are amazing though - each and every one!

Janet I've read these updates on sweet little Louie with a smile on my face. It's such a joy to read about him and all the pleasure he is bringing to you. He seems like such a little honey - and good looking too! He's gorgeous! Glad he's settling in with you and not growling anymore - that didn't seem to take long. Looking forward to seeing some more pics.

Lol Spock, you're right there!! And Alfie would like some more Inter Mental Communication lessons please - we wish to explore this further.....

A yellow Ringneck? Ooh pretty! Thanks for letting us know - looking forward to the next name that bird challenge!

What an amazing bit of video! Thanks for the happy ending tip off though Dan, I hate nasty surprises!

I've posted before about telepathy in our animals. Well we were out for a walk with Alfie and the dogs on Monday and had an interesting little episode so I thought I'd share. A while back I posted a thread abouto Alfie talking with the Jackdaws on our roof via the chimney pot - they would call down, and she would answer them in Jackdawese (they've never conversed since, but now and again she will still make Jackdaw noises). While we were out walking, we were surrounded by woodland birds singing their little hearts out and David said he wondered if Alfie knows what they're saying, and I said, "well do you remember that conversation she had with the Jackdaws?" The words were hardly out of my mouth when Alfie started talking Jackdawese again! Amazing. She also growled in chihuahuaese at a passerby right after Tia barked at them, but thats a different subject! x