darth_mint

Never let your grey eat anything you wouldn't put in your own mouth :whistle:

siobha9 wrote: Moral of the story: never give anything to your grey that you wouldn't put in your own mouth. :sick: :woohoo: :whistle: B)

8 hours of soaking, and the yellow rawhide shoe had turned a decidedly paler colour. The water in the bowl was a shade rather like parrot pee... You can see the before and after in the photo (before on the right, after on the left). The soaked shoe hadn't dried out yet when I took it. And then...I took a bite out of the soaked one. The texture of wet rawhide is...:sick: I performed a regurgitating act worthy of Nicky, and finished with five breath mints. But I can safely say that 80% OF THE SALT WAS GONE. So no matter how much my little boy chews and slobbers on it, he won't get much more than a trace amount of sodium. I have yet to learn whether soaking the salt out will cause the rawhide to get mouldy - salt is the preservative agent, after all. In the meantime though, rawhide isn't likely to figure anywhere in my diet. (edit: picture wouldn't upload until I shrank it)<br><br>Post edited by: darth_mint, at: 2008/08/26 04:43

I can safely say I've had better experiences! Not at all recommended for a midnight snack. I have one of those little shoes soaking in a bowl of water now, going to leave it overnight and then...I guess I'll have a nibble tomorrow morning :sick: The things I do for Nicky.

Carolyn, I confess: after reading your post I went and got another rawhide bone...and then I spent several minutes chewing on it myself. And it IS very salty. :sick: But the human mouth is several dozen times wetter than a grey's mouth, so unless you have a pretty drooly grey, it "should" be safe. Operative word "should". I'm going to try soaking it and see if that washes some of the salt out. My parents thought I was completely insane when they saw me chewing that dog toy. :laugh:

Babies sometimes eat a lot, but they grow out of it. I used to have baby budgies and they'd sit in the food dish eating from morning to evening. She might just be getting ready for a big growth spurt

I never thought of untying them either, but Nicky beat me to it :woohoo: This morning when I gave the now-dried bone back to him, he promptly dunked it in the water and made it soggy all over again. Then he untied the knot himself! (Which got SO messy, because there was a second layer of compressed veggie stuff, dyed red, inside, and he was just after that red stuff and sprayed bits all over the place once he'd made it soggy enough to easily shred)

Oh gosh no!! Teflon gives off fumes which are highly poisonous to birds. The rice cooker we have at home is a really, really old model (I think it's actually older than I am!) and there is NO non-stick stuff involved in it at all. Which makes it a pain to clean, but I believe the rice tastes better for all that :lol:

I've been playing tapes to Nicky every evening for a week now, and he's told me clearly that he likes keyboard music, cheerful youthful vocals (even better if there's a few people singing) and apparently slow rock. He's so cute! He'll come and sit near where I'm holding the cassette player, and tilt his head to one side to listen. Sometimes he'll even try to whistle along! :laugh: On the other hand, he does NOT like powerful, emotional-sounding voices or prolonged notes. I played him Phantom of the Opera and he turned his back, then got all stiff and started to pin during the great Phantom-Christine duet. Guess I won't be hearing any Sarah Brightman imitations from him... Anyone else tried out different kinds of instruments and vocals? It would be so interesting to know if this is a general preference or varies between individual Greys. I'm going to keep trying different genres with Nicky (although I draw the line at playing heavy metal to him...for fear that he'll imitate it :pinch: )

Found this old thread and thought I'd add an update: Nicky eats warm cooked white rice (high grade!) and loves it, although he gets SO sticky and makes his whole cage sticky too :laugh: I think he picked the habit up from watching me eat dinner (rice is a pretty common food here) and I offered him a bit every evening before making it a regular part of his diet. Word of caution: don't offer it to your Grey unless you're prepared for a really, really, really sticky starchy mess!

So I visited a pet accessories store and found some rawhide 'bones' (actually just strips knotted into the shape of bones) and bought a couple for Nicky. He loved them and chewed on them all day. Then he went and dunked one of them into his water! Not only dunked it, but bobbed it up and down like it was a teabag, and held it under until it was soft - then he pulled it out, rolled it in his snack dish until it was well coated with seed and seed husks, and started chewing again :sick: I changed his water and retrieved the soggy thing and well, now I don't know what to do with it. It's mostly intact but very damp...is it safe to dry it out and give it back to him? Or is rawhide prone to developing mould and other nasty stuff?

You should always refrigerate after opening, same as with any other comestible. If the temperature is a problem, pour out the amount you'll be using and leave it to warm up to room temperature while you put the rest back. Try not to let the unused portion undergo too much of a temperature change to prevent spoilage

Oh, and try playing music to him! I was playing Michael Learns To Rock to Nicky this evening and he cocked his head to left and right to hear it, then started trying to whistle along...very very out of tune, but it's the thought that counts :lol:

My Nicky took a while to learn how to play too. I got him interested by making toys in front of him and letting him watch the whole process - I'd take a toilet roll, stuff a couple of almonds inside, scrunch the ends up and add some felt strips while he peered at me with SUCH a suspicious expression. Then I rattled the almonds inside it for a while, and suddenly he wanted it like anything! (and one hour later there'd be an unholy mess of shredded cardboard all over the place :laugh: If playing with it in front of him doesn't work, you can put it down casually somewhere near him, not near enough to be threatening but where he will have some difficulty reaching it (make the little darling work for it!) and just leave it there for him to investigate by himself. It may take a while for him to start wondering about it, but he'll remember your messing with it and get there eventually B)

I've had budgies for years and they definitely don't need grit, as they have a very messy habit of regurgitating whatever's in their crop, chewing it up and then swallowing it again once it's sufficiently mashed! But if grit is made available to them, some birds will gorge themselves on it (seems to be a personal preference). I'd be careful about letting them have grit at all, as budgies can be greedy little things and sometimes don't know when to stop eating. I've had birds that when presented with a millet spray meant to last a day, would eat the whole thing in ten minutes (a millet spray bigger than they are!) and then be very miserable for the rest of the day because they were so bloated. :sick: Not good if they did that with grit.

Hi Ehsun, I live in Southeast Asia and we have a lot of mosquitoes around at some times of the year too. I'd recommend putting a mosquito net around the cage like you would around a bed. You might need to leave some distance between the cage and the net, so the birds don't chew on it. Many people around here use mosquito coils and other repellents, but I don't think you should use those near your little darlings as the fumes may harm them. It might also be ok to bring them in with the a/c, but make sure the filters are clean so they don't breathe in dust, fumes etc. Hope that helps.

My experience is kind of the other way round. I started out not at all scared of Nicky , but he bit me quite badly last week (still hasn't healed up) and now I jump every time he lunges at me. And he lunges ALL THE TIME. Even if I'm offering him a treat, he tries to grab my fingers instead of taking the treat. The little monster's given me a complex! I simply can't make my hand stay in place now. Every time his head darts forward, my hand jumps back by itself. It's turning into a vicious cycle. I'm thinking about getting a glove...

Nicky just about peeled my index finger this morning :blink: Occasion: a step-up training session (so far all the sessions have been unsuccessful because he wants to play rough and pull my nails out!) He'd just had breakfast and he sat and blinked at my finger in a very sleepy way, so I thought it'd be safe to move a bit closer...next thing I know half the skin is flapping loose from the joint and Nicky's running up the side of the cage with a guilty look on his face: "Oops I didn't mean to bite that hard!" I was so good about it. I even kept my hand there for a couple more seconds. Then I ran into the next room and danced around for a while... How's that for initiation?

Chlorine returns to a gaseous state very easily, so by the time the water goes through all the pipes and comes out of your tap there shouldn't be much more than trace amounts. I've read that these trace amounts 'may' possibly cause infertility in small animals, but it's not really proven. You can also try boiling the water, which will definitely get rid of any chlorine residue besides killing any leftover germs

I absolutely agree with mesh as a short term solution. I used to keep budgies in the cage Nicky has now - and with birds that size, it wasn't just the head but the whole bird that popped out! :woohoo: So I got some tough mesh (tough enough they couldn't shred it) and wrapped the whole cage up. Voila! problem solved. My budgies lived happily in the mesh for years, and it even helped to cut down on the mess outside the cage (snagged all the stuff they flung) Just make sure the mesh is of a size that won't snag claws or toes, and clean it regularly if it traps dirt. It's also a good climbing aid! (and when you get a better cage, you can reuse it as part of a new playstand)

TinyTimneh wrote: With humans if the skin goes smooth, it means the hair follicles are dead and nothing's going to grow back. This sounds a bit as if Jacko's going bald :blink: I've read that it's possible for birds to go bald (excepting flight feathers) without infections or mites, but the explanation was that it's genetic. Better ask a vet. You can make aloe vera spray by dissolving the gel in water, or grow your own aloe vera (very easy to grow, trust me!) and strip a few leaves, rinse off the yellow sap and blend the pulp with water then strain it. Good luck

Here is the saga of the day Nicky came out of the cage...and then didn't know how to go back in. I spent the morning parrot-proofing my bedroom, then the afternoon tempting him out with bits of chilled apple...and then the rest of the time trying to get him back in. Getting him out was a chore! I'd wave a bit of apple in front of the open door, and rather than come all the way out, he'd stick his head out, snatch the apple and eat it inside the cage. I took to holding the apple out of reach. He clung to the side of the door and stretched his neck out until he could get it, then popped right back into the cage to eat his prize. :blink: After one hour of demonstrating how amazingly long his neck is, he finally came out - only to climb up the side of the cage and plant himself on top. And there he sat for the next two hours, eating more apple bits and chewing on toys. Absolutely no attempts to even get off the cage. The expression on his face seemed to say: what's the difference between being in there and being out here? Eventually he got hungry and started shuffling around at the edge, peering down at his food tray. I waited for him to go back in - and he didn't. The little monkey didn't know how to climb back down to the door! Nor would he step up so I could carry him back down. I'd offer him my hand; he'd chew on it for a while then wander off to the opposite end of the cage Finally I tried lifting the entire cage top off in an attempt to carry it, and him, down to door level. Nicky promptly lost his balance, fell off and crash-flapped to the floor. Where he pooped copiously in his panic. And while trying to keep my own balance while not stepping on him or dropping the cage top, I stepped bang into the poop. With my bare foot. Sigh. While I was cleaning the poop out from between my toes, Nicky climbed back up to the top of the now-roofless cage and jigged around there looking half freaked out and half annoyed. In desperation, I held the cage top out above him. Little darling immediately grabbed the bars and hung upside down. And I lowered the cage top back into place with him running all around it upside down and trying to take angry nips at my fingers. So I settled his ruffled feathers with a BIG handful of sunflower seeds and cleaned the assorted messes up, including even more poop I hadn't noticed. Now I'm wondering if I have the nerve to go through all that again. Nicky currently looks very offended with me.

Has he been exercising his feet more than usual (running around, climbing, gripping etc)? Birds tend to have cool-ish feet if they have been just sitting around, as the lack of feathers means they lose heat from the feet quite fast. However, once they start moving around and playing, the feet heat up - if you have ever had a bird climb on your arm from a sedentary position and then get excited, you'll actually feel the temperature of those little feet rise until it's hot enough to be uncomfortable. If his feet are hot ALL the time though, even when he's not been climbing or running, you might want to ask a vet.

Just wondering if recycled paper is safe for parrots? A lot of the paper, cardboard and even wood materials available here are recycled, which usually means that they have been pretty heavily treated with chemicals. If chewed and/or swallowed, will they be a health hazard? (This morning before going to work I made a 5-minute forage toy for Nicky out of a toilet roll, two strips of felt and two almonds. He played with it and chewed on it until my dad realized the toilet roll was made of recycled cardboard - and took it away! According to eyewitness accounts, Nicky then threw a tantrum and ran and flapped around the bottom of the cage, screaming at the top of his lungs, for about ten minutes. He's really going to hate my dad at this rate. But it got me wondering, was the recycled cardboard safe to use in the first place?)<br><br>Post edited by: darth_mint, at: 2008/08/07 15:16

Anyone know if durians are safe for birds to eat? Where I live, they're common and a lot of people love them (including me!) So I'm wondering if parrots can eat them too. (I have never seen birds eat them in the wild because the outer shell is just too hard for the average local bird to penetrate) (For those who don't know what a durian is, it's a spiky, stinky fruit native to the tropics and by stinky, I mean STINKY :woohoo: )<br><br>Post edited by: darth_mint, at: 2008/08/05 17:47