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Thanks everyone! I appreciate the support! I hope to introduce all the baby furniture and 'stuff' slowly, so not to freak him out. I like the idea of using a baby doll too, hehe. I found links to baby sounds (like crying and babbling) on a site that talked about getting your dog ready for a new baby... It kinda spooks Charlie right now, but I'll try to get him used to it (although I don't want him to start repeating the sounds quite yet..). I'm sure I'm being over anxious, but I know it is going to be a huge change in our house. Hopefully we will all survive!

*Long (hopefully not too incoherent) post warning!* Hey everyone! So, I've been wanting to make this post for awhile now, but I finally worked up the courage. My husband and I are expecting our first (human) baby in August. Charlie, our TAG, is about 4 years old and I'm worried about how he is going to adapt to not being an "only child" anymore. Pretty much whenever we are home, he is out of his cage chilling with us. I know the first few months with a baby are going to be difficult anyway since I probably won't have much sanity and very little time beyond trying to figure out the whole 'mother' thing. Anyone else survive being a first time mom with a bird? How did your feathered kid react? Charlie is a pretty resilient little bird. He has traveled Africa, survived a month all alone in quarantine, moved several times, survived being randomly left for a week or so at a time (with strangers checking on him), and he is a happy bird who still loves us. I know that ultimately after we figure out a new routine, he will adapt just fine, but I'm just worried about making the transition and easing the growing pains. I'm also worried about jealousy. Originally he preferred my husband, but he switched his affection to me about two years ago when we left Africa. (I was around more and my husband started working crazy hours.) Charlie doesn't mind the other person, but he plays favorites. Since I have been pregnant, he started to shift his affection a bit back towards my husband. I don't know if its because I've been grumpier with shorter patience (since I haven't been feeling great) or what. This is probably a good thing though, since I hope my husband can be more of a constant for him (ie: won't have a baby hanging from his boob for long periods of time...), but I know he will still be jealous of the baby getting more attention. Fortunately, Charlie seems to have gotten used to being 'ignored' occasionally when we can't give him the attention he wants, as long as we love him later, but he gets grumpy sometimes. So, is there anything I can try to do now to help ease this transition? I have a million and one other things on my mind with this pregnancy, but Charlie is a huge part of our lives. Ever since we started trying to get pregnant, we've talked about how Charlie will deal with it. He is our first baby! PS -- I've been taking pics of the belly, laying down with Charlie on my stomach. I'll post a slideshow progression once done

Ouch Dave.

Hi everyone, I know people do it for dogs, and I did it occasionally when I had a hedgehog, but have any of you tried oatmeal baths for dry skin on your grey? I figured it couldn't hurt since its all natural and he likes oatmeal anyway, so I gave it a shot tonight. I put some dried oatmeal in an old sock, let it sit for a few minutes in a small amount of warm water, then squeezed the sock to get the oatmeal 'juice' on Charlie's back and chest. He wasn't extremely happy about it, but as he chewed on the yummy oatmealie sock, he did get distracted for a few seconds so I could finish the job. He is pretty grumpy now though... more grumpy than I've seen him in a long time. We'll see if it was worth it...

hmm... Now the photos aren't working. Lets try them a different way...

Sheesh! Sorry for the monstrous picture size. I didn't realize I uploaded them at such a large size.

This is Charlie's favorite way to bathe. Whenever we see him trying to take a bath in his water dish or my water glass, I know it's time to get out the bath. He loves it. He gets all riled up. All of a sudden he'll jet out of the water and fly up to the shower or towel rod, sit for a minute, then bolt back to his bath. He chatters away the whole time. He doesn't get completely drenched on his back though this way, so every so often we'll bring him into the shower for a good soak. He doesn't quite enjoy this though. In the shower he does everything to escape, and when I make that impossible, he just sits and pouts. Anyway, maybe your fid would prefer bathing at her own ease like Charlie rather than being forced. We used to have a shallower dish, and when we switched to this one, he was afraid of it for a while, but he got used to it.

We have a big metal stand for Charlie in the corner of our bedroom, but I needed something more mobile and light weight. This was super easy to throw together and is light enough to bring around the house so he can join us wherever we are. (Mainly the kitchen while I'm cooking or the basement while we're watching a movie.) This was my $6 thrift store solution: -thrift store stool - $5 -thrift store plastic platter - $1 -2 random end pieces of dowels, 2 screws (I think 2.5"?), and a washer from past projects I've wanted to put this together for months, but never took the time to do it. It was so fast and easy though, I feel silly for having waited so long! (Seriously -- drilling 3 holes and putting in two screws.) There is a long screw through a hole in the middle of the stool to hold on the perch. It is very sturdy and Charlie likes it!

Here is a better shot, but this was 2.5yrs ago. With his last molt, he lost all the red factor, but its slowly starting to reappear.

These are the kind of red 'freckles' I'm talking about. This was about 2 years ago and these particular ones molted out on their own.

Charlie has a little red factor. He will be turning 4 in about 2 months. He occasionally gets red 'freckles' on his wings or an almost solid red tail feather (he is a TAG). For the past year or so, he hasn't had any red come in. Over the last few months though, some red has started to reappear. The Problem: Charlie doesn't seem to like the red so much anymore. He selectively chews on the feathers with abnormal red and ultimately (over the course of a few days or weeks) will finally pull it out. There aren't a whole lot, maybe one every few weeks, but enough to notice. He has never had plucking issues before. We haven't had any lifestyle changes. Is he self conscious of the difference in feathers appearance? Do they feel different to him? Some of the red spotted flight feathers seemed to be not as solid as they should be... could they be weaker or getting damaged on their own more easily and he is just trying to get them out of the way? Any insights, theories, or similar experiences?

So I thought I would show you how we ended up 'fixing' Charlie's destruction. Unfortunately he completely destroyed all hope of fixing the old keyboard, so we had to replace the whole surface. And a white one was $100 less than a black, so we now have an oreo computer. Ha!

Just a heads up if you use zupreem: You can print a $2 off coupon from their website. The current one expires 12/31/10. I don't know if they always have one, but back in March (the last time I had to buy food... ha!) there was a similar one. Great deal though if you use zupreem. http://www.zupreem.com/special-features/coupons

I guess I'm thankful he left the cords alone... I was just saying to my husband this weekend that we need to get him some new toys because lately he's been searching out more and more things to destroy. if only...