redkim

Fred jumps all the time. From the top of her big ole cage down to the hard floor. She seems to do it when - a. we both go outside, she jumps off, runs across the floor and then climbs up the screen door to watch the outside world or b. when she has decided she has had enough "out but on the cage" time and would rather come be with us if we have lapsed in our attention and not come to get her already. Her wings are clipped and I am going to have to make a tough decision when they grow in (I would prefer she fly) butright now I don't want to stop the jumping off as one day she'll do it after she gets enough flight feathers in and fly or hover a little before she falls and maybe build on that to get her flying.

Hey ZD, Is that Karen in Torrance? Birds n more? I got my CAG baby from her and while I don't know about the Cameroon deal the baby I have is WONDERFUL!! She sure does do a great job with the birds she raises. I know she is great about emails - you can always email her and ask the Cameroon question.I found her to be very open and informative - it would be interesting to see her answer to this.

Luckily Fred does her cussing in Spanish. :whistle: She came from a place in Torrance with a heavy Latino influence and I noticed that the employees were mostly of Latino descent so now I know where she got her words . . . As long as visitors do not understand Spanish we are safe!

Hi Ace!! I recently got my CAG from a great breeder/pet store in Torrance called Birds and More. I did a lot of research and many many emails and calls back and forth with the owner Karen and was SO IMPRESSED!! I brought our gorgeous girl home in October and have just been amazed at how good she is, no biting or plucking, very well socialized to lots of foods and other things. She talks up a storm and is not yet a year old. It really made being a Grey owner very easy! Here is her website, check it out! http://www.birdsandmore.com/ Good Luck!

Me too!! I was surprised to get such a nice call or any call for that matter since he is a busy man. He has a TON of info and is happy to share. I am a customer for life!! Can't wait to get these and get Fred started, the palm oil I use now is so smelly (due to the processing) she does not like it much.

Yeah - I have never had so many veggies in my house at any time. Frozen, fresh, and canned - making sure stuff is no sodium and the like. My boyfriend is the funniest though. I am the one that wanted our grey and found and bought her. But now when Scott and I go grocery shopping he is the one running up with all sorts of things for her - and money is no object. The most expensive organic nuts and veggies all go in the cart for HER not us!!

Well I have posted on this before. I use them - at home so Fred can hang with us and meander at her leisure on the couch without having to deal with poop and paper towels. I particularly love them when we're traveling and then she can be out in a new place without worry of poop on a non-bird person's furniture! She is a youngster and I am able to touch her all over - she's very very good. So as far as the flight suit I just put it on her and have let her get desensitized to it over time. The fact that everytime she has it on she gets treats and is able to be with us makes it a positive experience and she never chews on it unless she wants to preen and it's in her way - then she really only picks at it a little. I use that as a signal to remove the suit and put her back on her cage so she can preen herself.

THANK YOU and KARMA to dan and luvparrots!!! I have been waiting for this moment for SO long!! Sent off my check to Richard today!!

OMG!!! HA HA HA HA HA!! I just had to laugh at myself!! Dangit Luvparrots why did you have to post pictures!!?? I had the same problem when I got my cage . . . one 8x11 piece of paper on how to put together the entire thing. Bumbled along okay until the seed guard and was going to leave it off until the BF said he liked the idea of it on. So I cursed and grubled and broke out the tools and made the darn thing fit. The only thing is I have the edges and screws on the INSIDE of the guard and not the outside like yours! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: Hmmmm - I don't think I have the fortitude to go through that again, especially after I had to "fix" the panels so they would go together! Thanks for the laugh this morning!!

I still sing it's praises every time I use it whether it be a spot clean or the weekly big clean. I finally have to take out the one rope perch where she eats because even with this cleaner it's gotten all grody with her wiping her beak on it after eating. Lots of muck deep in the fibers but without the cleaner I would have to probably take it out and deep clean it every week. And it's cheap - not a lot of money to try it. I swear it works - I would not blow sunshine up anyone's rear!! :laugh:

I watched Fred this morning with her breakfast and lots of things she put in her mouth and then squished and drank the juice. She also has a water bottle, I like that a lot as the water is always clean and I can monitor her daily usage via the level. Afetr she started drinking from the bottle I left a dish of water in there anyway and she just wasn't interested in it so I ended up taking it out.

Fred is free fed Zupreem pellets (she only likes the fruity ones, such a child!) and a very good seed mix but every morning for breakfast she gets a big bowl of tons of veggies, pasta, lean meat, egg and various legumes and she about falls all over herself getting to the bowl when I put it in. I let her figure out the ratio she prefers and she's doing great. She eats pretty much all that's in her breakfast bowl, I'll see her hit up the pellets and seed in the afternoon and pellets again in the evening. I think as long as you see them eating a good mix of things and getting a good variety of food they're going to do very well.

I use a product called AviClean and am completely sold on it! Totally safe, I just spray it on wait a few seconds and wipe it off - no scrubbing even on dried poop and food. No rinsing and it's pretty cheap. I spray it on with a foaming sprayer which helps me use even less and it is a lifesaver, no elbow grease required. http://www.avitec.com/AviClean-no-rinse-cage-and-aviary-cleaner-p/avc.htm

Well Fred is 9 months and is working through her baby talk. A lot of stuff is clear and a lot needs work! Anyway - last night she was hanging on the couch with us and I had a bunch of paperwork I was working on. I know I know - trying to keep paper safe is a no no with a grey. Anyway she was doing a very nice job of entertaining herself away from the papers and finally decided to come see what I was doing. She knows she should not chew on my papers so very delicately she would lift a paper and hold it up. I would absentmindedly take the paper and put it back down. This became a fun game until she decided to start chewing. I firmly pointed my finger at her and said NO. She looked at me, dropped the paper, went "wooooo", bent her head and proceeded to give herself scritches on my pointed finger. So much for discipline. :side:

The part that seems the fishiest is that the 10 yr old macaw was listed in 2006 and then again in 2009 without changing age . . . And yup - is not listed in the profile either but other animals are. I wonder, does this miracle non-aging bird exist or is someone trying to scam a free AG?

I'm a dork and posted twice . . :blush:<br><br>Post edited by: redkim, at: 2009/01/27 20:28

I got that exact cage for Fred and she LOVES it!! For bedtime she snuggles in the lower section under the playpen - makes her feel secure. She comes out through the open top and stays on the perch there or her playpen. The only issue we ever had with the open top was through a little unknowing negligence on my boyfriends part. He opened the top (there is a latch too) and let her out but did not put the perch across. Well she was scotting her way along one of the sides when she pulled it over on herself - that would not have been so bad but her toe got caught in the hinged space between the moving section and the fixed section below it. No matter what, she could not pull it out and I could not work it out. I had to grab a screwdriver and undo the hinge to get her toe out. A complete fluke to be sure but now we NEVER open that top without putting the perch on. I even have Fred wait to climb out until I have it secure so she can't hurt herself while I am trying to get the perch placed.

Hee Hee Hee Dan. I KNOW I should not laugh but I can't help it. I was wondering where you were going with your questions and was actually getting concerned over Starburst in my home. Glad to know you're human!!

Fred will chew or pluck at it periodically, like right after I put it on but not bad. I think I notice it bother her the most when she wants to preen and it's in the way. Then I take her back to her cage and take it off so she can preen herself. She has also associated the flight suit as a necessary evil for coming out and having more freedom rather than have to always sit over a paper towel on our hand. I think that's why it's not a big deal to put on and she doesn't try to shred it. The little poop pouch hangs down far enough away that there's never been a problem with "backup" or anything sticking to her feathers. I just have to do a little tug down after I put the suit on to situate the pouch just right. After that it's never moved and when she does her little squat and poo it drops right in! Fred was gerat about being handled and touched all over right from the beginning and so I think that went a long way in allowing the suit. Of course I fumbled SO bad the first couple times I put it on I am still amazed that she lets me anywhere near her with it to this day. We have it down to a system now and the minute it's on and adjusted she gets a super-favorite treat to make it that much more okay. I still would like to do the potty training and work on that in the evenings when she's sitting on my hand over the towel. That way I am hoping to strike a good balance between suit time and trained potty time. Plus if we're ever in a new environment the suit just takes any guesswork or accidents out of the equation.

I tried several different ones out there and Fred will only eat the fruity Zupreem ones. After smelling them I can't blame her! I was concerned that they were a lesser quality pellet but after comparing the ingredients list to Harrisons and Roudybush they are actually equal. So she's happy and so am I.

I usually just have my fid wear a flight suit minus the leash. The poop collects in the pocket below her butt and I have never had a problem with the poop sticking to her feathers. She can wear it for hours easily and it doesn't get even half full even though she poops A LOT. It was a real lifesaver when we took her to my folk's house for Christmas. She could be out in the middle of the action all day but never made a mess. When she's back on her playpen or cage I take it off, dump the ball of poop, wash it and hang it to dry. I have 3 suits just in case one is still wet when I need it again.

Right and Wrong are an ambiguous concept, anthropomorphic if you will. What is 'right' and allowed in my house may very well be considered 'wrong' in yours. Same with groups of animals, horses teach their foals a form of horse 'etiquette' if you will where the young ones learn how to act properly within their own herd dynamic. If they go to another herd this dynamic that they know may not work and they have to learn a new one. All our animals do is learn the rules of where they live. I would not term this as knowing right from wrong but a simple reasoning and memory that a past action resulted in a particular response that they would either like to repeat or would not. And sometimes even though the animal has been taught something is 'wrong' i.e. a dog getting into the trash can, the reward of the forbidden behavior supercedes the reaction/punishment it knows will come later. Humans are no different than animals in this aspect I think. Animals may be harsher and seem to not have respect for life but I think they have more of a respect for life than humans. Some will kill one of their own for not conforming therefore making their species stronger and not diluted by mutations or aberrant behavior. And you don't see predators killing for the sheer joy of it - they simply kill to eat. Humans can become so caught up with preserving everything and playing 'God' to a point that it actually backfires and can cause greater problems.<br><br>Post edited by: redkim, at: 2009/01/21 02:52

LisaM wrote: No recommendation from the vet. Fred does get a wide variety of veggies/pasta/beans/sometimes fruit etc for breakfast and she also loves her Zupreem fruity pellets which I know do contain vitamins too. However, shelf life on pellets can reduce the vitamin potency so I try not to rely on them. I really only give her a 1/4 tsp of the vitamin powder once a week - not 3 times like they recommend. Plus she doesn't eat all that she is given so even less makes it in. I guess it's just a insurance thing for me. The flavor of the vitamins also hides the flavor of the palm oil (that I got from Avitech too) so that helps when she gets her once a week breakfast cocktail.

OMG - after witnessing the Great Poop-off Debate of '08 I have been half-heartedly looking at other cleaners and have been VERY skeptical. However recently I ordered a heat panel for Fred from a GREAT company Avitech. While I was browsing the site I also picked up their AviVita Gold vitamins and a bottle of their cleaner - AviClean. Holy Clean Cage Batman!!! This stuff is AMAZING!! And it is so safe that it does not require rinsing. Spray on and wipe off - no kidding. It only needs a few seconds to work on ANYTHING - dried concrete poop, food, etc. I like that it does not need rinsing so I can use it to remove poop from Fred's rope and fabric type perches without washing them several times a week. I put it in a foaming spray bottle so I don't use as much and let me tell you - not much is needed at all. It's great to whole cage cleaning and for spot cleaning, I'll just spray a little on a paper towel - give the spot a couple rubs and no more poop. For tougher spots I will spray it on, leave it for 10 seconds and then wipe it off - no scrubbing. This stuff will save all my furniture and walls from scrubby spots!! I have even used it on my ferret cage when they poop outside the litter box. Sorry to rave so much but you guys have NO IDEA how fast and easy this has made cleaning. Much more time to spoil Fred now. Here's the site if you guys want to enjoy this stuff. Their prices are very good - they were the cheapest for the heat panel I got Fred. http://www.avitec.com/default.asp Happy cleaning!!

I use a product called Beak Appetit - they make a fun and easily made pack of rice and grains with sme fruits and spices mixed in - Fred LOVES it!! I got all 6 flavors the first time and she has not refused any. It's simple to make - you just empty the packet into 2 cups of boiling water, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. It makes our house smell quite yummy. I will make a pack each weekend and feed it out to her all week. I can even sneak her palm oil in it. Here's a link to the different choices: http://www.beakappetit.com/products.html The top 6 products are the cook & serve ones with rice, peas, lentils, etc.