LilosMom

Dan, when you make him go back in the cage and he bites you and such.. arent you worry that he is going to dislike his cage? My grey used to go back to his cage on his own, until I got him a bigger cage. Now he doesnt go into his cage at all and when I do force him inside his cage he climbs to the corner of the cage and tries to squeeze himself out between bars (really pathelic looking..lol) I would like to put him inside the cage more for safety reasons, just wondering how do you guys deal and manage with your grey looking at you with those "save me" sad eyes when they are inside the cage.. or maybe I just need to be tougher and stop letting my grey win all the time.

umm I m not an expert or anything, but it looks to me like she has been chewing off his feather rather than molting. My grey is 3 years old and he molted once about 1 1/2 years old and it didnt look anything like that the picture you posted. hopfully someone whos more experienced can give you more information about it. good luck!

Thanks for your explaination chimaysmommy, I actually didn't even read the book. I have only seen some clips of them and read some book reviews from amazon. The book does sound very interesting I will sure pick up one!

I don’t understand why Alex is a plucker? At first I thought Alex might be a rescue but Dr.P had mentioned she got Alex when he was 1. If she is such an expert at what she is doing, Isn't a healthy bird in a healthy environment is not suppose to developed plucking problem? (I don't mean to sound like I m criticizing her or her work.) Or are some birds just born to be a plucker? Also how did alex die? It didn't say anything in the book about how he died? I m just curious...

Yea great to hear that! I saw them on animal planet, its truely wonderful what they are doing. I m looking into adopt another parrot, but I probably wouldnt be a good candidate for those pets since it seems like they do require a lot more care than my experience can offer. I also have a baby on the way which will take some time away from my parrot babies, but I do want to go help out at a sanctuary like place after my baby is born, too bad I m not anywhere near Utah or "Best Friends" will be my first choice!

Hmmm good To know!! The price on that site does seem little too low, I m also concern about their shipping option. I will check into other sites with phone numbers. Thanks!!

Yea the part at the end is definitely copied and pasted somewhere.. It does seen a little suspecious. I would go check it out if its not that far. What do you guys think about http://www.birdbreeders.com/ are they safe? does anybody has experience with them? It seems like almost all the breeders on that site has a good rating...hmmmm little too good to be true?

I've realize that my grey learn some tricks faster than the others. Throughout a day I would practice more than one trick with him. So maybe you can try bunch of different tricks with him, also observe how he plays and try to incorporate some tricks in it. For example, Lilo likes to toss things around so I got him a dice and gave it to him to toss around, when he does it I would say “roll the dice!!” He gets it right away, now he does that when I say the command “roll the dice”! When he gets it right, I also try to give him praises instead of treats. Good luck and have fun with your training!!

First, just spend some time next to the cage, talk to him, sing to him. then you put your hand by the cage not in any kind of threaten way continue to talk/sing to him for couple of days. When you open the cage door, tell him to step up, offer your hand to him and hold a toy infront of him on the other hand. Always ask him to do anything with him and wait for his response. If he doesn't seem like he wants to touched, dont touch him. There are a lot more to it... it takes patience, time and lots of TLC...Like judy said there are lots info on this site, read as much as you can. good luck!

If she is tearing up your skin then her nails are too sharp, they need some trimming. I have a pediperch for Lilo so he trims his nails when he is on that perch, we also play a game called "spa time", I get to file his nails with a filer, at the end Lilo always wins and destroy the filer in to pieces but I get the job done also! With all these trimmings he gets at home, we only go to the professional about once-twince a year.

Thanks she, I was wondering about that too.. seems like it has nothing to do with Lilo's "kidney problem" that is if he really has kidney problem. I have been feeding him sunshine factor which is pretty much the samething as red palm oil. And since he doesn't eat viggies, I have also been feeding him AviGreens. I also started feeding him some formula baby food in the morning just trying to fatten him up.. I will update on anything else if it occures...

Yea Judy, I guess I went a little vitamin happy there lol.. THanks Dave for your detail information. I will just give lilo what the Vet recommanded which is the sunshine factor, vitamin complax B and the Metacam daily. And sprinkle/drop or all the other stuff here and there every once awhile. Thanks again!

As far as vacations, I either leave my grey to someone I trust or a boarding place that requires a health certificate from a recent visit and a Vet on call. (I have not done that yet, but I m thinking about it the next time when I go away). I m a stay at home ..soon to be mom. But when I first had Lilo I was working 8-10 hours a day leaving Lilo at home by himself. I tried the best I could and let him out of the cage and spent as much time with him when I got home. That went on for about a year and 1/2. I am not sure how much that affected him or me, now that I M a stay at home mom, he is (or I am ) extra clingy and he is a total cage free bird now. Back then when I had to leave him at home to go to work I would feel very guilty, now that I m home I let him do whatever he wants I guess I felt I need to make it up to him and I think I probably spoiled him too much now. So just try not to make the same mistake I made, there are plently of owners that needs go to work, as long as you give him a good 4hours a day of Out of cage time and give him plenty of attentions during that time..they will know when they are loved. Best wishes and good luck!!

I m just wondering is it possible to have too much vitamins intake? can they "overdose" from it. Or can it actually harm the bird? As some of you knows my story, The vet found tiny trace of blood in Lilo's poop, so the Vet recommanded "sunshine factor", B complax, and metacam for Lilo. I went out and got all that along with the red palm oil, AviCal plus, AviX bird builder(which I can drop in his water), and AviFlax, AviGreens (which are powder that you sprinkle on his food). Are all those ok for daily use? or am I just going over board? Thanks for your input!

But but.. the Vet mentioned that Lilo is on the skinny side (by feeling his chest bone) and it seems like he only pick out the seeds from his food dish. So I just thought that he is not eating as much as he should...I just want to get him to eat more thats all...anyways, gotta go jump now..Lilo is calling..

I m jealous!! that is a wonderful playhouse!! I want to live there

Lilo's lab result came back and the Vet said he didn't see anything too alarming except they found a very tiny trace of blood in his urine, so he thinks it might be a kidney problem (he thinks, he is still not sure) He wants lilo to start taking "sunshine factor" , B complax vitamin, and metacam. I ordered the sunshine factor right away and is going to get the B complax today. I figured even if there is nothing wrong with Lilo, taking these things doesn't hurt anyways. What do you guys think?

Hi all, Lilo is a cage free bird he flies around the house all day following us. I have noticed for awhile that he doesn't eat on his own. He has his food in the bird room which he can access to it any time of the day. But when he is hungry he would just tell us and expect us to bring him there or just wait for us untill one of us goes in to the bird room with him. I have also noticed when he is in the house by himself he rarely eats or take a drink of water untill we get home. I tried to encourge him to go to the birdroom by himself when he is hungry but he just rather wait. And placing the food water bowls all over the house isn't a solution either.. Does your grey eat by himself? any suggestion on how to solve this problem? Thank!

Hi Thanks for the replies, Ralph, He is not an avian vet, Its hard to find one around my area.:\ Thanks Judy, I hope so too, Lilo is still eating playing sleeping as usual, so hopfully its just me over-reacting. Dave, I dont know .. When I go to my Doctor for my annual check up, I expect my Dr. to tell me if I m healthy or not, or tell me something like,..your pressure seems a little low, lets do more tests on that....So I kind of do expect the vet to at least tell me if my bird is healthy or not after all the tests too. Isn't that is what they getting paid for? Well I do think to go see another vet is probably a good idea so I've decided whatever this vet tells me after all the tests comes back, I m going to another vet anyways. Thanks again for reading my post, I will update you guys on it!

Hi all, I just want to update you guys on Lilo, and maybe get some input as well... As some of you may know that couple of weeks ago, I was bit concern about lilo's bubbly poop. So I took him to the vet, he checked out fine on the basic vet visit and we were thinking about sending his poop to the lab but we thought we'll wait. So about 3 nights ago he started to vomit, I can tell he wasn't regurgitating because he was flicking his head a lot while vomiting and his vomits were mostly liquid. I took him to the vet the next day, and the vet did bunch of test on him with him sedated, (he took his blood, poops, x-ray,,) which he is going to send to the lab and hopefully get a result back on Monday. I spent almost $700, which is a lot but of course Lilo's health is way more important. What I have problem with is the Vet. First Of all, when I first mentioned to him about the bubbly poop, he said it was probably just gas, and I had to point it out to him that its not normal for parrots to have gas,..also, I asked him if all the tests comes back negative, does that mean that Lilo is ok? he still refuse to confirm that. I understand that he doesn't be liable for it, but couldnt any vet just at least tell me that my bird is "ok"? I don't understand, if I go to a vet for a check up, isn't it their job to tell me if my bird is healthy or not? if I spent all that money and still comes back unsure..what is the point?? Thanks for reading this post and any input is welcome!!

I know most of you dont recommand bringing the grey to visit the brid shop or similar places. but what about taking him there to trim his nails beak or for some of you.. to clip his wings? Is it safe or its still a risk for the bird to get diseas? and how do you deal with that? or prevent that?

ok, I m going to give Lilo 2 more days, If still doesnt look better, we are doing the lab thing on monday for sure. I will update you guys on everything thanks again!!

Usually I feed Lilo fruits viggies and some bread in the morning (with little cream cheese, which is probably bad but he loves any kind of cheese.) and through out the day, whatever we are eating..usually noodles some cooked meat with sauce. And he always have his pellet mixed seeds in his cage dish. I feed him water to drink and some orange juice or apple juice. I have been trying to only feed him pellets/seed for almost 2 days now.. but its so hard, since whenever we are eating he flys over and snatch our food here and there...:\

So you are saying his stool doesnt look normal and it cause concerns right? By the way, the Vet didn't "recommand" the lab test. He was kind of passive saying that "if you guys want to ...you can..." He pretty much left it up to us.<br><br>Post edited by: LilosMom, at: 2009/02/06 02:20

oh and the pink that you see in the middle is a picture on a magazine under the paper.