chimaysmommy

Thanks everyone!! We're getting married on may 16th

Lol! That is too cute. Chimay used to tolerate feet, but when he hit 2 years old he decided that feet are in fact, evil. He will even go as far as to eradicate socks from his nearby surroundings if there are any around. Somewhere I have a video if him going through my sock drawer, defiantly tossing every single pair of balled up socks in sight and then looking at me as if to say "you're welcome. Someone had to do it" They're wonderful!

It's been a loooong time since I've logged on and wanted to share this wonderful update. On Aug 29 I was curled up on the couch, settling in for a short nap with Chimay diligently perched on my side (he does this often, keeping a lookout for predators perhaps? Haha). As I dozed off, I heard something that sounded like "marry daddy?" Chalking it up to sleepy delirium, I started to go back to sleep. Then, clear as day, Chimay asked "will you marry daddy?" I got off of the couch, told Chimay that he is a good boy and went into the next room to confront Daddy with our fid's newest vocabulary addition. Out came the ring, the happy tears that followed, and lots of treats and love for our little feathered hero. Who could ask for more? I love them both so much! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5cW5w6JdPs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Chimay has a separate sleeping cage in a different room. Usually when he sees the sun going down he will go through his usual dusk-time whistles and chatter. Once it's dark out, he lets out a very specific whistle that he only uses at bedtime which I have interpreted to mean "let's go mommy it's time for bed!" lol. I find that in instances where he needs to go to bed earlier (daylight savings changes for example) I have to manipulate the light in the room that the "flock" is in, namely me, Chimay and my fiancé. We darken the room, lower the tv volume, lower our voices and he follows suit. Within 20 mins he's all puffed up and doing his sleepy time whistle. Another note, and I'm not sure if this is just Chimay's quirky little personality, but I will sometimes put warm water in his sleepy cage rather than cold or room temp. Seems to have a calming effect, almost like tea or warm milk would have on us.

You know you live with a grey (or any parrot for that matter lol) when poop cleanup patrol has become a way of life.

Thanks for the replies!! I'm really excited about getting Chimay his own room. I'll probably monitor his playtime in the room for a few days before deciding to allow him out for extended periods unsupervised. He's been living with us in our two bedroom apartment for so long, and I'm anxious for him to get his own Birdvana space to enjoy Definitely going to be visiting the toys section of the forum to get some ideas so we can Macgyver some toys and foraging stuff together.

Hello everyone!! My fiancé and I are closing on our first house on Dec 27th and will be designating one of the spare bedrooms as a bird room for our grey. He's an only-bird at the moment but we hope to someday get him a roommate! For now though he'll have the new bird room all to himself. I was hoping to get some advice on ideas for making his room as fun as possible. In addition, for those of you with a designated bird room allow your fid(s) to be out of their cage unsupervised in their space? I planned on taking all of the necessary precautions to "proof" the room (no wires, covered/secured electrical outlets, etc) in hopes that I could allow him to be out while I'm working. I work from home, so I'd still be looking in on him throughout the day until I'm done with work.

Chimay now has one flight feather that has completely grown in, and one that is about 1/2 grown. I can't wait till he gets some more. He looks like he's got these big awkward thumbs sticking out of his wings each time he stretches. Lol!! I think he knows that something's coming tho...when he's perched on his atom or playtop he's crouching a lot more now like he wants to take off but he knows that there is still something missing. Over the weekend he made two halfhearted flight attempts but managed to make it from his Atom to the couch pretty well. My baby boy is growing up!!

Oh my gosh...that poor thing!!! I'm sorry but that's borderline abuse. Their not built for that kind of thing. I've posted that link to my Facebook page, and asked that if anyone out there sees someone doing that to their parrot to give them a firm smack in the face and call them an inconceivable idiot.<br><br>Post edited by: chimaysmommy, at: 2010/01/26 20:47

Chimay's vocabulary has been slowly but surely increasing...his first words/phrase were "can you whistle?" That seemed to be the only thing he really wanted to say for a while...but recently he's added "baby boy" and "wanna step up" and "are you a chicken?" to the list. Just yesterday, he started to try "I'm a parrot!" but it comes out sounding like "I'm a pear" So unfortunately what we have here is a full blown identity crisis. He used to think he was a chicken (still clucks like one from time to time), he had begun barking like our neighbor's Maltese puppy, and now he thinks he's a piece of fruit. Hahahaha!!!

Thanks for all of the well wishes guys! During our pre-bedtime scritches I noticed one of the new flight feathers (one that dropped about 3 weeks ago I think) just barely peeking out past the line of cut ones. Eee! I'm so glad that you guys are here b/c to any non-bird person the excitement of this sort of milestone would make NO sense at all.

Chimay just lost his second cut flight feather! I feel like we've been waiting forever to start seeing signs of his first steps towards being fully flighted again. And it looks like another one ong his right wing that's a little loose and out of place so I think that'll be the next one to go. Yay!

I have never heard of her before, but if you're looking for a recommendation I would HIGHLY recommend Casey Ramey at www.canopycreatures.com. She was just a JOY to work with and treats all of her babies like gold. Chimay came to us very very well socialized, and Casey was right there for us through every question and concern. I do know of several members of this forum who've used her (one of them on my recommendation. haha). Keep us posted on your quest for a new FID!

From my understanding of molting, this time of year would be it...and the amount of feathers they lose and the area(s) they come from does vary. Their first molt would be the heaviest and longest. Our Chimay has only just stopped molting, and his lasted about 5 months. I could not believe Chimay wasn't naked with the amount of feathers I was finding in his cage and around our house! Hope that helps!

Love it!!! FIVE Hyacinth Macaws?!? That's a small fortune!!!

This has been a very interesting thread to read because our Chimay has been losing a considerable amount of feathers lately. He began what I assumed to be a molt about two or three months ago--a lot of downie feathers EVERYWHERE and the occasional larger solid grey feather. It tapered off for a week or two and in the last few days it seems he's turned the molting dial up to 11! He's now got a very small bald patch on the top of his head above his nares, and a larger patch on the back of his neck is just down now. I know that he's not plucking b/c all he has to do is shake his head and feathers start flying. He just had a wellness check about a month ago and the vet gave him a clean bill of health. How long should a molt last? Is it possible that the increased loss in downie feathers that I observed a few months ago was just a precursor for what was to come, and we're NOW in the actual molt itself?

Chimay has the same thing happen to his tailfeathers. He used to have the same "V" pattern in his tail, but the one remaining feather on his right side broke in the middle when he took a tumble off of his Atom and he took it off himself about a week later. He doesn't pluck the entire shaft out, but he'll remove the broken part. He's still beautiful to me, but his tail is a little worse for the wear. Haha. I think the V adds character! Ecko is still a very handsome boy

Aahh.....peace and quiet for the last two nights!! Not sure what was up with his restlesness the other night but man am I happy he's over it. haha!

Happy belated birthday Caitlin!!!

....How TIRED I am today!!! OMG! I love my little Chimay to teeny grey bits, but my gosh I was at my wits end last night. Never before (and hopefully never again) has he been restless at night. His night cage is in our bedroom with a very simple setup...perch, water, food, newspaper. He's been fully content with this up until last night. All I heard every half hour starting at about 1am was the clinking of his nails and beak on the cage bars as he climbed down to the bottom, then the soft crinkle-crinkle of talon-steps on the newspaper floor as he waddled around. Then of course, r-iiiiippppp-iiiinnnnggg the newspaper apart at 2am and 5am is super fun. I was up and down and up and down all night with getting up to put him back onto his perch. My hats off to those of you out there with human kids....not sure how you do it!!! Hopefully this is just a one-time thing... I'm gonna go get another cup of coffee.

Thanks for all of the well wishes guys!! As always it's wonderful to think that this forum is one place where we can celebrate our fids' hatchdays without non parrot people giving us funny looks. Haha!!!

Today is our Chimay's hatch day!!! He's been having a great day, and we just returned from the petstore buying some new toys and goodies for him. Of course he's a spoiled boy, so he just thinks this is like every other weekend. Haha. I can't believe he's 1!! Can't wait to see what the next year will bring :kiss:

Congratulations !!! I know what you mean about non-bird people not quite "getting" the excitement of the first words...I told my brother about Chimay's first words and his response was "Um, okay...I talk all of the time" Haha... What wonderful news for you guys!! If you ever catch Houdini making his new noise on video please post it.

And so she shall be Chocko!! Haha! I like it!

I'm thinking he stepped in something...as others here have already said if it was the carrots, the discoloration would be all over and not just one foot. On a personal note, my grey currently has a blue foot. Haha...He stepped in some of his poo after having quite a few purple Zupreem pellets and it stained his scales blue on one foot.