chimaysmommy

I'm SO glad I saw this post! I've also had the same on-and-of thoughts about someday getting Chimay a brother/sister. He's such an interactive guy and I can just imagine how much more fun his days could be while we're away at work if he had someone else to talk to and just BE with. I'm with you Jan...we've asked ourselves the same questions on what gender pairing would be best, age gaps, etc. Usually my worry-wart tendencies kick in and I get overwhelmed, then just push the thought out of my head to stop the incessant "what if's". Are you considering any particular species Jan? Personally, I'm not sure what it is but I am very intrigued by parrotlets. They seem like such a charming little bird but again, the "what if what if what if" starts ringing away in my head. Ha ha.

Good point Lovethatgrey...I hadn't thought of it that way before. Thanks for the list Tracie! I guess this Shhhh! stuff just struck a nerve with me. Thanks for letting me rant everyone!

HA HA!!! I absolutely agree! PLEASE feel free to correct me if I'm being overly harsh on these guys, but I feel like it's a bit irresponsible of BirdTalk to allow this kind of product to be advertised in their magazine. From my understanding, screaming/hyperactivity are behavioral issues that can be deeply seeded in some other physical or psychological problem. To be blunt about it, my first thought when I saw this product is that King's Cages is gearing it towards people who have purchased a loud cockatoo or macaw on a whim and now have no idea how to deal with the noise. TA DA! A magic potion that gives back the household's peace and quiet...:blink: Sigh

Okay so I was just flipping through August's issue of BirdTalk magazine and came across a product sold by King's Cages...the description really disgusted me and before I jump to conclusions I wanted to get the forum's opinion in case there's any merit to this stuff. It's called Shhhhh! and the descriptions reads "King's Cages Shhhh! helps relieve excess squawking, screaming and hyper excitability." My first reaction to this was "THEY'RE BIRDS!! Of COURSE they'll make noises and be active, as healthy birds should!" And I do realize that excessive screaming and hyperactivity are behavioral issues but is it one that can or SHOULD be resolved with some magical solution in a bottle? In the photo of the bottle itself, it states on the label that it is supposed to stop excessive barking in dogs as well. This product and what it is promoting really rubbed me the wrong way and I just wanted to find out from you all if there is any merit to their claims.<br><br>Post edited by: chimaysmommy, at: 2009/09/23 18:53

Okay great! Thanks for dispelling the rumor!

I absolutely agree....only you can know if you're ready for a new grey baby. There is NOTHING in the world that could ever replace your beloved Macey. On the same token, if you were to take this new baby grey in, don't think that you'd love him/her any less BECAUSE he/she isn't Macey. Just like kids, you'll love him/her for the wonderful individual they are. Good luck with your decision, and please keep us posted

Nice to hear about the decrease in feathers! Hopefully that aloe juice will help, and that Harvey will start accepting it. Quick question about molting and Red Palm Oil...would it be beneficial to Chimay to have his RPO intake increased? Right now I give him about 1/4 of a teaspoon at an interval of every two and three days. I've heard that RPO helps birdies that are plucking/molting, and curious as to whether it would help to give him more each time or increase the frequency.

My advice, get the Atom...ha ha. When my boyfriend comes home from work and gives Chimay his dinner, he'll get onto his Atom and refuse to come down b/c he loves it so much. Lol! I absolutely agree with everyone else here....repetition. The longer he stays on the cage where you want him to be, maybe give him praise to let him know that he's a good boy when he stays up there. Keep us posted on his progress!

#29: Little wooden "TV remotes" with colorful buttons are not a suitable substitution for the real thing

I would say if in doubt, call the manufacturer if their info is available. If their phone number is unavailable, then Google them. I always go straight to the manufacturer for questions about materials treatment, because most of the time the store's employees aren't always THAT attuned to the content of their products. Not their fault, they're just used to keeping human safety in mind, not birdie safety.

Thank you Judy!!

Thanks Judy!! How severe is the first molt generally? Or does that vary depending on the bird, weather conditions, diet, etc?

I am so very sorry for your loss...I can't imagine what you're going through right now. We're definitely here for you, and I know that Macey is going to be watching over you from now on.

Chimay will be 10 months old at the end of September, and I'm wondering if this is too early to be seeing signs of his first molt. We've got about 6 months worth of downie feathers along our stairs (and oh my gosh the number of downies I find in his nightcage in the morning...whew! It's a wonder he's not bald), and he's got about 5 little pinfeathers around his right ear, and about 3 or 4 on his left. It seems like they appeared out of nowhere! Poor thing has got such an itchy face and head...The last two nights since we noticed I've been taking one of my fingers and dabbing it in a bit of aloe juice and rubbing it on and around the pinfeathers near shis ear to try and help keep the pinfeathers soft and minimize his itchiness. Does this sound like the early signs of molting or normal feather loss? I've been under the impression that the first full molt typically isn't until after the first hatchday, but wanted to be sure. Thanks everyone!

Chimay's not a fan of the shower itself but he LOVES to sit on the shower door for a good steam. I've been taking advantage by giving him intermittant mists with his aloe vera juice. Otherwise, I have learned that when he's in the mood to play in his water bowl, he's in the mood for a good soaking. I can easily use up nearly an entire bottle of aloe juice when he's in that kind of mood. Seems like he gets into that mood about once a week. So he gets steamed/misted once every day and soaked about once a week

It's all a part of his evil plan to take over the world!!! :evil: AAAAAHHHHH HAAAA HAAA HAA HAAAAAAAA!!!! :evil:

I'm really sorry for the sad post guys...I don't like to be a debbie-downer, but I just had to vent. I've NEVER in my life seen a kitty in that state before. It was just too much to take in to think that just an hour and a half before that I was letting her massage my Crocs shoe....can I add that she had the LOUDEST purr for her tiny little size??? The thought that keeps coming to my mind is that Chimay had been at his window-tree the whole time so whatever happened to that little kitty, Chimay must have saw it happen. And I'm ANGRY too....that sweet little kitty could have made a FANTASTIC pet for someone. She clearly loved to be around people as much as she could, and wanted to play play PLAY! There are too many of these kitties out there.<br><br>Post edited by: chimaysmommy, at: 2009/09/09 00:18

At the start of last week, Chimay had begun to add a higher pitched throaty sound to his "practice vocabulary." This, I assumed, was the beginnings of him taking on the sound of my voice. Until then, we had thought that all of his mumblings were taking on the tone of my boyfriend's voice. Naturally I was very excited and encouraged him to keep practicing! I didn't tell my boyfriend about it at first because I wanted him to be surprised by it just like I was. He finally did hear it for the first time a couple of days ago, and asked me "why is Chimay making noises like a strangled cat?" I was a little offended since my voice does NOT resemble that of a distressed cat, and responded "you mean you don't think he sounds like me?" He said "not at all, you sound fine. It's CHIMAY that is making weird cat noises." Puzzled, I waited patiently for the next time he made the mystery sound. It finally happened yesterday, and to my surprise the sound that I had thought sounded like the beginnings of my own voice DID evolve into the sound of a cat crying out. How in the world did he pick this up??? We have no cats, nor do any of our neighbors. The only conclusion I could come to was that he'd picked up the sound of a cat via the television or radio while we were not around. The actual truth came to us today. Early this afternoon, we were on the couch watching a Law and Order marathon when my boyfriend turned to me asking if I heard a cat outside. Muting the television, I heard nothing and dismissed it as background noises on the show we were watching. We continued watching our show, when the noise became louder. By this time my boyfriend had fallen asleep and I muted the television. Sure enough, it WAS the sound of a cat. A cat in trouble. I ran outside to find the most ADORABLE little kitten cowering underneath one of our neighbors' cars. She came right out to me, friendly as could be. Her ears/eyes/nose appeared clean and she had no visible signs of fleas. She was a little on the skinny side but otherwise looked very healthy. Still afraid of touching her and bringing any ickies into the house I allowed her to rub against my shoe a few times before heading inside. I told my boyfriend that he'd been right about there being a cat outside. THAT must be where Chimay picked up this mysterious noise from!!!! We finally had our answer. The kitten continued to cry and cry and cry, twisting my heart strings with each one. We went outside for a smoke where I introduced my boyfriend to the new arrival. With his severe allergy to cats he admired from afar, but agreed that she seemed to be a very sweet little girl. Before settling back inside I made sure to bring out some cool water for her to drink (we really have no cat friendly food in our house). She gulped it right down. When back inside I called and left messages with our local cat rescue and Capital Area Humane Society, asking for a callback to see what it would take to get them out here to collect the little sweetie and find her the loving home she deserved. Then I made a mental note to stop off at Petsmart for a sample bag of kitten chow to help tide her over until a rescue could arrive. Feeling excitement for the hopeful happy ending waiting for the little girl, we continued on with our Sunday. After an hour or two, I decided to get in my car to go pick up a card of encouragement to send out to my brother (he's in boot camp for the US Coast Guard) as well as the sample bag of kitten chow. Just as I was pulling forward to exit the parking lot, I passed a parking space that was about three away from where my car was and I slammed my breaks. Lying dead in the parking space was the sweet little kitten we'd befriended hours earlier. I pulled into the space next to her and got out of my car. I'm not sure what I really wanted to do at that point. My boyfriend called out to me to find out what was going on and I told him. He knows what an incredibly soft spot I have for animals and he rushed outside. He gave me a hug and encouraged me to get back into my car, get the cards for my brother that need to be sent and he would take care of her. He knew the longer I hung around the more emotional I would get over her. I came home from the store and she was gone. Just so disheartening. She couldn't have been more than 12 weeks old, and deserved to die fat, happy, and old in someone's loving home. Not so long before her time and on the hot blacktop of some parking lot. Rest in peace little Kitty-Doe. Thank you for teaching my Chimay how to meow...at least that little piece of you will live on for a long time.<br><br>Post edited by: chimaysmommy, at: 2009/09/07 02:26

I couldn't agree more with both of you....my boyfriend and I have no human children, so Chimay is our baby. He is on my mind all day at work, and I rush home to be with him every day. We take him into consideration with any and all plans we make.... I guess it's not all too surprising that I dreamt about him....but man why'd it have to be such a horrible one? And what's with the evil macaw? Ha ha ha

jessdecutie18 wrote: From my understanding it can take up to a year. Over the course of the last five months that we've had Chimay (noted below that he was clipped by our breeder as well...not a drastic clip at all either), he's been able to increase the amount of distance he can get out of a glide quite a bit. At first he would take off and only glide about 3 or 4 feet before landing, but now he can glid clear across the room into our kitchen or dining area (we live in a 2 bedroom apartment). He's young and I'm sure he'll get his bearings and learn his limitations. Keep an eye out for him and common "crash sites"...maybe lay padding down such as a folded over towel to still allow him the freedom to explore his abilities but still keeping his safetey in mind.

Our breeder also trimmed Chimay's wings, but he was permitted to fully fledge before she did so. In fact in one of her email updates she made me laugh talking about how Chimay and his clutchmates had decided that her head was a very convenient landing pad. Ha ha! Like you, we are also wanting to allow his flights to fully regrow and keep him unclipped. We have been encouraging him to fly to us on the couch in attempts at some beginner's "recall" training, and though he can't really maintain altitude he still gets a good amount of distance in a glide. If you haven't noticed in other threads, wing clipping is a bit of a hot topic on this forum. There is a lot of greYt advice out there on the subject, but bottom line is you've got to do what YOU believe to be best for YOUR baby. Personally I am all for keeping birdies UNclipped at all costs, but not at the expense of the bird's safety.

Yeah I don't think he minded the big breakfast and extra loving he got this morning...ha ha. Although if the bad dream become a recurring thing, I'll have to hold out on the urge to pamper him or he'll end up a rotten spoiled fat little birdie. Lol!! Well he's already spoiled rotten so I guess that won't matter. And it'd better not be some birdie ESP thing he's doing to make this kind of dream happen...little stinker

OMG I wanted so badly to cry this morning....I think I need a dream therapist or something. Last night I had the craziest, most horrid dream about our Chimay. We were feeding him his dinner, and he started choking a piece of spiral whole wheat pasta. My boyfriend rushed to his aid, looked into his mouth then looked at me and said "I'm sorry sweetie he's gone...there was nothing we could do for him" We both cried and cried, then had a toilet-bowl style funeral (why the toilet, I have no idea) like you would for a goldfish or something. By the time we got back to our living room where his cage is, an entirely new cage had appeared complete with food and toys. My boyfriend said that the new cage was supposed to be a surprise for me and for Chimay...the cage was shaped like a gigantic house. Then out of nowhere a giant Scarlet Macaw flew in through the window onto the top of the cage. At first we were intrigued but then realized that it was evil, trying to bite our hands and our faces. The whole time I couldn't believe our little Chimay was gone, and how in the world we were going to be able to get control of the evil Macaw. Then my boyfriend and I got into an arguement about why in the world we flushed Chimay down the toilet instead of having a proper necropsy performed. At this point my alarm went off and I woke up realizing it was all just a dream. I jumped out of bed and rushed to Chimay's night cage, flipping the cover up. There he was, happy and wide awake with a piece of newspaper in his little mouth. I took him out and gave him what seemed like a million kisses and made him the biggest breakfast he could stomach. I hope I NEVER have a dream like that EVER again.<br><br>Post edited by: chimaysmommy, at: 2009/09/04 20:37

I'd bought quite a few books at Amazon, just ran a search for "african grey" on their engine and started clicking away! Aside from the how-to books on how to properly care for a grey, I would also highly recommend Alex & Me by Dr. Pepperburg as more of a philisophical reading. It really opened my eyes to the intelligence and potential of these wonderful little creatures. Keeping a grey as the others have said here is certainly no small task, financially or otherwise. They do require a LOT of attention, toys and grocery trips. There are quite a few greYt recepies in the Bird Food room on this forum, and the more freezable meals you make the easier your life will be I promise We just got our Chimay in March of this year, and I think the biggest life change that we've experienced is that it is more difficult than before to plan trips. We've never taken an extended vacation per say (exceeding 3 days in length), but the few trips we've taken have been carefully planned to make sure that my mother is available to stay at our apartment and be with Chimay. She's really the only person that we trust and has a good rapport with Chimay. And then there's the poop. Enough said I do have to say that Chimay has changed our life drastically, but we would not change a SINGLE THING for the world!! I never knew it was possible to love and feel so bonded to an animal before...I mean, I've had cats before and loved them to itty bitty furry pieces but this is a very different experience.

JillyBeanz wrote: I like it!!! If no one in that area is offended, I think I may start a movement to start using "pants" in that context here in the US!! Or at least here at my job Ha ha! Love it