shannon

This is not for my Grey, but rather for my caique and pionous parrot. The two rascals got into coffee grinds this morning (we have small plastic containers of them) and tore the tops of the containers, spilled some, etc. I do not know that they injested any of the coffee grinds, but I fear they might have... their breath doesn't really smell like it, but after tearing the coffee up they ventured over to a fruit bowl and ate fruit so their breath mostly smells of apple. Are there any suggestions of what to do, if anything. This was just minutes ago. The closest avian vet to us is two hours away. They are both looking normal and fine now.

Another video of Omar... He is doing a lot of meowing in this one. He throws in a scream and a bit of opera, as well as some itsy bitsy story telling. And maybe one bomb.

Omar and my daughter, Siarah. She is 12, he is 10. He loves her so very much and vice versa. He comes to the office with me some days and starts calling for her like clockwork at around 3 o'clock, as she gets home from school about 3-330. Now, how the heck can a bird figure that out! That is awesome. Every time the back door opens (and chimes) from three forward, he calls out, "Siarah!"

Omar and my daughter. They love each other so very much!

Omar is soooo smart, that when I bought a book to try to work on training him a little, he showed his appreciation by eating part of the front cover and first 14 pages. Since this pic was taken, he has eaten quite a bit more of the book. I think he's against this whole training idea. He marches to the beat of his own tweet.

Not to sound biased or anything, but my Grey Omar is the smartest on this planet. Here he is entertaining himself. For some reason, every time I put a camera near him to record, he only half-ass entertains himself. He is like 10 times better than this when there is no camera around.

Yes, he is at our office. I bring him about three times a week.

Okay, so no offense to all the great Greys out there, but my Omar is the smartest bird on Earth. It is no bird's fault that Omar is smarter than all birds, he just happens to be that way. Don't hate on him. LOL Here is a video of him doing nothing, but even his nothing is fun because he's THAT GOOD!

My Congo Gray, Ozzie, had injured his foot (particularly his back toe) some weeks ago. We doctored it and dealt with it a while (it was so bad it was raw and even the scales were "missing," just the pink skin). His toe now looks normal, but his toenail had been looking terrible, like it was practically twisted around. He picked at it a bunch and last night I noticed the whole toenail is MISSING! Well, I can see something inside his toe, like maybe the nail broke off at the base, but for the most part it is missing. He has a doctor's appointment Friday to get his nails clipped, and I am thankful for the timing (cause it takes forever to get an appointment with our doctor!), but are there any bits of advice, comfort, suggestions, etc. anyone can give regarding a missing toe?

I keep saying I will post video on my birds bathing. I've got some video of Omar trying to bathe- don't worry, he gets a shower too, but when he tries to bathe himself, which he does almost daily, it is sooo funny. What I do with my other grey, Ozzie, is just set him in the bottom of the tub and turn the shower on. He runs through the water again and again, getting a real kick out of it. Anyway, here is Omar bathing.

Our Omar and Ozzie are pretty spoiled. I hate to think of parrots that aren't-- they have so much to give when they are loved and spoiled. Mine get brought to the office (we own our own business so that makes it easy)- Omar comes at least four days a week and Ozzie usually around 3 afternoons (he has to come in low doses- he will not behave and stay on his cage like Omar, he just climbs down and gets into stuff- we repair computers and one time he walked down the hall eating the on/off buttons off of all the repaired computers. We had to replace six in all! The other day he ate through a UPS box that had just been delivered and ate the cord to the power adapter that belonged to a surveillance camera we were going to install! I think Ozzie needs his own surveillance camera) Anyway, they are spoiled with attention and love and they deserve every bit of it!

Great book, I agree. I,too, cried at the end even though I well knew how it would end. Gosh it was good though. I found this on YouTube of Griffin, taken after Alex' death. Griffin sounds so much like Alex it is eerie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_Fpad20Zbk

That is awesome that you got the parrot. I'm not an expert but what I do know is that with a Grey, everything takes time. They don't rush into anything so neither should you. Just love him, talk to him, hand feed him treats, play music for him, particuclarly calming music during this transition. Remember, this bird's whole life has been turned upside down. Everything he has known has changed in a brief while. Greys are extreme thinkers nad he has to be very nervous. He has to get to feel comfortable with you and that just takes time, but also it will take him a while to build up good trust in you as he is unsure of what is next for him. Be his friend. At first, don't leave him alone for too long of periods. That is where I erred with one of my birds and we had to kind of rehabilitate him, which took a while.

I agree, that does look like her crop. I would definitely get her to a vet. I know that may not be what you want to hear, but if it is staying swollen and it is her crop, it could be infection or it is not emptying properly. How does her poop look? As far as the egg laying goes, I know they are supposed to lay an egg every other day until they fill their "clutch" or something like that. I am not an expert, just have read. I know it is also their instinct and a very strong one to sit on the eggs and if they are allowed to, they will sit on the eggs for the entire gestation period (even though the eggs might be infertile they don't know this). As far as whether they are allowed to sit on them, I think there is no sure answer, but I am not sure. I am debating the same thing with my cockatiel. It's like so sad to watch knowing she won't get to see them hatch, but then what do you do? It's also sad to take them away. The big concern during this period is calcium and also I have heard of birds dying while laying an egg, but I don't know much about this. Usually something triggers the egg laying, like warm weather or them taking their human companion's affection too seriously, something like that. Please check on that swelling, though, that is concerning. Is there an avian vet in your area? I hope everything is okay.

I agree on separating them. I have cats and a dog. I remember after I got Omar (my grey) that I had read a very important sentence that sticks with me still today. It was something to the effect of, "If a cat and a bird or even a dog and a bird get in a fight (even a play fight), there will be a guaranteed loser, and that is the bird." If the bird isn't killed by the animal itself, then it can die days later from the illness that will follow the infection it will almost surely get if cat claws penetrate its bird skin. It's a tough one, and I've always been very careful. We have 3 cats- Rita, Tillie and Sylvester. Rita and Tillie have no desire whatsoever to interact with our two Congos. They are barely even humored by the fact that the birds call them by name. Sylvester on the other hand lives up to his name and is constantly dreaming of playing with one of the birds, or whatever else a cat may dream or wish for when it comes to birds. We never leave Sylvester unattended around the birds. And just to be on the safe side, we even close the main door to Omar's and Ozzie's room when we are gone, even though we do trust Rita and Tillie, we would just be devestated if something happened and there is no sense in leaving that window of opportunity open. As far as your cat, I also agree with the other responders. Don't be so mad at the cat. It is instinct. For reason, some cats, such as Rita and Tillie are able to completely get over that instinct and not even seem interested in the birds. Others, it's just not so easy for. It's not the cats fault. If you have a big enough home, you should keep them separated. I hate to see anyone have to give up a pet, but you do have to ensure the safety of both, and please don't be mad at the kitty. Have you had both of them - the bird and the cat- a while? I found with Rita and Tillie that at first they were both very interested in the birds, but when they saw that we loved the birds and we loved them, that to me is when they realized that they shouldn't mess with them. Again, Sylvester is just different and I wish it weren't the case, but that's just the way it goes. Maybe one day he will come around. Good luck with this.