Azzie

My 3 year old CAG Cleo does it too, usually not long after eating. It looks to me like she's licking her "lips"

Cleo believes all feathers must be attacked. Floating downy feathers get screamed and bitten at. If a larger feather comes out when grooming, she holds it in her foot, shakes it all over the place (often so violently she falls off her perch and ends up upside down) and screams at it. She doesn't appear to have the sense to just let go of this menace feather, instead will keep shaking it and screaming at it.

Cleo pins when she is playing with a toy, eating, or when I am talking to her through the cage bars. During the later, she will also quiver her breast and belly feathers. Guess she is just an excitable little girl!

Cleo my almost 3 year old CAG is fine with loud noises. Occasionally she might startle and look a bit panicked, but she responds really well to me talking to her quietly and telling her "it's ok". If the noise is really bad and you can't be at home, can you put your bird at a friend's place during the day when the work is taking place? It be good for socializing your bird as well!

Here in New Zealand hand raised fully weaned babies are expensive. I paid $4500 for mine (and I still haven't confessed to my parents just HOW much I paid for Cleo, 2.5 years on!) I saw a breeder selling macaws, for a cool $20,000 each.

Well it's been a few days since this little episode, and Cleo is as good as gold. She's her usual sweet funny self, with not a hint of aggression at all. She doesn't appear to be ill or in pain, and is playing, eating, pooping and singing as usual. I'm investing in some electric flyswats, as I don't want a repeat experience of this. It was most unnerving and painful! Thank you all for your support and input.

Thank you for your suggestions and support. Thinking back on what was happening, moments before Cleo flew at me, there was a fly buzzing around her, and she was tracking it visually and lunging at it, then carried on playing on the boing. You think this might have upset her? Zoom, after a 15 minute time out spell for both Cleo AND myself, I went over to her cage, and she came running to where I was standing as usual. I was able to give her a little scratch, also as usual. She started beaking my fingers gently, and acted like her usual funny sweet self. I admit initially I was a bit wary and even jerked my hand back a little when she started beaking, but I feel positive and confident this morning. I'll just make sure there aren't any flies around when Cleo is out. (There's been a huge fly invasion in the area, probably because the weather is still quite warm for autumn, and I spend a lot of time swatting the little pests, but the occasional one evades me). Thanks guys!

Cleo was happily playing on her boing several meters away from me, and I was sitting in my chair watching her. All of a sudden, without ANY warning, Cleo flew at me and attacked me. She beat her wings in my face and started scratching at my face. I put my hands up to protect my face, and she landed on my hands and started biting. She was still scratching and beating her wings at me. I managed to get hold of a foot, and she tried to fly off, so I quickly ran to her cage and put her in there. She was still trying to fly off during the run back to her cage. Once I closed the door, she threw herself at the bar, lunging at me, still trying to attack. I have several scratches and welts on my face from the scratches, and a dozen or so bleeding bite marks on my hands. Five minutes after this event, she is sitting in her cage, whistling and chattering away to herself like nothing happened. Cleo and I have a great relationship, and she has never done anything like this before. Her and I play together all the time, and I can touch her anywhere on her body. If I do something she doesn't like, she gently grabs my finger and pushes it away. She likes to chill out on a chair close to me whilst watching tv (alone but still together sort of thing). She goes belly up for me when playing and I can gently tickle her there, so I'd say she does trust me. So why did this happen? I am a little upset, and more than a little confused and perplexed why she suddenly decided to attack me so viciously. Can anyone shed any light on this please?

Melting...

My neighbour goes into her backyard in the hope to see my bird peeking through the window. If she does catch sight of Cleo, she will start whistling at the bird, in the hope to entice her to whistle back. Apparently she also talks to my dog through the window next to the front door when I am out and the dog is guarding.

Cleo has soft pale grey feathers under her belly and around the legs that have a slight red tinge to them. Some of them are so pale they look pink instead of red, and they didn't appear until after she molted.

Whenever I use the vacuum cleaner, this is met by loud barking from Cleo, and her climbing down to floor level and rubbing her beak on the cage bars. I always wondered what this was about, and I think I figured it out today. The dog always barks at the vacuum, so I'd say that's where Cleo gets it from. When that thing comes out, it means it is time to bark! As for the beak rubbing, I think she is copying my back and forth movements with the vacuum when I am near her cage. It's strange that she freaks out if I accidentally put a perch or toy back in the wrong position, but she is totally not afraid of a noisy moving vacuum cleaner. Still, I am not complaining that she's not scared of that, as it makes housekeeping a lot easier if I can just leave her in her cage or out and about.

Occasionally Cleo gets to eat with me off my plate. It doesn't happen often, because she picks out the largest pieces, has a small nibble, and tosses the rest on the ground where the dog is happily waiting. She also picks out the bits she doesn't like and biffs those too. Having her own plate doesn't work, as she seems convinced that whatever is on my plate must be a lot better than what's on hers. Most of the time she is in her cage when we eat, but she knows a small portion has been put aside for her (if it is something she is allowed to have). It goes into her special red treat bowl, and she goes beserk when she sees me handling it, because she knows what's coming. She knows the word "wait", when I put it aside to cool it down. Still, it is a lot of fun to watch her pick over my plate and make a mess of things, and I am sure she is purposely feeding the dog, as those 2 get on very well.

What you did was the hardest, yet the best, bravest and most noble thing you could ever have done for your friend Grey. To end the suffering of a beloved animal is the most awful decision to have to make, but it show just how much you loved Grey and how much you cared, and how big your hearts really are. You did not put yourself and your feelings first. Your first priority was the well being of your Grey, and that takes an immense amount of courage, love, and compassion. Most of us here will know of this emptiness you speak, and the pain these last few days are causing. Take heart though, what you did was the hardest but the best thing you could have done, and it really shows just what sort of people you are.

Judy, I would seriously recommend investing in a water blaster. Cleaning this cage was actually fun, and it was amazing to see how dirty it actually still was, in spite of my best efforts to do manual cleaning on it. And as I said, I used no chemicals what so ever, and the cage looks like new. I used a regular flat spray first to get into all the cracks and bits, then used this humongous brush attachment to properly clean the bars.

Just finished cleaning Cleo's massive cage. Decided to cheat and borrow my father's water blaster. I must say, that was one of the better ideas I've had in my life time! The cage is spotless, even all those hard to reach places and tiny gaps between the bars and the actual cage frame. No chemical used, so no worries about poisoning or residue. I think I'll do a BIG clean like this every month, with ordinary cleans regularly. Madam was a bit perturbed when I put all her things back in the cage, because they aren't in exactly the same spot, and there are a few extra small perches here and there. Still, she is nibbling on a piece of silverbeet, so she can't be too upset right? I'm feeling very fulfilled and satisfied, having done the big cage clean. Phew!

It's ok. All her play is fully supervised. I don't even go into the kitchen when Cleo is out. The threads have at times tangled around her feet, and she has calmly unpicked them.

It wouldn't be the first time that boing AND Cleo go crashing to the floor. Well, the boing anyway, thank goodness Cleo is fully flighted! She unscrews the attachment, then goes for a swing. She unpicked a lot of the threads on the boing, so they hang down in large pieces of floss in 2 different spots. A good improvement as far as she's concerned, because she loves swinging from these pieces. Her tail feathers are a bit ragged too, as she loves to hang upside down by one foot, then grabs her tail feathers in a death grip with the other talon and just hangs there. Here's a pic of the new and improved boing. You can just see the top of the other piece of rope she has loosened at the top of the photo:

OK thanks for that guys. I didn't realise they were toxic, but I now read they are full of cyanide. EEP!!! I'll be sure to remove them from now on, in spite of how much she enjoys nibbling around it. Don't want to risk her health.

So one of my lorikeets laid her first egg sometime during the night. I found it in the cage this morning, stone cold. Previously I had already removed the newspaper I used for lining the cage, as Sam was making nests with it, and I didn't want to encourage it. It was replaced by wood shavings, but she is still kicking and digging, trying to nest. I will get some special food and supplements today to replace the calcium and other bits she might be losing whilst laying. Any advice on how I can discourage further laying would be much appreciated. I tried separating Sam from the other lorikeet, but since they are pair bonded this appeared very traumatic to them both, with lots of calling out, screaming and flapping around the respective cages. Also, if she lays any more eggs, do I just leave them in there to discourage further laying, and if so, for how long before they go off? Thanks guys!

So my rainbow lorikeet Sam is about 4-5 years old, and has been moody and broody for some time. About a year ago she became very broody (loud, nesting, really runny poos and very aggressive, especially about the cage). This ended after several weeks, but she has continued to try and make nests at the bottom of the cage. I used to use newspaper as a lining, but replaced it with sawdust, and she would spend all day shredding the paper and making a burrow. She still tries to make a nest with sawdust, by kicking it into a pile and trying to make a hole in it. She is still aggressive, masturbates on her perch, and often mates with her cagemate Kip (red collared lorikeet). Sam has not laid any eggs. I am quite at my wits end what to do with her, as she is still aggressive towards me, even when changing the food, and she will sometimes chase Kip around and fight with him. At other times they are best buds and groom another and play together. What should I do? Shall I get Sam DNA tested so I know for sure she is female (I think she is, due to the nesting and aggressive behaviour), and let her have access to a male lorikeet? Will this get it out of her system? Thanks!

Hahaha Brutus sounds like a real character. Actually Cleo now has totally mellowed out. She is much more affectionate than she has been, loves just sitting on me or with me, is asking for scratches now and can sit for an hour like that, being preened and scratched by me. She is still a true parrot in the sense that everything needs to get chewed and bitten. I can sympathise with the remote buttons and anything wooden. Throwing things is also a favourite pastime. She still detests my roommate with a passion, and I can't help but snigger to myself when I see her get "that look" on her face as she prepares for a dive bombing run. Of course the flatmate performs like a trained seal, squealing, shouting, ducking and flapping his arms, which makes it all the more fun for her.

Hej! Hur gar det? (I have a sister that lives in Sweden). Welcome to the forum!

By golly, look at the state of that beak on the avatar photo! Welcome aboard!