rbpittman

You should see what my 'Too has done to the crown molding in my living room - just another excuse to redo the living room..........lol.

Ok - that brings up the question - especially for a new Zon mommy - Morgan is only 4 months old - when should I start giving him a shower?

Having three 4-legged vacuum cleaners I can no longer let them in my office - they argue over the spillage and throwage.

I have more pictures - but having a hard time getting them to upload - will post more later. Robin

And another!

This is my first attempt at posting some pictures - meet Morgan!

Jay, We made the mash this afternoon and he ate with gusto - along with some fresh papaya and banana. I'm content with the formula, he's doing wonderfully on it, and lunch of mash doesn't bother me as long as he eats. I was concerned that he wasn't getting enough, but your confidence has insured me that I'm doing fine by Morgan and as long as I watch the fat and make sure he exercises, he can be a baby on formula as much as he wants. He did munch on a pellet soaked in diluted grape juice, but this was after the mash and fruit. I love going produce shopping for my babies, they do enjoy their meals. Robin

Jayd, Thanks for the input, yes I had read those two pages all the way through and have determined that if he doesn't eat the pellets it's ok, however, all of my babies are on Harrison's so I'm content that when he does eat pelleted food (which I always offer) he's getting the right vitamins and fat levels in his diet. I was told that he should be on "solids" by the end of October, but the way he continues to attack his formula in the morning and evening, and the lack of touching anything else had me worried. His weight continues to hold steady and he's not increased his formula intake, he is very consistent in his intake. He has been playing more over the last few days and I'm sure that this is normal as he acclimates to his new environment. I have discovered that Morgan too likes leather pieces and wood slates very much like Dixie. He does get lots of exercise - they all do; but this morning Morgan was happy to just perch on my fingers and flap for what seemed like five minutes. He is long clipped so he has some flight ability. When those molt out he will be as flighted as the rest of the flock. Hopefully this coming spring my dreams of a flight avairy will be realized and they will get more exercise than just flying through the house. I'll try to post some pictures as soon as I can - just a quick break from studying for now - midterms this week and next. At least they are learning with me.........lol. Dixie's vocabulary is sounding like Black's Law Dictionary. Robin

You would think someone with 9 birds would not consider getting another - oops I did it again! Last Thursday my mouth said yes (and so did my heart) when I was offered a beautiful 3 1/2 - 4 month old Panama (still hand feeding 2 times a day). There was a need and I had an empty cage (only because I had bought Sterling a new/bigger play cage)! What's a crazy person to do? So here I am again, reading everything in the Amazon room I can to learn about my new little guy. His name is Morgan (as in Captain - thanks to my daughter) and he is pure delight. He's already saying "hello" and "out" - yes you must use your imagination some on these - but he's working on them. His vet check was absolutey wonderful, he is the perfect "specimen," and has a wonderful docile personality (yeah I know, he's still a baby and we're only 10 days into this...lol). My questions - only a couple - are as follows: He's eating formula very well - weight is consistent - playing occassinally and doing all things I would expect him to do, but he doesn't want to eat anything else - no matter what it is. This may be due to his young age, but no matter what I put in his cage goes completely untouched. Any suggestions? I have food in pellet form in one bowl (normal locations); seed mix in another and then water in the third. On the floor of the cage he has his blanket, a water bowl and a food bowl with a mix of pellet and seed. He likes to walk through the water bowl. I've offered human grade peanuts, almonds, banana chips and he won't take/eat any of them. The bag of food that was sent with him had too many sunflower seeds in it for my liking (I don't serve them at all) and lots of cracked seed pieces. In regard to toys. Are there any toys that are better for such young ages over another. Beau was at least 6 months when I brought him home and is such a sad state that toys weren't much of an issue. Beau now has an unusual love of rope and plastic chain. Dixie loves to tear apart everything - especially leather knots and wooden sticks. I want to offer the right type of toys for the right species of bird. So again your insight is appreciated. Other than that, he's proving a great companion for Beau. We took Beau with us to see the vet when we had Morgan checked and they became quick friends. It's amazing how nicely they are co-existing with each other. Dixie has been curious about Morgan for the two days they have been in the same room together, she's flown over to Beau's cage to stare at Morgan. Blue and Bean don't seem the slightest bit interested and Sterling - well Sterling doesn't share my office - he has the living room and his own boy! Thanks for all the advice I know will be forthcoming! Robin

Hmmm, depends on the parents, not the kids if you ask me. I have a 21 yr old and a 14 yr old in my home and the eldest is afraid of the birds - so she stays away from them. Sterling (U2) loves to chase her down the hall and into her room - he's figured her out big time. The greys really don't care either way. Dixie loves my husband and son, Beau only has eyes for me. If you raise your children properly around pets of any type, it shouldn't matter their ages. Dogs, cats or birds are all prone to children tormenting them, so again, depends on the parents. Robin

Ok, so now you have me questioning my lighting. I have pendant lights above each cage using the Ott light screw in bulbs that say "full spectrum." I also have two floor lamps with the Ott bulbs located around my desk to throw more light out but not in the birds eyes - or mine. The fids cannot get to these lamps, but they do help with my school work...lol. Being in Charleston SC I have a milder climate year round than most so I have the ability to get the fids outside for at least 30 minutes a week, we usually spend more than that however. I've never considered the lighting I have to be overly beneficial for their health, just lights to keep the corners from being dark and keeping the overhead light in the room off, that's what the sun is for. Do I need to invest in these indoor lights for them given my schedule of getting the fids outside? We've purchased a cage for outdoor use - it rolls out the backdoor onto the deck with either Dixie, Sterling or the Conures in it, and we take them each out at least three times a week. Beau gets to wear the harness and sit on my shoulder. The only time they would not be able to go outside would be if we have a week of thunderstorms that last all day. I don't want to not do something that would be beneficial to their health, and thought getting them outside was the best thing I could be doing. Robin PS - I'm not against spending the money - I'm just not electrically minded and hubby is in Washington working on a submarine!

Welcome Aeriga, glad you found us. As the owner of 2 greys, 1 u2, 2 conures and 4 parakeets I am a firm believer that no bird should ever be clipped. It is our responsibility to care for them, especially since we have them from their natural environment and that includes leaving them as intact as possible if we are going to be owned by them. I have had many discussions with the local shop owners here and while they are proponents of clipping, they do so in the spirit of not knowing exactly how the home is equipped to deal with a flighted bird or how knowledgable the bird owner is. Does this excuse your experience, not in the slightest. The best thing you can do is either find some other place to shop or ignore the idiotic person when you shop there. If he/she chooses to lecture you again, simply cut them off and say "I've heard your speech before and you made your points, however, you are not me, you don't know me, and you don't know the precautions or the experience I have with birds. If you wish to keep me as a customer I suggest you keep your opinions to yourself, otherwise I will be forced to voice my opinions to all my friends and acquaintances who also have birds that use your facilities. It works every time I guarantee it. BTW - lovely to hear you took in rescues, they are the best babies to have!

While neither of my greys are the ages of Zoe and Sydney, Dixie and Beau have learned to respect each other and it only took 9 months. Prior to that, Dixie would huff and puff and stretch and lunge if Beau was anywhere near her, her cage, her toy, her care giver or her Paul (my husband). To date, she's learned tolerance and patience and will gladly share me with Beau (I'm the care giver) without problem. In fact she will gladly sit on one shoulder while Beau is on the other. Now if Dixie is on Paul's shoulder/hand/anywhere near him and Beau comes over or one of the conures happens to fly by, Paul gets a bite. Hang in there! Robin

Six of my fids are in my office - where I spend all of my day until about 8 pm. Then it's night night for all of them, drawing the shades, turning off the lights and complete quiet until the sun comes up around 6 - Dixie is the only noisy one of the bunch in the morning - talking as much as she can and calling the dogs to go out. She's better than any alarm clock I've ever owned. Sterling's lives in the living room which is dominated by my son. He too has an 8 pm bedtime, but only requires that "his" light is off and the tv is turned down. While he gets the morning sun in his window he makes absolutely no noise until breakfast is served and he alerts the entire house. I guess I'm the lucky one in I can sleep in if I choose, but prefer to sit with Dixie and the rest of the fids reading the paper and drinking coffee while they enjoy their breakfast. Robin

While I doubt you will be able to break this habit, I found a cure to Dixie's dropping 2/3rd's of her Harrison's onto the cage floor. I lightly mist her pellets with 100% white grape juice (I use baby strength...lol...smaller bottles). It's not enough to make them mushy, but enough for her to taste the juice. Instead of finding full pellets on the floor, I found pieces that were dropped, obviously they didn't have enough juice on them. Now adding juice to them, the dog may start begging for them and your feeding bills will truly go through the roof! LOL. Good luck - look forward to the video. Robin

Beau and Dixie both love to sit on the shower rod while I shower to "steam" themselves. The humidity it creates is great for them and they are more receptive to their shower (much cooler water obviously) after I'm done. In the winter when the house is drier than I would like they get "steamed" daily! Robin

With 2 Grey's in the house and Dixie being the first of all of the birds, we treat her a little differently than the others since she was first. By this I mean she gets fed first, taken out of her cage first and is the last to go to bed. She has special priviledges as in being allowed to go where ever she wants in the house (the others are confined to my office). She dominates my office in her "special" way - no one is allowed on her cage except her, but she's allowed (or so she thinks) on everyone elses cage. When she does that she always gets put back on her own cage, but I don't think she sees it that way, she obviously thinks I'm just giving her a lift back to her house. No one is allowed on her boing, but she can play on any toy she wishes. You get the picture. I rearranged my office about 3 months ago and moved Beau's cage nearer to Dixie's and the rope door I created for him to play on. They have been very good being in close proximity to each other, no lunging, no arguments, no fights - basically just ignoring each other. Today while Beau was on his rope door, Dixie decided she wanted to play on the rope door. She didn't fly over to it, she didn't pitch a fit, she didn't climb over Beau's cage to it. She climbed down her cage, walked across the floor, and walked out of my office into the hallway. She found a toy that had fallen down and played with it. This lasted about 15 minutes, and when Beau was done playing, he climbed back over to his cage and got off the door. Dixie looked and looked and survey the situation, making sure Beau wasn't coming back. This took a good 3 or 4 minutes. Beau was playing with a toy on his cage by this time and it was then that Dixie decided it was ok to climb up the rope door. She's been up there for about 30 minutes now climbing and playing. Beau has now decided that he wants back on his rope door. He climbed back up to the top of his cage and has clucked at Dixie a few times and she has answered him. The funny part was, she climbed down the rope door, walked back across the floor and climbed up her boing. Leaving Beau to get back on his door. I stopped studying to watch this evolution and had to post it. It's amazing at how these two are respecting each other - now to convince Dixie to quit pooping on the conures...lol. Robin

What a beautiful little bundle of feathers you have there Judy. I was going to suggest a name as I was reading along - it hit me - but then I see you've already decided. I'll suggest anyhow, I would say "Grace" as in amazing. She appeared from nowhere, no one claimed her and but for the grace of God she found you to care for her. I do like Gypsy though - you'll have to teach her to sing that one! Robin

Wow those are some beautiful too's! We have Sterling - 13 year old umbrella - and he is a joy to be around. The worst part with Sterling is he doesn't like men, he's very protective of me and LP, and he chases Sarah (my daughter). Sarah is afraid of him, and obviously Sterling knows this. It's funny watching an adult (she's 21) run down the hall with a bird running behind her. We've put a small board up across the doorway to her room and he won't cross it. He could easily step over it, fly over it, or jump over it, but he delights in chasing her (she squeals). Other than that, he calls out twice a day, every day, like clockwork. First thing in the morning when it's time for breakfast (he announces this for the entire flock) and at sundown. He does this as a routine since breakfast is somewhere between 6:00 am and 6:30 am just as the sun is coming up and sundown is bedtime snack time. Even when I go into the kitchen at 5:00 am to get coffee, he sits quietly waiting for the sun to come up. The only other time Sterling has made noise is when we had a new item delivered to the house and the delivery man was between me and Sterling. He squawked and hollered and pranced all over the top of his cage, but when the guy was gone, Sterling was perfect again.

Beau personally prefers my computer mouse to cuddle with - no stuffed animals for him, but let him on my desktop and he goes straight to the mouse to rub against and change settings on the screen. Robin

Dixie has one of those type toys, we've been playing with it for about 8 months now and she's starting to put them back on herself! Great video of Anna Grey - I know she'll have hours of fun doing this. Robin

Have two greys, two conures, and a U2 and they are all shoulder birds, but they know the rules. Sterling (U2) is pretty intimidating to many I'm sure, so the only shoulder he's allowed on is mine. My husband is uncomfortable with him there, and Sterling knows this and doesn't try to get on his shoulder. LP is too young and moves to fast for my comfort, so no shoulder riding with him, with me, well he loves me so much he just can't stay away and cuddles his body next to my head and just stays there. The fun part is when I take Sterling out for a ride and he sits on my shoulder in the car or now on my bike. Of course he's harnessed with his aviator harness and we went through training to accomplish this. I can honestly say that bike rides at dawn are great with a U2 on your shoulder. Beau and Dixie like to both be on me at the same time. Dixie is always on my left shoulder, Beau on the right. The conures, well they like to get there to harass me, I'm just a stopping off point or a taxi to another place for them. Again, they all follow the rules and the conures were the hardest to get following the rules (they like to nibble on the ear pieces of my glasses). When they figured out I would remove them from my shoulder when they wanted to chew on them, they stopped doing so. All - and I mean all - of the birds will step up on first command from my shoulder. I never have to have help removing them and they will always be welcome as long as they follow the rules. The hardest part of any of this is being consistent, following the rules you set for them, and not sending conflicting messages.

Piper, I don't know if you've seen any of the posts on Beau, my 13 month old grey, but he has been through h*ll and back with chewing on his right wing. He suffered an injury at about 3 months (burned crop) and when I got him at 4 months he had plucked his chest and right wing completely. After many visits to the AV and more money than I want to admit being spent, I have a beautiful, if not fully feathered grey. His chewing is not completely stopped, but he no longer is barbing off his feathers on his right wing. To accomplish this I followed the best advice I have ever received and that was to stop transferring my fears and emotions to Beau when he did something like chew off a feather or pluck a spot on his chest. Now when I see him "over preening" I gently and laughingly remind him those are my feathers and he needs to take care of them. The other advice I received was also from here - bathe with aloe juice. His AV backed this up - misting him twice daily with water first and the second time with aloe juice/water (50/50 mix). We are now down to just a daily misting with aloe juice/water and we have lots of beautiful feathers on his wing again. His over preening/plucking habit seems to have disappeared and the slow process of new feathers coming in and growing to full length seems to take forever. We've had a few setbacks, and it's been disheartening, but as those new flights and secondary's come in, now shielded and protected by the few that survived the intial grow back (he literally had no feathers on his wing) we are seeing progress coming in leaps and bounds. The hardest part is waiting. I hope all goes well with your grey, take heart that you are not alone and we are here if you need us. Robin

I couldn't live without our harnesses - both Dixie and Sterling are flighted and we love taking them outside to sit in the morning when the sun is coming up with coffee and the paper. Without them, we wouldn't be able to do this. When Beau becomes flighted (and he will one day) he will wear his with pride, in the meantime, he wears it on occasion just for show. Keep working on it, you will become an expert in no time, and the stuffed animal/bird is the best way to practice, it makes you more confident in getting it on your bird and will make them more comfortable in the processes. Robin

Quiet is not a word often used in my house - at least not with two greys, two conures, and our U2! Not to mention the 4 parakeets who've taken roost. I guess I'm a crazy bird lady after all. I guess I'll proceed with a story of each for you although 3 of them aren't greys, they are funny none the less. Dixie: Dixie has taken to laying on her back as often as she can. This is something she does with my son on a routine basis, while they are watching Sponge Bob. It's really funny to see him kicked back in the recliner, feet up, blanket pulled up to Dixie's beak (over both of them), and the two of them watching tv. Ask her if she's comfortable, and you will get this every so soft - "yes, pass the popcorn." (LP is a popcorn addict, I guess Dixie will be soon.) Beau: Beau has started talking. His first word was hello. I was thrilled. Now it's "hello Beau" and "hey Beau" on a routine basis. Dan had a thread earlier about using "thank you" and "your welcome" with the birds and I have been working diligently on that with all of them. Today we ventured to the bird store (the conures needed nail trims) and of course Beau had to go along. Beau stayed on my shoulder the entire time we were at the shop and was the perfect little gentleman, except when he had to poop. He quietly stepped off my shoulder onto the carrier the conures were in and did his business, then climbed back onto my shoulder. I told him "thank you" and he replied "your welcome." He loves me so much and made me so proud. There were a few people in the store at the time and it seems everyone saw this event. If I had tried to potty train him he wouldn't have been as good as he was this afternoon. Sterling: At a point in time earlier this year we had thought Sterling was going to go live with my aunt in Virginia. Unfortunately, she ended up having shoulder surgery and the decision was made that he was too much bird for her at this time. His needs and her abilities to meet those needs may be compromised, not to mention, her own attention to her health. Well, I can say with a huge smile on my face, this turn of events was perfect. Sterling is still with us, we are extremely happy about it and LP and his overly busy schedule gave way to meet the needs of his responsibilities to Sterling. All his choice. There aren't many 13 year old boys who will tell their friends, I can't play the game right now, I have to spend time with my bird, or take me out of the game, I have to take care of Sterling. I hear that all the time and it fills my heart with joy, especially when it's in the middle of a major battle on one of the video games they play. All Sterling has to do is drop his ear of corn or finish with a brussel sprout and need another one and LP is up and running to him. (Sterling will not eat his veggies out of a bowl or off a plate, you must hand them to him one at a time!) Sterling has changed too it seems, he's much calmer, quick to spend more time with LP and not come looking for me. I love having this magnificent U2 in our home. He's also a great alarm clock for LP. The best story I guess I have is joy of having all of the birds in our home. The parakeets sing with the radio all the time. I've found myself with the television on less and the radio on in the kitchen listening to them sing along from Sarah's room. Sterling has taken to dancing more with me, he is quite good at the Cupid Shuffle. Dixie and Beau are getting along in ways I had never imagined them doing. Their cages are close to each other and the respect they have for each other is amazing. No lunging, no biting, no squabbles at all, but let Beau get off his cage and Dixie is quick to let me know he's "loose." I keep telling her it's ok, he's allowed to wander around on the floor. She is flying all through the house now, navigating turns and hallways with great speed and agility. Blue and Bean (the conures) are the best security system any person could ever hope for. Any car that makes its way to our court is announced with great aplomb and heaven help anyone who tries to come in the back door without letting me know (my aunt tried to sneak in last Friday and was greeted with the shrieks! Her surprise was ruined...lol). As for me - I'm carrying 12 hours this semester and looking to graduate next spring with 2 degrees.