crossfit

What other pets do you have? My current family is: 3 dogs - a Pomeranian, a pit bull, and a Boerboel (a South African mastiff) 2 cats 7 chickens 1 ball python 1 son 1 husband some pics are here: http://cherylwelch.smugmug.com/Pets/PetsII/10368042_GUoCF#717828870_mbiqP (daughter lives on her own with her husband and my granddaughter)

lol

Good to see you and good luck at the vet. Hope all goes well.

Another reason to not have the bird live out on the terrace is hawks. There are all sorts of predator birds that even if they can't get into the cage to get your bird, will scare it terribly. This is not a healthy way to live.

Okay, so this might sound really weird but I come from California so I can get away with it. Besides, I read it on a respected parrot site: When you go to pick him up, make sure your not thinking about putting him away. Whether they have esp or just can tell from minute body language what we are thinking, if you think instead about something else fun to do with him, it might help.

I got one of those first types too and it broke asap. And my parrot hasn't even moved in with me yet. I was just testing it out. I have since bought the other types. Much better design.

HI, Something that has worked with me for my human children, both during the terrible twos and the teen years - I ask myself, what need of theirs is being met by this behaviour? Is there another way to meet that need so that my needs can also be met? I don't know if that will help you think it through but its a start. Also, just a pet peeve. The "pit bull" comments bug me. I have owned pit bulls for years and they are brilliant animals. They bite hard when they bite but they are not actually the dog with the most chance of biting. That honor goes to Cocker Spaniels. Saying an animal that bites or is aggressive is like a pit bull is similar to saying "all Greys are clumsy" or "all Greys are feather pickers". There is some truth to it, mostly due to how they are treated by their humans, but it isn't absolutely true and the species suffers for the misinformation. In the case of pit bulls, many are simply killed when they could be rehomed to appropriate homes with ease. I keep intending to write the original author of that article about it so sorry for the soap box. I just wanted to correct it here.

Okay. Why are my pictures not posting? This happened on another thread too. I used to be able to do this just fine.

sorry, here is the pic. having trouble with size issues.

Okay. I got impatient for a reply and went to visit my local hardware store. This is what I came up with. I haven't covered it yet so you all can see and design your own. The flexible piping is in one foot lengths. It is 3/4in spa flex piping from Ace Hardware. They are all held together by normal PVC T connectors. I will cover it later this week when my order of vet wrap in multicolors arrives. http://picasaweb.google.com/bethmoscov/ParrotToys#5448599026863112258 Post edited by: crossfit, at: 2010/03/14 23:07 Post edited by: crossfit, at: 2010/03/14 23:12<br><br>Post edited by: crossfit, at: 2010/03/14 23:13

VPI has a link to Exotic Pets which asks you to call them for a quote. It sounded like around $100 a year though. I plan to call on Monday so I will let you all know what I learn. I will go ahead and ask about multiple birds since some of you want to know.

awww he is beautiful.

that is so exciting. Nice to know he can talk and he says so himself. I honestly think they know our thoughts in some way and you can bond over the time we aren't with them. I think that is why he is settling down so fast. He knows your his family. Woot for you.

at what age do they reach their full weight? When should I consider this list appropriate to go by?

Thats great. Directions please? I would love to make one myself. Is it made of pvc or something more flexible? Or what?

Excellent. I can't wait for mine to come home.

Katana, I am so excited for that day. But its okay. I am learning so much while waiting. I want to be the best parront I can possibly be. I also have my family to educate. I have spent a lot of time thinking about typical grey problem behaviours and what might come up in our environment so I can try and mediate that right away. One thing - we have three dogs who all love to bark out one of the windows. I anticipate Hawkins is going to learn to bark. I don't think I can avoid that. So one thought is to put it on cue and then only have him do it when I want. Of course thats a bit advance but he won't be barking for a while since he won't be doing too many noises at all at first. Another is stress with change. We have a LOT that goes on in our house as I homeschool my 13 year old son and people are coming and going all the time. His cage is in a place where he can see but also retreat. So some ideas I have had is to make sure he has a box or snuggly house to retreat into when he doesn't want to be seen. Another is to make sure he gets used to change on his own terms. I already have told the family and homeschool group that we won't be hosting much the first month he is here and then will invite one family at a time before we host a full study group here. I am also going to keep him flighted. Living in the US, I never even thought that was possible. I grew up with thinking that if you had pet birds, you clipped. So I have been excited at the thought that I can teach him to come to me, go to a perch, and other such things. My dogs recall well so why not my bird? This has meant lots of house safety so I have been thinking a lot about what needs to be put away until he knows where he is allowed to land and where he is not. We are an animal oriented family so I don't have a lot of fragile things. I ordered drapes for the windows. We live in the forest with no nearby neighbors so we haven't had window coverings in some of the rooms. I am hoping to train him to know where the glass is but I now have the coverings in case that doesn't work. Ah well, as you all can see, I am obsessed. lol

Hi, Just went to get the direct link for you. http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com/search/label/harness%20training Scroll down. There are three articles there on harness training and its the second one down that has the video.

I got one too. Still waiting for my Hawkins to come home but buying toys and equipment keeps me busy. There is a good free video on Barbara Heidenreichs blog on getting the birds used the harness. It is really helpful to watch just how slowly she moves in each step in order to keep things as happy as possible for the bird. If you go to her blog then do a search on harness I think you can find it. Its a bit of raw footage she intends to use to make a training video for the harness and she uses the aviater as well. What color did you get? I got red since it matches their tails so well.

Jayd, What is "balsamic brown rice"? Do you mean basmati? Or is the rice have balsamic vinegar? Sorry, just confused. Beth

I am having a hard time being patient until he comes here to live. Its only a month or a little more. I know the time there is important. He will be fully weaned and fledged when he gets here. She also has older Greys who play with the babies and teach them about being a parrot that I can't do since he will be my first. But boy, its tough.

OH, I think that is extremely sweet. I am not sure how practical it is though. Someone with a ton more experience than me can tell you whether or not that might help your new friend or hurt him. I would think that it might be hard to get him to even put it on based on how hard it is to train some of them to like the aviator harness which barely touches them but would go on similarly to a sweater. I know others will also help you with the feather plucking as I have seen some miracle stories on here. It seems to be a sort of "one day at a time" kind of thing. Your mom's heart is in the right place.

Well, the breeder wrote me an email yesterday. Apparently my Hawkins matches his namesake in a bit of a birth problem as well. His back toe on one foot seems to have extra skin around it. The vet said it was purely cosmetic. The breeder offered to give us our money back, to give us another bird later when she has some more, or to take a discount on Hawkins. I am already too bonded to not take him so I will have a bird with a small blemish. I figure at worst he will have trouble holding onto things though the breeder says he holds on better then the siblings do. I also figured that with the assortment of knowledge we have here, that if something turned our wrong with him, I could handle it with all your help. While I am new to birds, I am not new to animals nor to loving. Here are some of the latest pics. You can see that back toe in some of the first ones. Isn't he a cute lil showoff with his new wing feathers? <br><br>Post edited by: crossfit, at: 2010/03/10 05:38

thanks. I was lucky in that a madrone fell last year and I had all these lovely branches. That made the play stand. The T-stand is just pvc with sisal rope wrapped around it for comfort for little feet. My little guy isn't coming home for another 5 weeks or so but my family is joking that he will have more toys than my human son!

this is a link to my facebook photo album where I posted the new training stand, play stand, and some toys that I made. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031248&id=1494141075&l=f5b5b02136