Lambert58

great post Dave. I have an exception with #9 tho. Most non-bird-people bird owners don't actually spend the $$ to properly care for their fids. We have a large flock (7 fids) and so our annual vet visit is around $1k. The staff is nothing short of floored that we pay that without blinking. Rule #9, IMO: Your fids cost LOT. do your research. They're more expensive than dogs or cats (vet bills + toys + nutritious pellets + mash + cage cleaning mats + treats + fruits/veggies + everything I forgot). You can't properly care for a fid unless you're prepared to drop at least $300 US a month on them. Make your own toys? fine. make your own Mash? great. it's still not cheap and don't kid yourself. I cut every corner I can but they get the best care/food/environment I can provide. These critters aren't hampsters.

That's so awesome! I just bought 5 harnesses. 2 for Willow and Leo, and 3 for our sun/jenday/gold cap conures. I should just invest in medical equipment and about 4 pints of blood to cover me.

My greys have never bitten me. Ever. They beak, but very lightly. My conures, however, will send me to the emergency room first chance they get. Go figure.

i'll preface this by saying that our conures are water bugs... they LOVE getting soaked. But. Our Greys. LOL. No. Water is evil. So what to do? Well, we did our homework before we even got our greys, so we knew this was going to be a challenge. Since they were 8 weeks old we've been bringing them into the shower and letting them perch on top of the (towel covered) shower curtain. We have a morning ritual which involves both greys coming in to perch on the shower curtain rod. Sometimes they get wet, sometimes they don't. I like to keep 'em guessing :cool:

Both our greys are 13 months old and not a single word. They mimic every other freaking sound under the sun, including the theme to the Sprout channel and every wild bird for 5 miles. This is in addition to the screams of our sun/jenday/gold cap. yay. lol. Anyone else have late bloomers? In contrast, our green cheeks (who aren't known for talking) said their first words at 4 months old and continue to learn more. Go figure.

This is the grey's home, but the 3 musketeers (conures) zerg it during the day.

Great pics! It's very very good news that he accepted the harness without too much of a fuss. I hope we're all that lucky.

Great pic Ours like spinach, too. We do grind it up with carrots, kale, almonds and cabbage for a good mix to alongside the mash in the mornings.

It's dry as a bone here in Colorado. The greys get showered, to their utter horror, daily. With the molting and the dryness they look like poster children for dandruff shampoo.

We took our flock in for their 1 year check up and DNA and it was over $1k US. The two techs there were simply floored that we had all the tests (poop, blood, full check up) done. They said that most people say something like "Oh, he's fine he doesn't need the poop check." and opt out. If we'd done that we'd have missed the Ca deficiencies in 3 of our fids. We don't have children, so our fids are the most important creatures in our lives. We spare no expense to ensure they get the best food, environments and care. I totally agree with the mantra that if you can't afford to take proper care of the critter, don't get a critter. Be it cat, dog, bird or lizard. Unfortunately, too many people take on way more responsibility than they ever envisioned that one day in Pet Smart and then end up with a neglected creature. It really. Really. Pisses me off.

Our Suns are so cute... Maddox makes little whispered "woof woof" sounds, Merlin has a greeting that sounds like "whachadoin?" They make a ton of little clicks, whistles, and calls that we've come to understand that it really doesn't matter if they can talk, we know what they're saying

Well, I guess you don't know me and my advice wasn't helpful. Good luck

Colorado Springs: http://www.dublinanimalhospital.com/ Great vets, avian certified.

Yup I know they're not red palm, but for those of us halfway between the coasts, this is nice. We still add red palm oil to everyone's cereal in the morning

what a cute pic! thanks for sharing. I love when our little gremlins get all snuggly

always #1: hit the vet to rule out any physical problems. Then I have to piggyback on what dave said: don't "scold" your fid. They don't work that way. You can't discipline them. Doing that: yelling "NO" will only reinforce bad behavior. I could write a thesis on how you should behave to get your fid to behave the way you want, but I'd have to charge you, and you can do the research yourself. I'll give you a hint: start treating your fid as an equal. and to clarify: a dog isn't your equal. Your 9-year old son isn't your equal. Don't treat your fid that way. You really have to change your thinking to be an effective manipulator (heh) of your feathered buddy. Took me a year to START to handle this concept and I'm still failing miserably. You have to realize you don't control the dynamic.... yet. This topic is at the heart of why I see 20 fids a month, less than 3 years old, on Craig's list because their owners "don't have the time to take care of them." When in fact, they never did spend the time to understand how a parrot thinks. Doomed from the word go. It's so sad.

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Both are greys just hit 1 year old and have never said a single word. They mimic various sounds (cell phones, microwave, etc) but nothing human. In contrast, our green cheeked conures, who are supposed to not talk, were talking at 5 months old. They have about a 10 word vocabulary, lol and they're cute as anything. It's really just a situation where we have to wait until they're ready.

greyttimes.com would love to have you visit!

I just posted this in another thread but: come getcher palm nuts. http://www.mybirdstore.com/ $7 a lb.

we've ordered 4 aviators. Two for the greys and two for our sun conures. Oh, and I placed an order for 4 pints of O+ blood.

Don't get me wrong, they still hate it. There are plenty of days when I have them on my hand marching to the shower and they know EXACTLY what's about to happen and fly off, not to be caught lol. What I try to do, though, is mix it up. Not every day that I take them in there and put them up on the shower curtain do they get wet. Sometimes I just bring in a couple nutriberries and we just have a good chat while dad showers. Gotta keep 'em guessing

Yup the recommendation did come from the vet and she recommended oyster shell calcium ground up and added to their cereal (we offer a 1/3 oats, 1/3 harrison's fine, 1/3 kaytee baby formula soaked in hot water twice a day). Leo loves the almonds, but Willow (our calcium deficient girl) doesn't like them as much. I'll try grinding up some kale and chard to add more than usual. The weird part is we have 6 fids, and 1 from each cage (1 sun conure, 1 GCC, and 1 grey) came back low on calcium while their cage mates were fine. finnicky little buggers.

Our Willow came from the pet store with 1 wing clipped. I was advised by several people to have the off wing clipped as well, but didn't, and we're SO glad we didn't do that. She's at least semi-flighted and can keep up with Leo somewhat. In our case, I'd rather have her have some flight ability (she can get to our great room window ledges at 25 feet high just fine) than have her not be able to fly at all. We have a very large, spacious home, so for us it works.