Lambert58

We actually have 3 or 4 old keyboards that we keep around for just this reason. When I'm on the computer and Willow crashes into my shoulder with her "whatcha doin?" mojo, I grab the spare and let her tear it up. Later I replace the keys for further use.

Our flock wishes you the best! Nothing like adopting a new fid to make you smile

I would never put my fid in the cargo area of a plane. The temperatures are cold enough to kill dogs, that's why the airlines don't accept responsibility when you ship a dog via air.

We use a Dyson vac. Wouldn't trade it for the world. Thing is a monster, and easy to clean/maintain.

Scary stuff. We're in a situation where we live out in the country. Cold, windy country. We have a 37 acre lot and I "think" that if one of the greys got out they'd be pretty easy to track down fairly quickly. Our conures though, would get caught up in the wind and be gone in the blink of an eye. We maintain a 2-door policy in the house. If the fids are out, you go through the laundry room, close the door, then go out through the garage. I'm glad she came back, that just makes my heart drop.

My old job, I hated my boss: Bob. We had planned to have the Christmas party at our house but had to cancel because Leo had taken up... um... Buck Fob! Or a variation thereof lol.

Go Lucy! We're so thrilled for you! Keep us updated and lots of pics!

UPDATE: we're 10 days sans medications. Yesterday morning scared the life out of me, as Chilly was wheezing and very sedentary all morning. I was preparing myself for the worst, so I got her out of the cages, spent lots of time with hugs and kisses, thinking that I might be saying goodbye to her. Took her outside and walked her around the lot, talking to her and showing her the world. At noon, She finally ate for the first time since 0700 that morning. At 1, I figured I'd try again to feed her and she ate very well and started to perk up. At 3, she ate like a horse! At 5 I fed her again and she ate for a solid 5 minutes, and then zipped off to her pellet bowl, where she spent the next TWO HOURS sifting eating seeds, nutriberries, pellets. I thought her crop would pop. I tried to turn off the UV light at 7 because her cage mates were like, "WTF, man, we need to sleep here!" but she barked at me so I left it on for another hour while she ate and drank tons of water. She finally snuck into the cozy with Merlin and Maddox at around 2130 and slept all night long (I checked on her every couple hours). This morning she woke up and ate immediately. She didn't run to the heating panel right away, as she has every morning for the last 6 weeks, but instead hung out with her buddies. She ate a huge meal again at 10. Sometimes when I feed her, Merlin and Maddox drop down to the floor and play a great game we call "Kill Daddy's Feet While He Feeds Chilly." What fun... BUT, once she'd eaten, she raced down the cage door and joined her fellow monsters! One day at a time, but over the last 24 hours Chilly has made more progress to getting back to her old self than I've seen in nearly two months. Hoping it continues.

84 grams this morning. I never thought 3 grams could make me cry (in a good way) lol.

Update: Her weight went down dramatically over the last 5 days. 81 grams. Took her in to the vet today. Vet thinks it's Proventricular Dilatation Disease (PDD; fatal, no cure), even though the viral check was negative. She's not 100% confident that the negative result from the blood test was accurate, as Chilly is very symptomatic of PDD. She said to be sure if it is or isn't PDD would require anesthetizing Chilly and taking a crop biopsy. We both agreed that in her state the surgery and recovery would probably kill her. The vet and I also agreed that we are going to taker her off the meds. It's been almost 6 weeks, and if we haven't killed any fungus or bacteria, there's no killing it. The stress of the meds are probably doing more damage at this point than the meds are helping. I feed her a combination of Kaytee baby food, pedialyte (to keep her hydrated), and alternate with additions of peanut butter, cinnamon, Harrison's adult mash, mashed up mix of boiled sweet potatoes and carrots, bananas, gerber baby rice, and pretty much anything that we can add to a warm soupy mix that adds calories. She wants to eat. She's hungry. She's literally starving to death. Her crop is so irritated that she can only take little helpings before she becomes uncomfortable. We're fighting a losing battle, it feels like. We'll see if taking her off the medications helps. Over the last 2 weeks she's slept on a perch in front of the avian heating panel. Her cage mates, Merlin and Maddox, sleep in a little cozy (happy hut) on top of one another (yeah, they're weird, but cute). Prior to her going down-hill, she would sleep in there with them. The last two nights she's returned to the cozy with them. They say PDD is fatal. I reject that. If I have to feed her every 30 minutes 24 hours a day to keep her alive I will.

well, we ruled out the 10 or so terminal viral issues that she was symptomatic for, so in short, yes. The vet is running out of solutions, though. We're on our second round of antibiotics and nothing is working.

I appreciate the post. Over the last 4 weeks I've thought more than once that we would lose her within the next 12 hours, but she just keeps fighting. I've spent as much on tissue as I have on medicine. Her issue is with her crop, and what you described has me thinking and I'll bring it up to our vet. Our vet is fantastic, she constantly calls to follow up and is doing everything in her power to help. Chilly was on antibiotics + antifungal for the last 3 weeks. Two towelings a day. I'm starting to think the stress from being toweled and medicated is almost doing as much damage as whatever it is that's killing her. I'm probably going to pull her off her meds for a couple of days to see how she does; I have a 2 week supply of antibiotics, antifungal and an anti-infalmitory/pain killer. It's been 27 days on meds with not much progress so I'm wondering if she could do with a few days of just recouperating. She eats every 2 hours. A mix of baby food + harrison's mash + peanut butter or palm oil in warm water. She's maintaining her weight, but you bring up a great idea with the yogurt and I will call the vet tomorrow and see what she thinks.

I can empathize. Our willow HATES showers. I've tried all manner of tricks and have perused these forums and others for 18 months to find an acceptable solution. No luck. She's so fickle: one week she LOVES freezing cold (and yes, I'm with you on the unmentionables...brrrrrr) and the next week she hates cold and wants warm. Parrot car wash is definitely an art.

Spot on. We have 3 sun conures. One of those, Merlin, the middle one (age wise), is the sweetest thing ever. Until the sun goes down. Once that happens and we put the kids up for the night, you are not allowed in his cage. He defends the little flock of 3: puffs up, weaves like a king cobra, flexes his wings, and lets everyone know that this cage is HIS and you are NOT welcome. Only at night. During the day he does nothing of the sort, and is happy as a clam if you reach in the cage to pick him or his other 2 buddies up. Flock dynamics are intricate and we're all better off if we spend a LOT of time trying to understand them.

So, every night, without fail, at around 5 PM, Leo and Willow fly to my shoulder and creep down to my chest for nightly snuggles. They take turns placing their beaks in my neck, chin or on my mouth to get scritches. This goes on for as long as...well... frankly, as long as my fingers can hold out. At least 15-20 minutes of scritches and snuggles. This ends our day, and I then take them to the cage and put them up for the night. These 2 are the only birds in the flock that do this. Our Sun Conures are way to ADD to take scritches and our Green Cheeks would likely kill someone. Anyone else have snuggly greys? Oh, and that's the ONLY time of the day this happens. Try giving Willow scritches in the morning and you'd best have 911 on speed dial.

Welcome to a whole new world Clare Every time a thoughtful person adopts a grey it makes us all happy, I wish you and your little one the best and you need to post baby pictures... you MUST post baby pictures... I NEED to see baby pictures!

LoL Kim. Our sun conures have a nasty habit of flying to the moulding over the doors and tearing it to shreds. In answer to the original question: as much out of cage time as you can possibly give (supervised, of course). All birds are social critters, they need to interact with "the flock," and leaving them isolated for long periods of time is not good. Not good at all.

What's your worst grey poop story? I had Leo preening himself while he was sitting on my head. It was actually very relaxing, I was doing stuff on the computer and he was just preening away for about 10 minutes...then...a nice warm poop down the side of my head behind my right ear. Oh, the joys of being a parront.

On day 7 of the new antibiotic. No progress. Back to the vet tomorrow. Words cannot express the frustration and helplessness I feel. She's only a baby and I can't do anything to save her. The last 30 days have only made her fear me because I'm the one pulling her out of her cage to medicate her in a towel. Now she looks at me with fear every time I approach the cage. If this goes badly, I can't express how upset I am at the thought that her last few days are filled with fear...of me...who loves her the most. I'm angry and crushed.

As a gee-whiz: I rescued Willow from a crappy pet store when she was 8 weeks old. They clipped her flights and they didn't fully grow in until she was 20 months old.

Actually, there's no "but" for me. I've lost more than a few T-shirts while my greys sit on my shoulder and nibble away. They've done their share of damage to things around the house. I wouldn't trade any of those things for my fids. Worst of their damage is actually my glasses, to the tune of $500 for the last pair, but it was my failure to take them off when they were lurking on my shoulder. Leo and Willow haven't the faintest clue about glasses, except they're fun to nibble at when daddy isn't paying attention. Don't take that to mean that I let them run hog wild...there are no-parrot zones for sure, and they know when they're out of bounds. I brought them into my environment, they're not responsible for maintaining it, I am, so I can't actually use "...but"

She's still not in good shape, but both the vet and I agree that it's a chronic issue that existed before we got her. She's still on antibiotics and antifungal. After 30 days of twice a day towelings to medicate her, she's gone from the sweetest bird on earth to a sick bird scared of syringes I have to feed her a combination of warm baby food + apple juice hourly to keep the malnutrition monsters at bay. She literally eats a little bit each hour from 0600 - 0100... means I we both get 5 hours of sleep a night. Good thing I left my job two weeks ago or we'd have lost her. Funny how things work out.

Paulie, Why an albino? I'd imagine he'd be pretty pricey... but what's the reason, beyond the novelty of it.

Bribery will get you everywhere when it comes to your fids. Treats, favorite toys, whatever it takes. Peanut butter does wonders

What a gorgeous boy! Give him a scritch from our flock