Lambert58

Rusty had diverted to one of the bookshelves in spare bedroom downstairs and was totally out of the line of fire. We heard him peep as we were snake wrangling and shut the door until the deed was done. Our Green Knight came through unscathed.

We live east of Colorado Springs. You don't have to drive far from the Springs proper to be in the desert of western Colorado. We have the freaking Discovery Channel out here when it comes to wildlife, and rattlesnakes are part of the life. This morning, as I was feeding our 7 fids, a hot air balloon floated by our property, MUCH closer than any previous balloon has come (they do 2 AM champagne flights, landing at around 6/7). Our birds freaked, and our oldest, a Green Cheeked Conure actually flew down to our basement. He's NEVER done that. It's dark and he has never ever gone down there. I gathered up everyone else from freak-out-ville and put them in their cages and made my way downstairs to get Rusty. We have a pretty large finished basement with a bunch of toys: ping-pong table, card table, it's pretty much a giant game room. My eyes were aimed "up" since I was looking for a scared fid. I'd figured he'd fly for the dark/safe place so I made my way to the media room and I'm looking and... HOLY F**KS**TSTAINofFU**INGOMG rattlesnake in the middle of the floor. I'm in my underwear so I levitate and *poof* appear upstairs screaming "THERE'S A FU**ING RATTLESNAKE IN THE BASEMENT!" Long story (and it's *long* short) 1 snake be-headed by my freaked out wife with some tree branch trimmers, and about 30 minutes, later, we discovered she'd left one of the sliding glass doors in the walkout basement open by about 1/2 an inch. Everyone lived (except the snake) and I'm going to go buy the missus a .410 tomorrow since it's snake season and we've gotten complacent. I don't need a reason to buy a new gun, but when a reason introduces itself, who am I to say no?? Rusty saved the day. He got to eat first all day today and tomorrow he gets a special toy if I have to kill someone to get it for him lol.

definitely divine intervention for that 'tiel to find you.

Good lord I love baby pictures They're so CUTE!

We have a nest of wild finches nestled into an odd spot outside our front door. Today I dragged out my indoor palm plants for a hose-down and discovered that one of this spring's babies had fallen out of the nest and died. No less than an hour later, I found two more of them that had fallen but were still alive. I'll save you the rescue efforts, but a long (and tear-filled) story later, those two died in my hands. It was an emotional afternoon. I did everything I could think of to save them, but God decided otherwise. I wasn't content to let them be eaten by the local bugs, so I buried the three of them together, and they get their own small stone. That stone will move only after I've died, and can no longer wield a shotgun. What I want for those 3 precious little wild ones is names. They get names. I'm too blurry-eyed to think of any, so any input would be great. My wife thinks I'm nuts. But. I'm a physicist and an amateur astronomer. I know how precious life is, and I have a specific affinity to birds. Any life lost affects me (yeah, I literally refuse to watch footage from the BP oilspill, it would kill me). Those little fids that died in my hands today deserve names.

Our TAG (TIMGO) is a cowboy and nothing you could call shy, by any stretch. Willow, our CAG, is a bit shy, but lovable and I wouldn't trade her for the world. She's not as playful as Leo, and a lot less outgoing, and takes a bit more work, but she's an angel and I love her to death. Don't become a companion to a breed of grey based on what other people say. Find a good breeder, get a weaned fid, be a good parront, and regardless if it's a TAG or CAG you'll fall in love. Trust me.

Willow and Leo have started talking only about 3 weeks ago. But now they're experimenting with new phrases. They have two 2-hour blocks of the day where they just sit and preen, whistle, mumble, chatter, etc. Today I came home and Willow said, in my wife's voice: "Dammit Leo!" When my wife got home from work, I met her, arms folded, glaring: "What happened yesterday when you came home for lunch, dear?" "What do you mean?" "Did Leo bite you?" "Well, yes" pause... "How did you know?" mmmm hmmm.

Our greys will not go near standing water. They will sit on my finger under the shower until duly soaked though. They don't pretend to like it, but they tolerate it.

What you're going to find, I think, is that every bird is an individual. We have a female CAG who's super shy and she loves me to death, and a male TIMGO (TAG/CAG cross) that also loves me to death but isn't as shy. As an extra data point: we have 3 conures of the sun/jenday/gold cap variety. The male Jenday is a cowboy and leads the 3 of them, he's fearless, and he prefers me to my wife. The other male, a gold cap, follows the Jenday wherever he goes, but is a bit more tempermental, and again, prefers me to my wife. The sun, a female, is super shy and cuddly, and just loves the other two boys but when they go off flying about the house she's content to chill in her cage and eat. She also prefers me to my wife. Our green cheeks hate me. Two males, and they are very demanding. They only step up for my wife, even though I've spent about 5x the amount of time she has with them. The answer to your question is: it depends on the fid

Good lord! Those moments are the ones that make your heart just drop to your toes. We can't do that here either: hawk city.

We're working on "Obama sucks" here. Hopin' they'll pick it up.

Yeah, Leo and Willow both meticulously exhume the peas, then drop them on the ground and look at me like: "Fetch! Human!"

She's adorable! I love baby pictures! Leo was sold to us as a TAG. He has the dark crimson tail feathers, but his beak, to this day, is very very dark. He's 14 months old and fairly large for a TAG (he's about 20g heavier than our female CAG), so we're convinced he's a TIMGO cross.

I'd have a hard time staying out of jail if I witnessed that. In fact, I think the jail time would be worth it.

Yeah I think I posted that a few months back

Leo playing with stuff (we thought he was a she in the video, hence the "Cleo"): ^^^ he beat the crap out of that ball, too.

Thanks all I think we got a "Hello" today from Willow. I think the dam is about to break lol.

So very sorry. And it being so sudden, and with you doing all the right things it must have been terrible. A true heartfelt hug from us and our flock

The replies here are hilarious. They're all such complete individuals and so distinct. The behavior of my fids has made me look at the wild birds we have around the house in a totally different light. It was an epiphany for me realize that they're no different from our fids and they're all so precious. I just posted in another thread that Willow is our counter top police. She methodically makes her way across all the counters in the morning and drops everything on the floor. Mail, silverware, keys, toys. Nothing is exempt. The counter must be clean! Nothing like having an OCD bird.

1) Leo said his first words yestarday: "Whatcha doin?" distinct, clear and said it twice. I did a snoopy dance! 2) Willow molted one of her 4 clipped flights today. Only took a year! She's busy celebrating by cleaning the counter. Cleaning the counter mostly involves dragging everything she can find to the edge and dropping it on the floor. She's very thorough.

We see this in dogs quite a bit. Breeders focus on one trait to the detriment of the dogs. It can often involve inbreeding and lead to serious health issues with the dogs. It's cruel and selfish on the part of the breeders. It displays a complete lack of knowledge, or total apathy, regarding the health of the dog/bird. It's criminal and I'd love to have a little chat with any breeder that does this. With no witnesses present.

We paid $1400 for Leo (Timgo) and $1700 for Willow from the same pet store. We view it as a rescue on one hand, but on the other we hate giving money to those chain pet stores.

We're not there yet... hopefully we have about 6-8 months 'till then. Makes me wanna go hug 'em while they're still kids lol.

What a great lesson to share. That you learned that lesson so early on, is fantastic and speaks volumes to your maturity. I'm envious, in that I wish I'd discovered my love of birds as early as you did. You will be a great parront for your entire life. Thank you for sharing, and I'm glad you joined the AF

tomorrow is weigh-in day. We have Willow (CAG) and Leo (Timgo). We'll see