Lambert58

Our ceiling fans only run at night when everyone's caged. I'd never be able to live with myself... /shudder

From a person who inspects the poop of 7 fids daily, I find your concern warrented, relevant, and educational. lol. We switched to pure-white cage paper just for the poop-inspecting properties I have a daily poop inspection, weekly weigh-in, daily crop check, daily nose/beak/foot check. While Dave might classify me as unworthly since I bought all my fids within the last 20 months, I do my best to be the best parront I can. You are on the right track, sir.

I gave you credit recently in a mash recipe found here. Thanks, and I hope you're doing well. e4, sir

My gosh! after 37 years I'm sure your right index finger looks like a tree branch lol! What's funny is my right arm has a few bites on it that our sun conures LOVE to pick at, even though I try to stop them, they keep opening up the wounds. I look like a meth addict. Being associated with the people I associate with, I actually have to explain: "I own birds..." As a side note, with 7 fids, someone recently on these forums implied that I was a less-than-educated caretaker because I got bitten fairly frequently. I'll say here that I've never been in a situation with my fids where I got bitten that I wasn't fully aware that that could be, and more than likely would be, the outcome. Sometimes, I think, you have to take a bite. Just me, I could be wrong, but we have 2 green cheeks that were improperly cared for before we got them. They're nippy. I know this going in, so sometimes the training sessions result in a bite because I made a mistake, or they're just not in the mood, but I take the bite just fine. I don't get mad, I learn from it and press on. On the other hand, my greys have never bitten. Ever. Not even a rough "beaking." But we had them both since they were single-digit weeks old and no one had a chance to abuse them.

I've found it interesting (and painful) that the smallest beaks in the house are the ones you need to watch out for lol.

Maddox, our sun conure, is like velcro. He LOVES to ride me around the house and when it comes time to change a shirt, we do "1.... 2.... 3.... LAUNCH!" and I very carefully hurl his little feathered butt into the air. The greys are great about stepping up when I ask them to get off my shoulder but the conures turn into bandsaws. They're all sweetness and light until I reach for them to get them to step up off my shoulder.

Um. LOL. You often run around wearing masks? Just wondering

Oh... and the vacuum cleaner. And this is only Willow. When the vacuum gets to close she does the Grey Growl. Only her, and only then.

Our flock has a few things that will send everyone flying. We have a very large great room, 30 feet tall with windows all the way up. so they can see everything. We also live on a large lot (30+ acres) so there's a lot of wildlife out and about. Our green cheek with the broken wing has accepted the responsibility of Lookout. All our fids utter a low twill when it's "Danger, Will Robinson!" time, and he's the first one to alert the flock. What sets everyone off: 1) Hawks ('nuff said) 2) Airplanes (look like hawks?). Everyone freaks, and we have a military base not too far away so we get a lot of Apache/C-130/Blackhawk fly-bys. 3) Bunnies! If Dusty sees a bunny we go to DEFCON-1. /shakes head 4) Quail. We have two regular flocks that frequent our pine trees for cover, and Dusty always goes battle stations when he sees them. 5) The Red Broom. They don't care about the yellow broom, but The Red Broom of Doom is EVIL!

What I've read about eclectus parrots (when we thought of getting one) was that they are pretty high-maintenance, like our greys. Just a thought.

Great pictures! He's gorgeous!

Not sure if you're responding to my post or not. I stated: "a non bird person becoming a non-bird owner probably isn't reading this forum" so that wouldn't be you. If I misread your post, then never mind.

On one hand, young greys get a bit overzealous at times. Both our little ones have broken feathers in the same way Abby has, albiet not as enthusiastically as you've described. Several questions and comments: Is Abby clipped? How old is she? How big is her cage? We had a period with Leo and Willow where we put a couple towels on the bottom of the cage because they did just what you described and we wanted to make sure they didn't get hurt. They grew out of it in a few months. We've done this with all our young fids at spots until they got used to the cage, so from our experience, it happens. It sounds like she just really wants her daddy, and that's good, real good I wish I knew more about baby behavior to help you but that's the best I can do. Wish you guys well!

Well, you have the right attitude. What we've learned boils down to patience and consistency. Just know that if you do your homework and keep at it (and that takes work) it will pay off. Hang in there

We make mash in batches that last 6 months at a time. This works: http://www.ehow.com/how_6401559_make-parrot-mash.html I also buy fresh veggies (carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage etc) and grind it up and freeze about 2 week's worth in sandwich bags. We have 7 fids and we have to do stuff like that to speed up morning feeding or we'd never get to work on time. When I'm organized, it takes only about 15 minutes to reload fresh water, pellets and dish out a wet bowl of mash + veggies for 3 cages (and clean up any morning poo that didn't make it to the trash can lol).

LMAO!! You have GOT to get video of this!

Willow is our little devil. Neither of our greys have ever bitten me; Leo beaks a bit when he's annoyed, but Willow thinks I'm the best thing since sunflower seeds. Her opinion of my wife, however, is vastly different. Only when I'm not home will Willow even step up for her, and even then she has to really watch Willow's body language to avoid a bite. In contrast, our 2 green cheeks absolutely HATE me (both male) and LOVE my wife. Those two have cost me a pint of blood over the 18 months we've owned them, easily.

hah! Ours only have 2 settings: go and GO!

It's great that folks like Jayd provide homes for rescues. There are so many of our little feathered buddies that need it. From our experience, breed hasn't mattered when it comes to socializing our fids until we added another fid of the same breed. As an example, we at one point had the two greys and introduced our sun conure, Maddox. Leo, one of the greys, took to him immediately and they became best buddies. However, when we got a cage-mate for Maddox, a gold-capped conure, Maddox wouldn't have anything more to do with Leo. It's a complex dynamic and unfortunately you can't hold try-outs, but, I think that having a solo fid is only really a good idea if you're home a lot. They do need a ton of social interaction and another bird will definitely help. Good luck, and it sounds like you're a great parront.

Wow. sorry. Never mind. BTW a non bird person becoming a non bird owner probably isn't reading this forum

My apologies. It was a kneeJERK reaction and I should have been nicer. Bites do hurt, and words do as well. I'll choose more carefully next time Hope the bite healed and all is well.

My wife actually had a bowl full of the last batch of mash we made. She's all: "ooooh! that's good!" lol

My advice: enjoy There is nothing like bringing a grey home for the first time, no matter their age. Relax, have faith in yourself, be patient, but mostly ENJOY your new baby (again: no matter what his/her age). Just.. Love 'em and it'll all be ok

Follow your heart. We picked Leo from a pet store pile of 2 greys and 1 military mccaw. He's a blessing and has bonded just fine. We went back 2 months later and snatched up the other grey on a rescue mission (that military mccaw was steamrolling her). I'm pretty sure that any significance attributed to how a little one responds in the 10 minutes that you spend looking at the clutch is irrelevant. In fact, I'm 100% sure that will never matter. Just pick a fid. I'd say healthy fid, but ya know what? if he/she is unhealthy then take care of them and get them healthy. Love is pretty simple. Really.

LMAO. You guys and your apologies and words of support. ROFL. I'm sorry, but I have 7 parrots and a day doesn't pass when I don't make a mistake and get nipped. For ya'll to fawn over one person getting bit is pretty silly. Unless I seriously misread something. My greys NEVER bite me. They nip at the missus, she spends less time with them than I do. Our two GCCs are little band saws. They tolerate mom, hate me. I'm sorry but one bite doesn't merit... anything. really. Not trying to be a jerk, but if I posted every time I got nipped my post count would be in the thousands.