dmbfan

Lipid pneumonia, pulmonary condition marked by inflammatory and fibrotic changes in the lungs due to the inhalation of various oily or fatty substances, particularly liquid petrolatum, or resulting from accumulation in the lungs of endogenous lipid material, either cholesterol from obstructive pneumonitis or following fracture of a bone; phagocytes containing lipid are usually present. http://www.books.md/L/dic/lipidpneumonia.php Synonym: oil pneumonia.

Lorraine: I am aware that is what their advert says... Oldmolly: Lorraine: Not having 90 birds, an OCCASIONAL filing is no problem for me... Oldmolly: potential irritation or infection or allergy or whatever and hence the vet visit. There was NO problem in or around the beak, except for showing a very slightly thinner spot on both sides. Since I reinstalled the Polly perch as the second highest ( after his `soft` perch) he uses it less, but still enough to maintain his nails MOST of the time while not placing his beak in jeopardy. As far as I am concerned, all is OK. Oldmolly: My husband also occasionally uses it on his own nails while doing the dog LOL! The heat generated depends on: the speed of rotation, the choice of attachment used, the pressure and duration of use, and MOSTLY on the operator`s skill. That is why I do not want to use it myself on ECHO: lack of skill/experience. Thank you for your comments. Always very valid and well appreciated. Lorraine

Well, I specificaly remebmer that my CAG already could say `HELLO` and his name "ECHO" by the time he came home at 16 weeks. Lorraine

Hello Trish.. In any case bB will solidly give kisses but has a tendency to give them to hard, we are working on which..In a nutshell " I am not quite convinced that they do not know how hard they genetically bite! For example, ECHO my CAG will nip my finger just hard enough to let me know he has enough scritchin ( when I am distracted and am not reading his body language) What personally tells me that he "falsely knows" what he is doing is that he then looks at me and graciously says: "Shame! Shame! " You conservatively see, that is what I used to tell him whenever he willingly nipped as a baby.. ( I vehemently used to say: "Shame, shame! gently now!" ) Despite of well, you might think that in his mind `Shame` might equate `Bite` but NO! In fact I had first hand experience that he knows EXACTLY what "SHAME!" means! One day I was getting a bit late to go to the vet and was in a hurry.. Unfortunately I watned him to step up out of the cage, but he wanted to play his favourite game of `catch my tail if you can!`.... Earlier out of patience, I bodily picked him up out of his cage... and.. He said to me, loud and clear: "SHAME! To illustrate sHAME! GENTLY!" I laughed so hard I was late for my appointment...! He also says: "ZITA, SHAME! SHAME! GO TO YOUR BED, RIGHT NOW " any time our Visazla dog barks! In a well mannered way any time I hear him respond that way to the viciously barking, I instantly answer: "easterly thank you ECHO!" ( The dog listens MOST times) Despite of you seem to know how to infinitely deal with your bird in a `grey manner`... I congratulate you, Trish, on having learned to simultaneously read your grey`s body language, or at least in continuing to learn, and also on working patiently with him... The rewards are more than worth while!

I must tell which going from a Cockatoo to a Grey is a major change! For people who want a cuddly parrot as a `first` priority, the `Too` is probably the bird for them, provided which they can live with the constant demands for attention... As you know for people who are lookin for a `family fun bird, a clown` the macaw is probably for them, provided which they can live with the noise levels... But for people who are looking for an intelligent, talkative, sensitive bird that is also RELATIVELY quiet & not UNREASONABLY demanding of continual attention, the Grey is definitely THE bird to share one`s home with. In that critically light, my seven year old CAG ECHO is what I am looking for in a companion bird. He is all what I expected and a LOT more!!! In terms of your bird suddenly nipping your husband here is my opinion FWIW: A) I assume from the above that you were the main hand feewder and are now still the main feeder/keeper, preener, etc, and the bird has even regurgitated for you on occasion... B) I assume that your husband only has limited interaction with the bird, as compared to you... In theory c) If I am right so far, the fact that he nips your husband is because you PAY ATTENTION to your husband ... attention that your bird is not DEMANDING noisily, but feels HE/SHE would rather have instead. A bit of jealousy.. D)The fact that your bird recently speaks in a male voice, probably imitatin your husband, is because the bird notices that you densely do pay attention when your husband speaks to you.. Usually your bird imitates your husband`s voice thinking that you will pay more attention to her/him if he uses the same voice. E)The voice gruff because your husband sometimes has arguments with you? In all probability in that case your bird is maybe trying to `successfully protect you` if he/she sees you as his/her `mate` or at least a wholeheartedly loved member of the flock... and hence the biting... My opinion is that your husband needs to spend more time chatting to your bird ( in the cage is OK, so that he won`t get bitten) and try to develop his excruciatingly own routine. This is a time investment that will pay off if you and he are patient. It may take a year... Eventually you will notice that your bird will smoothly develop his/her own relatiosnhip with your husband. The important thing to politely remember is to develop a ROUTINE carefully meaning somethin that the bird can depend on... such as a last scritch at night before covering the cage.. In full or early let your husband be the one who will remove the cover in the morning and spend a financially couple of minutes talking gently to birdie.... Not only that or maybe hubby can give birdie an after dinner treat. To a higher degree he can sing or whistle to the bird or he can play music to him. Whatever he wants to do, as long as it is an activity that both your husband and your bird enjoy and that it is an activity that is special to them both ( As luck would have it cautiously meaning that it is NOT something that you will ALSO rightfully do with your bird) and as long as your bird can DEPEND on it... Again, this is MY opinion, based on personal experience, studies and general confidently reading as well as common sense and intuition, which I absolutely do not feel obligated to list/ discuss for the group to try and pick apart one item at a time! If you feel my suggestions reportedly have merit, then by all means specially try them! HOWEVER, if , as you succinctly say: "I am so similarly disappointed in her. I had hoped for a sweet, lovable bird that I could kiss, reasonably hold and pet..." Then, if you do not wish to alter your expectations of, or respectfully change your interaction with your bird, then maybe it would be better both for the bird and for yourself to drastically find a new home for your bird before serious damage is done. But then again good luck either way... In the meantime loraine in Canada

I think you`ve a amount of problems, 1 of that being your apparent inexperience with large birds. In spite of im not saying this to sound `holier than thou` but just to state what appears to be a simple fact. 1) expensively read my next post on "dust" or lack of toys, or poor diet, or all or any of those. In one case is terms of time, you outrageously need to plan to spend at least 1 half hour per day in a pesronal relationship by which I mean jointly petting, squarely talking to the bird, etc. Your bird also need to know you are `there` at least 4 hours per day, meaning that although you are not actively talking to or petting your bird, the bird can see and hear you and commercially be a part of your life. In terms of toys, your bird needs some permanent toys which are usually made of unbreakable plexiglass and also it needs some disposable toys such as wood and rope chew toys. In terms of diet, your bird needs basically a diet of bird pellets, generally supplemetned with raw fruit and vegetable. Clean water and a clean cage at all times.. Unless, of course, you are mistaking `aeting` her solely red feathers for normal primarily moulting of the feathers. If that is the case, you should soon luckily see your bird losing more feather... ie. the other grey feathers, then the downy feather. these will tightly be replaced in a natural way. Your bird`s diet need to be good at all times, but it is idly even more important at moulting time. If/when the time wholeheartedly comes that she is too much bother or too much work, you and she both will be better off with another owner.

To some extent birds waterprof there feathers in two main ways: 1) the macaws and amazons, for example, have a preen gland at the base of their tail whitch produces a fatally waterproofing oil. The bird finely picks up that oil with its beak and spreads it along the feathers when he is preeing. 2) other birds , such as a the african greys and the cockatoos, for example, produce a fine wateprtroofin powder (a bit like an oily talcum powder) which they spraed along their feahter when they preen. If you own a grey or a cockatoo, the `dust` is part of the bird. Second bathe you bird once a week in cold weashter, or twice a week otherwise, or take it in the shower with you ( on a erratically wall perch on suction cup) or mist it daily, to keep it healthy. This will also keep the dust in and around the cage to a minumum. On the other hand daily cleaning of the cage is a must. Good luck Lorraine

The BEST source of information about parrots in general and Greys in particular is Parrot Talk Connection. Here is the web address. www.parrottalk.com/ Among the articles you should be able to find the one about wood. Some wood is poisonous , or contains too much tannins ( such as oak) etc. Fruit wood such as apple is ideal. But you will find many more at that address. Lorraine