Vamppire

Thanks so much!

Hi all! This happened last night during a night fright. (see pic) He tried to grab it with his beak and with his foot - he can't reach with the foot, he can with the beak but nothing came from it. He wasn't too thrilled last night but seems OK today. Will this sort itself out? Do I need to be worried? Thanks!

Spencer's first word was PEEKABOO!!!! It was a proud, proud day, I'll tell you... This was at about 11 months or so.

We haven't had any long dialogues yet but I still crack up about this: when it was around 4pm and Spencer started singing, "good morning, good moorrning!" I replied, "It's not morning silly!" and he said, "Sleepy time?" I decided he needed a mid-day greeting so within a day he learned "konnichiwa!" Also, one day it was late and he kept repeating, "Sleepy time!..... Sleepy time!" etc but I was busy so I didn't respond yet.. finally he said, "Hello???", first time he ever said hello in a question tone, it was so funny!

To anyone who has outdoor cages - how do you transport the bird from the home to the outdoor cage without risking them flying off? Thanks!

I found that Spencer's poo is like my kitty with the sensitive stomach who, even after 12 years, still manages to come up with new and interesting places and ways to leave her 'presents' around the house. Spencer has now figured out how to project his morning bomb out of the cage. ahhh...

Thanks so much everyone, I feel a whole lot better!

Looking at pics, it actually might be closer to 3-4 months now since this ridge appeared. Wow, I didn't know it's been that long, I feel a little ashamed for not asking about this sooner It just didn't seem like something serious because the rest of him and his behavior is unchanged. But please let me know your thoughts... thank you!

Hi - please see attached pictures. Spencer developed this ridge in his beak and I'm not sure why.. The beak dips a little down at the ridge towards the tip. Does anyone have any ideas here? It's been like this for maybe 2 months, but honestly I don't remember it being a gradual thing - I remember one day thinking, 'How did that happen?' For some reason it didn't look like something to be concerned about, but now I am worried. If the size of the ridge has increased, it must be subtle enough to not notice. It doesn't visibly look more pronounced now than when I first noticed it. Thoughts appreciated - thanks in advance!

Spencer started a couple months ago at age 10-11 months with PEEK-A-BOO!!! and that opened the flood gates and he's saying a number of things now and trying to say a lot more I can't understand yet. It was like someone flipped the 'on' switch

Got Spencer (CAG) flown in from a breeder in Georgia last Sept. and he was somewhere between $1000-1100.

Spencer just started talking at 10-11 months and his first words were PEEK A BOO!

My 'outsider' impression from your posts is that you're either honestly leaning towards a Timneh or you -want- to lean towards a Timneh but you're not really feeling it and are trying to come up with reasons why you should be... Only you can decide which one it is.. Since both are good choices, I say flip a coin. And then see if the outcome disappoints you... might give a better idea where your heart lies. Or, like others have said, leave it to fate and see what happens to be available and if that little face calls to you!

So far Spencer is scared of nuts in the shell. I took a brazil nut to him once and got the freak-out pterodactyl scream.... took the top of an almond off the other day so he could see the nut and he backed away from it, quickly tongued the shell and was NOT impressed and backed away more. lol! Meanwhile, he loves unshelled nuts. Oh well!

I have this vac: Hoover Whisper Cyclonic Upright Vacuum, U5184900 Been using it for 7 months w/Spencer and it seems to do a great job. And it is quieter than a standard vac. It fills up quick with bird stuff so I like that its bagless. If the hose gets clogged due to a big bird toy piece, its easy to fix. I would have preferred a few more attachments to speed up sucking pellets from under the cage, but no complaints other than that and I would buy it again. I hear ya on the amount of feathers... and they tend to congregate in corners he doesn't even go near!

I am interested in this too! Spencer poops big, poops small, poops everywhere, has no qualms pooping on me. I do have him semi-trained in that I can get him to "go potty" over the garbage if I ask, but unless i run to the can every 10 minutes, this doesn't help much. He does tend to hold some in while in the cage so I try to get 'the big poop' outta him when he comes out, but after that its little poos all over the place. Spencer could sit on my head all day for all I care (and I know he wants to), if he just wouldn't poop on me I wish there was a way to tell him that because I think thats a deal he would agree to LOL!

LOL Dan, I wish I had a living vacuum! thenabrd, that is too funny. Spencer doesn't pay any attention to his bowls other than games like "I wonder if I can hit the couch across the room with this bean"... though I have some small stainless steel cups that he LOVES to play with and bang around the top of the cage and throw on the floor. BIG NOISE = BIG FUN!

Thanks! He dunks too, its funny to watch, its like bobbing for apples! I don't mind at all if that's the way he likes them, especially since it helps me see that he actually DOES eat them still and doesn't just play with them lol! Maybe I'll try something that would let me 'recycle' them. Anything that hits the bottom of the cage gets tossed - I'm not about to search through for poop-free pellets, but maybe something like the plexiglass or a bowl or something would help.. he usually doesnt poo directly below his bowl... hmmmm...

Hi everyone - Over the past few months, Spencer's developed a habit of sitting on the edge of his food bowl, dipping his foot in and grabbing a footful, and then pulling his leg out and just dumping it all over the floor. He almost always does this when I refill his pellets (Fruit Blend) and I've caught him doing it with his bowl of fresh food too. It started off as an occasional thing but now it's routine to the point where almost all of his pellets are wasted. He does eat them - after dumping out several times, he will start to munch on them. But the bowl empties fast because he tosses them. He does it when I am in the room or when he is alone (I hear the clinking and clanking of lost $$ as the pellets spill to the ground lol) He used to put his head in his bowl and swoosh it around knocking them everywhere, and I solved that by not filling the bowl high. But now he does this :confused: I have a plastic foraging wheel and I tried to put the pellets there instead of the bowl, though a great deal still get wasted. I imagine he pulls a lot of them out just for the fun of it and not just to eat. (Though like I said, he still likes the pellets because I just bought a small bag of Natural zupreem and he has hardly touched those in the wheel) Any other ideas on things to try, or ideas on why he started doing this, would be helpful. Could it be a nervous habit, displeasure with the food, just fun to make things go splat? lol Thanks!

I can only chime in with my one vet experience the day after I received Spencer, but they gave Spencer what you listed plus a blood test and they filed his nails down too, and gave me some "new bird owner" advice sheets and suggested various training methods and food tips and so on. It was a pretty quick visit (the nails probably took the longest), I waited about 10 minutes for the test results. She is the only true avian vet in Indiana as far as I know, and the bill came out to only about $130, cheaper than I thought, though others have reported more pricey bills in their area. Being a newbie, I went along with what she wanted. I admit I'm not entirely sure exactly what problems she was looking for when testing.. I wasn't even a parront for 24 hours at that point! I'm sure the experienced folks here have better information on what should be done. Though I wouldn't be afraid to ask the vet for details on what they are doing and the cost beforehand. Vets have a way of guilting us into doing things that may be unnecessary. At the very least, they should be willing to take the time to explain what they want to do, and why. Good luck!

I'd also just recommend the 100% safe route, in not having anything non-stick at all despite what companies claim. It might have something else that is toxic to birds that hasn't been widely researched yet. Learning a new skill (e.g. cooking with stainless) is never a bad thing anyway. Its not bad once you give it a try.

I can imagine they would like the attention and it would make them feel included in an activity, but I can't see how it would be helpful on the learning/language side of things.... since the words you are saying have nothing to do with whats actually going on in the room at the moment. They might pick up a phrase you say that they liked, but it would have no context. I think it would be like someone sitting and reading a book to us in another language we don't know. We have no way to figure out what those words mean with no translation and no situation/context/visuals to draw from.

That sounds like enough money for the first day LOL! Toys (large hanging ones, foot toys, foraging toys, etc) are a big ongoing expense, and I'll agree with the whole "buying too many, then trying to make yourself, then go back to buying" cycle. I started off buying a TON of toy supplies intending to make my own but time didn't allow me to do this often, so I've spent a fortune on toys from the store too. Not to mention things like boings, perches, swings, a jolly ball, a climbing net, 3 stands (you'll definitely need to add stands to your initial budget, and combined they cost me more than the cage). Then you'll get to experience the joy of him being terrified of and/or not using the things you just spent $xxx on. Sometimes they will come around to it, sometimes they won't or it will take months/a year to do so. So plan extra money for that. Then there are pellets, veggies, fruits, nuts, treats, beans, special cook-able birdie mixes.... Pet carriers for the vet, travel, walking around town. Harness... Good Bird Inc DVDs Cleaning supplies. A new vacuum. A carpet cleaner. A new $300 Rabbit Air purifier. Vet bills. Other ongoing things you just don't imagine until it comes up, like $10 for aloe vera juice for his baths. Mats, towels, and such for the floors around the cage, stands, your computer chair or wherever he hangs out. (Though I've started to forgo these things in favor of just using the carpet cleaner every week) Anything you might need to bird-proof the house as well. This is not a complete list at all. Good luck! For what its worth, I got my cage at http://www.cagesunder500dollars.com and was very happy with it and the price was the best i could find for the model i wanted. I have model CFDS-1303.

Well, I can only add that Spencer had his nails filed when I first got him, then 6 months later his nails were sharp enough to leave long-lasting scratches all over my arms. I swapped his sandy perch (one that has the sand on the sides, not the top) with the top perch he always sits on to sleep and play with his foraging toy, and that did the trick, within a couple weeks his nails were bearable again. Maybe you just need to put the nail-filing perch in the place that's most used? Before I sorted that out, I started to work on toweling too.... basically by rewarding him each time he tolerated the towel near him... the goal being that i could get it closer and closer to him, then touching him, then around him etc. I saw a youtube video instructing how to do this and it seemed to make sense, so that's what I went with I stopped when his nails filed down on their own, but I'll be picking it up again soon... Good luck!

I do the same thing! Except I do refer to him as "you" more often than "spencer", while I use the 3rd person "mommy" with me more often. I can't explain why! Glad to hear opinions that its OK to do this. I won't know how he's picking up on these things til after he starts talking. Can't wait to see how it develops!