Birdnut

Shanlung, thanks for those beautiful photographs of Riamfada in flight. I know it will be very hard to leave her.

What a beautiful sweetheart. I am so sorry. I feel so sad for your dad.

I prefer to use bowls, even though I do have a soup chef in the flock. I just have to change the water 2-3 times a day. Also, the birds seem to really like when I put out fresh water, as they'll hurry over to get a drink. Drinking out of a bowl just seems more natural.

What a smartie! I'm afraid he's smarter than I am. I can't think of a better challenge than that right now.

Hi schtickl! Welcome! Why don't you introduce yourself in the welcome room and tell us more about your baby. My Moussa has pinkish red feathers around his legs and his bottom, so I guess he has a touch of the red factor. I have also been wondering if this will molt out or if it will stay.

Yep! I have bought a number of carefully chosen baby toys for Moussa (and the others). Not only are they some fun toys, but they're considerably less expensive than comparable parrot toys.

I love conures. They're such little clowns!

So sorry about your ratties. I have kept rats before, and they are such great little pets. Just be careful not to combine flea treatments on your dogs or cats. Each type of treatment is designed to be a dose that your pet can handle. I don't know about Alabama. But I know here in Texas, if you have pets that spend any time outdoors, fleas are a constant battle. You also want to treat your dogs for heartworm, if you haven't been (after consulting with your vet). The mosquitoes in moister climates spread the heartworms. Also, your pets can get tapeworms from ingesting fleas. You'll recognize this problem by seeing squirmy little rice-like bits in the stool or around their bottom. Fun, huh?

When we brought Moussa home, he still begged for baby food. We gave him an evening feeding with a spoon, as much and for as long as he liked. He just gradually took less and less and grew less interested until we dropped it. By the way, he'll still try to chug sometimes if I grasp or handle his beak as you were doing, and he's 7 mos. (He also thinks the Keurig coffee maker is regurgitating for him when it makes a cup of coffee, so I have to really watch him and keep him away from it, or he'll run over to it and start trying to chug!) For our "baby" feedings, Moussa liked the Bob's Red Mill Brown Rice Farina as a base. It's kid of a cream of rice made with brown rice. We added a little bit of almond butter to it. He also liked the butternut squash & corn and green been flavors of baby food.

Awww. Both videos are priceless. I wish my too got along with my grey that well.

Wow! Thanks Jayd. Those are some beautiful birds!

@Azzie: Thanks for the link. Very interesting. @birdhouse: Love the owl! LOL!

Awwww. Precious babies. I just now feel confident enough with parrots to take on a macaw; and now I have too many birds to take on any more. shrug. But they sure are beautiful. I've never even seen a hyacinth in person.

I was eating some almond poppy seed cake yesterday, and Moussa wanted some, but I was afraid to share any with him because I was worried about the poppy seeds. I was thinking poppy seeds might be harmful, since they can cause some people to show up positive on a drug test. Any information on this? I've seen poppy listed as a plant toxic to birds, but I also saw where poppy seeds are an ingredient in Momma's Birdie Bred and in a Goldenfeast seed mix.

The owner of our bird shop told us this related story: One of the managers has an African Grey named Leroy who lives in the front of the store near the register. One morning they came in to the store to find that someone had broken in the front door, but had taken nothing. This was puzzling why they would break in and take nothing. Then they remembered that at that time, Leroy was in the habit of saying, "I'm gonna whip your ass!" in a deep man's voice. Their best guess was that the intruder had broken in only to hear this threat coming out of the darkened store and fled!

I don't have much luck with scrambling eggs since we did away with our non-stick cookware when we got the birds.

I love to smell my birds (the ones that'll let me). I like to put my nose on their backs and smell that alive scent. Some of the birds have a distinctive scent. Our blue headed pionus has a sweet, incense like scent around her face, which can be very noticeable at times. I love it. The parrotlet has a faint distinctive scent around her face. Moussa the Grey just smells warm and alive.

Just read this. I am so sad to hear about Prince's passing.

How do things go on the days he joins you for the shower?

Interesting discussion. Hybridization is certainly a controversial issue in aviculture. We have a hybrid bird: a "parasol" cockatoo (G2/U2 hybrid). She's a lovely creature and very sweet. We had discussed getting a cockatoo for some time, and my husband was just drawn to her. I can certainly appreciate the arguments against hybridization. I think it's an important point to consider that some of these birds may be headed for the situation where the species is only maintained in captivity. That is certainly a good reason to maintain the purity of the species. I'm not sure about the health issues that Jayd raises. These sound like some very legitimate concerns. I do know that hybridization has been used extensively in agriculture. Many of the cattle breeds are hybrids which were bred to produce cattle with more hardiness and better resistance to insects, heat, etc., by crossing English cattle with African cattle (which are a different species). In the veterinary field, I heard a lot of reference to a phenomenon called "hybrid vigor." This referred to the idea that the more separated the genetic background of two individuals, the hardier and more vigorous their offspring. I don't know how this might apply to parrots, or how much "separation" can be involved and still provide this benefit. I know we all care very much about the welfare of birds in aviculture and certainly want to oppose any practice which produces unhealthy birds.

I have often thought that a parrot in full attack mode would be a very effective guard. But, in thinking this, I never pictured a sun conure! LOL! Way to go, Jack!

Tea would not be good. But I do share a few little sips of my morning fruit juice, before I've drunk any of it.

My tangled hair Flies everywhere When my 'too Does my 'do. New word: greet

Hi, and welcome. I also laughed at your dragon lovebird comment. We also have one of those. She is cute as a button, but all the birds are terrified of her. The only one with the guts to stand up to her is the parrotlet

What a couple of clever rascals. Next thing you'll come home and they'll have changed the locks on the door and won't let you in until you accede to their demands.