Birdnut

Good Sunday morning here in Texas. I was wondering if anyone has found a good, bird safe product which would clean sealed concrete floors and leave them shiny.

Thanks for this important reminder. Our birds are flighted, and we have a protocol for going in and out of doors. But all it takes is one moment of distraction and inattention. Your experience has caused me to be even more vigilant. A good wake-up call for everyone. And I was so happy to read of Emma's recovery.

My birds are always ready to help with my dressing. Not only are they very helpful with the clothing, but with other grooming chores as well. The conures are always anxious to participate in tooth brushing by sitting on my shoulders imitating spitting and gargling sounds and grabbing for the toothbrush. They also are helpful with hair brushing. The cockatoo is a particularly talented hair stylist.

Thanks for the laugh. I've been readying a new book I got about African Greys, and, no kidding, it just about sounds like that!

Wow! That does sound scary. I'm no expert, but that sure does sound like some kind of seizure.

OMG ... pass the hankie. This story made my day. I know you will do a wonderful job with Zoeie. You will be a blessing to each other.

Thanks, Dave007. Those are encouraging words. I am decided at this point to leave the feathers as they are, unless I see that they are obviously causing problems. Moussa is such an awesome bird. I feel a strong sense of responsibility with him, as well as affection, and want to do the best I can for him.

Ooo, that's a hard one. Each of ours is special in its own way. My favorite changes from day to day. Today, I'll pick the blue crowned conures. They are such great talkers and so very comical. When I laugh out loud in the bird room, it's usually because of the BCCs.

That's a nice cage. We have one, and our sun conure and pionus are roommates in it with the divider in. The question is, who rates the tall side with the porch?

Thanks for writing about this. We use this harness with our cockatoo and are trying to get the grey used to it. I will definitely warn my husband to check the harness every time he starts to use it.

Thanks for all your responses. I am really gratified to see all this passion for flighted birds, as that is also my feeling. All our birds are flighted. I don't think I made my question clear. There is no question that we intend to allow Moussa to be flighted. But he had already been clipped at the store. This clipping was done taking only part of the feathers, leaving a sharp, stubby end. Our vet worries that these sharp, stubby ends could be an irritant to a bird, and prefers to take the feather off at the shaft. I don't want Moussa to experience irritation from these feathers and possibly problems. But he can fly pretty well with this partial clip, and I don't want to inhibit the ability to fly that he has now. Either way, we will let these feather grow back and not clip him again (which it sounds like will take about a year ... sigh) I really wish they hadn't clipped him at the store. To give them credit, they did ask me if I wanted him clipped or not, but then realized that he had already been clipped, since he was the older of the babies. I could have chosen an unclipped baby instead, but Moussa just charmed me with his personality and I fell for him ... what can I say?

Our Moussa is about 16 weeks old now. He is a very energetic, curious and confident baby. Moussa had his first four flight feathers on each side clipped at the store where we bought him. They are trimmed about half-way down the shaft, just so he wouldn't fly out of the pen they had him in with some other baby greys. He can fly pretty well, even so, and I have been glad to see him learning to control his flights and landings better and better as he practices. Our vet recommends strongly that any clipping done on the larger birds be done close to the shaft of the feather, just under the coverts. He is concerned that sharp, stubby feathers can contribute to irritation and possibly lead to feather mutilation problems. So this is my dilemma. I can understand the reasons why we might want to get the feathers clipped as our vet recommends (temporarily, as all our birds are flighted). But I am concerned that doing so might degrade his flying ability, as it is now, and I don't want to do that, as I think that the flying contributes to his confidence. Any thoughts on this?

What a beautiful group of toos. Your citron/goffin mix reminds me of our umbrella/goffin mix. The crest is a little different, of course. So we have a cockatoo, and now a baby grey. I'd have to say that, so far, the grey has been a bit more of a challenge than the too. But he's still a baby, so we'll see how things develop.

I'm not very accomplished with pictures, but will endeavor to get some up soon. Yes, Judygram, I am looking forward to learning a lot here. These birds keep me learning all the time: about birds, about myself, about patience and acceptance. I think a lot of what I've learned about what does and does not work in dealing with birds has carried over to how I deal with people. I am glad to learn that many of the members of the board have flighted birds. Our birds are flighted, and while it does bring extra challenges and some risks (which we work to control), it just felt right to us. Moussa was clipped at the store, but is so strong, he's still managing to make short flights and is getting better and better about controlling his flights and landings.

One of the names I considered for our baby (who turned out to be a boy) was Akila - Swahili, "intelligent," "she who reasons" Seemed like a good name for a grey girl, especially if you're leaning toward an African name.

Jilly, you're right. It is quite a zoo. I feel stretched pretty thin sometimes, but they do keep me laughing. Every bird has its own personality and interacts in its own special way. The blue-"clown" conures are amazing talkers, especially Tazo. I teach her little tricks: she can sing a little song, play peek-a-boo, cluck like a chicken, etc. But then she learns the prompts and follows me around the room demanding that I do the tricks for her: "You wanna sing?," "Wanna play peek-a-boo?", "How does the chicken go?" Fortunately, our home has sealed concrete floors, and we have given over the downstairs master bedroom to the birds.

Greetings, I am the new mom of a 3-month-old baby CAG, male, named Moussa. We have had parrots in our family for a while now, but this is our first grey, and we are finding him to be a whole 'nother kind of bird. He's very active and curious and mischievous, and looking after him is like trying to keep up with a toddler. I am looking forward to the community, good advice and support that you guys seem to offer. Our flock: Izze (lovebird) Pixel (parrotlet) Tazo and Jamba (BCCs) Daisy (SC) Iris (PI) Gwyneth (U2/G2 hybrid)