Birdnut

I would hate for Gracie to continue to be restricted to her cage. i was thinking of a larger, room-sized play area. Unfortunately, I think it may take a year or more for her wing feathers to grow back in fully.

Hurray for Issac! I am always amazed at how effectively Moussa is able to communicate with me. Some of it involves sounds, but much of it involves glances in a particular direction, leaning in a particular direction, pulling my hand to him or pushing it away, and other nonverbal signs. And he definitely shows me that he understands a lot of what I say. Sometimes it can feel like we have just had a real conversation, even though there was no sound made. When we have really connected in an exchange of meaning, it feels like a holy thing. My husband and I think that having the Grey is more like taking an ET into our home than having another bird. It's like we're gradually learning each other's languages. Moussa: "Take me to your leader. Oh, wait. It's me!" LOL!

Glad to hear Kito is doing better. It does seem that the feather destructive behavior was related to a medical issue in this case, so hopefully, with the medical issue addressed so quickly, it will not continue. Love to you and Kito.

One of my bc conures, Tazo, sings "Poker Face," but does it in such a manner that only we can recognize it. She also sings "John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith." When the sun conure hears her start to sing, the sun conure starts bobbing and dancing. She obviously appreciates Tazo's singing. Tazo, herself, prefers to dance to an African drum beat. Several of the birds do the head bobbing/dancing thing. Moussa the Grey doesn't do it yet. I think he thinks it's undignified.

I think the suggestions made were the obvious ones. If those are not acceptable, maybe it would be possible to find some bird-safe substance that won't harm either bird, but would taste objectionable to Willow, and try putting some on the back of Leo's head. I think this problem would be difficult to stop without controlling their access to each other, as it seems to be an over-zealous performance of a natural behavior.

nutbutter........

This is a great name. I had considered Newton as a name, also after the physicist.

Today I'd like to be sitting on that fallen tree right next to Cocoa.

I have done a little work as a vet tech in the past. I don't have any experience with bird toes, but I think removing the toe will be a much shorter surgical procedure (less time under anesthesia) and will be less painful and heal more quickly than trying to fix the toe would have been. Wishing you and Lucy all the best in dealing with this issue.

shredded wheat

Perfect bird dancing tune! My birds also like Lady Gaga.

Our cages don't have shin busters, er, I mean seed catchers. But the birds sure do gather round when I'm changing the paper and try to grab for dropped goodies. In the process, they scatter feathers and hulls everywhere with their wings. Then they think it's a great game to grab at and tear and scurry about under the clean papers I'm trying to put down. Grrrrrr.

Poor Gracie. These Greys are heavy-bodied birds and can be quite prone to injury when heavily clipped. Such severe clipping led her to break the remaining feathers on one side, and now she is even worse off. I wonder if part of Gracie's anxiety is fear of falling and hurting herself, which she has associated with you, probably because of your presence at the time it happened. I agree that the best you can do is start over to make friends with her. But I think these scary and painful experiences are going to continue to happen as long as her wings are in such a state. Would it be possible to provide a more enclosed area for Gracie's play area, allow her wing feathers to grow in, and groom her with a less severe clip, if necessary?

This is a great thread! I love the stories so far. We basically named our first three birds after drinks in the Whole Foods store: Izze, the lovebird; Tazo, the female blue crowned conure; and Jamba, the male blue crowned conure. We broke with that theme in naming our little female blue headed pionus Iris. She had such big, soft eyes, and she was green on the bottom and purple/blue on top. The cockatoo is Gwyneth -- a Welsh name meaning "whiteness; brilliance." We call her Gwyn for short. (We broke with the bird store tradition of naming cockatoos with Australian-themed names, although later I thought Shela would have been a cool name.) The sun conure is Daisy, a word derived from "day's eye," a reference to the sun. The parrotlet is Pixel, the smallest thing we could think of. It started out to be Pixie, 'cause she was like a little fairy, but my husband thought of Pixel, and it stuck. We named our Grey Moussa after the African drum and dance master, Djeli Moussa Diabate. We went to a drumming workshop that Moussa presented, and enjoyed him and his stories. We had said if the Grey turned out to be a male, we would call him Moussa. It is a fairly common African name, based on an Arabic form of the name Moses. If he had been a female, we were going to call her Queenie, after the wise woman in the Lark Rise to Candleford series.

Scary, isn't it?

I think I do recognize the sound described here. Moussa does this also. But it is not soft and sweet when he does it, it is rather loud, and he does it when he wants to shoe one of the other birds away from his cage. Usually when he wants to say "no" to me, he just pushes my hand away with his beak.

Maybe Rambo is just fascinated and curious about Lucy. After all, Lucy is something exciting and new in his environment.

It really does look like she's in the wild. Wherever she is, she sure seems happy about it!

I do have a nagging concern that if this man becomes paranoid or scared of repercussions for keeping the bird, he may do away with Mino to get rid of the evidence. Or he may try to sell Mino to someone else so he gets rid of the evidence and also gets the "reward." Perhaps you might consider first trying just the "thank you" version of the flier and increasing the reward. Whatever you choose to do, I wish you success in finding Mino.

How very interesting. There is just no telling what signs Chili is going by. These birds can see light beyond our visible spectrum, so Chili could be going by something you can't even see!

So sorry to read of this, Bonnie. What a heartbreak. Don't give up. There will be a baby for you when the time is right. <<<<<hug>>>>>>

Thanks for the update. This is a very interesting turn. Thanks for keeping us informed, as I have been very concerned about Mino and interested in how your search progresses. All the best.

My Grey, Moussa, l-o-v-e-s bells!!!!

What irks me is grocery stores that stuff the shelves with their house brands instead of the brands you want.

Sharing some cranberry orange loaf with my Grey.