oblivion

Not much new here, but I do have one quick, cute story. The last few days have been pretty hectic around here and the birds didn't get out much at all over the weekend. Yesterday a.m. when I went to close Spencer's cage after giving him food, he actually stood in the doorway and pushed back against me closing the door. He poked his head out and was eyeing up his travel cage like, "TAKE ME SOMEWHERE!" I felt bad having to leave for work, but we hung out a fair bit last night, so hopefully he's not too mad. I was going to bring him for the car ride to Anya's vet visit this morning, but ran short on time to get his traveler ready. Oh well. Otherwise, no news is fairly good news. Thanks for the kind words Kat. No video, sorry.

Just had another checkup and, sadly, we're on a big backslide. Despite the change to low-protein/renal care Roudybush and an increase in meds, her uric acid levels are back to 12.5 - "high" is 8. The vet doubled her med dosage, but it honestly feels like desperation to me and I'm pretty well resolved to the notion that the end is likely near. Thanks for checking in and for all the good thoughts.

Judy, I've looked into insurance, but it's been a while. For her, that horse is already out of the barn. Malikah, She'll never be completely off the kidney meds, but the Lupron (hormonal regulation) is $50 (plus an exam charge) a shot, so just getting that less than monthly would help a bit.

My answer is, "It depends." Teething toys ARE made for chewing on and can hold up pretty well, but more elaborate stuff - especially anything with a noise maker (electronic or mechanical) - raises concerns. Although toys are made so kids can't get at batteries and electronics, parrots come complete with tools and strength for bypassing such security measures. Plushy-type toys might be OK, but I'd worry about any stuffing and would also be careful of threads or parts which may ensnare a toe or strangle the bird. If there's any doubt, of course, it's better to be safe than sorry. My Spencer came from a woman who was a daycare provider and I got some baby toys along with him. All of those have been durable enough that they are still around (teething keys, some kind of plastic 'girl' with a rolling wheel - sort of like a Weeble Wobble, but not), so, again, it depends.

I never would have thought of subjecting my birds to the CTA, but if I didn't drive, I guess I might have to consider it (we live way out in the 'burbs now). As for parks around Skokie, you could do a lot worse than visiting the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston.

Aerial, I'd taken a bit of a hiatus from the forum, but I'd often wondered if Marco had come home and how you were getting on. I've been gone so long, I just found out about the sex change - er, DNA results. Congrats on your 'new' baby - nearly a month on now. Your excitement is very contagious.

Thanks for checking in on us, folks. I have to admit, the plucked flight feather had me a bit down, and also worked picked up a bit, so I kind of fell off the forum. The good news is that some combination of aloe sprays and time/changing seasons have gotten us back to 'normal.' A few more feathers came out after that one, but nothing as major and it's all pretty much ceased now (though he did lose a full-grown flight feather this weekend, that one may have been due - he's had it a while and it wasn't accompanied by any barbering). It's still a 'dance' with him, but not as frustrating. We've had good days - one where he climbed up on our bed and head-butted me for some scritches - and bad days - one where he nipped me when I was just trying to give him a safflower seed. You take the good with the bad. In the last month or so, he's been showcasing some of the voices and phrases he's picked up since coming to live with us. I'd gotten used to him saying "Hello!" in my wife's voice and screeching like my 5-year-old daughter, but it really blew my mind to hear him, in my voice, say, "C'mon Spencer. *pause* Spencer, dammit!" BUSTED! He's also, since we've had him, said, "Good night!" and "Go to bed!" but according to my wife, he's now picked up our cockatiel's name and the other night said, "Go to bed, Anya!" He's working on some other stuff I mostly hear between covering him and lights out, but I can't make out the mumbles yet. All in all, it's going well. And I made the missus happy last week by finally steam-cleaning a lot of the poop out of the carpet in their room. Thanks again for checking it. It's one of those notices which got me to come back, give a few reports (on Anya, too, in her thread), and check in on my friends here. Sometimes life just gets in the way.

My Grey is almost 14 and is definitely adding to his vocabulary. He's picked up my and my wife's voices and has learned our cockatiel's name. Apparently the other night my wife heard him say from under his cover, "Go to bed, Anya."

I think I've missed two vet updates here - thanks so much for checking in on her. In March, her uric acid level was finally down to 12, the top end of 'normal,' but in April, they had regressed to 12.5 so in March we upped one of the meds and in April she was prescribed Roudy Bush's Renal AK diet. Sad to say, Roudy Bush is a VERY slow company to deal with - at least for prescription meds - and though I THINK I placed an order, I still haven't gotten confirmation on that. Appearance and weight-wise, she's doing well. Still doing one med twice a day and the other once a day, and I stop her enzyme powder this week. She's gotten Lupron shots each month, too, but there's hope that since breeding behavior has ceased and we're getting out of early Spring, we might be able to skip a month or two of that. We'll see. The ~$150/month vet visits are adding up, that's for sure. And now prescription food . . .. Like I and others have said before - can't NOT do it - but that doesn't make the reality of the bills any easier to swallow.

Why, I've been missing a while and came up short on my search - is there a Marco Homecoming thread somewhere? Weeee!

Catching up on the forums after a month and a half away . . .

Talon, I can't do a ceiling swing where I want this due to a cathedral ceiling and the fact I like being married. Besides, I already have one in the kitchen which he pretty much ignores (though Anya has taken to lately). I've kind of stalled on this project because I can't decide if I want to do the 'monkey bars' in all PVC, or just do the frame in PVC and use dowels for the rungs. PVC would be more durable, dowels would require less materials and the ability to vary sizes. One requires more cutting, the other, drilling. I'm sure whatever I do will be unloved and ignored.

Well, crap. Spencer pulled a brand new blood feather last night/this morning. Judging by the freshness of the blood on the cage papers, but the dryness on his feathers/feet, I'd guess it was in the morning. He's fine and it had stopped bleeding on its own after a few big drops, but I feel TOTALLY guilty. Is it because of our cage issue yesterday morning? Is it because I got home late last night and never saw him (though of course my wife took care of him, she likely didn't interact with him like I do)? Or was it just coincidence that it got to a length that annoyed him/that he could grab? There's only about 1/8-1/4" of feather extended out beyond the sheath - a VERY new feather. That kind of goes against one of my theories that he pulls them because his wings don't set right and they interfere with the left wing's feathers. This really wasn't long enough to do so. SO many questions. And so incredibly depressing/disappointing. I guess the good news is that this means at least one of those follicles is still functional for now. Also, I don't know if this is 'good' or not, but it didn't look chewed up, just pulled and dropped, so it seems at least he isn't doing it as some replacement for toys. So, so, so very bummed. There were 2-3 other downy feathers around the cage, too. I'm going to up the aloe sprays. *sigh*

Thanks Kat6 (I'm officially making that my new nick for you) and Greywings. I'll check out that book for Em. True to the title of this thread, he was a SNOT this morning. After climbing up to the arm of the couch again (a new favorite place?), but not following me into the bathroom, he hung out by himself this morning giving the occasional contact call. When it was time for me to go to work, I was wondering how I was going to get him back to his cage. When he's roaming the floor, it's pretty easy to lure him with one of his bottles and/or food. But up on the arm of the couch, he wasn't BUDGING. So I got his travel cage, offered it, and he stepped RIGHT onto the door. Nice. Good bird! Worth a treat. Then I took him over to his big cage, threw in one of his bottles, and expected him to charge after it like he usually does. Nope. Wouldn't budge. I tried another bottle, then a toy, then Nutra-berries. He wasn't moving. I could tell I was getting frustrated, so I took a deep breath, set his cage down for a bit, and formulated a plan. I figured that his travel cage generally means going SOMEWHERE to him, not just back into his home, so I thought I'd take him outside for a quick minute, bring him back, and see if that was good enough for him. I wish I could say it worked like magic, but he STILL wasn't anxious to 'go home' after the quick tour, and I was getting frustrated again. It's a good thing I have a flexible start time at work, but this was really pushing it. Eventually, I had to resort to something I was not entirely fond of doing and only had to do one other time. I essentially 'poured' him out of the cage by tipping it to where the perch wasn't really easy for him to stay on. He seemed to give a thought to being stubborn and hanging onto the bars, but then gave in and walked into his big cage. To take out his frustration, he pounced on one of the bottles with which I'd tried luring him and he tossed it out onto the floor defiantly. The silver lining to the episode is that I praised him for being a good boy and (eventually) getting in his cage and he graciously accepted a safflower seed from my fingers and set into his pellets, so I don't think the 'tipping' and the rest of the experience did him too much harm. I guess we'll find out later.

I don't know - never had a baby - but some googling says it varies bird to bird, but generally by one year.

Watching Rio with the family (birds included).

Heh, yeah, not one of my best self-portraits, but the sun was right up where I needed the camera. I hear you about no drama re: feather picking. I don't even examine them in front of him. I pick them out of the cage litter as I'm changing papers and check them out later. I'm more and more thinking it's just molt time as Anya has dropped a couple too, now, but I'm going to try to stop guessing until it stops of becomes an obvious problem. I'll just keep on with the showers and aloe and see what happens. So, I had a pretty darn cool morning with Spencer. I wasn't up to the 'hassle' of carting his cage downstairs today and we didn't have a lot of morning time before we had places to be AND I wanted to fit in some reading time with Em (our daughter), so I told her to join me on the couch in the pet room and we could read there. I opened all of the cages and put up the gate so0 the bun wouldn't escape to the land of cords to chew on beyond the hall. After a minute or two, Spencer shimmied down his big cage and got into his traveler which is always on the floor and looked at me like, "Ok, let's go!" I told him, "We're not going anywhere this morning, bud, we're just hanging out in here. He seemed to understand and a minute or so later he'd climbed up on top of the small cage and was looking at me pretty intently as Em read. He did what he often does - hold up a foot, I offer a hand or arm, he retreats. We did that a couple times and I gave him a few toys to throw off the cage, but more or less I was ignoring him and paying attention to Em. After a bit of that he crawled down to the floor and retreated under the couch where he spends a lot of his 'alone time' in the room. He had one of his bottles down there which I could hear him softly banging against the wall. After a bit, that stopped. The next thing I noticed when looking over at my daughter was a little grey head poking above the arm of the couch. We have another gate we use to better secure the room from the cat when we aren't right there and that was leaning against the couch and he'd used it as a ladder. After a bit of effort (remember, not fully-functional feet), he pulled himself fully onto the arm of the couch. Ta da!!! Inquisitive Spencer climbed up to listen to Em reading to me. by oblivion9999, on Flickr He was up there quite a while and though Em was doing her wild little kid gestures, I reminded her not to startle him and he stayed pretty calm (as did she, my brave little toaster - she's been beaked a couple times from not listening to me). He was up there quite a while and seemed to REALLY want to be by me, but again would always retreat if I'd move toward him. He eventually started dropping his head and fluffing up, so I traded places with Em, got the spray bottle, and gave him a bit of a soak, which he really seemed to enjoy. This was awesome. It ended on a good note, no drama, no pushed boundaries, no upset, and HOPEFULLY a little unfulfilled desire to be closer on his part - keep 'em wanting more. I went off to take a shower and start my day thinking, "Awesome morning!" But wait, there's more! Since my wife was up in our room and I'd put Maggie the bun away, I left the gate down in case Spencer wanted to explore a little bit. He'd gotten as far as the hallway before and I thought he might enjoy hanging out there where he could watch my wife folding laundry or Em doing 5-year-old things - or who knows, even hang out with the dogs. A couple minutes into my shower, my wife came into the bathroom and said, "You've got company," and I could hear Spencer doing one of his squawks. A few seconds later, he came waddling around the corner and marched right over to the shower. Honestly, I don't know if he was more looking for me or the shower, but it was AWESOME that he was so adventurous AND knew where to find me. he'd never come into our bedroom on his own before, let alone all the way into the master bathroom. Sure, I've carried him in there in his cage - especially a lot recently - but it still took some 'putting it all together' on his part. My wife said he'd hesitated a bit when he first got in the bedroom, looking around like, "Hey, wait, yeah, I know this place. The bathroom's right over there!" I can't tell you how awesome that felt. I was done with my shower but offered to leave it on for him. He didn't seem too interested in having the water on - he just seems to like standing on the edge of the door checking things out. After a little bit of him just hanging out in there, we had to get going, so I went and got his cage, he climbed right into it, and from there right into his big cage back in their room. TWO successful adventures in one day with NO DRAMA!!! Fan. Tastic! On top of all of that, I am incredibly proud of Em and how well she's reading. There's a whole lot going on in our house these days! Happy Sunday, everyone.

Oooh, that's a GREAT idea - he LOVES peanut butter. I'll try that this evening.

Ha, yeah, Spencer is a dunker, too. Loves his Zupreem pellets slightly moist, but leaves quite a bit behind in the water bowl.

Welcome! Wow, a Grey and a 'Zon as your first birds. You're going to need to read up A LOT (start with the sticky topics in the various forums here) and ask all of the questions you have (in the right places). Specifically check out the Amazon and the Rescue/Rehome 'rooms.' I commend you for wanting to help keep the birds from getting split up, but starting from zero, you've taken on a huge task. We're here to help.

"Along for the ride," eh? You'll enjoy this. Yesterday, well just about all week, was GORGEOUS around here and I was itching to get out on my motorcycle (I did commute a few days during the week). The missus had some errands planned so gave me a hall pass to go ride for a few hours. I was trying to think of a 'destination' and said, "Maybe I'll ride up to the bird rescue place to visit the birds and I want to look at some stuff to make a play gym. At least on the bike, you know I won't come home with a bird." Without the slightest hesitation she responded, "Oh, I don't believe that would stop you!" She knows me all too well. We then had a good laugh about how a poor parrot would handle 65 MPH on the back of a dualsport. As it turned out, there was a big black cloud up that way and I got an offer to play classic arcade cabinets (Asteroids, Missile Command, Time Pilot, Rampage, etc.) for free, so I did that instead. I really do wish CARE was closer. It's a 150 mile round-trip and with gas at what it is, it's hard to justify taking the car 'just to swing by.' At least on my 250 that would be less than 3 gallons of gas.

Thanks for the tips. I don't know if he eats them at all or not, but I have found that if I give Spencer cracked walnuts, he is fond of digging the nut out. I'm sure he'll get there with the almonds, too.

Aaaagggghhhhh! My Kindle Fire just lost a HUGE update I just did. I'll see what I can recreate. Gggrrrrrrrr. First, Kat6, it's funny, but I have the feeling that each of us thinks the other is further along with their TAG than we are. They are so similar and yet each has his own strengths and hang-ups. But we are both making progress, and that's good. I remember reading about Gilbert's reaction to the 'moving' boxes. Gosh, it's amazing what these guys pick up on. I am still not certain if Spencer is just 'assisting' a normal molt (he is chewing on the feathers that come out) or if he's full-on plucking. Luckily it's still only mature feathers which have fallen, no blood feathers and no flights (though one tail feather yesterday), and he doesn't have any bald spots, nor even downy areas. He's just looking a bit ragged. Still waiting and seeing and not freaking out. One thing I realized is that, coincidence or cause, this feather business started around the time I had him outside for the first time this Spring. I wonder if the shot of UV stimulated a molt and/or (over)preening. I did finally get some aloe juice and gave him and Anya their first dousing yesterday morning as we bird-brains sat on the front porch enjoying the morning sun. It was kind of funny, they were both very upset about the plain water pre-soak - some of the biggest histrionics I've seen for a shower. Seriously, I worried neighbors might think I was abusing them. But when I switched over to the aloe, Anya quieted down, and Spencer got REALLY into it opening up his wings and feathers for a good soaking. Wet birds on a sunny front porch. by oblivion9999, on Flickr Oh, and the big news of that was he was on the front porch in his NEW travel cage! After ignoring it since that first quick visit right after I'd gotten it, he was in his original traveler and the door from that fit nicely into the new door - like a drawbridge. So I loaded up the new cage with food, favorite toys to abuse, etc., and he WALKED RIGHT IN! I gave him a couple treats (safflower seeds are his current fave as the batch of pumpkin seeds I bought are not to his liking - nothing like the home-roasted ones I've run out of) and let him settle in a bit before deciding to 'reward' his exploration with some outside time. It was a tough call, just let him hang out in his room in the new cage, or go on an 'adventure.' The adventure could backfire or go really well. As it turned out, he wasn't anxious to get out of the cage at all, even when I took him back upstairs to his room. In fact I had to lure him out so I could put him away in his big cage. He really REALLY does take to most new things very well, and for that I am forever grateful. The only thing about that new cage - MAN is it HEAVY! I'll still use the old one for shuttling around the house, but we'll 'visit' the new one from time to time. Ok, I think that's most of what I had written before. We did have the, thankfully minor, first altercation between the two birds last night. We were on the couch watching TV and Anya was on me. She was about due for a poop, so I sent her flying back to her gym. She missed the landing and ended up on the side of Spencer's cage. He wasn't alarmed, but before I could get there, he very gently beaked her foot. She's generally a drama queen and didn't even react to him (just to me yelling. ), and I didn't see anything on her foot, so I don't think he 'got' her, but man, I was scared. Ok, enough. Going to see if I can get back to sleep now.

Woo, boo! Those dark eyes are so mesmerizing!

Hey, I was catching up on an old thread, saw your name, and got to wondering about where you've been. I hope the move and everything went well. Check in and let us know what's up!