FirstPenguin

There is a lot of good advice here, and I'll reiterate that you will eventually see evidence of play when you come home. This shredded, that turned over, etc. Another thing mentioned that can't be stressed enough. Location, Location Location. Parrots in general will ignore toys in one spot and love them in another. Keep reminding yourself that play for Greys especially is a learned skill, not an instinct. Does anyone have a birdie cam? If so what do you use? Birdie cam would be just the beginning for me. I've for a long time wanted two way video conferencing with my bird while I'm at work. I even want it to have it's own touch interface with entertaining sounds and video. Sadly I'm not a programmer.

Sounds like you're ready!

Great pics, did he land up there like that or climb there?

Thanks for posting the pics those cages look great. Something about it almost seems suspicious. I've gotten scammed once by a small boutique company. My girlfriend insisted on buying those JWR exotic air filters and humidifer. What a joke that guy was. So I guess I bring baggage to the situation. The price is under other stainless cages. They still have the powder coated cages on the site but don't make them anymore. So it almost feels like a bait and switch, because carmen really just keeps emailing you once you respond and it's hard to find them mentioned any other place. I think that has something to do with the common terms in the name.

Carrier is a big one. Another thing you can do is go through your house looking for sources of PTFE. Go through all your cookware and see what's non stick. We've replaced all our cookware with cast iron or ceramic coated dishes. Any kitchen gadgets that plug in often have it. Toasters, hot plates, etc. If you have big windows it might be good to put up decals or something to make them more visible especially if your bird is flighted. You ever hear of puppy proofing, bird proofing is a whole new level.

Welcome back. This is why I stick with either OS X or Linux. I'm becoming quite fond of ubuntu.

It doesn't have to be a dedicated mobile app but there are apps that are meant to read forums if the forum has gone to the effort of making there formatting available to the app makers. I may have the way that works wrong. Point is it's not as hard as having to make your own app. Look up an app called forum runner.

You have a bird store you trust? I haven't come across one I trust. I went into one and saw how cheap there boarding prices were and inquired about what was required to board there. My avian vet requires you be a patient there or you have a health certificate. So I asked if they required a health certificate. They said no, they can tell by looking at a bird if it's sick or not. That pretty much solidified my opinion of most bird stores. I'm sure there are better ones out there. Long story short I wouldn't trust a shop that's shipping in birds from all over the place and likewise I'd be worried about a person you don't know who has a lot of birds. Someone who visits your home once or twice a day might be safer health wise. Just my two cents.

Has anyone else dealt with Animal Environments? I emailed to ask about their powder coated cages. Someone by the name Carmen Daily wrote back telling me they don't make powder coated anymore. I like the look of the cages they make and that they're US made but I've been emailing a back and forth and Carmen is really putting on the hard sell and his (her?) english is really rough so it's hard to understand the writing sometimes. Any other experiences with them?

Thanks for your input. It's just a little daunting because over 3 years we've really honed and pimped our Sennies 24x32 cage. It seems daunting to start from scratch and equip a much larger (roughly) 40x30 cage.

We've got a fledgling arriving soon and my main experience has been with conures when I was younger and our current bird a senegal. Getting my first medium size bird I'm wondering what the best diameter perches are. I know you want a variety of diameters but what would you consider too small? Is there such a thing as too big? I'm also wondering if there is an ideal perch type for younger birds who are just learning to climb and get around. My first instinct is rope perches since our sennie can be swung through the air on one and doesn't fly away or mind one bit. Point being they're clearly easy to grip. It's also what we equip her sleep cage with. Thoughts?

I've been wondering about this as well. I just got a Galaxy S III and it's so snappy with websites I find myself using it more than I normally would have before I put it down and move to a normal computer. Most forums are built on templates sometimes there are mobile apps that can read that template and display it in a more mobile friendly way without the site being mobile friendly.

too cute, are they lying on their back?

I'm ordering a cage from King's Cage. Leaning towards the European Style Napoleon Model 406, seems to be a good size and quality with out jumping to stainless steel. Anyway, I was wondering what experience people have had ordering from them and how long it takes to deliver. Anyone know where they ship from and how they deliver?

There's always this. http://www.celltei.com/birdiepouch.html

I think the problem is, sure people will buy it and try it out and report back yeah bird doesn't mind it, it works great. That doesn't prove that it's safe when your bird gets startled attempts to take off. Or what will happen to their ankles and feet if they fly full speed in the opposite direction. Also I noticed that the bird in the video had two leg bands on. Who has two leg bands on their bird?

The video did put me at ease regarding it's size and scale to the bird. The product shots on the site make it look like these huge shackles. However, I wouldn't trust Marc Marone with my birds welfare. I also wonder how easily smarter parrots will be able to figure out how to operate that spring loaded (I'm assuming it's spring loaded) bit that holds it closed. If parrots can regularly escape from cages who says they won't figure this out while you've got your head turned. I also noticed that 15 of the 18 thumbs up or down are down on the youtube video.

I have to deal with a lot of the video from the MKIII in my work. Not my favorite camera to deal with for video but you can't go wrong with it for stills. I look forward to seeing more of your bird related work. One thing I've been trying to get is my Senegal frozen in mid flight but often we can't get into a situation where there's enough light and she's really hard to track and shoot at the same time.

Funny you mention "vetoed." My girlfriend and I have a veto system, whoever's bird it is going to be gets to pick but the other get's to veto it if they don't like it. I'm at a disadvantage since she has a million rules that I didn't hinder her with, like, it can't rhyme with or be to close to our current birds name.

Great shots. What are you taking these with?

That's mainly why I posted it. It just seems like it should be recalled even before they ship the first unit, and I was surprised kings cage was selling it.

Well thanks for being a guninea pig. Please report back and let us know how it works out.

Was looking at cages on King's Cages site and saw this new product. It's esentially two metal clips that loop around your birds ankles and act as a leash. Looks like a bird version of what held together a chain gang. Do these seem safe or even a good idea to anyone? http://www.kingscages.com/SearchResults.aspx?CategoryID=New%20Featured%20Products&SubCatID=Bird%20Safety%20Leashes

We've been picking a name as well and I made a very similar point to a co-worker when recounting the epic battle over which name to pick, between my girlfriend and I. I pointed out that this isn't just another pet name that you'll recall 20 years later on a list of other shorter lived pets. My girlfriend and I plan to have 1 bird each for the foreseeable future instead of many. So in many ways it's our one and only companion for the rest of our life hopefully. So point is, picking that name is is a big deal.

I get the best of both worlds by turning a dome top into a play top. I have this http://www.mysafebirdstore.com/product.cgi?group=10447&product=10463 bolted to the dometop of my Sennies cage with a get a grip net hanging behind it. Before that we had a small tree like multi-forked branch on top. There are a lot of ways you can embellish the top of dome top so it's a good place for a fid to hang out. For that reason I'd go with dome top.