Barbara2

Congratulations on your new addition Steve! I'm looking forward to stories and pictures.

It means he loves you. He's trying to feed you. Some of this might be sexual mating behavior and you want to politely decline his advances. That's what I've heard from the other experts here.

I had a good workout routine going and then I got a nasty summer cold. It settled in my chest so working out was the LAST thing I felt like doing! It's almost gone so I'll be back at it tomorrow. I do weights, swimming, elliptical, stationary bike and/or Zumba on the Wii. (I just got the Zumba so I haven't tried it yet except for doing one tutorial.) I alternate those things for each workout.

I got an update from my bird's breeder: "The club(Angel Wings) dropped off toys, a few perches, zupreem (new flavors..nut and veggie) and paid 100.00 to the vet. The Bird Shop donated 40 lbs of seed, lg bags of zupreem along with some toys. They were dropped off this morning!"

The worst part is that the man had moved out of the house. It was condemned and he had to move out due to health reasons anyway. But he kept buying birds and releasing them into the house. About 30 of the birds that they found were already dead. Absolutely horrible story!

Ahhh. Sorry about that. I looked through the news and didn't see it. I didn't think to look in Off-topic.

My bird's breeder sent me this link: http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/nearly-100-live-dead-birds-inside-troy-home-1224395.html?cxntlid=cmg_cntnt_rss If you look to the left of the article you will see other picture. The arrows did not work for me to scroll through the pictures but I was able to click through them by clicking on the thumbnails below the picture showing.

The more I read about this virus the more I cannot believe that this was the cause. I'm still going to get the other two birds tested but they are part of the reason that I can't believe it. I can't believe that both of them can be carriers. If one is a carrier, the other should have contracted the virus and died as well. They share a cage with a divider down the middle but it is still one tray below them. I have had these two birds for 17 years. They have not been around any other birds. Neo died on a Tuesday. I had been out of town since the Friday before that but they were not being boarded. A pet sitter was coming to my house to give them food and water. If she somehow brought it to my house (which I don't see as a possibility because she doesn't have birds of her own) the other two should have been affected as well. In looking back over the weeks before Neo died, he probably was showing symptoms of something and I misread them. He was losing some feathers but I attributed that to molting. In looking back, the one thing that was odd is that there were none of the downy feathers. They were just the inch to an inch and a half wing or body feathers. The other thing that happened is that he would no longer cuddle with me in my chair at night. Any time I would head in the direction of my chair he would fly off in the other direction. I figured he just didn't want to cuddle anymore. He was still eating and drinking but his other behaviors (looking back on it) lead me to believe that he didn't die so suddenly but that he had something else going on that I didn't recognize. I still do not have the report from the vet and I'm very frustrated with that part. If he does believe that Neo died from something so deadly serious, he should have notified me the moment he got the results. If he's just guessing, I'd like to know that too. But it will now be another week (at least) as he is off to the annual conference in Seattle. Sorry, I'm just getting madder as I think about all this and needed to vent.

YAY! Congratulations! I'm glad this one worked out for you.

After 1 week I have lost 1 pound. That doesn't seem like much but it is the healthy way to lose for me. And it's better than being up a pound!

Great news! I hope the problem is gone and she's back to being her healthy self.

I just want you to know that I'll be wide awake with you tonight because I'm not going to be able to sleep worrying right along with you.

I agree and it has to be done. I just feel bad. This will be the third time for the Hahn's and the second time for the Sennie since Neo died that we have traumatized them with the vet.

And this is my next concern. Could my Hahn's or Sennie be a carrier? Do I need to get them tested? I've had them for 17 years but could one of them have been a carrier all along? Could Neo have had it from his breeder but not succumbed until he was stressed by us being out of town? So many questions and no answers.

Thanks for the update. I've been keeping my eye on this thread all day hoping for good news.

One other thing that I read on another site: replace filters so I just ordered a replacement set for the Rabbit Air.

Thank you. I appreciate any information I can get. Caring for my animals is as important to me as caring for my children. I did get rid of the cage. There are a few items that I kept but I have washed them thoroughly. I first ran them through the dishwasher with vinegar, then I hand washed them with vinegar and today I rewashed them with bleach water. If that isn't sufficient, I'll throw those things out and replace them.

Thanks Dave. I just can't figure out how Neo got it. He was never around any other birds.

Many of you know that my one year old TAG, Neo died in June. I took him for a necropsy and have been waiting and waiting for results. I called again today and was told that he died of acute herpes virus. Hopefully I will get the full report today. I have no idea how he could have contracted this virus since he has not been around any other birds other than the two I have owned for 17 years and Neo was with me for 8 1/2 months.

The one hard lesson is that if anything changes, go to the vet. Even if you *think* it's normal changes, let the vet reassure you. There were some things that Neo was doing that were different. I attributed it to turning one, molting, normal growing pains. In hindsight, I think he was showing syptoms that I wasn't picking up on and he died too young. I still don't know what the cause was (I need to call that vet who did the necropsy and harrass him for results!) but I think if I had taken Neo in when he first started acting "weird" I might have saved him. If in doubt, call the vet.

Welcome! What a great family you have! Do you need help naming the greys?

The breeder is exactly 20 miles from my house so I have it scheduled to visit once a week. She also has items for sale so at each visit, I generally pick something up to get the cage ready. It was a really good visit today except that he's at the stage where he wants to bite everything. He was pretty good about responding to "No" and that has more to do with the breeder socialinzing him than anything I've done. I just wanted to add that as long as I was holding him, he was fine with the harness. It wasn't until I put him on the table so that I could take his picture that he started biting at it. It was a really good day and I agree with Shelly; having the opportunity to visit and bond with him in these early weeks is wonderful! I'm not saying it's necessary but it sure is better than having to wait the full 12-16 weeks before getting to meet in person. With Neo, I never even so much as got a picture of him before he was flown to us. So this is a much better experience for me.

I'm not a "routine" person so my birds aren't so much routine either. Somehow they have learned to wait until they hear someone moving around in the morning before they "call". It can be anywhere from 6:30 to 9:00 a.m. Nighttime they just settle whenever they are ready. We are still up watching TV in the next room. I can see them from my chair. Their room is dark but we still have lights on in here and they are not covered. It seems to work for the whole house. They are 19 and 17 years old and don't seem to complain. (Not greys. A Hahn's macaw and African Senegal.)

Here is this weeks addition to the photo journal of Egan. He is 8 1/2 weeks old and weighs 282 grams today. I put the harness on him and he was very accepting of it. As you can see from the picture, he wasn't too crazy about it being on but this was his first introduction so I was pretty pleased. He was giving kisses to the breeder and is now spending time in the cage with the sun conures so he's learning to perch and eat "real" food. He is a very sweet, sweet boy!

That is beautiful! And you have inspired me. We are looking at a place in Florida for a family vacation next June. The place we are looking at is pet friendly so I'm thinking about taking Egan (who has yet to come home) but I need a travel cage. You inspired me to search and find. Thank you for that and a whole bunch of other stuff!