MarcusCAG

Every bird is different, but with the proper introductions and respect for their personal space, most parrots will probably come around to a certain extent and enjoy the company of another bird, even if there is never any direct interaction between them (probably the better and safer idea with two parrots of dissimilar size). They are flock animals, after all. If this makes you feel any better, we own a Congo African Grey (Marcus) and a green mutation Quaker parrot (Beaker), and we had Beaker for a number of months before we adopted Marcus. Beaker, being a Quaker, is very feisty and has a bit of a Napoleonic complex, but in his own way I really think he cares for Marcus now. He still lunges at him occasionally if Marcus innocently invades his personal space, but of course I'm always there to intervene and prevent anything bad from happening. Marcus is really the more laid-back of the two and I think he wouldn't have any issues with Beaker at all if Beaker wasn't so hot-blooded about life in general. It comes with the species, though, he's a spunky and bratty and bright little bird. We love him anyway.

I have something new to post that Marcus just said maybe twenty minutes ago, I figure it'll do better here than as a solitary thread, but I just have to share this!! My husband had just come home from work, and our dog (Dahlia) was jumping around to go outside. I was folding laundry in the hall, near Marcus' cage by the open bedroom door. From his spot, he can see straight through the house to the back door. He watched as my husband opened the door to let Dahlia outside--but the door to the patio had blown shut from the wind, so my hubby followed Dahlia into the relative darkness of the porch to open the patio door again. From within his cage, Marcus suddenly piped up and said very loudly, and with an up-and-down intonation, "Is he gonna STAAAY out theeeere?" How did I not show him that my mind had totally blown up upon hearing that question??? Yet I just replied casually to Marcus, "No, Daddy's just letting Dahlia outside, he'll be back in a few minutes." But--wow!!! :)

Thanks, Dave! A longer read but yes, answered everything.

Thank you, everyone, I just wasn't sure if that type of thing was allowed here. I don't even know Little Man or his owner personally, but his owner's words in that Craig's List ad just pulled at me, I felt so sad for them both--still do. I really hope that Little Man gets returned home soon! It's not even been two weeks yet though, so I think there's a lot of room for hope still. If anybody wants to read the post, themselves (since I've seen links to other sites elsewhere in the forums), here it is: http://tampa.craigslist.org/pnl/pet/2250712258.html

Thank you! I found my husband's coffee filters and filled them with little treats and I didn't tie them shut, I just kind of twisted them and "hid" them around their respective cages. It took the two of them a bit to figure out what was going on with them, but now Marcus especially seems addicted to them! I'll have to find some less-fattening treats to put inside them, he just loves them! Thanks again for all of your suggestions!!

Okay, yes, I was lurking a bit in the Welcome Room just now. I noticed that in one thread Dave007 commented to a new member something to the effect of "parrots don't get worms". I was surprised by that statement, because I remembered reading something somewhere that had a picture of a cockatiel that looked like it had been through the ringer, and was described as having a condition called giardia. The caption made it sound like the avian equivalent of hookworms or some such. Anyway, so I just Googled giardia now, and apparently it's not a type of invasive parasitic worm, but a protozoan parasite. So my question is, since apparently it's transmitted through dirty water and excrement and such from person to person: Is that how birds get it too? Could a human have it and not know it and then give it to their parrot? I know some parasites are transmittable from animals (mammals) to humans and vice versa. And that poor cockatiel in the picture looked pretty bad! I'm just wondering if anybody really knows anything about this since when I did a Search here just now I pretty much came back with nothing, no threads about it particularly or anything...

Hello everyone... So I would like to teach Marcus (and even Beaker, our Quaker parrot) how to forage. I've read that if parrots ever get loose, then they can survive so much better--and hopefully long enough to be reunited with their owners--if they know how to forage and don't just know to expect human-prepared food all the time. Today I got an old cardboard box of modest size and stripped it of tape and then folded its bottom back together so that it 'stayed put' without the tape. I put a piece of computer paper in the bottom to cover the gaps created by the cardboard flaps. Then, while Marcus and Beaker both were watching, I sprinkled some sunflower seeds and other bird seed in the bottom of the box. I filled the box with shredded newspaper and sprinkled some more seeds on top. The whole time, Marcus was going "Ooooh! Ooooh!" and Beaker seemed curious too. I demonstrated for them that, by sifting through the shredded newspaper, they could surface with a lovely treat of a sunflower seed! Oh, they're so yummy! Beaker and Marcus REALLY liked that part, but when Beaker was perching on the box edge, and Marcus was staring over... they totally seemed to want me to pick out all the seeds for them! There were no indications that they wanted to try and find them, themselves. So am I moving at too fast a pace for them, apparently? Are there steps I should be taking before introducing something as novel as a newspaper-and-seed-filled-box? Any other ideas for homemade foraging toys? Thanks in advance for any input!

I just read the "Welcome to the Rescue Room" sticky and the "Lost and Found Posts" sticky and I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing by posting this here. Maybe it belongs in the Other Birds section, I don't know. Maybe I'm overstepping myself posting about this at all? But I feel so troubled I'd like to throw it out here, just in case it is all right, but if it's not then certainly remove this post if it goes against forum rules or something. I don't want to make trouble... Anyway, sometimes I like to read about the parrots that are up on Craig's List, just to see what's going on. I usually stick to the ads near my house, but sometimes I look elsewhere (and I even check near my parents' house sometimes, states away!). Last night I found this ad with pictures about a lost 2-year-old Blue & Gold Macaw in the St. Pete, Florida area. His name is Little Man and he's been missing from his daddy for a week. What caught my heart was that his owner got a phone call that someone had captured Little Man--and then just let him go, for whatever reason. He's been spotted a few times since then, but he and his owner haven't been reunited yet. I emailed his owner and sent him links to the Lost and Found parrot sites and info here in these forums, and in his reply he said he appreciated that but he just feels so devastated right now. So I thought, maybe I could post here and if anyone lives in that area, keep your eyes peeled? I think it's the fact that Little Man had been encountered and was safe with someone for a bit, and then he was just let loose again--that's what makes me feel so sad about this. I know if anything happened to Marcus or Beaker I'd be such a mess! So if it's okay, I hope that I'm not breaking any rules by posting about someone else's lost parrot, one who isn't even a Grey... I'm sorry if I am, but for some reason I feel moved enough by this to try. But again, if this isn't proper for these forums, please remove this thread and just know I didn't mean anything badly by it. Thank you.

I don't know if this would be applicable for wooden floors too (like a dilute solution for mopping), but around the house on wooden furniture I use a bird-safe mixture of water, about a cup of white vinegar, a spoonful of olive oil, and couple of drops of lemon essential oil (the real deal, I get it at Whole Foods) shaken in a squirt bottle and spray it on a rag for dusting. I found the recipe at another parrot board somewhere and just kind of mix things up as I go now, I don't measure the liquids out exactly anymore. Works great!

If I can go out on a little limb here, every once in a while our Marcus will get spooked while in his cage and will start flapping all around and ram himself into his cage bars. He's never actually broken the skin (as there is no bleeding) but he does get pink, sore-looking spots from where he bonks his little gray head, and occasionally it looks like some of the skin gets sloughed off a bit. So perhaps it was something like that with your Grey today. Either way, I just hope the wounds heal up soon!

Thank you both for your input, so much... for some reason I just freak out so bad when I think I might have poisoned my boys, I can keep a level head for most anything else but that.

On Sunday at the store I saw some organic raw green beans and I bought them, thinking that it would be good to expand the boys' diets a bit. I remembered reading that parrots liked green beans. Beaker adored them instantly and now chirps whenever I say "green bean". Marcus played with them at first and now eats them. But I thought to look them up specifically again today, because there was a niggly little thought in the back of my head--and I can't find them on the safe list in my bird books! So I Googled them and everyone says they feed them cooked. Have I been hurting my boys????? Please, someone in the know, post a reply, I feel like all my subsequent searches are turning up contradictory information and I'm starting to get very upset, I don't want to poison my boys!!!!

What a sweet, drenched baby! I wish I could get Marcus into the shower like that, so far it's a no-go... the squirty bottle only reaches so far, I think, if he doesn't fluff his feathers. But a real shower would do the job just fine!

I wouldn't say you ever want Joei to be afraid of you. (And I'm sorry about my other post, I thought she was a he!) It's really a matter of "respect", or more to the point, of giving proper space and forms of attention. The biting is not an appropriate outlet for her to give you attention... perhaps that's all she knows how to interact with humans at this point? Marcus came to us having not been handled or taken out of his cage for the past three years or so--he had no idea of "limits" and I really had to 'teach' him that biting down hard and sawing on my finger really hurt Mommy! (I did this by crying in front of him, actually, after the fact. He apparently associated my tears with pain and after that, honestly, he was so much more gentle with me. I don't know if Joei will be so easy to educate in that regard, though.) But if Joei pursues you like that, perhaps she is not ready to have limitless freedom on the floor yet, for your safety as well as hers...

I think that is a very true statement. These parrots are all very intelligent and all have their own personalities, and depending on how they were treated in the past, there might be more issues to deal with than desired... but in our home, we've had our Marcus a little over five months now, and he came with SO MUCH baggage, but he is just delighting us by finally starting to turn around a bit. But we made mistakes in the beginning, which probably didn't help, but with patience and persistence and letting him have his space, Marcus is definitely making desirable progress with us. It seems as though you have a bit of a "toe nabber" though, Marcus tries this too with my husband and recently eyed up my feet after I painted my nails (a rare thing for me). But I told him that he needed to be a good boy and distracted him with a foot toy, and then he kind of forgot about nipping my toes! He does love to go after my husband's feet though so I need to intervene, he is less likely to bite me than my husband and so perhaps when you let Joei out and about, if your husband is the favored one, let him play interference whenever possible. Just a thought. But if you can distract Joei from unwanted behaviors and teach him more desirable behaviors instead (like chewing foot toys and such) then over time he will come to understand what is and is not acceptable in your home and may come to naturally "blend in" with his new flock around him more easily.

Give him tons of attention still, too. Don't let him feel "replaced". Beaker, our Quaker parrot, is really my husband's bird (he just adores him) but if I spend too much time with Marcus, our CAG, he will get uppity and nippy and cranky-jealous, too. So I take him out and gauge how 'bitey' he is, and if he's good for a shoulder I keep him there and I sing to him, talk to him, I let him clean off the top of my nose (he loves that), whatever. I just make sure he knows I just love him to bits, too. And maybe Marcus is just exceptionally laid back, but he doesn't get jealous in turn. So hopefully that's some help--just give them both time to readjust to your new baby being there, and hopefully soon you will be one happy flock.

If I'm understanding you correctly, your issue is that the Celltei company won't ship the Pak-o-bird to Spain? There is at least one other store that I've seen online that sells the Pak-o-bird. The name shown on the top of their homepage is Chirp n Squawk birdsupplies.com (am I allowed to post that here??) and they say that they have International shipping options. Hope that helps a little.

So cute! It looks like it was the Greys vs. the Eclectus couple. Wonder who won???

That is absolutely it, JeffNOK. You hit the nail on the head. It sounds as though the uncle has major issues of his own and he's just taking them out on something (Luna) that you (Saoirse) and your husband at this point can only halfway protect. If it was a child, I think there are laws and stuff that might come into play--not so sure about animals and harassment. But that's what it is, and I'm so sorry you're all dealing with it right now. P.S.--Luna in your avatar is beautiful!

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear about your situation right now! I can tell you what I THINK the problem is, but it probably wouldn't come out very nice (pertaining to how the uncle treats your Grey baby), so all I'm going to ask is does your husband have any clout within his family? As in, please stay away from our room/it's off-limits/don't bother our bird? Parrots are very intelligent and it's a shame that your TAG is so infatuated with a man who has absolutely no concept of respect for an animal other than a dog. (What is your Grey's name, btw? Did I miss that part?) Anyway, maybe if your Grey only comes out when the uncle isn't around and doesn't have one-on-one time with him, then he will become less interested in him--I'm sure he can understand that the uncle is taunting him, but maybe the 'spice' of their interaction is one of the things that he likes about it? Does your husband play verbal games with your Grey at all (nice ones, I mean)? I know my boys (a CAG and a Quaker parrot) just adore it when I sing to them at bedtime before I "tuck them in for the night" and they're even happier when their Daddy joins in. In any event, I just hope that you all get this figured out soon, and maybe can move again soon (it sounds like that's what you want anyway) and you can have some peace for your nuclear family in this regard. And I hope someone else may post even better advice because I kind of feel like I'm just grabbing at straws here, I'm sorry.

I feel absolutely nauseous after reading about this incident. I can't even think of anything else to say. I know I have 'mental blips' occasionally with things like everything else does sometimes but that... was just horrible. Wretched, stupid woman for not following the directions and being arrogant about it all! :(

Did you know that you can buy gold bars in some countries from vending machines?

escarole

Um, I can't pick it out?? I guess if I'd HAVE to choose, I'd eat the fly. Probably have eaten quite a few already anyway (you know that saying about eating an average of 8 spiders during your life...). Question: Someone stole your only pair of shoes out of your locker at the gym while you were swimming and you're at the shoe store across the street in your socks. You need new shoes for an important white-collar work meeting in 10 minutes. They have your size, but the only dressy shoe style left in stock comes in fluorescent green and pink stripes (haha, yeah!). Would you: 1. Buy the dress shoes and wear them and hope your strict boss doesn't notice and you don't get fired? 2. Skip out on the meeting altogether, even though you might miss that $10K year-end bonus because of it!

Wow, I loved the pictures and the video! Thank you for sharing this new Yoshi update. What a great set-up you have for your fids!!! Now I need to get one of those cool-looking purple swirly things for the outside of Marcus' cage, haha...