MarcusCAG

Eshana, you got another baby!! Congrats on the new addition... Sontsa's a cutie-pie, and sounds like a bit of a handful!

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that Barnaby has this problem! But it sounds like the vet has at least a direction to explore to try and help him, and hopefully it will all work out without any complications... Thankfully, though, Barnaby is now with you and your family, and if his condition is at all stress-related, hopefully as he learns how to be/feel loved and interact in with others and the world in a more appropriate, "parroty" way, perhaps it will start diminishing on its own, as well. Thinking of you guys...

That little story is very cute. I can just imagine the mess they're making for you.

Thanks, everybody! I'm glad you liked the clip... but I'm afraid we'll never match Marcus with his whistling--he came to us with that as a finely-developed skill from his former home, and neither Ross nor myself are particularly talented in that regard. Sometimes when I sing to Marcus, though, he'll start whistling and we'll have a nice little duet for a few moments.

She is so pretty! That lime-green foot toy apparently is very interesting, too! So cute! And I have to ask you--where did you get a Boing that large? Wow! But Gracie certainly looks like a happy girl in her new accommodations... can you tell I'm quite excited and happy for you both? Thanks for sharing the pics.

If you can take your baby with you, then by all means do so! If they identify you as their flock (or at least the most important part of it), do you think they would be as happy being forced to be away from you for regular spells? That being said, it's lovely that you're thinking ahead so much with all of this, and all the best to you and your future Grey.

I visited your blog the other night while I was checking out your link to Oliver's Garden, it's very nice! My hubby saw a picture of Mabel there and he was like, "That looks like a Grey crossed with a macaw!" Hehe. But once he'd said it, it made me wonder, how big is your sweet Mabel? She does look a bit CAG-sized, or at least proportioned. (I wanted to scritch her belly, in the one pic it looked so cute and round!) She's a very pretty girl and I will try and pop by and keep tabs on you guys as I remember to, I don't know much about Severe Macaws anyway and it sounds like your blog would be a nice introduction!

I'm getting better with these videos... It's amazing what editing off seven minutes of shrill electronic noises and imitation cockatiel calls can do for the content! I set up the camera in the birdroom after Marcus went to town on his bell, yelling at it and beating it up and being absolutely hysterical! Of course, he didn't repeat the act while the camera was on, but I did manage to capture him talking relatively clearly, besides whistling, for once. His two major themes are "bird" and "showertime", haha. Enjoy!

Yes, I agree. And it's wonderful that we have Titanium with us now in her stead, he is so loving and sweet, I don't doubt that had she lived she would have been just as affectionate and loyal with us. She was a little sweetheart, and I'm glad I could cuddle her and make her feel loved for those few hours before she left us. Hehe, that is a smart man, and one who obviously loves you very much. I have a special place in my heart for animal lovers, men in particular, because I know too many who could really care less. Maybe it's the way they're raised? But it is so wonderful to read of other 'kindred spirits' like you both who love and care for these little, forgotten ones so much. It makes my heart feel warm and happy to hear of your kittens' happy endings with all of you.

OooOOooh! They are absolutely gorgeous!! I am so glad that they were able to find such a loving home with you! Thank you for sharing those pictures of your sweet babies. It is a sad thing about poor little Tiara, I can still feel so wistful about her sometimes, and go down the "What if?" route... but the one nice twist to her story is that, ironically, we ended up adopting her brother. He's our Titanium I mention in my forum signature, and he belonged to the neighbors next door to us. They obviously plucked him up when he and his littermates were running around outside unheeded and unwanted by the family down the street who owned the mama--they weren't home that night when I knocked on their door, or at least they didn't answer it--which resulted in his tiny, frail sister's sad neglect and eventual demise. When the family who took in Titanium (his name was "Midnight" then) moved a couple of years ago, they could only take one pet with them and chose their Great Dane. I didn't want anymore cats at the time, but my husband said to me, "How can we refuse another black cat who needs a home??" And when I talked to the wife, I found out that Titanium was from that very litter Tiara came from... so even though we couldn't save her, I am so happy that we were able to help and adopt her brother. He is my hunky lovebug to this day, and he comes for me when I call him like a sweet little doggie, he loves me so much (my husband gets mock-angry over this fact, he won't necessarily come running when he calls!) and he's such a good boy. My boy. I do love him so much.

^^ Thank you both for your sweet comments and, DawL, you're welcome too and we hope you enjoy the cookies when you make them!

You're more than welcome. I've been there too, it can be so painful, even for ones that weren't with you for very long... Once when I was walking our dog at night, we stumbled upon an exceptionally tiny stray kitten, all black, who was just crying and crying in the middle of the sidewalk. She was so small, and obviously malnourished. I knocked on the neighbors' doors and she wasn't claimed, so I took her home. We tried to save her, but she ended up dying the next day. I only knew her for less than a day, but that loss hit me so hard. She's buried in the backyard with other pets of ours that we cared for and loved for years. I named her Tiara. I still think of her poor little self to this very day, happy at least that at the end somebody (two somebodies, actually, my husband and me) loved her and was rooting for her. But our animal friends wriggle so deeply into our lives, it can be so sad to say good-bye...

Thank you both... I was honestly hoping Marcus might be more interactive, and talk a bit in the video and kind of be my "co-chef", but perhaps I should be glad he didn't. It could've gone the other way around, and he could have started making siren noises! Hehe, so I guess he was a good co-chef. Thanks for watching us, it was fun.

Yes, thank you for this new update! You will make more mistakes in the future, I'm sure (what parront doesn't? ), but Gracie is obviously quick to forgive and you two will learn the figurative ropes together. Again, congrats on having your baby home with you, finally... and I don't think 44 is a dinosaur, even without the camera phone pics. I refuse to use Facebook. That should put me back a million years or so, at least, according to most everyone I know.

I'm sorry you lost your little friend... it's always hard, no matter the size or the species or how long you've had them. But you'll always remember her, and that's what's important in the end, that you all were an important part of each other's lives for the time that she was with you.

Gorgeous! She has such personality--especially when she's wet, it just shines through in these photos! Awesome!!

I have a little channel at YouTube where I post videos of our flock, presumably for our distant family members to watch--but I really don't think that happens very often! At least, in the meanwhile it seems some other 'bird people' have discovered our parrots and enjoy watching the videos occasionally. One person, a couple of months ago, requested a video on the birdie cookies that I mentioned in our one video. It's taken me this long, but I finally put together a decent video on our birdie cookies today (after ditching the one I made yesterday). This is just what we do for our birds... all disclaimers and et cetera apply, haha, but I wanted to share it here because I thought Marcus was so well-behaved on my shoulder. Good boy! (Originally I was going to use Bunsen as the model but she's kind of in a funny mood today, so thought better of it!) My hubby yelled at me for the lighting and everything but I told him, in no way is this a professional video--so please just enjoy it for what it is. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgikbbYHlsw&list=UUXRCAK6gqHP6EN6YnzwK44Q&index=1&feature=plcp

Thank you for sharing your links--I checked out that store online, it seems a wonderful place! Now you have me drooling over so many new things for our babies that we can't afford.

So... I am cranky, and a little worried, but mostly irritated. My husband, months ago now, bought a new baking tray with a silicone liner. He promised me up and down that it wasn't like Teflon and the parrots would be fine with us using it. Obviously, in our case he was right, no problems, the thing works great and our flock is fine. However. Today I made a little video about cooking for our flock because someone online requested one of me a little while ago. In the video, I mentioned how lethal Teflon can be for birds, and I said we use a silicone liner on our one pan instead (I showed it in the video, too). While I was reviewing the video prior to posting it, I wanted to check some technical things about Teflon and so started looking up stuff on Google. I came across statements about how silicone bakeware doesn't offgas--and then I found some posts that claimed people have lost their parrots to it!! :( So now I'm kind of disgruntled, but not really upset. We've been using this liner for forever now, and all I can find is that around 400-something degrees Farenheit (sp?) the silicone bakeware can melt. Does anyone else use anything like this? If it really is harmful and we've just been blessed so far, if I can convince my hubby to get rid of it (I see a fight coming!), what should I use to bake with instead as a cookie sheet? Stainless steel? I like the liner because when I make birdie cookies, I don't have to oil the tray or anything. But of course the safety of the flock comes first. Does any of this make any sense? Thoughts??? PS--I took down the video again because I don't want to encourage silicone bakeware-ownership with people who have birds, if it really is a bad thing for a 'parrot household' to have.

They're a big hit with Marcus and the greenies, too. Mmm, sweet potato! And to the OP: Your Chickie's a cutie-pie!

Thanks, birdhouse! I figured he would probably be okay, but just wanted to make sure... The flock just got sprayed down with aloe and water (so Marcus wouldn't feel singled out, it's not his favorite thing in the world, but I do have one very happy Ringneck perching near me now!) and we don't have any more cinnamon sticks in the house so I'll have to look into that. Thanks for the tip! And Gwen, I'm sorry about Roscoe biting you last night, that's never fun! At least he apologized to you. Tybalt got both my hubby and me yesterday while we were attempting to train him, I think they were basically unintentional bites too (at least with me, it was like he thought my skin was clothing he could grab onto)... he's getting close to stepping up now, but we're not quite there yet.

It was totally an accident, I got him a little riled up while he was on his hanging upside-down from his Boing and I think he was trying to give me an 'air kiss' when I leaned in... I wasn't expecting it and he caught the inside of my nostril. No bleeding, just a bit of a shock (!) which I shrugged off (didn't want to make him upset), but now I'm wondering if I need to be concerned for bacteria contamination or anything, as I would be with saliva. When he normally gets into something questionable, he gets sprayed down a bit--and I think I may do that now, to get anything off his beak that might be there. Is there anything else I should do? I know, this is an odd post, but I just want to cover my bases, thanks...

I'm sorry, I don't have anything viable to share, but I just wanted to say that I hope the vet is able to figure out what's going on and how to help your baby start acting/feeling more normal again.

What a pretty girl Emma is, enjoying her chard! Beaker, our Quaker parrot, just loves beet greens--we found that out recently! It's so nice when your fids like eating healthy foods, haha! By the way, is that a new swing that Emma has behind her? We have a swing almost exactly like that for Marcus and it's starting to look pretty ratty because of how much he chews on it. I was just wondering if Emma is a big chewer on her swings, too?

I'm looking forward to hearing about Barnaby once you are able to bring him home. It is an exciting time for you both.