Morana

I felt so helpless! So no one had a similar experience?

As Zvone was coming home from work Zak was eating pellets (Harrison's) in his cage. Zak really loves Zvone and is happy when he comes home. If he is out of his cage he usually asks for kisses and head rubs. So my theory is (as we are not exactly sure what happened): when Zvone approached his cage Zak got excited while eating a pellet and inhaled a bit of a pellet? Is this making sense? In one moment he was eating as always, and in another he was coughing/sneezing and rapidly closing his eyes like we do when something goes in our windpipe. Other than coughing/sneezing he stood very still for about 5 minutes and we were so scared! Could he suffocate? Could we have done anything if he began to suffocate? He returned to his normal self after 10minutes and now he is like nothing happened:-)

He is soooo small! I newer so one so young. They are so fragile! Can't wait the pictures when he'll be a bit older. You'll keep posting, right? :-) Good luck! :-)

There is a good reading material on Harrison's official site about how to convert on to their food. You can try with birdie bread-also their product-read their advice. It would be wise to weigh food couple of days so you'd know how much your bird eats. Weigh the bird too so you'll know how the transition to pellets is going. Bird shouldn't lose more than 10% of his weight. I didn't have a possibility to offer birdie bread so I in the morning I just put a bit of seeds and the rest pellets. Zak wouldn't eat first few day pellets at all so I left them (after morning portion) there during the day. Eventually he tried a pellet or two but still he wasn't eating them. So I gave him his seeds before bed time so he wouldn't starve (not literary). After a day or two I started to offer much more fruit and a bit of veggies (Zak doesn't really like veggies) and less of the seeds. He was hungry and decided after a day that it is too long for him to wait for the seeds which now I offered even less so he started to eat pellets. He soon grew fond of them but even now he has his on schedule when he likes pellets best. He will eat pellets in the morning but likes seeds to. During the day he usually eats fruit and finishes if something remained in his food bowl. I refill if necessary. But before sleep he prefers pellets so I offer just pellets. But my story is unique. Because of some reasons (before mentioned on this forum so I don't want to get into it again) I can't afford to import pellets on a regular bases and I need to mix food so he never ate like that before and transition was a bit rough. When I started the transition I wasn't aware of advice given by the manufacturer and I didn't know about this forum so I did the best I knew how which wasn't that great. Maybe you can combine my experience with other given advice and make it work better. Good luck! PS: now I have a birdie bread and e loves it!;-) But if you put pellets in that and bake the bread he'll get used to the taste of pellets but you'll fry the vitamins so don't put too much pellets in it. Just a bit so he would get used to them.. PPS: I adjusted to Zak. Don't take the text above literary. His well being was first and I didn't want him to be too hungry or to have shock about all this. But I did want him to start to eat pellets. You need to find a balance if you improvise like me. But as I said, you have other people and Harrison's official advice to benefit from, which I didn't. Use it ;-) Sorry if I was rambling...I am so sleepy.. Good night :-)

That is horrible!! :-((((( I really hope he makes it and after that has a healthy,long and fulfilling life!:-) Do they know how it came to liver failure? Can you please tell me a bit about Aspergillosis?

Yes, yes pictures please! :-D And welcome back!:-) Glad everything went smooth on the ride home!:-)

Hi and welcome! :-) I second that what luvparrots said ;-)

Hi and welcome!:-) So sorry to hear about Linus:-( Hope he'll be better soon :-)

Well, my little feathered thingy won't say this one sentence what I am trying to teach him if I am in the same room. So I carry clicker around the apartment and yell (because I'm in the other room) to him the line which I want to hear response to. So when he says it I click and yell back a lot of praises. I tried it when I was in the same room as him but nothing. Then I tried to experiment. I hid behind the closet ( in the same room) so he can notice my voice is closer but he still can't see me. I repeat the question and reward when answered correctly. Then I hid behind a curtain-so now I am even closer and again, it worked. Next step is in the same room but not watching him. That worked too. We still haven't succeeded when I am looking at him. He looks at me back like I asked him to do something totally preposterous! Lol He regresses a bit because we are still not having real training sessions but I get what I can this way... for now ;-)

Wow, that is great! Congratulations! :-) Any pictures? :-)

I hope she will recover very soon. Best wishes. Take care you both!

Thank you so much for the answer. About harness, training, my relationship with Zak and his well being, I am very serious. Now more than ever. I missed so much in his life and now is time to learn. I strongly believe that all lessons in life come to us when we are ready. I'm ready to begin. I'll read everything no matter how long it takes. I'm in no hurry,and as I said, we (Zak and me) have a lot of other ground to cover prior to something like harness. When I'll think I'm ready to put theoretical knowledge in action, rest assure, that you and the rest of the forum will be the first to know :-)

IMO means "In my opinion" :-)

Everything is OK :-) As I said once before, sometimes is hard for me to translate my thoughts so everybody would perceive them exactly as I mean them. I respect knowledge and experience and just wanna learn. No one should be afraid that I'm gonna do something out of the blu..Especially not something that could harm my bird. I'm not a copycat either, but I do have to admit that I think about harness, more and more, due to Shaulungs posts, and when it will be appropriate, I will make necessary steps and try it with my bird. But I think we are still pretty far from that ;-) We still have a lot of other work to do :-)

Dear Talon, I am not gonna follow anyone blindly if that was what you were implying, or afraid of. I am asking questions and if he/(sometimes) she wanna answer them, that's great, if not, someone else probably will. I also know there are many links Shanglung has posted here but due to my physical limitations I haven't read them yet so I ask questions because I am very curious and sometimes can't wait to have a good day which would allow me to sit through posts/links which I am interested in. Also, due to another physical problem, I forget very quickly so, although I maybe have read something, I forget it, and again I want to know something- because I'm curious.. So forgive me for asking, but short posts are more likely to be first on the list to read because I don't need to sit very long...which is not the case with Shanglungs stories ;-) It takes time for me... Thank you for answering my last question :-)

Uh, I think I wouldn't try this arrangement with the scooter in this life.. ;-) But I am very interested in seeing and asking about all the inventions which can give better quality of life and safety to our fids :-) Like your rod on which you have wire(?) attached to harness? And a pulley? Does Tink get on the side and then goes in the cage (while on scooter)? Do you open "door" for her (on the carrier) to come in? And sorry if the next question is too personal, but whom and why did you give Tink to? Couldn't you keep her?

He is adorable! :-) It looks like he is smiling :-)

shanlung, don't scare the newbies! ;-)

And please do add a size which you used for your CAG. Tnx

Beautiful Eclectus birdhouse!:-) I was wondering.. TOP pellets are pellets from this site http://www.totallyorganics.com/?

Well you looked at the wrong photos. I didn't say Tink looks nervous at the picture where she has her foot in her mouth. Just the opposite;-) And yes, Zak obviously have some situations where he displays nervousness with his talons in his mouth. I wish you had a picture where we can see that cage on the scooter. I would like to know how to build stuff that are secure/safe for my birdie:-) The picture where she dozes of is brilliant! Can't believe she feel asleep! :-) She looks so beautiful. Is Tink bird of your life? When I go to: http://public.fotki.com/Shimmertje/best_of_taiwan/alishan_taiwan_/kuanzhuling-liujia-/ it says PATH NOT FOUND!

Great! Glad to hear that! :-)

Adorable! :-) I don't think she need toys. She is a swing! Weeeee! :-) hihi

Great picture! :-) Just a word of caution. This threads could tangle around her feet and she could panic and hurt herself if during the game she notices that her foot is stuck.