thenabrd

well darn, i'm not peter pan after all!

our girls cages are on either side of the large window in our living room. the front porch is there as well, so they have some "protection" in their minds. we have a middle school just across the street, we're along the side of it, not the front. athena has always liked looking out the windows and makes her sounds of wonder and amazement whenever she sees something that interests her. she also goes into alarm bird mode with some of what she sees. kallie enjoys watching out the window as well and once in a while will wolf whistle, say wow or make some other acknowledgement of what she sees. she's not a big talker, but does let us know her moods/interests as best as she can. the school buses intrigue her very much-sometimes i think she thinks the buses are "eating" the kids in the afternoon, hahahahaha!!! that said, on windy days or if big storms are coming, i leave the sheer curtains closed. we do have flags that hang from our front porch, all of which flap like crazy in a strong wind and that seems to make the girls nervous if the sheers aren't closed. i think the sheers let them feel there's an added layer of "protection" between them and the world. every night i'll tell them i'm closing the curtains. i try to remember to tell them when i'm opening the curtains in the mornings, but if the coffee hasn't hit yet, i usually forget, lol!!! i also sometimes do not open the curtains wide open, but leave them open slightly, depending on the weather, as well. i just use a combination of things - sheers left closed, curtain wide open/slightly open, sheers open, etc. there are days though, that if the girls seem nervous for no reason i can figure out, i'll make adjustments as well.

lol, flutter wasn't really the correct word (still waiting for the coffee to kick in), but yeah, holding wings slightly away from body, possibly leaning forward a bit, making a noise, following your every move. if that's what he's doing, i really do think he's doing the "i'm a baby bird" behavior. like i said, sometimes our girls do this and they're not babies-athena is almost 10 years old and kallie is 4 years old, but they still do this sometimes!! its very cute. but still, wait and see what more experienced members have to say, i could be very, very wrong!!!

sounds like he loves you! it sounds like he's doing the "baby" bird thing, making a sound, "fluttering" the wings-kind of like "i'm a baby, you're my parent, look at me, take care of me, pay attention to me cause i love you". our girls still do this on occasion when they see us or if we have something in our hands that they want. but i'm no expert, so please wait and see what others with more experience have to say!

we have 2 birds and i don't let them out at the same time-ever! athena has never been a good flyer, for some reason it terrifies her. this is the biggest reason i have them out 1 at a time. kallie is the better flyer and much, much bigger than athena, so my fear is athena would not be able to get away to safety as well as she could if she was a better flyer. (think hawk vs sparrow when comparing flying ability, that's pretty much what we have) athena might think she's the biggest bird ever created in any universe, but, kallie is very "interested" in athena. i dont know if she thinks athena is another bird, a moving toy or what, but she watches her intently! i have to watch kallie to make sure she doesn't get on athena's cage when she's out because athena would of course "defend" her home, but kallie's beak would still reach athena through the bars!!

our grey kallie is a rehome. we got her cage as well. i took pictures of the cage from different angles so that we could put her things back in as close as possible to what they were once we got the cage to our house. i thought that doing this would help make the transition a little less stressful since she'd have all her stuff in the places she knew and was comfortable with.

is right/left footedness determined by how they play or how the relax on one foot?

kallie is almost 4 years old and athena is 9 1/2 years old!

well i went with this one and it should be delivered sometime next week. i had kallie in for her regular check up today and discussed this with the vet. he said to make sure it runs on the lowest setting and said having this was a good thing (he has a small one that he showed me in the exam room that he runs on occasion throughout the day), which i will do. Ionic Pro - Turbo Ionic Air Purifier w/Germicidal Chamber/Oxygen Filter thanks everyone for your suggestions and advice!!

an exhaust fan would be the perfect solution, except that the birds are in the living room with us. i don't have any unused rooms for a bird room, plus the living room is where we can all spend the most time together. we've talked about switching the living room into the dining room and vice versa, and leaving the girls in the "new" dining room, since that's in the front of the house and they're able to look out the big window on the front porch. they'd still be able to see us and hear us if we did this. but at this point its just a thought. kallie's dust has been really bad this year compared to last year, so that's the biggest cause for my looking into air cleaners. this year i'd have to dust 5 times a day with the amount she's putting off. to see if i can help this situation, i've put up the humidifier this morning, much earlier than i did last year. time will tell!! i figured that besides no additional costs for filters, an electrostatic might work similar (or as well, lol) to our tv and stereo equipment in attracting the dust, lol!!!

this is another i've found that i'm checking into Ionic Pro - Turbo Ionic Air Purifier w/Germicidal Chamber/Oxygen Filter it says it turns smog and ozone into oxygen and i could care less about the germicidal chamber!! i'm still trying to research this. i'm just not in a position to keep buying filters, that's the biggest problem, i just don't have money to do that!! that's why i'm trying to be so careful making this decision.

we do use a humidifier starting in the fall. but for some reason this year, the dust has been much heavier this summer than ever, so that's the reason i'm looking at air cleaners. this is the one i'm looking at currently crane co ee 8072 air purifier and i'm not finding anything about ozone, which is good, but it does do a hyper ionic field (their words) so i don't know if that's bad for them. i would put it near the girls cages. i'd have to figure out the best layout for the humidifier and this, lol!!

ok, so i've tried searching this but so far this is the only thread i got, sorry if this is the millionth time this has been asked but..... i've started the process of looking at electrostatic air cleaners. my budget is rather tight and i don't want to have to buy filters again and again so this is why i'm looking at the electrostatic units. i'd rather pay a bit more now than spend much more over the life time of a unit on filters. some units say ozone, some say negative ions, some say "active oxygen" or o3 converting to o2, some say ionizing, etc so you can see where my confusion is coming from. for the life of me, i've read threads here regarding these issues but can't remember if ozone is bad, ions are good or if its the reverse and so on. so i'd really, really appreciate advice on what is on the "no no" list with these things. many thanks in advance for any advice and again i apologize for this being the millionth time this has been asked!

i know what you mean!! i am positive my daddy is cheating on me with another bird either named work or someplace he calls work and that's where the other bird lives. i don't like this work, it keeps daddy from being here to adore me and pay attention to me at all times. daddy and mom went away for a couple of days and we had an ellen come over a few times each day. she's nice, but she's not daddy or mom. i forget to be mad at daddy cuz he's my ultra special super duper person, but i do remember to be mad at mom!! i always make sure i try to sneak bite her for at least 2 days after she's been gone over night. but she's fast, so i haven't had any success in truly showing her how mad i really am at her! but i'll get her one of these days, yes i will!! kallie, you've got to stop trying to sneak bite mommy!! she loves you, silly nut! i keep telling you it was her idea to bring you home and dad just went along with her cuz he knew how much she'd been wanting and waiting for a big grey silly nut like you. if it'd been up to me, i'd be an only bird still. she was sooooo excited about you, but when you got here, you just had to decide dad was your person! mommy was sad but guess what, she still loves you anyway! oh well, more mommy for me, hehehe!! oh and since you outed me for my special "head in my bell i love being a conure" time, i'm returning the "favor". hey everybody, kallie wants to put her head in a bell and pretend she's a conure!!!!! nee ner nee ner nee ner!!! but she can't cuz her bells are tubes so she can't take out the swingy thing that makes all the fabulous noise, so she's stuck with those skinny tube bell wanna be's and can't even get her beak in them!! hahahaha!!!! you look so silly with that tube resting on your head or neck and looking around to see if anyone's watching you, hahahahahaha!!!

both our girls pluck. they get check ups 2x's a year and so far are as healthy as can be. i have tried many things, medication from the vet, more misting with water and/or aloe juice (however, they both hate being misted and it sometimes creates more stress than i'd like, so i have mixed feelings about this. they both like to take baths in their water bowls, athena several times a week, kallie maybe once a month), more toys/shreddables, more sun outside when possible, etc. yet they still pluck. so this is how i approach the problem. athena is our little redneck. she likes to run around in her grey underwear more than she likes to wear her pretty green shirt (she plucks her green chest/belly feathers leaving the grey down and has periods where she stops plucking and gets all the green feathers back). kallie is our little fashionista, she doesn't like to wear a turtle neck and likes to show off her belly button (she plucks an area on her neck and a area on her belly where a belly button would be if she had one). i know this is weird, but this is the way i have to look at it so i don't get stressed out by it and they don't get stressed out about my stress. i hope this helps.