thenabrd

inky, welcome! you have found a wonderful place with tons and tons of information and advice! i have fibromyalgia, so i have good days and bad days. we have a dog named hermes, a peach front conure named athena and our newest addition is our cag, kalliope. she's been with us about 6 weeks now and she's a rehomed bird. we were lucky, her previous owner was a good person and loved her birds very much, so kallie at this point seems to have little to no "baggage". we both work full time. so our "zoo" is at home without us during the day. we leave the tv on, using various channels and sometimes even the radio in the kitchen. if for some reason we'd lose electricity during the day, the tv wouldn't come back on, but the radio will. our "zoo" hangs out in our living room, so they have each other for company. as far as my health, athena and hermes seem to know when i'm in more pain than usual. kallie is too new yet, but she'll learn i'm sure. they tend to be quieter, more gentle, and more content to just "hang out" instead of doing their usual activities. i'd be lost without them, especially when i'm not able to work for whatever reason. we had no pets at the time i was diagnosed, and i felt so alone during the day. getting hermes at that point was a blessing even though he was a puppy and needed training. but it was the training and attention he needed that got me to "remove" myself from what i was going through and to start "living" again.

i'm not in the u.k., but here in the u.s. those are put on the birds by the breeder. it doesn't necessarily indicate the sex of the bird, just an identification of where the bird was bred and by whom. both my birds have them and i've had to do dna testing to confirm the sex on both. i've been told the rings are also to "prove" the bird is captive bred, not wild captured. not sure if that part is true or not, but that's what i've heard over the years. hope this helps.

ok, i've got a banner set up, have the code and have tried adding it in my edit signature settings and it keeps giving me an "invalid file" page! what am i doing wrong? thanks for the he a later p.s. so i've got it showing on my settings, but its not showing on the posts. hmmm, still working on it but no luck yet. any help is appreciated, thanks ok last p.s.-they've finally started showing up! yea!! thanks

i don't know about blue crown conures, i have a peach front conure. but inside those little bodies, conures think they are the biggest birds ever created! they're bold and quite the character!! they're energetic little birds too, so lots of toys, all kinds of perches, and room to move around in a cage are important. i hope this helps!

i hadn't thought of that, thanks shelly. i'll have to see if any restaurants around here will do that! lol, birds, always trying to start "seeding" for the next forest no matter where they live, even when they're inside the house! kallie is the messy one for sure, athena, not as bad most of the time. plus, athena doesn't dunk her food, but kallie has discovered this lately! i don't mind, if that makes stuff taste better to her, but sometimes i feel like i'm changing her water all the time. i've thought of moving her water bowl to the other side of her cage from her food, but i don't know if that's a good thing to do or not. hahaha, quandaries, always quandaries!!!

you're welcome! i didn't put ground egg shells in this latest batch. it smelled good though, lol! i'm hoping if they like these 2 versions well enough that i'll slowly increase the amount of veggies until it's more veggie than corn bread. sometimes kallie likes the 1st version still frozen. the sweet potato ice cubes went over reasonably well too. i'll just keep trying and trying and keep my fingers crossed that they'll come around or i go broke from trying, hahaha

well athena our conure picked at it, but didn't make her happy squeak. kallie our grey looked at it like it was going to bite her back, lol!!! i'll keep giving them some over time and see if their opinion changes. they are just so veggie picky, lol!!!

ok, today i've made a new batch of birdie bread. this one has apple sauce, apple juice instead of milk, cornbread mix, cooked barley, jumbo millet seed, finely chopped red bell pepper, finely chopped collard and turnip greens, and green peas. we'll see how this one goes over, lol!!!

i forgot to mention even though we live in town, we have several hawks in our area. i've watched them take birds out from the trees, so i know they could get my birds off my shoulder easily. our birds are also fully flighted and not trained to a harness, but with the hawks, that wouldn't matter anyway. cage sizes are big enough that they can move around comfortably, flap their wings a bit if they want or stretch out, hold a food and water dish and a couple of small toys just in case they get tired of what's going on out there! they're tiel type cages. don't knock it until you've tried it, they really do love it. kallie will have to be introduced to this at her pace since she's never been outside, so we'll start with the porch (enclosed, windows on the front, screens on the sides) first. athena, she's the old pro at this. trust me, athena makes it quite obvious that she doesn't like being left inside when we're outside, we can hear her clear to the back of our yard, lol!!! besides, i just love to hear athena being her dinosaur self when she sees something that intrigues or amazes her, it's a sound i can't begin to copy, but it's very dinosaur!!

i use a smaller cage for our birds. this will be the 1st year to have 2 birds, so i will tell you about our conure's experience. she has her "mobile home" cage that we take her outside in, in nice weather. her "mobile home" includes the best in food, water and a couple of toys. she LOVES it! she gets to be with her flock (us and the dog), see and talk to the other birdies (although no other bird speaks athena but her), enjoy the sunshine and shade, enjoy the sounds of the outdoors. she really misses it when fall comes and its too cold to take her out. she shows no sign of "missing" the freedom of the wild birds. she was captive bred and has never known life in the wild. as we do stuff outside, we move her around with us so her views change. sometimes she's on a table under the umbrella, sometimes on a stump under the trees (then she thinks she's really in the trees). we do let her "sun" for short periods but usually not in the "heat" of the day, so that way she's getting her vitamin d. she sees things before us like jets way up in the sky and lets us know with her very dinosaurish sound of wonder and awe. i can't wait for our latest member of the flock to start experiencing these things!

my birds are picky when it comes to their veggies, so i'm going to try "sneaking" it into some birdie bread. it's worked so far with carrots, sweet potatoes, and beans. of course i sweetened it up with applesauce and apple bits, lol!! i offer the veggies we eat, whether raw or cooked, but for the most part it's been a no go

she's only 2 1/2 years old. she flutters her feathers and lifts one foot, then the other, reaching out. (she hasn't ever learned to step up and we've had her about a month now). so i let her grab my finger and try to get her to complete the step up but she runs away. she also puts her head down, almost like trying to do a tumble all the while making her baby noises and turning her head in all directions, sometimes for a rub and sometimes to mouth my fingers. if she does anything with her wings, she lifts them.

my peach front conure gets random "peach" feathers sometimes on her wings or around her eyes. depending on where they are i call them her freckles or beauty marks!

thanks! it is really cute when she does this and she sounds so much like a baby. her 1st owner was an elderly lady so i'm not sure where she heard these baby sounds, but it sure is cute and funny! i just hope she stays with the gentle mouthing of our fingers, lol!!!

kallie farts and burps!! when she first started burping, we'd laugh. but then she started talking in a burping voice, that was hilarious. we're also trying to get her to learn to say "excuse me", lol!! we think its funny and i'm sure the grandkids will too!!!

thanks! we'll keep doing what we're doing then! i just didn't want to misinterpret whatever it was she was trying to say/show us and lose her trust.

great pics!!! lol, pic #4 makes chili look like the great green eagle!!

get plenty of extra food/water bowls as well! trying to find them later could be a problem.

my peach front conure flirts with my husband quite a bit! she talks in a higher, softer kind of voice and lets him scratch her on her head, which i can't do at all. she plays with her toys in a different way, showing off and she makes a different kiss sound for him too. but let me come in the room or if she's out of her cage and i'm in the room, it's a whole different story. she "warns" him off with the "i'll bite you" lunge. at first he was confused but i explained to him, that in her little birdy thoughts, i'm her "mate" and she's protecting me from the "big, bad man", lol!!! our grey, well we've only had her for about a month, but she does this whole (i'm guessing at what the behavior actually is) "baby" thing with him, more so than she does with me. its cute and he's flattered.

kallie did the same thing!! she had this feather, was looking at it from all the angles she could turn it, then scratched her head with it. then she'd look at it again with the strangest look, it was a cross between, wow-this is really cool and hmmm-how does this work!!! lol

ok, we've had kallie now about 4 weeks. she's been vocal and outgoing the whole time. the last couple of times we've let her out of her cage, she's done this strange behavior. she's done this while on my husband and for me while on her cage. she makes these baby, almost human baby, sounding noises. while she's doing that, she's moving her head all around, some for scratches, some to gently mouth our fingers. she even rubs her beak very rapidly on our fingers. sometimes, she even puts one foot out, so i try to use this opportunity to ask her to step up. (she never learned that in her previous home) is she being a "baby" when she's doing this, or is this an out pouring of love and affection? i tell her "easy" and "gentle" and "good girl" whenever she's mouthing our fingers, hoping she'll understand that this is an acceptable pressure to use. i'm not scared by this behavior, just unsure of what she's trying to tell us. i what to "reply" or "answer" this correctly. thanks for any ideas or suggestions!

thanks, our conure climbs all over it, inside and out. our grey, she's a bit more cautious, but at least she'll get on it!

honey was an ok name, but there is nothing yellow or golden on a grey, lol!! i wanted to honor her 1st name with mellona or lona for short (a minor roman goddess for beekeeping and honey) but my husband really, really didn't like it. so i decided we'd wait on the dna results and start there. i hadn't been using lona with her yet, so there won't be that confusion. we'd already gone through the "think we have a girl and a couple of years later find out we really have a boy" thing and i didn't want to do that again. it gets confusing at the vet when the vet is saying he and i'm saying she, lol!!!! so athena is still athena, the "prettiest girl in the wholest world" (she likes saying that, hahaha) i guess every one needs a "confused" (for what ever reason) member in their family, so athena is ours, hahaha!!!

thanks! i also have a peach front conure named athena. she (is really a he but we found that out 2 years into having her, so he has remained a "she") is 8 years old. we also have a husky named hermes, he is 12 1/2 years old. kallie is 2 1/2 years old and we've had her 3 weeks now. her previous owner passed away, so that's how we came to have her. she is pretty outgoing from what i've read about greys and very vocal. she makes lots of sounds and is now starting to say words. congrats on your new baby!! i hope you get the girl you want!!

oh they like their yogurt, lol!!! thanks!!!