thenabrd

both our girls will have nights when they're just "not ready" to go nite nite, lol!! most nights when i tell them it's nite nite time, and start putting on the covers, they come over to where i am for a last bit of attention or a rub. then they'll go up to the place they like to roost for the night. but once in a while, just like young kids, they're not ready. they'll keep or start playing, talking, moving around, etc. they'll peak out from the edges of their cover, sometimes they'll even start munching on their pellets, etc. we leave one side of their cages uncovered at night, just in case they get spooked by something so they can see better, the room isn't in total darkness either, but has very low level light.

kallie has one that she likes to bang around. it's tied with a leather strap and hangs in her cage. its a toy that i take out and put back in. i just keep an eye on it to make sure there aren't any long threads hanging off of it. she doesn't chew on it at this point, just likes hanging from it or pushes it around to "shadow box" it! athena has had some in the past, but really never paid them any attention.

if you think it's bad enough, could you report them anonymously to a local animal/bird agency to investigate? just a thought.

i know over preening and plucking are heart breaking!! i have that issue with my girls. they both check out just fine at the vet (they go twice a year for check ups), they have lots of toys and interaction, they're fed the best we can do for them. they get baths and this time of year we run a humidifier. yet, they continue to over preen and pluck!! one of the most important things you can not do is let the bird know how this is stressing you out!!!!!!! this will only add to the problem. i've had to come to the realization, whether i like it or not, that my girls are going to do this. i've even tried meds for athena in years past with little change, so i won't waste my money with it again. so we go through times where athena runs around in her grey underwear (the down on her chest) instead of having on her beautiful bright green shirt and kallie refuses to wear a turtle neck (she worries the feathers at her neck). i hate it, but this has been the way i keep my stress about this away from them.

good question but i don't know! i know athena has always been a non-confident flyer. she's afraid when she's flying (no idea why) and will say every word she knows in a super rapid fire way while she's flying! kallie's still learning the finer points. right now kallie's content with landing on our heads, the back of the recliner or the top of her cage, lol! all short "hops". one of the reasons we've not had the girls out together in the same room or level of the house at the same time, is the flying issue. if athena ever becomes a more confident flyer, then we'll try, but right now, she'd never be able to get away. kallie is huge compared to athena 75 grams vs 405 grams just in weight!!

at the pet store i worked at years ago we had a newly weaned b/g macaw. at the end of the day, with the store closed, i'd get him out of his cage. i'd hold him up over my head (with both hands, he was a big bird) and gently "bounce" him. he'd flap his wings, so i'd gently "bounce" him again. then i'd start walking through the store with him held high up in the air above me. he'd flap and flap, having a blast. the whole time i'd be saying "you're flying". it didn't take long for him to just start flapping, with no gentle bounce to get him started. i wasn't there long enough to get him comfortable enough to let go of my fingers to really fly, but he seemed to be well on his way!

it just may be the green bottles remind him of something from his past. is it just green bottles, or anything green? i know birds can see in the spectrums we can't, so maybe the lotion made your skin "look" different to him?! athena has an issue with my hands, she has a "favorite" and will attack her non favorite hand at times, especially if she sees both hands closer together than she thinks they should be. lol, she's my little nut sometimes!! so when she's in one of those moods, we try to keep the offending hand out of sight or far away from the favorite hand. athena also gets very excited if she happens to be out with us and we have food or a drink, and in her excitement and rush to get some, she bites. sometimes, whether the girls are out with us or we're sharing with them while they're in their cages, they're just so excited and in a hurry they bite our fingers. i know we're talking birds here, but we had a husky mix rescue that was 1 year old when we got her. she had lots of issues, most of which over time we were able to ease her through. the strangest one was her absolute terror of oranges or any citrus fruit!!! we had no idea this was an issue for her until the first time my husband started peeling an orange to eat. she leaped up, the hair down her back raised, tail tightly tucked under her belly and literally fled the room and hid!!!! we never figured out why she had this fear. it could be that her previous owners threw oranges at her to make her "mind", who knows! however, in time, she was able to learn that she was "safe" from citrus fruit. she finally got to where she wouldn't leave the room, but would watch my husband intently, in a state of alert, just in case she needed to run and hide. it was the strangest behavior i've ever seen!!

eshana, sorry about your condition! i agree with you, the dogs and birds we've had through the years were/are attuned to us very much. it hasn't mattered if we've had a cold, the flu, my fibromyalgia is acting up, we're having a sad day, etc, they've almost always seemed to know and are "different" during those times. they might be quieter, play with their toys and entertain themselves better, are more gentle and loving, etc. i'll tell them mommy or daddy is having a sad day, or doesn't feel good and they seem to understand.

wingy, sorry to hear about your hands! i have similar problems with mine! hopefully your baby will enjoy taking baths, but if not and you have to use a spray bottle, then this works great for me. i've found a spray bottle that you "pump" up pressure in, so that you can just pull the trigger for a mist of water (short spurts or continuous stream). i'd tried the regular kind of spray bottles, but they just tore up my hands with all the constant trigger pulling. i found the one i use in the plant department at lowes.

i've even asked my neighbor lady for hers when she's done with them. the girls can buzz saw through the books pretty quickly when they want to!! when i run out of books, i fold up newspaper and put it through the bars for them to play with. they both have wood to chew up in their cages, but they don't go after the wood like they do the paper. oh well, as long as they're having a good time, i'm happy!!

i'd love to get pics and video of both the girls antics. but i swear, they have camera "radar" or something. the minute i put my phone on camera or video setting, they promptly stop whatever they're doing or saying and go quiet and still, lol!! i've tried just holding my phone like i'm using the camera or video function, but they somehow see through that and keep going. i'll continue to hold it up and put it on camera mode and wham, the minute the camera function comes up, they stop. i'm going to have to check into a nanny cam or spy cam or something one of these days!! they're just toooooo smart for their own britches sometimes!

thanks dan! i couldn't use an apple if i wanted to, the girls take their apples very seriously!! they grab their piece, run to the highest point they can in their cage and happily devour every last molecule, lol!!!! they're magicians when it comes to apples, they make them disappear.

kallie must be going through her "scientist" stage, lol!! she has discovered gravity!! currently she's having a blast with a phone book placed on top of her cage. she likes to take pieces of the pages, play with them, wave them around then drop them, while watching intently. today, she's figured out how to get whole pages through the bars to play with, wave around then watch float to the bottom of her cage or land on her boing. sometimes she'll hang upside down from the top of her cage holding on with one foot, large phone book page in the other foot doing battle with it, hahahaha! another discovery is that the phone book makes a big boom when she works it off the edge and it hits the floor! the funny part is the way she looks at the book on the floor, as if she's wondering why it won't just fly back up to the top of her cage. athena, not to be out done, has become a confetti maker with her phone book as well as a "designer". she'll work diligently making confetti going from the middle of the phone book outward leaving a large semi circular hole. we'll put some of those pages through the opening in the top of her cage to hang down inside. she likes to perch in the "hole" she has so carefully designed. i know she really enjoys confetti making because she makes her little contended beeps and squeaks while she's working at it, hahaha!! then she'll decide she's had enough of the "perch" and work to "disconnect" all of the pages on one side to create "curtains" which she likes to hide in, especially at bed time. she'll stay very still and quiet "hiding" in her "curtains" probably thinking to herself that if i don't see her, it won't be bed time, lol!! (like a child thinking if i can't see you hiding while under a blanket standing in the middle of the room, then you can't see me)

welcome to this great forum!! we're in the middle of ohio, below the snow belt, above the rain belt!! i've decided we're in the ice belt, lol!! so far this season its been chilly and wet, we just broke the annual precip record here yesterday! but then again, this is ohio, wait 15 minutes or so and it's bound to change!!! also keep in mind, folks around here don't remember how to drive in any of the weather we get here, not just from one year to the next, but from event to event, hahahahaha!!!! (the rush hour traffic reports can be almost funny if you're not stuck in it whenever there is "weather" happening)

kallie hates her baths as well, but i'm plugging away at it. i use half water, half aloe vera juice (human consumption kind at walmart pharmacy) to help with any itchiness or dry skin. i run a humidifier this time of year too. kallie seems to be coming around. she used to shake and "pout" and be quiet for hours after a spray. now she'll find a spot and "endure" it after a few minutes so i can really get her soaked. i've started spraying myself before i spray her to show her its not scary, but lots of fun. she'll start moving around and talking much quicker now, usually she's back to herself within the hour, instead of the hours of the silent treatment in the past! i use a spray bottle that can make a fine mist and pumps up so that i can have a steady spray, it's much easier on my hands as well. i found it in the gardening section at lowes. kallie has lunged at the nozzle, so i'm hoping she's now blaming the nozzle instead of me, lol!! now the big "problem" i have to fix is my husband!! kallie thinks he's the one for her, but he was more freaked out when i showed him how to give her a spray bath than she was, hahahaha!!

i had an octagonal cage for athena for a while. the doors were way too small, it was impossible to get outside for a good cleaning, it had a roof so we had to drill holes to put dowels through to be able to hang toys/swing from, and the bottom tray shapes were a pain to fit paper into. it'd have been great for a flock of budgies or finches, but for taking care of a parrot, not so much. i have it outside now as an ornament. we carefully cut an area out (we wire the section back on so no wild birds or critters can get stuck inside) so i can put a potted plant in it for the summer here. it's really cute!

thanks talon for the tidbit!! athena likes to latch on and "grind" her bottom beak sometimes. i'll have to try this to see if it works on her before i sport the latest in weird wound shapes again, lol!!!

can you check with your local avian vet to see if they board or if one of their staff can come to your house to bird sit? do you have pet sitting services in your area? would any of your friends take turns bird sitting for you? if it was me, i'd be looking at all alternatives before making a decision to clip him or to have him isolated if not clipped.

i may be wrong, i don't have a year yet with kallie to know for sure, but i'm thinking its a grey thing. athena is soooo different. she'll rub her beak on a finger, but only if she wants to. sometimes she'll let me "grab" her beak and play "get you". as for "touching" things like kallie does, athena just does her grab and dash or grab and eat like she hasn't had food in a year, lol!!! she's too eager (sometimes greedy, hehehe) to take the time for "touching" like kallie does.

we've noticed that kallie "touches" things we give her with her beak before she takes it from us, whether its food or a toy. she bows her head and touches with the center of the ridge of her beak and very slightly lifts her head while her beak is still touching whatever the item is. i don't know if she "feels" it, or if its a "sound" she hears when she touches an item, or what. it makes me laugh though! it's like watching the old "everybody loves raymond" tv series when the brother would touch everything to his chin before he'd eat it. lol!!

i like the big pictures!!! really shows motion and how much fun he's having! we tried a pan similar to that in kallie's cage, but she was having none of it, lol!! we'll just keep working at it and hope that someday she'll have a light bulb moment. i do try to explain to her that we're only doing this because we love her and it will help her feel less itchy. she watches athena intently whenever athena is taking a bath in her water dish, all the while athena is saying "take a bath, take a bath". once in a great while kallie will then go and splash around in her water dish, so we make a big deal about the good job she's doing taking a "splash, splash bath". oh well, someday, lol!!!!!!

when we rehomed kallie, i took pictures of where the items in her cage were located so that we could duplicate it once we got her cage to our house. i figured it would be more comforting for her to at least have her own personal space as familiar as possible while she adjusted to all the new sights and sounds with us.

hahahah!!! that might work. i don't have that ability, bummer! kallie started making a few r2d2 sounds after having the movies on the tv over thanksgiving weekend. we saw her watching the movies intently at times. so now when she makes the few sounds that she picked up i'll say good job or wow, that's r2d2! good luck!!!!

thanks nancy! i'm planning on my husband still doing this at times, but he was rather unsettled by kallie's reaction to him spraying her. sooooo now i've got to "train" him as well, lol!!!!

kallie's name when we got her was honey. so we used honey and kallie together and slowly started dropping off the name honey. she now knows her name is kallie and will say hi kallie, kallie good girl, etc. (she's only 3 years old and for a while we were all called kallie, hahaha) but i won't be surprised if someday down the road, her old name will come out on occasion. i'm sure she has it in there some place in that way too smart little brain of hers lol!!!