GT_Jacket

"Think one of the toughest days was walking in snow up to my crotch 500 ft. to the barn, shoveling open the door (Mich. blizzard -15 degrees) to feed the animals at 4am..." See if you lived down South that would have been up hill both ways to the barn and you would have been barefoot....

"Also want to have a "collection" of oddities in the yard, such as random hubcaps, and windmills ect made out of coke cans LOL" Come on... you are from the south - throw in a couple of pink flamingos, tractor tires as planters and a couch on the front porch.

I would recommend giving Harrisons High Potency Fine a try for the training "treat". It is a perfect size and if they like it they can eat as much of it as they want...

http://www.kingscages.com/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductID=ATM2029 Expensive and Heavy... but this is the travel cage we bought and love it. We just did a 9 day trip over holidays and Echo did great in it. Couple possibly double as a sleep cage too...

Sorry for the confusion - I was trying to answer this question - "How do you give your grey palm oil?" I give Echo palm oil in his birdy bread. The bread I use is Harrisons and I make it w/ the RPO instead of veg oil. I also feed Harrison HP Coarse pellets.

Sorry - Harrisons Bridy Bread. The ingredients are mainly ground up Harrisons food (which is what I feed).

I use it to make birdie bread (Harrisons - it appears to be mostly their food ground up).

I think your brother should shave a patch off while he is sleeping... then he will need to finish it

I don't FB but I sent to my wife and asked her to "like" from both her and my daughters accounts...

Is he eating the Pretty Bird food? Also, "when he "beaks" your finger he thrusts his neck up and down like a baby being fed by its mother!" this usually means he is trying to regurgitate his food for you... which is a sign of affection.

I don't think the weight itself is that important but more the stability of it. My vet said he had seen some "big boned" CAGs pushing 550. I have a gram scale but just need to get in the habbit of using it...

I has been a while since I posted. Echo is still doing GreyT. His is almost 8 months old and I have had him almost 5 months. I took him to the vet the 1st time at around 6 months and he did great. 400grams, good muscle tone, beak, talons, etc. After all the poking and proding he jumped right back on my hand like nothing happened. He is partial to me but will let my wife interact with him when I'm not around. My daughter, well not so much but we are working on it. He loves taking a shower with me and eats well. His fav is the various sprouts I grow for him. I even found a kale green sprout. We took him with us on a trip over Thanksgiving. I got the Kings larger travel cage and he did great. 5hr car ride each way and 3 days there. This was a test for taking him on a longer one over Christmas. Happy holidays to all - Brett

Do you know what you are teaching them to say in R2R2 sounds? My want to try this so you will know http://www.r2d2translator.com/

My guy did not care too much for misting over the sink (I didn't want to soak the cage) but loves taking a shower with me. I have a perch in there and use one of the sport misters that you pump up (very fine mist). He loves it...

Tias, you may want to look into sprouting. It is easy and inexpensive (even for 100% organic). It is a way to make the most of the seeds nutritional potential. http://www.bestbirdfoodever.com/index.php/2010/07/29/why-feed-sprouts/ This is a great starter kit: http://sproutpeople.org/birdkit.html My guy gets a dish every night and loves them...

I believe RPO is often recommended over other oils because it is a large part of a greys natural diet in the wild.

I recently tore down my reef setup after 10+ years (90 Gal). I decided I wanted to dedicate my free $$$ and time to my new CAG. Amazingly, I don't miss it at all. I had great success with fish, shrimp, crabs, star fish, etc. Moderate success with corals. Two things I would stess getting due to stability being the key - 1) Really really good skimmer 2) Dosing pumps for Calcium and Alkalinity additions Bulk Reef Supply was one of my fav online stores - Brett Brett

We are coming up on our 1st Winter with Echo. What is a safe tempurature to let our house get to at night? His cage is covered if that makes a difference. Thanks, Brett

For those that feed peas, green beans, etc - I would recommend looking into sprouts. It is really easy and my guy loves them. Sprouter - http://sproutpeople.org/supply/sprouters/easysprout.html Seed - http://sproutpeople.org/birddr.html I've read the nutritional value is enhanced over feeding raw. I have 2 x Easy Sprouters so I constantly make in small/fresh batches. I use a few drops of GSE in the 1st soak cycle to help clean the batch. Brett

Doug, "and give her pellets in the evening."... I would recommend leaving the pellets in the cage 24x7. I also use Harrisons High Potency Coarse. Homemade "chop" (frozen), Goldenfeast Bean Supreme and fresh sprouts make up the bulk of my guys diet. Brett

My guy really likes http://www.gourmetparrot.com/bean-supreme.html. I mix it in his "chop" in the morning. I also use these from the same mfg for treats along with Harrisons HP coarse... http://www.gourmetparrot.com/caribbean-bounty.html http://www.gourmetparrot.com/goldenob.html

Bump... I'd like to know too. Thanks

We have a female black lab that is still very hyper (~1.5 years old). I know she has a taste for birds because she has caught and killed probably 1/2 dozen in our back yard. We have a baby fence up around Echo's cage and always have the dog locked outside or crated or on a leash when Echo is out. I hope with time we can get to just supervising them together but I'm not sure we ever will. It is a pain because Bella (the lab) does not like not having the freedom she was accustomed to when the bird was not around. Brett

Welcome and thanks for the info. I did not know you could DNA test the egg shell. I just did an April->July waiting game. Plenty of time to read and plan. Brett

My sister has a dog named Hubble. I think that would be a cool/simple bird name. I went with Echo and somebody was trying to remember his name the other day and said how is Rerun.... probably only fitting if you really liked the TV show What's Happening from the 70's.