Everyday Miracles

I'm so sorry for your loss. Once, when I was a teenager, I took in a pet rat from a pet shop that had a respiratory infection. They're very common in rats and other small animals, and it's a death sentence most of the time. I took the little girl home (no charge to me) and made sure that her last three days were spent with somebody who loved her. At least that bird got to be loved in the last days of his life. It's so important for them, I think. Bless you!

Congratulations! He looks great!

I hadn't even thought of the volunteering angle. It would be a good option, and my heart isn't absolutely set on having a baby in the house. It's definitely something to consider, though I'll have to do the same search for a bird rescue. Our mammal rescues around here aren't even particularly ideal, to be honest with you. If I was wanting to rescue a cat, for example, I'd wait until we were visiting my parents in Ohio to do the rescue. Shipping isn't something I'm fond of. Our gliders were shipped from Florida (to Indiana) in November and the airline left them on the belt for nearly an hour because they were crabbing or some other issue. We watched while dogs were sent up to our owners, but no gliders. It was traumatic for us and for them and the dangers of doing that were immense. Continental is also one of the best companies to ship live animals, and it still wound up being a problem. So I won't be shipping. Worst case scenario, I travel to pick a bird up. I know I can trust me to get it home safely.

Ewww! I haven't even been thinking about the coatings, but now I guess I'm going to have to run through my house. Darnit! Anything that's bad for birds that way is bad for our sugar gliders too, who are especially sensitive to... everything. We're trying to make our kitchen Kosher so it might be a good time to buy all new stuff. Even my husband (who isn't Kosher) prefers non-coated everything, since it's purer anyway and I think the foods cooked on it taste better. BTW, I didn't know you had to be crazy to be a vegan I've thought about going raw (I'm not vegetarian but I'm considering a pescetarian diet and I love my fish raw) and I think that's taking crazy even one step further anyway

I hope I'm putting this in the right place. I wasn't sure if it didn't belong in the nursery. I'm excited. I finally got my husband's "okay" to start doing research to obtain an African Grey Parrot (I want a Congo). This is a big deal for me considering that I do research from anywhere between six months and ten years before obtaining a pet that is otherwise unfamiliar to me. It took me a year to decide I wanted a Rottweiler dog, even though we were specifically looking for a large guarding breed (if we were looking for something small, a Chihuahua might have done nicely), and after that there was all the research into what the breed standard was and what to expect when we brought her home. So although this will be my first bird, I'm not in a huge hurry. Just takin' my time here It was hard to decide what the first question should be to ask, and I worry that in asking about breeders, I'm going to get warned not to rush into something; I'm not. The reason I'm asking is because I like to develop a relationship with the person who is breeding my animal so that I have the opportunity to not only know more about the species with his or her help, but to get to know what their policies are and about their animals and line in particular. This is so important to me with intelligent animals (i.e. I didn't do that much "getting to know you" with my herps, which I picked up at a show). Although I don't really like this method, I did a quick web search for breeders in my state last night, and the results were too confusing and those that were actual "hits" were pet search engines (rather like pet finder but for breeders rather than rescues). I have no idea where to start! There is a bird store on the other side of town and I am sure that I could ask there, but pet stores seem to thrive on impulse buying. I took my sister to the pet store where we buy our dog food and she wanted to come home with a puppy mill beagle (I wouldn't support the store except that it's the only place that sells Taste of the Wild). I've seen it time and again, and I want to be able to look and observe without pressure. In short, I want a breeder, or even better, a breeder-mentor. How would I go about finding somebody who is responsible and reliable in my area? I'm looking to build a relationship, not just buy a bird.

What's interesting, I think, is that if I hadn't had the sugar gliders I don't know that I'd be prepared for bird mess. Nothing ever could have prepared me for the messiness of sugar gliders. They knock food out of their bowls all the time; they spit the shell of whatever they eat everywhere (the walls near their cage are stained purple from when I made the mistake of giving them blueberries). And there is a distinctive smell that I didn't anticipate until I owned them. The breeder warned us, and we purchased females for that reason (even neutered males have a stronger smelling urine than the females) but nothing really prepared me for what I was getting into. I'd never trade them for anything in the world. I love our little girls like crazy. But even fifteen years of research doesn't quite measure up to the real thing. Some things you have to experience for yourself. One of the reasons I'm intent on only one bird is that we don't have a particularly large house, and the floor plan leaves something to be desired. I'm going to need to set up a room for the gliders (or at least that's my plan) since their odor won't mix with the bird and the bird's dust won't mix with their lungs. The only concern that the (sugar glider) breeder had with us keeping gliders and a bird in the same house was predation, but I don't think that an African Grey is going to go hunting down our sugar gliders, who aren't loose in the house in the first place. (That was a tangent -- sorry.) We're looking at at least two large cages in the house and I need to increase the size of the glider cage to a good full-sized flight cage (try finding one with adequate bar spacing -- I'm still struggling to find what I want without going with CHEAP). I've done some reading over the past few days and am formulating some questions that I want to ask. I think that I'm going to start with housing since I'd like to have my husband build an aviary if at all possible. We'd been considering it with our snakes (not an aviary, but a decorative but functional reptarium), but we never got to the point of figuring out how to make the enclosures for the Burms lock. Our concern was that a visitor might think "Oooh! Pretty!" and try to handle the snakes or that someone looking after our pets in our absence might get foolish enough to try to open the enclosure without a spotter. Combination locks were the only way we could come up with. I suspect there are fewer logistical issues with an aviary

I've never gotten a bird bite, but all but two of my snakes bit me at one point. The two were both Burmese Pythons, and thank goodness they never got a bite in. Those guys have a TON of teeth. Yikes! When we first got our sugar gliders and they were joeys, Wotzit (only distinguishable because she's twice the size of Widget), bit me right on the knuckle. That had to have been one of the worst mammal bites I've ever had when properly handling the animal. I don't have a bird yet, but I expect I'll get bitten at some point!

I just wishlisted the book on Amazon. Recently I kind of burned out on animal books after making an attempt to read Homer's Odyssey. I have several more cat books and got through most of Marley and Me before I got distracted. I need to buckle down and start reading for pleasure again when I'm not doing school work. This seems like it might be a very worthwhile book. Any other bird memoirs you'd suggest? P.S. Falconry fascinates me. Birds of prey are amazing, but then I've always been naturally drawn toward predators. I feed my sugar gliders live prey (all insects) and have fed picky eating snakes live as well. The bond between these animals and their handlers (I'm not sure that you can ever truly own an animal that is at its heart wild) is amazing to me!

Well, keeping with the analogy, there is nothing wrong with keeping a Yellow Anaconda as a first snake (because the discussion was of a Yellow and not a Green -- the yellows are more dangerous, IME) provided that you've done your research. People used to ask me, when they'd see my corn snake (the smallest and least dangerous snake I owned at the time) and would ask me "does it bite?" My answer was always "if it has a mouth, it can bite and it probably will." My Rottweiler has bitten me. One of my sugar gliders can get really nasty if she's feeling particularly hormonal (she's prone to hormonal fits of temper). No matter how cute and cuddly the animal is, no matter how affectionate or well trained, chances are that at some point, you're going to get a bite. How bad the bite is depends on several factors, including your handling of the animal, the species and breed of the animal, and how you handle it when you do get bit. Thankfully my Burmese Python never bit me -- they have a ton of teeth and are very strong, not to mention enormous (one of the largest species of snakes in the world, and the largest snake ever in captivity was a Burmese Python). That being said, one of the things I learned most from herp ownership is that the animal which will get the best husbandry is the one that you most want. It sounds unfair, I'm sure, but if I were ever to get another snake (and I probably won't just because I don't know where I'd put the snake I really want), it wouldn't be another corn snake. I'd go straight for a Boa Constrictor (BCI) or a Burmese Python because that's what I want. And with a lot of research, I was able to make both species work very well for my family (though compared to the temperament of an African Grey parrot, they are relatively docile without a lot of work "taming" them. Besides, taming a snake is impossible. They lack the part of the brain that causes emotion, and an animal without emotions cannot be tamed). FWIW, I didn't just look at an African Grey and say "oh, pretty! I want that!" I'm not saying that you implied that I did but I've known a lot of people who make choices in pets that way. Heck, I own a Rottweiler, and that's a breed that commonly experiences problems with unprepared owners choosing a breed that can easily overpower them (and heck, I've known owners who aren't as smart as their dogs are. This is not a biddable breed, but at least they're intelligent about it!). I've gotten to know a few Greys, compared them to birds of other species that I like, and then said "I like the look and personality of the Grey, so that's the bird I want." That being said, I wouldn't be too disappointed if I "had" to start off with a Sun Conure They're beautiful birds, but those I've known were very ill bred. My concern is that I want to be able to give sufficient attention to the animals that I have. I want a bird to devote myself to. Anyway, when I get a slice of time I'm going to read through the thread that you gave me. I'm e-mailing it to myself since I use several computers at home. On that note, does anybody know of a very good social bookmarking site? I'm not happy with any of the ones I know of and Tagfoot closed recently (pretty upset about that!).

(Note: I write long intros. Apologies in advance and thanks in advance to anybody who reads through this entire thing!) Hi everyone. I am not a parrot owner, nor have I ever owned a parrot of any kind. I've always loved birds and in particular parrots, but although my parents allowed me to have many pets growing up, birds were simply never an option. My mother still doesn't particularly like birds. It's rather ironic considering that I've owned snakes, rats, mice, sugar gliders, turtles, cats and dogs throughout my entire life and that even when I was considering an exotic cat, my parents barely blinked. Mention a parrot, and it's as though I've declared that I've decided to join the army and put my life on the line. Now, I'm an adult. I don't have any reason to particularly care what my parents think. My mother had a small fit when we chose a Rottweiler as our family dog (and we did so for very good reasons, including the fact that we've had two robberies in the past seven years). Libby is about to turn a year old and my parents adore our puppy. She's a wonderful dog and they've learned a lot about her. I'm hoping that it might be the same thing if they got to know a parrot. And of course, I live in another state, so it's really none of their business unless we travel with the bird instead of having somebody to bird-sit (I prefer to travel with our pets, but I know that not all birds will tolerate it). I'm here to do some research. I remember when I got my first large snake (rehomed when I became pregnant due to the fact that the snake could have eaten my child -- and before anybody gets on me, snakes don't bond the way that intelligent creatures [such as birds or most mammals] do) that I was a member of a snake forum and there were some members who were jumping at buying an Anaconda as their first pet snake. I was right there amongst those who were saying "Are you CRAZY?!?" Now I write articles on choosing a pet snake, snake husbandry, etc, even though I no longer own any. I think that the research is important. You want to know what you're getting into. Maybe I sound like a contradiction in terms. I want my first bird to be an African Grey, an animal that is significantly more intelligent than, say, a parakeet. However, some years ago a breeder once told me that your first bird should always be the bird that you really want because that's the bird that you will bond with and the one that you're less likely to abandon due to lack of interest. Besides, I'll be honest; I don't want a house full of birds because I started with a cockatiel, then got a Sun Conure (the recommendation I've received in the distant past on a pet forum once upon a time). I want an African Grey. Not five or six birds of varying species. If that's what I wanted, I'd build an aviary (which still sounds rather nice, now that I think about it). The reason that I'm here is to learn as much as I can. When my husband and I purchased our sugar gliders, certain negatives of the species were downplayed in the research material I made available to myself (because I wasn't bright enough, apparently, to join Glider Central before obtaining the gliders -- long story). While I don't regret my decision, some precautions would have been nice to have had, such as information on staving off the fruit flies which tend to come with animals that eat massive amounts of fresh fruit and vegetables. In short, what I'm looking for now is the good, the bad, and the ugly of Grey ownership. I want book recommendations. I want personal anecdotes (which I'm sure I'll find plenty of on a site like this). I want to see pictures. I want to hear about rescues. I want to know about breeders. I want to know about compatibility with other pets (gliders and bird will be kept in separate rooms due to the general dust issues for the gliders and the odor issues for the bird. Or, on the flip side, I research for another twelve or so years before I get a bird. That's how long I researched sugar gliders!). I want to know about diet. I want to know about proper caging. I want to know about training. I want to know about toilet issues. Many of these questions can be answered by books and static websites, but I feel that when you lose the human touch on something like this you just aren't getting the whole picture. Anyway, that's it from me. Sorry for the massive introduction. It's pretty typical of me.