Wingy

It sounds like she is telling you quite a story. No matter what human words she uses she is relaxed and happy to have a chat.

Jake does not want poop in or on his cage. He will make a morning bomb only if I take him out and start walking him toward the play gym. I might make it 4 or 5 steps before he lets loose or he'll go on the play gym if I really hustle him there. He holds it all day until I get home and we repeat the same sequence as in the morning. I have tried not opening the door in the morning, putting the same color towel over the cage grate as is under his play gym, and coming home 2 hours late. Nothing has worked. I am usually home at roughly the same time every day but there are times when I can't be due to traffic, bad weather, meetings, etc and it bothers me to think he might only poop once is a 20 to 24 hour period. What can I do to encourage him to poop in his cage?

Hi Gabby I'm Jake. I bit my momma too. I got her between the arm pit and shoulder. I think my momma must have a rainbow inside her because first it turned red, then it turned purple and now its almost black and has some blue and red speckles. My momma says that I am big and brave. I yell at that loud machine and whistle when she hammers stuff. I'm not even scared when it thunders but I don't like when the wind makes the house shake. What did scare me was when momma let in a fly. Why did she do that? I know its coming to get me. Its going to try and carry me away I just know it. Momma tried to tell me that the killed it but I don't believe her. I'm going to stand guard just to make sure.

Something about it has me a bit weirded out. I hope that anyone who buys one posts some video and gives us some feed back. Jake will not let me touch his wings so the Aviator would be useless. He doesn't mind me touching his feet and legs so this might be an option.

Have you tried using a step up stick? Jake prefers a drum stick over a wood perch. I think is has something to do with the diameter being closer to that of my fingers.

Have you tried the cotton rope perches? Maybe put 2 together so they are side by side.

Jake has the play top and I removed the slide out tray on the top for more light. I have been thinking of putting a piece of plexiglass on there instead. Jake enjoys playing there. I've installed some shepherds hooks for dangling toys (or him playing acrobird). It just gives us one more option during play time.

When you talked about the cage she came with I pictured a tiny thing like you see at Wal-mart. With her age and not knowing how long she had that cage I would say that someone did care and tried to do right. Largish, sturdy cages were hard to come by and usually only found in specialty shops. If her old cage is in good shape structurally you might want to consider donating it to the woman that had all the Too's. If she can't use it she might know of an organization that can. The new cage is certainly a palace. I hope she likes it.

I would ask your avian vet. Mine checked for fit, rubbing, sharp spots and what not. After discussing the pros and cons with the vet I made the decision to leave it on. I check both the leg and band daily.

You messed with hours of birdie artwork and your surprised you got a chomp. lol.

I have heard TAGS are shyer as well but Jake certainly is not so that must be another thing that is specific to each bird. Nancy, you saw Jake in the baby tank. His personality hasn't changed much other than going from baby cries to a more grown up chattering. He still gets very excited and will go up, over or through if he sees something he wants and caution be darned.

Ask your vet for recommendations of others in case you run into an emergency. The pediatrician use to do this for me after we ran into trouble with a sick kid while traveling. (A small town pharmacy wouldn't accept an out of state doctor calling in a prescription for antibiotics.)

So take the bottle with the label removed and add your own paper label so they have their own to tear off. A little flour and water will make a glue that will stick the paper.

Skip the canned which can have added salt and or sweeteners. Frozen vegies are easy but be sure to check the label for salt. You could try a bag of stir fry vegies or a vegie blend and just pick out a few. Jake is a stinker when it comes to vegies but we have discovered that he likes his carrots cooked, his broccoli raw, sweet potato as dried strips and doesn't like anything that feels wet or cold.

I never knew what you meant about the Pterodactyl scream until today. Jake was on a tear flapping his heart out while holding his perch with a death grip and let out a scream. He scared himself doing it. Unfortunately I have heard the I'm hurting scream. He let one out when he was chipped and it about broke my heart.

Jake consistently weighed 290 grams at the shop for 3 weeks and I had the dates those weights were noted to give to the vet but fell to 267 during the week I brought him home. The vet said that losing up to 10% of body weight is normal during the first few weeks. I thought it was a bit much but he was busy exploring his new surroundings. We go back for a quick check in October.

So true. Jakes 3 favorite toys in order are his red plastic bead, a liberty bell with a piece of rawhide knotted at the top and a vine ball. There are others he likes but those are his favorites.

Daniel a few things. First, moving your hand quickly can and often will hurt more than it helps for 2 reasons. You can cause injury to your companion and your companion can and will bite out of fright which defeats the purpose. Creating a distraction or offering a foot toy so the beak is busy is easy and far safer. Second dominating doesn't build trust. Only time, patience, compassion and commitment builds trust. You will have a much happier companion and a much better relationship if it is give and take. Behaving with the attitude of "because I said so", unless it is an emergency, won't leave you with a loving and trusting relationship. The only way to have that is to earn it. There are no short cuts. Please think about your own personal relationships and about those that are the most important to you. Chances are they are not because you were dominated or fearful. I am sure not everyone will agree with me but in my heart this is what I believe.

This is exactly what I have wondered about myself. If you put me in a room with 6 non English speaking intelligent adults, with the task of getting the non English speakers to understand that I was hungry and thirsty we would have difficulty communicating and I would have to rely on body language, sounds and gestures to get my point across Now put a normal 6 year old in that same situation and I don't believe he/she would be successful.

Jake eats both flax and hemp seed from my hand. He thinks he is getting some kind of extra special treat.

I have to disagree with you. There is nothing worse than spending $20 on a toy that doesn't get touched. Destruction of a toy is a good thing and means you got it right.

I am not sure how far the similarities go between children and parrots, our Greys in particular, but what I do know is that I apply some of the things and techniques I learned as a parent into being a caregiver/paront/nurturer/teacher to Jake. Two of the biggest things I learned as a parent is first to put your expectations of others on a shelf and forget about them and second cheer each success on its own merit. IMHO if your constantly looking at the big picture you miss all the good bits in the middle and those bits are what make life so very sweet.

Jake here. Today I learned lessons, what ever those are. I heard my humans talking saying I learned about cause and effect (if I purposely drop all my toys off the playgym they land on the table and I can still get them but if I purposely drop my toys off the table they go on the floor and I'm not going there yet. Its big and scary down there.), balance and gravity (pushing my toys to the edge of the table then standing on them is bad because everything falls on the floor. For some reason I fall faster than the toys and they always seem to land on my head.), and under/over (I don't have to climb up the perch to get to the other side I can walk under it and I don't have to duck.). My humans turned on this thing that made noise and showed pictures. They call it the National Geographic channel. I liked most of it except for the snakes. Those were yucky. Then they put on something called olympic cycling. I liked the colors and the sound of cheering and whistling. I've had a busy morning so I think I'll take a nap now.

This morning I tried something different. Instead of mixing the seed with the pellets like usual I placed the seed in a separate crock on the table with the playgym which Jake has to work to reach while placing the pellets in the bowl next to his favorite perching spot (the difference is a space of 36 inches and down a perch to the table). Jake has gone back and forth between the two and even eaten a few pellets because he decided he didn't want to climb down for the seed. I don't believe in forcing pellets by withholding the preferred food but I don't have to mix them together either. Since it seems to be working I'm going to try something similar in his house by putting pellets only in his preferred bowl and the seed in the non preferred bowl on the opposite end instead of mixing them together like I have been. I'm still going to the store with the bulk food in hopes of finding a pellet that he loves and I'm going to keep working on the vegies. I feel like I'm playing the home game of "Are you smarter than a parrot?" lol.

This past week Jake had his vet visit. The vet called all the staff in to meet him because he was so friendly and having such a good time. I had a few concerns I wanted to discuss with her the biggest concern was that he refused to stand on a flat surface, any flat surface. After examining his feet and observing him on flat surfaces she could find no physical reason for the avoidance and suggested that my partner and I try and encourage him to walk on a table, his cage top, explore the arm/back of the sofa or on the floor. Jake has patiently allowed me to modify his tabletop play gym so he can not only get to the places that he likes better but can also get onto the table easier. Today we had a break through and I think he explored every inch of not only the play gym but the table too. His confidence is growing in leaps and bounds. OTOH I think he's given me a few more grey hairs from twisting himself into some very weird positions. The only big issue we are having now is eating. He is on a kick where he won't touch any food soft, wet, or that he has to hold. He is turning up his nose at pellets, cooked grains, nuts, fresh/dehydrated vegies and fruit. No matter what I offer all he'll eat is the seed in his bowl, unsalted pumpkin seeds that I pick out of his seed mix, dried pasta (similar to the Wacky Mac that Jayd has suggested in the past) and dried sweet potato strips (I counted the pellets as I put them in the bowl and between what was left in the bowl and what was on the cage floor the count matches so I know he isn't eating any of them). Today I called around and was able to locate a store that sells bulk pellets so Monday after work I'll go and get a little of every brand and size they have.