Wingy

I would love to get some additional ideas. I didn't think sand would work and wood shavings would fly around to easily. Timothy hay might work and is easy to find in the stores.

I am so glad you brought up meal worms. I have considered offering some live ones to Jake as part of a forage experience. My thought was to put some plain clay kitty litter on a sheet pan along with a few worms and dry grasses with seed heads and let him have at it. He does enjoy working for his food. I just don't know how fast those worms can move. How likely are they to escape? I have seen the freeze dried meal worms but I don't think they would be as stimulating as something that is moving OTOH I don't want worms squiggling in the carpet either.

Clearly I am doing something wrong. Jake does not make much of a mess with poms.

So the hard anodized Calphalon is a good one? I like the enamel coated cast iron soup pot and flying pans but detest it as a sauce pan. I have held on to my tefon one and just use it with the kitchen closed off an on very low. I make a sauce out of cream, grated cheese and eggs ***and let me tell you clean up is either a disaster or the stuff over heats because the pan is either to thin or holds to much heat hence the reason why I have kept that lone sauce pan. For those of you who can just hear your arteries hardening from my sauce I also add in sauteed chopped bacon, grease and all.

Hugs and well wishes for you all. I hope you will come out on the other side with an even stronger family bond.

Why is it that our birds fly to us from their cage top, do the wiggle and squat, and then hop off? I would think it would be easier to fly if they dropped their cargo before the initial take off.

Jake is allowed 1 peanut at nite nite time and I say this each time he demands a peanut. Yesterday afternoon he climbed onto his door and yelled go nite nite, want peanut and closed his eyes. The little stinker was trying to cajole a peanut out of me by pretending he was going to sleep for the night.

That is completely understandable. I did a quick search based on the location you have under your picture and came up with Jungle Junction. http://www.junglejunction.com/ Supposedly they carry a wide range of cages. At the very least you hopefully can come away with some ideas on styles and manufacturers.

Of course Gilbert didn't want to come out he had the comfortable security of his cage and he had your loving touch all in the same place. It was like you getting a back rub from hubby while laying in bed. If hubby all of a sudden grabbed your hand and tried to coax you into the living room you would tell him to either rub your back right there or get lost. All joking aside when Jake is startled by the horn of the fire trucks he often wants the security of his cage top and will become very aggressive if I try and remove him. I think they look to the safety of their "nest" as part of their danger danger fight or flight instinct. That Gilbert let you love on him is huge. Jake would have turned my fingers into mince meat.

I try to stay out of the garbage but enough is enough. The finger pointing and all this petty negativity has got to stop. Does it make any birds life better? Isn't that what we are here for? I am using my best Mom voice here and have my pointer finger out so listen up. We are a flock, sometimes a very dysfunctional flock but a flock none the less, trying to do our best to give our feathered companions a shot at a long, happy and healthy life. We do that by bouncing ideas off of each other and by discussing our own personal successes and failures. The old ways and the new ways are all ways and deserve equal voice and consideration. I am going to say this again because I feel it is important The old ways and the new ways are all ways and deserve equal voice and consideration. Goodness knows that aside from some food and safety concerns, nothing about our Greys is one size fits all. If it was there would no need for this forum and we could just all buy the book. I am here to learn from you, laugh with you, cheer you on, cry with you and pray with you. Sometimes I can offer a piece of advice or share something but more often than not I leave having gotten far more than I could ever give. This is my opinion and everyone is free to agree or disagree in whole or in part.

My guy has been just what I needed to fill the gap when my kidlet left home. He has the undivided attention of my partner and myself. He is such a part of our lives now that I don't even care to add another bird to our family. Jake wants to be with or on us so much that when my kidlets quaker comes for a visit my partner and I are hard pressed to give each bird (both are onlies) the love and attention they ask for.

Seeing that would scare the crap out of me. I would be on the phone making arrangements to meet my vet at the animal hospital. I am very lucky to have an avian vet who is not only on call but also does shifts on nights/weekends at the animal hospital.

Dave, what no sauce or cannoli to go with the wine?

If it is just on the pull out tray you can either try replacing the tray or if your cage has a grate you could have a new tray made from the specs of your current one. At the very least you can clean it well and cover the spots.

I do not know if it is routine but at the beginning of our first vet visit Jake was scanned to check for a chip. Excellent point about the database company and I hope now that there is something in place for another to take over database maintenance considering how many people are having their companions chipped. That is something I have to ask the vet about. I do know that all the animal shelters are suppose to have a reader and scan every animal that is brought in but I do not know if rescues, especially the smaller or specialty ones, do it as a matter of routine. I do think that at some point chipping will be required and eventually replace bands all together.

Jakes arguments with me surround his demand for pork chops or peanuts so I do win that initial argument but since I usually offer something else I am left to wonder if I have been hoodwinked.

Just wait until you get into an argument with Escher and your left wondering if you won or lost.

Any bird that has not learned "outside of cage" is not going to know what to do. This is true for babies and olders. When I brought Jake home we spent many hours and days just teaching him how to climb on rope perches. His currency was safflower seeds and I would line them up along the rope. After that we worked on climbing up and then exploring the cage top. So start small with a perch near or even on the door with a food bowl and a toy bowl. As he gets comfortable add additional perches on the outside of the cage that he can reach with a step and place that extra food bowl at farther and farther intervals. To get him back into the cage do the opposite and place a beloved treat in the cage while he is watching you. Something to keep in mind is to play relaxing music that doesn't have any startle moments to freak him out. I bet slowly he will start to come out and explore.

She probably won't let you touch it. Do not hesitate to call the vets emergency number if you don't like the way she is acting.

Nancy go to the Asian market up the street from BU and pick up a package of wooden chopsticks wrapped individually in paper. They are great inexpensive chewies. (When you pull out of the parking lot at BU turn right. The street address is 2007.)

I had Jake chipped. I did it for two reasons. The first reason is obvious, to have him returned home if he is ever lost or stolen but the second reason was to establish his identity, age and citizenship. There is no telling what future laws may be regarding our greys but they are an endangered species and face ever changing rules. The chip is tied not only to Jake and I but also to the vet and all his paperwork which includes the shop he came from and all the information required by this state.

No I don't think they are tattered any more. I like to think they are emerging like a flower, one petal at a time. Here is the definition of tattered according to Miriam Webster. 1 : wearing ragged clothes <a tattered barefoot boy> 2 : torn into shreds : ragged <a tattered flag> 3 a : broken down : dilapidated <decaying houses along tattered paved streets — P. B. Martin> b : being in a shattered condition <led their tattered party to victory> That may have fit the Gilbert of the past but does not fit the Gilbert of the present.

My Wendys has paper wrapped wooden coffee stirs near the condiments and drinking straws. Jake doesn't care for them as much as the paper wrapped chop sticks but now I know and didn't waste a bunch of money at the restaurant supply store.

Buy your wife a hat. Jake will bite our hands and fingers but not usually an arm especially if that arm is in a long sleeved shirt. It isn't that he is fearful of the arm but maybe he knows that he can't give the arm the same satisfying chomp. He does like the string of my hoodie so if I really need to get his attention I hold my arm out and dangle the string. He hops on and grabs the string to play with the knot and I can move him away from where ever he shouldn't be.

My TAG has red polka dots under his wings, the red tinged feathers on his legs that make it look like he is wearing pants, red tipped feathers on his rump and red streaks in his tail feathers. He is in the process of his first molt and in some areas the red has lessened and some has not. The vet says he is healthy and that this is genetic. According to her his red may come and go or change in intensity with each molt.