Amali

Yes, ma'am! That's exactly what I'm doing and why I'm asking around. Like I said, I'm in no rush and want to make the right decision for our family.

Well - the thought of adding another bird has started creeping up on me, and surprisingly enough, my non-birdloving husband agrees as long as I don't bring home a species that will blast his eardrums. The breeder where I got Amali also breeds Citron Crested Cockatoos that I found absolutely adorable when I was at his place so I've been doing some reading up on them. Everything I have read indicates they are the quietest of the cockatoos and make wonderful pets, but I know that sometimes all the reading in the world doesn't compare to hearing first hand stories from those who have experience with the bird. Do any of you have - or have had - a Citron? Anyone with experience around one that might give me some input? I'm in no rush - though new baby syndrome is so much fun - and want to make the right decision for our family.

Amali's contact call is a whistle as well - either wolf whistle or the "Charge!" whistle. It is the first thing I hear when I walk in the door after work Congrats and good luck, ilovemygrey. We look forward to hearing of your progress!

Oh goodness - sweet baby!

I've been doing a lot more toy making for Amali lately - she loves getting to sit and 'supervise' my work. The one we made last night definitely got her attention so I snapped a quick picture. Easy to make, cheap, and she really enjoyed it. I wish she enjoyed the camera being pulled out as much as she did the toy - haha!

Harrison's High Potency - a staple that is almost always in her cage Harrison's Birdie Bread - she gets this rather often, loves it warmed up Goldenfeast mixes - I got several one pound samples here http://www.mysafebirdstore.com/cart.cgi?group=537&child=1312 recently and Amali LOVES them. I feed the nuts and dried fruit sparingly, but several good blends to choose from. Higgins Worldly Cuisines - Amali loves every flavor of their prepackaged cook and serve blends.

There are only two websites that I will promote faithfully - and I'm typically not one to do so. http://www.mysafebirdstore.com/ - I've ordered food, toys, and toy parts from them. Great prices, good quality, amazing customer service. http://cabirdnerds.com/ - I order lots of toy parts from this site. Again, can't beat the pricing, quality, and customer service here.

Me

I, too, have put a piece of plexiglass behind Amali's cage to minimize wall clean up. The seed skirt that came with the cage does a decent job of helping out as well. Beyond that - I couldn't live without my little Dyson hand held vacuum; it might as well say "Greyt Mess Cleaner" on it ... thing is invaluable!

Regarding sweet potato - I've read a couple places that feeding raw is actually bad for parrots: Sweet Potato Sweet potato shows trypsin inhibitor activity. That means it contains an enzyme inhibitor that blocks the action of trypsin, an enzyme that digests proteins. The trypsin inhibitor prevents the digestion of protein. Sweet potatoes with higher protein levels have more of the trypsin inhibitor. This makes raw sweet potato difficult to digest. The trypsin inhibitor is deactivated by cooking. One way the raw food diet helps people is by supplying food enzymes. Food enzymes do part of the work of digesting the raw food. Enzyme inhibitors increase the amount of work that your body needs to do to digest foods. Enzyme inhibitors force your body to produce more digestive enzymes. This uses up resources that could be used to produce detoxifying enzymes. When animals are regularly fed enzyme inhibitors in research, they become sick. Sweet potato should not be eaten raw. •Toxic substances and antinutritional factors: Sweet Potato FAO.org and this Sweet potato Sweet potato contains raffinose, one of the sugars responsible for flatulence. Three of the sugars which occur in plant tissues, raffinose, stachyose and verbascose are not digested in the upper digestive tract, and so are fermented by colon bacteria to yield the flatus gases, hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The level of raffinose present depends on the cultivar. In some parts of Africa the cultivars used are considered too sweet and cause flatulence (Palmer, 1982), Lin et al. (1985) have established that sweet potato shows trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA) ranging from 90 percent inhibition in some varieties to 20 percent in others. There is a significant correlation between the trypsin inhibitor content and the protein content of the sweet potato variety. Heating to 90°C for several minutes inactivates trypsin inhibitors. Lawrence and Walker (1976) have implicated TIA in sweet potato as a contributory factor in the disease enteritis necroticans. This seems doubtful since sweet potato is not usually eaten raw and the activity of the trypsin inhibitor present is destroyed by heat. In response to injury, or exposure to infectious agents, in reaction to physiological stimulation or on exposure of wounded tissue to fungal contamination, sweet potato will produce certain metabolites. Some of these compounds, especially the furano-terpenoids are known to be toxic (Uritani, 1967). Fungal contamination of sweet potato tubers by Ceratocystis fimbriata and several Fusarium species leads to the production of ipomeamarone, a hepatoxin, while other metabolites like 4-ipomeanol are pulmonary toxins. Baking destroys only 40 percent of these toxins. Catalano et al. (1977) reported that peeling blemished or diseased sweet potatoes from 3 to 10 mm beyond the infested area is sufficient to remove most of the toxin. I try to avoid boiling vegetables at all as it tends to decrease nutritional value some. I scrub sweet potatoes, wrap in foil, bake at 350-400 for about an hour. Let cool, remove skin, and give a tablespoon or two. You can also add a little cinnamon to it.

Thanks so much, Dan. I didn't think she could be sexually mature yet, but wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything wrong. And yes - it is extremely cute when they act like that; she seems to be doing it even more since I was gone for about five days earlier this month. Talk about guilt trip! LOL

Congrats There is nothing like that what-seems-like-an-eternity wait! I remember the day finally arriving when I would go pick out my girl (whole clutch was female) - so exciting! Whether you get to pick your bird, or he/she picks you - there is a lifetime to spend bonding and learning each other. In my case, Amali picked me ... there was no way she would even let me consider her clutchmates. And she's been glued to me ever since.

I've noticed this with Amali a few times in the last couple of weeks and last night it seemed more pronounced. I went to cover her cage for the night and tell her goodnight, and opened the cage door for a couple extra scritches and kisses, and she got all chirpy at my fingers, trying to do the baby feeding thing on them, and dropped her wings down and hunkered down a little. Everything I've read and heard indicates this is hormonal behavior, but she's only 9 months old. Is this normal? Is it hormonal? I know not to rub on her back, etc and really only pet her on top of her head and around her beak/jaw. Is there anything else I should be sure we don't do? Thanks!

In Swahili, Amali means hope.

Dawn, Mesquite is such a nuisance around here that most any farmer would gladly let you come cut some off their place even if you don't have it. We didn't have any on our place either, but I work in Rockdale with people who let me cut some of theirs

DawnMM - I'm just down the road in Thorndale So living in this area, I know you can find Mesquite just about anywhere. That's what I use for Amali's perches.

I just tell her thanks and move on like it didn't happen. I don't necessarily want to encourage the behavior, but it is also natural behavior for them so I see no reason to discourage it either.

I just got back this week from taking my youngest daughter on a mother/daughter trip to Disney World. Like all parronts, I worried about Amali while I was gone. I left my husband and college aged daughter about a million instructions, and asked about her daily. Amali typically loves my oldest daughter ... but I guess she was nippy and grumpy while I was gone. Well, my first morning home (Wednesday), I uncovered her cage, told her good morning, and immediately - and for the first time - got regurgitated to. Awwww .... Ewwww. LOL I love that little girl!

Amali does the head bob too - morning, night, anytime - she will try to "eat" my fingers like that!

A quick search resulted in the following. (Note: I know nothing about any of these - but it gives you places to look/start.) http://www.knrfeatheredtreasures.com/ Just-Us Birds LLC Exotic Birds, cages, toys, supplies. seed & feed and Sandy Perches. We breed, raise and sell parent raised finches, canaries and parakeets, as well as hand fed cockatiels, lovebirds, conures and african grey parrots. We also sell cages, bird toys, a wide variety of supplies, fooed and Sandy Perches. E-mail us at justusbirds@hotmail.com. Raytown, MO LMC Aviary Breeder of exotic birds Sweet hand feed babies. Will sell to experinced hand feeders at 3 week Most babies are handfed from day one because parents will not feed. contact me for more info on what we have at this time. Congos, Amazons, Cockatoos, Macaws, Pionus, Quakers, Derbyans, Eclectus, Hawkheads, Conures, etc. Email: caselman@grm.net. Meadville, MO Rosalita's Birdhouse Domestic exotic birds - babies, breeders and some toys Specializing in handfed baby birds. Cockatiels, greys, timnehs, differe species of conures. Also snuggle tubes. Email: featheredtreasures@charter.ne or birds4you@cs.com. Wentzville, MO http://parrotposse.com/default.aspx (in St. Louis and website says taking deposits on CAGs now - they also have a page showing upcoming shows in the general area)

Amali is right at 8 months old now, and in the last month or so, she has reverted to her little baby squeaks (though she still whistles and makes some of her other sounds as well). Is this normal? Her little squeaks are almost always in the evening, are very often heard being made while she plays with her water bottle, and then sometimes heard when she has a favorite food - like warm bird bread. Thoughts?

They took over my daughter's room/closet when she moved out to go to college. Surely that's in the realm of normal!

I hope that isn't cause for being legally insane!! I don't have the workbench ... just a ton of bins for toy parts. So I'd just be partially insane?!

I think I get as excited as Amali does when the toy parts orders come in! I just got an order from mysafebirdstore.com yesterday ... time to get to work on more toys!

Just about any website you can order parrot toy making parts from will have it. I place most of my orders from http://cabirdnerds.com/leatherlaces.html and http://www.mysafebirdstore.com/cart.cgi?group=6586&child=6633 and would recommend them time and again. Both sites have shown amazing customer service and prompt delivery - not to mention great prices!