murfchck

We are looking everywhere. Found the perfect place in a town we had never heard of before and the property had pine trees for Miss Koko! (pine trees are a must on my list of things in a new homestead.) Then we saw it was right on the border, no wonder it was such a great price for 15 acres and a decent house. lol So here is Bob. He got his name from falling in the pond, heehee, get it? Bob.

That was beautiful Elvenking!

She looks very good and i love her name. Be careful with her in the kitchen though, cuz pretty soon she will start telling you what to cook and how to cook it! Mine have started even helping with the dishes, to bad they can't grasp that throwing them off the counter isn't really helping. And don't show her the paper towels or you will never have any left on the roll when you need it! Lol

lol, thanks. It took weeks of 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there but there is so much more we want to do to it. And I don't want it to be all doom and gloom, I want it to be fun too. Our life is far from normal as you will see from the next letter of apology to my flock... My dearest fids, We are very sorry that you all had to watch us running around the back yard with nets yesterday when you were just trying to sunbathe. All of you guys did very good not freaking out as we did. See we thought Chacho had gotten out of the flight. There was that bright green thing on the tree right beside him so daddy snuck up on him with the net. I am very grateful it wasn't Chacho, but we did panicked because it was a 2 ft iguana. After an hour of us watching him he made his move so we went into action and he did what we feared and jumped, about 40' from the tree. He landed in the pond and I jumped in after him to make sure he was okay, yeah yeah, I was in my still white and new shoes, Bubba, Bongo and Cotay, you did not need to laugh at me right then. I tossed the towel over him and unlike you guys, he came right out but let daddy catch him. Lilly, your buddy took him home since he has had them before and is going to care for him. Cotay, sorry we used your kennel and we will get you a new one it was just handy. This was a rare day for us as it is hard getting all of you out of the house at the same time, but as we sat there in the morning watching you all and trying to figure out the best way to spend our day, wondering what we were going to do with our empty house, this happened and didn't get resolved until after 6pm. We didn't even get to get our bed made. Then a relator showed up and walked our house and met you all as you were coming inside. Koko, what happened? You have never bit me before, why did you do it then in front of her? No one was there to take you guys, you are stuck with us! And by the way Koko, your bites hurt worse than any of them, what's up with that girlie girl? It must be your 24 years of practice but you got muscle and my fore arm is very soar today. Please don't teach that to the other ones, they for the most part, just nip. So my fingers are crossed for a smooth week guys. Lets try and pull it off! I Love, Pttthhh

Nine with 9 more waiting to move in... We have decided to go ahead and move forward with opening the sanctuary since there has been such a demand. The website went up today but the paperwork has just begun. It is staying low profile right now since we already have a waiting list, we did not publish on google or yahoo searches but you can see the start of it at http://www.foreverfeatherssanctuaries.com It is still a work in progress but ya gotta start somewhere. lol lol, I tried the link and it won't pull up, yeah, more issues!

Hi guys, So you lucked out today and Ixta's keeper wasn't ready to let go yet. You met him today and I am so very proud of you all, not a one of you screamed. (That is more directed at you Cockatoo's.)I really thought you all would be a little uncomfortable with him using a cane but you were all just great and not even one ruffled feather. I am sorry we didn't get to all come out today but I will make up for that tomorrow! Hugs to all!

Sorry, I missed the part about starting a new thread so I figured I would copy the original post and go from there. To my dearest babies, Bongo, my first, I love you with all my heart. I love you helping me with meals and how you fly to my shoulder when you see me come in the room. You are my special little boy and nothing will change that! Please stop picking at your feathers, it is breaking my heart to see you do this to yourself. Oliver, my second boy. You came to us near death and now you are independent and just a joy. I am sorry your wing is bad and you can not fly like the rest, but with daddy help you get to soar with the best of them! I love you! Bubba, our third. You came to us because we were told your first family had an illness and couldn't give you the time you needed. Turns out you had your own medical issues that we are working through. You are such a winner in my eyes and with that, please stop calling me ptthhhh. You can say so many things, why not my name or even someone elses would be okay, but a fart noise as a name is embarrassing. I love! Gabby, our fourth little gift. You despised me at first but have come to accept me as your transportation, thank you for that. I love how you help me with the dog dinners, if only you would understand that we don't mix the wet and dry food by tossing them on the floor, we like to keep the bowls on the counter and mix them with a spoon. Your creepy old man hello that your whisper in my ear when I am changing your cage papers has become second nature to us now but I remember the first few times you did that to me knocking me on my butt in fear, good times! Love you my Gabby goo! Gus, the first of our U2's. Gus, Gus, Gus. What can I say to you. You pulled my heart strings when I heard you had been locked in your cage for years so you came here and hugged me and loved me like no other so I made the mistake of spoiling you by letting you out all the time and being on my shoulder when the times were right. After a lot of blood loss, we had to change that and now you won't accept I am doing this for your own good. Please stop the screaming, you are very loved and we would love to show that to you! Cotay, STOP BITING ME PLEASE. Lilly, I saw you years before your moved in and the day our eyes met, I fell in love with you. You are just so precious and good natured for a U2. I can do whatever I want to you and you take it in stride. Please stay on your stand and stop jumping off of it so you can stay with us in the big room and not have to go to your room. When you go to your room you scream and give me a blasting headache. I know you just want out to roam the floor and use my Chihuahua's a toss toys but for everyones safety we can't let that happen. Koko, you came to us full of life and have proven to be one of the best older U2's I have met. You sing so bad it makes me smile. You dance like no one is looking but I am and I love every head spin you do! Chacho, aka Albert. It took several months before you got to move in with us. From the moment you said "Albert's freaking out, Let Albert out" during the surrender, I knew we belonged together and I never even got to see your beautiful face. I know you didn't like the lady who took you and you proved that by doing your flying attacks on her so she called me up and told me to come get you. The first time I saw you, you let me pet you through that cage and hold your little stubby talon. On the ride home, we bonded more over a French fry. Now you try feeding me, I love that you love me. but please know your already processed food all over my face because I move my head around to keep it form going in my mouth, is a sweet gesture but ewww. Also, daddy loves you and you should really stop dive bombing him with the thought of killing him. When you learn to accept him, you will get to come out and play with the rest, but until then you have to stay in your room when the rest are out. You are my sunshine baby boy! Today may be a hard day for you all as yet another may be moving in. Ixta is a sweet grey who has had a tough life. She watched her brother die after a macaw attack and then had to live in that same cage with the blood remnants, unable to come out for years. She pines for a change of life and we have offered it to her. She looks like all of you, featherless, so please welcome her into your flock as only a group like yourselves could do. You are my band of misfits, and I love each of you with all of my heart! Lisa

Not that i am not enjoying asking him to get me something out of the bird room when Chacho is out, but to his defense, none of his birds would actually seek me out to kill me. Lol

To my dearest babies, Bongo, my first, I love you with all my heart. I love you helping me with meals and how you fly to my shoulder when you see me come in the room. You are my special little boy and nothing will change that! Please stop picking at your feathers, it is breaking my heart to see you do this to yourself. Oliver, my second boy. You came to us near death and now you are independent and just a joy. I am sorry your wing is bad and you can not fly like the rest, but with daddy help you get to soar with the best of them! I love you! Bubba, our third. You came to us because we were told your first family had an illness and couldn't give you the time you needed. Turns out you had your own medical issues that we are working through. You are such a winner in my eyes and with that, please stop calling me ptthhhh. You can say so many things, why not my name or even someone elses would be okay, but a fart noise as a name is embarrassing. I love! Gabby, our fourth little gift. You despised me at first but have come to accept me as your transportation, thank you for that. I love how you help me with the dog dinners, if only you would understand that we don't mix the wet and dry food by tossing them on the floor, we like to keep the bowls on the counter and mix them with a spoon. Your creepy old man hello that your whisper in my ear when I am changing your cage papers has become second nature to us now but I remember the first few times you did that to me knocking me on my butt in fear, good times! Love you my Gabby goo! Gus, the first of our U2's. Gus, Gus, Gus. What can I say to you. You pulled my heart strings when I heard you had been locked in your cage for years so you came here and hugged me and loved me like no other so I made the mistake of spoiling you by letting you out all the time and being on my shoulder when the times were right. After a lot of blood loss, we had to change that and now you won't accept I am doing this for your own good. Please stop the screaming, you are very loved and we would love to show that to you! Cotay, STOP BITING ME PLEASE. Lilly, I saw you years before your moved in and the day our eyes met, I fell in love with you. You are just so precious and good natured for a U2. I can do whatever I want to you and you take it in stride. Please stay on your stand and stop jumping off of it so you can stay with us in the big room and not have to go to your room. When you go to your room you scream and give me a blasting headache. I know you just want out to roam the floor and use my Chihuahua's a toss toys but for everyones safety we can't let that happen. Koko, you came to us full of life and have proven to be one of the best older U2's I have met. You sing so bad it makes me smile. You dance like no one is looking but I am and I love every head spin you do! Chacho, aka Albert. It took several months before you got to move in with us. From the moment you said "Albert's freaking out, Let Albert out" during the surrender, I knew we belonged together. I know you didn't like the lady who took you and you proved that by doing your flying attacks on her so she called me up and told me to come get you. The first time I saw you, you let me pet you through that cage and hold your little stubby talon. On the ride home, we bonded more over a French fry. Now you try feeding me, I love that you love me. but please know your already processed food all over my face because I move my head around to keep it form going in my mouth, is a sweet gesture but ewww. Also, daddy loves you and you should really stop dive bombing him with the thought of killing him. When you learn to accept him, you will get to come out and play with the rest, but until then you have to stay in your room when the rest are out. You are my sunshine baby boy! Today may be a hard day for you all as yet another may be moving in. Ixta is a sweet grey who has had a tough life. She watched her brother die after a macaw attack and then had to live in that same cage with the blood remnants, unable to come out for years. She pines for a change of life and we have offered it to her. She looks like all of you, featherless, so please welcome her into your flock as only a group like yourselves could do. You are my band of misfits, and I love each of you with all of my heart! Lisa

Barbara H sent out one of her emails the other day about working with a new parrot. There is a lot to this article and I wanted to share it. After a few days of Pat trying to work with Chacho using her steps, so far, ha! Pat went into the room with him last night after a little training session with the crackers where he got to touch his beak a few times but as soon as Pat entered again later Chacho flew at him with his mouth open and talons stretched out. Chacho 5, Pat 1. My biggest issue with the little guy is that he keeps trying to feed me, which in itself is okay but he is determined to get it in my mouth ( or ear if I am not quick enough, lol ): Connecting with a New Parrot What really makes a difference vs. what you may have heard I spend a great deal of time on the road teaching parrot training workshops, meeting new parrots, making a connection with them, and then training behaviors such as step up, take medication from a syringe, interact with towels and so on. Sometimes because I spend so much time talking about these topics I assume many others must know all this information as well. However it became clear this is not the case when reading a thread on a chat group. A woman had inherited a macaw and was very unsure about how to interact with her new charge and was most troubled by how to train the parrot to step up. Here are some of the misguided tips she received from well-meaning members of the group: • Make him step up by using a stick • Expect to get bit • If he bites, ignore it and just take the bite, so he learns not to bite • Just sit by the cage and talk to him softly • He will grow out of the biting • Don’t show fear • Just put your finger near him and talk to him like he is human • Keep him below eye level • Just be patient and love him • Sing songs to him • Parrots are just bad pets and shouldn’t be in our homes I think it is wonderful that people want to help and are willing to share information. However the tips listed here are not what this bird or woman needs. And it saddens me that the information that will truly help this person is not reaching enough people. Here is what will make a difference…straight forward force free training with positive reinforcement. This means identifying something this bird finds of value. Singing and talking to the bird may be of value to some birds, but not all and in reality is usually not the most powerful reinforcer for a bird that has no relationship with the human in question. Fortunately it was mentioned the bird like walnuts. Awesome! Now there is a treat she can use to get started pairing something good with her presence. The nuts can be broken up into small pieces to offer lots of teaching moments throughout the day. The next step is to identify steps or approximations she can use to train the bird to step up. These are outlined in great detail in my DVD Parrot Behavior and Training, my eBook Train Your Parrot to Step Up and you can see examples on my YouTube page. Each step or approximation is reinforced with the pieces of walnut. While going at the birds pace is important, it does not necessarily mean you have to wait weeks or years to train this behavior. It literally usually only takes one to two training sessions for me to train this behavior. It is one I repeat over and over again with birds I have just met at parrot training workshops. There are always birds present at these workshops that show fear responses or aggressive behavior towards hands. This is the result of hands being used in coercive ways. It is not inherent to parrots. It is the result of learning and can be changed with force free approaches. Biting never had to be in these birds’ repertoire and nor does it need to be in the future. “Taking the bite” is not the way to go. Teaching the bird you will respect his or her body language and not push her to the point of biting will make biting irrelevant and not necessary. The result will be a much more trusting relationship between human and bird. Biting is not a phase to grow out of, nor is it solved by keeping birds low. It is also not the result of parrots being bad pets; it is the result of how people interact with parrots in coercive ways. A pleasant bite free relationship with parrots is completely possible when you use a force free training strategy. I hope by sharing this information here, we can get more people talking about kind, gentle and most important effective ways of building trust with companion parrots. Barbara Heidenreich

LOL, we are much better now. She is back to her spiteful self of tossing the dog food bowls to the floor when we turn around to get the wet food - right after we put the dry in. (you think we would learn, have the wet food ready, don't turn around to get it from the cabinet, but noooooo, we never learn) It is funny to me how, like kittykittykitty, human accidents and blood and gore do not bother me one bit, but let one of my feathered fids give me a watery poop and I turn into a helmet wearing, window licking, short bus passenger and vow I will make it better by their next poop. My brains go right out the window when it comes to them!

It did some. She was pretty tired.

I can say for sure Chacho has not scared Pat at all but he does allow him the choice and isn't forcing himself on him. Little steps everyday. Lol

I tried so hard to get Chacho to take a bath yesterday. We did it in spurts, first step was going into the bathroom so he could see the room, a little while later we went in and saw the room again, third time we tried to get on the perch in the tub. The shower curtain moved so that ended things for the night and I got the "Albert wants out, Albert's freaking out, Oh my God." So we quit for the night, lol. I did get a kiss from him though, that was way better than getting a cracker he already ate! lol. (anything he eats is called a cracker) Pat has been the dinner delivery guy for Chacho and the treat giver, but Chacho still tries to eat him instead of the offerings. Pat isn't giving up though, it will take a while but it will all work out!

So, from this picture she is hanging on the side near the top. I don't know if it shows but her beak was covered in dried blood and the blood on the cage in her beak print. Then there is the angled tip of her beak. One would really think she broke her beak right? I checked on her every two hours yesterday, running home from work just to make sure there was no new blood. Her Daddy gets home, runs to her and says "I do not see where her beak is broken." Since she only lets me transport her and that morning clean up her beak, that had to be the issue. Turns out I was looking at the wrong end. She had broken a blood feather on her butt end by the preen gland. Her face was covered in blood because she was trying to pull it out. Doh! Pat gave her a bath and a good once over, we have to assume she got it out. There was only one red feather on the bottom of her cage, and it was solid and no blood on it, but that was all we found. Poor guys had such a bland breakfast yesterday because I was afraid of her being unable to eat and no fruit because I didn't want it stinging her beak wound, lol. I feel like I am functioning on idiot drive lately.

Whoo-hoo! Congrats and thank you all for what you do.

Sometime during the night Gabby must have fallen off her perch and she broke the end of her top beak off. The bleeding had stopped but it was horrifying. Her entire beak was dried blood and drips were everywhere. I have been running home every few hours to check on her in case she hits it again and the bleeding starts again. I gave her oatmeal and sprouts for breakfast because i wasn't sure if she could eat but she did a good job eating it all. I am not sure if there is anything a vet could do for her. She doesn't seem to be in pain but they hide things so well.

I had seen that video before and it is what allowed me to know that Koko was singing and not suffering! Boy, they love to sing but really can't carry a tune at all, lol.

Yesterday was Chacho's first day outside in the big cage! He was scared to death, but after a while started to explore the front of the aviary a little. I have found that if I put both my hands around him, he steps right up so I took the jump to bring him out and not panic about getting him back inside which is what was holding me back about bringing him out. Since he attacks Pat I wouldn't have him to go get him if I couldn't do it. I didn't have to worry though because he was ready to get back inside after a few hours. lol He has been dubbed Green Terror by the last 3 people who have lived with him, I just don't see that (heehee) He runs to me and ducks his head and shoves it in my hand for loving. Pat is still awed at how much this bird totally loves only me, he follows my every move and keeps guard on me. Who needs a watch dog when Chacho is around!

Cotay is my pirate mouth. The very first time I took her picture after she moved in she just looked at me slit her eyes and said "F*** You". She burps and farts then laughs. We were told she says "oops, I farted" after a fart but we have not heard that. She also speaks Spanish so I wouldn't know if she were cussing me out or not, lol. Bubba says the f- word too, but not like he use too and the k at the end has dropped off when he says it now. Chacho speaks French so heaven knows what he is saying to me, the only English he says is "Oh my God, Alberts freaking out" and hello. The rest is either French or bird babble, I will never know.

That looks incredible! Great job and what fun to be had by all!

Chacho has learned where to let loose his aggression now, it is directed straight at Pat. I do not hold him when Pat is around, in fact Chacho can not be out of his cage if Pat is home. He flies right at Pat in his face, talons and beak open for the kill. Pat tried last night to get the bird bowls for dinner while Chacho was out of the cage in his room. That wasn't his best idea. He came away with 2 bloody fingers and blood drips all over his shirt. I got Pat to agree to sit by his cage and just talk to him, let me do all the handling of him and to not put Chacho in the position to attack. I feel bad that Chacho can't come out of the room but until this is under control we can not chance it with Pat or the other birds. He does get to come out with me when the coast is clear and when we are home the room is his to fly around and explore. This is really going to take a big effort to get him social again.

He is a ladies man for sure. I had forgotten some of the sounds he makes, it has been a while since I have heard them. Last night I was carrying in a few "soda" cans and out of no where he starts the opening of the cans sound, I have missed that one! We are also starting to learn Up On The Rooftop song for Christmas, heehee, he has the first note down, this may take a while. He also helped me last night with the sprouts, I was shocked. He flew to my shoulder, walked down my arm and got on the faucet while the water was running bouncing his head as I shook the mix to drain it. Then he reached around and pulled out a feather, I don't see this picking stopping but what the heck, bald or not he is my love muffin and whats one more naked bird. That would make 8 of 9 that pluck. He is the first however that started plucking after he moved in. Making their dinners are so funny and just confuse my hubs to no end. After all this time he still doesn't know who eats what and what bowls go to who. Each bird gets what they like and every night I go through it with him. Bongo, Gabby, Oliver and Chacho love snap peas, the rest do not, Gabby and Lily like carrots. Lily likes corn, the rest do not. Bubba likes pasta, but just the noodles, Bongo just likes the shells and Chacho likes the spirals. Oliver likes all pasta. They all love rice of any kind. Lily loves apples and so does Cotay. Oliver and Bongo like mandarin oranges. Koko likes applesauce and so does Bubba, but not apples. Gus is the peanut butter king but he will only eat it off a spoon, don't try and put it on a cracker. Broccoli is Bongos favorite. Cheddar cheese is only eaten by Koko, Bongo, Chacho, Cotay and Oliver. If you put the dislikes in any bowl, dinner will not be eaten and I will be picking it up off the floor! And these spoiled guys get two cooked meals a day, no wonder I am nuts!

I always called them Plumeria. I have only seen one, before now, that is that large if that is what they are. I am going to search on the internet and see if that is what it could be. They get beautiful flowers on them and I had one for a few years until the sudden, unexpected freeze last year took it's poor life. :-(

Happy hatchday!