murfchck

Mine also is not Eden Pure. I sleep with my windows open in our room and it is great that the birds still stay nice and warm with their heaters on! Ours came from Wal Mart.

To start any Cockatoo is loud, lol. I have 3 U-Toos. Yes, nips will happen especially when in season, when young they are testing things by nipping. Testing for stability, safety and if it is sturdy to step on or will they fall off it. They do a lot with their beaks so dang near everything goes in them first. Real bites will happen and you will know the difference. Ages of our run from 6 - 25 years old. I have 3 greys also and they do not play well together. They tolerate each other for the most part so if you are getting a second grey to keep your first one company chances are you are just adding to your work list because now you will have 2 instead of one who will each be needing your one on one time. 2 cages, 2 stands and still only one of you. :-) They are not loud and will learn things from each other in time. I use to know my guys apart from a different room when they whistled but not anymore, the separate calls each of them had, they now all have and I can not tell one from the other unless I am in the same room with them.

Welcome and really great introduction you gave us all! The red dot had me giggling because that sounds like something that would happen to me! The smooth wood is an issue here for my greys but I found that by wrapping a boing around it to give them something to grip and also gives them the rope to chew, did the trick. As for the dogs, we have 4 but they are small dogs. One hides in a room when the birds are out, she is scared of them, another is blind so she tends to stay in the room with her buddy. The other two are Chihuahua's, they like to tease the birds and temp their fate of getting bit. Only one bite to a dog and that was by our cockatoo who thought Abby was a stuffed toy and grabbed her by the head and started shaking the stuffing out of her. We were very lucky and no skin was even broken, but there is a new respect for the umbrellas by the dogs now. We had the clipping debate because of the dogs but the thought that if we did clip and a dog cornered any of them, if they had their wings they would have a chance to escape. Without that ability, they would be sitting ducks.

Awww, what a great day. New babies out and I named one. Doubt it will stick but I call him Turtle. He was like a lil snapping turtle with me trying to run up to me and bite me. So cute right now since they couldn't hurt a fly with their bites and he couldn't run without face planting in his bedding, heeheehee. All my others were out and about too, Emerson, who darn it, has been sold already, he is my sweetie pie. Stripe, who's mama plucked his feathers (they are all back now so the name doesn't match him anymore unless you saw him before and my precious (Sugar) RayRay. Each time I visit it is harder and harder to see them leave the nest, I don't think I could ever do it! I wouldn't ever purchase one anywhere else because dang she is good at what she does!

So Chacho is purely my bird, no one else's no way no how, lol. For those of you who remember I took a bad bite/scratch from a monkey and almost lost my finger, tonight I took a bad bite from Chacho. What does this look like to everyone? A monkey face? I saw it and so did the hubs who took this picture and couldn't stop laughing. Such support I get from him. So this happened because Chacho was out and flew up to the very top of the tv over the cabinets, not a place he should be so I drug a chair over and climbed on top of the countertop and was trying to get him down, all was going just swimmingly, we played and I body dragged him to where I could reach him better, blocked areas he shouldn't get to (electrical and cable) and just about had him stepping up when Pat can home, he saw me on the counter and quietly walked up behind me and placed his hand on my lower back to brace me from falling and that was it! Chacho saw him and went wild on me. The picture is of my neck/ shoulder area, I had to grab his beak until he let go, from there he went down my arm and got me a few more times but then found a place he had a real good grip of and hung on until Pat left the room. Chacho is not a mean bird, I can do anything want with him... until Pat enters then I am minced meat. I did not freak out or react to the biting, just got to where I could put him safely in his cage, run outside and whine a bit. He got the muscle I guess because the pain when I turn my head is ridiculous, sore is an understatement. We talked to his previous owner and he just laughed and said "yeah, Chacho can really land a painful bite. (this coming from a man who has had 14 big guys of macaw species and his greys and a hawk head and Chacho. Said Chacho had the meanest bite of them all... Yeah? LOL

All of my flock isn't into music when it is on the radio but if I am singing and dancing to it, they all join in.

So when a bird doesn't like someone, that someone usually gets the wrath of the bird right? So why am I the one taking the bites when he sees Pat? lol Last night we had to move quick to get him off of me before I started springing leaks. We were in the kitchen, Albert on my shoulder when he just looked at Pat and started biting my head and neck and back. We had to move quick and all we could think to do was get his beloved cracker and toss it into his cage. (hindsight don't reward him for using me as his whipping post but we were moving fast) It worked and he went right into the cage. Pat said he was warning me of danger and was trying to get me to fly away. Next time I will try flapping my arms and pray he will look at me and say "bless your little heart, you can't fly. Okay then I will stop biting you to get you away from him." Lets hope that works!

Discovered the hard way, well he was gently demanding with nips on my back and neck, that you do not hold Albert/Chacho when you have a cracker in your hand. Ouch! He likes crackers by God!

We were watching the Snowball video of another one bites the dust. Here is what happened.. It's a start anyway. lol http://vid1296.photobucket.com/albums/ag4/murfchck/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-09/20140919_174314_zpsec2wjru6.mp4

Holy cow do I just love this guy. There may be a name change happening soon. Tonight he just kept repeating Chacho, He is the first bird that has "chosen" me and not settled for me. Bongo loves me too but not like Chacho, aka Albert.

Lol, I knew it reminded me of something. I was thinking a boa but tux sounds more manly! I didn't want to say this out loud but he did really good today with the plucking. Maybe typing it won't jinx it!

Here is my little boy after a good soaking bath yesterday, he wasn't happy about it but after he dried off some he came back around. Sorry for the poor video, I kinda stink at it. http://s1296.photobucket.com/user/murfchck/media/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-09/20140924_183743_zps5q7tdbmw.mp4.html

Because of Bongo's plucking, I am trying to divide my time up. After work until their dinner, Albert stays in his cage which is in the kitchen area with us. Then after everyone goes to their cages, Albert comes out and has his time with me. Last night we got on the couch and just got better acquainted with his likes and dislikes and the limits I can go to with him. Which is pretty much anything, lol. I tried the over head, both hand pick up off my shoulder and he got a little skittish so I just let him walk down to my chest where he lost his footing and rolled a few times onto my lap. It was too funny not to giggle but maybe that is something we can work on him doing, rolling over. It sure seemed to be a natural thing for him, it didn't bother him at all. He is having some hearing issues though, I ask him to step up and he immediately starts to throw up. I tried explaining to him the difference between the two but nothing. lol He is a typical bird child though, tell him no and he sees that as a challenge. I have to move my cookoo clock this weekend quickly! I tried to give him a full fledged bath yesterday but he wanted nothing to do with it, so I just showed him around the bathroom, showed him the bath stand the shower head etc so he would be familiar next time and everything wouldn't be scary and new. I worry about Bongo's plucking but hindsight, we did do a lot of changing in the last few weeks and his dumb ass mom (me) only put the minimum toys back in his cage due to time and kept telling herself, tomorrow. When the plucking started, I looked in his cage and there was nothing but his metal bell and quick links. He had destroyed the other stuff and I never noticed. Such a bad mom! I hope now that he is loaded down again with toys, I am not to late to stop the plucking but who knows. I am sure this isn't medical, just stress and boredom. Not only did we give him a new cage, but moved it from one room to another and then back all within a few days, then added Albert to the mix. Heck, I am stressing!

Bamboo will take over! It is a plant weed that never grows where you plant it and it never dies! Lol. I want to plant a nut tree, almond or walnut or even pecan. It will take time to get to the top of the aviary though and in the mean time she will have perching and foraging! Just my pipe dream.

I know. It would be wonderful. I told Pat that i have already planted our garden and pecan trees and a almond tree in my mind so he needs to make it happen. Lol As far as Bongo, i am even wondering if it may be sexual. He is regurgitating for me every time I am around him. Lily is also in season so who knows. I decked out his cage with lots of stuff for him to chew and shred. Even a rope boing which i banned him from about a year ago, lol. I also thought that since he is one of two that have feathers maybe he thinks he is the weirdo and is plucking to look like the rest. Then to top things off, there were drops of blood in Gabby' s cage this morning. I didn't see anything so i have no clue what happened. Oh the joys of being a parront to so many.

It is official, Bongo is plucking.

Wow. The places you have been are amazing! I can not even take a trip to the adjoining town.

Mine has the cat purr and some other sound that i can not describe at all. ( like a wounded crow? )

I had to chuckle, I have many training books and eh, they made me open my eyes more but, my birds? I have never seen a human training book but they sure have succeeded in training me. lol Go figure! heeheee!

Have to work all day, no baby play time today.

Well my Lily pod is starting to damage her feathers now, barbering her wings. I also noticed that my Bongo has some missing on his chest. Not sure if we tipped the comfort scale of these guys bringing Albert in. Going to give some good baths tomorrow to them and am thinking of moving Albert full time into the kitchen cage he loves so much anyway and just see if that will help calm the nerves. My weekend time has disappeared and this week I am working full time so I hope things don't askew. I am stretching myself too thin right now, maybe those two are feeling it too.

Hi, I am kind of getting to know who will be moving in with us when the time is right for everyone. This one flies after me and attacks when I walk in the room. My husband can walk all around him. The first time I met him he was on his owners leg and he took off after me, lucky I can duck and roll quickly. Once he was done with me he laughed. I have to admit, they are very beautiful, but mean mean mean! lol Okay, so I was in his cage cleaning it when he first started at me so I can't blame him but I guess he can hold a grudge because I have been cleaning and helping with him and the others for well over a month now but we are getting no closer.

And so it has begun. We were asked to take his birds in for him when the time comes. He is not ready now but knows with his parkenson's it won't be long before he can not care for them any longer. That will be 4 blue and golds and one congo grey and a hawk head ( who HATES me btw). However the talk came up about how will he be able to care for himself and that moved on to the purchase of the perfect bird's house we wanted to buy but our credit wasn't good enough. Going in it together allows him to be cared for more than one day a week, he could stay with his birds and we would have the house we really need for our flock. Not a terrible idea but we really need to think long and hard about this. He told me to consider him our biggest, unfeathered, unknown species bird. I helped him prep food for his guys today because he can not hold a knife anymore and he wanted them to still get their good food of yams. He said opening cans is even getting to much for him. The gnats are much better, still there but better and now there are roaches. Next Saturday we will treat for that. I just want to wrap him up and bring him home with me and tell him all will be good again in time. I could not ever picture my life without Pat and to face the struggle of just living day to day. Pat and I have no children so one day we will be in this same position, scary to think about.

So, lol, a lot of the reason we do not understand what Albert is saying is because his previous owner was a French teacher. He says the lords prayer in French every night and apparently in the morning too. He was just talking away this morning and me and Pat were hiding around the corner just listening and trying to figure it out. I am glad I gave up because I never would have gotten it! He mate that died, had a heart attack. He didn't hurt him as my mind led me to believe. Other than that, he has a typical back ground and other than a not bad or good diet and his jealousy, he is normal, French and healthy! No wonder he wanted those French fries so bad!

Had company over last night and Albert was not thrilled about it. He actually bit the guy. Our friend was loving on Lily and she did a quick snap at him breaking the skin just a little. He loves birds so it wasn't a big deal with him but then he approached Albert who was on my shoulder and Albert got him on the finger. Much smaller bite than the Too's but he said it was way more painful. I told him in my mother mocking voice, I warned you not to stick your fingers where they do not belong! To which Albert gave him a good loud laugh. Going to visit the previous owner today, maybe get Alberts back ground in more detail.