murfchck

What a beautiful way to remind Cricket you will be with him on his new journey and to keep him safe and warm. Your a great dad Ray!

Somewhere i have read that Cockatoos are a few decibles lower than a 747 airplane and i fully believe that. The umbrellas are second to moluccans in the loudness and somehow we have not gotten one of those, came close, but someone was looking out for us! I wish you were closer too!!!! lol It is funny to look back, our house was the neighborhood gathering point and now it is like someone put up an invisable fence, we hardly ever get together anymore, go figure. I guess they don't like the flying and the noise levels. hahahaha. The big cage switch has so far been good. Pat said yesterday that we got it right, i told him to hold on to that thought, they are still settling in and things can change without warning. I was in the shower this morning thinking about these great hearted people who want to start a rescue for birds who only have one or two birds, i think it should be maditory that all those thinking of doing this have at the very least 6 large birds that they care for daily for 2 years or even 3 before they open their doors. This is not for the weak at heart or for those who cherish their hearing or like their alone time. The smaller birds are a cake walk, the more there are of those, the easier. It is the big uns that get ya. The time required to keep them happy and mentally healthy will wear a person thin! I am lucky to have a hubs who has the same passion and shares in this or i would be nutso, in the rubber room drooling on myself. But i love them all to pieces! (Even Cotay who really thinks i am her personal chew toy! She let me scratch her head last night, yeah for small victories!)

My prayers are with you. This is a sad time, with your wonderful heartfelt stories Cricket became a family member to us all.

So, i am still dealing with the screaming and the flying off of the stand. We put the harness on her for a few minutes and then we can unleash her and she is okay but if we remove the harness, she flys off. She broke one harness already, chewed the clasp in half, as luck would have it we had a spare. Yesterday the two Too's got their baths and went outside almost all day, they loved it and i wish we could give that to them everyday, but it gets so stinking hot that we can't. As i had mentioned, they were sharing a double macaw cage, with a divider UNTIL Lilly decided that she should remove the feathers off of Gus's face on one side. Poor boy, still recovering from the hole in his head she gave him and his beautiful crown feathers are less than beautiful, now he has half a bare face. We had to do something and although i hated having Bongo in the double beside Gabby, we had to do the great cage switch again this weekend. So now the macaws each have their own double macaw cages without the divider, Gabby and Bongo share a double with the divider, Cotay has the handicap friendly cage and Gus and Lilly each have their own large cage that they can race across the top and have plenty of room on the bottom for their love of shoving things around, lol. I am now out of room officially!

Wow, I am getting old... I can not remember the gauge or size. I am suffering from CRS. Ours was nothing special i know because we didn't have to wait or order it. It is strong enough for the cockatoo's not to bend it and that is saying alot ( she, Lilly, broke the metal clasp on her harness. And by broke i mean it broke in half, not just a missing piece. Actually in half.) My only advise is if you are making multipuls is to allow room between them so no toes get nipped. We had used a side of the first one so we only had to wire three sides of the second one, bad idea... As for placement, i agree with putting it where you can see it from inside and can get to it easily if you have to hurry out to it. Also watch that afternoon sun, it is a killer out here. In the summer, the poor guys can only go in there in the morning and in the late evening.

To me it seems like the boxes scared him and when you didn't take his hints to you he kicked it up a notch by stress plucking and now the trust is not as much as it use to be. The biting is now a game, stop putting yourself in that position where he bites by not pushing him to step up and let him tell you when he is ready to be picked up. My guy will spend a few extra hours by himself sometimes before he calls me to come get him. Terrible 2's begin! Lol

I have to agree. Keeping him in the cage until he obey's just seems like it would be a huge set back. Trust is #1 with these guys and that, imo, seems like dominance not trust. No way would i put tape in the cage either. That sticky residue would not be good at all. It may seem harmless right now, how bad can one little piece of tape be, but over time that could easily gum up his system, one little harmless piece at a time.

Thanks, he is my little boy. I think back to the day he came to us and he sure has come a long way. Like Pat said, he was defeated and his eyes showed it. Now his eyes show happiness with a touch of mischief. He just cracks me up the way he tries to do something he knows he shouldn't, like pluck Bubbas feathers. He bends over ever so slowly, lifts his wing like he is going under it then BAM, he gets one of Bubbas chest feathers and sits upright with it hanging from his beak looking around like What? Why did Bubba scream? I was just minding my own business. And then his eyes twinkle. I am waiting for the day he looks at me and calls me a little shit, followed by a giggle.

I have to say that i do not think i have ever gone through a noticable molt, even with 7 birds. (eh, so 3 are pretty much bald) But since Oliver got his body feather, and a few new ones in the bald spot on his head, i have been picking up his feathers 4 at a time off the floor. All he does is shake his body and they fall out. In two days i have picked up 9 feathers, he has a bunch of new ones coming in but i didn't think he had that many feathers to begin with! lol Also, most of the time all he wants is Bubba but lately all he has been wanting is me! I am loving it!

I just pray that our greys don't learn those screams. Bad enough having the 4 of them, I couldn't imagine 7. Lol the macaw screams are few and far between though and just a few and their done. Can not say that about the toos.

They do but it is Bubba they always ask about. Maybe because he was there a lot for butt issue and he would sing an opera note when they messed with his butt. Lol he is our ham.

Haha, I am a dope. She wasn't doing her own therapy... somehow there is a hole in the water bowl. It was empty again this morning. Not sure how a metal bowl like that gets a hole. Oh well so much for my smarty pants girl. Lol

It sure does make me want to call in to work and go back out there to play! If I could just have birds with me all day every day my life would be complete!

I am lucky to know a very respected breeder of Blue Throat Macaws and she asked me to come to her home and help socialize her 11 week old babies. How could i say no? Gee play with baby birds all morning, what a hardship, lol. They are the cutest things, but i was told by the hubs that under no uncertain terms am i to bring one home. He keeps trying to tell me we are at full capacity here, thats why we are looking to move. We'll see, hahaha!

Had our recheck yesterday. She is doing really good considering. The doc was able to feel her foot for any breaks and said nothing stood out to him. He did say it could be her tendon so he wants her back in a few weeks to check her progress. We are to continue hydro therapy and her meds until we run out. We actually forgot her therapy on Sunday as our day was out of whack so she took it upon herself all day yesterday to do her own therapy by getting in her water bowl and splashing around. I had to put water in her bowl 3 times yesterday until Pat got home to do it for her in the sink. lol, she is just so cute. When they took her to back for her exam she said "I'll be right back, bye" When they brought her back to me she made the heavy sigh noise and said "all right", as we left she said "Okay, see ya later". While waiting to check out, their phone rang and Cotay had a complete phone conversation including the dialing of the phone and hanging up of the phone. She just talked her butt off yesterday! She must be feeling a little better.

Here is where we got ours. You will have to call them though, i didn't see it on the website but i know they have it. When we got ours it was like 147.00 for 4' X 100' roll. They will have all you need, the clips and the tool, clips were like 3 bucks and the tool for the clips was $10. http://www.mcdonnellfeed.com/

We got there at about 10:30 and there was only one of those hanging perches left that you got, the straight one with the little one attached, and we bought it so what time were you there to have gotten one? lol I also bought all of the larger fleece rings she had. I was trying to get the double macaw cage for a hefty discount but he would only go to 600 so i had to pass but told him if he didn't want to haul it home he could always give a call. That is how we got Bubbas cage and they delivered it on their way back home. (I was shocked to see a double macaw cage on craigslist for 750, used! I wanted to email them and ask if they were crazy. I got my other 2 on craigslist for 300.) The outdoor rope perches and ladders didn't go over well with the Too's or the greys but the big boys loved them! They were outside all day yesterday, we had to remove some of the new stuff before the greys were happy about being out there again.

2 of ours cough. First me, then Bongo then Cotay. We sound like a sick ward when we get going!

Haha, I wish I had known you were there. We spent about 3 hours there yesterday too. $600 bucks later I had to leave. So, those hanging wooden perches that you got, those are the ones we put together with the dragonwood perches to make that hanging stand in our bay window. BTW, i love that vendor and spent $300 alone just at their booth. She makes all of the toys there, they are not commercial so the prices are wonderful. Also Centurian (ms?) Cages booth is another we dropped a bunch at, we got the big rope perches and ladders for the outdoor aviaries. I was going to start a thread with pictures of everything we got as it covered the top of our ping pong table and then a picture of a lone tee shirt and say, "went to the bird mart and all i got was this lousy tee shirt" lol. There were a few vendors that didn't make it this year, one who i loved was Linda ( she uses a walker, i think she has MS ) and everyone said they were retiring. The booth called Busybeaks kinda took their place but they had their stuff priced so high all i ended up getting there were some foraging toys and the shirt. ( the shirt was priced pretty high but i had to have it since i get one at every show) And the table that sells just boings wasn't there either, Busybeaks had boings but their price was double what we normally pay, $14 verses $35 i had to pass. The booth where you got your atom, i had my arms full of stuff but when they went to check me out they only did cash or check and i had neither. I chased down hubby and he had 35 cash so i got some metal foraging things. I felt kinda bad since i have to get 7 of everything, some booths i cleaned out rows of toys with! Bill's booth ( the fleece things you got and the perches ) held our stuff there for us and it filled the underside of his table and he had no leg room! It took 3 trips to put everything in the car. Because we buy so much there with them, he gives us a nice discount so friend these guys and get to know them, all of the vendors are that way. It was only about an hour drive for us so we are planning to go again for the June show but Bill said they may not be there because he thought the date was the same as another show they are commited too. :-(

Oh does that hit home. With the four dogs, each have been asked to step up when they are jumping at us to get on the couch.

I have no knowledge of what to do but I do commend you for all your efforts to get him home with you!

I use vet tape also.

Here is a page from the Phoenix Landing "Nourish to Flourish" parrot cookbook. I didn't see onions listed, but we don't use onions here so that isn't a worry but garlic is mentioned and used in alot of the recepies.

It was at a sancuary we went to. They were serving the eggs and i told them i thought garlic was a nono and they said it isn't so, foolishly i guess i trusted them. My cook book is in my car but i think i saw garlic and onion in there, but i will check it today and let you know. I leave it in my car so i will always have it when i go to the grocery store. lol

And now i am back to being confused. With Olivers respitory issues, i was told to give him garlic atleast once a week. (a little in his eggs) Then i ordered the Nourish to Flourish cook book and it is in that too. Onions we were always leary of and since i am not an onion fan, it wasn't that big of a deal. I think any more i just stay in a state of confusion, the more i try to learn, the worse it is, lol.