murfchck

Here is Cotay, she is my nudist grey. They use to put a cone on her also and as soon as it was removed, she pulled them out again. I know this went on for years before she came to us, now she has a lot to destroy instead of her feathers and oh so slowly a few have come in completely on her neck and back. Garcia will have ups and downs, just make her comfortable with the dreaded aloe misting for the itchies! lol

I forgot to post some pictures before we started the cleaning, but even now he is still a little messy head!

Yeah! I am happy for you both! Happy dance time.

I have a nudist colony at my house, your little girl is welcome to vacation here cuz she would fit right in! 4 of 7 are pluckers and 2 are bald except the lower wings and tails and one even has half his head bald. She really is beautiful and will flourish in your care! Nancy, she got got a bath. She isn't sad, pissed maybe but not sad. :-)

I will do that. I just saw a cockatoo feather shampoo on Kings Cages website, is there really such a thing? lol Got home to late to give the bath yesterday, too cold out and i didn't think he would dry enough before bedtime so we are going to try again today, since it is Friday maybe they can stay up a little later and let us sleep in tomorrow. I can not remember that last time i got to sleep in other than being sick, ahh, so nice to dream of. Poor Lilly, she just doesn't learn. Had to harness her yesterday, but after we did, Pat unleashed her and had Gus with him and i could hear Pat telling Gus he has a dumb girlfriend. Mind you, she knows her leash limits and so i looked over and she was hanging off of Gus's stand, upside down flapping her wings like she was stuck there. That would normally be where her leash would stop her, but she wasn't leashed! On a side note, we found a song that makes Bongo dance by just singing the title. Jungle Boogie! It is so funny to watch him. He got to explore the kitchen countertop last night and boy was he helpful getting their dinners ready. He would throw all the bowls off except his, i would distract him for a moment but saying Jungle Boogie, he would bob his head a few times and then go right back to cleaning off the counters. He now will go to Pat without much trouble which is nice, or i should say up until last night he would go to Pat but since he was so playful (which is rare for him) Pat got a little excited himself and thought it was time to see if Bongo would go on his back like the other greys. Uhhh, no, Bongo is not a back bird and the screaming he did showed Pat beyond a doubt that he will never get to try that again!

We will give it a go tonight, thanks!

How do we get Gus cleaned up from his accident with Lilly? From the blood to the ointment his head feathers look nasty and won't clean up with just water and he grooms and rubs it all over. Now his wings and tail are turning greyish. We would use peroxide when we dressed the wound but it doesn't clean up the greasy stuff either. I bought some Dawn and thought i could just dab it around but for some reason my gut is saying i shouldn't do that. (diluted of course and it is the original blue dawn)

Cotay will only step up for me if I put a dish towel over my arm then she is okay. The step up stick sends her into a fitted rage too so try the towel first. Who knows why she won't just step up but I get bit hard if it isn't there. Lol best wishes today! Ps. Bongo has a weird growing beak also and yes, dry mouth does happen with him.

The harness thing has been going very good with Lilly. I shouldn't say that outloud but... We put her on the stand and if she flys off, we put it on her, after about 15-30 minutes we unleash her but leave the harness on and she stays there, if she flys off again, the leash gets put back on, rinse- repeat. She was on her stand from 2pm yesterday until about 7:30 and only flew off once!! That was when daddy came home, she got excited. Fingers are crossed!

So, just for the heck of it, we went and looked at another house yesterday. Keep in mind that we wouldn't even be considering this if not for the birds. We found our dream home, sat on the porch of it for an hour, met the neighbors, lol. Built in 1908, even has a widows peak. It is funny that it is our dream home but when we were looking in the windows we would say, oh that room would be perfect to set the greys up in or Oh, that would be percect for the macaws, Gus and Lilly would love that area.... lol We are without a doubt, a slave to our flock!! We put fresh mulch out in the front late yesterday and then sat on our front porch, hands bright red and hear a knocking, there is Gus at the front door wanting out. As tired as we were, we washed up and harnessed him and went back outside, a few minutes later there is Pat with Lilly.

All of ours are doing that right now too. Bongo, who is our chilled out boy, never a problem is being stubborn as all get out. There is one area of his cage that he knows if he goes to, we can't reach him. So now whenever we enter the room he dashes for that area then climbs to the top of the cage and will come to the front and start his head bobbing for me. I play with him for a bit like that then just leave him to call me when he is ready to come out and sometimes that has taken hours, other times just minutes. Sometimes there has to be cheese involved to lure him out too, but we always let him choose. Last night we went out for dinner and when we got home, he ran to the door of the cage lifting his little foot, i brought him out right away and we sat and watch tv and he got lots of loving. This is rare for him to allow me to touch him, but that was all he wanted so of course i obeyed his wishes!! What was funny is he even let my hubby pet him, in three years Pat has never touched him but for the feet to move him around, and hubby couldn't believe how soft his feathers were, lol. He has 2 greys that only want him and their feathers do have a different texture, not as soft. Sorry, i went off course but my point was that changes are in the air right now, lol.

Sorry, i was excited that we found a way to keep her from jumping off the stand and had to tell someone! So let me explain a little. We put her in her harness and attached the leash making sure there was no way to get tangled or hung up but rigged it where it only allowed her to move freely on her stand. The spot she jumps from she couldn't reach so she couldn't jump. She tried once and to say she was shocked that she didn't go anywhere is an understatement. We spent several hours praising her for being on the stand and she loved the attention it brought her, we knew it wouldn't work quickly though but had to try and let her off the leash to see if she even gave thought to it, as soon as it was unhooked, she jumped. She is a work in progress. I would love for her and Gus to be outside, that is where they are happiest but being in the city and near a school and having an apartment complex behind us, i am fearful something or someone would harm or tease them when i wasn't there to watch. Now the house we are looking at has outdoor cages that are equiped with misters and fans for the hot days so they will be outside for sure and in their element! After looking at our credit scores though, i am very doubtful this will be happening. :-(

We won. I have been singing we are the champions all evening. We harnessed her to her stand. I will NOT advise that to anyone who isn't right there to monitor but we are and it is working! She has room to move around it but can't jump off!

We tried , okay hubby tried, something new with her today. Again, she will not stay where we set her down and flys to where ever we are so after learning how well she flys Pat would scoop her up after she landed and toss he back in the direction of her stand, she would fly to it and land perfectly. ( she really had us fooled about her flights and landing ) He figured one of two things would happen, she would hate it and stop jumping off or he would wear her out where she would be too tired to keep jumping. Again, she had us fooled, she loved the new game and Pat got tired of bending over and tossing her LONG before she got tired... Now what???? Positive reinforcement is not even making a dent with this girl, time out provides nothing so short of clipping her wings some like we did Gus, which for her wouldn't do anything since she jumps way more than flys, we are lost. I can't/won't keep her locked up and with Texas summers she couldn't be outside as much as she is now in the 80 degree temps. I am starting to panic about what we are going to do. I do still have that laundry basket... lol

I have not tried the solid yet, i usually mix it with their noodles or in sauce of some kind. Funny, i know when the cockatoos eat it, the first time i saw their face after red palm oil, they got a complete physical to find out where the blood came from! lol

Tomorrow is the day! I am excited to hear how it goes, so i can only guess your excitement! Best wishes and i will be thinking of you all tomorrow!

Best wishes for a great new family member!

Poor cockatoos, they didn't get to come out of their cages yesterday at all. I spent over 3 hours in their room cleaning cages but neither would step up to move to their stand and because i was in the room I couldn't just open the cage door so they had to stay in. I kept trying but nope, they didn't want out. I guess it was okay, atleast i could focus on cleaning and not stopping every second to see where Lilly went or who she was harrassing. lol I think that was her first time since comng here that she didn't get to come out and she did not like it at all.

All are invited!! Miss Lilly, who we thought flew poorly, had us fooled. She was on the kitchen table and something startled her. She flew though the living room and did 2 sharp turns to get to the bird room and landed on her cage. This was over the macaws who were playing on the table in the living room. I guess her jumping and flying low and landing with a slide is just fun for her because that is all we have ever seen her do. Now we know better.

Gus and Lilly were out in the aviaries yesterday, seperated of course, and Gus was actually flying around in it. Since we have built them, no one has really done any flying. The greys will on occasion, but that is mostly when it is time to come in and they don't want to and they take a shot flight to another area. Pat has been depressed about it but after watching Gus, he is excited again to start building the others! However that is on hold until July ish. We have found a house in the country that is perfect for our family, but until they get an apprasial we are in limbo. We are starting to get our ready for the market, baseboards, door frames and scraping the unknown food particals off the windows and ceiling ( boy we got new lightbulbs and they really are bright, i am seeing things that i can not believe i missed! Going to be a spokesman for Cree daylight bulbs for a second. These bulbs are led and are wonderful. Swapping out all our CFL's for them, i did not know that the CFL's had a flicker to them that the birds can see and was told that they can drive a bird batty. We have done the ones in the bird room and the evening screamfest has calmed down some. I can not say it is from the bulbs but hey, i can not say it isn't either. They are $13 a bulb so hubby keeps moving the other 4 we have from room to room until we can get more.lol) Back to selling our house, it will be a hard task, having a realitor showing the house with 7 parrots in it, we are trying to see what we can do with them while it is showing. The house we want is 45 minutes away or i would move them in with them since she has oh 60 or so of her own birds! lol She is a well know breeder and her hubs got a new job out of state so we are looking at a perfect house with ourdoor flights and training flight cages to teach recall and such. There is a nursery, and sick room and holding room for newbees. Best thing, all the window sills are granite, lol. They got tired of replacing the wood! lol Fingers are crossed this works out! Gus and Lilly would be in heaven, not to mention the macaws. The grey's, eh, as long as they are with us they are happy!

Lol at game night at Nancy's house!

Cotay lets hers come and go. I have just come to the realization that although she is beautiful with the feathers, she is just as beautiful without. Plus with 2 other greys and her, it makes knowing who I am chasing around a little easier. Lol

Tried salmon and no go.

I never thought my husband and I would be a home for wayward birds, but we are. With 7 of them now, 6 who were rescues, we understand Ray's words. I have had people who have wanted purchase a few from us, and one who i let Cotay go home with after i had made the arrangements to bring her home myself and I am going to add that birds are not a good fit for everyone. Cotay is back in our home now and isn't going anywhere. She strikes at me, tosses the food i hand to her and to get her to step up without a towel over my arm is a blood bath waiting to happen, but knowing she is scared and not fully trusting of me yet makes the little steps big victories! We are also looking to move out to the country, after 25 years in the same house which has now been taken over by birds, it will be so much better for them to have the room to be birds. It isn't just an attitude change to rescue birds, it is a lifestyle change. Kuddo's to all who take this commitment on!!!

Okay, so the post i wrote this morning is not here but thats okay as the tides have changed. Just like the Texas weather, Gus and Lilly hit a turning point. Today while Gus wouldn't come out of the bird room, Lilly had been in time out so they were in the same room. Gus came out to the baby gate and sat there, i guess Lilly wanted too also. She managed to get out her food dish door and joined Gus. There they sat, very peaceful. We, out of fear, seperated them. Later on tonight, Pat just said what the heck and put Lilly on Gus's stand since she wouldn't stay anywhere else. She groomed him and he loved it. Talk about your puppy dog eyes, Gus had em. All was going very good until he nudged her to the edge and she stumbled and grabbed him for support. He kinda got defensive and the foot went up to ward her away so we seperated them again. But what a difference in Lilly getting to be with Gus. My post this morning was about getting baby formula and feeding Gus. He is showing a loss of weight since his injury so we want to be sure he is getting what he needs. He must need alot, he ate 90 cc's... Poor guy was hungry. Lilly ate about 60 cc's. Skipped tonight as we don't want him dependent on it but will do it again tomorrow. He did eat some cottage cheese and peaches tonight, peanut butter this morning. Yes, they are spoiled. lol