murfchck

Gotta love this Texas weather. Wednesday we were in shorts and 70 degrees. Thursday got chilly and by the evening it was sleeting. I woke up this morning and if our pond didn't have a waterfall, you would never know one was there, there is a good 4 inches of sleet piled up. Snow day!!! Minus the actual snow. Lucky hubby took yesterday off to get my car fixed and couldn't drive in to work this morning so he gets a 4 day weekend. Eh, i am sure i can find lots of things for him to do around the house!!

So had a weird thing happen with Lilly yesterday and we are not sure how to take it. I was not in the kitchen and Pat had her with him and she was happily playing on the counter trying to get to the water coming from the faucet, just playing so nicely. I came in the room and she flipped out and got hyper active. Started grabbing at everything, tossing stuff and ran, i mean ran over to Pats drink and flung it off the counter, he had to do hold on her where he grabs behing the head to get her calmed down. I think i mentioned that when she is on her stand and i walk by she flips her wings out and pumps them at me, we always thought it was her trying to get attention, now i am wondering if thats it. She was really upset when i she saw me. Earlier, I had Gus on my shoulder and Pat had Lilly and she was flipping her wings and and trying to get to me, she finally flew off Pat and ran straight for me. Pat couldn't get to her fast enough and me and Gus had to run, normally he is hard to get off my shoulder but i went to his stand and he hopped right onto it as if he knew i had to make a quick get away. She is sweet as pie to me when i hold her and love on her but if i am not doing either of those things, she acts weird toward me and i am not sure how to take it. I mean does she hate me, or just acting that way to get more of my attention?

So last night when all the birdie butts were having their dinner, i noticed i was one cotton ball short. I went to the main room to find Pat and Lilly cuddling in the kitchen. He had her cradled like a baby just cooing. She saw me and jumped up and stuck her foot up. I reached over and she stepped right up and ran up my arm to my chest and put her head against me. I started crying a bit when i realized that this was only the third or fouth time i had ever really held her. I carry her alot but hadn't just loved on her. Pat pointed out that i was holding back because she is "paid" for yet and i was just protecting myself if anything should happen. He assured me we would take care of it after the first of the year. We are one of the families who have no medical insurance because it is out of our reach $$$. Since we "have" to get it, it is setting us back $397 each paycheck and Pat has to get a second job just to pay for it. I have been clueless how we were going to pull this off. We made the decision to just pay the fine on our taxes and drop out of the insurance so we can still afford to give our family what they need and deserve! They just better not bite us too bad where we need stiches!!lol

Our dancing had slowed down some when Gus moved in, he was scared of the movement but thats changing! We have a channel on the tv that is party music from 80's to now and i get to dancing and Bubba and Oliver will start swaying back and forth then Gabby joins with the head bobbing and then Bongo with full body bobbing. Bongo will stretch out as tall as he can then drop his body flat, he will throw in some head bobs for good measure. Gus has started to sway and bounce with us. Lilly and Cotay give us the "you all look stupid" look but we have caught Lilly trying to bust some moves when she thinks we are not looking! Gabby will head bob and smack her beak on the glass table or countertop if we snap our fingers to the music during the dance while Bongo makes the snap noise right along with us.

Yes Birdhouse, its helps! Lol. I think we are just to dumb to assume they wouldn't get along so we just do it. We don't give them much of a chance to argue! Lilly was our hardest because we were warned about introducing them a certain way. That seems to have backfired because it gave them time to decide if they liked each other! Those two, Gus and Lilly, are what we call daytime enemies and night time lovers. Lol

In one word, yes. lol.

So it was a beautiful day yesterday and our neighbor, who seems to stop by every day to visit Lilly, was out doing his Christmas lights. We decided to harness up the two of them and take them out for a walk. Lilly just loves this guy and he had to hold her, i asked him to keep a good hold of her leash as she felt and acted like she wanted to fly, he did thank heavens! As we were walking back home she took to the air. The leash is just the short one that comes with the harness so i ran along side of her for a good ways, until she turned directions on me in an instant. People were driving by and i could her them laughing. Mind you this is a big white bird, one guy shouted out to me "they are beautiful, are they macaws?". I couldn't help but start laughing, i thought to myself that even if i had the macaws out, he wouldn't know what they were either, lol. I could hear that same guy now, "Those are some birds, are they partially plucked turkeys that escaped Thanksgiving?" I do have to say that we still had an out to return Lilly if things did not work out with her here. That out is now gone as Pat's mother would NEVER allow it. She fell in love with the little bugger and held her like a baby while she was here. Lilly and Bongo were the only ones we took out of the cages that day and my neices son, 3 yrs old, held Bongo as if he had been around birds his entire life. (Bongo loves kids, weird for a grey but he does) Lilly was with my mother in law. Because they are flighted they had to stay in the room and our plans were to not let any of them out because we couldn't watch 100% of the time. All went well though and they will be happy when the holidays are over and they get their schedule back!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I am thankful for all of you on this forum who have helped me cope and keep my sanity! (well, whats was left of it anyway) I am also thankful that as i stuffed the bird and got it in the oven at 5am, that my fiddo's were sound asleep in their rooms and not helping me as they did last night! Last year were tracks in the mashed potatoes, this year a little extra flavor of drifting feathers as they did fly bys while i made the stuffing. Then a few of them thought i had too many cranberries in the receipe so they flew over to remove them. Such food critics!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Speaking of ducking, Gus took his first controlled flight yesterday. Too bad i missed it as did the hubby, we had both ducked! But when we did get brave enough to peek, he had flown through the house and onto his stand! ( for those who don't know, he would land on us then grab our skin for balance and this was mostly my neck ) He also did a great landing onto my arm, although i had been drinking wine which was why i had the inner strength to stick it out for him!

One thing i have noticed with a Too bite is that they really do not want to bite you. It is a last resort for them. Yes they will nip and give you the two hole vampire bite but they only really bite when scared, excited and when you are doing something they don't want to do.( OR if they see your feet, I now have had 3 Too's and met another and all 4 bite feet and toes, it is just something they do i guess! ) But after learning the body language, the nips and bites are far less than with our greys. My downfall with our Toos is that they are so loving, the hugs and cuddles are like nothing else, but if you show too much attention to them when you first bring them home ( which you will do because you just can't help it :-) ) you have set their expectations. So far teaching them to entertain themselves has been our challange. Both birds were cage bound so coming into our home was a shock to them. They are not in the cage very much and can go where they want and fly around the house. One thing about the flying is they have a big wing span and are silent when they fly so you gotta be on your toes, or they will be!

My fav is when Gabby chewed on a Lowes receipt that i needed to make a return, chewed almost all of it but the bar scan but then tossed it to the floor where my dog went and peed on it (marked it). I had to dry it off, put it in a baggie and go to Lowes to explain why they could read or touch it. They still refunded it but laughed the whole time as i stood there red faced.

In still shots they sure do. lol Things have taken a litlle change. Sweet Lilly has turned into a monster, Gus wants as far away as he can get from her. It isn't that she is mean or anything just needy. If she isn't touching us, she is pressed up against him to the point of pushing him off of the stand. I have a great video of him raising his foot and keeping her at a distance. They love each other from a far. She even bit me on my achillies night before last. That was a shock and the loud "owwww" i let out should have been heard around the world. She was just walking around and i was at the sink, Pat was keeping an eye on her, she was calm and not over stimulated but in the blink of an eye just got me. We did a little 5 minute time out and when i went in to get her out, she said she was sorry. She is by far our smartest bird, and picks up words quickly. Even knows when to use them. I love when i am talking to her and ask, "Ok?" she responds back with a "OK!" The phone rings and she says hello. Cotay does that too but her hello is quickly followed by "ahhh, weirdo". lol Everyone that has met her wants to take her home with them, i quickly say to them they need more than an hour with her or any bird to make a staement like that. Someone may take them up on it and then what?

So one day we will have a noodle/ pasta tree growing by their cages? Sure would save money! Oh the yam tree growing from the ceiling! My fav will be the apple (skin) tree growing from the walls! Oh and the peanut butter tree growing from each bar of the cage! lol

Bubba, Bongo, Cotay, Gabby, Gus and Lilly all came with their names. Oliver came with the name Jake but when he got here he had just the one row of green feathers over his eyes and he looked like a stuffed olive, ergo the name Oliver. We tried to rename Bongo to Stewart (from the SNL skit, "Look what I can Do" !!) Yeah, didn't work, when we would look right at him and say Stewart, he would look behind him as if to say, "Just who are you talking too? Your looking at me but that isn't my name, someone must be behind me!".

Hmmm, my entire flock was aggressive yesterday, I just posted about it in another thread. I thought it was because the cat had gotten herself locked in their room and was crying to get it out all night and maybe they were just tired. The full moon though makes more sense. Step ups were not happening and Cotay was lunging at me to the point she was pulling herself off the branch and fell a few times in the process. And this lasts for how long?? I may need to get a hotel!

For a change hubby has been taking all the pictures, i only have a few but this first one kinda shows how ratty she looked. She is the one closest, Gus is missing his chest feathers and she is a bit smaller than him. In the second picture, Pat is holding Lilly. A few showers later and its like a whole new bird. And she loves showers! Had an issue the night before last, somehow our cat got locked in their room over night, i got up at 5:30 and heard these God awful cries to find her at their door. Who knows how long she had been crying, musta been a good while, ALL the birds were grumpy yesterday and it was not a fun day here. Gus wouldn't let Lilly near him and every time i tried to put him on the stand, he would fly off, and she was screaming because he wasn't with her. (Again, not the loud screams yeah!!!) Then the macaws would scream because Gus flew over them and scared them. (Those were loud screams, lol)

A Too is very loud, i will be the first to admit that! We had Gus for just shy a year and Lordy, Lordy that bird screamed. Now that Lilly has moved in, he only screams at the normal screaming hours, morning and bedtime. Lilly on the other hand a started screaming like Gus did but not as loudly. It is so much better to have two toos in our situation. lol Unless you have the proper 24-7 they demand ( most of them anyway ) they are the toughest ones to live with! :-) That being said, boy do they cuddle good! Would trade them for anything!!! I am with you what ever you decide and have tried everything for my too so i could help out with lots of advise. ( Mostly that i got from Greywings! )

The last bird mart we went to, Pat found hollow logs that are pretty flat and just had to get them for her. They mount on the sides and she can rest in them or on them, they are pretty cool. Has she used them, heck no! She is so proud that she refuses to rest on anything but a very wide dragonwood prech. Pat is going to try the wood as you suggested in her new cage, maybe if it is in before she moves in she won't be so stubborn about it! We took Lilly and Gus out for a walk yesterday. We were worried she may not like the harness as she is the first too i have met that does not like her head touched. Easy as pie, she slipped it right on and out we went. A neighbor drove by and we were just chatting with them when Lilly and Gus started their own chat session. They just talked back and forth, head bobbing and moving side to side almost upside down at times and we were all laughing so hard at them, other neighbors came out to watch. They want us to post it on you tube, wish we could but when the camera comes out they just stop in their tracks. Lilly also took her first flight yesterday, right at my face. I ducked just in time but it scared her so bad she ran and cowered under a pillow like she was in trouble for it. Poor thing, doesn't get that she can be a bird and fly inside her house when ever she wants to. Gus does, why not Lilly! lol

Hahaha, yes you will to look at the papers again! :-) I have said the same thing to myself over and over and guess what, I am going this morning to get a cage for an umbrella that moved in on Monday. I went with my neighbor to a breeder who was keeping her new baby macaw because she had gotten it unweened and didn't know how to care for it. The breeder we went to was not the one she got the macaw from, just a friend of ours that was willing to help her out. When she had the bird to just content feedings, meaning she was eating on her own but still liked a few little feedings, we went for her to teach us as i am her back up. lol While there i saw Lilly, who i had met almost 2 years ago. I couldn't get her out of my mind and within a week she was home with us. I had 6 parrots already, i needed another one like i needed a hole in my head but the gut and heart said i just had too, she needed us! I still look everyday on craigslist too, so you will continue to read those ads, it is in our hearts!

And yesterday was another day, Lilly looked at Gus as if he was her dinner. lol She has what Pat calls a fiestyness in her eyes. That sweet, begging bird has an evil side through and through. BUT, for a first, we had quiet in our home. Pat was at the kitchen table, i was cooking and all the birds were out on the stands or the table or the furniture, where ever they landed. We heard this noise, then realised it was the water filling the ice maker in our fridge, we have not heard that in a long time. The noise level in our house kept us from it, then we heard the heater kick on later and had to turn the tv volume down to figure it out. lol It is those little things that you don't notice missing until you are able to hear them again. I saw an ad on Craigslist for a great cage so i called on it, a little out of our price range but after we started talking and i explained why i was in a rush to get a cage, she told me she use to be a animal cruelity officer and has many more cages and we could find one in the range we are looking. She said over the years had taken so many in that she finally had to turn to a sancutary for her big guys, so she has many cages to offer. We are meeting this Saturday. She was so nice, said she would really just give us one but this money is earmarked for buying food for her clan. ( from horses to little birds ) I can totally understand that!! I wish we could go tonight, but until Lilly gets into a bigger cage we want her out as much as possible. We are planning on Gus and Lilly moving into the double macaw cage then Bongo into Gus's old cage and Gabby will be getting the new one so we can fit it for her needs. She doesn't move around much in a cage and needs wider if not flat perches so her getting into a smaller one would be great for her. ( By smaller, it will still be at least 30 x 30 in that range for her to flap around ) We are such push overs!!!

It is official, i have lost my mind! About two weeks ago i saw a U-2 i had met 2 years ago. When i first met her, she was beautiful and sweet as pie. 2 weeks ago i saw her, she was in a 17"x17" cage. Her feathers showed signs of chewing and her crown had only 2 maybe 3 long feathers, the rest were pins coming in. She came to me as if she remembered me, sticking her lil foot out and looking at me as if she were saying, please let me out of here. I started crying, of course, and had to walk away. Later when i was telling Pat about it he called the lady to see what she wanted for her as he is a bleeding heart also. She agreed to let us take her home and see how things would work with Gus, if any issues, we could bring her back. Her price is $700. I have never paid that much for one bird before but she can not go back there. The birds are very well taken care of but because there are so many, they don't really get the attention they need or deserve. We went and picked her up Monday night. We have kept them apart but last night Lilly went to Gus and gave him a kiss, then went right back to her perch. They mirror each other, if one flaps, the other flaps, if one cocks the head the other does. We were told she was one of the quietest U-2's she has had, ha, if she was they we broke her. Her screams are at a lower decible, but still a scream is a scream. Gus however, has all but stopped his loud screaming since she moved in. lol. We do hope this works and helps both of them to be apart of a flock of the same species. I am trying to find a front door mat that says, Noah's ark in progress. lol

So this is scary to think about what could have happened. I mentioned that Gabby had to cross over two coffee pots, well she had stopped to chew the cords on them and i never noticed. It wasn't until yesterday when i woke up to get a cup and it wasn't on that i saw it. Now this morning there is a note on it saying "do NOT use please". I can not believe she didn't get shocked, or maybe she did and it isn't that my large stuffed bear i placed there that is keeping her away but that she was shocked and has decided she no longer cares to play there. And then yesterday, a neighbor stopped over to sing Happy Birthday to hubby and as she finished singing we heard shrieking from one of the birds, darted inside and Cotay was corned under a chair by our blind dog. Nothing happened but she was scared. Her first flight when we were not around, we think it is because she heard the neighbor who we got her from and either wanted to go see her or was scared she would have to go back. Scary day with the fiddos but lesson learned as we had gotten relaxed that they were not in any harms way. Gesh, what a day. TGIF!!!!

That's it!

I had them for two years, even in the winter. It was so bad our drinks had to be covered and cooking was a nightmare. I was at my breaking point!! Exterminators, even if they could treat for them with our birds, wouldn't guarentee getting rid of them. I tried everything from leaving the wine, soda and cider out covered with the holes, they just taunted me! I finally found this trap at a feed store, it is the size of a lime and looks like an apple. It is apple cider vinager with something else added in. ( i tried to refill with my stuff but it didn't work as well ) I had to change it out the second day because it was full already. 2 years with these things mind you and that apple thing was the only thing that worked. We also found a gap where the grout line of the tile and the caulk on the baseboards had left a little gap, they had been nesting in our walls and flying out where ever they could, we recaulked everything and keep those traps out now year round. I feel your pain in having them, when i see one now my heart stops and i panic! I will swear by those traps.

Just keep on letting her make the first move. With our Gabby, it took over a year for her to tolerate me. Now i can carry her around on my shoulder. I am still not her favorite person but we have mutual respect for each other. Cotay has been with us i think just a few months and just hates me more than anything. I can not go near her cage without her fluffing up and chasing me down. She has climbed many cages to get to me when i am cleaning the other cages, and will bite the snot out of me if i would let her, lol. ( she got my knee once and put a hole through my jeans ) She is okay with me only when she is on the floor away from her cage and her stand. She is more afaid of the floor than of me so at that point i am okay to pick her up. ( she only lands on the floor after a wild flight through the house mind you. She flys great, it is that landing she stinks at! ) All this being said, just keep showing the love and respect and one day she will open up and you will know trust or mutual respect has been made! You are doing great letting her make her own choices, just watch how quickly she trains you!! LOL Congrats to you both!