murfchck

So i think i may have this one beat! For some odd reason Gabby hates stuffed animals, I put a large stuffed bear on the counter where she lands to begin her journey to the frame. It isn't pretty and as hubby pointed out, "It really goes well with our decor, not!" But it worked last night atleast! I tried to just move the frame but then she went after the coffee pots and they are plugged in so i would rather her interest be with the frame. My fingers are crossed and gesh, it only took a little over a week to figure this one out! Maybe Gabby was a toothpick maker in her previous life???

I am in fear of that day. We had our kitchen gutted and re done a few years ago and I was told then to get what I wanted because it would be a cold day, well you know where, before we would be doing that again. The macaws have already started.

As dumb as this sounds, we had been thinking that Gus needed a buddy and then maybe he would focus on him and not us like he does and maybe help with the screaming. What kept running over and over in my mind though was "don't get another bird for your bird, get a bird for yourself because you never know." With that in mind we called a local rescue to ask questions about it. Big ol total no way, don't do it. lol We really knew that in our hearts but just had to hear it from someone else. She said it isn't that it wouldn't work, but it is a big risk. Said that Gus would more than likely just snap the new ones neck if it were female, and if male they would be fighting for attention. Said if we really wanted to that we would need to get a young one so Gus could adapt and the young one could grow up with him. We are in no way taking that chance and Gus will be our only Too-child. He is just such a handful, even clipped he is coasting off the stand in stealth mode and biting our feet. Instead of putting the laundry basket over him we are now talking about wearing the baskets on our feet. lol She did mention that a Too should not have any routine at all. Like during the day, he is just fine on his stand, doesn't scream, but the minture Bubba sees Pats car and starts saying his name, Gus starts screaming. He does this because when Pat comes in, he goes straight to the birds to say hello, from then on it is game on. They also get fed about the same time and go to bed about the same time. Even the macaws know when dinner is 5 minutes late, they join in the screaming. So as of last night, the schedule is no more, we are just going to wing it. lol

How fun it is to watch her!! Thank you for sharing!

Chew my frame once, shame on you. Chew it twice, shame on me. Chew it until the corner is gone, boy am i dumb for not moving it the first time!!! I guess since the major stuff like baseboards, door frames and window sills have been properly re-designed by Gabby, the next logical choice for her would be pictures frames. Gesh, i am starting to think i can not keep up with her anymore. Just when i think all my bases are covered, she finds something new to destroy. For this frame she got she went through alot of trouble to get to it. Over many stands, onto the countertop and over two coffee machines, under a bunch of funnys cut out of the paper ( to which she only chewed the last block of each strip, destroying the punch line of them ) and under items hanging with push pins! We actually talked about really putting crown and base inside her cage since her toys go untouched, it wouldn't be like we are teaching her to chew this stuff throughout the house because she already does. On the bright side, if i should ever need kindling to start a fire, i know who to turn to for assistance!

That was great! Loved it!

So, today is the tomorrow you wrote about!! I am with Kantana, i would be asking when can i bring Coco home! Things i wish i had known are foods they like, words they say, bestest toy they can not do without and words or phrases they say, also any habits that they are use to. If you don't get the answers, no worries, in time these are things you two will figure out by the body language, plus please remeber, what they love one day they may hate next so nothing with greys are set in stone. And don't worry when you put that brand new toy in his cage and he is scared to death of it, that is normal for them! lol. I always thought i had bad taste in picking out toys but in a few months they decided it wouldn't kill them and started playing with it! There is a great poster somewhere on this forum about a grey eating green pellets on Tuesday but if he ate them on Wednesday, they would kill him. It is the funniest thing i have have ever read, but so true on how greys think! Best of luck!

That nose picking is too darn funny!

Too cute! You must have a really calm grey that will wear a hat!

Oh, i am so sorry. I went through that date changing too and it is heartbreaking and maddening! It will happen though so keep being positive!!

Heehee, Bongo wouldn't walk or fly, he would insist on being carried. If i even try to set him on the floor, i swear his talons touch through my skin as his grip gets so tight.

Since she speaks alot of Spanish, i have taken to calling her miha. She actually calms down when i call her that, and will even stick her her beak out of the bars like she wants a kiss. However, i am not that easily duped, twice. She wouldn't let me clean her cage yesterday and it was hard cleaning the others because she was coming after me to attack! She destroyed a phone book and the paper is, and i am not embellishing this, half way up the inside of the center of her cage. It covers a branch that goes across. It seems i am back to phtttth, geek and weirdo now too, refuses to say my name again! She tugged my heart string, then quickly cut that string!

At least not by Cotay, she said my name yesterday! She still completely hates me, but now she can tell me and i will listen to her because i will know it is me she is talking too. "Ahhh, Lisa? Weirdo!" Not quite what i had in mind when trying to teach any one of them my name, but i will take what i can get, and really, i can't deny that i am a weirdo. I do live with 6 parrots!

That is too cute! Thank you for the update. It is always funny when have conversations with our birds before we even realize its them we are talking too!

LOL, thats why i yelled at the automated guy! The peeps on the other end have all of my informatiion and control my cable! I could see them being mean and switching me to the highest plan, then when my bill came in, bamm, payback time. I am a csr and get yelled at all the time, so i feel their pain, and also know they are yelling at the wrong person but sometimes they just need to vent.

Oh man. That stinks! I hope you get it soon.

You are very welcome! Lol

Yes, yes i do. Once they are up, my day belongs to them until i go to work to rest after the morning rituals!! Then when i get home, it belongs to them again so yes, i tip toe around. lol

You have a long road ahead of you, but you can do it! In our house there are (were) 2 of the greys that hate me. Both are older, one 22 Gabby and then Cotay who is about 12. Gabby, after a full year has started to accept me now. I can handle her and get and give quick kisses. Coaty however goes out of her way to bite me and strike at me. I do not try anymore to handle her unless she shows signs of being okay with it when daddy is not around. Otherwise she has to wait for hubby to get home to come out and play with the others. He will get her and hand her to me to carry her in the other room so hopefully one day she will learn that i will not hurt her. He also will have her step up on me during the evening time and i hold her for a few seconds then put her back to her safe spot on daddys arm. It is us building trust and chipping away the fear a little at a time. This we have been doing for a few months now and there is no change in her toward me, but one day there will be, i have faith. It is me who has to accept that i am not her "chosen" one or even close to it. All we can do is keep trying. I do not believe that punishing her by coving the cage is a good option for her when all she is is scared. You gotta work past it and get a good supply of ear plugs. Does she have a play stand that is away from her cage? A lot of birds have cage aggression and just despise having people near their cages and will act out when someone gets to close. There are so many reasons this could be happening but just know that when we get bit by our birds, 99% of the time, it is our fault. The other 1% is theirs when they just wanna bite to have fun! Good luck!

Yeah, mine is the same way. Start with the box of cornbread then add what you want him to eat. My basic is broccoli, carrots, green leafy stuff (beet greens, kale etc) corn just whatever really. Last time we added some diff type of seeds like chia, hemp, flax and some walnuts to it. They ate it up. If you add too much stuff and it gets too thick, thats is when i add baby food for the moisture. Hope that helps!

Hubby is such a goof ball he would really do it! Tonight he wanted to watch something diff on tv so he put on HSN. Started calling them when he saw an Amish built wall fireplace. He called asking, "is it bird safe? Oh you don't know, so will you ask the guy in the brown sports coat please, we have birds and i like the fireplace, but not enough to kill them. Oh, you can't ask him, who can you ask? Okay, so this is the guy in the brown coat on tv's cell phone number? It is the fireplace makers? Okay, Thanks" This went on for a while, i guessed his inner chid had come out and he was making prank calls, but then the doof applied for a credit card and tried to buy it. He got the card but thank goodness the number did not show all of the numbers but the final 4, so he couldn't order it... I still have scars from his last late night info-mercial buying spree where i about sliced my hand off on a mandoline cutter he had to have.

Yes, Cotay calls us servent in Spanish and also has called me by saying "oh waiter". To the others I am phttthhh.

LOL, Jeff- if you had been able to make it by they would have just sat like lumps on their stands! They do that to new people to lure them in. "Look how cute i am. I am nothing like people say, I am quiet and sooo sweet. I don't know what these people mean when they say i am loud. I am too cute to be loud." For over an hour last night Bubba repeated Pats name over and over and Gus with each "Pat" outta Bubba replied with "What?" Over an hour of this! All while Gabby is hanging sideways on our kitchen chair chewing the seam, and Cotay still in her room running around just waiting for me to dare to go in there so she could bite me. Pat did finally get to see what i meant when i told him that Cotay goes out of her way to attack me. I was cleaning the cages and of course Cotay was still in the room bc i can not pick her up yet, I was kneeling on the floor at Gus's cage and started feeling some pressure on my knee. She was clamped on the jeans grinding a hole in them. Pat walked in to see this picked her up and put her back on her cage. A few minutes later she had climbed onto his cage again and started pulling my hair out from over head. Again Pat had to come get her off me.

Bracing ourself for another wing clipping. Out of the 10 feathers we clipped, 3 are back fully and it allows him to fly from his stand to the kitchen. We had a foot attack last night. Since it is cold and we are in tennis shoes again, he thinks it is time to chew our feet. We are going to keep looking for the laundry basket to cover him with, like that video. So far the ones we found have the rubber on the handle and it wouldn't glide around. I can just see me and Pat showing up on those WalMart videos. We will be ones putting the baskets on the floor and pushing them around saying, "Nope, that one won't work. Get another one, Nope, that one won't work either." He has been sharing a stand with Oliver now. To avoid the collar on Bubba, we are trying very hard to limit Oliver and his time together, so Bubba has moved to Gus's stand. We had the bugger his own stand to keep him from sharing but he kept finding ways to get on the floor so, had to change that plan quickly. It is one thing to hear him fly but when he is in stealth mode, all feet are prey!

The timer on my oven is our sore spot. Bongo does that one and he does it so often that i ignor it now. Too bad about the stuff in the oven when i really am using it. Many a good meal has been lost.