neoow

Agreed- I love the kings cage. I have the medium one with the bowls. It's incredibly sturdy and I love that it just slots together. It's so easy to clean as well. My only grumble is the plastic bowls that came with it. Alfie managed to crack one quite easily but fortunately the place I got it from (northern parrots) sent me out a replacement for free. (I was willing to pay for it, so kudos to them for excellent customer service!) I always prefer metals bowls over plastic ones. However, he hasn't cracked one since so it is a very minor grumble. I would actually consider a kings cage but I don't think they do anything as big as what Alfie has now. He is in the Liberta enterprise cage (1st edition) and it is the biggest cage I've ever found (other than an aviary). I don't think kings do anything that size. I would also probably have to remortgage my house to afford it if they did, as their stuff can be pretty pricey compared to others. But if the build quality of the travel cage is anything to go by, it would probably be worth it!

Wow that was an emotional roller-coaster of a post. I can only imagine how you felt when Odie sat on your shoulder and rubbed her beak on you. It's such a shame that Odie couldn't come with you instead of staying with your ex- but at least you know where she is and you will one day be reunited. She is still a very beautiful bird.

Ah ok- perhaps I won't worry so much about it then. I'm mostly going to be taking him on walks in it for now so we won't ever be out for that long. If I'm going anywhere in the car then I put him in his kings travel cage, as that's sturdier. If he's sat still then he's more likely to start chewing the back pack. The kings cage also has fixed bowls with small hinged doors so it's easier to put food and water.in and less likely to spill.

Hmm. Maybe the soil is not the problem and it just needs more water. It is in a very warm and sunny position.

Alfie has a very loud very piercing squeak which goes straight through you. He is a master of waiting until you are right next to his cage (and he is at ear level) before making it. You can't help but flinch because it hurts your ear drums when he's that close! We try and ignore the behaviour and will only respond to him when he makes some other (nice) noise. We make sure we respond to the favourable noises and ignore the loud piercing squeak. It has lessened but he still catches us off guard every so often. No idea where he got it from either.

Aw he's adorable! And look at him rocking his harness!

How much does it cost for a pirate to have his ears pierced? A buccaneer!

I don't have or intend to have a baby so I have three pets- two cats and my african grey parrot Alfie. My sister had a dog before she had my nephew and so my nephew has grown up with the dog. Whilst it took some time for the dog to adjust to the sight, sound and smell of the new baby he did settle reasonably well and they are best buds these days. (My nephew is now 5). However I think the dog did get somewhat neglected when the baby was first born. My sister was quite ill throughout the pregnancy and afterwards and my brother in law had injured his knee and needed surgery/recovery so the dog didn't get walked very often for a while unless my parents or I stepped in to help. After that though things settled back down and the dog is well looked after and walked daily. If you're looking for a parrot as a pet (or already have one) then you need to understand that parrots will suffer greatly if neglected in favour of the child. I do see a lot of pets (not just parrots) being rehomed because of a new baby, which is sad. Any pet still needs all the care and attention they normally do, regardless of a new baby being born. And obviously babies require a lot of care and attention themselves- so if it were me I would be asking some really hard questions of myself as to whether I was prepared to dedicate the right amount of time to a baby plus my three pets. I wouldn't want to be in a position where I feel my only answer is to rehome a pet because I failed at caring for them as well as a baby.

Well mine has seen better days but it's still (mostly) alive. I think I made a mistake and potted it in normal compost. I don't think they survive as well in compost? I'm guessing they need something a bit more gravel like- similar to a cactus. I'll have to do some reading and re-pot it before I accidentally kill it off.

Of course, that's the other issue - Alfie could easily injure the cats! I wouldn't put it past him to give them a good nip! Yes, bengals are something else. They are like no others cats I have ever known. I'm not normally much of a cat person as I tend to prefer dogs. My housemate convinced me to go for Bengals and I've never looked back. They are so energetic but also extremely loyal and affectionate (in their own individual ways). They are not lap cats but they love fuss and attention (on their terms). They never scratch or bite. They are so vocal with a range of different meows for different circumstances. There's the feed me meow... the fuss me meow... the worried meow... the sleepy meow... the curious meow... the 'chirp' when they can't get to something they want to hunt or play with... I could go on! I have a brother (Widget) and sister (Pixel) from the same litter so they can keep each other company when we're not home. They will be 9 in November. I'm sure I've posted this story elsewhere... but Alfie did get out one time when I was still living with my parents. Nobody was home and I guess I didn't latch his food door closed properly so he pushed it open and climbed out. I can't remember if we still had the cat but if we did he was outside anyway. The German Shepherd, however, was indoors with Alfie. My sister came home and didn't notice Alfie wasn't in his cage (despite the fact she walked past it to get to the kitchen). She was hungry and mum had left her some food to reheat so she opened the back door to let the dog out and started re-heating her food in the microwave. I think it was chilli or lasagne or something and she had some garlic bread with it. She let the dog back in (so the back door had been opened twice now) and turned back to pick up her garlic bread to see Alfie sitting there happily munching on it. My sister didn't really get on well with Alfie as she was quite scared of him (she's not a fan of birds). So she slowly backed away and ushered the dog into the living room. At which point Alfie decided to fly towards her. Apparently she screamed and legged it up the stairs - closely followed by the dog! (he was a big dog but so daft and soft!) She tried to ring me but I was at work and had left my mobile in my bag on silent. She then proceeded to ring my dad who was working in the middle of nowhere. He said "what do you want me to do? Ring your mother". She tried to ring our mum but couldn't get hold of her. She rung one of my mum's colleagues who didn't answer so she started to leave a voicemail message. Whilst she was waffling on about needing to speak to our mum urgently she crept back downstairs to see where Alfie was- who flew towards her again and landed on the TV. So the poor guy at my mum's workplace got a garbled message about needing to speak to our mum followed by a blood curdling scream as she raced back upstairs with the dog! She shut herself in her room and rang my work's reception. Reception passed the call on to me and I had to listen to my terrified sister tell me all about how she had been chased around the house by the parrot who was out and please can I come home NOW so that she and the dog can come out of her room and she can eat her food. Oh, and by the way- the parrot ate her garlic bread!! (she was most upset about that part!). Of course by this time I was in hysterics and crying with laughter (much to my colleagues' confusion). I had to explain that yes I would check with my boss and see if I could come home early to 'rescue' her from Alfie... who was still minding his own business and sitting on the TV. I then had to explain what had happened to my boss, who found it as funny as I did and allowed me to leave early to go and sort the whole thing out. I arrive home about 20-30 mins later, say hello to Alfie and ask him to step up from the TV and put him back in his cage, safe and sound. I then check the food door (twice) to make sure it's definitely closed this time and go and 'rescue' my sister and the dog from her bedroom. To this day she has never forgiven Alfie for eating her garlic bread and it's become a bit of a long running joke between us. Joking aside- it could have been so much worse. It was the first time Alfie and Ben (the german shepherd) had been out in the house together and they were all alone- potentially for a few hours. Thankfully nothing happened- I think if anything Ben probably just ran and hid. My sister did say he seemed a bit excitable when she got in and she just assumed he needed to go outside! Thankfully Alfie didn't take the opportunity to fly out of the open door the two times it was opened. So thankfully I was lucky on two counts- no injuries to either the dog or parrot and no escapee out the back door either! At least it's a story we can still laugh about.

I wouldn't trust the cats to be in the same room as Alfie when he is out of his cage. When Alfie is out, they have the top half of the house and Alfie gets the bottom half. (They are both indoor cats) As they are bengals they are really playful and energetic and will chase anything that moves. I once saw one of them leap a few feet in the air to catch a fly (and they managed it!) so I wold never risk them with Alfie. Similarly when Alfie was growing up with our german Shepherd I never let them interact when Alfie was out of the cage. I knew my dog wouldn't intentionally harm Alfie as he was as soft as anything but I knew it would only take one accident for one of them to get hurt. Similarly, our cat at the time was very prey motivated so I didn't want to risk it. It would make life easier if I could have them all in the same space but I just don't want to risk it,

We finally had one day of decent weather this week so I dashed home from work and went for a walk with Alfie in his backpack. My housemate came too to make sure Alfie was doing ok during the walk. I tied a cardboard bangle toy to each side of the perch and that seemed to give him a foothold that helped steady himself. He seemed quite happy throughout the walk - he even tried to join in with our conversations by mumbling incoherently in my housemates voice. He even asked for head scritches from my housemate a few times, which meant Alfie pressing his head up against the mesh and my housemate trying to scritch him through it. My only problem now is to sort out the water bowl and food bowls. They go into a little fabric pouch which then uses velcro to attach to the carrier, but Alfie can easily pull these off and throw food everywhere. I'm then left with a food bowl rolling around the carrier. The water bowl doesn't hold much water and even when I half fill it I still end up tipping it everywhere when I walk. So I need to try and find a way to supply water which doesn't tip everywhere. I did debate about a rabbit water bottle with the stainless steel ball-bearing but I'm not sure if that would work so well with birds?

Alfie used to peel grapes but I think he's figured out that the skin is edible too. It was funny because he used to hold it and daintily peel the skin off before consuming the innards. I've never known him to peel peas or corn though. Sounds kinda cute!

Happy birthday to Zuri for when it comes round! I have two cats as well as Alfie and they are bengals. I've had them since they were kittens and I was always watching them like a hawk when they were in the same room as Alfie's cage. Alfie grew up with a german shepherd dog and a cat so He knows how to rule the roost when it comes to other animals. The cats know better than to stick a paw in Alfie's cage. One of the cats occasionally jumps on to the top of the cage but as soon as Alfie makes any kind of movement towards him, he jumps off. Alfie is really good at giving warning shots - he will lunge towards the cat but will deliberately hit the bars to make a noise. The cats do not hang about when that happens and know they have pushed their luck. Alfie will only ever do the warning shots for the cats- if it was a human he'd go for the bite every time. I had one close call which was due to my own stupidity. I was cleaning Alfie's cage out and he was still in it. I pulled the grill out and gave that a good clean and put it outside. I then came back and pulled the tray out to change the liner and clean it. Alfie started moving around the top of his cage looking a bit concerned and I wasn't sure why. So I looked over and saw Widget (one of the cats) wandering around the bottom of his cage - I had stupidly taken both the grill and the tray out at the same time when I usually do one then the other. I only ever take both out as the same time when Alfie is out of his cage and the cats are shut out of the room. There was a split second of panic then I realised I could tempt Widget out with a toy, so I grabbed the nearest 'wand' toy and waggled it round at the other end of the room. Sure enough, Widget came running after it. I threw the toy up the stairs and shut the living room door then put the grill back in the cage. Phew! Goes to show we can always make mistakes, even when we're usually very careful!

Good news! Things are going really well with Alfie again. He seems to have calmed down and he seems to be over whatever was bothering him. I can sit on the sofa under his shelves and he will happily play without wanting to get to me to attack. He no longer lands on the back of my head to bite it. He will fly to me, but it's to be with me and to get scritches and attention. He will also check in on me a lot more regularly if I'm the other side of the room - just to see what I'm up to. The biggest problem I have now is me. My confidence with him was knocked somewhat with the attacks so now I'm a bit more hesitant when giving him scritches etc for fear of a bite. Not sure why as it was never my hands he went for. This is something I'm trying to work on though. Tonight he sat with me for a good 30-40 mins on the sofa and for most of that he was chilling out on my knee/leg. I did give him some scritches but I was still a little wary about getting bitten. So I just need to work on my own confidence around him again. I can usually ride a bite out because he doesn't bite as hard as he could, so I'm not sure what's stopping me. However, I'm just happy things are going back to how they were and he likes me again. 😂

Yeah the pellets were just to try and get him to eat something else that I can leave him during the day. But no joy there. I wouldn't ever move him to a pellet only diet.

I think I've mentioned this elsewhere but Alfie is an extremely picky eater. Anything new is either stared at or flung as far away as possible. His absolute favourite treat right now is cedar nuts - so I keep them for training and positive reinforcement purposes. He enjoys dried banana chips. He used to love fresh banana but has gone off that. Grapes are another favourite. His daily meals consist of a seed mix with dried fruit, dried veg and a few nuts. He seems to preferred dried fruit and veg over fresh or cooked - though he does sometimes eat sugar snap peas, mashed potato and cooked peas and sweetcorn. He did try some butternut squash and sweet potato recently as I found a couple of pieces with bite marks. But I don't think he approved because any subsequent attempts to feed him those two veggies ended up on the cage floor. I have tried every pellet that I can get my hands on with no joy. I have tried every trick in the book to get him to eat pellets as part of his diet but he resists every time. I will not entertain the idea of only ever leaving pellets in his bowl with no other food source as I think he would rather starve himself than try them. I persevere and try to present food in different ways to see if I can crack him. He seems to like it when I created a foraging tray for him and hide food in there, so I'm using that method to try and sneak some veggies in. Most still get flung though, with the occasional beak mark! I recently tried sprouting but that went down like a lead balloon. I am toying with the idea of getting a dehydrator but my kitchen is so small I don't currently have the surface space or storage space for one. But if he carries on eating dried veggies then I may have to go back to that idea. Not as good as fresh of course, but I'll take it!

Alfie just uses his beak to scoop and fling food 🙄😂

I'm sure the birds are training the humans instead of the other way round... Alfie rattles his food bowls when he's not happy with the contents. He grabs and pulls on them to make a loud metallic clicking noise which is highly irritating. I stupidly fell for this and would take his food bowls away for inspection/refill before bringing them back. Sometimes I'll change the food completely, sometimes I'll add a few tasty morsels on top. If it's fresh food that he's just refusing to try I will take it away, move it around the bowl a bit and bring it back to try and trick him into thinking I gave him new food. Either way, he knows this is a good way to get attention and will do it repeatedly. Even if he's just had his food changed. I do my best to ignore him now and only change the food when it actually needs changing. He's a fussy bugger and sometimes can't be bothered to rummage/forage in his bowl for his favourite bits. He knows if he does it long enough then I will come over though. 😂

I thought it would take me forever to get Alfie interested in his back pack because of the all the troubles I normally have convincing him to go in his travel cage. I was really surprised when he showed so much interest. I haven't been able to get him outside for a little while because the weather has just been rubbish. It's always sunny when I'm stuck at work and when I'm at home it's too cold, raining or REALLY windy. We also seem to have multiple seasons in one day quite a lot so you never know what the weather is going to do from hour to hour. Very annoying!

In which case then I'll just replace like for like as and when needed. It's a cheaper alternative and seems to do the job well.

Personally I would definitely swap them out, especially if you have spares handy. They could be toxic to birds if the metal contains zinc or lead. See: https://www.beautyofbirds.com/refinishingcages.html https://birdyrevolution.blogspot.com/2012/10/bird-metal-poisoning.html If you're able to change the hooks out yourself, what input do you need from your mum? I'd just go ahead and get it done. Cigarettes and aerosol sprays are a terrible idea around birds as they have sensitive respiratory systems... but I suspect you're already aware of that. I don't have much advice except to maybe arm yourself with some resources and try and educate your mum... however I do appreciate that this can be tricky.

Hello and welcome to the forums! I'm afraid I don't have any experience with egg laying as I think Alfie is a male (though have no actual proof) and "he" has never laid eggs. Hopefully someone else will come along soon with some more advice. However, please do know that none of us here are vets so if you have any doubts it might be best to consult with an avian specialist.

It's one from a website called northern parrots which is a UK based company: https://www.northernparrots.com/parrot-backpack-carrier-prod831300a/ I'm not sure it's quite as good as a pak-o-bird but they are trickier to get hold of over here. I have since located a website which will sell them - so if Alfie does start to put any holes in his current one then I'll get an upgrade to the reinforced pak-o-bird carrier.

Alfie loves to whistle. He's not a singer. (Not an amazon either, but figured I'd join in the conversation anyway!) He will copy whistles but does enjoy to make up his own tunes. He's never really learned to whistle any actual songs/tunes - despite my best efforts. He does do a good spaghetti western whistle (the good the bad and the ugly) though.