neoow

Sounds like a great idea! I've done similar in the past with some grey owners I met on twitter. Two of us were from the UK, one in America (CA) and one in Japan. It was mostly the human's chatting away but all of our birds were around too. Alfie wasn't overly interested about being on the call, he was mostly flying around getting up to no good. And if he did opt to join in then he mostly just wanted to chew the tablet I was using. 😂

Hello and welcome to the forums! There is SO much information here which has been shared over the years so I recommend having a deep dive into some of our older posts. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. There are still a few of us around who would be willing to help where we can. Have you looked around local rescues as well? I know you want a younger bird but there are so many birds who are looking for a home these days and you may find some younger birds in the mix too.

I really feel for you. I know it wasn't an easy decision to make and I can only imagine how hard it is to keep being reminded that he's not around. I am sure he will settle in to his new home soon enough and make lots of new friends. At the end of the day you had to do what was right for you and for Snickers and those are the toughest decisions to make.

Happiest of hatchdays to you, Nilah! Loving that play area- looks like great fun!

I have no doubt how hard that decision must have been but I'm glad you have such an amazing sanctuary that you know and trust for him to go to. Years ago I was trying to make the decision about whether or not I was the right human for Alfie. Life had taken over and my free time was limited so I wasn't giving Alfie all of the time and attention he deserved. I agonised over the options of whether to rehome or not and it was awful to have gotten to that point in the first place. Thankfully it all worked out- I made changes and dropped some commitments plus I moved house and had a better space that worked for the both of us. I'm also very lucky in that Alfie is a resilient little guy and has been pretty quick to adapt to changes over the years. We all just want to do what's best for our birds at the end of the day and sometimes that comes with some heart-breaking decisions! I'm sure Snickers will adapt to his new environment and at least you know exactly where he's going and what level of care he will receive. It'll obviously take time for you to get used tot he idea of him going there and adapting to not having him around and I really feel for you for having to make that decision/change.

I got Alfie when I was 17 (20 years ago!) and I still worry that he could potentially outlive me. I don't currently have anyone that would willingly take him on. My sister has always been terrified of him. I hoped my nephew might take an interest and therefore be a candidate when he's older (and no longer living at home!) but I'm not sure he's particularly interested in animals. He's only 9 atm so that may change I guess. I'd much prefer to know where Alfie was going to end up- e.g with someone I know and trust. But I may have to rely on a sanctuary or a rescue and trust that they can do right by him instead. Euthanasia isn't on my radar as an option for Alfie. I understand why others may consider it so there's no judgement there.

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry to read this. 😕 I hope the police are involved and I really hope you get him back home as soon as possible.

Haha oh Greycie, you do make me chuckle!

Inara did check in a while back

As Greytness already mentioned- it is molting season! The white dander/floofy feahers are normal, especially after a big preening session. Alfie often sits on my knee and covers me in dust and floofs as he preens himself. Feather barbering or plucking would result in broken or damaged feathers and in the worst cases sometimes a bit of blood if they pluck a feather that's still growing in. You would start to notice bald patches appearing over time too.

Hello and a belated welcome to the forums! There are still a small handful of us around who check in regularly. It's great that you managed to find some previous posts/information about Timmy here! This place is such a great place for information and help but like you say, forums in general are all a bit slow these days. I personally much prefer this format than the likes of facebook groups that I lurk in. However life does often take over and I find it difficult to be as active as I used to be.

I'm pretty sure that's his go to response for everything I do!! 😂

20230101_204231.mp4 Alfie showing off his wave. Excuse the pine nut crumbs on the blanket- we'd been practicing colours shortly before this!

All looks good to me!

Have just donated via paypal. Thanks for all that you do, Kevin.

Ooo that looks amazing! Bet your birds love it!

Tyrion is a lovely looking grey! Welcome back to the forums! Do you have multiple birds? (Just spotted the two cages in the background)

Happiest hatchday to GreycieMae! Love the photos

Great work Huey! You keep that human workerbee in check!

I only started training a couple of years back. Alfie wasn't my biggest fan at the time so it helped us work together and regain some trust from each other. I must admit I've slacked off recently and we haven't done much training at all, but he still remembers everything he learned previously.

Haha sounds like she might have trained you instead of the other way round!! 😂

20221023_205345.mp4 Did a bit of training with Alfie this evening as admittedly I've been slacking on that side of things recently. We worked on "touch", "wave" and "spin". For the touch command, he just needs to touch the chopstick with his beak. He tends to grab it- but so long as it's gentle then I'll accept it. For wave he just needs to lift his foot up. I would normally cue this with a hand gesture as well but I had my hands full with the clicker and the phone, so I think that's why he was more hesitant on this occasion. And for the spin I just want him to rotate round on the spot. I'd normally do this one on a perch, but he seemed to get the hang of it just fine on the flat surface. I need to start adding recall training back into the mix as I haven't been doing this in a structured way recently. Alfie tends to pick and choose when he's going to recall and when he's going to stay put. Sometimes he opts to fly to me then go over my head or round me at the last minute. I'm hoping I'll get better results if I start doing more structured training sessions with him again.

What's yours is hers 😄

Happiest hatchday to you, Talon! 17 years young!

Yep, that's it exactly! Oof, sorry to hear about the holiday/hurricane. I saw a few videos and read some stories about it. Having never experienced a hurricane myself, it looked absolutely terrifying.