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Oh they absolutely do understand more than we might think. I get migraines and Alfie and my two cats are always a lot quieter and lovey than they are when I don't have one. Same when I'm ill- one of my cats won't leave my side when I'm ill. He just lays right there with me until I feel better. So I'm not surprised that Debbie was so concerned.

I'm glad Debbie has settled in well and is enjoying herself! Ah it can be so easy to upset them sometimes 😂 I made the mistake of trying to clean my kitchen countertop when Alfie was on the window sill. I have a spray bottle and I grabbed that and went to spray it and he just launched himself at it in anger. He's not a fan of having baths or being misted so I think he took exception to me spraying the worktop... maybe he thought he was next? 😂 I realised my mistake as soon as it happened and put the spray bottle away until he had gone to play somewhere else!

I'm not sure that there is a "standard" for leg bands. Certainly over here in the UK it's very difficult to find any useful information to help decipher or trace them. I don't think there's any specific information that needs to go on a leg band or any particular order so a lot of breeders tend to make up their own systems, making it harder to track where a bird has come from or how old they might be. The numbers/letters on Alfie's leg band were pretty much unreadable as time went on. I have a record from his 'hatch certificate' which says what was originally on it but I wouldn't have been able to tell you otherwise. I ended up having to have it cut off after several years because it was starting to irritate him and was making his leg sore. So I had it cut off and had him microchipped instead. I did keep it in my purse for the longest time but unfortunately I think it must have fallen out at some point as I no longer have it.

Obviously I can't say or do anything to make you feel better or improve anything but I really do feel for you. I'm so sorry.

Oh no, I'm really sorry to hear that. 😔 Was it mid journey or in your new location? One of my biggest fears is Alfie accidentally getting out and losing him. So I can only imagine how you and your flock are feeling right now.

I haven't, but will check it out!

I love that Sukei is helping to train Kasey! Alfie used to yell at our dog, Ben, all the time- but Ben knew better and just ignored him! Alfie now has two cats to yell at- he tells them 'off' and 'out' and 'no' but they don't listen to him either. Doesn't stop him from trying though!

Oh how lovely!

Well done Huey for keeping your human's in order and making sure they look after you properly! Lovely to read that he is so well cared for by his vet.

Love the photos! I've never seen a TAG in real life before either. Are they much smaller than the CAGs? I think Alfie is on the larger size for a CAG. The vet always comments how big he is. He's a normal weight though- just larger in size than others they have seen I guess!

Oh yes, Alfie loves to bite feet/toes! I have to keep them well out of his way! Although he seemed to get a bit confused one, started biting my big toe then regurgitated for it. So I think it was a bit of a love/hate relationship that day! 😂

Ah, he'll never go on the floor if I try and put him there. Sometimes he'll misjudge a flight and end up on the floor by mistake and have a little wander but for the most part he never really wants to be on the floor. I did let him explore for a while over the weekend. He flew between each window sill quite a few times and checked everything out. Then he came and had a snooze and some head scritches on my knee, so I think he's pretty happy with it all so far!

Interesting topic - I'm afraid I don't have any answers. I wouldn't be able to get my face close enough to Alfie to give him a proper sniff- but I do notice how he smells sometimes. I can't say I've ever noticed it changing. And I only have him so wouldn't be able to compare to any other birds.

Oh goodness, I couldn't even imagine!! 😂

Well I'm fresh out at the moment- so it's back to cardboard for Alfie. But hopefully someone sends something through the post too! My dad has a sailing boat and I bought him something boat related for his birthday once... so now I get sailing/boat catalogues through the post every so often... they always go straight to Alfie!

Alfie has had a busy day shredding a large bathroom catalogue in his cage today. I let him out of his cage this evening so he could play and get up to some mischief but he's obviously tuckered himself out during the day!

I'm having lots of renovations done to the downstairs half of the house. Alfie is being housed upstairs for now until it's all done. I'm going to be buying him a new cage as well when it's safe for him to move back downstairs. I've carried him downstairs a few times so he can see the room and check everything out. It's got to pass his inspections, of course! In this photo he was checking out the new flooring that is being laid this week. He also checked out the kitchen space now that everything has been stripped out. Can't wait for all the work to be completed so I can get the house back to some kind of normality! And I'm sure Alfie is looking forward to having a bigger cage back and a bigger space to play in too!

Well that's a puzzle for sure!

This is a real long shot- but your neighbours don't have any bright lights (e.g security lights) pointing at the room/window he's in, do they? I only ask because my neighbours are a nightmare for leaving their outside lights on... although they don't shine directly into the house they do get through the blinds and light up my ceiling in my bedroom. It's more irritating when their flashing solar lights are blinking away well into the early hours.

How strange - does he have a cover over his cage? I've not really had this with Alfie. He doesn't have a cover over his cage because he always pulled them off so I gave up on the idea years ago but he's normally pretty good at settling down and staying quiet overnight. He's also pretty good in the mornings as he'll tend to wait for me to wake up and start moving around before he makes a load of noise. At the moment, Alfie is housed in the room next to my bedroom so I have to walk past it to get to the bathroom. So he'll sometimes say "hello", "night night" or ruffle his feathers at me as I wander past and back again in the middle of the night. But other than that I've never really known him to make loads of noise or move around much overnight.

Funnily enough, I'm looking to slightly downsize Alfie's main cage this year. It's a liberta enterprise and is biiiiig! There's a couple of rust spots on it and the whole thing is too big for me to get outside on my own for a deep clean. Alfie has also been living in a smaller cage upstairs (his 'working from home' cage in my office) for the last few months whilst I renovate the downstairs half of the house. It's a rainforest dakota cage and he seems to like it in there. So I'll be looking to replace his big cage downstairs with something in between the two cage sizes. I'd still like to to be on the large size, as he does spend a fair amount of time in there when I'm out at work. I also don't think I'll go for a playtop option like I did for the dakota - one because he doesn't use it and two because it makes the cage inside quite dark. So I think it'll be another dome/open top like the enterprise one. I was looking at custom built cages too- but they never seem to look as nice as the rainforest or liberta cages. I also debated about scrapping the downstairs cage entirely and just having a java tree so he can come hang out with me... but then I realised that wouldn't work when I had guests round, as he wouldn't be the centre of attention if he was in his upstairs cage. I'm beginning to think Alfie might be a little spoiled 😂

Thanks Kevin, much appreciated. I'll make sure to donate as soon as I'm able to. Money is a bit tight right now because I'm renovating the downstairs half of the house. But as soon as I have some spare cash again then I'll send some your way. Thanks for all that you do to keep this place up and running.

I somehow missed some of these messages so just catching up now. Very sorry to hear Debbie had a seizure. That must have been scary for everyone! Things with Alfie are going well. I started some structured training with him back in November 2019 - started with 'touch' training where he has to gently touch the end of a chopstick to get a treat. If he bit too hard, no treat. This went well. He also learned to wave- he sort of knew the trick anyway but now its much more consistent. We also started trying to learn colours using an abacus style bird toy. He likes that one because he gets lots of treats! And we worked on recall training, plus returning to a perch. This really helped build back trust between the both of us and gave us a fun way to interact. Things are going really great these days. The training is still a little hit and miss sometimes- Alfie has to be in the right mood for a recall, for example. But it definitely helped improve our relationship- he lets me give him head scritches and will seek me out to come and sit with me and get up to mischief. My housemate moved out in April 2020 so poor Alfie is stuck with just me again. I think he's just making do until someone more interesting comes along. 😄 He absolutely loves my mum - pretty sure I posted about that somewhere here. He goes all gooey and lovey for her and will sit with her for aaages getting loads of head scritches. It's very cute. I'm not on that level with him but I'll take what I can get! 😂 He's also getting pretty good at letting me know when he doesn't want to step up without biting. Previously if I offered a hand/arm and he didn't want to step up then he would just bite instantly. So I used to get him to step up on a perch instead. We turned this into a training exercise too- if he stepped up nicely he got a treat. He reliably steps up on to a perch and nowadays I can offer my hand/arm and he'll either turn away or walk away if he's not ready to step up. This is his polite way of saying 'no, not yet' instead of the instant bite. I know to back off and leave him be for a bit. Sometimes if I give him a minute then come back, he'll step up fine. Other times I have to grab a treat for him or use the perch instead if I need him to move sooner rather than later. So it's going so much better than it was when I last posted in this thread.

ooo please post photos when you get your new arrival! My family had a german shepherd growing up. We had him for 13 years and was dearly loved... even though he did have a real stubborn streak! Alfie grew up with him when we were still living at my parents house.

Haha yes, I had a similar thing when Alfie was young and I was still living with my parents. My mum would call up the stairs to me and I would respond. Alfie learned my response. So my mum would call up the stairs and Alfie would respond with a very stroppy teenager "WHAT?". 😂