neoow

Blimey! So sorry to hear of all your troubles. I hope Cotay heals quickly.

Evening all, I finally managed to save up enough spare money to get Alfie a new travel cage. Previously I was using an old cat carrier... but getting him in it was a pain and there was no room for a perch. So I got him one of these instead: I'm REALLY happy with it. It's lovely, really well built and exactly what I wanted. Alfie wasn't so sure of it at first, but I managed to get him in it last week and took him with me to visit my parents. I'm planning to take him there semi-regularly... I have to take him when my sister isn't visiting at the same time because she has a 8 month old baby (who could pull himself up on furniture and potentially tip the cage over) and a rambunctious Staffordshire Bull Terrier who would frighten the heck out of Alfie. Alfie settled amazingly well once we got to my parents house. He's not great at travelling and constantly moved round the cage- mainly because in the past he's only ever been in the car to visit the vet or go "on holiday" (as the carrier wasn't big enough to leave him in for longer periods of time and couldn't fit two food/water bowls in). So this is a new adventure for him. He knows my parents as he grew up in the house around them before I moved out with him. So once he recognised where he was and who they were he was ok. A little on the quiet side but he did start chirping and whistling later. He also met my uncle and my uncle's friend who were round to have a band practice. So my mum had some company from Alfie whilst we were out in the garage practicing some songs. I haven't asked my boss yet but I was thinking about maybe taking him into work a couple of times with me too- I work in a school so it would have to be during the holidays so there's not thousands of kids running riot round the place. The whole idea of getting the cage was to try and let Alfie do more things with me and let him have a change of scenery every so often. Once we finally get some better weather (hah!) then he'll also be able to come and sit outside with me in the garden. Except now he'll actually be able to see more of it and stay outside for longer because he won't be stuck in his little cat carrier anymore.

Do you ship to the UK?

Thank you for this. I lost my nan almost a year ago now (it will be a year on 29th August) and it is the hardest thing I have ever had to deal with. She had dementia so it was difficult to see her deteriorating but her old self was still there and still shone through from time to time. She suffered from a minor stroke and had to stay in hospital for a few weeks. It was then that she had to be moved to a home as she was no longer able to look after herself. It was a heartbreaking journey but we made sure that she felt loved, safe and secure at all times. When the dementia caused her to see things or hear things we just rode it out, let her talk and waited patiently. There was no point trying to tell her that she was wrong or that whatever it was she was seeing wasn't there because to her it was. It was all real for her. She then suffered another stroke and ended up in hospital again. This time it was worse. I still kept hoping beyond all hope that she would fight back the way she had from the first incident. She moved to another home- they knew another stroke was coming and thankfully managed to get her into a lovely recently opened home. The staff were fantastic but it was just a matter of time before the next and last stroke. It was difficult to comprehend that someone I had loved and respected was in this situation- just a shadow of her former self. Yet still- her true personality would shine through. We had some moments where her sense of humour came flooding back, even if only for a few seconds. Or that smile. Oh that smile. We were all there for her after the last stroke. She held on long enough for all of her children and two of her grandchildren (myself and my sister) to be with her. She was a stubborn old soul at the best of times and proved it then!! Her three children didn't normally get on. But oddly enough, they were fine that day. For the first time in years they were able to sit in the same room and laugh and joke (even at such a rough time). She held on and she waited for that. Family was so important to her. She did everything for family. This was no exception. She only passed when she knew that they would be ok. That they would get on. When we all said we loved her, were so proud of her and that she was free to go because we would all be fine- that was when she passed. As if somehow she knew. It was the hardest day of my life. I have struggled to deal with it- watching a loved one pass away. I bought my first house this year and I would have loved for her to see it. She would have loved the garden- she always loved gardening and my garden is lovely. My sister fell pregnant at the beginning of the year, due September and I know my nan would have loved to be involved- to see her great grand-son. The only way I can carry on is because I hope that she is able to see how we are doing and that she is proud of what we have achieved. I know she is at peace now. I know she hasn't got to battle anymore. But it's still hard to know she has gone. I'm sorry. Your words struck a chord with me. I haven't really spoken to anyone in depth about this before. I guess I'm not quite ready yet. I haven't allowed myself the time needed to grieve. I threw myself straight back into everything after my nan passed and sometimes, when things slow down, it sneaks up on me and catches me out. Like now. So thank you for these words. And apologies for my ramblings above! I just started typing and couldn't stop.

Alfie learned the sound of my housemates phone when he gets messages. It's a Samsung one which makes a sort of water drop noise. Alfie seems to associate that noise with my housemate as he will start making it whenever my housemate enters the house/room. Alfie is very good with noises. Picks them up extremely quickly. He also likes having phone conversations. When I'm on the phone he sometimes joins in saying "hello?" "Yep" "Alright then" alongside lots of mumbling and then "byee!" I find it hilarious. When I was living with my family Alfie unfortunately learned burps and uh... other windy sounds... from my sister (she was terrible for it). Now that's the type of sound he associates with my sister. Whenever she visits he starts burping at her!! My mum wasn't impressed when Alfie started associating the smoke alarm sound with her. She went through a week and set it off about three times whilst cooking. Whenever she passed his cage Alfie would then mimic the smoke alarm! Needless to say, she didn't find it as amusing as the rest of us did hehe.

Thanks Wingy, will look into that model/similar models too and see if it's available where I am too. Thanks for the advice with the velcro. I'm only going to have the windows/doors open when I'm in the room with them- if I leave the room I'll shut the windows as I'm paranoid haha! I'm getting velcro round the whole frame as well (rather than just in patches) and apparently it's quite strong stuff. I spoke with a few other cat owners who have used them - one had four cats and had used the solution for a few years now and hadn't had any problems. So hopefully I'll be ok with it - but will be watching them like a hawk anyway, just to be on the safe side.

Hi Dave, thanks for your response. I do sometimes have a fair amount of dust flying around- you can see it when it catches the light. I'm just conscious that it can't be great to be breathing it all in- especially as the two cats are indoor only so I can't have windows wide open for fear of them getting out. I also have a new housemate who seems to be a little bit more sensitive to it than I am. He gets a bit snuffly and sneezey if he's in this room for a long time. So I was thinking an air purifier might help to get rid of some of the finer floating dust. We're also going to be putting some netting over the windows/patio doors which is velcro'd round the edges so that we can have windows/doors open and the cats/Alfie won't be able to get out. So I think that will help get some fresh air into the place as well. I regularly clean all the surfaces, floor and Alfie's cage to pick up all the dust that's settled and I don't mind doing it at all. That's not really an issue to me as I've grown up with animals all my life so expect them to be messy! I'll do some more reading/research before deciding to get one. So long as I discount the reviews where the person obviously expected it to miraculously clean their house for them, then reviews seem to be good so far.

Hello all, I was looking into Air Purifiers and doing a bit of research. I've seen/heard of them before but didn't know if they actually work or are a bit of a gimmick. Does anyone here use an air purifier? If so, what are your thoughts? Do they seem to make any difference? What make/model would you recommend? I'm currently looking at the Heaven Fresh XJ-3800 which has some good reviews. Most of the negative reviews seem to expect it to perform miracles and absorb every speck of dust in the room so they don't have to tidy so often. With Alfie and two cats, I can't see me having to reduce my cleaning schedule at all haha! Edited to add: Apologies if this was the wrong section to post this in- wasn't really sure where it belonged!

Thanks for the advice! My sister recently bought a dog run so I'm waiting for her to send me some info to see what other products they do and if not, whether we could adapt the dog run into a bird safe environment. I priced up a 8ft long, 4ft wide by 8ft tall cage from the site I mentioned in my earlier post and it came to a little over £500 including VAT and delivery, which I didn't think was too bad. It was a three sided one with a gate, so it would fix to the back of the house (in front of the kitchen door) and then I would be able to get out of it into the garden if I wanted to (but do have patio doors as well if Alfie is already in the enclosure). It will be a little while before I can do it as yet- I'm probably looking at getting it sorted next Spring, unless some extra money happens to come my way. I'm just trying to work out some approximate proces and possible suppliers for now.

Hahah that's brilliant! When I was living at my parents house my mum/dad would yell for me and I'd usually answer with a "what?". Alfie soon picked this up and would either answer with "what?" on my behalf or just start shouting for me instead. Sometimes he would put both together too. Hehe

Fantastic idea! Unfortunately my cats would love that a little too much though! When Alfie was younger I had a photo album that was unused so I took some photos, kept his hatch certificate and other info and also put a few of his feathers in there.

Wow, amazing photo!

I recently made a drastic change to my hair. I have had it long and curly for as long as I can remember (and as long as Alfie can remember too, so that will be 11 years at least!) I got so fed up of it that I had most of it cut off. It's now in a very short, straight style. It didn't occur to me until I got home that Alfie may not like the change and might not recognise or be very happy with me because of it. Fortunately I was very lucky. I whistled and said hello as I came into the house and slowly crept round the living room door, chatting to him. He wasn't at all bothered! I think they broke the mould when they made Alfie. He's not really that change adverse at all like some parrots can be. I'm very lucky in that respect, I think- else he would probably still be in a grump with how different my hair is!!

I fortunately haven't had this problem. I don't think my wardrobe is varied enough- I'm quite a plain Jane hehe. However, it is really good advice because I imagine it could also apply to accessories or other changes which we would normally think are insignificant (like the example of nail varnish). Thank you for sharing!

Yes that's why I liked this kind of solution, Ray. I am not a handy person at all so didn't really know where to start if making my own. The total price also seemed quite reasonable compared to other pre-built solutions.

I couldn't see the images from the other forums as I had to sign up. Now off to bed so will take a look tomorrow. Murfchck's is very interesting though and very similar to what I'm hoping to achieve, I think. I am limited on space as my garden is small (and an odd shape) but I think it would be very beneficial if I can get something outside for Alfie to explore.

Aaah I see. That's useful, thanks. Will have to look in some DIY shops and see if they have something similar.

Hello all, I'm looking to see whether it's possible to install an aviary in my back garden so Alfie can sit outside with me when we finally see some nice weather. I don't have much space but it could join on to the back of the house around the kitchen door. I have a double patio door as well so I would still be able to access/exit the house without having to go through the aviary. I found this site: http://www.weld-mesh.com/aviary.php which sells pre-made panels which you mix and match to make an aviary that suits. Do you think these panels would be ok for Alfie? If anyone else has an aviary for their Grey (or other feathered friends) I would love to see some photos to get some ideas! My other option is to build one from scratch - but I don't even know where to start with that so would much prefer something similar to the solution above!

Hmm, thanks Dan. That might work. I'm just worried about it being strong enough to hold up a toy, plus Alfie. I assume you haven't had any problems with them falling out though?

I moved home at the beginning of March and was super worried about how Alfie and my two cats would react. Funnily enough, Alfie was the calmest out of all of us. I moved everything else first and left Alfie and the cats til last. Alfie got put in his carrier and watched as we deconstructed his cage and loaded it into the van (it's too big to fit through doors unfortunately!) He then watched as we put it all back together again. When we got to the new house the living room was -mostly- set up. All the big stuff was in place, everything else was in boxes. I put his carrier in the cage and opened the door and let him come out in his own time. He settled really quickly- probably because the cage was exactly the same as he'd left it, I guess. The cats were worse then he was. One was ok, but the other hid and was quite unsettled for a few days. Funny how they can surprise you! Hope your move went well and everyone settled in ok!

Hello all, Now I'm in my own house instead of renting or living with parents I'm debating about all the different things I can do to put my stamp on the place. I've got lots of big projects planned but I'm also looking at the little things. One of the things I'd like to do is hang a toy from the ceiling for Alfie. His cage is in the living/dining room and he is restricted to the downstairs areas when out because I also own two cats who are not allowed to come into contact with him when he's out and therefore get shut upstairs. He normally hangs around on the top of his cage, on my leg if I'm sitting down (we often enjoy watching some TV and chilling out together on the couch) or on his playstand. His cage is near my desk and I was thinking about hanging a toy between the two so he had something else to play with whilst out. He loves his boing and swings so I was thinking something along those lines. I am a complete DIY novice so was looking for some advice on how to safely hang the toy from the ceiling. Ideally I'd like to remove it so the cats don't try and hang off it- so if anyone has any ideas for discreet hangers, that would be even better. So - do you have toys hanging from the ceiling? What do you use to hang them to ensure they stay up and don't damage the ceiling too much? Ooh, something that may help- I have artex ceiling with this kind of pattern: http://roberthannay.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/cimg0011.jpg - so I'm worried about it breaking away or being uneven? Many thanks!

I imagine my neighbours are quite amused when they walk past my house. They either see two nosey and vocal cats watching their every move or Alfie, whistling and clicking etc.

Thanks for your comments. I have attached (hopefully) a photo of Alfie- he's currently doing his bit for Neighbourhood Watch!

Adorable photos! Glad she is settling in so well!

Hello all, I'm mostly a lurker around these forums, just gleaning as much information as I can and posting occasionally. However, I am really happy today and wanted to share it. Some of you may remember my introductory post where I explained how I have had Alfie for 10 years, since he was about 11 weeks old. We've been through a lot together over the years and in my introduction post I explained how I haven't been the best owner I could have been (mostly due to changes in lifestyle and lack of time) and how I had thought about rehoming him to try and give him a better lifestyle. However, I didn't want to just give up and accept defeat so promised him that I would improve things and spend more time with him, which is what I have been trying to do. As always with greys it's been a slow process of getting him to trust me properly again and there have been several grumps and warning shots along the way when he isn't happy with me. Anyway... fast track to today and Alfie has been out of his cage for the entire afternoon/evening whilst I cleaned and tidied, watched some TV, cleaned his cage out and chatted away to him. He has been an absolute gem the whole afternoon and I think we've both really enjoyed ourselves. Normally he would end up getting in a grump about something (he has always been very quick to get in a bad mood) but I haven't had ANY of that this afternoon. He entertained himself on top of, in and and around his cage whilst I cleaned it out and pottered around the room. We did have a bit of an incident where the cats tried to let themselves in (one of them can open doors so I have to barricade the door with something heavy) and Alfie got spooked and flew of his cage to the floor. He was fine though and had a little explore around the room before hopping up on to the chair and hopping back on to his cage. I went and sat and watched some TV and invited Alfie to join me. He decided to sit on his cage for a while longer before flying to me. He landed on my arm and then sat on my leg for a while, watching TV with me and having some head scratches when he wanted them. After about an hour or so I wanted to put him on his perch in front of the window so I could continue tidying- this is normally met with some resistance but he stepped up first time and stepped straight on his perch and was happy watching the rain and some people go past. Once he'd had enough he flew back to his cage to see what I was up to. Then when I watched some more TV he decided to join me again for some more head scratches. He's been stepping up every time I have asked (though I haven't asked him to step up from his cage yet) and I even got a few whistles and kiss noises from him. (as well as the occasional burp... which he DIDN'T learn from me!!! haha) All in all this afternoon/evening has been an absolute blast. I've felt so comfortable around him and he with me and I feel I've finally cracked it with him. I haven't had a single warning shot from him and he hasn't gotten annoyed with me/anything which is a rarity. I'm so glad that I made the decision to try and work things out for him as I know it would have been heartbreaking to give him up. He's my bird and my commitment and I'm so happy to see the progress I have been seeing over the last few months- but absolutely ecstatic that we have had such a great time today which is why I wanted to share.