itsjustnikki

I feed Roudybush to Tango and he seems to like it just fine. I tried switching him to Harrisons a few years ago, but he didn't seem to like it.

Since joining this forum, I have been looking through old pictures of Tango that I had practically forgotten about. I came across these from the morning after he had his procedure to remove the secondary flight feathers he had chewed into sharp little daggers. He had also had a skin biopsy done along with whole body xrays. Anyway, I had a rough night, waking up to check on him every couple of hours. He recovered just fine and was back to himself that morning, even with the collar on.

If I'm only going away for the weekend I try to have someone stay at my house with my fur and feathered kids. Even if they aren't 100% comfortable with taking Tango (my bird) out they can at least feed him, change his water and kinda hang out with him. If you don't know anyone who could do that maybe your veterinarian would have a recommendation. I am a technician and almost every place I have worked either has a technician who does pet sitting on the side or we know of good people in the area. When I go away on long vacations, Tango goes to his vet's house for "vacation." Good luck on finding someone. I know it is difficult finding people that are comfortable handling birds.

Hopefully I'm not posting an idea that someone else already shared. I tried searching to make sure and nothing came up, so here it is. This is something I make for Tango and he absolutely loves. I use uncooked pasta and Lafaber's avi cakes to make a foraging toy/snack. Tango's vet recommended them as a healthy snack since they are balanced to be a part of a birds diet in place of pellets. What you will need: uncooked jumbo shells or manicotti shells avi cakes untreated hemp twine (optional) First I break a chunk of the Avi Cake off and warm in in the microwave for 10-12 seconds just to soften it. You don't want it super hot. (you can adjust the time as needed). This will make the avi cake soft and moldable. Then I divide the mixture over a couple of of shells or a manicotti shell. When the mixture cools it will stay inside the pasta. I then wrap it in paper and its a toy treat all in one! Another thing I do is before I put the avicake in the pasta I lay either untreated hemp twine in the shell and then form the avicake over that. When it cools the avicake will hold the twine in place and you can then hang the pasta from the cage. I sometimes place a few pieces of pasta without filling on the string because he loves to crunch his "ronies" as we call them. I tried to do it with smaller pasta, but since the avi cake is chunky it is difficult to stuff it into small spaces. Next time I make these I will try to take pictures.

Tango goes through phases where he will talk all the time and hardly whistle and then where he barely says any words at all. I think right now he is in the not talking phase and prefers to whistle. He also only says certain things for certain people. When my mom comes over he immediately laughs like her. I think its amazing, there is never a dull moment with a grey in the house that's for sure.

This is such a great story! I'm glad that Gabby found an awesome forever home.

And I had to share one more. This was from the day I brought him home. I worked at Petsmart when I got him and some people had come in to look at him. I was showing him to them and they kept saying how it would be awesome to teach him how to swear. After looking at him, they wanted to take a few minutes to think it over. While they did that I called my mom crying because awful people were going to buy Tango (we had already named him...and he wasn't sexed so we called him a HER until I brought him home) and she finally said I could bring him home. She had even grown to love him, coming to visit him when I was working. He was about 4 months when I brought him home, but he had been at my store for 2 months. So we had already started to build a relationship. He looks so tiny compared to his cage...and I miss that cage. I had to get a shorter cage when I moved into an apartment.

As requested here are a couple more! I'm having such a great time going through old pictures of him to share! He's ready for breakfast! Such a good helper Bathtime Wet Bird

I remember that feeling. It was so exciting, but nerve wrecking at the same time. I just let Tango do his thing until he got comfortable and settled even though I just wanted to hold him and play with him!

I don't mind sharing. We call it his satellite dish...he gets premium channels with that thing. I felt like such a bad mom when he started picking his feathers. I thought I was doing everything to avoid it, but I guess not. If anyone has suggestions on how to keep him fully feathered I'm happy to take them!

I'm glad you enjoyed the video! He is wearing an e-collar because he likes to pick/chew his feathers. So much so at one point he had chewed his secondary flight feathers to the point where they were sharp and hurting him every time he moved his wings. His vet recommended (after going through every test, skin biopsy, xray, etc possible to make sure that the plucking was behavioral and not medical) that he go under anesthesia and have those pulled in order to relieve the discomfort, however after he had to wear the collar. He had also picked out most of his other feathers and he was practically bald. So she had him wear the collar until his feathers came back. Now he wears it when he is going to be in a stressful situation (like me going away) so to try and stop him from plucking.

As weird as this may seem, Tango loves to sit on his shower perch even if there is no shower happening. I think it started from me having him in the bathroom with me when I would get ready. Now he will ask when he wants to sit in the shower so I just go with it. When he was younger that was the only place he would talk, now it doesn't matter where he is for the most part. So one day I decided to take a video for all my friends who hadn't heard him talk. I figured I would share with everyone http://youtu.be/Ct8zTJ_ySZs

Tango (7 y/o CAG) weighs ~450g +/- a few grams

I have a ton more, just not on this computer. These are the most recent though.

Here are some pictures of Tango, my 7 year old Congo. He enjoys zucchini from the garden! Sleepy Bird At the vet

Thanks for the welcome! Yes, that is Tango in my avatar picture. That picture was taken on a good day. He is missing a few less feathers now. Being a vet tech, I tried to get the problem under control as soon as possible, so he has been through all of the tests and procedures. At one point he was practically all bald. So we have come a long way since then.

Hi Everyone! I'm Nikki and I have Tango a 7 y/o Congo. I have had him since he was about 2 months old. He is an amazing bird and I love having him with me. He does have a bit of a feather picking issue which we have been working through for the past 4 years. Looking for ways to keep him entertained definitely keeps me busy. I look forward to learning from everyone here.