jbsmomto1

Last weekend some of you suggested that I buy Storm and avian sun lamp bc my house is pretty dark when its very warm out...does anyone have any idea where I can get one in Canada? What sort of fixture does it require? I can get the bulbs easy enough and if they will fit in a normal lamp I can use that...

am in canada and will look into that lighting, will that create heat?

With our electricity price being over the moon I am not wanting to run my AC for the summer. I was able to find by accident some sun reflector, basically it is a silver paper similar to tinfoil but much thinner you can see through it. Anyway you place it on your windows and it keeps the sun out thus keep your house cooler. It does work really well, our temps outside right now are 31, inside my house its 24. However, it does make the house quite dark, I wondered if the darkness was going to hurt him, we are up and living normal like we would anytime in the day, and he is quite chatty and noisy as well, so it isn't like he is shut away in the dark alone or in the quiet but I am worried about him being in so much darkness and his well being. I open the windows in the evening usually about 7 so its light then but he puts himself to bed about 8....in the morning I close the windows and its dark again.....Sometimes he is in the falsely darkened room for 11 hrs thru the day and then all night naturally. I don;t wanna harm him in anyway but yet don't wanna pay thru the nose to run my ac kwim?? It isn't like this everyday but looking at the weather I am thinking for the next 5-6 days it will be like this.....

Peek a boo is all that I hear, I don't hear the "be good" ..He will be a year in a few days (July 3rd) and he is moving right along. I just wish he would let me video tape him, he lets me take pics just not videos, thinking it might be the red light that prevents it. Sigh....one day ...maybe.

Storm's other name is Batbird bc he LOVES to hang upside down, he usually screeches when hanging.

U can't see him bc as soon as he sees the camera he shuts up tight lol. Anyway since he said "goodboy" a couple of weeks ago I haven't heard another word from him, lots of sounds and noises that sound like words ...I am not fluent in "Stormanese" yet but I wondered what you hear if anything in this .....we think we hear a word...will tell u what we think after u tell me what you think. I know that one day I am going to beg him to be quiet but right now I love to listen to him and his sounds, even if they are loud when I am on the phone, watching a movie, or not quite ready to get out of bed in the morning lol. So what do you think? http://s7.photobucket.com/user/beaniebabysmommy/media/Stormanese2_zps40ea0c68.mp4.html

oh thats a flight? I thought it was a tail lol, see I don;t know much lmao....and yes it makes sense that he lost 2 now that u pointed out about flying lopsided...thank you

Storm is so very well socialized, he eats a well rounded diet harrisons pellets as well as fresh foods, he isn't acting any different and seems quite happy. He preens himself for sure, he isn't obsessive or overly neurotic about it though

its usually only when I talk and in a normal tone, he does it when I use other tones but not near as much...I am thinking it might have somethng to do with his speech, 2 weeks ago he said "good boy" this week he has added 2 new words (sort of) though I can't quite make out what they are.

Storm flew into the kitchen today, he didn't know I moved his boing for a minute and he landed on the floor by counter...he left this behind http://s7.photobucket.com/user/beaniebabysmommy/media/feather1_zps618f1091.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0 He then flew into the kitchen again and he left another one http://s7.photobucket.com/user/beaniebabysmommy/media/feather2_zpsc93a2f0c.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1 I know he is supposed to lose feathers but I didn't think it was supposed to happen this way, I just kinda thought they would fall out on their own. I am pretty sure they are not plucked as they are fully intact but the ends might look a little ratty to me (do they to you as well?), they are completely hollow at the other end so not blood or broken feathers. But 2x in one day he loses them flying???? normal and I am just nervous or not normal and I should take him to the vet tomorrow? for what its worth he does have a few (less then 20) downy feathers around the house, but he isn't losing them they way I expected..when Echo molted, it was VERY obvious, feathers EVERYWHERE and with him they shook out, not knocked out, I wasn't sure how he could have any left on his little green body. But it isn't like that with Storm at all..... Do grey's molt differently than other parrots??

Whenever I talk to Storm he shakes his head as if saying "no" ....he only does this when I speak, never any other time.

after reading this I am glad that I haven't bought one for Storm...He does love his bouncy boings though, he has 1 in the kitchen, 1 above his cage, 1 in the living room and 1 in my bedroom....he loves to make them spin and bounce.

well I guess my excitement scared him bc he has not said it again since my daughter is trying so hard to get him to say it and he is just giving her the "nope I'm not gonna" look

He talked, he talked, OMG he talked. Storm said his first 2 words "GoodBoy" !!!!! Whohoooo almost 11 months old and he talked

i thought so as well but a friend had me second guessing myself.

Storm is probably the sweetest grey I have ever met...he is so gentle. I just love him. I am unsure if he likes being sprayed or not, I am guessing he does not sure if he is tolerating it....does he look like he enjoys it? you might have to click the pic http://s7.photobucket.com/user/beaniebabysmommy/media/kissestogetmore_zpse117428c.mp4.html I love him so much as you can probably tell lol

A couple times a day Storm really comes to life and becomes so animated and busy, I wanted to share a quick video if a semi excited Storm, this is mild compared to usual though. I wanted to ask also, he is allowing us to harness him now which is great, he has been to the school and the store today on a coffee run. I didn't expect the attention he draws though but I supposed if I saw someone "walking" their bird I would become intrigued if I didn't have one. He is so good outside he clings to my fingers and just watches and you can see him listening to the wild birds, a few times he flapped his wings, scared the crud outta me but then i realized that when he is flapping he tightens his grip on me. I am hoping to expose him more and more to different things, sounds and situations. Part of that is I would really like to try bike riding with him but wonder if this is safe, like will the wind hurt him in anyway, not that I ride fast but it will create wind for certain.....if you ride your bike with your parrot where do they sit and how do they like it? http://s7.photobucket.com/user/beaniebabysmommy/media/Soexcited_zps06631f3e.mp4.html

oh trust me, his exposure is not limited as we listen to all types of music in this house, music is a big part of our lives so he isn't sheltered in anyway at all. However even though I won't allow her to play the recorder with him in the room. he CAN hear it from the other rooms where she is in and he IS fine with that, but as soon as he hears the music from it he gets a little upset IF he can see it...she had me up at the butt crack of dawn with her practising and he wasn't bothered by it at all. Nobody in this house is ever deprived of music, ever.

well its unanimous then because I don't like it much myself LOL.....

or maybe it isn't but its new for us. My daughter started the recorder in school and needed to bring it home for the weekend to practice it (please save me now lol)...Storm was ok with it not making any noise, but when she or I played it he started making a sound like a really congested person, than let out this weird noise.....i am wondering if the noise was a growl, since you probably won't know unless you hear it, here is a link to a quick video, ... I have never heard a grey growl though I know that they do it....he is ok to look at it and even perch on it, but the second noise starts to come out this is what he does... than as you can see he does one loud sqwak...We put it away and she can practice in her room but never in a room he is in ... http://s7.photobucket.com/user/beaniebabysmommy/media/weird001_zpsdbafe6cf.mp4.html

So I have been working with Storm for months now trying to get him into an aviator harness, he won't even look at it, and if I hang it close to his cage he screams and yells and panics, when it was hung further way he was ok with it but as I brought it closer he loses his mind. He is pretty attached to me IN the house and doesn't leave me but outside is a pretty scary place, anything can startle him. I had hopes to have him out and about with me this spring (if spring ever comes) and summer but he will not have anything to do with the harness. So I am considering a foot/leg tether, I would make it on my own so that the cord can be line with sheepskin or something soft so it doesn't rub and.or cause pain and become painful. My fear though is that if he were to get spooked, he would/could possibly break one of his little legs, which is NOT what I want for him, I want him exposed to as many things as possible and being in the house all the time, isn't going to help me achieve that goal lol. What do i do? have him strictly indoors which isn't going to hurt him but it also is not going to allow him to be exposed to anything outside the home...foot/leg tether him and hope to god that I don't break his leg? Force him into the darn avaitor and risk him being traumatized for life (this is NOT an option in my opinion) but I do think if he would just try it he would see that good things CAN happen when he just wears the darn thing lol, but of course he sees it as total opposite. He has been asked to visit several classes at our public school this spring and I would rather be able to walk him across the street instead of stuffing him in a cage to go.....but I will do that as a last resort. But I am thinking he will remember getting his foot stuck in the barring that one time and he was so afraid, I don't think he will even get in that either lol. He loves to lave me use my thumb and index finger and go over his head in the o shape and rub him that way so I thought that harness would be similar but nope he can't even look at it without freaking out.

He had a shower with me earlier, clearly that was not enough lol

Storm is usually at the counter when I am doing dishes, sometimes he likes to sit on the tap or at the window etc etc...today he wanted on the tap, as soon as I started to run the water he went crazy, pacing and trying to figure out a way to get to it, so I put him up there....whenever he has been there before he just sits and watches me, but tonight was different...HE HAD FUN...this is going to become a part of our regular routine a few times a week now, he had a lot of fun playing, drinking and trying to find a way to dismantle my tap, which I'm sure he will have figured out in no time at all. Especially since it only took him minutes to remove every key from my laptop not that long ago lol. To watch this you need to click on the pic when it comes up The tap was on cold so when I picked him up after his poor feet were freezing, will that hurt him? I ended up starting the tap up again with warmer water to warm his feet up.

He is such a great bird. He is starting to talk I think but I have thought that for the past few months anyway...his wolf whistle is perfected and that seems to be the call he uses when nobody is in the room where he is. He puts himself to bed at night anywhere between 7-8pm, we don't even close the door at night anymore. He waits in his cage til everyone is up in the morning or if he thinks we are sleeping to long he will wolf whistle at us to get us up, than he comes out and starts the day. He isn't as friendly with others as he used to be and he seems to really dislike men, he is ok with little boys and girls but a full grown man walks in and he gets very upset if they get to close to him and i cannot seem to convince him that they are ok and not gonna eat him. he is better at trying new foods (though not great) and finally has started to eat the harrison's pellets so now I will start to slowly phase out the coloured zupreem. He especially likes food if its on MY dinner plate and helped himself the other day when I got up to get my daughter a drink. He showers with me once a week or more and is starting to really enjoy it, sometimes he will sit at the edge of the bathtub while I have a bath and he tries to dip his foot in but his foot and the water level make it impossible. When my daughter is at school he is fairly quiet with me at home, but as soon as she gets home he starts to make noise. He does have a noist peroid everyday during my soap (figures lol) where he will screech an attack his toys, whistle and make other noises. He just turned 8 months old and is one amazing and crazy bird. Quite observant and constantly watching, either whats going on in the house, or out the window on his window perch..quite the nosy boy too lol.

he's eating it!! no clue what happened but he is eating it!! so now to slowly phase out the coloured stuff. He gets fresh foods, beans, rice, pasta, veggies etc etc daily as well. He gets all 3 meals just like us humans do and his formula at night before bed. Storm is doing great