SRSeedBurners

A better update: A busted sewer, two corroded main valves from years of sitting in water and an electrical conduit that was pulled out of the wall and compromised, all due to a foundation lift we had done 10-15 years ago. Multiple plumbing companies were quoting me $4-$5K to fix this mess - to hell with that, I did it my damn self. I can't believe how much these idiots get paid to sweat pipe and put rubber collars on. I should be a plumber/electrician and make some bank. My neighbor ran a plumbing business and these days it's as if he is printing money in his garage. A pic of the repairs, plus I added a new 'garden valve' so I can have water inside GreycieMae's section of the unit. - repaird sewer line - brand new electrical conduit, wall unit and re-wired - new main valve - repaired water line that goes to our barn A couple of pics of the area after I finished the repairs, completed the dig-out of the clay and hauled in the three remaining loads of crushed granite. It all had to come in through a window, into a wheel barrow and hauled into place. You can see the 2K lumen area lights I installed in the second pic. I put three in GreycieMae's section, one in the Middle's (Toby & Rio's area) and one in the Little's section (Tinkerbell & Stevie). And when the work is done, there's always time to stop and smell the roses. GreycieMae has two rose bushes growing in her aviary.

Looks great. I know you put the platforms out there for the cats but my GreycieMae would be all over those!

Yep, she wants back in her sunroom. She loves that thing. Huey hates being outside and prefers to be sitting in there too. They do need sun though so they're gonna have to suffer through this. Haahaa...I had the phrase "this too shall pass" rolling through my head earlier today. I broke the damn water line trying to figure out how to untangle it and the electrical conduit. The hole filled back up with water before I could shut the valve and I was soaking wet.

Yeah, he's just being cautious, especially since he's now decided to step up. Our Huey took about three months before he started to trust us. Now he bites when we want to put him down and he still wants more dancing (bouncing around). That's a beautiful boy there ❤️

Not a good update: GreycieMae has had to move out of her lavish quarters while crews (me, myself and I) are repairing some issues found while digging out the rest of the aviary for the crushed granite. Our sewer pipe apparently broke 10-15 years ago when the foundation crew lifted the house in that area. We've never seen any issues, I just happened to find this when I was digging a little deeper in that area to see if I could locate a water line, as I would really like to have a water hose in her aviary. Well, I found the water line and a busted sewer line to boot! So far I have the whole thing excavated and part of the pvc removed. Still need to blow-torch the other joint off and seal it back up. Then I can install my water line and also fix the electric conduit the idiot before us put in improperly and backfill with sand and we're back in business. No worries, she has her best men...errrr....man on the job. One thing that gave me a clue that something was going on around where I was digging was excessive root growth. The closer I got to that area the roots got really thick. When I discovered the broken pipe, the roots were all growing into the pipe. Fortunately I was able to auger it all out so we have a clean drain now. It eventually would have clogged up completely.

I know I've already commented but I wanted to add: if Sterling-Gris makes a habit of it, you may consider talking to a vet about using Haloperidol to settle him down for a while. I've mentioned it here before but I'll repeat it - our new bird, Huey has an abused past and when he gets stressed he will tear the scales off his feet and keep at it until they're bleeding and eventually would lead to putting him down. It's a nuerotic behavior he gets into and once it starts the only way to stop him is dosing him with Haloperidol. It settles him right down. The vet put our Huey on 3 drops morning and night which he was on for I don't know how many years. When we got him I was determined to get him off the meds. He went 1.5 months and then one morning I went out to the aviary to get him and his feet were bloody. He got cold and paniced and went after his feet. So back to 3 drops and I'm slowly weaning him down to zero. It's just a thought, I hate meds as much or more as the next guy but I've seen how it can stop a neurosis on the spot and helps the bird to settle and then off his meds.

Find his treat he can't live without! Then use it to condition him to step up. It's not like he doesn't know how, he just needs to redirect his thought processes.

omg...that's terrifying. It's my worst nightmare that I fear.

I'm sitting there watching Survivor, minding my own dang business, and I look over and this is what I see. I'm not sure but I think somebirdy has stolen my girl. HUEY!!!

This is what we did to keep our birds from flying into the windows in their aviary, including our 12ft double sliding glass door. 1 - hung wide gift wrap ribbons hanging loosely so they move when there is air movement nearby 2- Rustoleum Frosted Glass spray paint and some stencils to paint some designs on the windows It's been 5 months and they clearly know where their bounds are now so I'm going to remove it all soon.

If you have the safety precautions in place to allow Rosie to fly, flying is best for them. - no or slow ceiling fans - toilet seats down - nothing she can get into which goes for non-flying birds too - make sure she knows where mirrors and windows are - it helps to put something on them till they learn their bounds - exit routes must be protected at ALL times Your biggest issue will be making sure you don't lose her out one of your doors. It's happened to a lot of us, myself included. I have several safety measures in place to ensure my risk is as low as possible.

Her life was a short but she obviously knew love. Fly high lil birdy.

This is what I would try: Since she likes walking about on the counter, put a few sunflower seeds in a little pile for her to find and eat (I'm assuming she loves sunflower seeds - use something she really likes). Several days in a row I'd do this to get her looking forward to the treat. Then I'd start offering them to her one-by-one from your hand and eventually I'd start putting my arm in the way and giving her the choice of stepping up to get the treat. Someone else might have a better method.

My advice would be to wear earplugs and act like that behavior doesn't startle/bother you. Act normally around the grey until they accept your routine around them.

You might talk to your vet about trying Haloperidol. I have a bird that is on it. I hate using meds on birds but with my guy, if I don't use it, he'll tear his feet up enough that he'll get infections and eventually it will kill him. We've also considered trying a prozac type med too but decided against it since what we use now is working.

Sometimes I wonder about these lists, especially when they say milk is bad. When we got Huey, his former Daddy told us to mix his medicine (some anti-anxiety med that stops him from butchering his feet) in a tablespoon of milk. I said 'Milk'? I told him that we are always told milk is bad. He told me that his avian vet told him to use milk and he's been using it FOR TEN YEARS. Huey doesn't show any signs of damage to me. However, I have switched to using almond milk as I still can't seem to bring myself to keep feeding him milk.

Sounds very much like a broth to me. With no added salt I'd let them have at it!

Well, the Brutus kind of has a point: I was moping around and depressed until I got my Grey. Hard to be depressed when you have a Grey!

I may have to send my neighbor flowers after reading this. She was worried she wouldn't get to see my birds anymore once I built the new house-attached aviary.

What happened here? Neighbor still being a turd? Birdy's getting to use the aviary now?

I'm still hand-feeding....five years later. We're not real sure when she'll be weaned

This sounds like the exact behavior we get from our Caique - Toby. He likes some people and then 'small' people are on his shit list and marked for destruction. Toby will fly at them with full fury and evil in his eyes. I'm not sure if this behavior is prevalent in Greys but it's sure what it sounds like. Greycie exhibits a similar behavior towards Toby because she cant stand him. Fly straight at him and try her best to knock him off his perch or grab him and beat the feathers off of him. It would be nice if you could possibly get a video of the behavior. How to curb the behavior and allow Brutus to begin to accept the the son is beyond me. I would definitely be grooming the son not to take it personally and to see if there is some way he can interact with Brutus safely outside the bubble of Brutus' favorite flock mates. If the son starts to resent Brutus you've got bigger problems.

Your English is better than some of our natives.

What is the unit above his cage? It sort of resembles a ductless mini-split but that may not be what it is. Whatever it is, if it creates a draft on the bird, it's not a good spot.

I wasn't sure what the 'power pause technique' was so I looked it up. There's a youtube from birdtricks demonstrating the technique. It's just clicker training really from what I can tell. The first trainee, the cockatiel, is not what I would do. Never point at their face like that, it's always seen as threatening. I have a very tame grey and she does not tolerate pointing directly at her face - sometimes (sometimes she knows I'm playing with her and tolerates it). I do like the second girl who is training the macaw. I have always used a down turned hand with my wrist as the only exposed skin. This allows you to get the skin really tight and they can't grab and pinch/tear. I actually ball my hand into a fist to stretch the skin even tighter. It's still non-threatening and since you have confidence they can't hurt you, it will help lessen your fear and allow you to not over-react to a strike. Calm smooth movements go a long way with a scaredy-cat Grey. I'm no bird trainer but the technique, what I watched of it, looks ok. It's just conditioning them to your presence and touch.