SRSeedBurners

All I know is, my three rotten brats all seemed to peak out on their weights at about 2.5 years. Our Jardines seems to still be getting bigger framed but his weight isn't changing. I'm expecting him to suddenly get heavier soon. GreycieMae better watch out, 'nother big boss bird in the house.

I have wondered what happened to you. So happy to hear. Happy for you and happy for Sukie. Hope you can get some pictures of the process as I personally have fretted over your ordeal wondering how this might work. I hate that a sweet Grey would get left behind. So wonderful!

I'm assuming your Dad's Grey knows you from living in the home previously. It should only take a little while for him to get used to things. How much did you interact with Dwight previously? If Dwight was a good talker with your Dad I see no reason why he would clam up forever. It may take a few weeks or even months for him to get used to your place but I'll bet that process really speeds up if he knew and lived with you previously. Also if you have all his things, cage, toys etc from your Dad's place that will make thing more familiar as well. You just need to have patience with these guys, they are definitely not like dogs and cats but you probably know that. Sorry about Snowy. They make a place in your heart that lasts forever. It must be pretty special to have your Dad's bird and I love hearing about birds that get taken care of like that.

Sounds like she's growing like a weed. I do believe Timnehs get north of 300 for sure when full grown. Our little Congo piggy was 435 at 3.75 months when she came home. Four years later we're at around 480, sometimes hitting the 500 grand mark after a nice day of stuffing herself. We've definitely noticed a drop off in her ability to fly sorties in the house. She used to be so fast and nimble. Now she's still fast but not she can't go around the living room 20 times. Now it's more like 10.

Charlotte would like to say hello to her foster Mommy! Hope you don't mind me posting her here, she was officially part of the Murphy Flock! Fortunately (or unfortunately I'm not sure which) she's a very early riser. The minute she hears anything, she starts screeching to come get her. So she gets about an hour of Daddy time before the big Grey Goose gets up and demands her Royal Court is in order, which means her competition, Charlotte, must remain locked away in the dungeons.

We don't do seeds for any of our birds. They get them as training treats only. Also, the mix that I buy has a lot of nuts in them so another reason I don't give them any more 'seeds'. Not sure about putting food in their cage at night. None of my birds except one, our new lil conure, moves around at night. They are literally in the same spot I put them every night. Nobirdy goes to the fridge. As for the chop, I do something similar with sprouts. I'll make a batch of sprouts that will probably last 2-3 days and that will be their main feed for the day. I will mix in some other stuff: bananas, veggie mix etc to spruce it up. They only have access to Harrisons during the day while we're at work because they can't fling it and make huge damn mess. Morning and afternoon outside aviary time is when they get the sloppy stuff. They can fling to their hearts delight (and the delight of the chickens waiting right outside the wire) and I don't care. Make sure to get us some pics! It's been right DEAD around here lately.

Nailed it! BTW...her name is nailed down: Charlotte. I like it!

Just remember, the loudest bird gets whatever the hell they want. That banker would be getting sick of me, I don't care how many times they told me not to call. I tell my birds to shut it all the time, they don't listen and get what they want. See how that works? Everyone in the house is having a very hard time getting used to calling the new conure a 'SHE'. However, I do believe we have nailed down a name: Amber. Wife came up with it, I kind of like it and it has sort of stuck. I think it matches her nice little red apron that she wears. Plus when she goes full on conure shrill scream mode, well, that's an Amber Alert! We're having trouble with the biting. She really hates my hands. They make her step up. They make her go to bed. They make her do everything she doesn't want to do. Therefore they are sworn enemies right now and get the business end of the conure. Typical conure behavior, gonna have to see how I can get her to calm down about it all. Good things come to those birdys who don't give the Daddy a hard time. Here's her latest video. I unfortunately wasn't very good at keeping the camera on view of my intended subject. Trying not to lose a fingertip took precedence. [video=youtube;70O-xArcpFA]

Pretty sure Gil Girl would recognize whomever Jim is or whomever she is referring to. You've probably read my post about my long lost Grey that I lost to a divorce...ended up living with my Aunt. I went to see this bird approx 25 years later and she instantly knew who I was and started doing stuff that we had done way back when. My aunt said she had never seen the bird do those things before in all the time she has had her. They do have long memories.

I dislike the poop catch bird diapers. Seem very unsanitary to me. Take a crap in your shorts and walk around with it...you'll see. My grey is pretty good at not pooping on me. It helps to get attuned to giving them a poop break. I can stop somewhere where there is grass and ask her to "go potty" and she will bombs away if she needs to. If not I ask a little later and when she does I'm good for 30-60m. As for AC, we go on car rides all the time. We ALWAYS point a vent or two into the back seat where they are. I do not like to risk having overheated birds. Car A/C systems are no different than household central AC systems. If you expose them to one, you can do so the other.

You don't want a conure. Nope. Rotten to the core. They sure are.

That NutriBird A19 says it's specifically for: "NutriBird A 19 is a complete birdfood for hand-rearing of macaws, eclectus, hawk-headed parrots, African grey parrots and other babybirds with a high energy requirement. Scientifically composed for an optimal growth."

Ever had a Caique? They take spunky and crazy to the next level. And talk about a temper tantrum. The caique is the one that I have to protect our lil birds from, and anyone that comes in our house that is shorter than 5'4". He absolutely hates short people. He is like a heat-seaking missile. He will fly straight in at full speed with talons and beak ready to inflict carnage. ...and then 30 seconds later be the sweetest thing you ever did see. Jeckyll & Hyde birds.

OMG. You have an absolutely adorable baby there. 49 seconds of video melted my heart. Greys can be sooooo sweet. I'm not sure what it is about them but I call them my soul-bird. Such a sweet heart.

My Caique and my Grey will sit next to each other, on the same little perch, in the aviary. They will even sit there and do mock kissing. Once I'm spotted it's game on. My Grey gets extremely jealous and doesn't want Toby Toby anywhere near me. Toby knows when I enter the picture Greycie is going to lose her damn mind so he opts for a first strike and makes things even worse.

Yep - Aviator Harness is the way to go. Very popular. The only drawback is they can eventually chew their way through the fabric welds, which takes my GreycieMae just a few hours if I was to sit and just let her work on it. I don't let her just sit in her harness, we are always on the go. If her human conveyor belt is moving she's not working on her harness so it lasts me a couple years before I have to get another one. Their DVD is pretty good, but you still need to be able to handle your bird around the body or it will never work. I keep my birds out in the heat, sometimes up to 110. However over 95 I will start watching them for signs of overheating: 1) wings extended/slightly dropped and body very skinny 2) mouth open and beginning to pant. Mine never get as far as #2 before I have fans and misters and Pina Coladas served up. I'm pretty familiar with Arizona aka desert heat. You have a real advantage in that if you can keep them shaded and away from the direct sun, you can really cool things off quick. A fan/mister setup are way more effective in those climes.

Haahaa! Mine sings back to me. I've heard both of us on video, neither of us carry a tune very well!

A video would help. However, Greys love making big noises. Most people will give them a big bird safe bell to clank around or stainless spoons/measuring cups. They love to be loud sometimes. Being loud is their natural behavior so scolding them for it is pointless. I've really found the use of ear plugs to be a great sanity tool when mine went through a stage of a very high pitched shrill that drove me bonkers. Try it out. Does she get much out time?

Yeah, mine will go crazy over chicken bones. Carniverous fools.

I'm still holding out for Timneh. Of course a weight on the birdy would really help as Timnehs are considerably less gravity challenged (Im' just thinking here of my 490 gram flying congo pigglette). Here's Princess Joupyter from Project Perry - same eyes!

We apparently have more hummingbirds than I know about. I'm not home during the day so I don't know what's going on out there but they sure are draining the feeder fast for what I thought was just one bird. This weekend I finally witnessed two at the same time. One came in for a nice drink and apparently the other one was on a stakeout. Second one immediately buzzed in and they ended up in a fight and high-tailed it out of there.

Our new lil conure is so damn nippy and hard-headed that I decided to see if some clicker training would help break the nonsense. After the first session it seemed to put the lil one on a new track. He's starting to listen to me and isn't so committed to bossing me around. I love the lil mini conure rages but they do get old after a while.

If you're looking for an avian vet: Dr. Osofsky is IMO the best in the area. We fought a battle with PDD and ended up consulting with the research center at A&M using a vet that consulted directly under Osofsky. Our vet was located two miles from our house which is why we didn't use Osofsky directly. Carrolton West Pet Hospital Would definitely love to hear more about you and your birdy. Kind of exciting to see someone so close sign up on the board!

That first pic, she has the look of a Timneh. What is her weight? I see you're in Ft. Worth. I'm just north of Dallas and Murfchck here is from North Richland Hills. Wonder if that feed store is the same one Murfchck uses? Glad Maggie's previous owner was so diligent about finding a good home.

I agree 100% with Ray - my kind of place. And you should look into setting one up!