SRSeedBurners

Wowzers!

Haaahaaa CONURES!!!! I've had three, one of which is new to me for the last couple of days. They can be weirdos. As for the toys: I am constantly switching toys between cages, regardless of who plays with what. GreycieMae (CAG) has her wood toys she will chew on that are too big for our Caique so it doesn't make sense to switch that but I find moving toys around keeps them entertained on the days they do have to stay in their bird room. My last conure was similar to what yours is doing. Skinny outside of the cage, fluffy and cage aggressive inside. When he was on me, he was one track-mind. The current conure we have is similar. When he's with me all he can do is strut, pick at my facial hair and pecks at my cheek like a wood pecker. Such a weirdo. Conures have always struck me as very loyal but there is not much upstairs to rub together and create a lil fire.

You adopted from someone that was handfeeding? What were they handfeeding and where were they getting it from?

We only use seeds as a treat, specifically sunflower seeds and when I can, sprouted. Also you might find the smaller pellets are better as they won't waste as much. I found with the coarse size pellets, when they crack it, pieces go flying everywhere. The Harrisons 'fine' size is what we feed.

So we have a new resident at the Sterling-Ranch aviary. In other words, Head Warden GreycieMae has a new inmate to lord over. He comes by way of Murfchck who lives half way across the country (Texas is big and she lives almost in Ft Worth and we live Northeast of Dallas so that's like three New England states across). His story is pretty interesting, and I'll probably get it wrong but here goes: Apparently he's an escape artist that got loose somewhere in their neck of the woods. Someone spotted him and had been trying to catch him (I think?). Then either a hawk or a crow nailed him giving him a nice gash on the top of his head and he was finally captured, apparently not in too good of shape. Enter Murfchks aka Lisa Murphy and company. They were contacted about taking in this little guy and attempts to find a previous owner were made with no luck. So plans for a foster home were being made as he's sure to get into trouble around their 19 big ones. Now we have a cockatiel who we've been searching for a friend. My wife just wanted to get another 'tiel which I'm not big on. I've been working on her to let me get another conure, since I LOVE conures. As circumstances would have it, my wife got involved in a car accident Friday night to which I posted about online. This led to that which led to Lisa making a comment: does my wife need a conure to help her recover from the ordeal. Well I think that's a brilliant idea and if my wife doesn't need a conure to recuperate - I DO!!! So with a little badgering and begging and making promises I'll break later we set off on Saturday to go see the little guy and see Lisa's menagerie which I've always wanted to see. So here's a short little video of him. His personality is so over-the-top that I'm really having trouble coming up with a name for him/her (I'll refer to 'him' as that's what he acts like). He's really taken with me seems to be the case with every conure I've had. He has a Napoleonic attitude, struts his stuff like nobirdy's business and is just a little hot mess. He seems to know what 'give me a kiss' means because the first time I said it he came running and gave me a little kiss. I'll bet his previous owners are really missing this guy. And we may need to go shopping for a toupe as he has a nice bald spot compliments of the crow/hawk that he got in a fight with. Oh and boy is he a nippy little conure, as most are...

It's standard BBCode if you're familiar with that... There's a link somewhere here about how to post using the "" tags.

Sounds perfectly normal. I got a new chair to use at my computer that has a small back on it. I previously used a crappy wood bench. It took GreycieMae 9 days to finally get over the fact that the back support part of the chair is not crawling up my back to kill her. The other birds don't even notice it...but oh no...not my CAG, she has to be a drama queen about it all.

That's hilarious!

Sweet story and such a sweet birdy. She sounds like such a character. I can only imagine what it's like being around one that can talk so well. They certainly make it a joy to get up everyday and see them.

Yeah, I meant to get 'selfies' with GreycieMae and all the cast of characters at your house and forgot about it.

Vets are like doctors, they're really not worth a shit. When Raven had PDD, we ended up finding a vet that would do what we told her, run the tests we told her to run and was a liason with the research center at A&M for us. She ended up learning more out of our research and discussions with the research center than she did in her own practice. We really should have been charging her.

Well...when GreycieMae came home, my kid was 18 at the time (now 22). We had the same problem, GreycieMae was nippy with Kayla to the point that Kayla started to not like GreycieMae. Kayla is my fallback plan for Greycie should anything happen to us so I couldn't have the two falling apart and never coming together. I went on a several month program of having Kayla play with Greycie, feed her treats, and so forth until they both now love each other. The problem I have is Kayla likes to 'pick on' Greycie which doesn't work well. Even at 22 I have to scold my young adult kid to stop making Greycie mean. Kayla hasn't lived with us in a couple of years but they still play together now when she comes home.

There are competitions. I'm only interested in flying around the loft just for my own. I have to get my head around losing one or two though as it's bound to happen.

I probably will band them. All of this official pigeon business is new to me. There are several types of traps to use, ways to train them to loft fly and trap quick so they aren't hawk food. Apparently when they up flying a hawk pretty much has no chance. Their greatest danger is returning back to the loft so it's imperative to teach them not to linger outside. I like the black one too. I'll probably go back and get two more to match each one in the third set. So I'll have 8 pigeons vs 6.

PICS! or it didn't happen!!!

Most likely keeping the red one. I wanted a red pigeon, or red/white. I like all the fancy pigeons, we have 5 fantails, however they're nothing but feeding ornaments. Can't do anything with them.

So mommy says GreycieMae is nothing but an over-priced pigeon. To that I say *pfffftttt*.... Anyway, I used to have a *real* pet pigeon, not just an over-priced hookbill pet pigeon. I found him marooned as a young squeaker on a little island in the middle of a stream underneath a bridge when I lived in San Antonio. No nest or parents to be found so I figured he must have floated down stream before I found him. I took him home, raised him up and he lived in our house. I built a little pigeon house just outside of our back door where he stayed during the day. He would fly partially to work with me (I rode a motorcycle) and would return during the day to his little house. He was a great little pet, I'll always remember him. Fast forward about 30 years and now my wife has arranged to take me to a pigeon fanciers house not too far away from where we live. I guess all my ranting about wanting to fly pigeons around our barn finally wore off on her. So she takes me to this guys house that has probably 200 birds of different types. He showed me how his Iranian High Flyers will circle high above the house and finally come in for a landing. They typically will stay aloft for 2-4 hours. So I got to pick out 3 breeding pairs. These birds can never be flown as they will try to leave for home, and with no homing instinct will surely die looking. So the plan is to hatch out their offspring and start flying them next spring. Prepare yourselves for those videos. Here's my birthday pigeons! Pair #3 are most likely not a pair. There has been no song & dance, no candlelight dinners etc. So the guy got it wrong on those two. One or the other will be getting exchanged. Also, these are Iranian High Flyers and Pakistani High Flyers. Which is which I have no idea. Going to ask the guy when I exchange one of the third pair. Pair #1: Pair #2 ( my favorite pair. Can't wait to see babies out of these two ): Pair #3 - most likely not a breeding pair. Maybe two males?

She's a cute little one. Has some great coloring too unless it's just the camera doing that.

I'll have GreycieMae give her some pointers on how to terrorize the home via the cowbell.

That's an awesome coincidence. Love conures. My second favorite bird.

She now beatboxes in the aviary for the weirdo neighborlings and visitors we had yesterday. I've created a monster.

Beautiful Sully!

Now wait a minute. He's from Alabama and you are from 'San Diego'. I thought that was in Kali?

I so wished you could record this and post it to youtube. I'd probably die laughing but at least I'd go out doing what I wanted.

Plucking: See the plucking thread. Also, you may never stop it but there are things you can try. Once it's ingrained behavior it may be harder to stop. Toys: you don't have to buy toys all the times. Greys and other birds are notorious for using common items as toys. My Grey for instance LOVES a plain pine board or box made of wood. She'll go after them all the time if available. Pooping: We trained ours to go where we wanted by taking her to the spot and asking her to go. Once she does, we praise her. Also when we get her out in the morning, it's the FIRST place we go to. She still tries to get away with an occasional lazy turd on the chair or my back but so goes it.