SRSeedBurners

Sounds like this lil one had some calcium issues?!? Maybe that calcium absorption and sun light mambo jambo is true. Is Isaac still getting his UV light too?

Excellent work Isaac! Now you just need to convince your trainee that cheese has three times as much calcium as almond milk. GreycieMae has tips on how to coerce your way into getting cheese.

oh...a macaw...a quick google search says they recommend nothing smaller than 12.5 gauge. Standard OTS chainlink fencing is 11.5 gauge. Pretty tough stuff. I don't know what the 'real' diameter you can get away for a macaw - no experience. Your problem is going to be creating an aviary that will accommodate the strength of a macaw yet be small enough to hold a GCC. I'm afraid the wire you'll have to use will be so heavy that it will really inhibit their 'outdoor' experience. 12 gauge 1"x1" is going to be ridiculously expensive and cumbersome. Not to mention the poor bastard you hire that has to move/work with that. It will require heavy equipment. I'd highly recommend, if you can, building a small bird aviary either attached, or separate from the big bird aviary - that's what I would do. When we have my daughters birds, they just go in the aviary in a larger cage. Parrotlets can get through little holes. Im not too worried about them as they do super well in cages anyways and they get lots of out time in the house and bird room. It's the bigger intellect-brained birds that I feel need the aviary more anyway. As to your question about prepping GAW, 'they' say you should. If you can buy it now and let it sit outside and hit it with water occasionally, do it. I didn't but never noticed any problems. It's probably like vaccinations, no one really knows since birds just aren't dropping dead around the stuff. I have a whole album on FB that shows my aviary but most importantly, it has a parts list that we used if you're interested.

GAW (galvanized after weld) steel is what you want. Lots of sanctuaries and zoos use it. We used 14 gauge 1"x2". Probably could have gone to 16 gauge which is cheaper and MUCH easier to work with. I don't think a CAG can get through 16 guage although you will see recommendations of 12 gauge for CAGs which I believe is complete overkill. I have a 500 pounder CAG and a Jardines with a serious bite and they can't budge the 14 gauge. I used 16 gauge in the roof corners where I had to complete the triangles and wished I would have gone 16 all over. Our smallest bird is a 150 gram Caique that wears an XS aviator harness and he can't come close to getting his head through the 1"x2".

You really don't need stainless wire. THat's going to be ungodly expensive depending on how big you're planning. Also go tall, they love tall, there's always a way to get them. Cheese is GreycieMae's kryptonite. She will drop whatever she's doing if she sees me with cheese. She is grey like a mouse after all. Keep us updated with pics and progress.

I've started using the video bbcode which embeds the video in the post with the youtube video thumbnail as the picture shown. There may be a setting where you have videos turned off or something. Here's the direct link:

GreycieMae fully agrees with the cheese. Its the only way to show a girl how much you love her.

He has a very Suave look about him in the first couple of pics. The way he has his eyes.

Yeah, you will lose that bird quick with so many coming and going. Someone will make a mistake. We catch ourselves making mistakes sometimes. That's a shame because flying birds in the house is too much fun.

Will your breeder agree to leave the bird flighted? Some breeders are going to the route of fledgling them and then giving them a slight to full clip.

Hi Rohan, I remember you! Yep, they like to have something to grab as a security blankie. I can get away with several tosses with Greycie on her back if I let her hang on to something. Usually she'll grab her tail feathers but it causes fraying which I don't like so I'll usually grab a pen too.

oh it's more of a game to her than anything. She'll do it for so long and then kind of let me catch her and she gets tickles and roughhouse time which she loves. If I really need her in the travel carrier, I just come out with a tiny bit of cheese. Game time comes to a prompt end when she notices I have the cheese!

Somebirdy loves to give Daddy (and especially Mommy because she's shorter) troubles when it's time to come inside for the evening. Keep in mind the aviary is 10 ft tall in the middle and I can reach to about 8 feet. Somebirdy uses that space wisely :cool: I went to get them and saw I was in for the usual routine, sometimes she doesn't want to play, but today she was all games. So I went back and got the camera so you could see what a brat I have!

We have two mallard ducks that have taken up residency on our back acre if that's any indication of the conditions here. At this point, any significant rainfall results in flooding as the clay here is completely saturated and won't absorb anything. Anyone know what size floaties fit a CAG?

This site sucks trying to post from an android phone. I got some pics but one is missing, the shot of our living room 'perch' area. As I mentioned we use hanging 'perches' for the birds as I got tired of cleaning the floor standing perch. It went into the cone crusher fire pit outside. I'll add another post later or edit this one but for now... Everything is hung from hooks I mounted in the ceiling and movable from room to room... Orbit, hanging chain with bells (an absolute favorite of Greycie's) and the three chain ring that they all love to fight over. Better pic of the three chain ring...

See my comments in red - just my opinion. One thing I think you're missing is the Aviator harness. I use mine all the time on all my birds.

All the reason why I use a dremel for beaks and toes!

Welcome - great write up. Your household sounds a lot like ours. The humans seem to be the ones being trained to mimic birdy language vs. the birds learning ours. Mine is pretty much a shoulder bird, daddy's girl and we've literally started calling her my little shadow. Our Grey is bonded most with me but she loves to go see mommy and even big sissy when she's in town. We don't have any strictly one-person birds here since they all get messed with by everyone. You can tell their preferences though. We also make fun of Greycie's little growl. When she does it I always have to tell her something to the affect: "oh...you giving Daddy the growly growly. You think I'm scared of your growly growly..." Love to see some pictures!

Nothing like sharing treats to findcyour way to the birdys heart. We like pics too. I LOVE seeing pics of everybody's greys. At least you wont have to put up with the stubborn-ass adolescent stage.

Just make sure you are not getting scammed. Re-homes can be the best.

Oh wow, he's almost fully feathered. I didn't realize they grow that fast.

Saw GreycieMae just sitting in her swing this morning and no one to push. She loves to swing on anything and this one she really likes too.

What kind of wire are you using? Wondering if you can get closeup photos of the joints and wire connections. I'm thinking about extending GreycieMae's aviary into a 'L' shape since we have an extra enclosure just sitting in a box. I need to create the portion in the middle out of scratch though. P.S. did you see the hail damage in our area yesterday? New roofs and windows on a lot of the houses in our area including ours.

Lucky Grey Bird! He looks like a real sweety.

He sure looks proud of his little self.