SRSeedBurners

Good job Sully. Might try one of those metal foraging cages: Metal foraging cage

oh gosh....she has the sweetest little voice.....

Speaking of showering birds, we don't ever shower them in the winter around here because we're afraid of the chill they may get. I noticed today Greycie and Toby have had berry stains on them for over two weeks and no one around here is doing a damn thing about it.

Well, I must say it does fit the season. All he needs is a little green mixed in there somewhere. At least you have a great attitude about it. I have to wonder what it is about this time of year too. Mystery of mysteries.

Firstly - are birds allowed at your residence? If so the neighbors will have to deal with it. Dogs bark incessantly and are worse in my opinion. Secondly - my Greycie went through a phase of ear piercing shrill screams that nearly drove me nuts. It started to piss me off to the point that I was considering leaving her in her bird room non-stop until she quit. Eventually I started wearing ear plugs which I've used for other reasons (wife snores like a freight train - HAAHAAHHAAHHA) and that helped bring back some sanity. She eventually stopped doing it after about 6-8 months. I realized after that it was just another new sound to her and got a real rise out of me so it's probably why she kept at it. Probably would have ended sooner if I'd have ignored it. I went about 2-3 months until I started wearing the plugs. Every now and then she'll do it but not very often anymore. Your profile says you're moving soon - how soon? Will you have your own residence? Finding a way to ignore it is the best approach I've found. It just goes away on it's own then.

She loves to be shaken for her lunch monies. She lets me know when she wants it by flopping over backwards and hanging. That's my que to grab hold and shake her. Notice her play 'angry Caique' noise at the end there? She only does that when she's having fun.

Ok, I've come up with a better way...

We do it daily because thats how i get them to their aviary. And the catch net is daily as well because its now a game of come catch me - GreycieMaes idea.

Hey Talon, you might have a catch net where you can get to it in an emergency. We have one only because GreycieMae likes to play this game of 'walking' upside down across the top of the aviary when it's time to come in. She loves being just out of reach, so we got the catch net and just use it to get her lower where we can get a hand on her. You might try conditioning your birds to one of those, just playing with them with it. I would also know where something is that you can bust a window and clear the edges of jagged glass so you can get you and the babies in their emergency cages OUT!!!. We have three pak-o-birds along with catch net and I have exit strategies at both ends of our house if I need out. They get put in their pak-o-birds daily and the catch net is nothing scary to them if I have to use it for real.

There are defects in all species. I have met people who don't believe ice cream is it's own food group and is essential to life itself. Chocolate too.

He needs to be culled.

I may have to check that book out. The problem is we've already gone the route of describing everything to her as it's happening - no dice. I'm thinking she needs to see someone else getting the reward for saying the right word (model) and once she gets the idea she can compete for it (rival). We're considering seeing if we can use cheese to get her to breakthrough. She'll sell out for a piece of cheese.

That's definitely what me and the GreycieMae have going on. She knows how to get what she wants through certain behaviors. My favorite is when she'll flop herself off my shoulder and hang there as if I should know it's tickle birdy wrestle time. Another cute one is when she'll get a toy and fly it onto my shoulder and start bobbing her head on my cheek. Then she'll try and stuff it in my mouth. I've been reading about the model/rival technique for training. Might try to see if we can get a breakthrough and get her to talking a little more. Maybe I should be careful what I'm wishing for Nahhh....I can't stop watching Einstein (TTTP) videos. Her videos tickle me everytime I watch one, even if I've seen it a hundred times. Merry Corn!!!

Please - no making fun of the pluckers in our family

Tried to get some video of our crazy birdy morning routine. Hard to do one-handed. I usually fly GreycieMae around the living room 10-15 times and during breaks I'll fly the littles back and forth down the hallway to/from the bird room. Rio, the little green Jardines, is a bit of a lazy one so he's a bit difficult to get on camera flying. Usually all I have to do is crank the tunes and they'll almost fly themselves.

Not sure how I missed this... I have a theory about talking Greys: I contend that a lot of them begin talking because they are either caged and/or clipped and flightless. They adapt to the extreme boredom from what they are hardwired to do (fly in the forest with their flock) by plucking and/or learning to talk, maybe some other behaviors too. What else is there to do? I came to that conclusion because I've watched all three of my birds go from starting to talk to dropping it completely as their freedom to behave like birds has increased. The last time our GreycieMae talked with any frequency was just before I completed the outdoor aviary last year. Both my Caique and Jardines both stopped their mimicking of words at the same point. But they are excellent at copying the blue jays, crows, etc... almost exclusively other bird calls. They do not mimic non-bird sounds like the firetrucks, dogs etc... Just my theory though and I've seen no one else come to that conclusion. One thing that would be interesting is to see if Project Perry has seen similar in their flock of Greys. From the videos I've watched they sound like a wild Grey flock. GreycieMae also makes a lot of the wild Grey sounds that I hear on Project Perry videos.

Oh, you should see here 'tickwle tickwle ticwle'. I'll have to get a video of that.

Tell us about it. Even better, get a video and post it here!

Can't wait to see that video. I always love his little antics with the cup.

"We" as in me and the GreycieMae. I can't even sneak cheese out of the fridge and she knows about it. It's the only food she will 'inhale'. Won't drop a crumb. It's her absolute favorite. She gets more that a small piece every 2 weeks. One time it was left on the counter and she ripped open the packaging and proceeded to stuff herself. I saw no affect whatsoever.

How old is she? She looks young but mine did it young too.

A couple of GreyciMae videos I generally workout on my bike and trainer in the bird room since it's a small room with a hard easy to clean floor. The A/C unit in there can get it down to 50 degrees quick too making it the ideal workout room. My workouts are generally 1hr20m and GreycieMae LOVES LOVES LOVES to go in there with me and jam out to the music. I usually play it loud, and as the workout progresses from warmup(15m) to the intervals, the music gets more raucous. She generally sits on her swinging perch directly in front of my bike and sings her little heart out. This little clip is from the warmup which is the only time I could hold a camera and get this shot. Then the little 10 seconds at the end is just as I was finished (you can tell because the window is fogged up). She loves to dance! Not in the video but something I thought I would add...she generally gets a little food bowl with some treats: cranberries, apple, etc. Its not uncommon she'll fly over and have a snack and then fly onto my back and lean off my shoulder and give me a treat too while I'm working out. The night I shot this video I got some apple. She can be so SWEET. This little video is one I shot a couple months ago of Greycie swinging in the aviary. This girl would love it if I would sit in there all day and push her on her swing. We also have a swing in the house that she's always calling me to come push her. Like a little kid...

Classic Grey horn dog. Mine is similar to yours, she will let me do anything with her. When mine gets like that, which is rare these days I put her back on her hanging perch till she settles down. The usual advice is don't pet them anywhere below the neck but I've found they can differentiate between playing and misinterpreting you 'making a pass' at them. Mine has watched me hand wrestle with my Caique so much that she has learned how to hand wrestle which doesn't lead to the panting horn dog behavior. I've learned what types of petting lead to that behavior and avoid it.

My grandmother who was Mormon used to scare the living hell out of me with her prophesies concerning the end times. Of particular note was her insistence that the San Jaun power plant which supplies a lot of the southwest with electric power was a prime target for a nuclear blast. I used to look at that thing and live in terror that one day I would see that flash of light and knew the shock wave would soon be at our house. I think she did more damage to my health with her babbling as I lived in fear of that for at least 10-12 years till I outgrew it. If only she could see what was going on now!

Hey now....new avatar of a Caique. That's more trouble than a Grey. I can attest.