SRSeedBurners

A birds happiness is directly tied to their ability to fly, forage and socialize. Clipping takes away one of those aspects. Not every clipped bird plucks but you are increasing your chances. People usually clip to prevent a fly-away, keep the bird out of stuff or some other reason. Whatever your reason for wanting to clip, I would find an alternative around it. I put up chain curtains on our doorways to prevent an accidental escape and I built aviaries to give them lots of stuff to do and be free of their cages. I took in a couple of birds that had been clipped and caged and not allowed to fly. It took about a year for them to learn how to fly and get past the clumsy stage. Neither are as good as the birds I have which have never been clipped. I have one bird which plucks and we can't figure out why. She didn't before she came to us. She was a 100% cage bird before coming here and I think her sudden freedom to roam and find nesting holes has probably led to her pulling her feathers. However I couldn't go back to watching her perch potato in a cage all the time. There's lots of ways around clipping and I love having a bird that can come to you on their own power. I guess in the interest of your survey: I bought my Grey as a baby at the same time as my manager at work. I've had previous experience with a Grey in my early 20s. He had zero experience. I was hell-bent against clipping and tried to steer him away from it as well. He clipped his bird and within the first year, his Grey was plucking. They have struggled with it ever since. They have gotten a handle on it now that they are both working from home (socialize!) but I think they could have prevented it maybe if they chose not to clip.

Guys/girls, when it's hot outside, like 106 in the shade hot, remember to stay cool. Get that fluffs indoors under a fan, makes a world of difference. GreycieStayCool.mp4

The aviator is probably the most used and recommended harness. I have 6 of them, one for each bird. Our Grey will constantly chew on hers unless I keep her very distracted, so I've had to buy a few of them for her.

Omg....she's a cutie.

Be careful with clicker training. It can have negative affects. I clicker-trained GreycieMae to turn around and now she turns-around whenever she wants me to go get her a treat. I'm still trying to figure out how I was the one that got trained in this deal. 🤣

Ouch. I won't have Huey on my shoulder for that reason. He's too damn unpredictable. Greycie has never show that kind of aggression ever and I don't even think twice about packing her around on my shoulder. I guess you have to know your birdy.

Smartest one out there. For sure.

Don't tell anyone but GreycieMae and Huey are closet cheese connoisseurs.

Love that little baby face!

Huey butchers his feet every spring. We have to put him on haliperidol to get him to stop otherwise it will drag on all year. He refuses to sleep on his perch, goes round and round in his cage in the dark. It stresses us all the F out. But after 3-6 weeks of the meds, he settles down and it's back to Huey normal. So far I haven't had issues with GreycieMae (female). Not sure if they suffer from it as much.

Huey here. What's going on out there is a severe plucking and biting issue. We've seen them all wearing masks so we know this is what's going on. Plus most of them have been sent home to timeout. Apparently yours is in timeout which can be stressful on you. Instead of letting this get to you, you can use this time to train your hooman, they make great kitchen and wait staff and can do all sorts of tasks to make your day easier. They are trainable albeit some train better than others and you need to use different tactics. I have two hoomans: a male and a female. This is my male. He's a blockhead and very hard-headed. He needs stern training methods. I can't let my guard down with this one or he wants to get all touchy-feely and gets in my stuff. He loses sight of his main tasks: cooking and cleaning, getting and taking. I have him trained to do stuff through whistles and verbal commands, I can even control the pace by using a 'RAWRRRR' and shows him that I am a The TyrannosaurusHueyRex and not to mess. He responds to hard bites as well. Occasionally, and this is when he's in my stuff or I want some alone time with my female hooman, I have to resort to flying biting attacks. Those are rare though and you can really injure them so use sparingly. This is my female. She's my pet. She is trained but she is not part of my waitstaff. I love on her, give her kisses, cuddle with her, feed her (she doesn't realize she needs this). She has recently been confined to the house in timeout but we are adjusting. I have had to have a couple of stern moments with her when she gets a little rough but I let things slide with this one, she's definitely my favorite. Sometimes I do get tired of too much time with my hoomans and in that case, I have my male, the slave, take us out to the outdoor aviary if the weathers nice, or to the indoor aviary in inclement weather. I make sure that he has prepared a nice 'lunches with the ladies' so that I can dine with GreycieMae. You can make this work, just don't let it get you down.

Sounds like NorthernParrots needs to be warned that they're selling dangerous equipment.

Happy hatchday Alfie! Looks almost like Huey in that aviary pic!

Is the UV light a reptile light? I know those can cause 'sun' burns. I'd check and ensure it's the proper bulb before using again since that seems to be the cause.

I'm only drawn to certain types of parrots, African Greys being #1. Their soul touches mine for some reason. I like to justify it by saying I was probably a Grey in a previous life..who knows. I feel strongly about them. Very similar to my feelings for my daughter, I care that much for them (my human daughter also feels strongly and refers to GreycieMae as her little sister). I don't really feel anything for macaws or cockatoos or amazons, no idea why. My GreycieMae lets me do anything with her and I feel like she loves me right back. Then there's Huey. He detests me and would have me evicted but I still am drawn to him, he's so irresistible to me. Another bird that really really gets into my soul are my conures. I have two of them and I just love having them with me. They are totally adorable to me, their little white eye just does something. I feel like there are other birds that I would really get along with: Quakers, senegals..who knows. Everyone has seen my GreycieMae, this is Tinkerbell and Connor - my other two loves:

I wouldn't dare do that with Huey, he would eat my face. My wife could though. GreycieMae is my little love bugs. She lets me get away with anything. Occasionally she'll correct me but she's never mean. She loves the farty game. Sometimes she'll come over and I can tell she wants to play the farty game.

My wife watched it and said it's not the Grey that dysfunctional.

I just can't figure out why my Greys are so dysfunctional... 20200406_191637.mp4

Huey got me on the lip last night. Ripped it good. To me he's so cute I can't resist him but he knows he can sucker me in and get me. My wife can cuddle him, kiss him, roll him over, snuggles...I get nothing but sucker moves. I'm lucky though, my GreycieMae is so pliable, she's my little sweetling. I can do anything with her.

I always down-play the fun of having a bird. They are a ton of constant work if you take care of them properly and most people are too lazy to keep it up for years on end. I always wonder how I'm going to keep it up if I make it into my elderly years but my Dad is 80 and still takes care of cattle and horses and works outside daily. If he can do it, so can I.

Huey has been sitting around watching and listening to my wife and then me cough, cough, cough and....cough some more. He has also seen us go for the medicine bottles which we have been keeping in a built-in bookcase. No birdy has ever taken an interest in getting up in the bookcase until now. Huey now sits around and coughs and coughs and has found his way into the bookcase and zero'd in on the pill bottles. Apparently we're supposed to believe he is sick now too and needs meds 🤪 So the pill bottles except one have been removed. Now Huey attempts to take his meds and hopefully we'll get him through this 'sickenss'. Poor Huey ::eyerolls:: 20200402_072919.mp4

He was a social distancer before social distancing was cool 🤣

Boxes, cupboards etc are the only thing we have found that will keep Huey busy enough so he doesn't butcher his feet. Otherwise he has to stay on Haliperidol 24/7 and it keeps him knocked out and droopy all the time - hate that. Huey goes hormonal in the spring regardless of there being boxes around or not - we found that out the first year we had him. So does our male Caique - loses his mind and rips his belly feathers out, has no boxes etc. Not sure I buy into the boxes cause nesting theory, I'm more of the inclination that it's their normal seasonal hormonal fluctuations. 20200331_082957.mp4

They have their expectations! Huey gets irritable if I'm not making his 'lunches with the ladies' soon after he is up.

Sounds like our boy Huey. Always has to be in a drawer, cupboard, bookcase - anywhere getting into anything/everything. I set up his own dresser with drawers full of wooden spoons, boxes and lots of stuff for him to get his 'constructionings' on. He even does the "whew" sound when he's working. I always compliment him on what a hard worker he is and then more "whew".