SRSeedBurners

Would love to see the videos. Flying is one of the best things for these birds. I'm convinced that good exercise is one of the keys to keeping these birds happy and healthy. I've posted this elsewhere here but we have a routine with Greycie: 10-20 flights around our living room (and into the kitchen) in the mornings and then several rounds at night. Greycie actually thrives on this as it helps her burn excess energy and we all clap and make a huge deal of it when she's zooming around. She's an excellent flier as she's never been clipped and can square off the corners in our living room when she's fresh. After a few flights she'll start rounding off the corners. If I don't start flying her soon enough she'll start flying herself and 'acting out'. I went through a lazy phase where I wasn't flying her and she started to gain weight. When she did fly I was calling her a flying pig because she lost her zip and just seemed to beat her way through the air. My wife and I both noticed she seemed like she was a flying UPS truck instead of the zippy little sports cars. It's good for them - Greycie gets really excited when I'm carrying her over to her launch pad.

Well, he's a lover and a fighter. He stands 10 feet tall and is bullet proof and has a boogey-woogey move that will knock the ladies off their feet. He uses it on me too but I'm oblivious to his advances. He saves the good stuff for my wife - his sweet puddin tops. He's a bit of a Jeckyll & Hyde which Caiques are famous for. When he's in the right mood he's an absolute doll. He loves to lay in my hand and play wrestle and he does this little gurgle that is so cute. Flip side, when he's grouchy he's a testy lil fella. Our biggest problem right now is we have a new baby in the house and he's turned into a demon-shit hell bent on beating the feathers out of the new baby until he's stamped his authorita on him. We're trying to figure that one out right now! I can get some video of his cute side if you need a push

What gauge did you use and what was your best biting bird? I have a Grey a Caique and a soon to be Jardines. Greycie doesn't really chew on wire so I'm not too worried about having a destroy proof gauge. I priced SS from another source and it was crazy outrageous. Around $1500 for two 6'x???' rolls. We can afford it but I really don't see the point when aviaries all over the place have been using GAW forever and no issues. As you say, my biggest concern is West Nile, not zinc heavy metal poisoning. We've had really good luck with some anti-mosquito plants along with the citronella. I notice they have a military discount

Thanks for looking Muse. We're now arguing about where to put the aviary now that we've decided where we're going to put it (yes, cart before the horse sort of thing here). This thing may never get built!

If you can find some vegetable tanned leather strips, those work very good for string things together AND birds love to chew on leather which is very tough for them to tear up. leather strips that I use

Do you still have other birds? I have found that Greys like being in the company of other birds even if they don't like those other birds. They do keep each other engaged during the day (caged separately of course).

All I know is 454 grams == 1 lb of Grey which is what my recipe calls for. If you're wondering what size to get for a CAG - Medium. The deciding factor is the head loop. Too small and you won't get the harness on them, there is always enough harness for the body.

I took a Grey a BFA and a GCC from San Diego to San Antonio non-stop once. They all rode on the bench seat right beside me and my wife - around a 24hr trip. Greycie has gone on 6 hr drives with us no problems. Just drive safe!

Nancy - if you can get your order over $35, the harness is $28 on Ebay directly from the maker. Cheapest I've ever seen was $25 drop shipped from my breeder who sold me one a little above her cost.

He knows what the harness is obviously but you might have better luck re-exposing it to him before trying to put it on again. I do love taking my birdy outside with me, not so sure she likes it that much. She gets stressed. My Greycie will also do the flying to my hand thing. I have my laptop sitting beside my chair in the living room. She will literally sit on the arm of my chair and work her way into position where I have to go over the top of her if Im' going to use the laptop. She even gets onto the top of the screen and will hang down into the viewing area as if I have nothing better to do but pay her some attention. She's cute when she does that but I have to keep myself in check because she does it almost immediately if she sees me using the laptop.

She sounds like a sweety.

Possible you can put some plastic toys inside the shelf to let him play with? I'll bet he starts tossing the toys - they love hearing stuff crashing to the floor. I'm not sure males go through the nesting routine, I'm betting he's just looking to get into stuff.

My Greycie doesn't listen and also doesn't like the harness or being outside much (except in her play cage). She loves hanging out in the kitchen with the cooks! That's a cute pic!

I don't know how to get them back into 'training' mode but if you have problem areas that you don't want the Grey, we use little scary looking stuffed animals: frogs, trolls, etc. Greycie hates those and will not go near anywhere we place one. We use them on fans and where my wife has her decorative candles that Greycie likes to destroy. Otherwise, she's free to fly whereever she wants and that's generally sitting on me or my laptop screen next to me. They do want to be close and I imagine if you lay off the training at times and just allow him/her to be a birdy, they'll end up wanting to be wherever you are. Lots of love and attention is the key around here.

Fortunately I'm immune to macaws and toos. We saw some macaws at Kookaburra this last weekend and one started that macaw scream. I looked at my wife and assured her not to worry, I could never get used to that.

Do you have a link? I never thought to look on Amazon. Also maybe shipping from you to me isn't that bad - I priced something off of twpinc.com and it came out to ~$60 for two rolls of 6ft 16 gauge 1x1. I was scared shipping was going to cost more than the wire.

Thx Murfchck! Preferably I'd like 6' as thats the size of the structure. I'll call and see if they can get that and see what Muse comes up with.

I see a posting in the Grey group on a missing Grey in Jersey. Seeing lots of alerts now that spring is here. Makes me rethink the clip versus no-clip debate. I hate seeing these...I get a terrible ache just worrying about them.

Knowing what I know of hatching chicken eggs, you also need a humidity component. In the beginning it's around 50% and rising within the last week as the chick gets ready to dig out. I always used a hygrometer inside an incubator to measure temp and humidity. My hens still get better hatch rates than I ever could.

Looking for a local source (North Texas) for GAW wire. I've been sitting on my talons too long on this and Greycie and her momma are conspiring to put pressure on me to get the aviary done! If you know of a source - would appreciate it. Putting my feelers out in several internets locations...

We got there at 10:30. We started on the northeast corner of the expo and zig-zagged our way through. So it was probably a good 1-1.5 hours before we got to that corner with her booth. She had four of the double half-moon perches and several of the single half-moon as well as two of the 'standard' hanging perches. She told us that's the last of them which I didn't buy her story for some reason - she was too much into sales person mode and I could smell it. Apparently she brought more out after you wiped her out. She had several fleece perches when we came by so we had a lot to pick from. We may have bought some of your inventory too. My wife was asking that lady if she had a couple of particular items and the lady lifted the cover on the table and pulled some stuff out and said 'she'll never know I sold a couple of her...'. One was a little green metal hanging bell that you can see laying on the couch in the first pic. Don't recall what the other item was, something small and insignificant.

For some reason those wood perches seemed familiar. Now I remember the photo of them you posted. I can't believe how heavy and solid they are and so cheap. No doubt Tree Top or Kookaburra would have been asking somewhere between 100-200 for those if not more. Busybeaks is the one vendor I was referring to when I mentioned 'full retail'. They had one toy there with a manzanita branch with leather dangles and a tube bell at the bottom that I know my bird would love. I went back and forth because those guys weren't giving any deals. They were the only ones that went ahead and tacked on the tax too. Will avoid them in the future now that we know. If I want to pay full retail and taxes, I'll go to Kookaburra. The atom you mentioned, we actually didn't get that at the fair. Greycie was sitting on it because it's familiar. She's perfectly willing to let Toby test the waters before trying the new stuff. The vendor that did have the atom I was interested in had it marked '16' but then he changed his price. They were kind of flakey so we just bought little parts and pieces which they had tons of. If we go again I'll PM you first, that way we can meet up and my wife can keep you busy while I buy all the stuff out from under you :)

We're first timers at one of these expos. This one was located 1.5 hours away, a little far but what the hell. Some vendors had really good prices, others were full retail - we stayed away from those with the exception of one. Lots of sad looking birds, I hated to see that. You can tell some of these idiots consider these birds mere livestock. We were after toys and food so --- The total haul. The two manzanita perches are huge and heavy - built for macaws. They were $24 and $35. Retail on those, I wouldnt even look twice. Two on the right are a soak and a cook mix. I've always wanted to try but these are outrageously expensive in our local store. They were literally 1/3 the cost at the expo: I didn't want to buy this but my wife insisted and Toby went ape* over it. Obviously he's into soft and fluffy: Some of the stuff hung. Greycie of course is a big chicken. 10ft tall and bullet proof Toby can't get enough of his fluffy perch toy:

He's coming from Almost Angels Aviary in Houston. We were slightly disappointed this week when we found out the sex but I'm sure that will disappear the second we meet him. Here's a pic of him just after a feeding with his two clutch buddies that he's being raised with: I had a list of girl names all lined up and ready to go and now I have to ditch it. Need some boy names I guess. I actually looked up 'Lotus' in from seeing your forum handle thinking it might work. The meaning is kind of girly though. Here's a pic of our sweety we lost. I absolutely adored this bird even though she had eyes only for my wife. She's the only bird that has bit me hard enough I danced the dance of pain. As you probably know, Pois have that robo beak feature. Not only can they snap like normal parrots but they can clamp down and tighten up like a vice. But I loved her to pieces. I also have a thing for Conures, mostly Green Cheeks. I just love them. I've never heard of the crimson bellied, very pretty. I've had two GCCs. The second one was an unwanted bird passed around CraigsList until we found him. He instantly made best buds with my daughter's parrotlet and then, as the story I like to tell goes, he ran off with my daughter (and her parrotlet). He went from being an unwanted bird to me and my daughter fighting over him

One of the hidden secrets of the parrot world - Pois. We had a Jardines and she was amazing, even as a rescued bird from a bad situation. I fell hard for her but we lost her last year. We have another male on the way. Did you happen to be watching the drama in NY City unfold when Truman flew the coop? If you don't know who he is, he's a famous Cape owned by the Parrot Wizard. Welcome to the AG forums btw!