SRSeedBurners

Talon or anyone else: what were the symptoms you saw that let you know there was an issue with your Grey's eyes in regard to the UV light? I have Greycie set up for the first time this morning. I'm only going to run it for a couple of hours and it's also higher than recommended, even for the burn-in period. I plan to lower it with time to the recommended distance and increase the on time as well once I know her eyes are not being effected. The instructions on the bulb are screwed up. They say 18" to the perch, then they give a detailed description showing the distance to measure is from the bulb to the top of the parrots head. So which is it?

10K! I'll never see one of those. In all seriousness, if she has or knows of a Jardines parrot let me know. I am turning over every stone looking for one of those sweeties.

A Hawk head you say? Where? Please pass along my number to him would you (I'm only half kidding - please stop me).

oh boy, I have more than one. Will probably never have: 1. Hawk-headed parrot 2. Hahn's macaw 3. IRN An amazon is on my maybe list if I ever get my aviary built.

Last night after several rounds of wrestling, some Grey sprints back and forth across the back of my chair (these are super cute), multiple strafings of the living room and finally attacking Toby and knocking him to the floor I decided to weigh her. 437g. She felt so skinny it scared me. She wouldn't hardly eat anything either so she wasn't hungry. This morning her weight after the morning bomb was 442. Not sure how she managed to gain weight overnight. The low 440s used to be her skinny-girl weight, now she's getting into the 430s.

At least it's a young 8-9 mo Grey. It'll be like leaving it's immediate family flock and joining it's adult flock. Thanks for posting that FB Joe, I like that pic of the outside cage. Do you have any problems with hawk predation in that setup? I would love to build something similar but I don't want the hawks sitting there trying to figure out how to get in. I've seen other similar setups (murfchk?). Sorry, don't want to get the thread off-track but I really liked that pic.

Amazing. Before I got to the part of who did it, I was sure you were going to say a pit bull. We have some friends who were out walking their Corgi down the alley behind their house and ended up in a tugging match with a neighbors pit bull latched onto the mid-section of their Corgi and them on the front legs holding on. Similar wound area as your doggy except it was one big gaping hole. We had two rather large owls living in our tree line a year back and I never would have considered our little rat terrier was in any danger. Hard to believe!

I think it's somewhat common over here to declaw cats, I'm guessing to protect furniture?!? Like Judygram says, usually it's only the front. Our cat came to us declawed by the previous owners - front and back. He was living in a little shed while his hoomans were hoping to move him into their house when they finished building it. The house never got started so he ended up living in that shed for four years before we came along. The wife showed the cat to my wife and next thing I know, we have a cat in the back seat of the truck headed to the Sterling-Ranch zoo. He seems to function just fine without his steak knives including running across our new hardwood floors. He's been a house cat the whole 10+ years we've had him. His name is BuckyKatt. Greycie has bitten the base of his tail twice in swift attacks that I couldn't get to in time. She doesn't like him sitting on the back of my chair, that's her spot. Next time I get a cat, I want a Ragamuffin, which is a cross between a Persian and a Ragdoll. Known as the teddy bears of the cat world, they are known to be very sweet and furry. I like the furry. Picture time - my selfish ratbag BuckyKatt!

Pretty birdys! What's the lil greeny?

We have a cat, de-clawed front and back - came to us that way. We still will not leave them together unattended. Greycie and Toby take priority as the cat has the run of the rest of the house as he pleases.

Greycie seems a little skinny - is this normal for 14mos? She's always been between 440-455 with occasional forays into the 470s. It seems to me like she is leaning out. I'm starting to notice her keel bone more and just recently her spine?!? It's probably my PDD/AVB paranoia kicking into high gear. She's a very active flighted cocakroach (read: into every darn thing). Plays tons, especially when I get home. Wondering if it's normal for them to get leaner as they get into their twos.

Wow - Istanbul! I like it's former/other name of Constantinople. I would love to go there sometime, lot's of world history! Welcome to the forums!

He did have help. If no help, it would have taken him longer to get in the frame but he would have gotten there. Once the camera came out, it was his mission in life to 'look down the barrel'. I think Greycie's reaction with her talon held in the air is priceless. You can just see her thinking - "WTF?!?"

With temps like that, I see no reason why you can't block them off in a room with the door sealed (with a towel - nothing extreme) and the ventilation (central air?) blocked. Windows open and birds secured in their cages so no escapees. We had the same thing done, only it was 3/4 of our house with only two usable rooms, one being the bird room. See my thread about it. I ended up staying in the room with my birds and the smell never really got in the room as I had done as mentioned above with the exception of the open windows - it was too cold here for that. My nuclear option was to move them into our RV but I never had to go that route.

Greycie loves a good photo shoot. Greycie doesn't love some damn Caique getting in her frame. If you've never had a Caique, they are extremely gregarious. The music plays and lil Toby will dance. He will dance in the shower. He will dance on the handlebars of a bike. He started dancing while I was just shooting Greycie and this is what I got - with a little help from me of course - he would have gotten on screen regardless:

Teaching me to give affirmations is going to take a lot more effort than teaching Talon to give high-fours!

My wife says I suck at affirmations, so when I saw Einstein post that, I had to play it for her when she woke in the morning and before she went to bed at night. Plus I repeated it several hundred times out of my own trap last night until I think she was sick of it. Greycie was listening too so hopefully she'll pick it up. Einstein is one of my favorites. I have a hard time remembering she's a she with that name. And how the heck did she learn to wave goodbye like that?!? I always melt when I see Einstein wave goodbye - what a cute birdy!

What bulb do you use in that? I have a flat top cage and it seems like that one would put the light right on top of her head with no way to get it up to the 18 inches as recommended with the bulb I have.

I haven't ordered mine yet. Talon, was it the bulb or the stand that was the problem? 'AvianSun Deluxe Floor Lamp' seems to come in two different flavors. Flavor 1 (updated version?): Flavor 2 (older model? has pretty crappy reviews): Can you provide links to what you are using?

Here's another option from sproutpeople.org. They have different mixes for different birds. I have the sprouter they use in that kit and it's amazingly easy to use. I think I'd prefer it over jars, although I've never used jars. Bird sprouting kit

Oh - on sale - ordering!

Wow, my head is spinning just reading this. So sorry for your loss - I know how bad it hurts and will hurt for a long time. I just can't believe it myself.

I never thought about this. Is this just from crappy urban air? What type of air cleaners you use Talon?

Love how they respond to certain stimulus. She's lifting her foot like Greycie does when she wants more! I'll have to play that one for Greycie and Toby-the-Caique. Toby will like just because of the whistling in the song. That's all he can do - poor guy.

That's exactly why we're moving to non-floor standing gyms. The only drawback is you have to have a hook in the ceiling wherever you want to have the gym. Moving a hanging gym is much easier than our homemade floor model. The floor underneath a hanging gym can have a flat blanket or whatever instead of some wrapped mess. It can all disappear in a matter of seconds too unlike the floor gym. As for real estate, they make a version for Umbrella Cockatoos and Macaws that is fairly large. Our floor standing gym is huge and they don't use 3/4 of it. Our two birds fight over the top-most perch and they seem to spend 90% of their time around that perch. Here's my thread inquiring about hanging gyms when I first started looking. Check out Shanlung's response and links. His stuff is always interesting. I'm planning to make a couple of versions like his for foraging opportunities in their bird room (my wife doesn't want eyesores in her living room so I have to get a nice purchased one for that space). The clay pots mimic what they forage on in the wild. Pretty interesting stuff that guy blogs about. Worth reading his stuff but there's lots of it. I've been researching hanging gyms for a while and those are the best I've come up with off-the-shelf. Keep us updated on what you find, you might find something a lot better than what I found.