SRSeedBurners

Thoughts? Mine - Loved it that they didn't glamorize parrot ownership. Reinforced my guilt for parrots in the first place. I've always felt it should be illegal to own/breed/etc parrots in general. My wife actually commented during the piece that it's a highly selfish act to bring a parrot into your home and ask it to bond with someone in the home. Unfortunately I agreed. Really sad to see some of the cases they profiled. Lou left abandoned in a house to basically fend for himself. The overwhelmed parrot rescues. I really wanted to cry when the profiled the African Grey that was addicted to nicotine. Just breaks my heart. I wish there was an organization like that at the end that was focused on training the birds to be reintroduced back into their wild habitat. The parrots are just another segment of this world we've managed to pollute and destroy.

No advice on the crazed cockatiel but would love to hear what your plans are on the other topic you mentioned - the aviary. We had a guy come out just today to give us a quote on a Pergola to see if that would somehow work as an aviary. This guy has an awesome setup too.

You might try some warm food to jump start her appetite. It might just be mine but warm things will go down almost no problem.

I have the book 'For the Love of Greys'. I agree, not that special - will probably sell it online. One of the best books I have read that I compare other books to is by John C. McMichael PhD 'Caiques - Their care Breeding and Some Natural History'. Granted it's not about Greys but he does a really good job of not simply regurgitating the false information that's out there. I wished he had experience and would write a book about Greys. I so often see people just propagating misinformation because it's so often quoted elsewhere (guilty as charged here). Examples are parrots and chocolate and similar. Greycie decimated a chocolate bar the other day that was left out and we couldn't tell a thing with her. I swear she ate half the bar, the wrapper and piled the rest on the floor. She's also gorged herself on my wife's coffee that was left out. Milk - she's been into that constantly. I don't know what's true and what's just being parrot'd because it's popular to quote. McMichael addressed the lactose topic in his book and basically went on to say that he gives his birds a half inch cube of cheese per day. Greycie will do anything for cheese, it's her absolute favorite. Read it on the internets though and you're led to believe you're poisoning your bird with lactose. Anyway, a good book is a must. I have that African Grey Parrot Handbook mentioned by Dave. I'll have to break it out and read it. I quit reading For the Love of Greys about 1/4 of the way through.

True dat! I love how Greycie wants to see me every time I come through the door in the evenings. Our little Toby (Caique) is even the same way. He will waddle, not hopping yet and he was clipped, across the floor to ask to be picked up. They're so cute. I think about them all day long. We plan our days around them. My wife acts like they're her children and she wasn't even a bird person till I begged to get a Grey. The weirdest thing I do is probably telling Greycie little bedtime stories at night, in the dark, before putting her up. She has a hard time going to bed and needs some extra bedtime coddling.

Sweet baby face.

Sounds awesome. Your lil TAG just moved out of the stone ages. We had some idiot come in one time and tried petting our birds with a broom handle. What a dumba55. The ex-wife promptly removed him from the premises.

She has a cute voice. She sounds like Einstein (from Houston). May have to run that one across Greycie and see if she picks up on it.

Exciting times! I remember taking a week off after we brought Greycie home. How ridiculous is that- NOT! Wish I could find a job where I could work from home, or take my birds to the office with me. Have fun and post some pics.

How hard is it on the bird to get them micro-chipped? I can imagine I'd be on Greycie's s*#t list for a good long time if I take her in for that.

- you were showing attention to that stupid Caique that I detest. < -Miss Greycie-poo

I've bought bird toys with plastic chains of that exact size. You're good.

Haa, you get called with an annoying cough, I get called with a dog whistle and a "Coommme onnnn" and if I don't respond I get a loud angry raspy squawk. You don't have to be an African Grey to know what that means. I think it's similar to your "get your A$$ back here - NOW!" Hilarious.

Sounds like a situation I could have gotten myself into. I get bullied and pushed around a lot because I can't look people in their faces and say 'NO' until it's too late. I too would have sat there and watched as she did whatever to my Grey while getting nervous and trying to figure out a way to say something. IMHO she needs to pay dearly except she's running a rescue you said? I would hate to make it harder on the birds that are there now. This is a tough tough situation. It might be of little help but I know myself and probably several others would love to hear about Lilo if you posted more about her in the memorials section.

This statement sets off my violation of common sense alarms - so I went looking. From the University of Michigan Range of lifespan in captivity: 40-60 years Average lifespan in captivity: 45 years Average lifespan in the wild: 22.7 In general, it's harder to survive in the wild for most animals, although there are lots of exceptions but not many for prey animals. Just ask your neighborhood rabbit who averages in the months in the wild and in the years in captivity. As for the Alex/Dr. Pepperberg debate - I have no clue.

Would love to hear more about your Zon and see pics too! I had a BFA and kind of wished I had more room for another big birdy.

That's sweet. She's going to be a real gift.

Have you considered rehoming an adult bird? There are lots of birds in sanctuaries in need of a home. You may want to contact some of the organizations in your area: Maars.org. Occasionally people signup here just to see if they can find someone to take a bird they need to rehome and don't want to just craigslist the bird. Hang around long enough one of those will pop up. There's one recently.

I love following Felix on FB. I usually just zip right on past most stuff until I see one of his memes, then I have to stop and read and usually comment He's helping look for a Jardines parrot btw too.

Her little pictures pull at my heart strings. I saw in the other thread where you said she is blind in one eye and quite possibly the other. Such a sweet looking birdy.

I have not lost a Grey but I did lose a very loved Jardines parrot in September. She worked her way into our hearts and we spent a lot of round-the-clock time caring for her before she passed. I still go out and tend to her little tree my wife planted and go out and say goodnight most nights. I for one can definitely understand the feeling of loss you get when you lose one of these gifted creatures. At one point I thought I was just somewhat off in the head as I always seemed to have a lot of compassion for birds (even a pigeon of all things?!?) and have an overly hard time losing them. However the internets has provided proof for me that there are other nuts out there just like myself. I remember my wife telling our vet once "...I mean she is just a silly bird right?" we were sort of justifying the ungodly amount of money we spent trying to save our Jardines. Well, if she was just a silly bird, why are we still getting teary-eyed two months down the road? I consider them my feathery little children that will never grow up. This thread reminds me, I found a picture of the things my wife buried with our little girl...I'll have to update my thread. It's at the following link if you want to read it. Our sweet little Raven

Pics or it never happened!! HAAA

Wow. Neat pics. I can't imagine what it's like to have two Greys. I like the pic of the three conures. Trouble right there

Oh Greycie has her spooks. She's famous around here for throwing her hoomans to the spooks while she saves herself. Toby is the bane of Greycie's existence. She flys at him and loves to try and knock him off the tree. She's only been successful a couple of times. She will regret this. Caiques are the Jack Russells of the bird world. They are afraid of nothing. He has already started chasing her and taking pot shots at her red feathers. Whereas he gets along with the other smaller birds that have never been mean to him. Still trying to find a Jardines. Incredibly difficult bird to locate but won't quit till I have one for my wife.

Cute Radar!