Greywings Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 As long as the cage has shade available and fresh water to drink 80 to 90 degree weather is not an issue for them. Our Sanctuary Too's are outside 24 x 7 and they thrive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted April 11, 2014 Author Share Posted April 11, 2014 We won. I have been singing we are the champions all evening. We harnessed her to her stand. I will NOT advise that to anyone who isn't right there to monitor but we are and it is working! She has room to move around it but can't jump off! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted April 11, 2014 Author Share Posted April 11, 2014 Sorry, i was excited that we found a way to keep her from jumping off the stand and had to tell someone! So let me explain a little. We put her in her harness and attached the leash making sure there was no way to get tangled or hung up but rigged it where it only allowed her to move freely on her stand. The spot she jumps from she couldn't reach so she couldn't jump. She tried once and to say she was shocked that she didn't go anywhere is an understatement. We spent several hours praising her for being on the stand and she loved the attention it brought her, we knew it wouldn't work quickly though but had to try and let her off the leash to see if she even gave thought to it, as soon as it was unhooked, she jumped. She is a work in progress. I would love for her and Gus to be outside, that is where they are happiest but being in the city and near a school and having an apartment complex behind us, i am fearful something or someone would harm or tease them when i wasn't there to watch. Now the house we are looking at has outdoor cages that are equiped with misters and fans for the hot days so they will be outside for sure and in their element! After looking at our credit scores though, i am very doubtful this will be happening. :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted April 11, 2014 Share Posted April 11, 2014 If it is meant to be then it can happen, keep on working at it and moving forward. Never give up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted April 13, 2014 Author Share Posted April 13, 2014 So, just for the heck of it, we went and looked at another house yesterday. Keep in mind that we wouldn't even be considering this if not for the birds. We found our dream home, sat on the porch of it for an hour, met the neighbors, lol. Built in 1908, even has a widows peak. It is funny that it is our dream home but when we were looking in the windows we would say, oh that room would be perfect to set the greys up in or Oh, that would be percect for the macaws, Gus and Lilly would love that area.... lol We are without a doubt, a slave to our flock!! We put fresh mulch out in the front late yesterday and then sat on our front porch, hands bright red and hear a knocking, there is Gus at the front door wanting out. As tired as we were, we washed up and harnessed him and went back outside, a few minutes later there is Pat with Lilly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted April 15, 2014 Author Share Posted April 15, 2014 The harness thing has been going very good with Lilly. I shouldn't say that outloud but... We put her on the stand and if she flys off, we put it on her, after about 15-30 minutes we unleash her but leave the harness on and she stays there, if she flys off again, the leash gets put back on, rinse- repeat. She was on her stand from 2pm yesterday until about 7:30 and only flew off once!! That was when daddy came home, she got excited. Fingers are crossed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 Fingers crossed & whispering congratulations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted April 16, 2014 Author Share Posted April 16, 2014 How do we get Gus cleaned up from his accident with Lilly? From the blood to the ointment his head feathers look nasty and won't clean up with just water and he grooms and rubs it all over. Now his wings and tail are turning greyish. We would use peroxide when we dressed the wound but it doesn't clean up the greasy stuff either. I bought some Dawn and thought i could just dab it around but for some reason my gut is saying i shouldn't do that. (diluted of course and it is the original blue dawn) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted April 16, 2014 Share Posted April 16, 2014 You can safely use a very dilute Dawn in water just use a gauze square or two then a shower to rinse. Follow up the next day with the aloe vera juice spray misting it has worked wonders here on grubby stained birds that arrive from less than optimal surroundings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted April 17, 2014 Author Share Posted April 17, 2014 We will give it a go tonight, thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted April 17, 2014 Share Posted April 17, 2014 Maybe a before and after photo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted April 18, 2014 Author Share Posted April 18, 2014 I will do that. I just saw a cockatoo feather shampoo on Kings Cages website, is there really such a thing? lol Got home to late to give the bath yesterday, too cold out and i didn't think he would dry enough before bedtime so we are going to try again today, since it is Friday maybe they can stay up a little later and let us sleep in tomorrow. I can not remember that last time i got to sleep in other than being sick, ahh, so nice to dream of. Poor Lilly, she just doesn't learn. Had to harness her yesterday, but after we did, Pat unleashed her and had Gus with him and i could hear Pat telling Gus he has a dumb girlfriend. Mind you, she knows her leash limits and so i looked over and she was hanging off of Gus's stand, upside down flapping her wings like she was stuck there. That would normally be where her leash would stop her, but she wasn't leashed! On a side note, we found a song that makes Bongo dance by just singing the title. Jungle Boogie! It is so funny to watch him. He got to explore the kitchen countertop last night and boy was he helpful getting their dinners ready. He would throw all the bowls off except his, i would distract him for a moment but saying Jungle Boogie, he would bob his head a few times and then go right back to cleaning off the counters. He now will go to Pat without much trouble which is nice, or i should say up until last night he would go to Pat but since he was so playful (which is rare for him) Pat got a little excited himself and thought it was time to see if Bongo would go on his back like the other greys. Uhhh, no, Bongo is not a back bird and the screaming he did showed Pat beyond a doubt that he will never get to try that again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted April 22, 2014 Author Share Posted April 22, 2014 I forgot to post some pictures before we started the cleaning, but even now he is still a little messy head! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 It will keep fading may take another treatment or two with just the Aloe juice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted April 22, 2014 Author Share Posted April 22, 2014 There is still a hole in her head but it doesn't seem to bother him much. Just when his crown goes up, it must pull at it. He has been grabbing the feathers up there with his foot and tugging at them. None are loose or broken that we can see. Ahhh, on to Lilly and her harness, lol. Still works great to keep her on the stand... When she lets us put it on her now. She use to love wearing it which is where this idea came from, now she knows it means she can not fly off her stand and refuses, by way of biting to put it on. She is my little Cujo! I was holding her the other night bawling my eyes out at the love i have for her but she is such a pain in the butt with her antics!! I assume this is where the phrase " love- hate relationship " came from! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted April 25, 2014 Author Share Posted April 25, 2014 I guess Gus is feeling better again, he has started tossing his food out. That is something i did not miss, lol, back to the brightly colored poop from the dogs. Lilly only lets Pat harness her now to be put on the stand. It is funny but she loves being on her stand and plays non stop and is quiet but if she doesn't have the harness on, she jumps off and screams almost constantly. I just don't get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted April 25, 2014 Share Posted April 25, 2014 Maybe limits are a sign of love for her, very un Too like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted April 29, 2014 Author Share Posted April 29, 2014 Big boo boo. We moved the too's back into the double macaw cage and out of the bird room and into the living room. Mostly because of the dust and the macaws and then because we thought if they could see us, the screaming would slow down. Welp, that was a big no on the screaming. We were worried that we would wake them up to early in the morning, but never thought about what time we put them to bed. I also did not think through the stand situation and where they would be during the day when everyone is out. It took us 4 hours to disassemble it to move it and that was done Sunday, Sunday night i wanted it moved back, lol. Last night we decided this wouldn't work at all so tonight we tear it down and move it again! Gesh. We made a deal, no more cages that don't fit through doors!!I have one that can come in and out for washings, the rest i have to scrub where they stand and use a ladder to get to the tops. We keep talking about the bird house in the country and how nice that would be but we got their asking price Friday and am not sure we can pull it off, we have someone working the numbers now. There is a second one we found, not as much land but the house itself is huge and the birds would all have their own rooms, it was built in 1908 and our absolute dream house. Already dubbed the money pit. Someone tried to make it into a bed and breakfast but lacked carpentry skills. We joked about not being able to drink in the house because if you tripped and your face went into the wall you would walk away with not skin left on it, the texture is so bad. One room is about 5 inches lower because the texture they used on the ceiling is about 5 inches think and pointy. lol Alot of work but could be worth it. The bird house as we call it, has issues of its own but there is room to run and hide and cry. lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted June 2, 2014 Author Share Posted June 2, 2014 So, i am still dealing with the screaming and the flying off of the stand. We put the harness on her for a few minutes and then we can unleash her and she is okay but if we remove the harness, she flys off. She broke one harness already, chewed the clasp in half, as luck would have it we had a spare. Yesterday the two Too's got their baths and went outside almost all day, they loved it and i wish we could give that to them everyday, but it gets so stinking hot that we can't. As i had mentioned, they were sharing a double macaw cage, with a divider UNTIL Lilly decided that she should remove the feathers off of Gus's face on one side. Poor boy, still recovering from the hole in his head she gave him and his beautiful crown feathers are less than beautiful, now he has half a bare face. We had to do something and although i hated having Bongo in the double beside Gabby, we had to do the great cage switch again this weekend. So now the macaws each have their own double macaw cages without the divider, Gabby and Bongo share a double with the divider, Cotay has the handicap friendly cage and Gus and Lilly each have their own large cage that they can race across the top and have plenty of room on the bottom for their love of shoving things around, lol. I am now out of room officially! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Acappella Posted June 2, 2014 Share Posted June 2, 2014 I wish I was close enough to come volunteer at your house and give you a bit of a break. I met a Too in a new pet store in town. Someone had foolishly set off a home alarm in his vicinity and boy, can he duplicate it. When I was there I saw the owner pull out a water bottle and I thought he was going to use it as punishment, but then the bird opened up his wings and I realized he was loving it. Apparently birdy uses this sound not only to ask for attention, but to ask for a bath. Anyway, let's just say I got a close up and personal appreciation for the volume these guys can put out. I'm sure a scream is even worse than that alarm sound, and my eardrums bleed for you. Your birds are truly blessed to have you, even if they don't seem to know it most days. And poor Gussy. Why does Lilly have it in for his poor head? (I know, if you had the answer to that question everyone's life would be better). <3 to you and yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted June 3, 2014 Author Share Posted June 3, 2014 Somewhere i have read that Cockatoos are a few decibles lower than a 747 airplane and i fully believe that. The umbrellas are second to moluccans in the loudness and somehow we have not gotten one of those, came close, but someone was looking out for us! I wish you were closer too!!!! lol It is funny to look back, our house was the neighborhood gathering point and now it is like someone put up an invisable fence, we hardly ever get together anymore, go figure. I guess they don't like the flying and the noise levels. hahahaha. The big cage switch has so far been good. Pat said yesterday that we got it right, i told him to hold on to that thought, they are still settling in and things can change without warning. I was in the shower this morning thinking about these great hearted people who want to start a rescue for birds who only have one or two birds, i think it should be maditory that all those thinking of doing this have at the very least 6 large birds that they care for daily for 2 years or even 3 before they open their doors. This is not for the weak at heart or for those who cherish their hearing or like their alone time. The smaller birds are a cake walk, the more there are of those, the easier. It is the big uns that get ya. The time required to keep them happy and mentally healthy will wear a person thin! I am lucky to have a hubs who has the same passion and shares in this or i would be nutso, in the rubber room drooling on myself. But i love them all to pieces! (Even Cotay who really thinks i am her personal chew toy! She let me scratch her head last night, yeah for small victories!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted June 27, 2014 Author Share Posted June 27, 2014 Wow, hard to believe almost a month has come and gone and no update on these guys. It has been a busy month with the vet. Cotay and her toe, Bubba and his butt and Gus's with his head injury, I think we have finally built that second story on our vets house. lol. The scab has finally come off Gus's head and all looks good, it was about the size of a nickel, maybe a tad bigger. All the damaged crown feathers are starting to come out and his half a face has some new pins popping out, now if he will stop offering his face to Lily they may just come back in! He has figured out how to climb off his stand, this is bad news for us because he is a foot biter and we use to be able to hear him fly off, now it is silent until he gets us and we let out a scream. Also when he gets down, Lily feels she must join him on the floor so they can do their war dance together. Those two are my Bonnie and Clyde. I have to order new harnesses now, Lily has eaten all but one now and if she manages to finish out this one before the new ones arrive, we are not sure what we will do! We also have made a cockatoo room. We have a sound proofed garage conversion from hubby's band days (he is a drummer) that we made into a game room. We sold the pool table and put in laminate flooring and moved our screamers out there. It is has heat and ac, we upped the lighting for them, hung a 49" tv and ta-daa, a room just for them to scream their hearts out in! It still needs tweeks, but it has only been a week. They have it made though and the greys and macaws are happier and chatting it up again. I moved the office desk out there also and thought, gee that was dumb, with them screaming when would I be able to actually ever use that desk again but as it turns out, if I am at the desk working, they are so quiet and peaceful. Go figure! Cotay is getting around with her bad toe. We have decided no amputation, at least not yet. Sometimes it looks like she is curling it and using it so until we are 100% sure that it is getting in her way or hurting her, her toe stays put! Bubba had a butt roid flare up last week. It was huge and it took both of us to get it back up in him. I called the vet to be sure that is what we needed to do and he said yes, so. We are lucky that he is a gentle guy so we just wrapped him in his towel and Pat held his feet while I put the medicine on a q-tip and put it back in. Once we let him up, that boy poo-ed for a long time! The smell was awful. He went in the next morning and got a check up, clean bill of health other than the "roids", no infections in the poop or him. He just has smelly poo due to the roids backing him up at times. I had taken pictures of it for him and he just said that the next time it came out to bring him in right then and they would freeze it off. Oh what a fun filled few weeks we have had at Casa Murphy's! 3 birds at the vet in one weeks time, that will drain a pocketbook for sure! Sad but Oliver and Bongo need to go in for their beak and nail trim but their year has passed so they have to have their annual check up before he will do it, that means 130.00 per bird and I don't see being able to pull that off ay time soon! I had tried a different vet during the year that did their last trims, 30 bucks, and he did great but just our luck, he retired in April. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted June 27, 2014 Share Posted June 27, 2014 When it rains it pours, I know you spend so much time and energy on the flock it does make life challenging. Wishing a lull in exspences and trauma for a while. Hope the coming weeks prove to be a bit less challenging, at least you will never ever be bored. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
murfchck Posted June 29, 2014 Author Share Posted June 29, 2014 Wishing a lull in exspences and trauma for a while. Hope the coming weeks prove to be a bit less challenging, at least you will never ever be bored. Gee, somehow I just don't see that happening - for a while anyway... hahahaha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greywings Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 I know that is a false hope, birds help you avoid boredom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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