Gus, our lil baby.

[murfchck]

Lily was in hyper drive yesterday, I don't know what was up with her. I even did the chamomile tea, uhhh, how long until that kicks in??? She was bouncing off the walls last night and even quit the jumping and took to full flights. Her first flight, she knocked Pat in the back of the head and kept on going. This sweet little Cujo of ours got a taste of freedom and now wants more and more. There really has got to be something that will calm her down, if not that then there has to be a little pill out there that will make me okay with it. lol The harness that she use to wear are no more and the leashes that went with them are now her kill toys. She got on the table where we keep them, tossed them off and flew down to the floor for the kill. I got this all on video but it is having trouble uploading to photo bucket for me to post. At the end of the video, she was flipping her head around and looking at the phone upside down until I started laughing and had to stop filming so I could show Pat what a dork she looked like! It is so hard to picture our evenings before these guys came into our life. What did we use to do? Watch tv, go swimming ( which we have not done yet this year ) or be social with the neighbors? haha, how our lives have changed for the better!

[Greywings]

Perhaps all she needs is more exercise to wear her down and release those endorphins? I think I have seem used motorcycle helmets at the resale shops.

[murfchck]

Lily has crossed over to the deep end and is causing tension in the flock. She went totally nuts last night where I had to walk outside and shed a few frustration tears. All was good and we were playing on the floor, (I had her in the living room with everyone but it wasn't working out so we went to her room to play) after a while I had to get started with the evening chores so I put her on her cage and left the room. All was good for 30 minutes or so, then I noticed her flying around. She flew into the tv 4 times ( according to the body dust imprints she left) Then she found a mirror we had put behind some things and went nuts trying to get at the bird she saw in the reflection. I turned the tv on for her and she did stop flying into it, but was really agitated. I took her back out with me to the kitchen and there she spotted what was left of the harnesses, full on attack mode. She grabbed, tossed and killed. If they hit the floor, she went after them. She even flew directly up from the floor to the table when I picked one up off the floor and set it on the table. Then she spotted the mirror in the dining room and all hell broke loose. She kept flying into it screaming, knocking everything off the table under the mirror, even getting herself tangled in the fake plant. It is like she either hates other birds or she wants to play but they won't play with her. I just don't know what to do to make her happy. Maybe she is happy and just over excited, frustrated and in season maybe, jealous?? I really don't know. She is full on flying now, have not seen her "jump" in days and that is when her attitude changed some, when she found her wings. Maybe she was upset last night because we giggled at her when she flew into the kitchen, she didn't think about the fact she would slide after she landed and slid, with a little soft bonk, into the stove. Also, when it came dinner time for them and all the birds where in their cages, she was a gem, no screaming or anything. She however, just sat there and chewed her nails. She doesn't seem to like the birds around her when she isn't in her cage, but when she is in the cage she is okay with it as long as everyone else is in theirs, if they are not there she screams for them. I am so lost and not looking forward to the daytime hours anymore when they are all out! We have even tried one on one time, not having everyone out at once and she still gets into trouble chasing the dogs or worse, biting our feet because she will not stay still enough for us to get anything done. We try to wear her out playing and flying, holding her and her flapping until she get tired, but that just seems to get her more anxious. If we give her a bath, she flies trying to dry off. She has so much energy she doesn't know what to do with it. If I lay on the floor to play with her, she just runs to me and presses herself hard against me and would go to sleep, calm as can be.

[murfchck]

No change in Lily. In fact she chased a neighbor when he and Pat were in the room. (that is where the tool room is and the neighbor needed a big saw) Pat just walked in the room to get the saw out and when he came out the guy was not in the same place a pale. He said she flew around the room, landed on the floor and chased him. Pat asked what he did when she did that and said he didn't know what to do so he just shit his pants. lol I never thought I would look to the vet for drugs but she is really out of control and positive reinforcement, time out in the cage, time out in a dark room are not working. Put her outside and she just screams.

[Acappella]

Aye you on the e-mail list for Barbara Heidenreich? I noticed she has a webinar coming up on birds that are aggressive in September. She just had one on the weekend for birds that scream. Wish I'd seen your post earlier ! There's a lot of good information on her site.

[murfchck]

I am. Also registered for her class. 2016 was the first available, told her I would have the good and screwed up by then!

[birdhouse]

First of all, you haven't screwed anybody up so far. They may all eventually have your unique stamp on them lol but they're all better off than they were by a long shot!! And while I know it's almost blasphemous to ask, have you thought about looking for a less renown behaviorist?

 

If the Chamomile tea isn't working, then maybe she's not getting enough. Kura responds to the scent. So I bath her in it & she's noticeably more relaxed for a while after. She also gets the buds "straight" because she wouldn't just drink it.

 

If none of that helps enough, maybe you could ask Dee about the Rescue Remedy she's been giving Gilbert.

[murfchck]

Oh yeah, I have reached out to many people who can help. All the answers are pretty much coming back the same. "That's a Too for ya." We have been working on removing things that we think are her triggers for the so called attacks. The best thing we have removed is a mirror she had been looking into that was set behind the file cabinet in her room. Didn't know she had pulled it out. Basically after a friend watched a video of her, I was told that she is just active and she is entertaining herself. What I thought was her killing the leashes was just her playing with them, as for getting on the floor, Too's are ground feeders and her want to be on the floor is natural also. She looked happy and playful. It is the other two Toos that are docile, but all three could be running around like Lily and we got lucky. lol It is me stressing, not her. With that in mind, the past couple of days have gone much better, no, Lily hasn't changed but my attitude has. A lot of my stress has been that I thought she was unhappy, having confirmation that she is really has helped me cope. She is also still very young at 5 years old so she should be allowed to act a little nutso now and then. heehee

Edited August 20, 2014 by murfchck

[Greywings]

I leave the chamomille tea as the water for the day when our Too gets too wound up you can also find the dried form to grind up and add to birdy bread.

[murfchck]

We are adapting to Lily's new stand when she comes out, that of course being the kitchen table, lol. Pat is building a deck for a neighbor so it was just me yesterday with them. Cotay wouldn't come out of her cage at all for me and Bubba, oh that Bubba wouldn't go on his stand either which meant Ollie wouldn't either so they went on the coffee table, the rest did their normal thing. I had to go next door for a second so I secured our demon fids and just left the macaws on the table playing. When I got back I took a quick look around and all seems good, I was happy with it all, then I heard this weird noise and looked around again, no Bubba to be seen ( how I missed that the first time I don't know) I tried to follow the noise, it lead me to the laundry room but the door was shut ( bi-fold louver doors ), I slowly opened them and there he was, eye level and still climbing up. There was no getting him to step up so I had to get "the towel", lol, the towel is his favorite game so that wasn't an issue. I set him back on the table then realized I missed my chance at getting them on the stand, once he and Ollie are together handling them isn't easy. I still had the towel and picked him up, in his zest of playing, he bit the snot out of my thumb, then Ollie stepped right up and went to the stand. Mean time Gus flew down and when I went to pick him up, he had one foot on me and I lost my balance squatting and scared him, he bit me lightly but then he wouldn't step up at all. I still had the towel so I figured, why not, I can tell you all now why not...He hates towel. Took flight again but this time when he landed I was able to scoop him up and get him back to his stand. Koko was singing very loud this whole time, hanging upside down and in between songs would whistle. Gabby and Bongo were in the kitchen waiting for me to start dinner, Bongo making the finger snap noise to Koko's songs and Gabby bouncing her head, I think they are starting a band, so I joined in. Lily still running around the table playing with her leashes. If anyone had been window peeping, they would have called the loony bin on me, thinking I had escaped! I got their dinners done and started putting them up about 7:30, all in cages and eating by 7:45. Pat finally got home about 8pm, got in the shower and went right to bed. 8:30, I put the birds to bed. It was a quick goodnight, one nut each (ok, Koko and Lily got a few more but they eat fast) and to sleep they went. Dinner finally got done about 9pm, I ate and went to be exhausted. Made me realize just how much Pat helps me out in the evenings.

Point of the story, Lily wasn't even close to being a problem yesterday! LOL

[Greywings]

A day of Victory!

[murfchck]

It has been so busy here my poor birds probably are very mad at us. Right after work Friday and all day Saturday was spent at a new friends home cleaning his cages and scrubbing floors and walls. This is the man who surrendered 11 of his birds, he still has six. 4 blue and golds and 1 grey and 1 hawk head. 1 guess who I bonded with.. lol Yes, the grey. The first time I say her she came down to where I was and just talked to me and we "bonded" some. Yesterday hubby saw her first and at the time he was lugging a big black bag and a shop vac and she was not happy about it. When Pat was done, she got better with him and wasn't freaking out but with me she was bobbing her head and telling me i'm going ( cuz we were breaking for lunch and I told her I would see her later ) when the door opened for us to leave she said we were gone. Ever since this mans partner fell and got burned, she has been plucking so she would fit right in at our house! lol. The hawk head, oh my is all I can say. Beautiful doesn't begin to describe her, but mean as fire and knows she is because she laughs at you when you look at her. We had to clean her cage so I opened the door, asked her if she would step up and she put her little foot out, feeling proud that she did that I proceed to put my arm in and BAM, followed by her HaHaHa's. She didn't get me cuz I pulled away really quickly. I didn't tell Pat how she is either, we wanted to see how she would do with him and she did exactly the same and even came running after Pat with those beautiful head feathers fully out. She was still out when we were done in their room and I was told to keep an eye on her as I was leaving, I told him I was and I side stepped past her which brought on her evil laughs at me. Sad but it was too funny not to laugh back. He has given us 3 cages so far, 2 are huge and stainless steel, beautiful scalloped top with the fold down door and 1 Cal-Cage that is so big after we broke it down, nothing else would fit in the bed of the truck. There are still six more cages for us to pick up. 3 are matching large white ones and the others are smaller - he also has 3 or 4 stands for us. He feeds his flock nothing but organic and boy are they healthy, no seed or pellets either just a few nuts that are also organic. He gave me a book on feeding them like that, I think its called Who Stole My Peanuts. ( he may put pellets in their bowls, it looked like there were some but he didn't mention them so not really sure.) So now my schedule has another day blocked out to help with birds. Mondays are the baby days and Saturday is at this house.

Oh, my B&G Bubba, had his butt roid frozen again and it finally looks like a butt hole! Never in my life did I think I would get excited to see a working butt hole on a poop machine! Lilly, Gus and Koko have been really good during our time away and I think this cage time has done Lily wonders. Knock on wood!!!! We will see today. They get to go outside. We put a divider in the large aviary so all 3 can go out at the same time.

[Greywings]

Never a dull moment, I am sure the flock will recover from having their serving staff take a few days for them themselves on occasion. Don't know that I would tell them you have been interacting with another flock though, suggest keeping that to yourselves. They can think getting those new cages for them were your reason for being out.

All the adult Hawkheads I have met have been fierce, beautiful and fierce.

Edited August 25, 2014 by Greywings

[murfchck]

For the first time, all our fids were able to be outside at the same time! It was so wonderful. They had a good ole time and I even got Bongo rubs and kisses at bedtime!

[murfchck]

I had a dream last night that Gus plucked himself and was bare chested when I woke him up. It was so real that I am leery about going in there this morning, lol.

My new infomercial:

Hello new sprouters, did you soak just the right amount for your flock? Great, now remember as these soak and start to grow THEY WILL SWELL, giving you so much more than you started with!

Oh my gosh, I can feed an army! Which I guess is good because I think I am starting my own Army birdcamp. Within the next few months there will be a 4 or 5 more moving in. A very weird amazon, who no one knows his name except he always say "Albert is scared, let me out", but don't call him Albert, because he will tell you that is not his name. 3 more greys (2 are retired breeders) and maybe a redfront, aka The Old Man. He is very, very old, old enough that padding was put under his perch so if he fell, he wouldn't hurt himself. That backfired because he was put off at that notion and moved down his perch enough that it wasn't under him anymore. lol ( I think she said he was in his 60's. I really can not remember exactly.) This should be interesting and I think my hubby is only ok with it because he hates our couch and said if we get them the couch has to go so we can put in more stands for them. lol Really getting more birds to get rid of a couch? Wouldn't it have been easier to just get a new couch? What ever works!!

To top off our hectic last few weeks, Wednesday I got a call from Pat as he was heading to the ER, he had sliced his finger open and couldn't stop the bleeding. Ended up with 4 stitches in his index finger on the left hand. Later that night, Koko saw the bandaged finger and took the sides off the index finger on his right hand while he was giving her an almond. So now he can not even handle the birds or even give them a nut. He tried to help and get Gabby for dinner and she did her famous tuck, grab the finger and roll over and not let go move. So I have banned him from them until he heals. Funny, he said the bird bite hurts worse than the finger with the stitches! And during all of this a very large branch from a tree by the driveway fell, missed his truck by a mere 5". It is still there because it is too big for me to do anything with and what is he going to do? Go point at the limb and shake his wrapped fingers at them and hope it just falls apart? lol

Good times, when it rains it poors I guess!

[Acappella]

Where are these new fids coming from? I don't know how people with so many beaks to take care of do it. Bless you for giving so many "special needs" birds a safe pace. I hope they integrate into the flock as seamlessly as possible. And I hope Pats poor fingers heal quickly. It's amazing how losing the use of one finger renders the whole hand basically useless isn't it?

[murfchck]

Well this week just keeps getting better. Hubby just called from work again and i joking answered saying "now what? You never call me from work!" I got silence, followed by "someone took a sawsall to my truck and took the catalytic converter" God knows what else was cut. He called the police to file a report, they told him 2-4 hours and there is no guarantee that they could make it then. About to give up here! Lol

[Timbersmom]

That is truly horrible, on top of the finger! When it rains it pours indeed.

[Acappella]

I'm sorry this happened to you and Pat. That must have been a real shock. How far away is the police station? Could you go to them to make the report? That's a pretty damn specific robbery. I'd be going to parts places and wrecking yards to see if someone's been asking for a catalytic convertor for your year and make truck. Hugs from Dorian and I. ((( )))

[murfchck]

Both the cop (who showed up an hour and a half later) and the dealership said it is what's hot right now. The part runs a little over 1700.00 and the people who steal them make about 300 and it takes them less than 3 minutes to remove.

Pats fingers are pretty pathetic looking! Haha i don't really mean to laugh but he made so much fun of how i held my finger after my monkey bite and now he has 2 fingers he is holding the same way. Lol.

[murfchck]

All the birds were out yesterday except for Gus. I didn't realize that I don't take them out but Pat does and there were issues with me trying. They will not leave the inside unless they are either in a crate or we (Pat) has a good hold on them because they freak out so easy we don't want them flying off. With Pats fingers bandaged up, the too's will not go near him. I got Lily and Koko without a problem, Gus was doing good until he saw some cages out back that we were cleaning and freaked out. I didn't even make it through the living room before he got me to let him go. I tried the crate, I even tried toweling but no way, he was to upset by then so he stayed inside and didn't like that either.

Koko is an escape artist with her cage. We were outside the other night after the birds had gone home for their dinner, I came inside to use the restroom and heard a too squawk that sounded closer than normal. I came out and there she was sitting on the gate that divides their rooms from the house. She has escaped before but never left the room, she has been out for full days while we were at work and still never left the room so now that she is venturing the house we gotta figure this out. I don't want her getting hurt by dogs or in reality, her hurting the dogs. We did get some cages and we were going to move the macaws into the bigger stainless ones which will give us the 2 double macaw cages for the Too's. Saturday, we were given 4 more cages that the 2 of the greys, who share a double macaw cage, can go into leaving a third. So I can have the 3 doubles for the Too's and one is a newer one that I don't think Koko can get out of, it doesn't have the swing closures on the food bowls but it has a latch mechanism. Going to give it a shot next weekend. I feel like all I do anymore is clean cages and stands. I have to take today off to get my house back in order, hubby requested this and when he says something like that I know it is bad. So I am off to start cleaning...again... lol

[murfchck]

I have become a sprouting fool! And the garbanzo beans are the winner! All the fiddos love them so they get it twice a day. My first batch was quite big and only one bowl made it to the fridge on the 3rd morning, we had to run out so the other two large bowls I had rinsed and left out. By 4 in the afternoon, they smelled funny so I had to toss them out. Lesson learned, when they say 3rd day they mean it. I have another I started yesterday so they will get the wet ones this morning which they love more than when they sprout out.

Bird updates:

Gus, he has a foot/leg fetish with Koko but is in love with her. They are so fun to watch grooming each other and talking away. They get into the Too talking mode, throwing their crowns up and bouncing together. Beautiful music.

Lily, oh is she a mamas girl. If I leave the room she flies to the floor and takes off running to find me. I had walked into the bathroom and she came down the hall. running into the bedroom after me. I saw her go by and said her name. She slid to a stop and came into the bathroom with this silly relieved look on her face. Still cannot keep her on her stand or the table or the counter or anywhere for that matter she just jumps to the floor. We have moved a cage into the kitchen for her when she gets wound up. It is safer for everyone and better for her so she isn't alone in her room while we are in the living room/kitchen.

Koko... Koko Koko Koko. She is such a hoot and has taken to biting Pat. Ever since he got stitches in his finger, she has changed her view of him and he is now her chew toy. She can be perfectly fine one minute and then strike at him like a cobra. She has gotten about 5 chest and leg feathers in and is looking good! Spoiled? Oh yes she is.

Here is another picture. That is lily's cage in the background. lol Koko doesn't hold still so she is always blurry!

Edited September 5, 2014 by murfchck

[Greywings]

Poor Pat not fun being a chew toy for a Too. they are just Too smart and Too excitable sometimes. It sounds like you have lots of work ahead redoing cages and healing fingers.

[Acappella]

Hopefully Koko will stop using Pat as a chew toy once his fingers are healed up. I sympathize with the blurry pictures. I have lots of blurry Dorian photos!

[murfchck]

So no insurance and the lower than normal funds due to the truck issue and paying out of pocket for rental car gave me the chance to play nurse yesterday. Awe, not the kinda nurse you are thinking but a real one. lol I removed Pat's stitches for him, I think I missed my calling. Blood and gore just doesn't bother me, I actually get calm in bad situations, not sure why but I do. Put a June bug near me and I will panic and run for the hills, but a gaping wound draws me in. Okay, I could be rambling on, I have not slept in two days now so I could be a bit delirious.

I pulled a muscle down my neck and under the shoulder blade Thursday, not sure how much help we are going to be to the guy we go and help out on Saturdays. He has had a bad week also as his partner was told this week that he needed to consider having his legs amputated. This means that he really needs to think about the 6 birds he kept, there is no way a wheelchair will be able to fit around the cages and the gnat infestation is so bad that birds will need to be removed to treat and even if he treats the gnats, he can't pick up fruit if it should fall to the floor so they will come right back. It is just not a good place to be right now. I am hoping Ixta, the grey will get to come home with us soon. The hawk head attacked me last week as I tried to clean his cage out for him, he was on my "okay, I will take him in list" until that happened, lol. They all need fresh air soon, their little noses were so red last week it was heartbreaking. He sent me an email earlier in the week about the macaws, that because he trembles so much more now, they won't step up for him hardly any more, that they are afraid he is going to drop them. I fear I am going to have to find them homes soon and really do not know where to turn. I can't take anymore in personally and the place that took his others, well, they are at full capacity and I wouldn't send them there anyway. There is Bird Haven, I may reach out to her and give her a heads up about the 4 macaws and see if she could help. He doesn't want them in a sanctuary for life, but for them to find them the right homes where they will be happy.