It's been a while . . .

Wow.  It's been so long since I've been on here, I almost considered posting in the "Welcome" forum!  My laptop decided to fry itself for the second time in a year (found out that model was lemon), I bought a new one with Windows 8 (shudder), spent I don't know how many months trying to get all the software working properly, then my printer decided to die, bought a new one, didn't like half the features that installed themselves so I had to uninstall things without disconnecting the printer connection, had no reasonable picture-sharing software, found a freebie, STILL not completely confident with a lot of the features on both machines . . . BUT I'M BACK!!   

Most of the picture-sharing I do is through Instagram, so until I get familiar with everything I'll just give updates.

Freddy mostly sleeps, being the senior psittacine that he is.  Freddy, the half-bald bird with nine lives who loves nothing more than sleeping on my left knee -- and it HAS to be the left knee!  He's very obviously arthritic and falls a lot.  Just making it from my shoulder to my knee while I'm reclining in my recliner, he ends up ass-over-tea kettle, as my father would say.  Very undignified!  Poor guy!  Yet, today he was playing "toss the paper wad" with me, so he's still got his spunk!   

Callie's hormone therapy was temporarily stopped by a vet that I think got his license at a K-Mart Blue Light Special.  We finally had her hormones in a steady-state so she wasn't laying eggs all the time and we could give her the shots in-between eggs, and this guy comes in, and tells me that I'm wasting my money on Lupron without making changes in her environment, and don't come back until October.  I understand the need for environmental changes, but while I'm trying to convince my mother that her house has to be rearranged, Callie's hormones are now all over the place again.  I don't understand why she should have to suffer while we're getting our acts together.  She's laid two eggs in the past month, and I'm not happy about his.  The whole point of the hormones was to stop her from laying, preventing calcium-loss and potential egg-binding.  *sigh*  I hate seeing my baby so unhappy.

Cricket is an absolute monster (in a good way)!!  That little bird is so smart, so clever, so talented.  He mimics everything, and has started stringing phrases together.  Still enamored with Freddy, and one afternoon I heard him say, "Hey, Freddy!  Whatcha doin'?  Tickle, tickle!!"  Simply by watching us play "catch" with Callie, he's figured out the game and today started playing the game with me.  I gave him a piece of food and he tossed it to me.  I gave it back, and he tossed it again.  It took the dense human a few more tries to realize that he wasn't dropping his food, he was playing!  He's still hyperactive, still very nippy, and still afraid of just about everything, but I'm beginning to accept that it might just be his nature.

I'm fine.  Mom and Dad are fine.  How are all of you?  lol

I'm so glad you are back. Andrea and I have had quite a few private chats on here and I swear I could hear an echo
All birdies here are great. We think that Georgie may be epileptic cause from the head trauma but he is stable most of the time. I have a larger cage for him but worried he will fall which of course he has never fallen from a seizure but you know me always worrying.
I am glad to hear Freddie is still spunky in his old age.
Poor Callie I wish I had the answers other than what I've already shared with you.
Sounds like Cricket has fit right in and put a few smiles on your faces  

Believe me, I wish I had the answers for Callie, too. Right now she's her old self because the egg is gone and the hormones are low. So she's playing and bouncing. But at the rate she's been going, it should last about a week before she starts nesting again.  

I change Billy to a different cage for about 2 weeks and then put her back in her's after it was painted a bit. She splashes her water so much that it sits and creates rust so we had to clean it up. She has NOT had an egg since and that's been most of the summer since I put her back.
You need to keep them on their toes I guess and make regular changes. If I move her cage to another part of the room it also slows things down. Their natural instincts kick in and they are not sure if it's safe to raise a family I guess

That and the abundance of food for breeding. I can't convince my mother that Callie's not going to starve to death if she doesn't get fed constantly, although I did convince her that two feedings a day was sufficient. But then, we have to have their "bedtime snacks," which is defeating the purpose. I appreciate all the help my parents give me, but sometimes, at least with the birds, I think we'd be better off without so much "help."

What do you mean by feedings? Don't they have pellets in their cages all day?

Oh yes, they do. But Callie tends to throw hers around so Mom re-fills the dish. Therefore, there is always an abundance of the "good stuff" that she likes. Fortunately, the "good stuff" must also be nutritious, because she doesn't have any health issues. Yet.

For birds that throw out the pellets at Exotic Wings we only put about 20 pellets in at a time. If they run out they soon learn to eat what they have fast or the dish is empty

Can't help but compare Cricket and Ducki. It's funny how two birds of the same species (and mutation) can be so different! Duck isn't much of a talker beyond 'Ducki', 'Hi Ducki', 'Kiss me' and 'thank you,' but he's also not afraid of anything after a 5min intro. He's moved house with me four times now and travels by plane no trouble at all.

Then again, we both seem to have found nippers and pitchers . Duck has Phil well-trained to fetch his ding-a-lings.

I hope Callie is feeling better. For Ducki's food, he gets 2 tbsp pellets in his cage, and a tablespoon in his playstand dish if he is out and about (because he usually won't go back to the cage). Have you tried foraging options? Maybe if she has to work harder to get the food instead of having it presented in a dish she'll be a) spending more time looking for food and less looking for nests and b) feel less like there is abundant food. I have no science to back that up, though. Just seems logical and that it couldn't hurt.

Also - hi Freddie! My mom is still guilty of taking in 'tiels in tough situations. Her original tiel is now...13?...and in love with the lovebird (mutual, so at least there is that). Squeaky, whom she adopted in 2009 from a not-so-great home has now mastered perching and walking, as well as begging for people food. He's 19 now. Her newest addition, Zack, whose parents underwent a divorce and didn't feel it was fair to him to move keep him in a basement apartment with less interaction (new job) is Squeaky's new best friend. I think he is 15. So she is keeping a geriatric tiel flock   Not to mention the 13 year old zebra finch that just keeps going (normal life expectancy is 5-7 years but apparently no one informed her). Maybe one day your geriatric tiel and mom's geriatric flock could hold a tea party. Too bad they are so far apart.

Oh yeah...welcome back!

andrea wrote:Not to mention the 13 year old zebra finch that just keeps going (normal life expectancy is 5-7 years but apparently no one informed her).  Maybe one day your geriatric tiel and mom's geriatric flock could hold a tea party.  Too bad they are so far apart.

Oh yeah...welcome back!

 WOW she sure is doing something right with that little zebra finch

YEP!  
Her mate was also long-lived. Only died a few months ago.  

That's amazing  

I was going to say the same thing about the zebra finch!! Freddy unfortunately will still be the senior psittacine among your mom's cockatiels, Andrea. He's going to be 23 in November!

As far as GCCs go, I've come to the conclusion that they have the metabolism of a hummingbird and the attention span of a gnat.   I wish I could break Cricket of the nipping, but then -- we've got lots of years to work on it! Ducki is most likely calmer because of all the changes he's gone through with you. Cricket's life has been completely stable since he came home, so except for a vet visit or two, he hasn't had any stressors to mold him, so to speak.

My experience with GCC's is they do tend to be nippy but if you do the step up method and make sure they get their 10 hours of sleep/dark time they do pretty good. When I was looking after Penny she was REALLY nippy at first but with the handling experience I've had working at Exotic Wings I would just grab her of course gently but in a way she couldn't bite me and look at her and say DON'T BITE? she actually stopped. If she forgot she would stop in mid-bite and look at me and say DON'T BITE They are quick learners.

could you send a picture of the 'no bite' grab? Now I'm curious.

Yeah, me too!

Hi There Everyone:
I am afraid I to have been away quite a while. Been busy with new job, new grandson who is now six months old and I realized it has been almost that long since I have been in touch with all of you.
Oh yea.....I forgot to mention....new Macaw....yep I have added a new bird to my already oversized flock. Sky has been with me for a month now and although Dino has his beak out of joint I think over time they will learn to live in the same home....time will tell. Sky is a Milligold baby who is eight month old and was in pretty poor shape when I picked her up. For some reason she spoke to me over the internet through an add and I could not get her out of my mind. I even phoned my good friend Penny and asked her to save me from myself because I was thinking of getting another Macaw and her response to my cry for sanity was "Road Trip....we"ll take the truck" Her husband even offered to drive.....silly man. So we left of our road trip at 6:30am and headed for a little town called Millbank which was about seven hours away. Once we saw Sky there was no doubt in my mind that in many ways this would be a rescue. She was malnourished, very underweight and
being fed garbage ....coloured seed, sunflower seeds, pellets that were left uneaten and in a big pile in the bottom of her cage. Stress bars on every feather. I took her to the vet and began at the beginning with hand feeding. The vet says it will take a year to get her back on track and although we are not out of the woods yet, she has started eating pellets and some veggies so fingers crossed she continues to make progress. She is a very sweet girl. So all that is my story. It is nice to get back onto the site and catch up.
Cheers,
Catherine and flock

Oh that poor baby. If anyone can fix her up it's you  
Glad you came to her rescue but you must be run ragged YIKES. I know I am with 7 birds  
My biggest concern right now is that Billy quit eating her lory mush I make her and now is showing signs of vitamin A deficiency. I have been cooking sweet potatoes for her but if that beak doesn't brighten up I may consult Dr. Tucker and see if a vitamin shot would help.

How's that new baby boy? I bet you are a very proud grandma
Where are you working now?

Hi Carol: Have you thought about booster for your lori? My vet suggested it for Sky for her vitamin A deficiency.
Logan is growing like a bad weed but what a cutie he is. Starting to come into his own little personality.
My job is a complete upsidedown from the pet industry that is for sure. I work at Speedy Glass in Sudbury but not in the glass part. I work with Guardian Interlock. What I do is the training and monitoring and calibration of the government mandated ignition interlock devices which are installed in vehicals of people who have been convicted of a DUI. Miss the baby birds...maybe once I retire or I should say when I can afford to retire. Seems to me I have lots of beaks to feed haha!
I will send you a picture of Sky to post for me when I get a moment.

Yes that's quite a change from the pet industry but it sounds interesting. I went from a very technical job to the pet industry so I guess we both did quite a change Still do the website stuff for Exotic wings though and I have started working on a new website for my toys FINALLY. I could go live now but I have quite a few toys still that I don't have pictures of. I'm doing new images and making them all the same size for a more uniform look.

Booster might be a start for Billy mind you she is eating her sweet potatoes so will see how it goes. She's still very energetic and showing no other signs of deficiency other than the beak color.

Image sample

Since this topic is all over the place, I'll add my own rabbit trail, lol. Feeling TERRIBLE!!! We had a really stormy day the other day, but (in my opinion) nothing out of the ordinary. When we took Callie out for her evening outing, she seemed especially agitated; wouldn't stay with Dad or me for more than a few seconds. She acted like she wanted to go back down to the floor, so I lowered her down with the foot rest on my recliner, and before I could bring my feet back up, she bit my foot and then scurried away. I chastised her severely, because she's been trying to pick up bad habits. Then, my father of all people, figured out that actually she was scared! She must've been doing the "hurry and follow me away from here it's dangerous" bite!! I am such a schmuck.   Anyway, I took her back into my chair and cuddled her for a good half-an-hour after that. Fortunately, she's forgiven me.

It's sometimes really hard to figure out why a bird is biting/screaming/'misbehaving'. I often wish that Ducki could tell me so that I can avoid the situation in the future. I'm glad your dad was able to figure out what she was saying. How's your foot?

Pete's been acting up again too but with him I think its hormones. Before I go to work everyday I get him and Jimmy out for one last play or cuddle and if it's warm they go out in the aviary for an hour but if it's cold we play on my bed. I'm not sure if Pete was mad that we didn't go out but he wouldn't let me on the bed. Kept lunging so I had no choice but to push him off the bed. I think he got the hint because he was fine after but I wouldn't cuddle him he was way to aggressive and I didn't want to push my luck.

I just have a small bruise on my foot; no big deal. I do, however, have two very nice scars on either side of my left index finger. For those who missed it, I stuck my finger in the cage to give her a "scritchy" when every millimeter of her body was saying, "Stay away!" Not planning on letting THAT happen again!