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Battle Pigeon posted:Got home yesterday, and decided to surprise the birds by waiting in the main room around a corner so they wouldn't see or hear me until they flew in and looked around. Ohtori flew in, spotted me, did that whole body shake they do when pissed, then flew over to my knee. He sat there, fixated on me, acting aggressive (wings drooping, eyes pinned, feathers raised and spread) while making the same sounds he makes when happy. He only bit me a little bit, between begging for pets, all while staying in his aggressive pose. So Ohtori is both delighted to see you and very angry with you for going away. Parrots really are wonderful aren't they? Pookie has lately been introduced to roasted, unsalted, shell-on pistachios and she is craaaazy about them, as in, she starts leaning and wheeping when she hears the bag rustle. When she actaully gets one she makes her "This food is delicious" noise with one tucked into her lower beak. # The little baggage stole carrot peelings from me just now as I was making a thai curry - as with all parrots, stolen food is most definitely the best food.
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Jan 7, 2013 18:17
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Pookah posted:So Ohtori is both delighted to see you and very angry with you for going away. Parrots really are wonderful aren't they? That best describes it, though I don't know if he's delighted to see me so much as 'the missing flock member is back'-but then again, he did cuddle against my neck, so maybe it's just that in his eyes I'm completely inferior to my partner.  Surprisingly, they're at the same point they were when I left, in regards to screaming when I leave the room and they're in their cages. If I call for 'Tori, and tell him to come here, they don't scream and are mostly quiet. If I say other things, they get agitated. If I say nothing, they start yelling.Steve has decided he wants to be near me, but not on me, and I am not to pet him or interact with him. He's sat on the arm of the chair, preening. They both look really healthy, colourful and in great feather condition, it was really noticable when I got back.
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Jan 7, 2013 19:22
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Pookah posted:Pookie has lately been introduced to roasted, unsalted, shell-on pistachios and she is craaaazy about them, as in, she starts leaning and wheeping when she hears the bag rustle. When she actaully gets one she makes her "This food is delicious" noise with one tucked into her lower beak. Pistachios drive Hannah nuts 
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Jan 7, 2013 19:55
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Joe Don Baker posted:Pistachios drive Hannah nuts Did he make a big giant mess with about .002 grams of stuff and then run away and snigger when you got cross and told him to stop making messes? If you want to see the ultimate in msking the biggest mess out of the smallest amount of stuff, then popcorn is your go-to substance. Pookie can spread 1 piece of popcorn over about 12 square feet of room. Edit: I am a sucker for punishment, I just bought her a big bag of walnuts in their shells. She loves them  .Double edit: I just remembered I was showing Pookie african grey videos on youtube last night to help her reconnect with her people or something, but she was pretty bored about the whole thing until somebody's dog started barking in the background of one video and she just started barking like crazy. So it seems like she'd rather bond with her doggy buds than with those weird birdy things. Pookah fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Jan 7, 2013 |
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Jan 7, 2013 21:10
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Oh I know about popcorn. It's crazy. I'm pretty sure he doesn't even eat it. He just breaks it apart and dumps it everywhere.
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Jan 7, 2013 21:20
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Joe Don Baker posted:Oh I know about popcorn. It's crazy. I'm pretty sure he doesn't even eat it. He just breaks it apart and dumps it everywhere. Yep, I think popcorn actually reaches a 100% parrot-perfect proportion of mess to nutrition; its opposite number is fudge. Pookie gets some fudge every Christmas; she unwraps her own parcel and everything. Last year it got a bit awkward as she decided every present under the tree was full of fudge so she naturally tried to unwrap them all. I pull off small pieces for her to eat every few days and she holds the tiny pellet in her fist and shaves off tiny fragments. Nothing above the scale of a molecule is ever dropped.
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Jan 7, 2013 21:35
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Pookah posted:Pookie gets some fudge every Christmas; she unwraps her own parcel and everything. Last year it got a bit awkward as she decided every present under the tree was full of fudge so she naturally tried to unwrap them all. Oh Pookie, you're so adorable.
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Jan 7, 2013 21:55
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Wait, fudge? What?
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Jan 7, 2013 22:05
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Kenshin posted:Wait, fudge? What? Yes, I know it's unwholesome but she only gets a wee little few bits every christmas and she loves it so much that it'd be a crime to deprive her of the fudgy goodness. Also watching her unwrap her own parcel every christmas morning is so funny that I really cannot stop giving her a bit each year. (She tears open a small hole on the parcel and sticks her tongue in to find the fudge, if it's not within tongue-reach, she tears a bit more and tries again. So all her unwrapping is basically switching between tearing and licking.)
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Jan 7, 2013 22:33
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I thought chocolate was straight up toxic to birds?
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Jan 8, 2013 00:49
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Slaughterhouse-Ive posted:I thought chocolate was straight up toxic to birds? I guess Pookah is using the classic Dread Pirate Roberts' iocane powder method...
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Jan 8, 2013 00:53
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Slaughterhouse-Ive posted:I thought chocolate was straight up toxic to birds? Yes, fudge doesn't have chocolate in it though. It's just sugar, butter, and milk. Edit: Apparently American fudge is a different thing and/or contains chocolate. Ours is just the above. Battle Pigeon fucked around with this message at 01:07 on Jan 8, 2013 |
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Jan 8, 2013 01:03
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Battle Pigeon posted:Yes, fudge doesn't have chocolate in it though. It's just sugar, butter, and milk. As far as I'm aware, American fudge is the same. IT's just that chocolate fudge is so common, a lot of people just consider it to just be "fudge"
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Jan 8, 2013 01:12
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RaspberryCommie posted:As far as I'm aware, American fudge is the same. IT's just that chocolate fudge is so common, a lot of people just consider it to just be "fudge"
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Jan 8, 2013 01:14
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RaspberryCommie posted:As far as I'm aware, American fudge is the same. IT's just that chocolate fudge is so common, a lot of people just consider it to just be "fudge" Ah, ok. I looked at the wiki article to see if I was missing something, and it said that American fudge contains chocolate, or the stuff you pour over ice cream is considered "fudge", so was going on that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fudge
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Jan 8, 2013 01:15
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Ah, okay. That makes way more sense. Unrelated, I'm having dinner with Charlie and I noticed he always pulls the skin off of his peas before eating them. Also, I gave him a little piece of a sesame seed bagel the other day and he tried to hull every little seed. What a weirdo.
Shark Sandwich fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Jan 8, 2013 |
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Jan 8, 2013 02:13
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RE: pistachios- Zippy discovered these over the holidays at my mother's place. They had a dish full of nuts I had to hide because she was crazy for the pistachios and was refusing all other foods. If anyone else makes/wants to make their own parrot food this recipe was a raging success today at my place- http://parrot-chow.livejournal.com/24403.html I came home to an empty food bowl for the first time ever. The mix is very flexible and allows for experimentation, and the grain to bean ratio makes the finished food very pretty and attractive to people and parrots. I break up the recipe to serve grains and beans in the morning and fruits and veggies at night since the bird likes variety. Also I don't want to leave cooked veggies or fruit in the bowl all day and it's easier to make her try new veggies when I'm present. Just soak the grains and beans for a few hours followed a quick simmer for 15 minutes to soften it up a bit if your bird likes that. I made enough for 2 months yesterday with just 30 minutes of effort. Lenswork fucked around with this message at 02:47 on Jan 8, 2013 |
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Jan 8, 2013 02:45
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Slaughterhouse-Ive posted:Ah, okay. That makes way more sense. Unrelated, I'm having dinner with Charlie and I noticed he always pulls the skin off of his peas before eating them. Also, I gave him a little piece of a sesame seed bagel the other day and he tried to hull every little seed. What a weirdo. Oh yeah, finally after the rainy seasons are over, I had another bird outing! Here are the pictures (With a common gliding lizard intermission): http://www.flickr.com/photos/89318284@N05/sets/72157632461436674/ Some highlights:  
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Jan 8, 2013 03:50
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I don't know why I look at the bird classifieds. My wife'll never let me get a macaw, but a want a scarlet so bad.  I miss my zoo greenwings.
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Jan 8, 2013 13:39
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Sorry, I can confirm that it is this kind of fudge - no chocolate 
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Jan 8, 2013 13:52
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Potato quality, but Ohtori in a moment of forgiveness earlier:    Deadly Chlorine posted:Oh yeah, finally after the rainy seasons are over, I had another bird outing! Here are the pictures (With a common gliding lizard intermission): Some great photos, these outings look like a lot of fun. I'm amazed that even the canaries don't fly away or get blown away, and are able to sit out freely like that.
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Jan 8, 2013 17:53
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On the subject of birds and popcorn: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhGd_ICTFSs Noodle only gets one piece, and only then mostly tears it apart instead of eating it. Noodle LOVES popcorn even though she tried to pretend she didn't (prior to beak-clicking and giving it kisses) after I brought out the camera.
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Jan 9, 2013 04:38
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Battle Pigeon: I don't know where you got the name Ohtori from, but if you translate that from Japanese it means Great (or Grand) Bird.
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Jan 9, 2013 20:59
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So we're going to have a birdy play-date with Zippy and a friend's adorable Quaker, Rilke, this evening. We have no clue what will happen. It will be filmed.
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Jan 9, 2013 21:04
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uglynoodles posted:Battle Pigeon: I don't know where you got the name Ohtori from, but if you translate that from Japanese it means Great (or Grand) Bird. We did the "take a word/characteristic, translate it to another language and pick whatever sounds good" method. We looked for words that meant phoenix. Ohtori/Ōtori is apparently an older way to say 'phoenix' (as in the Feng Huang) in Japanese, and also means 'large bird'*. Since he's the biggest Pyhurra species, and my partner commented Blue-throated conures looked like they were wearing fire masks or something, it seemed to fit well enough. He definitely has a firey personality. My original suggestion of simply translating 'bird' was instantly shot down, but since 'Tori' is Japanese for bird, we both won. *We don't actually speak Japanese, this was just going on what multiple dictionaries were saying, so hopefully we checked enough to get the meanings correct
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Jan 9, 2013 21:19
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uglynoodles posted:Battle Pigeon: I don't know where you got the name Ohtori from, but if you translate that from Japanese it means Great (or Grand) Bird. or Big Bird.
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Jan 9, 2013 23:01
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Bird Crazies, would the Celestial Seasonings Chamomile Tea be safe for parrots? This is the one: http://www.celestialseasonings.com/products/herbal-teas/chamomile Or should I stick 100% to all natural?
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Jan 10, 2013 01:05
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Wozbo posted:Bird Crazies, would the Celestial Seasonings Chamomile Tea be safe for parrots? Looks fine. But from what I can see anyway, there's only one ingredient, and it is all natural?
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Jan 10, 2013 01:13
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That's what they say. Just wanted to know if anyone else has used prepackaged stuff or if there's something like "The machinery might introduce <foo>."
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Jan 10, 2013 01:14
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Ah, I get you. While we usually drink loose teas, we have lots of different bagged kinds around as well, and Ohtori usually comes over to try them out. Never thought anything of it, to be honest.
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Jan 10, 2013 01:21
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Ruby's been opening up a lot more to me recently and growing ever more comfortable, and she preens my hair very often when climbing up towards my shoulder. She's 14 weeks old and already chirping and waddling around the house happily, so looks like things are going pretty well. I also give her some cashew nuts as a treat, and she seems to really enjoy sitting next to me chewing on food while I have breakfast in the morning. I'm making sure her diet is almost exclusively veggies and fruit though, with her favourite being apples. I'll be taking her to the vet later today to get a general health check up to make sure everything is 100% good times, and to be taught how to trim her nails so they don't destroy my arms by accident.
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Jan 10, 2013 03:38
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Pile of Kittens posted:There's really nothing you guys can do to convince me that it's a good idea to encourage people to make economic commitments that they will have to just "work out" at a later date if it becomes a problem. I'm reading through this thread as we're considering buying a Green Aracari. I'm up to page 15 but this is what strikes me most in the research we're doing. We found a seemingly active board with ramphastid and parrot owners (who are likely all crazy bird people, they seem to have no fewer than 5 birds each.) Posted a "What does this stuff cost?" thread and crickets. We're planning on building its cage ourself which should be exciting. That being said, what does monthly upkeep tend to cost on an exotic? We know about its diet, namely low iron. Primarily fruit with ~25% low-iron softbill pellets. We know it needs consistent time in and out of the cage so it doesn't get bored when we're at work. And we know we need to play with it, toys, etc (the best part!) We're going to have a hard time not spoiling it with toys. Exotic bird pet insurance? It looks like it's around $216-450/year. What are peoples experiences with it? We plan to do the annual checkup, plus the obvious "oh crap the bird is ill" stuff. Any avian/exotic vet recommendations in Los Angeles? Scales? The place we're buying from sells a 2kg 1g-accuracy scale plus perch by Sterling for $130. Should I just buy a $50 one off Amazon w/ tare button and put a perch on it?
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Jan 10, 2013 17:47
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Green Aracaris are such beautiful birds, if you did get one I demand you post lots of photos for me to drool over. Obviously a conure and cockatiel are very different to what you have in mind, but after the initial cost of cage and toys they don't cost much to look after at all. Pellets and seed mixes aren't too expensive (about... $20 for pellets, I think? Nutribird. Neither of them will eat Harrisons, which costs a bit more) and the box lasts a long time, usually a month or two. Fruit and vegetables we buy anyway each week from the market, so say another $30, though that's for all of us. Toys get bought on occasion but the cockatiel barely touches his and the conure seems to prefer to bash them around rather than outright destroy them, at least the ones designed to be destroyed. He also prefers random homemade crap like toilet roll tubes with coffee stirrers poked through them, corners cut off of juice boxes, etc. I guess the costs really begin to add up when you own the bigger, more destructive birds like cockatoos or macaws and need to buy the huge cages, then keep them constantly entertained with things to chew and destroy. Oh, and replace things that they managed to get to when you weren't looking. It's also not a bad idea to save up and set aside money for emergencies, potential boarding costs, or whatever else.
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Jan 10, 2013 18:16
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So this happened... His name is Kiwi, and he lives with two women, so whenever there's men around it takes a spatula to scrape him off. He's one of the best talkers at bird club 
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Jan 10, 2013 19:22
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H110Hawk posted:Exotic bird pet insurance? It looks like it's around $216-450/year. What are peoples experiences with it? We plan to do the annual checkup, plus the obvious "oh crap the bird is ill" stuff. Aracaris are adorable. If you get one, please post approximately 5 million pictures. I think Battle Pigeon covered the food costs pretty well. As far as pet insurance goes, please read the fine print VERY CAREFULLY. Many pet insurances that I have come across will not cover emergency vet visits, or certain tests and procedures or they may have very high co-pays. I am a bigger fan of self-insuring by putting a line in our family budget for $x/mo to save for vet expenses. This has worked out well for us. There have been a couple expensive years for us when our cockatiel was retarded and injured herself and got sick in the same year, but the last couple years we have only had to pay for normal checkups. It evens out in the long run. As far as how much individual things cost. Call up some local vets and ask. My bird's normal checkups run about $60/bird and then maybe $100-$150/bird if I want fecal and blood tests done. For scales? We use a $20 food scale that measures 1g increments. The perch isn't even necessary if your bird is tame enough to sit still for the 20 seconds it takes to weigh them v  v I wouldn't bother with a $130 one, there is no reason to pay that much more.
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Jan 10, 2013 20:39
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Pip pip pip posted:Aracaris are adorable. If you get one, please post approximately 5 million pictures. I think Battle Pigeon covered the food costs pretty well. Training for the scale is a good thing as well. Just about the only thing Ritz enjoys doing (that isn't natural) is standing on the food scale. I put a paper towel down so the glass isn't cold on his feet, but he now knows that "if I stand here, I get a sunflower seed!" So it's easy, just comes with time. And yes, a $10-20 gram scale is fine, with or without perch. Just make sure it's a digital scale that you can tare before you put the birdy on.
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Jan 10, 2013 20:47
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Join this yahoo group if you go for the aracari: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/TOUCANS_RAMPHASTIDS/. Jerry Jennings posts all the time in it, and he's about as good as you can get when it comes to ramphastids. Everybody seems to love the curl crested, but ivory bills are my favorite. Do a lot of diet research.
unprofessional fucked around with this message at 21:38 on Jan 10, 2013 |
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Jan 10, 2013 21:34
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unprofessional posted:Join this yahoo group if you go for the aracari: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/TOUCANS_RAMPHASTIDS/. Jerry Jennings posts all the time in it, and he's about as good as you can get when it comes to ramphastids. Everybody seems to love the curl crested, but ivory bills are my favorite. Do a lot of diet research. We're meeting Jerry this weekend, we are going to buy it from him if we go down this route. Thank you for the gram scale suggestions, we will pick one up off Amazon. FINE I will post pictures.  Here is me with a black cockatoo on my shoulder.
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Jan 10, 2013 22:29
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Good deal; he's about the best you could ever hope to find.
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Jan 10, 2013 22:57
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SaNChEzZ posted:So this happened... Aaaahaahaaa, good to know I'm not the only one that makes that grumpycat face at birds.
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Jan 10, 2013 23:29
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