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Whenever Zeke starts trying to get frisky with my computer mouse, I pick him up and viciously snuggle him, praising his virility and overall manliness. Best bird boner killer ever. "THIS IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT I WANTED. PUT ME DOWN. WARK." Just purchased The Lonely Parrot on a whim for my Kindle. I just had a good sob over a fictional bird.
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Jan 18, 2013 04:51
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Official Bizness posted:Whenever Zeke starts trying to get frisky with my computer mouse, I pick him up and viciously snuggle him, praising his virility and overall manliness. Best bird boner killer ever. "THIS IS THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT I WANTED. PUT ME DOWN. WARK." LOL, every time Amadeus starts shrieking I just grab him and shove him under my shirt. "AMADEE WHAT IS THIS CAVE? WHAT ARE YOU DOING UNDER THERE? OOP I GUESS YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN QUIET!!" Eventually he manages to scrabble his way up and out but by then he's figured out he misbehaved, bwahaha. Also, I'd buy that book but I literally wake up every morning terrified Ama died in the night. I depend on him that much.  Sad parrot stories send me into paroxysms of fear. Edit: I bought the book and omg I cried too. My other fear is dying and then having Amadeus living the rest of his life thinking I abandoned him and aighajkghfklghf(also that tale was based on the real-life bird that the author adopted, so he's not fictional...) LITERALLY A BIRD fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Jan 18, 2013 |
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Jan 18, 2013 05:22
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:(also that tale was based on the real-life bird that the author adopted, so he's not fictional...) Shut up. You shut up right now.  Zeke and Zoe spent at least ten years living in a garage in a 2' by 2' cage with two other birds and no toys, human interaction, or day/night cycles before being surrendered to a rescue. My brain won't let me begin to imagine what their daily existence must have been like.
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Jan 18, 2013 07:53
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Awww geez. I saw the title and saw the cover and I'm already all  . I feel bad enough as it is that Charlie is by himself in a different room than the tiels and will never do normal flock stuff or find a mate.
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Jan 18, 2013 08:07
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Oh jeez, I bought The Lonely Parrot and just gave it a read. Had a pretty big sob and gave Ruby a big cuddle, who is still walking around my room chirping.
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Jan 18, 2013 09:05
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Oh Jesus I think I might buy this book.
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Jan 18, 2013 09:23
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There has been building work going on in the apartment above for hours, very loud drilling and hammering, and all the while the birds were covered and didn't make a sound. After a few hours of this (they started working early...), still no sound from the birds. I make one single quiet cough and they instantly start yelling/warking and climbing around their cages.LITERALLY A BIRD posted:Edit: I bought the book and omg I cried too. My other fear is dying and then having Amadeus living the rest of his life thinking I abandoned him and aighajkghfklghf I'd rather not pay £3 for something 30 pages long, what is it about/how does the story go?
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Jan 18, 2013 11:42
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Put down a deposit on a Green Aracari today. 
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Jan 18, 2013 16:39
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Frozenfries posted:What's a good way to keep your parrots cool? Sydney is currently going through a death/heat wave, as it's currently 45 degrees with very little humidity, and Ruby was dry after a bath in 10 minutes. She's walking around my room playing which I gues is a good sign, but if I need to cool her off what's a good method of doing so? It'd be different if you had high humidity, because then it's much harder to cool off. The water evaporating quickly is a good sign since it will take all the heat away; just be careful not to overdo it. Are Eclectus unusually susceptible to chills?
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Jan 18, 2013 16:50
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Battle Pigeon posted:I'd rather not pay £3 for something 30 pages long, what is it about/how does the story go? A parrot grows lonely as his human family grows distant. He begins to act out in ways typical to parrots, but finds a new home with understanding owners and feels loved again. There's one illustration of the parrot's cage being covered by a towel that broke my heart and made me wake my birds at midnight to assure them that I'll love them forever. Chiyo did a large poop in her water in response.
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Jan 18, 2013 20:52
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Sometimes I think Birdy's night terrors are because she thinks we have left her. When we lived in Montreal and her cage was in our bedroom with the door always open at night she would fly directly into our bed. I love my little beeper.
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Jan 18, 2013 22:35
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Pookie is so silly. It's 10:10 at night here and she has decided to go to war with a paper bag instead of drowsing quietly before bed. Leave the bag along bird; It is not an evil bag (like the one I meanly used to trap you that one time a year ago). Seriously. She is still very pissed off with all paper bags after an unfortunate incident where I thought she thought being snagged in a bag was funny but she didn't and I got bitten and now she tries to massacre all brown paper bags pretty much on sight.
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Jan 18, 2013 23:13
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Battle Pigeon posted:What are budgies like, in comparison to cockatiels and conures? Personality, how intelligent they come across as, derpiness, all that. It won't happen, but I have daydreams of getting Steve a little budgie buddy, watching them sit together with fluffed up mutton chops, and maybe finally having a bird than can talk. I have had a cockatiel with a successful budgie buddy and a current one that are not buddies. First we had Danny, who we got when he was 14 or so and we managed to find a little escaped female budgie that we named Sandy because they got along so well. (Get it? Grease.) She was the sweetest little budgie I've ever seen and Danny was a mean ol' bird to everyone except adult males and that little budgie. They just hung out together and whereever Danny would go, Sandy would follow. Then Sandy passed away and we got a hand fed male budgie named Skyler. The two didn't get along as well, but they got along well enough. They never fought and would just hang out and (mostly Skyler while Danny watched) would play. Fast forward to when Danny was 27 years old. At this point he has a cockatiel buddy named buster, but it was time for Danny to pass on leaving Buster all alone. Solution? Get a budgie. (Also, I just wanted a new budgie) So I got a handfed budgie that I believe is a girl named Olive. Olive and Buster do not get along at all. Well, I should say Buster hates and fears that little bird while Olive just wants to be his best friend. She just wants to be near him, peacefully close to him, maybe preen some pinfeathers, but Buster wants absolutely none of that. He runs/flies away from her as fast as he can and if he ever considers himself cornered he lashes out at her. I've had to line his cage with plastic because Olive would climb up the side of his cage to be close to him and he would come seek her out to bite her toes and beak through the bars. Just last week Olive managed to find a way into his cage (which has since been fixed) and he got her pretty good on the beak, leaving a nasty gash. We were lucky that it was just superficial, because he certainly has the strength to break her beak. Buster is actually a lot better with people than Danny ever was and generally a nicer or sweeter bird overall, but man does he hate Olive.
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Jan 18, 2013 23:46
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Malalol posted:How do I tell if my GCC is doing a DO ME body posture vs just wanting to cuddle up? Like he'll (she?) sometimes rub over my hands cuddleytype and it turns into him kinda hunkered down with his tail in the air and still being cuddley. I know for my tiel thats a definite 'do me' posture along with her vocalizations but for the conure I have no idea. Cuz he likes to sit on his butt too when being pet, instead of standing. If her tail is in the air and especially if she backs up against something, you've definitely got some parrot sex happening. In our bird, it's usually accompanied by this particular little flap of the wings.
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Jan 18, 2013 23:51
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Pookah posted:Pookie is so silly. It's 10:10 at night here and she has decided to go to war with a paper bag instead of drowsing quietly before bed. Hannah is afraid of ANYTHING white because for a long time we'd use a white towel to wrap him for wing & nail trimmings.
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Jan 19, 2013 02:35
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Joe Don Baker posted:Hannah is afraid of ANYTHING white because for a long time we'd use a white towel to wrap him for wing & nail trimmings. We have no idea why. Even from across the room, if someone is holding or waving (and, unfortunately, sometimes WEARING) black socks she will go into parrot attack mode against those socks.
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Jan 19, 2013 02:37
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DarkHorse posted:If you've got no humidity and plenty of water, you're golden. Keep an eye on the bird, provide plenty of fresh, cool water, and if they look lethargic you can give them mistings or offer a bath. As long as they don't get dehydrated they'll lose excess heat from water evaporating from their air sacs and lungs. Cheers, will keep this all in mind if Sydney turns into an oven again. Also I do believe Eclectus are sensitive to getting the chills. Whenever I bathe her I make sure the water is fairly warm and don't leave her in there for too long. She usually hops out on her own and seems pretty happy afterwards though. The heatwave has thankfully subsided and it's now a comfortable 25 degrees, and she seems pretty happy today. She also walked over my mothers cereal.
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Jan 19, 2013 03:18
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Kenshin posted:Zippy has a problem with paper towels and cloth in general, but she especially hates socks. Especially black socks. Scout will freak the gently caress out when my wife brings out her orange exercise ball inflator. No idea why as it doesn't come out very much at all, but when she sees it it's like Satan himself just entered the room. Skwaking, manic flapping, random flying etc. Edit: Also purple sweaters.
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Jan 19, 2013 08:26
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Joe Don Baker posted:Hannah is afraid of ANYTHING white because for a long time we'd use a white towel to wrap him for wing & nail trimmings. Pookie's biggest fear is The Scary Brush. It's one like this:  but with a red handle. IF she's being really naughty all I have to say is "Stop that or I'll get the Scary Brush!" and she'll stop immediately.
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Jan 19, 2013 12:29
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^^^^ We have a small pillow on the lounge that is a golden colour. Saffy HATES this pillow, so we use it to encourage her up onto our shoulders when it's time for bed and she refuses to leave her play stand. We're at the point where just reaching towards it causes her to stop being stubborn and scurry right up my arm onto my shoulder to be put in her cage. Percy hates the steam mop that my Mum uses to clean bird poop off the floor. He has a very particular noise he makes when he doesn't like something, and when he sees that mop the "I HATE THAT THING" noise gets made loudly and excessively. Thanks everyone for your toy suggestions! Saffy loves chewing the lids off things so the next time I go to the shops I'll pick up some leather strips, and start collecting plastic bottle caps and other goodies to thread onto them.
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Jan 19, 2013 13:09
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Ohtori hates (not fears) socks, feet, and sponges. The only thing he's scared of is a hat that looks like a cow.
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Jan 19, 2013 13:40
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Roo hates cans of diet coke. She'll attack it or my hand if one gets too close to her. Just diet coke, any other can is a-ok.
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Jan 19, 2013 20:19
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Ozzy is afraid of balloons. Nugget & Sprite are afraid of any new things but usually will get over it after a couple days. They are afraid of scissors. I guess that makes sense though. So other cockatiel owners, does your 'tiel ever appear to forget that they like being pet? Half the time when I take Nugget out, she acts all weird and scuttles away from me until I give her some head scratches and then she is like OH YEAH I LOVE THIS poo poo PLEASE PET ME FOR 2 HOURS STRAIGHT. I get confused with the first 2 minutes of hand dodging that she does sometimes.  She likes to lean her beak on my face and then the oils on my skin make her feathers look dark and it makes me feel like a greasy goon. I swear I shower regularly 
Pip pip pip fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Jan 19, 2013 |
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Jan 19, 2013 20:37
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Iro hates it when anyone pours liquid or uses the sink. Running water seems to make her upset. She makes this loud BEEP warning noise whenever we do the dishes, turn on the tap to fill up the kettle, or pour the hot water to make tea. Oddly though she's taken a shower in that sink at least once and loves to have baths. A few times she's come into the shower with me as well, but quickly decides the spray is too powerful for her.
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Jan 19, 2013 21:14
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uglynoodles posted:Iro hates it when anyone pours liquid or uses the sink. Running water seems to make her upset. She makes this loud BEEP warning noise whenever we do the dishes, turn on the tap to fill up the kettle, or pour the hot water to make tea. Are you sure it's an alarm noise? Marci makes a really high pitched BEEP when she's excited about something. An alarm noise for my conure at least is more WARKWARKWARK rapidly.
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Jan 19, 2013 21:26
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Does she hate it or is she letting you know there's water around? I don't know about other birds but I believe budgies scream at running water to let everyone know it's there. Also, mine don't just scream at running water but anything that sounds like water, including food cooking in a pan.
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Jan 19, 2013 22:06
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Pip pip pip posted:
My last pet tiel Tre used to do this exact thing. I never understood it, just figured she was a little crazy 
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Jan 20, 2013 02:32
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Pip pip pip posted:So other cockatiel owners, does your 'tiel ever appear to forget that they like being pet? Half the time when I take Nugget out, she acts all weird and scuttles away from me until I give her some head scratches and then she is like OH YEAH I LOVE THIS poo poo PLEASE PET ME FOR 2 HOURS STRAIGHT. I get confused with the first 2 minutes of hand dodging that she does sometimes. Yup, though that might be him being a big, tough, alpha-male 'tiel. After he's banged his beak a few times in outrage, or bitten something, he puts his head down straight away to be petted.
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Jan 20, 2013 02:42
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My dad's lady(?) tiel is the same way. WANT SCRATCH! DON'T TOUCH ME! Wait... SCRATCH! 
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Jan 20, 2013 02:54
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Our elderly rescue-tiel did it too. He was the quintessential geriatric Get off my lawwwwwn[  When he was on his way out I took to cleaning his vent off. One day he acted more upset than usual and briefly went limp. I, of course, freaked the gently caress out. Ever so gently I lifted him up to my ear to see if I could hear him breathing, or at the very least, the shuffling off of his mortal coil. Surprise! Angry Edbird clamped onto the top of my ear, took both hands to get him off. Forgot about todays Wonderella (https://www.nonadventures.com). Guy knows his derpfaces. 
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Jan 20, 2013 03:58
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Oh my god that roboderp looks so drat happy about doing whatever it's doing. Yeah my cockatiel Cheeky is like that too, I've to chase him around but suddenly he'll stop and let me scratch him and become all fluffed up and content. Cockatiels are weird.
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Jan 20, 2013 04:22
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She definitely does it when I'm frying food as well... Maybe she is just excited at the water. God damnit wench I know there's water, I put it on! I assumed it was a warning or angry noise, she beeps whenever there are people or cars outside, too.
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Jan 20, 2013 04:32
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My Eclectus is still just a big baby (15 weeks now woo) so she doesn't make too many coherent noises and she can still bite really hard because REASONS, but she makes funny chirps and curious "ooooOOOHHH!" noises when she listens to music or bites something that is interesting to her. Apparently she'll be far more coherent and docile at 7 months to a year. She's still a bundle of fun now though.
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Jan 20, 2013 05:21
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My tiels all start warking when they hear running water. I think it's an instinctual thing since they live in a pretty arid climate and bounce around between water sources. And with the scritches Anais gets mad if I offer scritches and then realizes she likes them. Archer on the other hand will just start rubbing his head against my hand until I pet him. Hunter doesn't care either way and Elle will perch on the palm of my hand, bow her head, and just patiently wait for them.
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Jan 20, 2013 06:13
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I figure it's a normal instinctive response to high noise environments, since our bird does it when the vacuum is on or when we're talking too much.
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Jan 20, 2013 11:56
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Peep used to burble to imitate the running water <3
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Jan 20, 2013 12:47
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marshmallard posted:Peep used to burble to imitate the running water <3 Same with my Grey. He even does the sound of someone drinking to let you know he wants some of whatever is in your cup.
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Jan 20, 2013 17:15
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There's a local advert, selling two parrots, that must be rehomed together because they're inseparable best buddies-sleep in the same cage, cuddle, do everything with one another. They're an Amazon and a cockatiel.
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Jan 21, 2013 01:29
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I started a new job a couple of months ago, and while the hours are more or less regular, they are very long - I'm not home for a guaranteed twelve hours, which is a lot longer than the six or so my two seven-year-old cockatiels are used to. On top of that, they're all daylight hours as opposed to late after noon and evening. I'd like to get them a larger cage - what they have now has been barely enough, but they've obviously grown since I got it. I've always made a habit of rotating their toys in and out to keep them "new", but I'm starting to think that what they have now is too small for an all-day cage. Is there such a thing as too big? Most of the ones that look nice have a cage area of about 32 x 24 x 40-60 inches. The cage is relatively close to the baseboard heater so I don't want the cage dimensions to go too low (I'm thinking about ten to fifteen inches of base), and the total height of the cage to be about 65 inches so they can keep the same view outside they currently have. So my questions are this: 1) Is there anything I'm leaving out in my planning and 2) how do you actually clean those huge cages? I've gotten used to just taking their current one apart and hosing it down in the shower.
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Jan 21, 2013 03:04
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There is no such thing as too big. The only thing to keep in mind will be bar spacing since Cockatiel heads can fit through the bars of some large cages meant for big parrots. I wipe Zippy's cage down with a 1:1 apple cider vinegar/water mix between the big "haul the cage outside for a wash with the hose" cleanings. I'm fortunate enough to have a space I can do that in. Otherwise the whole bottom comes off her King's brand cage, which fits in the shower, and the entire cage is screw free and easily dis-assembled should any mess get too scary... I may be a bad parrot owner but I ditched her cage grating. I hated scraping the poo off it every day and she doesn't play on the very bottom anyway.
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Jan 21, 2013 03:13
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