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So I have been trying to capture what it looks like when my bird roosts on me during cuddle time and here's what I've got: And the top view:  Pretty sure his favorite thing in the whole world is to become a birdieloaf in my lap, and you know what, I'm really okay with that.
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Apr 21, 2013 06:28
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Eejit posted:So I have been trying to capture what it looks like when my bird roosts on me during cuddle time and here's what I've got:  He's like a little ball of cotton, goddamn that is so adorable.
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Apr 21, 2013 12:49
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Battle Pigeon posted:Like Amaya said, stick training would be good. You don't want them to be associating your hands with anything potentially scary (like ushering them back). Do they still have clipped wings? It's sizable. I don't have measurements on me, but when I bought him a few months ago I got the biggest size the pet store recommended. I made sure to get one with height and a large door for easy access. platedlizard posted:Some birds don't really play. My cockatiels don't. They shred things, but I think that's just a foraging behavior, not actual play behavior. I gave them a couple new toys today because they've chainsawed through everything else in their cage, except for their perches, in under two weeks. Basically anything that wasn't a perch, metal, or plastic, is gone. It's pretty fun watching them chainsaw through wood toys. (they've got some new toys now, we'll see how long they last) I'll try that. He does have shredding toys and he plays with those over any of his other ones, but that's only when he's in the mood for it too. I need to work on holding him more and getting him adjusted; he's pretty much terrified of anything right now. One thing I forgot to mention is he won't touch his cuddlebone either. I see him scratch his beak along the perches all day long, but he won't even look at his bone. Anything I can do for that?
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Apr 21, 2013 15:52
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I wanna hold that bird loaf  As much as I love and spend time with the big birds, my latest project has actually been quite small. I recently became caretaker for 5 society finches.  Their owner originally planned to put them outside with his chickens in their run, but winter came too fast so they've been inside for months. These are supposed to be the easiest finches to breed- like, you can't stop them having babies, but they haven't had a single egg and the owner has been mystified. Well, I showed up and made a few changes: I took out their two lovely dowel rods and then replaced them with a half dozen real branches. Their cage is not wide enough for 5 finches but it's very tall and I'm helping them make use of that space. I took out the poisonous cheap cuttle bone and ordered a calcium perch. I took the whole cage apart for the first time ever. I cleaned the kind of mess a large macaw would make in 2 days out of that cage, and these are just 5 tiny soft bills. Now there is proper lining cleaned daily. There was no nesting material, so I gave them every kind of nesting material I could find from grass to cat hair and put it all over their cage. And within 24 hours I had an egg. Their owner refuses to give me credit and thinks it's a coincidence With any luck I'll have a few babies in 2 weeks here. Until then it's been really fun giving them new things and watching the deep finch suspicion. Soft bills aren't the smartest, but they aren't dumb either. When I first put branches in it took them 5 hours to get off the bottom of the cage because branches were the devil, but now new things take only 20 minutes or so for them to get used to. Giving them their first bowls of water to bathe in was adorable- they didn't know how to account for weight of wet feathers and kept missing their landings Their feathers are looking so much better after a bath and they are singing and generally being so much more active. They like the greens I dangle in the cage daily too. The next step is to trim their little nails, because god drat they have snaggly little feet.Finches certainly don't require the time or care of a big bird, but they are living creatures too and deserve the things they need to be happy Edit: oh no, I found their 2 eggs on the floor of the cage with holes poked in them  oh well, I'v been giving them new things and really should have left them alone if I wanted babies. I guess they may not have been viable, or a competing pair pushed it out- the little doofuses all sleep in the same nest the one finch laid eggs in. Oh well, they've been mating constantly so round two should be here soon.
Lenswork fucked around with this message at 16:10 on Apr 21, 2013 |
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Apr 21, 2013 16:02
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Thats awesome. Ive always thought finches were rad..such cute birds... whats wrong with a cuttlebone for it? Poisonous?
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Apr 21, 2013 18:44
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Amaya posted:I still hate all of this and I feel like your roommate is a loving idiot and shouldn't be able to own ANYTHING much less a bird but whatever No, you're totally right that this is a terrible idea. I feel awful about the situation. My roommate has this coconut thing that he got for her as a nest. I'm not sure how to break it to him that that's a bad idea. He also seems to think females just will lay eggs and that that's fine. I guess all I can do is link him to websites explaining that it's a health risk, and that list ways to discourage egg-laying. Thank you for your advice! I am also concerned because I thought I had him talked into giving the bird a decent diet with seeds only occasionally. He talked to the breeder yesterday, who said she feeds the bird mostly fruits and veggies with some pellets (which I thought was the perfect diet), and he said that that's wrong, and everything he has read said they need seed (he didn't say this to the breeder, he said it to me). So now we're back to the bird getting a lovely diet, but he is at least going to give the bird fruits, veggies, and seed, instead of just seed, which was the original plan. He insists there's something in seed that's crucial to a bird's health; I think I'll ask him what it is and show him an alternative source for it. EDIT: People with female birds, I need help! My roommate thinks you're supposed to throw out the egg as soon as it has been laid, but from what I'm reading, it looks like it might be better to leave her with her egg until she loses interest, so she doesn't just lay more eggs? What's the right way of handling this? electricgoat fucked around with this message at 20:15 on Apr 21, 2013 |
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Apr 21, 2013 20:01
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Eejit posted:So I have been trying to capture what it looks like when my bird roosts on me during cuddle time and here's what I've got: I cannot stop laughing at this; it is the smuggest birdface I have ever seen.
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Apr 21, 2013 21:55
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ILoveYou posted:I'll try that. He does have shredding toys and he plays with those over any of his other ones, but that's only when he's in the mood for it too. I need to work on holding him more and getting him adjusted; he's pretty much terrified of anything right now. Try scoring the cuttlebone with a knife, parrotletts have such tiny beaks that it can be difficult to break into things if the surface has hardened up a tad. Also, the score marks will make the cuttlebone more interesting to him. You can also try giving him a mineral block instead if he just doesn't like the cuttlebone (but give him a few weeks to get used to his new home first). Mineral blocks are basically chunks of plaster, which is 100% calcium carbonate, and often has food coloring and sometimes flavoring added to them. My turquosine parakeet does not like cuttlebones, but she likes her mineral block just fine. You can even make them yourself, it's just plaster with food-grade stuff added, after all. It's not unusual for new birds to be very subdued for the first couple weeks to a month after coming into a new home. They are in a new territory that might have many hidden dangers after all, so they instinctively try not to draw much attention to themselves. Basically try offering him a variety of things to play with and keep it low-key until he's adjusted to his new place.
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Apr 22, 2013 00:11
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Re: Poisonous cuttlebone- real cuttlebone is one of the purest forms of calcium birds can have, it's great. Cheap cuttlebone, like what the finches had from petco, is glued to a fake shell/plastic-y back using propylene glycol and if birds ingest it it's crazy toxic over time. Make sure your cuttlebone is one color, no yellow steaks on the sides or back and the back of it crumbles with no effort needed on your part.
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Apr 22, 2013 01:50
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Lenswork posted:Re: Poisonous cuttlebone- real cuttlebone is one of the purest forms of calcium birds can have, it's great. Cheap cuttlebone, like what the finches had from petco, is glued to a fake shell/plastic-y back using propylene glycol and if birds ingest it it's crazy toxic over time. Make sure your cuttlebone is one color, no yellow steaks on the sides or back and the back of it crumbles with no effort needed on your part. I've never heard this before, but I've been out of the pet store loop for awhile. Is this stuff coming from China like that toxic dog food in 2006? e. Googling 'toxic cuttlebone' gets me nothing, do you have any links about this? as far as I know the yellow coloring on some cuttlebones is just the result of natural coloration of the bone+the possibility of some of the cuttlefish's membrane being left on. Gross but not really toxic? platedlizard fucked around with this message at 02:21 on Apr 22, 2013 |
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Apr 22, 2013 02:07
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Do you have a photo of the fake cuttlebone? Because Im super super confused and its the first time Ive heard of 'fake' cuttlebone..I can't imagine real cuttlebone being too expensive wtf? The ones we/I use are all fishy smelling, I can scrape em off and snap pieces off if I try but I do believe theyve got yellow... I can't find anything on google.
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Apr 22, 2013 02:17
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Quite frankly the cuttlebone information is what I have from my sister who worked in a very informed exotic pet store for 3 years. I was trying to remodel the finch cage and was getting her advice. As long as you are sure your cuttlebone is 100% cuttlebone and not the cheap stuff you'll be fine. I threw out the petco ones that were previously in the cage already.
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Apr 22, 2013 08:17
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I would pick up cuttlefish bone from the beach with yellowish hard sides (though it was hard bits rather than streaks), so I'm confused as well. On the petco site there's one image with some yellow, but it looks like what I would get from the beach, just cleaner: http://www.petco.com/product/6382/Petco-Cuttlebone-with-Metal-Holder.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch Maybe I'll google around more later. Eejit, love those photos, especially the combination of that huge badass beak with a cute, (currently) cuddly birdloaf in the lap.
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Apr 22, 2013 12:45
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Battle Pigeon posted:Eejit, love those photos, especially the combination of that huge badass beak with a cute, (currently) cuddly birdloaf in the lap. Next project is to capture him with the birdstache, but just getting a picture of him in birdloaf form was already a nice change from, "OH poo poo CAMERA WHAT THE gently caress MAN THAT'S NOT GOING ON TMZ IS IT gently caress YOOOOOOU," so we'll see how long that takes.
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Apr 22, 2013 14:15
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Amaya posted:As far as getting them in the cage, yeah that's kind of a rough way to do it because you're literally relying on your hands to scare them into the cage. BIG THING COMING AT YOU, BETTER GET INTO THE SAFETY OF YOUR CAGE. It'd be way better if you could get another dowel rod and train them to step up onto it (which shouldn't be hard as, iirc, they have those perches already.) and then use that to transport them in and out of the cage until they're used to you. Battle Pigeon posted:Like Amaya said, stick training would be good. You don't want them to be associating your hands with anything potentially scary (like ushering them back). Do they still have clipped wings? The most problematic part for me is when they start vocalizing in the morning. I don't mind that they want to sing, because that's what parrots do, I just feel bad for my neighbors. The budgies have a pleasant call, the lovebirds just seem to shriek really loudly. Do any of you live in an apartment? How do you deal with a loud lovebird? I've found out the hard way that banging on the cage or yelling back only exacerbates things and undoes the weeks and weeks of training. Covering the cage seems to have no effect, so I just move them to an isolated corner and hope they stop. On a brighter note, I got them a foraging pinata toy, and after pecking out the eyes, they've moved onto the butt.   The guilty pair. I'm st ill having trouble telling the two apart without looking at their wings, but I think there's something about their eyes that's different.
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Apr 23, 2013 04:20
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Eejit posted:Next project is to capture him with the birdstache, but just getting a picture of him in birdloaf form was already a nice change from, "OH poo poo CAMERA WHAT THE gently caress MAN THAT'S NOT GOING ON TMZ IS IT gently caress YOOOOOOU," so we'll see how long that takes. We gave Steve a misting yesterday and while he was doing his rain dance, I was wondering-do cockatoos have giant versions of the cockatiel rain dance? Bioshuffle posted:The girl has her wings clipped and the boy doesn't. I have a pet store near by who will clip the wings, but I don't have a cage to transport them in. The lady working at the store said to try a shoebox, but I'll hold off on that. They're cool with taking treats from my hand (they just started taking seeds instead of just millet), but they're reluctant. Yeeaaaah, banging on the cage and yelling were really bad ideas. Covering them is eh, and moving them could be scary for them-which would either lead to more shrieking, or going silent out of fear. Mine don't really bother but it's not uncommon for birds to make lots of noise in the morning and at dusk, it's just what they do. If it's otherwise silent where they are, try having a radio or whatever playing in the background. Always ignore screaming, and if they do it when you leave the room, never come back until they stop-look up extinction bursts in regards to screaming. Also, they do look different to me in that photo-the one on the right has darker brown feathers above the beak, and a bit more white around the eye. If I remember rightly one of them also has more yellow/orange on the chest too.
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Apr 23, 2013 15:01
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Bioshuffle posted:The most problematic part for me is when they start vocalizing in the morning. I don't mind that they want to sing, because that's what parrots do, I just feel bad for my neighbors. The budgies have a pleasant call, the lovebirds just seem to shriek really loudly. Do any of you live in an apartment? How do you deal with a loud lovebird? I've found out the hard way that banging on the cage or yelling back only exacerbates things and undoes the weeks and weeks of training. Covering the cage seems to have no effect, so I just move them to an isolated corner and hope they stop. Yeah, like Battle Pigeon said, banging on the cage is a terrible idea and will just make the birds terrified of you. Do you cover their cages when they go to sleep at night? We cover our bird cages at "bed time" so they won't be distracted by us doing stuff in the living room when they are trying to sleep. They are generally very quiet in the morning until we uncover them, then the morning ruckus of IT'S MORNING gently caress YEAH NOISE MAKING TIME begins. Unless we are really lazy, they will start bitching to be uncovered if we try to sleep in past 11 usually. Birds make noise when they get up in the morning, it's just Bird Stuff. If you are lucky, you might be able to delay it until later in the morning, though.
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Apr 23, 2013 15:35
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This little mynah an aquaintance rescued has grown up a little: I'm usually against people "rescuing" wild baby birds, but in this case the nest was destroyed and the babies about to be fed to stray cats, so this is an infinitely better fate.
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Apr 23, 2013 16:09
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Pip pip pip posted:Yeah, like Battle Pigeon said, banging on the cage is a terrible idea and will just make the birds terrified of you. If you're asking why I got birds when I live in an apartment, I didn't. They were given to me a present.
Bioshuffle fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Apr 23, 2013 |
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Apr 23, 2013 16:12
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Bioshuffle posted:I know they sing in the morning, but they shriek from 8am to 11am- take a break to eat and start up again from 2 to bed time. I do cover their cage when the sun goes down and they're fine when they sleep. It's not the loud warning call, so that's a saving grace, but they're still really loud because it's so high pitched. The budgies are angels by comparison. If this keeps up, they're going to have to go. I'm not sure why you thought banging the cage would make them calm down but uh. They're probably just worried about you. My birds scream and are jerks in the morning too until one of us gets up, goes in there and uncovers their cages and opens the blinds and just talks to or feeds them. Birds yell though, it's kind of their thing, and they won't ever stop entirely. If it's a big deal for where you're living I'd try to find somewhere safe and stuff you can take them to.
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Apr 23, 2013 16:26
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Other posters here live in apartments too, I live in a small one myself. Do they do anything like forage or play with toys, or just sit and yell? I forget, do you let them out? If so, do they still complain then? Have the neighbours complained or are you just worried? It might sound horrible inside the apartment but like cute chirps outside or in another place.Deadly Chlorine posted:This little mynah an aquaintance rescued has grown up a little: He's so out of proportion.
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Apr 23, 2013 16:30
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Amaya posted:I'm not sure why you thought banging the cage would make them calm down but uh. They're probably just worried about you. My birds scream and are jerks in the morning too until one of us gets up, goes in there and uncovers their cages and opens the blinds and just talks to or feeds them. Birds yell though, it's kind of their thing, and they won't ever stop entirely. If it's a big deal for where you're living I'd try to find somewhere safe and stuff you can take them to. Battle Pigeon posted:Other posters here live in apartments too, I live in a small one myself. Do they do anything like forage or play with toys, or just sit and yell? I forget, do you let them out? If so, do they still complain then? Have the neighbours complained or are you just worried? It might sound horrible inside the apartment but like cute chirps outside or in another place.  However, they're starting to come around to the fact that every time they come near my hand, they get a clicker sound and a seed treat. Thanks for the help everyone! Owning birds is hard work, but so worth it.
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Apr 23, 2013 17:45
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Battle Pigeon posted:We gave Steve a misting yesterday and while he was doing his rain dance, I was wondering-do cockatoos have giant versions of the cockatiel rain dance? Haha yes they do. Ours only does it in the actual shower though. He also has a good blow dryer eagle dance. Another thing I should get on film.
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Apr 23, 2013 19:10
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Deadly Chlorine posted:This little mynah an aquaintance rescued has grown up a little: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CoxnUe49ZA 
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Apr 23, 2013 22:08
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Does anyone else's birds try to tear out your toe nails or bite your toes? I always try to wear slippers now since my reaction is to kick out when I feel the pain and I don't want to hurt the little guy. Is there some reason behind this behavior or is he just being a tiel?
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Apr 23, 2013 22:30
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Clinton1011 posted:Does anyone else's birds try to tear out your toe nails or bite your toes? I always try to wear slippers now since my reaction is to kick out when I feel the pain and I don't want to hurt the little guy. Tiels and toos are occasional ground foragers and can get pretty territorial. We have the same issue and shoes don't help, which is just another reason why the bird isn't allowed to wander the floor. The main reason being that he disembowels/eviscerates furniture with extreme prejudice.
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Apr 23, 2013 22:53
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Scout nibbles at our toes if she can get to them. It's annoying.
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Apr 23, 2013 22:55
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Clinton1011 posted:Does anyone else's birds try to tear out your toe nails or bite your toes? I always try to wear slippers now since my reaction is to kick out when I feel the pain and I don't want to hurt the little guy. Leeloo HATES my toes with the fire of a thousand suns. I don't think she realizes that they are attached to me.
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Apr 23, 2013 23:00
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Bioshuffle posted:I'm trying to figure out the best way to corral them back into their cage without scaring them. Train them to step up on a stick, then get them to step up on one and be placed back in their cage that way? If they don't accept hands first. Clinton1011 posted:Does anyone else's birds try to tear out your toe nails or bite your toes? I always try to wear slippers now since my reaction is to kick out when I feel the pain and I don't want to hurt the little guy. My conure absolutely HATES feet for some reason. Socks as well. His eyes pin, he fluffs up and holds out his wings, and hisses with rage. He will bite them, hard, if he gets a chance. The cockatiel doesn't really care and will happily nibble them, step up on them, or put his head down so he could maybe get petted by them. 
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Apr 23, 2013 23:18
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Squirt has just found out that toes are evil as well, but it only if I stand in specific areas of the house. It's not too bad so far, and usually he just sort of nibbles and it tickles a bit. Once he charged full throttle and bit as hard as possible, right into the leather shoe I was wearing. Got a nasty look for that
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Apr 24, 2013 00:11
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Clinton1011 posted:Does anyone else's birds try to tear out your toe nails or bite your toes? I always try to wear slippers now since my reaction is to kick out when I feel the pain and I don't want to hurt the little guy. Q has a foot fetish and will sing and whistle at my feet, and tries to hump my toes if he can. Perverted old bird
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Apr 24, 2013 01:09
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Deadly Chlorine posted:This little mynah an aquaintance rescued has grown up a little: Mynah birds are incredibly smart, and their mimicry gets amazing fidelity. There's videos on youtube of mynah birds speaking in multiple languages too.
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Apr 24, 2013 01:37
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Deadly Chlorine posted:This little mynah an aquaintance rescued has grown up a little: Awesome Mynah! I am a pretty pretty princess: 
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Apr 24, 2013 01:47
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Yeah, Hill Mynahs are very common pets over here because they can talk really well, and also whistle quite complicated tunes, it's really adorable. ^^^Oh my god please post photos of Mindo the pretty princess all day everyday, I love his completely  face no matter what. Also his giant beak is super adorable. Also everyone should join a Chinese bird group on facebook even if you don't understand Chinese, because they have the cutest pet pictures ever:  Business cockatoo
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Apr 24, 2013 17:21
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Oh man I want to do that so bad, except I've been conditioned to know that it will result in punishment
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Apr 24, 2013 18:45
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So my budgie loves to get his beak rubbed. He likes head scratches but he ~loves~ beak rubs. Just now I was giving him one and he was burbling quietly with his eyes closed. His head kept getting heavier and heavier in my hand. When I was finished giving him beak rubs and pulled my hand away his head actually dropped and just hung there for a second. He had been completely resting his head on my fingers and it took a good 5 seconds for him to snap out of his birdie trance and raise his head up again
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Apr 24, 2013 18:58
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One of my little girl finches died this morning She's in a shady patch in the garden now. On the bright side, my package from mysafebirdstore.com arrived and I can also vouch for an awesome experience. My package came on time ans was gift wrapped very nicely with some bonus foot toys for Zippy and candy for me. I will order from them again, just no big bird toys for Zippy because shipping became very expensive very quickly with heavy or large packages.
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Apr 25, 2013 02:15
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Those of you that prepare food (fresh/fruits and vegetables etc) for your birds once a week, how are you storing it so that it doesn't go bad or mushy/watery/whatever?H110Hawk posted:I am a pretty pretty princess: He looks absolutely thrilled, as ever.  Deadly Chlorine posted:
This is indeed adorable and nothing my birds do will ever come close to it.
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Apr 25, 2013 16:24
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I have a question about poop and poop accessories. When y'all hang out with your birds, how do you manage the constant pooping that goes on. It happens, and I'm having a hard time trying to figure out a way of training my bird to poop in designated areas (like not on my hands or monitor). I do have a clicker, and he responds to it fairly well, but when it comes to poop training he simply doesn't give a gently caress. Also, do any of you have experience with the Aviator leashes or flight suits? How easy was it to get your bird to become familiar and comfortable with them? What was the training process like for you? As an aside... Have some cockatiel cuteness. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kbzsU7IY6w Sharizard fucked around with this message at 17:50 on Apr 25, 2013 |
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Apr 25, 2013 17:42
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| # ? Jun 12, 2024 05:47 |
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The conure tends to poop in specific areas, and we only have hardwood/tile flooring, which makes clean up easy. The cockatiel tries to back up and poop off things, but he's not very good at it. Again we just wipe up after him. We used to have a specific shirt for wearing that could be pooped on, before the birds stopped doing it on people, and now it goes on the back of my chair where they tend to perch. Find a treat that your bird goes crazy for and only give it when poop training? The aviator harness is really good, easy to use, and it comes with a DVD that shows you how to get your bird used to the harness and how to then progress to putting it on. I haven't watched it so can't comment on how good it is. Both my birds will wear one, but they do spend a lot of time trying to chew on it and remove it once it's on.
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Apr 25, 2013 17:51
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