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We decided on naming him Iroh. We figure that even if Iroh lays an egg at some point the sentiment of the name is still the same and it's genderless enough of a name that we won't have the equivalent of a boy named Sue. Right now he's toddling around making his silly duck noises at everything and climbing all over my boyfriend. He doesn't even sound like a conure. He sounds like a duck. Earlier today I dropped some old bread in the bin and he BEEPed really loud. I don't think he'd ever seen a bin operate before. I got some pictures. Just need to upload them when I get back home.  @Fart Puzzle I don't know, 1 1/2 years with another bird seems a little bit long to start separating them and human acclimatizing. If they were hand raised though, it might be a bit different. 1 and a half years is a long time, personally in the interests of taming the bird down I might wait for new babies.
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Dec 9, 2012 14:12
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| # ? May 17, 2024 21:45 |
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Yep, green cheeks and black caps pretty much just have the quack and squeak settings. Sometimes when Novolo is squeaking in the morning I tell my boyfriend to get up and oil her.
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Dec 9, 2012 18:50
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Hey guys. Haven't posted here in ages but still lurk because my birds and I have been pretty boring lately, until today. I was cleaning out their cage, and as I was collecting Cinni and Pumpkin from the mirror, sometimes they like to fly around the room a bit before going back in. Today however, Pumpkin decided to try something different and flew up to the skylight! I managed to get her down, but look at that smug little bastard:
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Dec 9, 2012 18:51
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A quick picture of Iroh. He survived the first night. I am glad. I was so scared of seeing a dead bird in the bottom of the cage that I sent my boyfriend into the living room in the morning first! He's having a few issues with wanting to come off shoulders now, so I'm having to try to keep him just on my hands for now. I think it will help that his cage, even with the open top play perch, is still below my eye level when he's 'at home.' Other than this though he is a sweetie! He is already mumbling human speech, garbled things and responds to his name. Edit: AAAAHHH he just said "Hello" clearly for the first time. Sounds like my own voice on a twisted Gramophone. uglynoodles fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Dec 9, 2012 |
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Dec 9, 2012 21:41
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That's amazing uglynoodles! He's super cute! Congrats on your new, smart, adorable little family member Also, if you can record him talking I'd love to hear it
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Dec 9, 2012 22:06
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Ahhh lookit that little face.  Congratulations!
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Dec 9, 2012 23:00
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Haven't posted in here for awhile. But I am wondering, if anyone else's conure/bird does this as well? My conure Egbert will do this, whenever he preens himself. Is this normal behavior among conures(or other birds). (His perches/cage are clean now too)   Here is a picture of my GCC and my parakeet Horus sitting on my shoulder together too. 
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Dec 9, 2012 23:21
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As far as I know the birds were hand raised, hopefully I will be meeting them today. I might just have to be patient and wait for more babies. The breeders were originally looking to sell them as a pair but they said they would be willing to sell just one, so maybe they are people birds or something.
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Dec 9, 2012 23:47
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Iroh looks adorable and I am insanely jealous that s/he talks at all, let alone so soon!Fart Puzzle posted:As far as I know the birds were hand raised, hopefully I will be meeting them today. I might just have to be patient and wait for more babies. The breeders were originally looking to sell them as a pair but they said they would be willing to sell just one, so maybe they are people birds or something. They very likely would become tame/tame again, especially if you bought only one, it would just take longer than with a baby that's currently still used to people. If you have the patience, it can work-there can be upsides to parent raised birds over hand raised-so don't let it put you off entirely.
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Dec 10, 2012 01:28
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BitchKitten posted:Haven't posted in here for awhile. But I am wondering, if anyone else's conure/bird does this as well? Mickey does this and it's hilarious, I thought he was broke. He'll hold onto his tail while trying to do other things sometimes too.
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Dec 10, 2012 01:32
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Wizard of Smart posted:Mickey does this and it's hilarious, I thought he was broke. He'll hold onto his tail while trying to do other things sometimes too. Squirt will sometimes try and wrestle with small objects. He really seems to like dental picks and ball point pens, and will hold them in his foot and try to bite them at the same time, leading to him sqwarking when some jerk bites his foot.
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Dec 10, 2012 01:50
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Oh, he's lovely!
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Dec 10, 2012 01:58
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Everyone else's conures say and do neat things and my broken ones just get lost inside my shirt and wark sadly until I free them.  Sleepy birds are the cutest birds.
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Dec 10, 2012 01:58
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Today was a good day for Zippy. I have been trying to get her to eat more greens and eating them in front of her doesn't work. However, I made glop for her with lots of finely chopped greens and she loved it. Turning the top of her cage into a very leafy green jungle was also very successful. She mastered the retrieve trick today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z62boJDXEc It's even better now than it was in this video-she'll get it from one side of the table and bring it to my hand on the other side. Her wave is spot on cue now too, and she'll do it all the time to try to earn treats Edit: I totally got her to roll on her back!!! All you conure owners probably think that's nothing special, but as wonderful as Zippy is she does not cuddle beyond head scratches and she certainly is too dignified to roll over. This was a huge step! Lenswork fucked around with this message at 05:49 on Dec 10, 2012 |
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Dec 10, 2012 02:39
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Wizard of Smart posted:Mickey does this and it's hilarious, I thought he was broke. He'll hold onto his tail while trying to do other things sometimes too. Egbert or (Eggie as he calls himself) will flip upside down and hold his tail. Im glad other conures do this, thought mine was just weird.
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Dec 10, 2012 02:49
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Ohtori sometimes holds his tail to preen it too. Steve is too refined and preens and cares for his tail properly. They both had their nails filed down today. Ohtori as usual bitched, though less than usual, and demanded lots of pettings and comforting afterwards to make up for it. He couldn't decide which foot to tuck away either. Steve squealed a bit, then wiggled around a lot. While he was wiggling his body (?) was making clicking noises, like when you stretch your back and it clicks, that sort of noise. When he was released he wasn't using one foot and was dangling it about and we were all oh poo poo did he just dislocate his leg/hip or something but nope, just being dramatic as well. As soon as he got put on to his perch he was normal again. No idea what the noises were in the end.
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Dec 10, 2012 03:03
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This morning I was laying in bed with Scout. I had my hand under the sheet and she crawled between the sheet and the comforter and would nibble my fingers a bit and then just sat there going "Brrrrr Brrrrrr Brrrrr Brrrrr" I took this with my phone, sorry for the quality - she was too close and I didn't want to disturb her. You'll have to turn it up to hear her, but she was like this for almost 10 minutes. Birds :3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt72avk-XLg
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Dec 10, 2012 05:50
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Amadeus and I have a little routine, whenever I go out of town for a weekend. For the first couple hours after I return he hunches happily on my shoulder, mumbling "pretty bird!" and "cutie" and giving me kisses. If I don't give him enough kisses he says "hey, baaaby!" until I remember I'm supposed to be begging forgiveness and go back to lavishing attention. After he's content that I'm truly repentant he crawls into my hand where he gets lots of head scritches and gentle squeezes. Then, once he's feeling pampered and beloved and ready to go to sleep, he lifts a foot so that I can give him a tiny little birdie foot massage. Like this. 
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Dec 10, 2012 07:08
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:Amadeus and I have a little routine, whenever I go out of town for a weekend. For the first couple hours after I return he hunches happily on my shoulder, mumbling "pretty bird!" and "cutie" and giving me kisses. If I don't give him enough kisses he says "hey, baaaby!" until I remember I'm supposed to be begging forgiveness and go back to lavishing attention. This is probably the cutest thing I've ever heard and the people in my MWO lance channel are confused as to why I was "awww"ing because stupid voice activated microphones but still. Birds.
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Dec 10, 2012 11:58
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BitchKitten posted:Haven't posted in here for awhile. But I am wondering, if anyone else's conure/bird does this as well? Baby does that as well, he will sometimes grab his tail with his foot and stretch it out as far as he can when he is on his boing boing perch. I have no idea how he doesn't fall off.
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Dec 10, 2012 13:37
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So today was a very difficuly one for poor old Pookie; she had to go to the vet's for a routine check-up. When we got the reminder in the post, I thought, "Wow, it must be well over a year since she had the last one, that's bad." So I asked the nurse when her last appointment was - it was 2006.  As you can all imagine, I felt like a terrible, neglectful person but it all turned out fine. We are very lucky in that our local vet is pretty much the bird and other exotics expert in the country. Even so, Pookie did not make the trip easy - she managed to partially trash the examination room by dodging the vet's towel to fly around and knock stuff over but she was eventually caught and examined and found to be in generally excellent health apart from a possible slight calcium deficiency. She'll be going back in 6 months for her bloods to be checked just to be on the safe side. She also got her nails clipped and 4 of them bled even though only the very very tip was cut  .It's all fine now though, I've got a calcium supplement for her water, bird muffin mix to bake up tomorrow with extra vitamin supplements added in. When she got home she had a cup of camomile tea, half a small jellybean and a loong nap to recover from it all - right now she's sittng all fluffed up beside me and grinding her beak
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Dec 10, 2012 16:07
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Brb, trading in Ohtori for a Green Cheek or Black Capped conure Pookah posted:So today was a very difficuly one for poor old Pookie; she had to go to the vet's for a routine check-up. I hope you're giving that bird all the head scratches she deserves and more.  Would filing her nails next time perhaps be an option?Wanna meet dat bird. She'd probably take a disliking to me but that's okay, because it sounds like it would be either in the most adorable way, or just hilarious. Like she'd fling her saucer at me or chase after me, pausing every so often to adjust her direction and waddle in a straight line again.
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Dec 10, 2012 16:26
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Battle Pigeon posted:Brb, trading in Ohtori for a Green Cheek or Black Capped conure Oh yes, she is getting much attention from everyone plus bites of their toast and sips of soup. We will both be having a nice lentil curry with rice for dinner too. We're also going to rearrange her perches in her day cage to make them all a lot wider so that her nail-tips actaully touch the surface and get worn down natually, but not for a few days to let her get over today's shocking events .She actually gets on pretty well with most people, as long as they don't have red hair. She hates gingers and will sneak up on them and bite them if she can. My cousin has red hair and had to be really watchful to avoid getting pookie-nipped, but it all stopped when she (the cousin) put on a black wig. Sadly, Pookie will not wear wigs. Edit: I'll try to set-up and film a saucer-fight tomorrow once she's back to her usual feisty self. Or maybe a paperbag fight; they are her latest arch enemy, ever since I put one over her head as a joke so she got a wee bit cross and nipped me. Double-edit: She was very funny about the dogs she saw in the vet's office. Explanation: She really loves our Shih-tzu, Daisy and imitates her all the time - lots of barking and snuffling when she (Pookie) is on the floor. If you pick Daisy up and cuddle her, Pookie absolutely always does a huge approving tail-wag. She once bit my brother really hard years ago when he was playing rough-and-tumble games with Daisy, but has learned since that growly games are ok to play with Daisy sometimes. However, she absolutely does not approve of non-Daisy dogs. She fluffed up like an angry ball when some strange dogs looked at her and she drat well growled at a rude terrier who tried to sniff her. Pookah fucked around with this message at 23:25 on Dec 10, 2012 |
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Dec 10, 2012 16:38
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So my budgie is in a deeply committed relationship with seeds, occasionally experimenting with pellets. I'd like for him to be eating healthier, so recently I tried sprouting a bit of his seed mix. While vegetables are both offensive and terrifying, sprouts are apparently the most delicious and fun food of all, so I'm looking to get a sprouting mix for him. He loves to get a big mouthful and shake his head as hard as he can, and I guess I'm ready for ten years of dried up sprouts stuck to my walls. I found this: http://sproutpeople.org/seeds/critter.html which seems to offer a lot of good options but I was just wondering if anybody does sprouts for their bird/where they get seed mixes. There's not really any local place I've found that just sells bulk seeds/legumes so I'm trying to find pre-mixed stuff. My little guy is hilarious and adorable, but both my boyfriend and I want a bird who views us as something more than convenient pieces of furniture and/or monsters. We just want to give scritches without being given an angry face and a nip in response . To that end I will probably be getting a GCC in the near future. This is a few months off at least so I'm just starting to research this now. There's a local breeder that seems like a reputable operation and has good reviews (the few I could find, anyway) but I'm not opposed to adoption, especially if it means I can skip puberty. The only local rescue I've found is this one: http://www.lairofdragonsbirdrescue.com/HOME.html I don't really know how to evaluate a rescue for quality I guess. I'm about 2-3 hours from both Philadelphia and Baltimore; does anyone know of any good rescues in that general area? I'm also wondering about cage size for a GCC. I know this question has been asked a million times but I keep finding vague answers. One of the cages I'm looking at is 30.5x20x40. Is this too small? Decent? I basically just want to know what the minimum size is so I know to exclude anything smaller than that. I want to get a larger than minimum cage of course, but I'm trying to figure out ahead of time how to get the largest cage for the least money. P.S. I'm sure the closer I get to getting another bird the more I will pepper this thread with neurotic questions. Sorry in advance!
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Dec 10, 2012 19:07
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30x20x40 is plenty big because of the upward room, I'd say. If it were more squat, a deeper cage might be better. You basically want something that they can spread their wings in as a bare minimum, and 20 is way over the span of a GCC. Also, with conures, keep in mind they like to climb around a lot, so taller might be better anyhow.
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Dec 11, 2012 00:20
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Wizard of Smart posted:Mickey does this and it's hilarious, I thought he was broke. He'll hold onto his tail while trying to do other things sometimes too. Leeloo does this! She'll just chill with her foot on her head like that for minutes at a time. She also hols her tail feathers when preening them. Here she is on my shoulder doing her hedonism-bot impression 
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Dec 11, 2012 00:38
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Paid a visit to my local bird breeder today and oh my god it was such a birdy cuteness OD! The female yellowsided they have for sale is such a sweety, she was beaking my hand and cooing at me. The breeders were very nice and they really seemed to care for their birds, their whole family works with the birds. I just made the wait so much harder on myself. I'd have my bird now if it weren't for pesky Xmas shopping!
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Dec 11, 2012 02:11
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So Ritz's new favorite thing to do: Fly to dad's desk, poo poo on his chair back, then go back to cage.  We trained you to poop in your cage, bird. Why must you poop on the chair!
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Dec 11, 2012 07:00
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SaNChEzZ posted:So Ritz's new favorite thing to do: Well, you see, you're always sitting there so it must be your cage. Therefore, it's ok for Ritz to poop on it. It's really quite simple  Trying to teach Ozzy to be more self-sufficient and actually fly to places instead of whining at me has backfired. Now he tries to follow me around the apartment everywhere. Too cute to discourage...
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Dec 11, 2012 14:16
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Any time I move anywhere, Daemon slips into my shirt and has his head popping out like he's wearing it.
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Dec 11, 2012 15:50
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Ohtori still hasn't learned "go poop", despite our best efforts. Or maybe he does know what it means and finds it unappealing. Yesterday, 'Tori and Steve were both flirting on the shower doors as usual, 'Tori being rather aggressive about it, so I put my hand between them to stop him trying to force vomit down Steve's throat-and he threw up orange liquid all over my finger instead. Why, bird. He also managed to climb on Steve's back later on while they were both in my lap
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Dec 11, 2012 15:52
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Wow! So, an update because Pyrrhura ownership is new to me! Iroh wants to go everywhere with me. EVERYWHERE. He has also decided that he is my sentinel, and beeps to let me know there is a Threat Nearby. Such Threats are cars, either moving or stationary outside our ground floor apartment window, shadows from pigeons or crows flying by, and people walking. Fortunately we live in a very quiet urban cul-de-sac like estate and this doesn't happen very often. I keep trying to reassure him by talking quietly to him when he does this. I figure he will get used to these things in time, he's only been with us a few days now. He makes duck noises constantly. I'm assuming this is just Iroh's default setting, but a few sources say it means mild distress? I don't know, he just duck quacks all the time, even when he's doing other things that mean he's feeling fine. He trills occasionally, usually when asking for something, beeps in alarm, and imitates garbled words. He did successfully say 'Hello' yesterday though, and is in the process of learning 'Dance,' which is when we both bob our heads to music. Iroh loving loves tea. Holy poo poo. He will pass up fruit juice in favour of tea and gets upset if I'm drinking it and he can't have any. I indulge him a few droplets every now and then once the temperature has gone down a little, but I do take milk in my tea, so I am sure to distract him after one or two sips. He really suits his name in that respect. I have been feeding him fresh vegetables and fruit, including broccoli, sweetcorn, banana, tomato, and carrot in addition to the parrot mix diet he has been on in the shop. I want to find some pellets to put him on, as this stuff is kind of a muesli with sunflower seeds, what looks like dried chilis and crushed fruits, peanuts and other stuff with a little bit of budgie seed. I mean it doesn't look like it is THE WORST DIET EVER OMG but the consensus is pellets are best so I want to find a reliable source of pellets. He has decided he doesn't like carrot, and will pluck out the bits and drop them outside his eating area. What a bunghole. He doesn't seem to eat much of this though and I'm worried he's not getting enough nutrients. He is pretty good about getting off me when I want him to. He will set down on anything I gesture for him to hop off me onto. His problem comes in that he is slightly nippy at my boyfriend, and as a result my boyfriend is becoming a little cringey when it comes to attempts at handling him which I feel is just making the problem worse. Iroh has spent time with him before though and will lean down and beg to come up onto him, or if my boyfriend is sitting on my chair in front of Iroh's cage, the bird will come up himself. If my boyfriend offers his hand though, Iroh nips. Again, I am hoping this is something that will resolve in time. I work from home, so I spend a lot more time with the bird than he can and so I don't know that he knows my boyfriend is "part of the flock." I'm pretty sure Iroh has selected me as his birdy girlfriend, which is fine, but I don't want him to be a dick to my boyfriend! He doesn't seem interested in his toys or the inside of his cage much. He is constantly on whichever side of his cage is closest to where I am in the room, and sometimes taps the bars with his beak, staring at me dolefully to come out. I give him lots of out-of-cage-time, like hours every day and let him do a lot of things with me, but he has to learn that he can't be with me 100% of the time. I'm thinking also that this will resolve in time and that this is in part due to him being in a new environment. I just want him to relax and realise that being a single foot and a half from me is not the end of the world all the time! Poor thing. He's gotta learn to have 'me' time! ALSO he's toilet trained himself. He refuses to poop on me or my things, so when he's got to go he makes overtures like he wants back in his cage. When I pop him on his perch he does his business, then wants back on me. Super proud of this guy.
uglynoodles fucked around with this message at 16:09 on Dec 11, 2012 |
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Dec 11, 2012 15:57
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I'm jealous I want a potty trained bird and all I get is not being pooped on on the shoulders.
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Dec 11, 2012 16:03
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uglynoodles posted:He makes duck noises constantly. Totally normal. My birds wark whenever they're experiencing something new or interesting (like a changed bedspread). uglynoodles posted:I want to find a reliable source of pellets. Check your local vet for Harrison's. If anything, they can special order it. You'd be looking at the Super Fine High Potency. uglynoodles posted:His problem comes in that he is slightly nippy at my boyfriend, and as a result my boyfriend is becoming a little cringey when it comes to attempts at handling him which I feel is just making the problem worse. Try leaving the room entirely when they interact. Let your boyfriend take him out of the cage while you're out of Iroh's eyesight. Nipping is a way to convey that he'd like to be on Mum right now, thank you very much, so don't let him think it's an option by being there. uglynoodles posted:He doesn't seem interested in his toys or the inside of his cage much. He is constantly on whichever side of his cage is closest to where I am in the room, and sometimes taps the bars with his beak, staring at me dolefully to come out. He'll learn! Just keep up with a variety of shreddables and different textures and he'll figure out it's fun and safe to investigate them all. Try giving him a cat's jingle ball toy and let him learn the ~*magic of bells*~. And an update: Zeke's slowed down his plucking. I just noticed his chest was entirely covered in down and not just pin feathers. 
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Dec 11, 2012 17:55
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Charlie has discovered a new class of sounds to make. He now sometimes make moaning noises that sound like some wild crazy Poicephalus sex noises whenever I'm in the room and he wants my attention.
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Dec 12, 2012 00:26
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Pip pip pip posted:Well, you see, you're always sitting there so it must be your cage. Therefore, it's ok for Ritz to poop on it. It's really quite simple How did you teach him to get off his lard rear end? Novolo has a full set of flight feathers and refuses to use them.
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Dec 12, 2012 00:34
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Was out at dinner at my Mums house last night, and if you step out the back door, and look slightly up and to the right, you can see the nest where a dove of some sort has laid a couple of eggs. I will try and get some better photos next time im over there.
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Dec 12, 2012 01:01
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mjs6643 posted:Charlie has discovered a new class of sounds to make. He now sometimes make moaning noises that sound like some wild crazy Poicephalus sex noises whenever I'm in the room and he wants my attention. Zippy makes a sound that sounds like plastic being dragged slowly over sandpaper when she wants me to mate with her. I already don't want to mate with a parrot, but that's a pretty drat unsexy sound.
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Dec 12, 2012 01:09
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Frogmanv2 posted:Was out at dinner at my Mums house last night, and if you step out the back door, and look slightly up and to the right, you can see the nest where a dove of some sort has laid a couple of eggs. I will try and get some better photos next time im over there. Look forward to seeing the ugliest baby birds in existence.
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Dec 12, 2012 01:15
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| # ? May 17, 2024 21:45 |
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Pile of Kittens posted:How did you teach him to get off his lard rear end? Novolo has a full set of flight feathers and refuses to use them. Sounds great-Ohtori never stops moving once he's out of the cage. When he was clipped he was lazier but since he got his flight feathers back... I don't remember the last time he simply sat on a shoulder and hung out there for a while. The only time he slows down is after a shower.
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Dec 12, 2012 01:23
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