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Tasty_Crayon posted:Ahahaha, I love that. I was walking to the ferry with my friends who had their two Amazons in a carrier. A girl walks past and one of the birds wolf whistles- she turns around and glares at the guy friend with murder in her eyes. All he could to was point helplessly at the carrier. "My bird thinks you're hot!" - 
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Mar 31, 2013 19:37
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 I also just found out what "Chu" means.
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Apr 1, 2013 06:04
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mikerock posted:I also just found out what "Chu" means. Holy poo poo this is precious. I made little paper ears I tried to put on Finn... he didn't like it very much though. Also, question. I think that Marshall has been trying to mate with Marceline and Finn and me and basically anything anywhere near his little bird body and I'm not really sure what to do about it. I have all the typical 12 hours of light and dark balanced food blahblah stuff done but he will start to preen Marci and then try to put his foot on her back and then she bites him. I keep moving him away from me or her or whatever when he tries to put his vent against whatever it is but other than that uh...? Also are baby birds typically this loving horny? Finn has never so much as thought about rubbing against anything and Marci only does it very very rarely and then we get this baby bird that's like ALRIGHTTTT PARTY TIME 24/7. It's starting to get irritating. I can't even have him around at this point when the other two birds are out because he acts up. Like a loving toddler :I BIRDS.
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Apr 1, 2013 19:07
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Official Bizness posted:I can't leave to use the bathroom without MASS BIRD HYSTERIA erupting. But! After teaching them the difference between "be right back" and "I'll see you later," they've learned how long I'll be gone and quiet down when I leave for work. This is a wicked late quote but... If Your Bird Squawks Loudly While Your Away... Does it really make a sound?
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Apr 1, 2013 19:20
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Amaya posted:Holy poo poo this is precious. I made little paper ears I tried to put on Finn... he didn't like it very much though. Ritz is just over a year now and he still tries to hump arms all the time. Toys not so much, but arms holy poo poo. Of course we stop him, but he's a horny jerk some days.
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Apr 1, 2013 23:45
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Craigslist, you make me sad. Admittedly this cage has no dimensions listed but the selling reason makes me want to punch the poster in the face a little. 
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Apr 2, 2013 03:29
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:Craigslist, you make me sad. Admittedly this cage has no dimensions listed but the selling reason makes me want to punch the poster in the face a little. M..Maybe it's a huge cage and that table is a dining table. I hope.
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Apr 2, 2013 03:50
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Deadly Chlorine posted:M..Maybe it's a huge cage and that table is a dining table. I hope. Judging by the size of the bird on the perch relative to the cage, I'd guess not. Maybe it was only used as a sleep cage and the bird was uncaged except of a night (I kind of doubt it, though, because I can't see why you'd "downsize" if that was the case).
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Apr 2, 2013 08:18
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Hi Guys, just looking for a bit of advice. I've recently moved house, and my room in the new house is significantly darker than the one I had in my old house. My bird (a quaker) lives in my room, and I'm a bit concerned it's too dark in here for him, so I've been thinking about wheeling him outside when I'm at work. There is a large verandah area out the back of this place - it's fully roofed, shares walls with the house on two sides, and one of the other sides has a full lattice, so it's pretty protected from the elements. I guess what I'm looking for are reasons why I shouldn't do it, or things I should take into account before I do - I'm thinking about giving it a go this weekend when I'm around to see how the bird handles it. Thoughts?
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Apr 2, 2013 09:47
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You can get a lamp and put it on a timer. I've got that, and my birds love it. They usually start singing about 5 minutes before it comes on. I think they think they're summoning it.
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Apr 2, 2013 12:40
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Chili posted:You can get a lamp and put it on a timer. I've got that, and my birds love it. They usually start singing about 5 minutes before it comes on. I think they think they're summoning it. Aw, you have your own little Cargo cult! 
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Apr 2, 2013 15:02
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Which cockatiel mix should I be feeding the babies? We're using Fort-Diet right now, and supplementing their diet with fresh and dried berries and fruits, and veggies. But they're fussy eaters. Also, I love this picture.  The night before last, we tried to start gradually introducing them to blanket training. They flip out when the cage is completely covered, so we put a towel over it that partially covered it. They started chattering really softly like they thought that if they whisper we wouldn't hear them. Also, that top dowel perch is their "sleepy perch". Jasper moved the toy hanging from it to the center to separate his side from Horace's. They also played peek-a-boo around the edge of the towel. And, just as my husband and I were about to fall asleep, one of them slowly crept over to a bell toy, rang it a couple times, and then quickly fluttered back to his sleepy perch. I swear he was laughing inside. It's like having a couple of four year olds who can glide around. (I know, we have to get rid of the dowel perches, but they seem to reject everything else but that little sand perch.) AvianPundit fucked around with this message at 15:37 on Apr 2, 2013 |
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Apr 2, 2013 15:34
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AvianPundit posted:Which cockatiel mix should I be feeding my babies? We're using Fort-Diet right now, and supplementing their diet with fresh and dried berries and fruits, and veggies. Zupreem Fruit Blend, you can buy it in bulk on Amazon and get a huge rear end bag that will last you quite awhile. Just be prepared for them to be picky with which colors they eat. One month it'll be just red, next month it'll be just yellow... birds. Also, have you tried rope perches? If you leave em in the cage long enough, they'll get curious regardless, but mine love their rope perches.
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Apr 2, 2013 15:38
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My cockatiel will only eat Fiesta Max seeds. We tried doing the slow conversion to the pellet diet, but by when it was all pellets she just went on a full blown Gandhi style hunger strike. 
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Apr 2, 2013 15:39
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Marshmallow Blue posted:My cockatiel will only eat Fiesta Max seeds. We tried doing the slow conversion to the pellet diet, but by when it was all pellets she just went on a full blown Gandhi style hunger strike. Well that may be, but I wouldn't go recommending it to anyone. It's still highly ideal to feed them pellets instead of seeds.
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Apr 2, 2013 15:41
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Harrison's pellets are good, as are Zupreem, and Totally Organics. When they were completely covered, was it completely dark for them? Cockatiels can be prone to night frights so a lot of people recommend leaving them a night light/little bit of light. Maybe you could put in a new perch, then only hang the millet by it, so if they want the millet they have to step on to the perch? Also, if the highest perch is a new one, they might go up on it when it's night and they naturally go to the highest perch.
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Apr 2, 2013 15:42
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Battle Pigeon posted:Harrison's pellets are good, as are Zupreem, and Totally Organics. Along those lines, you can consider a white blanket/sheet at least to start with. Mine wigged out when I used a darker blanket but they didn't seem to mind when it was white.
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Apr 2, 2013 15:53
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The scene earlier while I was making their food: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml4I77pNIpE Ohtori just does not give a poo poo. Like mentioned in the description, that cage isn't used for living. It ended up being a sort of stand where they sit and eat things, or hang out and play with the crap in the bag, or forage in the eggbox. It was meant to be a sleep cage but didn't work out that way, now it's used to keep Ohtori out of the way when working in the kitchen, or to put him in for a few moments for time out if he bites hard or tries to bite Steve. There's even a hanging bell he has to ring to be let out. Their spiral rope perch is above so it also catches poop from there which is useful. The seed sticks are a treat, but they usually just destroy them rather than eat them. The ones Steve is sat on are mostly/completely ruined. /words
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Apr 2, 2013 16:55
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Chili posted:Well that may be, but I wouldn't go recommending it to anyone. It's still highly ideal to feed them pellets instead of seeds. Oh I didn't mean to come off as recommending it. It was more of an anecdote of the situation. I have however heard the tale of a cockatiel (male) that's into its 30s, has had over 30 babies, never had his wings clipped, and ate nothing but seeds. Of coarse now I cant find the story.
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Apr 2, 2013 17:28
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Marshmallow Blue posted:Oh I didn't mean to come off as recommending it. It was more of an anecdote of the situation. I have however heard the tale of a cockatiel (male) that's into its 30s, has had over 30 babies, never had his wings clipped, and ate nothing but seeds. Of coarse now I cant find the story. If the bird is extremely active, high-fat diets are less likely to kill them. But this means flying around all the time to burn all that fat off. (it's no different than people: athletes regularly eat 5000-10000 calories/day depending on their sport. If a regular not-so-active person does that, they're going to get obese and develop some pretty bad medical issues because of it) Kenshin fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Apr 2, 2013 |
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Apr 2, 2013 18:04
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Kenshin posted:That's the key phrase here. I've yet to have Maru's wings clipped. When we got her as a baby at the store, they had been done but she hasn't had them done yet. I think its cruel. Sure it doesn't hurt; But what if someone came an chopped off your primary mode of transportation (your legs) and said, Don't worry they'll grow back in a while, and in the meantime you had to use your arms to get around; until they get chopped off again. Very stressful life if you asked me.
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Apr 2, 2013 18:15
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Marshmallow Blue posted:I've yet to have Maru's wings clipped. When we got her as a baby at the store, they had been done but she hasn't had them done yet. I think its cruel. Sure it doesn't hurt; But what if someone came an chopped off your primary mode of transportation (your legs) and said, Don't worry they'll grow back in a while, and in the meantime you had to use your arms to get around; until they get chopped off again. Very stressful life if you asked me. Birds don't care that much. I'll just be blunt, but you're projecting into that situation far beyond the reality of it. Clipped wings can be very useful for keeping a bird safe or for managing behavioral issues, it doesn't hurt, and the birds quickly adapt. e: Also not saying it's necessary in all cases, either. Just that the idea that it's cruel in some way is not accurate.
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Apr 2, 2013 20:28
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Eejit posted:Birds don't care that much. I'll just be blunt, but you're projecting into that situation far beyond the reality of it. Clipped wings can be very useful for keeping a bird safe or for managing behavioral issues, it doesn't hurt, and the birds quickly adapt. Proabably, we also have cats, so it's also a last line of defense in case we screw up royally in regards to closing doors. Another reason we haven't is that some of her favorite stuffed animal friends are high on a shelf, and if you bring them down to play they are no longer friends... They are now evil monsters whos only purpose is to destroy cockatiels! She also doesnt have any of those "I have wings, I don't give two bird turds about you" issues as of yet.
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Apr 2, 2013 20:47
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Marshmallow Blue posted:I've yet to have Maru's wings clipped. When we got her as a baby at the store, they had been done but she hasn't had them done yet. I think its cruel. Sure it doesn't hurt; But what if someone came an chopped off your primary mode of transportation (your legs) and said, Don't worry they'll grow back in a while, and in the meantime you had to use your arms to get around; until they get chopped off again. Very stressful life if you asked me. This is a crappy analogy. It's more like cutting your fingernails short. Yes, it's harder to scratch, but it's also harder to cut yourself on a hangnail.
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Apr 2, 2013 20:56
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marshmallard posted:This is a crappy analogy. It's more like cutting your fingernails short. Yes, it's harder to scratch, but it's also harder to cut yourself on a hangnail. I would say that's a crappy analogy, as cutting your fingernail short doesn't inhibit your ability to say... get off the floor once your on it because you wanted to check something out.
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Apr 2, 2013 21:07
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Marshmallow Blue posted:I would say that's a crappy analogy, as cutting your fingernail short doesn't inhibit your ability to say... get off the floor once your on it because you wanted to check something out. Actually that depends on how much you clip. When my budgies' wings were clipped, they had no trouble getting up off the floor. Don't forget they can climb, too. Honestly, you're not coming off well in this thread. You seem angry and you feed your bird junk food, so you're not really in a position to give bird care advice.
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Apr 2, 2013 21:41
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What's clear is that clipping is a contentious point, and there are good reasons for both clipping wings and not clipping them. For responsible owners the choice is irrelevant because the bird is going to get what it needs, whether it be a more restricted diet and better exercise when clipped or a carefully managed house with limited dangers and chances to escape when flighted. Done improperly, either way can lead to a stressful or suboptimal life for the bird. That said, and while I don't know how long you've had the bird, I would recommend trying to wean it off of seeds again Marshmallow Blue. Some birds are idiots about pellets and refuse to change, but usually it just takes dedication and a few tricks, like mushing them up with water and mixing it with seeds so they end up eating some anyway, or pretending to eat some yourself and acting like it's the best thing ever.
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Apr 2, 2013 21:56
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DarkHorse posted:Some birds are idiots about pellets and refuse to change, but usually it just takes dedication and a few tricks, like mushing them up with water and mixing it with seeds so they end up eating some anyway, or pretending to eat some yourself and acting like it's the best thing ever. Or dedication and ALL of the tricks every day. I had to go through some stupid contortions to get Novolo back on pellets after she was sick and she was already used to them.
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Apr 2, 2013 23:23
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Peer pressure works really well. My budgie blue learned to be more sociable and people friendly by watching my cockatiel Pashtu. Pashtu learned to eat pellets and healthy food by watching blue. Now I have two drat good birds.
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Apr 3, 2013 01:35
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Marshmallow Blue posted:But what if someone came an chopped off your primary mode of transportation (your legs) and said, Don't worry they'll grow back in a while, and in the meantime you had to use your arms to get around; until they get chopped off again. That sounds loving awesome.
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Apr 3, 2013 01:41
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http://www.pet360.com/product/3429/...A1Q#prodinfotab ^ That's what we feed them. For now. The prior owner gave us a couple if the 5 lb bags and the 'tiels seem to like it. It's a mixture of seeds and pellets. We'll switch to something else after we use up the bags if you guys suggest it though. We heard good things about Zupreem Natural Cockatiel Food. Battle Pigeon posted:Harrison's pellets are good, as are Zupreem, and Totally Organics. Chili posted:Along those lines, you can consider a white blanket/sheet at least to start with. Mine wigged out when I used a darker blanket but they didn't seem to mind when it was white. They have a little blue nightlight that we turn on when the lights go out and it's bedtime. When they were completely covered we had used one of those thick grey wool military-issued blankets. They started chirping softly and then it turned into full-blown screaming. But they seemed fine with a towel that partially covered the cage. Maybe we'll try like a thin white sheet later. AvianPundit fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Apr 3, 2013 |
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Apr 3, 2013 02:47
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Grisly Grotto posted:
Wild birds, rodents and neighbourhood cats could be your enemies here. Critters which mightn't come near your verandah when you're around might do so when you're absent. You know your location better than anyone, so you know whether what comes into your yard might represent a danger to your bird when you're not around. You couldn't leave a bird outside unattended at my house because of neighbourhood cats and the local mynahs and butcher birds (strangely enough, the currawongs give no fucks), but there may be no such threats where you live. Lolie fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Apr 3, 2013 |
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Apr 3, 2013 03:04
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Any advice on switching a conure and tiel from the fruity, colored Zupreem pellets to the Harrison's? Mixing them, even with only 20% Zupreem, has caused the birds to treat the Harrison's like dirt to be dug through to get to the Zupreem. Without Zupreem in the bowl at all, I have a full on hunger strike on my hands.
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Apr 3, 2013 03:22
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I'll take this post to apologize for any drama. I wasn't trying to give advice on diet or clipping practices, simply telling my views and my experiences. I know seeds are crap, and I have tried most of the above to try to switch her over. I haven't tried the water soaked pellets yet. That may work as their are already a few pellets in the mix already so she is used to seeing them.
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Apr 3, 2013 04:07
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Do they like mash-like foods? Maybe soaking + creating a mashed potato-like pelletmush would help. If they eat fruits, maybe mixing fine seeds(millet) plus fruitsveggie bits mixed in there so when they go for those bits, theres a higher likelyhood of beaking some mash too. I think I lucked out x100000 that all my tiels and conure eat pellets, converting was easy..both harrisons and zupreem  I'm also a dick and starve them until they EAT THE PELLETS.
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Apr 3, 2013 04:55
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You could also try making a birdie bread and putting the pellets in that. My GCC doesn't really like pellets, nor fuits or veggies (I tried to give him a piece of watermelon once and he was scared of it) so I bake some birdie bread with the pellets, fruits, veggies, and some sweet potato baby food. He frickin' loves it. He has started to eat some of his pellets I think, I sometimes find them in his water bowl.
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Apr 3, 2013 11:00
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I put a few pellets (Nutribird) in one of the bowls on the desk stand for Ohtori when he's perched there. Mostly though it's Steve that hangs out on it (Ohtori refuses to stay put), and one day he looked into the bowl and suddenly decided that the pellets are edible. Now he eats them on occasion when he's on the stand, or if I offer him one, though they're a bit big and hard for him to break. He completely refuses to eat them inside his cage though. He has a mix of pellets, crushed a bit to help him, and a spoon or two of his seed mix. Once the seeds are gone he completely ignores the pellets... but will eat them outside of his cage.  Harrison's are really expensive here so we'd rather not spend a lot of money to import them in case he won't eat them, so if he could eat Nutribird that would be nice. At least he picks though his veggie bowl more and more regularly these days.
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Apr 3, 2013 14:53
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Slinky Weasel posted:You could also try making a birdie bread and putting the pellets in that. My GCC doesn't really like pellets, nor fuits or veggies (I tried to give him a piece of watermelon once and he was scared of it) so I bake some birdie bread with the pellets, fruits, veggies, and some sweet potato baby food. He frickin' loves it. He has started to eat some of his pellets I think, I sometimes find them in his water bowl. This is genius! This is just like how they put sponge bob on the tomato cartons to make kids want them. Maru doesn't have any issues with veggies but fruits and pellets in some bread just may do the trick.
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Apr 3, 2013 15:01
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Peep went on proper hunger strike when I started her on pellets but we got there in the end. Soaking them in orange juice and mashing them up helped, then we moved on to water, then dry pellets.
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Apr 3, 2013 17:47
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I don't know if this would work for anyone else, but I finally had decent success getting my super stubborn budgie to eat pellets (before Oliver came home, now my budgie just loves pellets, but I guess getting another bird isn't the best solution). The budgie would eat about one bite of the Roudybush I had out for him every week, but when I put Zupreem in his cage he started eating 2-3 bites of pellet a week. So one day I was like "bird you will do what I want or else" and bought a scale to make sure he didn't starve, took away his seeds, and started feeding him sprouts. I had previously sprouted his seed mix which was mostly millet and he loved that, but the new sprout mix I got had a lot less millet in it so he wasn't super happy about it, although he ate a little. He lost about 4.5 grams in the time that he refused to eat much, but then gained it all back when suddenly, he started eating a lot more pellets, probably enough to be about 30-40% of his diet. Basically what I think happened was he was given an unfamiliar food, and suddenly the pellets he was familiar with became a lot more appetizing. I wouldn't try it without a scale to monitor weight, because when I had tried before I was just watching his poop for signs of starvation and I had no idea when I needed to start worrying so I never took his seeds away for long. I think sprouting is great anyway, it makes seeds a lot more nutritious so for my (formerly) "oh god pellets are gross and fresh food will kill me" bird, I felt like I was doing what I could to get him eating healthy.
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Apr 3, 2013 18:16
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