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Sociopastry posted:You're awesome! I mixed in the millet with the pellets and it worked like a charm. I guess I'm used to pets that get that stuff I put in the food bowl is meant for eating. Birds are weird! They may be very smart, but bird brain is still a thing and happens more often than lightbulbs.
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May 2, 2014 16:56
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Those are some cute birds! My pocket seems to have sprouted something, I wonder what it could be?  Vertical video haters be damned: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG7ST18Zw-A&hd=1
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May 2, 2014 17:00
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To be fair, you did take away its food and put these oddly coloured and strange smelling things in its food bowl. Birds don't really see the food bowl as something that holds food, but something that happens to hold food if there's food inside.
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May 2, 2014 17:07
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H110Hawk posted:Those are some cute birds! Mindo makes the best birdy noises
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May 2, 2014 18:55
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 So I've had my new budgies, Spencer and Pootis (from left to right) for about 2 weeks. Pootis is getting better with people, is motivated by food, and is becoming quite the chatterbox. Spencer is much more high-strung and timid, and seems to be older, old enough to show receding head stripes and matured cere color. I'm getting worried about Spencer, because not only is he not getting more comfortable, but he even seems to be regressing. For the first week he could sit on my shoulder, or on another spot close to me and get comfortable, but now just about anybody nearby leaves him terrified, to the point where he's often breathing hard enough that he opens and closes his beak a little and gets watery poops. His color is fine, there's no discharge anywhere, though he doesn't eat as much as Pootis but I've guessed it's just from stress. Even right now, he's sitting on my shoulder and I can hear the faint clicking sound of his panting. Should I be doing anything special to help him get used to people, or is this still just a matter of being patient and persistent in spending time with him? Is there a chance he might be sick, but still energetic?
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May 3, 2014 01:27
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 This bird loves going outside so much.
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May 3, 2014 04:15
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Nice I wish our birds got outside that much! My wife lost a bird who was "clipped" outside (a male eclectus). Our greys could go outside and the wife has plans to bring them out some. We have a lot of hawks in the area so we will have to be supervising them at all times since they have 0 ability to get away from anything. The greys are coming along nicely in terms of hands and not freaking out around us. The female is way ahead of the male in this regard. Now we need to work on Gustov, he has some cage issues and pretty much runs away from hands until he's in them or on them, then everything is ok again. Fnoigy posted:. . . I'd say more time is probably the key here. Maybe combine some food bribes? Is the tv or anything else on that he's not used to? Same time of day? Just gave both greys a bath and finished cleaning out their cage.  RUN AWAY FROM THE HUMAN WHO CHANGED STUFF!  TIME TO RUB MY BUTT ON YOUR SOFT SEXY LEG!  OH WHAT DO YOU HAVE HERE SOMETHING FOR US RIGHT?  OH HI THERE! I'M GUSTOV! Jack Forge fucked around with this message at 23:39 on May 3, 2014 |
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May 3, 2014 23:34
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Came home today to find Garrus dead, laying next to a plastic perch which had snapped off at the base. He was prone to night terrors. The only thing I can think of is he flipped out and broke his neck. He was healthy this morning, jumping around playing with Chilly, and I'm good at picking out the signs of an ailing bird. Now only Chilly and Iro remain. Iro hates birds so Chilly and me will be best buds now. Fortunately I had a spare cage so I've put her in it, given her clean water and fresh food, and placed her in the living room directly with us (instead of overlooking it from the doorway.) I figure it will help her to be away from where he just died, especially since I'm now not sure if the regular cage is safe. In the last month he learned how to play with his rope toy finally, after eschewing toys for ages.
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May 4, 2014 00:37
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Uglynoodles I'm so sorry. That's tragic. At least you gave him a good home with lots of love. That's wonderful in and of itself.  Rest in peace, little birdy. Hope there's lots of tasty goodies wherever you are.On a happier note, Tokyo stepped up onto my hand today! I was refilling her food ad water and she just hopped right up there like it ain't no thang. She won't let me pet her still, but that's a start, right?
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May 4, 2014 01:08
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That's a very good start. She may or may not ever let you pet her, don't worry too much about that. uglynoodles, I'm so sorry to hear that. 
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May 4, 2014 01:35
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Sociopastry posted:On a happier note, Tokyo stepped up onto my hand today! I was refilling her food ad water and she just hopped right up there like it ain't no thang. She won't let me pet her still, but that's a start, right? Stepping up is really good! Make sure you praise her when she does it. She might never like being petted, though. It's far more likely that she will pet you, instead. Preening your hair or your shirt, that kinda thing.
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May 4, 2014 01:39
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She got delicious apples for being a good girl, no worries. She's such a well behaved little bird. I had to get her untangled from her toy today and she didn't bite me at all, just nibbled like "stop that!". I couldn't have asked for such a good bird. 
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May 4, 2014 02:06
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I've told this story before on here but it's about budgies and you weren't posting when I last said it so I'll say it again. When I got Blue and he was still untamed and hadn't gotten around to letting me pet him or sleeping cuddled up to my neck yet he had a little bit of a scare. Somehow a bit of string or dental floss or something like that had gotten wrapped around his foot and he was flying around the apartment in a panic. He landed on the back of the chair and I went over to go help but he was having none of it, so he took off again, I reflexively grabbed at the floss and had a little budgie kite for a few seconds before he landed on my arm. He'd never actually sat on me before, only explored the apartment and hung out nearby. I started to pull at the floss and try to unwrap it from around his leg and foot. Instead of panicking like I thought he would he just watched me pulling at the string with my hand almost touching his foot. Then he lifted his foot up and held it out in front of him and calmly started helping me get it off. Between him pulling at it and me unwinding it we got it off him and he immediately flew off back to his cage chittering wildly. I don't think I got to pet his head for still months after that, but it was pretty wild seeing a relatively untame budgie calmly let me help him, realizing that I wasn't trying to hurt him. My super cuddly elder-tiel still won't sit still to get his nails trimmed by comparison.
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May 4, 2014 04:13
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Oh no, Im so sorry Uglynoodles
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May 4, 2014 04:18
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Sorry for your loss, Uglynoodles
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May 4, 2014 04:24
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I took Auri hiking today and it was a nice rainy Seattle spring day. She did great, and apparently loved it, because ever since we got home, she's been in her cage whistling quietly... nonstop. She's been doing it for 20 minutes now. (and actually quietly, nowhere near the volume I know she can whistle at). Thing is, some of these whistles... she's never done before. And... maybe I'm a bit crazy, but I think it sounds like she's trying to imitate the songbirds in the forest, because they're these quiet, trilling whistles, and normally her whistles sound more like a human's. EDIT: annnnd the minute I post this, she goes quiet and is now taking a nap. So much for a chance to record it. EDIT2: she's back to it, and yeah, there are some new sounds, some of them sound a LOT like songbird song. 
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May 5, 2014 00:03
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Leeloo has destroyed her tail. She started around Christmas and we hoped it was because she getting some big new uncomfortable feathers. She got some new ones and looked like she was leaving them alone but nooope. Vet time for us I guess
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May 5, 2014 00:27
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I am so happy with my progress with Gunter. She is such a sweetheart. Her biting has calmed down significantly. Thanks for the advice Kenshin. I think that she is learning that the longer she tries to bit me, the longer it takes to get scritches. She is stepping up on command now, and actually seeks out scritches. Simon is still trying to mate with her, quite unsuccessfully. He will try a few times after feeding her, then give up and sulk on the other side of my neck. She is content to just sit against my neck and preen each individual tiny hair on my neck. Also, we were driving back from my fiance's parents house with the birds in the car and we discovered that sometime within her year of being at the store she had learned to perfectly mimic a cricket. She has also stopped cursing, which is good because she speaks quite clearly. Her two favorite phrases are "what are you doing?" and "are you gonna hurt me?" I know the last one was picked up from the people at the store asking her if she was going to bite them, but given that she was apparently bought from the store, then returned after being abused, it makes me kind of sad.
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May 6, 2014 15:12
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So a few days ago Ama's aviator harness arrived in the mail, and today we went for a walk since it's a gorgeous spring day. I can't recommend the aviator enough. I had a Feather Tether for him before and the aviator is much more lightweight and sleek, and a lot easier to get onto a squirmy little bird. The elastic lead is great, Amadeus tried to fly off a couple times and it caught him gently and let him turn around and fly back to my shoulder rather than snapping him to a dead halt. He was incredibly interested in the wind and the trees and passersby, and didn't spend the entire trip chewing on the harness the way he did with the feather tether. It's a nice day for a walk!  The wind was absolutely fascinating to him. I had to clip his wings recently because he kept getting into dangerous areas of the apartment, but that didn't stop him from leaping into the air a couple times to see how wild birds do it.  The grass was exciting but also scary, so when I crouched down to pick him up he decided to hide on my foot.  We visited Peaches and Pickles, the pet shop conures. They were totally taken by him and he gave not a poo poo about them because he is a people and not a bird.  He sat on my shoulder on the way home and trilled at everything we passed. All in all today was a great success.
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May 6, 2014 21:26
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I love all these pics of birds outside. They look so happy! Zippy is also hates grass- she prefers the cold, industrial feeling of steel in her claws.  That's a hard working bird right there.
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May 6, 2014 21:53
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The weather here hasn't been good enough to take Ohtori out for a long time, and the few places that are okay to take him are getting fewer and fewer. Lenswork posted:I love all these pics of birds outside. They look so happy! LITERALLY A BIRD posted:So a few days ago Ama's aviator harness arrived in the mail, and today we went for a walk since it's a gorgeous spring day. I can't recommend the aviator enough. I had a Feather Tether for him before and the aviator is much more lightweight and sleek, and a lot easier to get onto a squirmy little bird. The elastic lead is great, Amadeus tried to fly off a couple times and it caught him gently and let him turn around and fly back to my shoulder rather than snapping him to a dead halt. He was incredibly interested in the wind and the trees and passersby, and didn't spend the entire trip chewing on the harness the way he did with the feather tether. Happy birds, such great photos from both of you LAB, Isn't the Aviator great? Ohtori was removing the Feather Tether we were originally training him with in seconds, but he's never going to remove an Aviator. What size is Amadeus wearing?
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May 6, 2014 23:36
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Those eyelashes 
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May 6, 2014 23:41
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:So a few days ago Ama's aviator harness arrived in the mail, and today we went for a walk since it's a gorgeous spring day. I can't recommend the aviator enough. I had a Feather Tether for him before and the aviator is much more lightweight and sleek, and a lot easier to get onto a squirmy little bird. The elastic lead is great, Amadeus tried to fly off a couple times and it caught him gently and let him turn around and fly back to my shoulder rather than snapping him to a dead halt. He was incredibly interested in the wind and the trees and passersby, and didn't spend the entire trip chewing on the harness the way he did with the feather tether. I absolutely love all of these pictures. You've made my day with your adventures
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May 6, 2014 23:50
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uglynoodles posted:Came home today to find Garrus dead, laying next to a plastic perch which had snapped off at the base. Uglynoodles, correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't you had a couple of sudden bird deaths now? Have you considered starting to test for environmental factors like particulates, lead paint, cooking fumes, cleaning fumes, carbon monoxide, or biological agents? Did you get necropsies done?
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May 6, 2014 23:55
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Battle Pigeon posted:Happy birds, such great photos from both of you He wears a petite, he's a tiny little thing! The aviator really is fantastic, the feather tether was so bulky and uncomfortable for a bird Ama's size. I'm glad you all liked the photos!
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May 6, 2014 23:56
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Guys1 Exciting news today! I was cleaning Tokyo's cage, and she hooped up on my hand, which was awesome enough on it's own, but then she climbed her way up to the top of my head and proceeded to mess up my hair something fierce. She's just such a friendly little bird! Exploring the top of her cage   on my hand! Doin awful things to my hairBonus: Sleepy Momo! 
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May 7, 2014 03:23
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So in the continuing adventures of Babs the angry amazon, we have a new development. Babs, for years now as far as I can tell, has only eaten pellets. She'd been offered various kinds of other food and just ignored it forever. A few weeks ago I gave her some red bell pepper and, despite looking like she'd murdered someone when she was done, she ate it. Tonight I went experimenting and found out that she'll also eat cucumbers, carrots, yellow squash, and maybe apples. She seems to avoid anything green at the moment, although I think even her green pellets are currently being ignored in favor of the others. What else should I try feeding her? She won't eat strawberries or tomatoes, I know that. I'm just happy she's eating actual food. Because we have a 13 year old I also know that she'll eat fritos and cheetos, but I'm less enthused with these food choices. Also she doesn't trust the camera at all.  
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May 7, 2014 04:29
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Olothreutes posted:So in the continuing adventures of Babs the angry amazon, we have a new development. Babs, for years now as far as I can tell, has only eaten pellets. She'd been offered various kinds of other food and just ignored it forever. A few weeks ago I gave her some red bell pepper and, despite looking like she'd murdered someone when she was done, she ate it. Tonight I went experimenting and found out that she'll also eat cucumbers, carrots, yellow squash, and maybe apples. She seems to avoid anything green at the moment, although I think even her green pellets are currently being ignored in favor of the others. What else should I try feeding her? She won't eat strawberries or tomatoes, I know that. I'm just happy she's eating actual food. Your bird has achieved a compression ratio software engineers would kill over.
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May 7, 2014 04:40
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Olothreutes posted:So in the continuing adventures of Babs the angry amazon, we have a new development. Babs, for years now as far as I can tell, has only eaten pellets. She'd been offered various kinds of other food and just ignored it forever. A few weeks ago I gave her some red bell pepper and, despite looking like she'd murdered someone when she was done, she ate it. Tonight I went experimenting and found out that she'll also eat cucumbers, carrots, yellow squash, and maybe apples. She seems to avoid anything green at the moment, although I think even her green pellets are currently being ignored in favor of the others. What else should I try feeding her? She won't eat strawberries or tomatoes, I know that. I'm just happy she's eating actual food. Carrots, maybe? Tokyo loves cilantro, carrots, apples, oranges, cucumbers and celery. I also want to try her on blueberries but I need to check and make sure they're not toxic.
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May 7, 2014 05:13
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Olothreutes posted:So in the continuing adventures of Babs the angry amazon, we have a new development. Babs, for years now as far as I can tell, has only eaten pellets. She'd been offered various kinds of other food and just ignored it forever. A few weeks ago I gave her some red bell pepper and, despite looking like she'd murdered someone when she was done, she ate it. Tonight I went experimenting and found out that she'll also eat cucumbers, carrots, yellow squash, and maybe apples. She seems to avoid anything green at the moment, although I think even her green pellets are currently being ignored in favor of the others. What else should I try feeding her? She won't eat strawberries or tomatoes, I know that. I'm just happy she's eating actual food. She's really pretty. I love those blue and green feathers on her neck. Here is a list of what you can't feed her: http://www.beautyofbirds.com/toxicfoods.html. Everything not on the list is fair game, just try to limit fat intake, although you don't need to exclude it entirely. I would give corn, peas, and broccoli a try. Many birds absolutely love kale, collard greens, and chard. Fruitwise give oranges, plums, blueberries, grapes, bananas, melons, and pineapple a try. If she liked red pepper, you can give her hot peppers like jalapenos or even really hot stuff like habaneros. Birds have no capsaicin receptors and some really just love those spicy peppers and also makes for a good party trick. You can also feed her cooked eggs. Try feeding her meat! Birds eat insects so they can totally handle animal proteins. Lean is good. Baked stuff like bits of bread or pancakes/waffles are okay in moderate amounts. Same for pasta and rice. Some birds really like cheese but due to the high fat content it should be a rare treat and in small amounts. I'm really impressed she just ate that stuff off the bat. A ton of the food you cook for yourself is likely safe for her, so just check to make sure none of the ingredients are on the excluded list and give her some to try. A variety of foods can provide good stimulation for birds. e: Thought of a few more. Beets, radishes, pumpkin, spinach, and sweet potatoes. Just make sure you only feed the bulb. Seed balls, tubers, leaves, stems, new shoots, etc are not good. To be super safe you can just give the "meat" of the potato which is 100% okay. Eejit fucked around with this message at 05:24 on May 7, 2014 |
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May 7, 2014 05:19
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Sociopastry posted:Carrots, maybe? Tokyo loves cilantro, carrots, apples, oranges, cucumbers and celery. I also want to try her on blueberries but I need to check and make sure they're not toxic. Berries are good, full of antioxidants. Beware of blackberries though, my birds eat them one little chunk at a time and them proceed to fling them in places that shouldn't be possible (near the ceiling on the wall for example) You're good with basically all fruits and veggies minus rhubarb, onions, avocado, arugula, and very few others. For dinner our guys get: Kale, garbonzos, bell peppers, carrots, snap peas, corn, apple and blackberry. Frozen Pizza Party fucked around with this message at 07:20 on May 7, 2014 |
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May 7, 2014 06:35
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Pile of Kittens posted:Uglynoodles, correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't you had a couple of sudden bird deaths now? Have you considered starting to test for environmental factors like particulates, lead paint, cooking fumes, cleaning fumes, carbon monoxide, or biological agents? Did you get necropsies done? It looked like Goblin's death was caused by something genetics-related. He was a show budgie and underwent something of a deterioration over time. Garrus' seems to have been a freak accident. Iro and Chilly are both fine. This is a brand new building so there is no lead paint, and I always always always always have the extractor fan on when I cook (and keep the heat as low as I can.) I'm going to take both Iro and Chilly to the vet when I'm able just to ensure that they're OK -- in the meantime though I have placed Chilly in a totally different cage and she is in a totally different area of the apartment. Her feathers, droppings and behaviour all look healthy. Iro is unchanged.
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May 7, 2014 15:05
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Eejit posted:She's really pretty. I love those blue and green feathers on her neck. Also, variety is really good and healthy! Like us, most parrots evolved to have rather varied diets, to be able to eat what is available.
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May 7, 2014 15:35
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Kenshin posted:Another thing to note (along with this very good advice): sharing food at mealtime can be a very important bonding behavior. Along those lines you can also share yo drank witchur feathered homie. Birds have literally like 1/100th your body mass, so they can really only have a sip of caffeinated beverages at most and never let your bird have alcohol. My goon of a bird doesn't really eat a wide variety of foods (and we have tried to change that) but he will happily drink herbal teas and decaf coffee. He's even pretty decent at drinking out of a cup like a human if you hold and tilt it for him. e: Once again just check the ingredients of your tea and your sweeteners. Uncooked honey is a better-safe-than-sorry item as it may contain e coli and botulinum and it's not advised for human infants either. Cooked honey is fine as cooking temperatures make it safe. Eejit fucked around with this message at 16:01 on May 7, 2014 |
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May 7, 2014 15:54
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I have to be careful around my bird as if I have a can of diet soda around, she'll try to drink the soda on the lip of the can. As soon as I see her going for it I grab it away but she's fast. She is a big fan of drinking the condensation (water) around cups, which is amusing to watch.
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May 7, 2014 16:04
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Every time I get ice water (ice is the key!) or orange juice Alexis demands to have some as well. Auri doesn't normally want me to share drinks with her but will take a sip of orange juice if offered. Alexis used to want to try my beer all the time but has either given up or the one or two times she snuck a taste of the foam after the glass was empty cured her of that idea.
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May 7, 2014 16:18
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Ohtori loves fruit teas (the dried pieces are tasty too!), rooibos, and sips of kvvas when no one is looking. Warm/hot water from showers and taps are also things to be fought for. Both he and Inko like fruit juices of course, or carrot based juice. Steve likes saline solution...
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May 7, 2014 16:22
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Battle Pigeon posted:Ohtori loves fruit teas (the dried pieces are tasty too!), rooibos, and sips of kvvas when no one is looking. Warm/hot water from showers and taps are also things to be fought for. Both he and Inko like fruit juices of course, or carrot based juice. By kvvas do you mean fermented bread water? As in my Ukrainian grandmother's closet "beer" from the old country? Why would you even do that to yourself??? You know you can homebrew real, delicious beer for next to nothing nowadays...
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May 7, 2014 16:26
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Chicken bones are great for photo ops. Pearl likes to pick out the bone marrow. Other weird foods she likes include tofu and eggs. Definitely eating with them is a great way to encourage trying new things (but the downside can be that they learn to steal from your plate and are too adorable to be stopped). In other news, Pearl will be sixteen next Tuesday. What do you get for the bird who has everything?  
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May 7, 2014 16:30
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Eejit posted:By kvvas do you mean fermented bread water? As in my Ukrainian grandmother's closet "beer" from the old country? Why would you even do that to yourself??? You know you can homebrew real, delicious beer for next to nothing nowadays... It's not a beer substitute, more of a coke/pepsi substitute, and it's great stuff! 
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May 7, 2014 16:45
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