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Sweet CupnCakes posted:My questions are these: Getting a bird post-puberty is a good idea. It does lessen (though doesn't eliminate) the possibility of the bird's personality changing drastically, but not all personality changes are for the worse, and much of the influence on this will be the environment the bird lives in and how much (and what type) of attention it is given. Others that have caiques can comment better on the average temperament for the species but keep in mind that every individual bird is very different. That said if you aren't looking at getting a baby bird you're better off having a short list of species that you'll look at rather than just one or two. The absolute #1 most important thing on your (or your mother's) part when having a bird (particularly a strong-willed bird) is patience and the ability to not get angry when your bird is being a horrible little poo poo. Because sometimes it will be, but anger will never solve that and only serve to scare the bird. Kenshin fucked around with this message at 00:26 on Oct 16, 2014 |
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Oct 16, 2014 00:24
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SaNChEzZ posted:I can tell you right now that if you're going to spend the money on a Caique, just buy it from Omar's. You will not find a better hand raised and human oriented bird from anyone else. Which one do you go to? Also, if you buy a bird from Omar's they do free grooming (wings+nails) which is awesome I got to the one in Brea, California. I love that their birds are so wonderful and they always know the personalities of the birds. I don't mind spending the money or anything for a baby. I think I just had it in my head that rescue was a good way to go since there are probably lots of birds out there that need a good home. I realize the Caique may not be as popular so they may not come around in the rescues as much as things like cockatoos and such. I like a lot of options, conures, parakeets, senegals, etc... I just saw my mom and how she couldn't leave the Caique birds alone.
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Oct 16, 2014 00:31
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Sweet CupnCakes posted:I got to the one in Brea, California. I love that their birds are so wonderful and they always know the personalities of the birds. I don't mind spending the money or anything for a baby. I think I just had it in my head that rescue was a good way to go since there are probably lots of birds out there that need a good home. I realize the Caique may not be as popular so they may not come around in the rescues as much as things like cockatoos and such. I like a lot of options, conures, parakeets, senegals, etc... I just saw my mom and how she couldn't leave the Caique birds alone. If you're down in Brea, you should check out the Lily Sanctuary. I'm not sure what their policies on adoptions are, but I'm sure they'd love to rehome to someone that's interested in a companion bird as an actual companion, not just decoration 
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Oct 16, 2014 00:34
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I'm gonna quote myself here.Wizard of Smart posted:As a Caique parent, I can tell you that you need to understand they socialize differently. They're like the dogs of the bird world, they love to wrestle each other in the wild, and will happily bite the hell out of you. Because they love you and that's how they play.
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Oct 16, 2014 01:20
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I wish I lived near a real bird store. In a few years I'll be looking to get another bird but it would be nice to be able to visit and play with a bunch of parrots. The only places that sell birds near me are petsmarts. They're nice pet smarts and they'll let you take the conures out to play with them and the birds seem happy but it's a totally different beast all the same.
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Oct 16, 2014 03:21
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One of the best things about living in Australia is the wild parrots. Go to a park with a bag of bird seed, and with enough patience you can get them eating out of your hand. My girlfriend and I went on holiday to Denmark in WA last year, and I had a bag of sunflower seeds in the back of the car. Only took a few days, and the wild parrots warmed to us and I could get them eating out of my hand out the front of the house we were staying in.  
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Oct 16, 2014 04:30
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Hubris is starting to perch on my hand ... for seconds at a time.  Oh well! Progress.
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Oct 16, 2014 12:22
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chthonic bell posted:Hubris is starting to perch on my hand ... for seconds at a time. That's good! Maybe try different ways of letting him perch on you? Fuji hates sitting on my finger and will hop off as fast as possible, but he loves being in "the boat", which is just my cupped hand. He'll sit there for ages if I let him.
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Oct 16, 2014 14:55
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They totally ignore me if I just offer fingers to sit on, but both Hubris and Gnosis will hop onto my hand for a few seconds if I offer my whole hand - palm up or down - so I've just been offering my outstretched hand. We're also slowly finding out what music they like.  They sing along to World/Inferno Friendship Society and Franz Ferdinand, but they don't seem to like metal.
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Oct 16, 2014 15:19
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chthonic bell posted:They totally ignore me if I just offer fingers to sit on, but both Hubris and Gnosis will hop onto my hand for a few seconds if I offer my whole hand - palm up or down - so I've just been offering my outstretched hand. This is hilarious and adorable. Fuji also likes to sing along to things... but he really likes power metal and dubstep. He hates any of my instrument only music (especially guitars, for some reason), and he really, really hates Enya, of all things. I would have thought it'd be the other way around, because he's such a sweet, calm little thing. Birds.
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Oct 16, 2014 15:46
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chthonic bell posted:We're also slowly finding out what music they like. Amadeus always dances to the chorus of Rock Me, Amadeus, hence the name. I also discovered yesterday he looooves Lorde's album, he sat poofed on his favorite perch murmuring softly until I turned it off.
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Oct 16, 2014 15:48
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As far as bird music goes, the universal favorite for Ziggy (GCC) and Bubbles and Kima (tiels) is the Disney Musical radio station on Spotify. It's on loop in my office when I'm out at work most of the day and when I come home and dare to turn it off, I usually get a lot of protests. This definitely feels like practice for parenthood.
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Oct 16, 2014 16:00
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Teeka likes opera and has an excellent vibrato himself
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Oct 16, 2014 16:09
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The birds like to sit with me when I'm working on the computer. My dog likes to nap next to my computer chair. Zeke hates my dog and loves shoving stuff over the side of the desk. And that's how my dog got hit with a mug full of cold tea, officer.
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Oct 16, 2014 21:15
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Boop loves helping me play GW2. When I'm standing around chatting of something, sometimes I stop short of falling off a cliff or jumping into lava. Boop has my back, though. She knows exactly when I've forgotten to make that final plunge.
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Oct 16, 2014 22:36
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Sekkira posted:Boop loves helping me play GW2. When I'm standing around chatting of something, sometimes I stop short of falling off a cliff or jumping into lava. Boop has my back, though. She knows exactly when I've forgotten to make that final plunge. You should join GW2's Goon Squad if you haven't already. All of the frequent dungeoneers/fractal-runners get to enjoy me dying and then blurting out wwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaa3333333aww immediately after. Thanks Amadeus. Keep on punching that Enter key for me buddy. e: So many members of this thread have played GW2 at some point or another we actually had our own guild for a while, but Bird Crazies [WARK] is my bank guild now and y'all can't have it back!!! LITERALLY A BIRD fucked around with this message at 23:15 on Oct 16, 2014 |
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Oct 16, 2014 23:12
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I'm in a guild with old friends from GW1, plus I've been hanging with TTS who've been really pushing support in the community.
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Oct 16, 2014 23:36
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:You should join GW2's Goon Squad if you haven't already. All of the frequent dungeoneers/fractal-runners get to enjoy me dying and then blurting out wwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaa3333333aww immediately after. I found that box btw, hit me up on the facespace if you still need the key.
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Oct 16, 2014 23:44
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Wrecking Ball posted:My budgie has been acting very bitey and bitchy these past few weeks. I suppose I might be doing something wrong, like giving off signals that make me lower on the pecking order. I didn't see anyone else answer you so here goes: The perching dominance things is BS, don't worry about it. Budgies really don't bite very hard, like they can barely break the skin when they go full aggro so I find the easiest solution when they get a little bonkers is to just let them have at it to show you give no shits and the biting isn't going to work. One budgie I recently rescued knew how to step up, but at some point had learned to be a bitey little poo poo to avoid having to do so, I trained her out of it by just not reacting when she attacked my finger. Now she steps up with no fuss. Same when my first little girl decided the food dish was hers and hers alone to touch, reach in and freeze until she's worn out on attacking, then calmly do whatever I was going to do. Budgies catch on really fast when they learn they aren't getting anywhere with bites, but if you react and pull away it massively reinforces that they can bully you by biting. You get a nice advantage in that the damage they can do is pretty negligible compared to the bigger birds.
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Oct 17, 2014 18:28
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Even with the bigger birds, you shouldn't react.
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Oct 17, 2014 20:10
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Sekkira posted:Even with the bigger birds, you shouldn't react. Easier said then done with a Grey, or simarly sized birds. Still, when it happens, I tell Karl off, calmly, then I calmly walk upstairs to cry and suck on my bleeding finger.
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Oct 17, 2014 21:24
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To each his own bird, but increasingly I wonder why I would ever want a bird bigger than a conure.
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Oct 17, 2014 21:37
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Halloween Jack posted:To each his own bird, but increasingly I wonder why I would ever want a bird bigger than a conure. Me too. A Grey or a macaw used to be my heart's desire, but then I got a GCC and discovered most birds aren't as docile as an elderly ladytiel.
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Oct 17, 2014 21:46
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:Me too. A Grey or a macaw used to be my heart's desire, but then I got a GCC and discovered most birds aren't as docile as an elderly ladytiel. I once had a neighbor with a macaw, and I currently live next to a decent-sized airport. The airport is quieter.
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Oct 17, 2014 21:58
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Owners of the local garden centre have two pet Macaws, they bring them into work with them each day so they don't get lonely/loud/destructive at home alone, and they are in large cages in the centre of the shop with dos and don'ts on a sign like: "these parrots are very talkative, please don't teach them to swear because it may offend other customers".
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Oct 17, 2014 22:38
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We got an Amazon from a bird store and it is SO MUCH easier to not react when they already think they are biting you as hard as they can (which isn't very bad). The rear end in a top hat secondhand parrots who have learned to just try again harder are the ones that have hosed up my hands the most.
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Oct 18, 2014 04:48
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Holy poo poo yes about 2nd hand birds. I didn't know budgies could even break the skin till I was working with this little rescue bird. She latches on and actually starts grinding her beak in when she decides it's go time. I seriously had no clue a budgie would/could do that, I'd only heard horror stories about larger parrots pulling that poo poo.
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Oct 18, 2014 04:59
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My parents macaw Zoe will do that to your finger. Beak all the way around your finger, clamped tight, grinding away. We also had a teil who knew to pry his lower beak up under the fingernail. So basically rescues are great and secondhand parrots make great companions, but they do tend to take a lot more work. Zoe was super angry when we got him but now he is a more loveable form of jackass.
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Oct 18, 2014 05:10
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Odd, Pearl doesn't grind, she just has first clamp down (breaks skin, but not too bad) and second clamp down (why that's an interesting scar on your hand). Second clamp downs are a lot rarer these days, thank god. I used to have all these white marks on my nails from where she had grabbed my fingers, and now we're 99.5% clean (a little one at a fingernail tip, but it might not have been from her). If I had to do it again, I'd totally get another medium sized bird. I like that I can wrap my hands around her and roll her over, and give her hugs (at around 12 she started tolerating them, and now she enjoys the attention). I like that she sits on my knee and falls asleep sometimes and I can feel her weight there. I like that she thwacks the side of my head with her beak to give me a kiss and I can tell she is putting all of her energy into it. Sometimes when we're in the bathroom I wrap toilet paper around her. She opens cabinet doors and we have to put step stools in front of them to stop her. I'm sure there are a lot of aspects of these interactions that can be had with any companion bird, but for me the physical presence (and all the force that can go along with it) of Pearl is a major aspect of her that I relate to and I would miss in another species. Some of us are just funny in the head, I guess.
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Oct 18, 2014 05:37
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That is a really touching post, greypearl.
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Oct 18, 2014 06:15
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Anais is on egg number six. Only five are in the cage though because Archer ate one the other day. Also Anais decided one egg is not worth sitting on and flings it away if I put it near the others. Cockatiels are weird.
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Oct 18, 2014 20:33
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Poor Fuji. He hates grooming day. I haven't been able to find a good grooming perch for him, so every once in a while it's grooming day and I have to clip his nails and see if his flight feathers need re-clipping. He hates it so much, and I dunno how to make it easier on him. I basically have to make him into a bird-ritto so he doesn't move at the wrong time, and I try to do it as fast as I can. After, he gets some millet and scritches and some nice alone time, but he still hates it (and my hands) for about a week afterwards. Any suggestions to making this easier on the both of us?
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Oct 19, 2014 17:30
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Leeloo acts like Im murdering her, even though I tried to get her used to it when she was a baby. Some birds are just drama queens, she gets over it pretty quickly. 
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Oct 19, 2014 18:05
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Thanks for the biting advice. I am doing my best to ignore her attacking. Sociopastry, this is something that may work for you. Someone in this thread suggested this for me a few months ago when I had to give medicine to my budgie twice a day for two weeks. Try wearing gloves to clip Fuji's toenails/ trim feathers. (If you are dexterous enough). Thin cheap fleece gloves. My bird seemed to think it was just some sort of evil medicine monster instead of my hands, so she wasn't so scared to come to my hands after we medicated her. Maybe it would work in your situation too.
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Oct 19, 2014 18:40
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Happy Halloween! 
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Oct 20, 2014 00:45
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Ordered Roudybush pellets (Nibbles, so the smallest available size). Soon begins the fun of switching them from seed to pellets. I'm optimistic - they've been interested in all new food I offered them, except grapes.
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Oct 20, 2014 13:06
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Speaking of pellets, I've started giving Ozzy the same pellets that I feed Nugget, so now they are both eating the budgie-size Zupreem pellets. Nugget has always been on the budgie-size ones since she used to live with Sprite, plus she would just explode the cockatiel-sized ones everywhere  I've noticed that there's a lot less food all over the floor since the switch  I feel kinda bad that he can't really hold his food in his foot anymore but less mess is nice... Am I going to cause psychological trauma to my bird? Surprisingly, he doesn't seem to care at all. I guess he's used to it from sneaking into Nugget's cage to eat her food once in a while.
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Oct 20, 2014 13:17
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My budgies don't hold anything with their feet. Possibly because they're still young?? Also, it turns out they're almost definitely English budgies, so um: what's the life expectancy of those?
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Oct 20, 2014 13:22
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chthonic bell posted:Also, it turns out they're almost definitely English budgies, so um: what's the life expectancy of those? About 15% less than the rest of the western world depending on what part of England they are from. Serious answer up to 10 years I have seen quoted.
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Oct 20, 2014 15:13
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So Ziggy is still a little skittish around our hands. He won't come out willingly, but when we eventually manage to get him out, he calms down a lot. Our new strategy is taking him out every day, bringing him out of the cage room, taking him to the kitchen table and feeding him delicious fruit. It's working:   He's a good little baby.
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Oct 20, 2014 15:43
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