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I make large batches of food and freeze it in 3-4 day quantities I can pull from the freezer as needed. Some fresh foods don't freeze very well, so things like greens are usually lightly steamed before freezing, and soft fruit like pear I only serve fresh since it's pretty gross after thawing. Bean and grain mashes freeze well, as do cooked veggies.
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Apr 25, 2013 19:11
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 06:13 |
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Poop talk: Most of our birds are pretty good with at least TRYING to not poop on you but uh. Honestly...? I don't care if they poop on me. I wipe the majority of it off and just wash my clothes. I've never had a problem with it coming out and if for whatever reason I need that shirt RIGHT NOW it cleans out simply with water. Training them to poop somewhere specific would probably be a good idea but...uh... ...Now I feel gross 
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Apr 25, 2013 22:21
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My tiel for some odd reason prefers to poop in his own food. I have seen him fly over to his cage, climb in then up to his food bowl so he can poop in his food. I go through so much more food then I should have to because of this goof ball. I put much less food in the bowl and put 4 different bowls in his cage instead. I still have to change all 4 by the end of the day.
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Apr 25, 2013 22:29
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Amadeus I just finished vacuuming the whole apartment and while I appreciate that YOU appreciate the EXPENDITURE OF CALORIES and flew across the living room to land on my shoulder with a beakful of food I would have REALLY loving PREFERRED if you hadn't looked at me opened your beak and dropped tiny dinner fragments all over the newly cleaned carpet THANKS
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Apr 25, 2013 22:41
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:Amadeus I just finished vacuuming the whole apartment and while I appreciate that YOU appreciate the EXPENDITURE OF CALORIES and flew across the living room to land on my shoulder with a beakful of food I would have REALLY loving PREFERRED if you hadn't looked at me opened your beak and dropped tiny dinner fragments all over the newly cleaned carpet THANKS At least you don't have a ninjabird that puts wood chips inside shoes and stuff. They're loving everywhere, and why are there pellets on the bathroom floor ??!?!?!?
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Apr 25, 2013 23:09
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Ohtori with one of his foraging toys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQTMbJatXG4Amaya posted:Poop talk: Most of our birds are pretty good with at least TRYING to not poop on you but uh. Honestly...? I don't care if they poop on me. I wipe the majority of it off and just wash my clothes. I've never had a problem with it coming out and if for whatever reason I need that shirt RIGHT NOW it cleans out simply with water. What about the horrible red pepper poops? Or purple blueberry, etc. LITERALLY A BIRD posted:Amadeus I just finished vacuuming the whole apartment and while I appreciate that YOU appreciate the EXPENDITURE OF CALORIES and flew across the living room to land on my shoulder with a beakful of food I would have REALLY loving PREFERRED if you hadn't looked at me opened your beak and dropped tiny dinner fragments all over the newly cleaned carpet THANKS Steve is the worst, he'll climb into his seed bowl and kick that poo poo out everywhere, every time. I can't hoover with Ohtori flying free, otherwise he'll attack the hoover or myself-and trying to clean up with a conure squealing into the ear that he's trying his best to remove is both hilarious and annoying. Then when he's caged and the hoover is on, he screams in rage the entire time.
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Apr 26, 2013 00:22
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When they first came home to me about 2 months ago, my birds were cramped into a tiny travel cage with nothing but a plastic swing to keep them entertained, and they were on a 100% seed diet. 2 months later, they're living in a bigger cage, they have tons of toys to play with, and as of yesterday, they've started eating pellets. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who helped me. This thread has been a treasure trove of information. As I type this, they're happily chirping away on top of their cage. Here are my lovebirds doing some weird thing where they both stand up on one leg and lean against each other. 
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Apr 26, 2013 18:35
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Bioshuffle posted:When they first came home to me about 2 months ago, my birds were cramped into a tiny travel cage with nothing but a plastic swing to keep them entertained, and they were on a 100% seed diet. 'Relaxing' I believe.. I wish I could do that comfortably.
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Apr 26, 2013 19:37
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When you give your bird a kiss and she says "Love you!" does that mean you're a good bird dad?
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Apr 28, 2013 03:40
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 Oh no! Her hand has been replaced with a toucand! (I'll see myself out.)
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Apr 28, 2013 05:41
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H110Hawk posted:
Heeeey,
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Apr 28, 2013 15:48
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Anyone know if birds can contract strep throat from humans? We both came down with it yesterday and went to urgent care for a swab+drugs. Called our vet who was supposed to call us back but never did. We called him back twice both times the receptionist said "oh yeah no worries just a little longer." Meanwhile we were chilling out away from our bird just in case and he is quite sad that we're ignoring him.  Talking to him through the cage isn't same for him.
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Apr 28, 2013 16:44
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H110Hawk posted:Anyone know if birds can contract strep throat from humans? I don't believe so, asked my vet about this when I had it last and he said that there are only a couple human->bird possibilities, most of them having to with the e-coli that's naturally in our bodies, as well as other gram negative bacterium. I handled him regularly, but didn't let him into my mouth or anything.
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Apr 28, 2013 18:16
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H110Hawk posted:Anyone know if birds can contract strep throat from humans? Nah. My brother had strep throat all the time as a kid and none of our birds ever caught it.
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Apr 28, 2013 18:49
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I like to think my bird is kinda smart... but I am not so sure now. I bought him a new toy, with some woven straw bits on it. Being a new toy, he of course hated and distrusted it. I had the bright idea of bribing him with food to make him play with it. I had a bunch of sunflower seeds, and started poking them into the straw, leaving half the seed sticking out. Right up to the point where the seed got inserted in the toy my bird would be following it... then 'poof' - the seed magically disappears.... despite the fact half of it is still sticking out of the toy. I just don't know.
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Apr 29, 2013 14:22
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Well, yeah, as soon as the seed is part of the evil toy, it becomes evil and therefore ceases to be food. He just needs time to get used to it.
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Apr 29, 2013 17:34
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My budgies will finally hop on my finger no problem if there's millet involved. However, as soon as the millet's gone, or as soon as I try to give them belly scratches, they hop away. If I put my finger inside the cage without any millet, they freak out also. I've been stuck in this stage for about a week. If I continue feeding them millet this way (by making them hop on my finger), will they eventually learn that I'm not a threat, and be my friend? It took me a long time to get them to hop up on my finger, but I don't know what to do next 
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Apr 29, 2013 18:44
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Bioshuffle posted:My budgies will finally hop on my finger no problem if there's millet involved. However, as soon as the millet's gone, or as soon as I try to give them belly scratches, they hop away. If I put my finger inside the cage without any millet, they freak out also. I've been stuck in this stage for about a week. If I continue feeding them millet this way (by making them hop on my finger), will they eventually learn that I'm not a threat, and be my friend? It took me a long time to get them to hop up on my finger, but I don't know what to do next Just keep at it, the fingers are still death devices, but they'll come around eventually. Baby steps 
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Apr 29, 2013 18:46
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SaNChEzZ posted:I don't believe so, asked my vet about this when I had it last and he said that there are only a couple human->bird possibilities, most of them having to with the e-coli that's naturally in our bodies, as well as other gram negative bacterium. I handled him regularly, but didn't let him into my mouth or anything. Our vet called us back on Sunday and apologized for taking a long time to get back to us as he had to research it. In all of his years he had one case where a penguin died from it in the 70's or 80's. They think a food handler had it and didn't know, got some on the food, then fed it to the penguin. Don't cough on / lick the bird, wash your hands in hot soapy water before handling. Jerry got back to us and said the same thing basically, don't lick the bird and wash your hands. Speaking of birdy death devices. I put the scale out with a blueberry on it to try and weigh Mindo. He LOVES blueberries, and we use them largely as treat food. He was flying around, craning his neck on his tippy-toes, bobbing his head up and down, etc, to look at this blueberry. Any attempts to bring him near the birdy death device it was sitting on though resulted in him flying away. I left it there for a solid 10 minutes with him doing this. Eventually I had to go to work so I had him "come here" to get the blueberry.
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Apr 29, 2013 19:35
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We have bold parrot problems. Pookie now has her own bedroom and small night-night cage away from the big day cage in the kitchen. Mostly because it's hard to keep her asleep past six in the morning when people start doing stuff. However, getting her up from the litle cage is a bit challenging. She gets cross when she has to stay in bed past nine. My mother has tried to get her up in and around that time and gets bitten every time. The only person allowed to get her up is me, apparantly, as I have never run into any sort of agressiveness or meanness at all. I've got her up at eleven and she's been fine, no bityness at all. I do think that a lot of this is down to being able to read how she feels. She really is very clear about how she feels all the time but it takes a lot of long-term observation to be able to read it without thinking it. I think thats a key part of being a real parrot/bird person - unconscious observation of bird cues followed by correct responses to them. Ultimately they teach us a lot more that we'll ever teach them. Edit: I just re-read that and I'm embarassed that there is so much bollocks. Reading parrots gets you only so far, Sometimes they decide that they love one person a lot more that they love another. My Pookie loves me, she does not love my mother or my older brother, She is nice to me and my father, and my younger brother to a lesser extent. She likes to sneak up on my mother and older brother and bite either of them. She, because I used to fight with her a lot and Pookie is very loyal, him because he used to have play-fights with the dog that Pookie thought were real fights and therefore the dog needed protecting from. Pookah fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Apr 29, 2013 |
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Apr 29, 2013 22:32
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I think one or two people have mentioned this happening with them before too, but when asked to poo poo on command, Ohtori has started pretending to do it instead of actually doing it. He gets pissed when it doesn't work as well. Steve is in Peak 'Tiel Condition lately-he's no longer molting, and likes to take regular mistings, so he's incredibly soft and doesn't have that thick layer of dust over him anymore. Nor does he leave a huge pile of feather casings and powder wherever he sits for more than ten seconds. He looks really clean and soft and nice and he doesn't really mind if I stick my face in his feathers to find out if it's true.
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Apr 30, 2013 00:07
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Hi bird crazies, I went on holiday and saw some birds. Enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXxnjGPjLkc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
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Apr 30, 2013 00:43
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 Anais in a rare pensive mood.
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Apr 30, 2013 01:50
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Scout has started dropping feathers like a maniac again. She's always dropping a couple here or there but in this past week it seems like she has shed her weight in feathers. This also means she is sensitive to her new pinfeathers when we are handling her so she gets grouchy. What does it mean when birds bonk their beak repeatedly on stuff? Trying to get your attention?
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Apr 30, 2013 02:33
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Just moved to a new larger apartment and the birds have their own room again. Lovebirds have been upgraded to a HUGE new cage, but the disruption of their usual schedule has launched them into a screaming campaign that lasted [b]six hours[/i] today. Jesus.
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May 1, 2013 05:19
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Help my bird is broken 
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May 1, 2013 06:10
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Official Bizness posted:Just moved to a new larger apartment and the birds have their own room again. Lovebirds have been upgraded to a HUGE new cage, but the disruption of their usual schedule has launched them into a screaming campaign that lasted [b]six hours[/i] today. Jesus. What course of action can you take if your neighbors complain? I'd really love more input on people who live in apartments and how they deal with the noise. I love my birds, but I don't like being a bad neighbor
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May 1, 2013 16:15
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mikerock posted:Scout has started dropping feathers like a maniac again. She's always dropping a couple here or there but in this past week it seems like she has shed her weight in feathers. This also means she is sensitive to her new pinfeathers when we are handling her so she gets grouchy. Fred would do this every once in a while and I would just start snapping my fingers along with him and we'd have a little jam session, rapping beaks and fingers on stuff to make beats. Sometimes I'd just start snapping a beat and he would start bonking along.
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May 1, 2013 16:59
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Bioshuffle posted:What course of action can you take if your neighbors complain? I'd really love more input on people who live in apartments and how they deal with the noise. I love my birds, but I don't like being a bad neighbor I've never asked my neighbors but I've been in my apartment with my sizable flock for close to three years now and no one has ever complained. I know they can hear them too because I can sometimes hear them in the stairway. I think most birds that aren't like sun conures or big parrots sound more like regular birds through walls that aren't like 1 cm thick since the higher pitched parts of their calls don't travel far. Of course, my birds are mostly female cockatiels who just chirp like a normal bird and my Senegal Parrot is more of a talker than a squawker. They're also really quiet 90% of the day. If you think it's an issue, you can put up some soundproofing curtains or something. I've also found keeping your own noise and energy level down keeps them quieter.
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May 1, 2013 17:35
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Bioshuffle posted:What course of action can you take if your neighbors complain? I'd really love more input on people who live in apartments and how they deal with the noise. I love my birds, but I don't like being a bad neighbor I talk, whistle or sing horribly to the bird and this will stop of him doing shrill calls. If I am not going to be home I make sure there is some constant sound that varies. Something like the tv, radio or a youtube video on loop. I use youtuberepeat.com, you simply find a video on youtube then add the word report to the url and it will repeat the video all day. I also only have one bird so I make sure there is a mirror out for him to use. He will spend hours checking his sexy rear end out and not make a sound the entire time.
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May 1, 2013 17:49
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Slaughterhouse-Ive posted:I've never asked my neighbors but I've been in my apartment with my sizable flock for close to three years now and no one has ever complained. I know they can hear them too because I can sometimes hear them in the stairway. On an unrelated note, my neighbor claims that you can grab the bird and force-pet it until it likes you. I saw a video someone had posted in this thread where they were basically chasing their bird around inside the cage while petting them. Is this a legitimate way of getting your birds to like you? Ever since I grabbed the little guys to clip their wings for the first time, they've been acting really wary around my hands. When it comes to training them and gaining their trust I feel like it's one step forward and five steps back. Reason I'm asking is because when I grabbed the budgies and got them on their back, they stopped struggling instantly (enough to where I had to be like hey wait, are you alive there buddy?)
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May 1, 2013 18:24
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Bioshuffle posted:I got a tiny little quilt so I can cover their cage when they get really loud, but I don't want to make a habit of it since I'm in Texas and it can get pretty hot. Falsefalsefalsefalse. it may learn to deal with it eventually, but that's traumatizing. Think about a monster grabbing you through the window, putting you near it's face and petting you. Then imagine your brain with 1/20th the processing power, and how that would make you react.
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May 1, 2013 18:41
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SaNChEzZ posted:Falsefalsefalsefalse. it may learn to deal with it eventually, but that's traumatizing. Think about a monster grabbing you through the window, putting you near it's face and petting you. Then imagine your brain with 1/20th the processing power, and how that would make you react. That said if you've been taking it slowly with your bird and they seem to have plateau'd it can be an ok option. If you already have a bird who takes treats from your hand, steps up on command, hangs out with you outside the cage, and everything else and they just don't want you to pet them forcing it (gently) can be ok. I had to resort to that with my non-tame blue crown conure. After months of work he loved to hang out with me and would gladly eat grapes from my hand but if you tried to scratch his head he would simply back off and avoid the contact. One day when he was on my arm I just sort of forced the issue and started scratching his head even though he was trying to hunker down and hold his neck feathers stiff. After about 30 seconds of resistance he realized this was pretty okay and became a god drat cuddle bug. Again though, this was after months of training and socializing, in addition I had already spent time training him to be accepting of me touching his head, I would reward treats if he let me just touch his beak without showing signs of aggression or running away. So he was used to being touched/held he just didn't want to actually let me scratch his head until I forced it.
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May 1, 2013 19:48
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Bioshuffle posted:What course of action can you take if your neighbors complain? I'd really love more input on people who live in apartments and how they deal with the noise. I love my birds, but I don't like being a bad neighbor We live in an apartment complex and sometimes my cockatiel and conure get into shrieking fights so I worried about this too. I think the best method is to be proactive and actually talk to your neighbors BEFORE there is a problem. Within a couple weeks of moving, I spoke to my next door neighbors and told them that I have birds and I know they can get noisy sometimes and to let me know if they are annoyed so we can try to work something out. It turns out that even though everyone can hear their noise in the stairwell, apparently nobody can hear them from inside their apartments unless they have an ear pressed up against the wall. My apartment complex has a lot of families with babies and young children, though. So we all expect a certain amount of noise anyway.
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May 1, 2013 20:00
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We live in a small apartment and I get really paranoid when our birds start yelling when we leave them, but no one has complained yet. Bioshuffle posted:On an unrelated note, my neighbor claims that you can grab the bird and force-pet it until it likes you. I saw a video someone had posted in this thread where they were basically chasing their bird around inside the cage while petting them. Is this a legitimate way of getting your birds to like you? Ever since I grabbed the little guys to clip their wings for the first time, they've been acting really wary around my hands. When it comes to training them and gaining their trust I feel like it's one step forward and five steps back. Reason I'm asking is because when I grabbed the budgies and got them on their back, they stopped struggling instantly (enough to where I had to be like hey wait, are you alive there buddy?) It used to be a recommended method-I remember having an old cockatiel book, and the taming process in that was to grab the bird in your hands (and deal with being bitten/shove millet in its beak when it bites) and pet it until it calms down, then gently open up your hands until you can open them without it flying away. It's stressful for them though and if it works, it's nowhere near as good for the relationship between you and the bird as building up trust slowly over time. It would also potentially make the bird afraid of hands and being held.
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May 1, 2013 22:00
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You're basically terrifying a prey animal until it goes into shutdown mode where you can do anything you want to it, hoping to eventually repair the damage caused by traumatizing in the first place. It works, but in a suboptimal and unnecessarily cruel way. I'll admit to being tempted, though: "JUST LET ME SCRATCH YOU I PROMISE YOU'LL LIKE IT!" or "LET ME POP THE PIN FEATHERS!" or "EAT IT IT'S GOOD FOR YOU AND TASTY!" 
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May 1, 2013 22:23
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...I just mushed my birds against my face until they loved me. ... and mushed them against each other until they liked each other... No but really. Your birds are horrified of you now, you've been corralling them into their cage with your huge scary hands and you expect them to be chill with being on/around your hands now? Or that picking them up with said big scary things would be a good idea? yeah no :x
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May 1, 2013 22:51
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7cENssmx1Y Dem chirps
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May 2, 2013 01:30
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My roommate was supposed to pick up his bird this weekend, but he didn't want to wait that long so he picked her up Monday. It's going about as expected. But I have one really important question because this behaviour is really troubling me: when the bird bites him, he blows air in her face, harder and harder until she stops biting and starts flying about and crashing into stuff in her cage. My assumption is that blowing air in her face is really dickish and that she's probably biting him because she's scared of the giant hand coming into her cage and blowing air at her is probably making it worse. Is blowing air in her face actually the right way to discourage biting...? What is the right way, or should he give her time to adjust to him before worrying about biting? Also, Bird loving loves being sung to. Yesterday, she would open and close her mouth while staring at me as I sung, but today she made clicking noises while I sung. If I stopped singing for a bit, she'd stare at me and start clicking. (This is rough, though, because I don't want to get attached to this poor bird as she's going to likely die a terrible and prompt death.)
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May 2, 2013 02:45
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 06:13 |
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 BIRD LOVES YOU I'd say blowing in the face is definitely not the way to do things, it's startling to a bird. The correct way to deal with biting is separation punishment, but when a bird already doesn't like being with you, that's hard to do. See: Bird bites? Put it on the floor, or back in the cage, or anywhere but where it wants to be (most likely near you). If you do some sort of action, the bird will most likely like it, so biting = something happens = something I like. Whereas, if bite = put on floor, the bird will think "well this sucks" and eventually learn that biting = floor = I shouldn't do that. And yes, he should get accustomed to his new owner first, but it really sounds like he's going to get accustomed to you first. Also, pics of the little guy/girl! e: Clicking is loves.
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May 2, 2013 02:53
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