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Q has a love-hate relationship with my earrings. Sometimes he totally ignores them, or he nibbles them a little. Other times he does the whole cockatiel insane-screechy head butting trying to make the earrings listen to him bit. When he is just nibbling it is weirdly pleasant. Goldy takes them very gently and turns them, but always have to move him because a Jenday's joyous scream in the ear is too much of a good thing. The worst birds I've ever had issues with earrings would be lovebirds (with budgies a close second). The lovebirds want to take them and run off with them, like a dragon hoarding gold, for they are shiny and not theirs and lovebirds are adorable little kleptomaniac assholes 
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Nov 3, 2012 18:52
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Captain Log posted:Broody potato I know that if you have a broody chicken that you can sometimes snap her out of it by lowering her temperature. In the winter if one of my sister's hens goes setty she'll toss her out of the coop into the snow for a few minutes; it sounds mean but it normally works. It's something like the hen realizing 'oh hey, this loving snow will really suck for my chickies'. Sometimes it might take two or three repeats. It's a lot better than having a setty hen in a coop for a month or so in the winter. In warmer weather I've heard of using a pail of cool water and holding the hen in it a few minutes, so that her chest and belly are cooled. The big thing is to cool her brood patch to try to trigger an end to being setty. Only one hen, an evil banty that was super mommy, wouldn't come out of it, or if she did she'd go setty again in a few days. I suppose something similar might work on your potato? Not really cold water, but maybe towel her and use a cool washcloth on her belly for a few minutes. I imagine this will be a source of incredible mommy rage, but the mental picture I see is drat funny. Official Bizness posted:
Aww, lovebirds are the bestest 
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Nov 24, 2012 06:40
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Pip pip pip posted:My birds turn into bitchy monsters at 10pm on the dot. It's like they can read the clocks. I never feel bad about it This is how Goldy is, at 10 p.m. he starts in with "Night, night!" and gets progressively louder. If he is out until 10:30 he is screaming "GOOD NIGHT!" and having a meltdown.  Here he is, lord & master of the Chinese take-away bath tub. If we tell him his tail is dirty and to wash it he wags it around and says "EWW" Jendays
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Dec 18, 2012 10:34
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Went to the Pet Depot today before a depressing trip to the doctor, and saw an adorable nanday conure. I've never seen one in person, it was gorgeous with the rusty colors around it's black face feather. It was mighty snuggly and I had to argue myself out of getting it, but the idea of a nanday and jenday playing is so so tempting In other news, I've had a heated perch that cost me $35 in Q the old rear end cockatiel's cage since early December and he still refuses to use it, it apparently is a horrible murder machine and will burn his feet off with its lava covered surface.
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Feb 7, 2013 22:17
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My 'tiel loves Wake Up, Little Susie and screeches joyfully if I play it for him. Then there is much whistling and heart-wings. Goofy bird
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Mar 21, 2013 01:51
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Amaya posted:yarn I have tons of yarn lying around, cottons, acrylics, etc, and the main issue I've had with my birds is that if I'm actually doing something with it. My lovebird loves trying to fight for it and will pull out the yarn from the skein. There is a risk of getting horribly tangled in it, especially legs and feet, but that is with long lengths. Small specks of yarn might get picked up, mouthed, and possibly eaten, but I don't see my birds doing much more than picking it up, carrying it around, and tossing it off things to see it fall to the floor.
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Mar 25, 2013 18:41
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:I just looked over at the birds' cage and saw Rosy using one little pink cockatiel foot to hold up a spray of millet to nibble on. Is -- is that a thing that cockatiels do? I'm positive in the last 17 years I've never seen her use her feet as a tool like that. I'm thinking she must have learned it from watching Amadeus eat and play and I'm Q lifts his foot, looks at it, and gasps in shock that there's a foot on there! My lovebird has started using her feet to hold millet and bread crust, after seeing the conure using his feet.
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Mar 29, 2013 01:03
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Clinton1011 posted:Does anyone else's birds try to tear out your toe nails or bite your toes? I always try to wear slippers now since my reaction is to kick out when I feel the pain and I don't want to hurt the little guy. Q has a foot fetish and will sing and whistle at my feet, and tries to hump my toes if he can. Perverted old bird
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Apr 24, 2013 01:09
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SaNChEzZ posted:Also, noticed.. He's been dropping wing and tail feathers lately, so maybe he's also in super moult mode. That would explain the hostility to some degree. Goldy, our Jenday, got very bitey and bitchy when he started his spring molt. Sudden aggression, screaming, charging, biting. Oh, you want me to step up? Only for FRESH HUMAN BLOOD!!! Then suddenly wanting to cuddle like he was all upset that we were the object of his rage. Accidentally hitting a pin feather would result in screaming, biting, and beak grinding into whatever flesh he got hold of. We increased his bathing, and the colder the water the more he seemed to like it, especially dribbling it on his head and back. It was awful when he hit the 1.5 year mark but now he's 2 it seems to have subsided for the most part. It's odd that such a short time can make such a difference in behavior. One thing that really helped a lot was popsicle sticks. When we'd be trying to get him to step up, get treats, whatever, if he squared his head and lunged we offered him a popsicle stick to bite the christ out of instead of us.  Here he is, trying to show you his butt
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May 4, 2013 04:02
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SaNChEzZ posted:
When Ritz has subsided from a bundle of vampiric rage and is on the friendly side again I would suggest working with him and heavy leather gloves. Really anyone with biters or birds in general could try it, since it makes life so much better for everyone involved provided that gloves aren't associated with being grabbed, hurt, scared. Having leather toys in the cage makes things go a bit smoother on this, too, since that makes the look and feel of the leather somewhat more familiar. With Goldy we left the gloves out where he could see them on a table or chair, and wore them on occasion when we were doing stuff near him so that he was used to seeing them. The next step was wearing them to open his cage and offer him to step up and come out, it took a few tries until he decided that the gloves were ok to get on. We wore them for his baths, cuddles, all the fun stuff so he is used to being handled with them, stepping on them, and biting them. Sometimes we put rolled socks or towels on our hands and fingers too so that if we needed to use them in a pinch he wouldn't be scared of them either. We would also do the Michael Jackson one glove wonder with him so he step up from glove to bare fingers in turn. I'm glad we did the glove work, since when he is in angriest aratinga mode that we can work with him with a *reduced* risk of a serious bite. He can go through a leather glove if he really wants to, but it gives a lot more resistance than bare skin and after a few bites he normally gives up. We're having my stepson work with Goldy and the gloves now. Goldy likes him but knows stepson is buffaloed and is scared of being bitten (since he's been bit badly a number of times) and we are hoping after a few trials of gloved interaction that we can proceed to gloveless...   Smoosh the bird! Don't worry, he was making his happy noises while being smooshed, and then followed with a loud "STEP UP!"  _____________________________________________________ VVVVVVV Yah, you need to use common sense on what kind of glove to use, so I suppose I should modify it and say use your noodle for glove type. Then again, so many people seem to lack common sense, or any sense at all. Chicken in Black fucked around with this message at 20:26 on May 4, 2013 |
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May 4, 2013 18:27
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platedlizard posted:I know people who use parrot feathers to make really nice flies (fishing lures for trout) One of my coworkers loved tying flies and made me three, named them all special, and put them in a nice little box. The feathers on each are from my cockatiel and my lovebird, Ra. They mean an awful lot to me and sit in the hutch where I can see them everyday. They are a way for me to remember my Ra and will be when my Q is gone.
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Jun 2, 2013 05:03
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Marshmallow Blue posted:Dream Catchers! Do you have a pattern for this? I'd love to make a couple of them
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Jun 5, 2013 17:39
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I didn't recall any dreams (good or bad) when I had it up. and now that I've taken it down for a long while. I've been getting night terrors.
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Good to know, thanks! Maybe I'll have another use for my vast yarn and feather collections.
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Jun 6, 2013 01:53
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My lovebird chatters, whirrs, screeches and beeps all day and all night, the main difference is when she's asleep and doing it is that it's a bit quieter than while awake. She even says her version of "step up"
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Jun 8, 2013 19:23
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:I know that feeling! I always have a vague terror in the back of my mind of Amadeus expiring while I'm asleep or at work. Today I came home from work, called "Hey you!" as I always do, and didn't get an immediate cry in response. Two seconds of sheer panic. I am so glad I'm not the only one that does this, haha. Q normally yells the moment he hears my truck, if I don't hear cockatiel blatting I get all panicky. When I go in and he is just sitting on the floor talking to the corner then I feel dumb.
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Jul 12, 2013 00:46
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Aww, poor little guy is so adorable
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Jul 23, 2013 23:36
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 Why yes, I do need help folding laundry Chicken in Black fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Aug 15, 2013 |
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Aug 15, 2013 23:53
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 drat it, double post. Chicken in Black fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Aug 16, 2013 |
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Aug 15, 2013 23:56
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Our jenday can say a few words, some are pretty clear but others are garbled. That said, a lot of it's like when you have a kid and you understand their gibberish and are able to be interpreter. Jendays are loud, really loud, close to the level of a sun conure, but you (can) get used to it, haha Goldy's clearest words are drat IT! 
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Aug 20, 2013 01:07
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I tried to get a video of Goldy talking clearly, but today he wasn't having it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW4nDI1DU6c My husband and Goldy have to do this every morning, trying to get Goldy to say good morning, and Goldy normally saying good night, but sometimes he will blurt out good morning. Every night is Goldy demanding good night and making very loud kissing noises
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Aug 29, 2013 21:18
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Joe Don Baker posted:How long does it take for conures to learn to talk? I swear Dinger says 'come here.' I am probably just imaging things like when a parent swears their kid talks but it's really not. Goldy started to make the "pre-talking" garbly noises within a month of us getting him, but he'd already learned a word prior to that. It very well could be that he is saying "come here", and it could be like the parents and you are going to be a birdy interpreter hahaha
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Sep 1, 2013 17:40
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Don't worry, my old grampy-tiel is a bitter, grouchy tempered old scrooge who only likes me, tries to bite everyone else, sleeps most of the time, and fights with his pet lovebird. Yet if he's out by himself he makes upset little noises and looks around until I take out Boo, the lovebird, who promptly chases him around and harasses him terribly. He is by no means chill, unless he's sleeping or eating.
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Sep 16, 2013 17:38
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Tasty_Crayon posted:So this Friday we went to our local bird store (Birds Unlimited in Webster NY) just to chill and stare at babies. Usually birds in pet stores make me feel uneasy but this place is super awesome and they take in birds for foster and also do boarding. I was not planning on getting another budgie for at least another two weeks just to be sure everything is ok with the lil dude that remains. I love Birds Unlimited, that's where we got our jenday and lovebird. We always end up buying a bunch of toys were didn't plan on and playing with the birds when we go to have Goldy groomed.
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Oct 1, 2013 20:26
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I dunno, my lovebird has nothing on volume against our jenday conure, but she is incredibly persistent and will make noise all day long, even peeping while asleep. When she is in the same room it can be maddening, but it's hard to hear her outside the house, and down the hallway it's not very loud at all. Just so so persistent...
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Nov 12, 2013 18:41
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I just got home from work and found my poor old Q bird huddled on the floor of his cage, over next to Boo's cage, dead. He was two months shy of 18 years old. I don't know what I'm gonna do without him
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Nov 14, 2013 05:27
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 I hope I can add a little to the bird shaming, but I really don't think Boo is shamed in the least.  She is extra clingy since Q's death, and calling for him. She was doing her "Q B!" yell for hours on Thursday It's been really hard coming home and not having Q yell to greet me, Boo is doing her version of Q's welcome screech, and I've cried until I got sick.  This is the sign I always post on Goldy's cage whenever we have company, because it seems everyone wants to run over and stick fingers into the cage to pet the pretty bird! Goldy is all for it, normally, since he seems to thrive on human blood but it doesn't make for a good visit when people are nursing their conure inflicted wounds, haha.
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Nov 16, 2013 18:02
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password is taco posted:All this talk about bird puberty has me worried, too. The main trouble I had with Q when he hit puberty was that he went from wanting to be friends with everyone to deciding I was his mate and not wanting to pal around with anyone else. He was very active in his aggressive protecting of me, and his nemesis was my sister whom he would go on a mission against and hunt her down to attack her if at all possible (cockatiel stalking is more funny than anything else). That's also when he picked up most of his talking and whistling, but his puberty had nothing on our jenday's puberty. The worst part of puberty was that he decided he wanted to masterbate, sadly my hand was what he was interested in molesting if my fingers were cupped at all. He was still interested in hand humping only a couple days before he died, I guess ancient cockatiels don't need viagra. Chicken in Black fucked around with this message at 02:50 on Nov 19, 2013 |
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Nov 19, 2013 02:47
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It's been a bad year, my Dad died unexpectedly in June of undiagnosed liver cancer; he went from working in the woods cutting down trees for firewood on June 1 not thinking anything was wrong at all and planning for this winter's wood, to dead on June 13. Five months to the day later I lost Q, I can't believe I've lost them both so close together. Everything seems to have taken on a sort of unreal feeling to me lately. Q and Ra, both of them are gone now Now they are back together, buried under the cypress tree  Blurry shot of Q and Boo, taken Nov. 2013 http://youtu.be/zYIagBIgr3Y Here's a short clip of Q talking  http://youtu.be/pDuEIBvqHko Q was also dry clean only, in his late years, and hated an actual bath. So in the course of him trying to destroy a book I was reading I gave him a light whack on the head to stop him. It stopped him, alright, he started flopping around and acted like he was taking a bath. After that I rarely could get him to bathe with water but he'd take one if beaten with a bookmark. Chicken in Black fucked around with this message at 01:58 on Nov 20, 2013 |
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Nov 20, 2013 01:45
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Tasty_Crayon posted:
Aww, welcome the the Lovebird Army, too! They are little Hitlers, but the being adorable can (kinda) make up for it.  Boo spent much of the last few days "assisting" me in finishing a Super Mario afghan for my stepson. I think if I hadn't let me help that I'd've gotten it done much sooner, since her helping involved stealing the yarn needle, the shears, biting my fingers as I tried to sew, fraying the yarn, pooping on it, so helpful. When she became too helpful and was returned to her cage she threw such a horrible screaming tantrum that it was just easier to take her out and deal with the aforementioned trouble. If she wasn't so drat cute I'd want to kill her.
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Dec 27, 2013 01:36
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Fluffy Bunnies and Ive, so sorry to hear about Twist and Hunter. On the bird sniffing line, I always liked how Q smelled like quality old books, musty but not really. I have sniffed other tiels and could tell Q from them. Ra had a dry scent, not very noticable. Boo has a distinct lovebirdy funny smell. I make a point of putting my nose on her and sniffing loudly because it upsets her immensely and is a good way to tease her. Maybe that should be in the confessions thread....
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Dec 31, 2013 03:34
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Tasty_Crayon posted:Boyfriend slept in a little today, so for the first time I was the one to let Jade out of her cage in the morning. She immediately went to the corner of the cage that was closest to my bf computer chair and bobbed up and down flapping her wings and making distressed noises. I had her step up, which she did for the first time without ANY fuss and then I carried her into the bedroom so she could see that boyfriend still existed. She sat on him for a few seconds, decided that she didn't like the bedroom, and let me carry her to her cage where she resumed her normal morning noises. I need to bring Goldy in to see my husband on weekends, since I normally get up before him and Goldy has a fit until he sees that Mr. Chicken hasn't been eaten by a jaguar. As soon as Goldy knows all is ok he calms down and is happy. I dread what will happen if my husband has to go in the hospital or something.
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Jan 4, 2014 01:54
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I'm so sorry for your loss, Kasonic Don't feel like a downer for telling us, that's what we're here for, we understand how deeply these little creatures can work into your life and how hard it is to lose that, no matter how long or short that time with them was.
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Jan 4, 2014 19:47
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Goldy is being Mr. Bitey Butt. He teases to come out, then runs to the back of his cage or clambers down the the bottom of it in the hopes of luring us in to be bitten. For the most part he isn't too bad to me, but he's been a little bastard to my husband. Ahh, the joys of spring. Boo hates remotes, texting, hair brushes, and the nets to the aquariums. I've decided that the remote issue is just a part of being a lovebird, all that I've owned hate them. I keep trying to get a picture of her when she is a little birdy puddle of total relaxation during scratching but her anger over the phone being what I text on overrides the joy of snuggling. Last week I accidentally broke part of my big toenail, shattering it. I went in the bedroom and used tweezers to remove the broken nail, not thinking at all about Boo being there to watch the proceedings, and ended up with a raw spot where the nail had been. A while later I had Boo out playing on her boings while I crocheted. She hopped down, let me take her picture, and once I took up my work she was puttering on the bed. Apparently deciding she was going to be helpful she ran right down and chomped on my newly injured toe. I about went through the roof and she fluffed out into a proud blue poof, so happy she was being Dr. Boo. Chicken in Black fucked around with this message at 00:53 on Apr 9, 2014 |
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Apr 9, 2014 00:46
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You could try the cone of shame. When my lovebird would chew her leg raw I made a collar out of heavy paper and tape, it was a hell of a fight to get it on her but it distracted her for a couple days until she was able to get it off, then I put new ones on as she got them off. Her leg healed up after a few days and the cone got left off. Poor bird, that leg must be awful.
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Apr 17, 2014 02:14
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Snackula posted:So I took out my camera to photograph the bird Awww, the bird looks like my Boo bird, even the look of innocence is right 
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Apr 22, 2014 00:45
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Sociopastry posted:So Tokyo's been very verbal lately, pretty much always after I come back after being gone. I'm worried that she's lonely, because she only seems to talk this much after I've been gone. I want to get her a buddy. What I'm wondering is if it has to be another budgie, or if I can get her a non budge buddy to share her cage? I don't want them to bully each other at all. I'd really like to have a lovebird, like my mom used to have. I remember that he was the sweetest little thing. Is there any reason I should just stick to one kind of bird?  I decided that I needed to get Boo a friend after Q died, so I bought her a budgie, a young male named Buzz. Boo is fascinated by Buzz, but they don't share a cage. I would be very hesitant to let them share one, both are high energy, noisy, intense little monsters. You can see how similar in size they are, but lovebirds are stronger, more heavily built, and more aggressive. They behave differently enough that it can lead to trouble, Boo does the lovebird "oh hey, I love you so much I'm gonna smash you flat with LOVE!" and freight train Buzz, who is trying to do happy budgie headbobs and noises in the face of oncoming disaster. Boo loves interacting with Buzz, but will pick my attention over Buzz everytime, which is awwww. Boo could really hurt Buzz without much trying, because her beak is so much stronger than a budgie's and lovebirds seem driven to go for feet. It wasn't such a big deal with a sturdy old cockatiel, but budgies have such delicate little feet that I'm always concerned about a bad bite (or worse, amputation) that wasn't really the goal but just overly rambunctious lovebird attention. Buzz plays with Boo for a while but seems overwhelmed by her after a short time, but really I could see that being that case with most lovebird interactions. Pip pip pip posted:
I'm in CNY, and agree with Tasty_Crayon, for specialty bird stuff if you can go to Birds Unlimited, in Webster, just east of Rochester. Someday I want to go to this place, near Albany, but that's even farther to go than Rochester: http://www.rensselaerbirdcenter.com/
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May 17, 2014 01:13
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Agent355 posted:Stupidly high resolution is awful, but this bird is not. Must give kisses Must also give warning: When kissing lovebirds beware of blowing raspberries on them, Boo tolerated this about 4 times before clamping on my lip and hanging on like a snapping turtle
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May 24, 2014 19:24
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Wozbo posted:I'm out of country at the moment so I'm vicariously living through this thread. Daemon loves apples. But only the juice. He will shred a whole slice by mashing up a huge chunk until it's dry and then toss the pulp. GCC logic. Goldy does this. I don't think he eats much if any of the fruit but holy god does he make conure apple sauce. He also hates sticky, so after he's done with his apple or any other sticky fruit he needs his beak wiped off. Even if he's in a bitchy bitey mood he'll chill out until his beak is properly clean again. His new game is to click his food dish in its holder. At first it seemed to be he was trying to yank it out but now it looks like he just likes to make it go clicky clicky Birds.
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May 30, 2014 17:35
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Tasty_Crayon posted:You can also get these plates that screw to the side of the cage and warm up. I have one of these for my lovebird, she snuggles up next to it at night. I like it cold and my bedroom often dips into the 50s is I leave the windows open so I figured a heater wouldn't hurt. Overall I've been happy with it and she seems to be too. The only word of warning I have for it is that Boo was able to climb onto the top edge of it and would hunker like a vulture on it so she was standing on the really narrow edge of it. I worried she might end up burning her feet or somehow slip between the heater and bars so I ended up changing positions and perches around so that she can't get on top anymore.
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Oct 26, 2014 19:29
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My jenday gets to go to where we got him to have his nails and wings done, it's a kinda long ride, and he is usually pooped for about 3 days afterward. He sits and is poofy, still noisy but you can see he is wore out. I usually figure it's the stress of the ride, and the stress of being handled by strangers and getting trimmed against his will. Sometimes it can last up to 5 days. That Ritz is sleeping all day is worrisome, so I'd say a vet check is very much in order. Is he still eating and drinking normally, and do his droppings appear normal?
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Oct 29, 2014 00:48
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