Any Bird Lovers Here?

[RollinRaw]

Two here; Ricky and Lucy Birdcardo! Ricky is an African Grey and Lucy is a Cockatiel. Lovingly named "the yapper"!

We also have a yellow Lab named Valentine. She is a retired Guide Dog breeder. More of a human than we care to admit. And Ricky is too smart for his own breetches.

[pierces*designs]

We have a B&G macaw, a Greenwing macaw, 2 male tiels, and 2 male eclectus. We wree doing fostering but now with my nut allergies I can barelly keep my own birds.

[diali36]

Hi,
I share my home with 2 conures Rain and Daisy, a parakeet Little, and a Goffin too Lucy. The neighbors all know when I'm comming home from work as the flock starts screming about 5 mins. before I pull into the drive. They are loud, messy, and LOUD!!
Lucy loves cooked food more than anything raw inc. fruit and veggies allthough she will eat about anything I give her, if its warm and noodly or rice she will dive in and not come up for air till gone:)
Rain is a addicted to sweets of any kind, I use to keep a mint dish on the kitchen table and ran out one day without putting rain back into his cage to come home and find him with candy stuck all over him!! He had himself a good time, lucky for us he did not get sick and I made the candy dish dissapear never to be out again.
I also have 4 recused dogs of assorted ages and breeds and a couple of cats that live outside.
I'll tell you about the dogs in another thread.

[MiahTay]

I got my B&G macaw the beginning of April and he's wonderful, he will eat any fruits or veggies I give him and love to sample my juices - he's also spoiled rotten. My Daughter also has a lovebird. I love birds.

[brydee]

Oooo!

I have four embden geese,3 rescued from slaughter and they where neglected and one from them breeding this year.
They eat raw all summer but in winter its hard to give them just raw, not many raw goose owners about!

[diali36]

I used to be a zookeeper at a small city zoo. We had a pair of breeding Canadian Geese that just stayed in the barnyard. I never saw them fly even though they were both able to. They would follow everyone around looking for treats and wanting to be petted until she sat on eggs then he turned into a raging lunitic!! We had to close the barnyard to people until the chicks were fledged out and gone, he would attack anyone that came near. Being a good papa and defending his babies. The babies would always fly off when they were ready but the adults never did.

[brydee]

Awww, geese are so friendly if you handle them proply, alot of people are nervous of them and thats why they react the way they do, my adult male is the most friendly goose iv ever met, to ME , but hes chased other members of my family and tried attacking dogs and cats who have gone near his females or offspring We have one definate male, one definate female, and one other male and female we are unsure about without flipping them over
We also havnt been burgled since we've had them, proves how many people are scared of them

[brydee]

Id love to see ours fly, even though i doubt it will ever happen and i would be worried about them seen as they are pets but we havnt taken their flight feathers away or clipped them or anything,theory is if there is food and comfort they will want to stay anyway, the three we rescued have never attempted to fly, but our gosling flys up and down the garden but only gets about 2 feets off the ground.its more of a stretch when he wakes up

[diali36]

A lot of people use them for guard animals. They are great at guarding herds of sheep or the yard however big.
Also had a pet pig, just a regular pink big guy that was one of the best pets I ever had. Smart, friendly and clean.

[irishserra]

I confess, I'm not a huge bird lover. However, in 1996 a co-worker moved into a new home and found a cage in her basement with two african love birds. My mother always wanted birds and so she gave them to her. Their names are Buddy and Alli.

Fast Forward almost 12 years later and my parents are now in North Carolina and I have the birds. They are neurotic! Alli looks like she is ready to be deep-fried. She has pulled all of her feathers out (she's been doing this for the past few years) and now she has started pulling the feathers out of Buddy!

A few years ago I took them to a vet (we don't have anyone around here who specializes in birds) to see if I could figure out why she does it or what can be done about it. They were not very helpful. My husband DH even made Alli a cone out of X-ray film to wrap around her neck to try and prevent her from ripping her feathers out, but aside from look ridiculous, it did nothing.

If anyone has any ideas, I would really appreciate hearing them.

[diali36]

Once birds start pulling feathers it's very hard to stop, sort of like someone who bites their nails. Put lots of toys in their cage, LOTS, research their food, it could be something missing in their diet. One of my friends had a african grey that pulled feathers and when they switched his food he stopped. good luck to you and the birds!

[halikatak]

I like birds! I grew up with a parakeet, cockatail, canary, and an african gray parrot. The parrot is still with us. My mom takes care of her!

She mimics all of our voices - just from hearing them so often.
It can be freaky at times!


She looks like this:

http://www.birdtricks.com/images/african-grey-head.jpg

[halikatak]

I confess, I'm not a huge bird lover. However, in 1996 a co-worker moved into a new home and found a cage in her basement with two african love birds. My mother always wanted birds and so she gave them to her. Their names are Buddy and Alli.

Fast Forward almost 12 years later and my parents are now in North Carolina and I have the birds. They are neurotic! Alli looks like she is ready to be deep-fried. She has pulled all of her feathers out (she's been doing this for the past few years) and now she has started pulling the feathers out of Buddy!

A few years ago I took them to a vet (we don't have anyone around here who specializes in birds) to see if I could figure out why she does it or what can be done about it. They were not very helpful. My husband DH even made Alli a cone out of X-ray film to wrap around her neck to try and prevent her from ripping her feathers out, but aside from look ridiculous, it did nothing.

If anyone has any ideas, I would really appreciate hearing them.

Here is a good article on feather plucking. Most of the time it is a stress issue. Birds are very emotional animals and can do this when not getting enough attention. My parents would take our bird out every other day - just to hang with the family. That made for a very happy parrot!

http://www.2ndchance.info/selfpluck.htm

[halikatak]

I have a parakeet loose in my living room who somehow gets along with my two pit bulls. they will catch birds in the yard, but let keet hang out peacefully. he was a housewarming gift 3 years ago, and he is still alive and kicking even after the death of his women 3 years ago.

That is too funny! My friend had a dog and a bird that were friends. One day the bird got out of the house and never came back. Her dog was very sad.

[diali36]

I have a Goffin Cockatoo who has a tree in the kitchen by the window she likes to sit on when I let her out of her cage. She will call my dogs over by name and then drop handfuls of food to them and laugh!! My friends say she more fun to watch then TV! She will also run down her rope swing and try to pull their tails while there busy eating.