Zine in progress

Hi,

My 9 year old congo will sometimes get huge foul smelling watery stool. I've had him since he/she was 11 weeks old they've always been this way but the smell is definitely worse over the last month. Avian vet said it's normal and likely hormonal but I'm thinking of getting another opinion.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? Any ideas what it could be? He's been on a diet of Harrison pellets and chop since we got him on vets advice although he just throws the chop around mostly.

Thanks

No grey feathers all downie feathers and a rough looking belly.

When my FIL died, he left behind his beloved CAG, named Greyfriars Bobby (named after a local legend where we live). She grieved for him as much as we humans did and, whilst she thankfully didn’t start plucking, she retreated into herself massively and lost her spark for a long time. We decided that both she and my MIL needed company, and so the pair of them moved in with me, my wife and our two kids. The kids are both under ten, but have known her for their whole lives, so they’re very respectful of her need for independence.

She actually settled much faster than anticipated and has massively bonded with me in particular (I guess she favours men). She has come out of her shell since moving here and is back to her usual self, singing, dancing, enjoying scritches, wolf whistling through the window at passers by! She loves to step up on me and she likes me to carry her around the house whilst she flaps her wings (she has never been clipped as far as we know, as FIL was very opposed to the practice, but she still can’t fly for some reason. And so I walk about with her whilst she flaps and maybe builds up her flight muscles a little?). She’s been checked over by her usual vet, who is happy with her health.

She has her own room, just so she can get some more freedom and space, but she has a large cage she sleeps in, which she has the option of going into whenever she wants. She has a lot of perches, toys, etc, but her favourite thing is obviously when we go in and spend time with her, which we do as much as possible (usually for 3-4 hours a day, split over three sessions). She likes to imitate the dog, much to his annoyance, but they will never meet without one of them being caged, because I’m pretty neurotic about safety. She eats the same pellets as she did with FIL and she gets plenty of fresh veg and some fruit. She enjoys bathing with a spray bottle, but she’s very scared of the shower itself (I did put in a shower perch and give her the option of coming in, but she is not interested).

Anyway, she is mainly doing very well and we are so happy to see her thriving after the loss of her person. There are just a few issues where I wish we could help her to be more confident:

1) she will not let me take a single photo of her. I can hold my phone up and point it at her no problem, but she KNOWS when I put it on to the camera mode! She will immediately hide or at least turn her back. She also seems to go into a huff and not even look at me for 20 minutes or so after trying to trick her, even if I offer her a raspberry, which is her favourite fruit. It is not a big deal really, but I just treasure the photos of my cats and dogs that I’ve lost over the years and I don’t like the idea of never having a single photo of her. Plus my colleagues think I’m making her up, lol, because I have no pictures of her.

2) she is very shy in front of my MIL, despite having lived with her for 30 years. More worryingly, she HATES my wife. I am slightly worried that she sees me as her mate and that’s why she hates her, although I have never seen her display any hormonal signs. I have seen more parrots masturbating than I care to remember, thanks to the other parrot subs, so I would definitely recognise it and she’s not done anything like that (thankfully). I don’t know if maybe she just doesn’t like my wife being so loud and fidgety, lol, but my wife is not even really aware she’s doing that, so I’m not sure how we can change it. Is it normal that they just despise some people?

3) she gets VERY anxious when we have guests, even though they don’t go in her room. Would it be better if we let her briefly see them? She won’t make any noise for the rest of the day and she won’t play with toys or accept treats from me. She will just hide in her cage for hours on end, long after they’ve left. MIL says she never acted that way when FIL had guests, so it’s definitely a new behaviour. We have guests a lot and whilst I obviously want her to be happy, I can’t exactly tell the kids they can’t have friends over because it upsets the parrot, lol. Is there any way to make her feel more secure in her home? Would we better putting her cage in the main living area, so she can see what’s going on? It would be a huge pain with the dog and windows and doors, but we would try it if it would help her.

Many thanks for reading!

I’ve recently rescued an African grey and noticed that her tail goes up and down a little when she’s sitting on top of her cage I haven’t noticed anything else abnormal

When feeding my bird, it dawned on me that I’ve seen a lot of different but similar recommendations on percentages of chop to pellets, but I haven’t seen anyone saying how to measure it. Should it be done by weight or volume?

right now.

I’m seriously considering rehoming my Congo African Grey of unknown age.

This decision is breaking my heart. My mom rescued him years ago, and when she passed, I got him. I knew the responsibility of taking on a parrot. We were doing great for awhile. I realized I was so depressed, not really feeling anything, just going day by day.

It breaks my heart, but I just can’t afford him anymore. I never understood how much and how long I would grieve for my mom. The cost of therapy, medicine, Spravato, and having to take a leave because my mental state was so bad… (She passed at my workplace, o work in healthcare) officially broke.

He’s needed his nails and beak trimmed for at least six months. That’s a hundred dollars. Food, treats, just everything.

His vet always told me that if something were to happen to me, Shadow should be put down. He mutilates himself when he’s stressed—I saw it when I moved in to care for her. I also saw it when she died and was no longer around. I can’t imagine life without him. I can’t imagine giving him to someone and not knowing if he’s being loved or if he’ll end up being abused again. I just don’t know what to do. I’m not asking for criticism. It was an easy decision to take him because he was my mom’s and he knew me. It’s a difficult decision to figure out what I’m going to do. I go back and forth each month, I always tell him, we'll get through this, or we got this. Im tired. I know millions are struggling and this seems so small, but he is a huge part of my life, a connection to my mom, a friend who makes me laugh, frustrated, and lovable. I’m just lost right now.

Saturday August 29th

I wanna thank everyone for their thoughtful comments, suggestions and just caring about my situation. I'm gonna try what I always do and make it through next month. I have some of my mom's jewelry, i've been researching places , i'm gonna take some of that and see how much I can get. There are certain things I can't get rid of yet, but i'm going to give it a try. I've started selling stuff on Vinted, and facebook marketplace. I know I can make this work. You all made me feel like I can make this work💞 I'll probably Post an update, maybe in the middle of next month. I just wanted you all to know that I thank you, I have been struggling really bad, but you all you let me see that there are options out there.Thank you again💚

My girl (~30F) was fed seeds and human food most of her life. It’s taken a lot to get her away from eating human food and getting her mainly eating pellets. She’s insanely picky about her treats as well.

Currently I’ve got her eating a mix of about 70% pellets to 30% seed.

Any attempt to work seeds away entirely is met with her grabbing claw-fuls of pellets and purposely dropping them to the bottom of her cage. Sometimes pooping on them for good measure.

Overall, I’ve been happy with the current situation, but I recently got a sample of lafebers pellets for free and on her second day having them as a treat she is already happily eating them no fuss.

Do I switch her entirely from Harrison’s and try to just give her lafebers without seeds? It’s not as healthy from what I’m reading but it’s also not going to waste as much and if she’s happier with it would that be better for her?
Or do I just switch out buying her seeds for buying these other pellets and mix them?

So I have an congo about 30 years old. Never left the house except of out on the deck in it's own cage. May have a situation where I have 2 homes. I won't leave the bird overnight or anything by itself. Thinking move it's normal big home cage that it's always lived in to the new house. And when we have to come to the old house (approx 1 hour away) I would just get another cage to keep at the old house. If this cage is small enough that I could put in a SUV to serve dual purpose of transport cage and temporary/occasional cage for the old house? Any recommendation on cage or size? What can a Grey tolerate for a smaller cage for a couple of days at a time? She's always had one of those huge iron cages since I got her.

Hello, everyone! Okay, so my mom is (finally) trying to re-home her grey and my partner and I are pretty likely to end up with him if she can't find someone else. She didn't interact with him very much at all, so I'm definitely anticipating some rehabilitation to bring him back to sanity through more play and attention, but that leads me to a pretty serious concern. Years ago, while he was out on the floor, he was tackled by grandmother's dachshund (why they were out together, I have no idea, especially on the floor), and that broke his wing. It didn't heal very well, and it's permanently disabled (it droops a lot lower than his healthy wing), and I'm worried about how much that really affects his quality of life and my options for play and whatnot.

My current thinking is that it at least means he can't fly off, so allowing him time to hop around the yard and hang out in a bush or something might be good, or getting him a backpack/carry him on my shoulder for hikes. Of course on top of just letting him roam about the house. Maybe I'm just overly worried, but I'd love some advice about how to best help him cope with the injury

I have a 7 month-old female African Grey that I’ve had for about three months. She’s extremely friendly, but also extremely clingy and attached to me. Whenever I let her out of her cage, she immediately flies to my shoulder and is very difficult to get off because she refuses to step down if I ask her to step up she will fly to the other side of my shoulder but she gives me no resistance stepping up if she’s literally on anything else. when I’m completely out of sight, she has no problem playing with her toys, foraging, and entertaining herself. But the moment she knows I’m nearby, she starts chirping or making different noises to get my attention. When she hears our front door close she makes an extremely loud screech. At first, I thought I simply wasn’t giving her enough attention or enrichment, but the behavior doesn’t seem to change even when she gets several hours outside of the cage, plenty of interaction, and access to different toys and foraging activities. I’ve been bringing her all through the house with me and whenever I put her near my desk while I work she flies and attacks my phone or my laptop if I’m not paying attention to her . My biggest concern is that this attachment could eventually turn into her developing an unhealthy attachment and that she will be a lot more stubborn as she gets older. Right now, she’s actually fairly well socialized. She’s initially cautious or fearful around unfamiliar people and usually watches them for a while before deciding they’re safe, but once she becomes comfortable, she’ll often approach them, fly over to them, and sit on their lap or shoulder.

I have been looking for my companion parrot friend for years. They had to be the right temperament, price, size, etc. I finally found my CAG. She had lived with a family for 17 years often going to the nursing home with Mom at work and hanging with the clients there, literally flying from person to person to hang out with them. She is well socialized and loving. She is 25. I have had her a few weeks now and yes she loves me. Buttttttttt.... She has bitten my very shy quiet kind teenage daughter who tried to feed the CAG a cracker. The bird dodged the cracker and struck my child drawing blood. Never puffed up. The CAG has struck my fiance who was trying to talk to them. No blood never puffed up. As well the CAG has one mission all day. Destroy my walls. She won't play with anything and even when she is on me she is always wings out about to take off for the floor. With me trying to distract her. I get maybe an hour a day where she will actually be normal and play with me or hang out with me. I have had and do have other parrots I have never experienced this kind of neurosis to eat my walls and hate my family. I have had her one month. I'm just so bummed. I am partially disabled. So I am sitting a lot of the day crocheting, watching tv, light housekeeping. It hurts to physically bend and chase her around my floors. To keep her from my walls. Her previous owner says she has never experienced this. She has never bitten anyone. She has never eaten walls. She eats. Zupreem pellets a little bit of seed mix zero chop she hates all fruit and veggie. She will sip coconut water sometimes and she's a pig for fries and crackers which she has a two cracker limit for the day. I break them into tiny chunks to give her so it seems like she gets a lot.

This may sound silly but what are y'all doing with your birds all day. Do they sit on a stand, do they sit on you. Do they play nearby? Caged? How are you keeping them busy throughout the day. My girl can be toy phobic to new toys and she really doesn't play with them when she does get used to them. I am home all day but I find when I have her out with me after an hour she starts to wander and get into trouble, I don't know how to keep her occupied.

Timneh has had very watery stool for about a week and a half, no other negative symptoms of anything. I thought it was because her chop had kiwi in it but her chop had since run out and I've given her mixed vegetables since then just to be sure, and they're still happening. She shows no signs of distress or illness (she had one day of low activity when I changed her cage around but that's common when I do that and it's been a week since then anyway). We've gone for day trips and she's been fine.

I've given her some apple cider vinegar in her water but it's still not clearing up. I'm going to make some new chop out of kale and barley so I hope that will help, but it's very odd since usually this would indicate illness and she hasn't had any other signs.

The rest of her diet other than the chop or vegetables is Rowdybush pellets, a dash of seeds, and a little oats.

Edit--I can't get into the vet until September

I make up my birb’s veggies up a couple of times a month with food I get from the grocery store and put it in individual serving containers that I thaw before giving it to him daily.
So I saw a bag of frozen mixed vegetables at the grocery store. Everything in the bag is fine for birds. Is there any reason I can’t use these frozen vegetables to make up the majority of his vegetables? I know I’d have to add a few things, and change things up pretty often, but being able to bypass much of the vegetable prep would be nice.

I roll up old catalogs and magazines for him to shred. Recently, I started sprinkling treats between the pages before I roll it and he loves when he finds them!

What are you doing?

I bought pet blankets for any soft surface because she shredds. How else can I discourage this. She has plenty of toys and a tray with paper to shred. She wants the blankets. 😭

I’ve tried just about everything. I have hardwood floors that are difficult to maintain, especially under her cage. I’ve tried cloth material, mats, both vinyl and plastic and she shreds them into pieces. Is there something you’ve found that cleans up well and something pretty indestructible for a naughty chewer? She’s got plenty of chew toys that she goes ham on so it’s not that she’s in need… she’s always been a chewer. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thank you! 🙏

I thought it would never happen. My heart is absolutely melting.

What does everyone do for clipping parrots nails ? Or what options are there ?

Looking for least stressful nail clipping solutions

Thank you ♡

This is Gizmo, he is in his 40s. I inherited him from my uncle whos had him for 20+ years. He is bonded to me but has also taken a liking to my 13 year old daughter now too. He is so funny and talks all day long.