Come on new members

Today our electricity has been turned off for John and Steve to sort out the lighting in our kitchen and dining room. This has meant no computer, talk about withdrawal symptoms!
My crew missed having the TV on for their programmes as well!
Leroy has been shouting "what you doin?" and Jay sounded like he was swearing under his breath! They are not spoilt really.

hi introducing myself loulou i have two african grey's mistblue is 5 and kaspa is 6 iv'e had misty blue since he was 7months old he dos'nt like strangers (im glad about that)he loves his food and toys loves loads of time out to play gets into all sorts of trouble biting my curtains , lampshades furniture and me if he dont have his own way he's a lovable rogue the other one kaspa shes 6 we've had her since may she's coming out of her shell now shes been in her cage for about 4 years noone really bothered with her she wasn't fed very often her dish was just lefto n the floor she had'nt had any fruit & veg for a long time and she still goes to the grid to get food shes thrown away earlier she dosent let me handle her only when she's desperate her nails had to be clipped straight away the first day i had her she ate two bowls of food and still wanted more couldn't drink enough water. and all because the people had a puppy and he had all the attention kaspa was forgot

Aw, so sad:( Poor baby, but Kaspa sounds as though she's coming out a bit for you!

Well done for taking her on. And Misty Blue sounds like one of mine!

Welcome to the forum and hope you stay on and join in!

hello and welcome to a lovely friendly site

Kaspa, poor love is so lucky to have found you. Hope all is well and it will get better with time. Once they see all the love and care they come around. Good luck and look forward to hearing all about your dear birds.

Hi I have already posted about my disfunctional grey and found your advice very helpful, without the preaching, some sites tend to preach a lot and make me feel as tho I no nothing, well enough of that I also have a blue quaker who is 5 months old now, he is adorable, but totally fearless, he is called Dobby, my grey is Murtle, my son named them both, Harry Potter mad he is lol, I love them both to bits, I live in a mad house with hubby, three kids, well grown up kids now, three dogs, and to ancient cats, I keep telling hubby that we have just enough room for one more, my ultimate baby grey, however he taking some persuading at the mo, I have wanted birds for as long as I can remember, but decided to wait until my kids were grown up and left home, but they not leaving lol so thought I had better get them now. I will try to get pictures up. Well thats enough of me rambling for now, let me see how to do this picture thing.

Welcome loulou and sarah, two more brave souls willingly owned by greys! ours sort of ended up with us and ended up staying, she's a bugger (to put it politely!) with me, but she does make me laugh, even when she's trying to yank my hair out. I love the name Dobby, I'm also a harry potter fan though! Love quakers too, they have soooo much character.

hi i also have two teils charlie & izzy charlie is 13 now i had him from a neighbour who chose a canary over him and izzy is about 6 they are aright pair the throw seed & water over the dog but live together quiet happily then there's brady the dog misty blue shouts him come here come here now copying me when i'm calling him out of the room were misty & kaspa are as he's not allowed in the same room only under supervision it's nice to talk to people who love birds as much as me when they bite people don't understand it dose.nt matter because i love them so much bear with me and i will try and send some pics not sure what i'm doing at the moment don't even know how to insert the smilies lol

Have been trying to post pics to no avail, I really try to be computer literate but not got a clue, I have photobucket, could anyone explain how to do it for me please, in real easy terms tho

your babies look beauties how do you cope with 5 though

have't got aclue myself i wonder if you can scan the photos to the computer then include them in your message

If you have Photobucket hover your icon over the pic you want and alist will come up under it right click on the img code then go back to you post on pp and right click again a window will come up and just click on where it says paste hpe thats helfull

[IMG] this is dobby my baby blue quaker he is adorable, but very mischevious.

He's got no head Sarah!

Reduce the size on the edit button in photobucket!

Cutie

he is a little sweetie

Hi guys

My name is Hana and I`m getting my baby Blue and Gold macaw Daisy tomorrow!!!!!!!
She is 15 weeks old, only know her since 9th October but love her so much already!! We`ve been visitting her a lot since then and I know she loves us as well (you just know "innit"?)
We supposed to get her in about 2 weeks but I couldn`t wait any longer...
She just needs me to feed her about twice a day, but that`s not a problem, I will love it
I used to take baby sparrows found lonely on a street to our home (even pigeons) when I was about 8, hide them infrant of my parents and feed them and they all survived I know macaw is not sparrow but i think i can take good care of her, what do you think...?
I`m so excited!!!!!!!! ONLY FEW MORE HOURS!!!!
I will let you know how we get on with our new baby....
Big thank you to Steve, that he told me about Scarlett, her shop is amazing! I`d buy everything....
The rainforest stand is brilliant, everything is set up more than a week, now just get our Daisy home.
So thank you and see you soon!!
Hana

Hi Hana

Although as you know through our messages i am very excited for you and know how your feeling BUT are you 100% sure you know what your getting into with an un weaned bird?? especially a macaw!!!!!!!!!!! If i had know i could have directed you to a "proper" breeder as no reputable breeder would ever sell you an un weaned bird, I dont mean to scare you but this CAN come with many many problems and they wont be ones you will see straight away!!

Do you know what feed they are feeding Daisey?

Do you know if there syringe or spoon feeding?

Do you know macaws are no usually weaned until 27 to 30 weeks?

I am really worried for the bird can you not ask them to keep her until she is fully weaned???

Ill PM you my number give me a call tomorrow if you can

Steve

Hi Hana, and welcome to the forum, nice to meet you and to hear about Daisy! I have to back up what steve said 100%, that's way to early for a macaw to be leaving a breeder, and even more irresponsible that they are aware she's not weaned yet still willing to sell her. I know its not what you want to hear when you are so excited about your new baby, but I'd hate for something to go wrong, for you AND daisy, this is very bad, not to mention dangerous, practice on behalf of the breeder. Please, please give steve a call, and I look forward to future posts on the forum!

Hi Steve and everyone
I know exactly what you mean and you are worried for the bird...
Maybe I sound a bit selfish (i want the parrot i want the parrot....) but I do know what responsibility I have to take.
It is inside me Steve, I know birds for all my life (i grew up with them) and I know how they feel or what they want if I look at them.
I fed Daisy myself when I was visiting her. I forgot to say that she IS eating but she just needs a little bit extra once in a morning and evening.
They feed her from ketchup bottle, which they`ll give me cos she is used to it and they`ll give me all the food they make for her as well.
I will only blend it...
I am at home 24/7 as well so she won`t be lonely, I will watch her what she`s eating and even encourage her to eat more on her own (pretending
I am eating it.....)
And if something`s not right or I will see that she`s not eating or anything, the breeder is only down the road, so will be there in 30 minutes.....
I`ll phone them everyday with Daisy`s progress and discuss her daily routine... They breed birds for more then 30 years and since I`ve met them
I felt really confident with them, I could see all the parrots they have are happy (spent lots of time there) and when that lady entered the room
they all want a cuddle
I phoned Shirley (breeder) this morning and asked her straight question (for Steve`s sake ) if I shall leave Daisy few more days or weeks there and she
answered: If I didnt know you, I wouldn`t give Daisy away-never! She feels confident with me, this is a first time for Shirley as well!
But we agreed if anything-it`s only a few minutes to get there....
My dad has a green winged macaw Riko for about 15 years.
He was caught in wild and my dad had him when he was 2 years old so you can imagine poor parrot didn`t trust anyone (even my dad).
but I came along and what happened? I`ve found the way to get close to him and since then I`m his favourite.
Even now, for long 6 years since I`m in England, when I come back to Czech once or twice a year he only gets to me.
Cos I know how to trick him Now he only needs to be trained a bit so he is not that aggressive to visitors

No honestly I think we will be fine and don`t worry if something`s wrong I`m not alone here...

I`d be very happy if you have any advice for me and Daisy, what I need to know... so please just tell me

See you soon

Hana

Hi Hollie Nice to meet you too!!
And yes please tell me all your worries, I want to hear it!!!!
I mean I can give it a try, do my best and like I said, if Daisy is not happy or not eating, there is always way to come back...
But when I held her, I know she`ll be ok. She knows me and every time I was leaving she wanted to go as well
I will let you know how we get on...
Thank you Hollie and see you soon
Hana

If you have decided to take Daisy, it doesn't sound like you are going to change your mind, so all we can do is offer advice! I've never had to hand raise a bird other than a blackbird, so I can't tell you the first thing about it. Have a read of steve's post on unweaned babies, this may help you formulate some questions to ask the breeder. There is also an article on abundance weaning. Weaning goes far and beyond 29 or whatever weeks, I've got a three year old bird who still begs for warm food for comfort, every bird that wants it will still get spoon fed warm porridge/soup/mash and gravy/whats on offer regardless of age. It is well proven that birds that are abundance weaned fare better than their handreared and left pals. For all of my tuppence worth, I wouldn't like to advise on what you should be doing in the next ten weeks, even having had plenty of large bird experience, I would be very reluctant to take on that task, because if a bird suffered because of my ineptitude I'd never forgive myself!

You need to be given a fact sheet of what and when to feed and how warm it should be, many birds have had their crops burnt by giving a feed that is too hot, and if its too cold then it will not be digested and could sit in the crop. And what to do should it get sour crop. And it will die if you do it wrong.
It is totally wrong to wean a bird too early. I agree with the rest of you on this.
We have experience of hand rearing Senegals, albeit 16 years ago, but the same applied then as now. None of our birds went to new homes until they were fully weaned. It is totally irresponsible to do otherwise.

Hana I do understand how excited you are to bring Daisy home, but should you need advice please please do ask us all, don't try and soldier on.
But you know, the breeder should not have even suggested this to you. Do you know whether they are PS members?

I think we need some advise from Lee as i know he hand rears when he has to and has done for a number of years ill try to get him to come on and post some advise,

Hana your not alone we are all here for anything you need!

Where abouts do you live?

S

Thank you Steve! I live in Corby.
Are you from Birmingham? We`ve been there on last Saturday for a birthday party. My partner (Terry) has a family down there.
I will discuss it with him again and we will see, maybe we will wait a bit longer...
We`ll go visit her today anyway, so I`ll have a word with Shirley, Daisy`s progress and what she eats during day.
Thank you again guys, really appreciate it!!!

Hana