An old bird

[Wolf]

I missed the part where she accepted the new cage, but that is fine as it was probably for the best that I waited until it was over before expressing my thoughts on it. It took me a while to make up my mind as to whether I wanted to say anything about it in the first place. My Lady had a friend that would give her things that she actually considered to be junk and although we did too, we did know various people that could use these items as they were still better than what they had and we would pass them on to these people and then my Lady's friend would get mad because we did not give them back to her or keep them. It took several years to get it across to her that once you give something away that you no longer have the right to control what is done with it unless it was part of the agreement. I have never given something away and expected to retain any sort of control over it except for an animal and then it was simply that if they could or would not care for it properly that it would be returned to me. I have never had to take anything other than the budgies, Harley and Marley back, but it was agreed on before I let the budgies go to them to begin with.

[Georges mom]

Yes I was a bit taken back when she asked for the cage back ..... 9 months later. Had I known that was coming I would have bought George a new one right away. Anyways, what's done is done, George is happy as can be to be back in his old cage. What's funny now is that I have tried 3 times already to bring her the new cage and there's always an excuse as to why I can't bring it. i just said whatever, let me know when you want it. It's all just weird. I don't get angry with people.... I just tune them out when I become annoyed. Now my hubby is flipping mad. He's been assembking, disassembling
Rolling a cage in, rolling one out, loading it, unloading it. All for George who really dislikes him. The things we do for love!! Another thing that I thought might have added to Georges stresss was that we went on vacation ( he was still in old cage) and we had a house sitter. She was wonderful with him and the dog and although she didn't let him out of his cage, he got a ton of attention and she said he was quite playful. When I returned he was crazy happy to see me and couldn't get to me fast enough. I thought he seemed totally fine. Maybe that added to it too. All appears well and good now so

[Wolf]

When ever we are gone for longer periods of time than our birds are accustomed to they start getting stressed as they begin to worry, so to speak, that we are dead and not coming back. They expect that we would want to be with them as much as they want to be with us and in their natural environment the only reason for us not to be there with them is that we got eaten. And that is very stressful for them. It is why many of us do not go on vacations away from our birds. It is why when I went to NJ to get Paquita and then to the northern part of West Virginia to pick up Rajah that I came back as quickly as I possibly could make it.

[Pajarita]

Yep, the poor man drove 9 hours one way (overnight), stayed for about half an hour and left for another 9 hour trip so his birds would not miss him for long. Me, I never take vacations and hardly ever go anywhere and, when I do, is because I can't help it and then usually just for the day. I have most of my family back home and the last time I went was for a wedding years ago - my second and third sons got married and I did not go (it was their second marriage for both of them but still)... Why? Because of the birds! And, when I go, my husband stays behind to take care of them so it's not as if it was a stranger or anything like that. Parrots are very hard to keep well - you have no flexibility whatsoever, it's always what THEY need...

[liz]

I cannot go anywhere if Rachel is not here. They accept her as the care giver but go to Aunt Betty for attention before I get back.

[seagoatdeb]

The first time I went on Vacation and left Gaugan, Red Belly was with my daughter, who Gaugan loved and let handle her fine, when Gaugan was about 2 years old. Gaugan was not okay while I was gone. She sulked and looked unhappy in her cage. When my daughter finally coaxed her out, she did not play as she usually did. When my dauhgter went to put her back in the cage, Gaugan attacked her, she shook Gaugan to the floor and Gaugan went after her toes. She finally got her back into her cage by picking her up in a towel while Gaugan was still was trying to bite. When i got home, Gaugan was happy to see me and acted absolutely normal, if I hadnt been told by my daughter what happened I would never have guessed.

[Georges mom]

Question...... I've read conflicting articles, can George have eggs?? People say they give them hard boiled eggs with shell. I'd never even think to give him eggs. Answers appreciated.

[Wolf]

Some people do feed their parrots eggs and there are even bird food manufacturers that make parrot foods containing what they are calling egg food. I do not feed any of my parrots either eggs or foods containing eggs or this egg food. I have never read that eggs are any portion of any parrots natural foods, so I am not sure that their bodies are designed to use eggs as part of their diets. Amazons primarily eat fruits in the wild. Some parrots do eat some animal protein, but it is usually in the form of insects and spiders, not from eggs.

[galeriagila]

Speaking of bugs... the Rickeybird ate a cricket once, a long time ago. I knew there was one in his room cuz I heard it but couldn't find it. Then a day later, I found one rear left leg, on the cage floor. I think he dropped it below the grill before he could finish it.

Years later, he was a suspect in the disappearance of one of a few tiny guppies who lived in his room for a while, but he was not convicted due to absence of a body. The guppies were placed in a witness protection program and moved to another room.

[Pajarita]

Question...... I've read conflicting articles, can George have eggs?? People say they give them hard boiled eggs with shell. I'd never even think to give him eggs. Answers appreciated.

Eggs were part of the diet that we used to give to captive birds (mostly canaries) because, back then, we did not know anything about vit D3 and all we knew was that, if we fed eggs, the hens did not get eggbound (all animal protein has vit D3 in it while there is not a single vegetarian source that has it). But eggs contain animal protein and, as Wolf said, although some species of parrots do consume insects in the wild, insect protein is not the same as protein from cows, chickens, pigs, etc because it virtually has no fat or bad cholesterol (it's so different that it's always referred to 'insect' protein and not 'animal' protein) . As you know, eggs do have fat and bad cholesterol and, although we are now finding out that it's not as bad for humans to eat them as we previously thought, parrots don't have the digestive mechanism to get rid of bad cholesterol for the simple reason that they don't consume any food in the wild that has it! Amazons are particularly sensitive to fat and bad cholesterol intake and, when fed foods that are high on them, end up with medical issues. I had two amazons with cholesterol deposits in their eyes because they had been fed animal protein on a regular basis and one of our members adopted a 24 year old amazon with high cholesterol and despite his extraordinarily good care, efforts and huge avian vet bills, the bird ended up dying from it.