New member

[Birdman666]

Hi!

I've been active on other forums before, most notably the old Parrot Talk before it crashed, just not recently...

I am a transplanted California surfer boy now living in San Antonio Texas. I've done a lot of work rehabbing rescue birds, and have worked with just about everything at one time or another.

I presently have five birds. Two macaws (Greenwing, Red Fronted), Two amazons, (Red Lored, Lilac Crowned) and a Congo African Grey...

Any Ex-ParroTalker's on this site?

 

[JerseyWendy]

Hi there Birdman, and welcome to the forum. Happy you've joined us.

Now I admit, I giggled at your "transplanted California surfer boy" comment. HAHAHA!!!

 

[Birdman666]

Surfing was a huge part of my life for about 35 years... then I got old, and couldn't take the "washing machine treatment" anymore.

So, I took up skydiving instead! Much easier on the 50 year old back...

 

[henpecked]

Welcome to the forum. How does that CAG fit in with all those new world birds?

 

[Birdman666]

He was raised with amazons and macaws as a baby, and his "buddy bird" who he feeds all the time is my 38 year old rescued lilac crowned amazon...

He and my red fronted macaw chase each other all over the playstand.

At one time I had 11 birds, plus various fosters that I would rehab and retrain. So, he is used to a wide variety of parrots, and pretty much gets along with everyone...

In a multi-bird mixed species flock, it's all about socialization...

None of mine are caged, by the way.

 

[MikeyTN]

Welcome to the forum!!!!

 

[antoinette]

Welcome to our awesome forum
Glad you found us
Please post some pic's

 

[RockysMom]

welcome to the forum

 

[Marcy]

Welcome to the forum!

~Marcy
Sent from my BlackBerry Playbook via Tapatalk.

 

[BirdBrains2233]

Welcome to the forum, glad to have you with us!!! You must have some serious time on your hands to deal with that many birds not caged in your home. Sounds like you spend more time cleaning than playing

 

[Birdman666]

Nah. I have two adjoining birdrooms. The mess stays contained. Sweep once or twice a day, depending on the number of phone books that get shredded, and full on mop & steam clean once a week.

When I get my new computer set up in a couple of weeks, I'll post some pics, and tell some stories.

Right now I don't have any on my work computer.

 

[BirdBrains2233]

I have to clean almost everyday. I am also a neat freak when it comes to most things. All of my companions are caged, but the doors are always open. I vacuum 3-4 times a day, wipe down their cages on a daily basis, then I fully clean each of their cages once a week. Once I get back to South Carolina I hope building my outdoor aviary will make it a bit easier on me

 

[Birdman666]

I have pretty much the same set up. The all have cages... the doors just never close unless I am mopping the floors...

They pretty much live on out their playstands. I haven't had any incidents, in like, ten years of not closing cage doors with literally a dozen different birds over the years, of "search and destroy." They have enough toys and interesting things in the bird room to keep their attention.

The only time they wander is if someone is home, and they are tired of waiting to be picked up! "Hey, I was over here flip-flapping with my foot up in the air for 20 minutes... Pay attention!"

 

[Birdman666]

Actually I just realized, I was a member of this site, at some point a long time ago, because my former log in and password came up. (Birdman660) That was quite some time ago, and prior to the time my greenwing and lilac crowned amazon came along, and before my conures and BFA passed... (I still miss them all terribly!)

I wonder if I posted any pics then?

 

[Pippin]

Hi, I just joined. I was also on the old Parotalk before it crashed. I miss that forum because I feel like I knew those people. Hope to make new friends here.

 

[Birdman666]

Well then you probably knew me, and Rachel.

We lost Rachel about three years ago...

I've kinda gone through withdrawals since that site crashed. It was my internet home. And there was so much info on that site... (much of it mine!) I lost a gold mine of information.

 

[Pippin]

I remember hearing about Rachel just before the site crashed. I remeber both of you. What happened to all of her birds? That site was my internet home as well, I felt like I knew all the people. It is a shame about all the lost information. I wonder what happened.

 

[Birdman666]

We placed most of them through Suzanne. Rachel wanted me to take her zons, but I just couldn't. Her blue mutation yellow nape, Skye, was running room to room, calling "Rachel, Rachel..." just broke my heart.

Her mom kept the BP2, and that bird will go to Sarah and I when she passes.

 

[noblemacaw]

Hi Birdman
Glad to have you join the form or come back to it. Parrottalk sounds familiar to me but I have not used it in a long time. I started using internet form/chats since 1995 when I got my Noble macaw baby. There was a while where I didn't use forms/chats for a few years between my Noble, Eclectus, Illiger's to now having my RFM and adopted Noble.

I was wondering if you would not mind sharing about your 12 yo RFM. Valentino just turned a year in August and I would like to know more about the mature RFM and what I can expect for behavior when he gets older. I would also like to know more about any disease that can be prevalent in the RFM also. I basically would like to pick your brain for RFM macaw experience.

Valentino is the most unique parrot I ever had. Sometimes his behavior and his ways throw us for a loop. We love him and strive to keep him healthy and understand him.

 

[noblemacaw]

Weird traits of my RFM Valentino

He hangs from my long hair like a rabid outbreak monkey while squealing and swinging around back there.

He likes to stand on my butt and bury his head in my hair and squeal.

His idea of mutual preening is pulling my hair...hard. He is not gentle with preening.

He thinks my pills are treats. He will always fly to my shoulder and watch me get my pills out to take..he is such a pest during this time. Will not stay on his java tree.

He starts of animated in the shower and ends up falling asleep. Do I take too long in there?

LOVES sink baths. He has to be locked up when I am doing the dishes. He once jumped into the half filled with soapy water and sunk like a stone. I pulled him out right away but the experience made him afraid of sinks for a total of about a week. The video I posted of his sink bath (with red front in) was the first he took since the "incident" thus getting over his fear. When filling up the sink for dish washing he has to be locked in his cage.

He is very in tuned with my emotions. When I am feeling depressed and down he will do his best to make me laugh. He always wants to be on my person when I am not feeling well (asthma day) and loves to play hard when I am feeling happy.

He is very mechanically inclined to take anything apart. He figures out those brain foraging toys too easily. Lupe thinks he will start driving our cars next. I have a hard time supplying him with entertaining toys he will enjoy for longer than 10 mins.

He started talking at around 5 months. When he started talking he began to scream a lot less. His scream is way louder now (like he has more power in it now that he is older) and sometimes I can't take it but he will sub some of the screaming for talking now. Is it true the screaming lessons with age?

He came to me as a weaned baby the most confident baby I ever saw. I think that is because I didn't have his wings clipped and because the way Wendy raises them. His confidence and flying ability amazed me and I enjoyed teaching him recall and having him fly all over my home. He also went though a two week period of being afraid but has seemed to "get over it" I try to anticipate what would frighten him and not scare him with any behaviors or items. His first harness experience went very badly because I had a very bad asthma attack after getting him back into the house and now he is very afraid of the harness. I would like to try again but Valentino is too large for me to assemble the harness without cooperation.

Valentino is a lot different than my mini macaws of noble and Illiger's. Sometimes his needs overwhelm me and I sometimes feel I can't meet them. I feel strongly about him being able to fly. I need him to fly so he can get enough exersize to keep him healthy. I hope down the road I can harness train him so I can have him fly outside in his harness.

I worry about becoming mature. How much his behavior will change. How much aggressiveness will prevail, how the hormones will affect his heath down the road. I belong to a RFM group on FB and noticed a lot of plucked RFM's I want to prevent this from happening to Valentino.

Later this year I will be going back into the work force. Valentino is use to independent play time (being in his cage) for about 6 to 7 hours a day while I work in my office..every once in a while he will break out and fly up to my office and land on my shoulder. I have a heart attack every time.

I feel that when he gets older he will be even more of a challenge and I want to be as prepaired as I can. I don't want to end up with a plucked unhappy hormonal RFM.