Today's the day-long story

[RavensGryf]

Not only is Sailor a gorgeous bird, but WOW like Wendy said -->:11: about that enclosure OMG I'm speechless! That is a "professional" job for sure!!

I also love the name Sailor ! When I had females I always named them unisex names. I prefer that over girly names. Oh how exciting!!

 

[Minimaker]

Jut in case anyone ever decides to build a wood framed enclosure and tile it we found out the hard way you need to attach tile to wood with a good quality silicone caulking like you'd use in a shower, not mortar. Mortar didn't hold. I had to get online and find the answer to the problem after the tile didn't adhere to the wood right. Big mistake, cost us a lot of time, extra tile, and work. And the whole thing must dry for a good period of time before you put a bird in it, to be sure any fumes are long gone and everything is cured. I will say it holds tighter and stronger anyway. I'm glad I figured that part out in advance or we would have been in big trouble, ugh. And we used screen doors completely covered in plexiglass for the doors which requires a surface mounted slide bolt like they use on dutch doors. Predrilled holes, because plexi splits/breaks like crazy if you don't. How's that for professional? We spent more time fixing our mistakes than we did building the whole structure!

 

[Birdman666]

We spent more time fixing our mistakes than we did building the whole structure!

Now THAT sounds all too familiar... The end result is really nice though.

 

[Birdman666]

How is the new baby this morning? Settling in?

 

[RavensGryf]

Could have fooled me by the looks of it . At least it was fixed right away. It just looks so neatly done too.

Don and I re-did a shower stall together and while the underlying structure was done correctly (asked Home Depot many questions!), the end result LOOKS pretty un-pro I have to admit lol. Even with measuring, the tile still got "off" measurement, and other parts that he insisted on doing are uh.. sort of messy :54:. Oh well, it's functional! Don has construction experience too.. but I guess every "specific type" of construction is kind of a specialty, and takes practice!

I'm still impressed with your enclosure!

 

[Minimaker]

We're working through our initial meeting issues right now, trying to figure each other out. She doesn't want us touching her yet, we're still handing food to her and she'll take it without any trouble. I removed some of her hanging stuff to try and force her down lower where we can interact with her more. She wants to stay high as she can. When I set the dimensions for this enclosure I thought bigger would be better and I'm sure in the end it will be for her sake. But right now she's so high up that it's hard to do things with her. She was most unhappy with the change yesterday but today she's been swinging like a monkey across the top bars and finally navigating her boing rope that she seemed afraid of. She's been inspecting the rainbowed blue glass tile over and over again today like she really likes it. She's talking way more, saying hello. Going through nuts like crazy-I think she just likes chewing them up and dropping the nut part. I bought Caribbean Bounty, Asian Medley, and Madagascar Delight Goldenfeast products which they had her on at the store. She'll eat it dry but isn't touching the cooked. I made a simple chop this morning out of broccoli, strawberries, apples, plums, and kiwi and she wants nothing to do with it. It almost seems like she's only used to dry goods. Don't know. She's hasn't touched her zupreme pellets. My sprout jar is coming in today and she'll probably hate those too Trying to figure all of this out, worrying about her diet and food consumption. I picked up a bag of handfeeding formula just in case, I mixed up a tiny bit with a temp. thermometer and put it in the syringe and she tasted it, shook her head like it was awful and literally wiped her tongue on the perch like "Ewww, get it off, get it off!" after that she turned away from it and would have no more of the syringe. So I don't know. What do you guys think, should I leave her alone and let her just eat the goldenfeast dry for now and work other things in little by little? Should I be worried about these things? She is eating some of the nuts, she is eating some of her goldenfeast dry. She's drinking water well. She's alert and active and seems happy. She's playing in her cage like nothing is wrong.

 

[Dopey]

Id give her more time to adjust. Continue to offer the food but don't force it right now. She is in a strange place. In a couple of months you will have everything under control and then something will change it all. Patience.

 

[Minimaker]

I know I'm probably over-thinking it, just nervous. I want to be the reason her life is good, not bad.

You know I raised our turkey vulture Kevin from a tiny chick until he was an even bigger bird than this one, but somehow this is so different. The diet is so different mainly. He was easy to keep well, I feel like I could somehow break her with improper care. I don't want to be the one to screw her up. I know so many things about baby farm birds, and wild ones. I've raised game birds, fallen babies out of trees, chickens, turkeys as tall as my waist. Geese. I know how to immediately put an entire group of chicks to sleep at once. I know that baby ducks love sour milk soaked bread more than anything. But this has got me feeling completely out of my league. I'm at zero here, I realize I know nothing right now and it makes me feel scared I could hurt her by not feeding her right or enough. Bear with me while I panic

 

[thekarens]

I agree, you're over thinking it, but that's understandable. For the most part if it's healthy for you it's healthy for her.

 

[Minimaker]

I just walked over and held her chop bowl up to her and she just ate quite a few bites of it. And then apparently it was more fun to fling it I know these problems will sort themselves out, I just need to have faith.


Added-I just tried Lafeber's Avi-Cakes and that was an "oh heck no", haha. She looked highly offended by the one I just tried to give her. She's probably tired of me shoving food under her beak by now.

 

[JerseyWendy]

..... I know these problems will sort themselves out, I just need to have faith.

...and a boatload of patience.

I give her less than a month, and she'll be purring like a kitten in your arms.

 

[Birdman666]

Try warm oatmeal on a spoon. That usually works.

This is just part of the settling in process. It took Maggie about 4 days to adjust... sounds like she's starting to explore.

Once they allow you to handle them the first time or two, then they will go to you readily after that... it's just a matter of getting them over the hump.

Don't send mixed signals. Be firm. They are more tentative if you're not. The more confident you are in stepping the bird up, the more confident the bird will be with you...

That's really one of the "big secrets" with big macs...

Appear confident, even if you're not, and (gently) call the bird's bluff.

The other thing that works is just letting them be for a bit. WITHHOLD attention. Sit next to the enclosure pretending she doesn't exist. Let her get interested in you.

Sitting there with your back to the bird cracking open walnuts and eating them (pretending the bird isn't even there until she scrambles over to you) works with adult birds... The only babies I really worked with were babies I was hand feeding, so obviously, those birds trip over themselves to get to you... (Feeding time? Feeding time? Feeding time?) I primarily worked with poorly socialized adult birds...

On an unrelated note:

I didn't know you had a turkey vulture! So did I when I was 12, (when we did wildlife rehab) only ours was a handicapped bird that was injured and couldn't be released back into the wild... He was actually a very sweet bird, ended up loving people even though he was a 100% wild bird when he was found - WITH A FACE THAT ONLY A MOTHER COULD LOVE!

 

[Birdman666]

..... I know these problems will sort themselves out, I just need to have faith.

...and a boatload of patience.

I give her less than a month, and she'll be purring like a kitten in your arms.

I put the over at one week, and under at two weeks...

I'm less confident in the "over" figure.

It all depends when that initial breakthrough is. Could be just a day or two.

 

[Christinenc2000]

Not sure if this will help but my Macaw will not eat anything he can't hold. Even his pellets
He would also drop Carrot sticks to the bottom of the cage. One day i just sat next to the cage and ate one myself. Little bugger wanted one then. Anything he refused I just kept trying.
Very pretty bird !

 

[Minimaker]

On an unrelated note:

I didn't know you had a turkey vulture! So did I when I was 12, (when we did wildlife rehab) only ours was a handicapped bird that was injured and couldn't be released back into the wild... He was actually a very sweet bird, ended up loving people even though he was a 100% wild bird when he was found - WITH A FACE THAT ONLY A MOTHER COULD LOVE!

Yeah a farmer dropped one off at our house without even telling me. My son came carrying in a Hardees cheeseburger box with a chick inside. I was like "What is that thing?" Apparently a farmer who knew my Grandfather (who lived behind me) was pulling through and handed the chick to my son and said take it to your Mother. He found it in his barn when they removed all the hay and didn't know what to do with it. So he sent it in to me, and it was either raise it or set it outside to die. That's just not in me, so I raised it. Then we turned him loose at a nature preserve 45 minutes away. I covered the cage so he couldn't get any sense of direction. A week later, I heard a clatter on our roof. I was like oh boy, he found his way home. Sure enough, there he was. And he brought two others with him, but they stayed above up in the sky. They hung out with him until fall and then they all three flew away. I wouldn't feed him anymore so he was finding food fine on his own. Last summer one flew in probably six feet away from our roof and then circled for awhile right above our house in the sky... I knew it had to be him because no others would dream of coming that close. They never had before. So that was two years after we released him. He survived. This was him right after he was dropped off:

An this was him with my daughter after he returned to our house after we dropped him off at the nature preserve: http://vid1371.photobucket.com/albu...ads/video-2012-08-27-16-23-35_zpszfcdjy34.mp4

Over the next few months he got even bigger than that, by finding food on his own.

 

[Birdman666]

They are so cute as chicks. And they are amazingly graceful flyers, but ooohhh that face...

This was the one we helped raise when I was a kid, apparently he's still alive and kicking, and still on display at the Lindsay:

http://wildlife-museum.org/blog/wp-...6_20030509c.sized_-e1339703317153-300x200.jpg

He's an "animal ambassador" which means he's tame, and will go to most anyone. The way it used to work is they did six months on display, and six months in our aviary to make sure they didn't get too stressed from being on display... Our Lindsay museum aviary had a revolving cast of characters.

Yeah, there is absolutely NO WAY that isn't the one you raised. A wild one would never in a million years get that close to people!

Yours is cuter. His face is purple... Our bird's face was baboon-butt red, and it looked like someone had drilled a hole through the center of it's face.... (Their nare openings are just that big!) But when he perched on your arm, and put his head on your shoulder, you still had to melt... Who knew turkey vultures could be cuddle birds, eh?!

We had them all over in NorCal. They'd perch on our roof with someone in the back yard, but that's about as close as you'd ever get to them... unless they were feeding on something...

My ex-wife tried to chase one off a dead possum in our back yard. It spread it's wings and chased her back...

 

[thekarens]

On an unrelated note:

I didn't know you had a turkey vulture! So did I when I was 12, (when we did wildlife rehab) only ours was a handicapped bird that was injured and couldn't be released back into the wild... He was actually a very sweet bird, ended up loving people even though he was a 100% wild bird when he was found - WITH A FACE THAT ONLY A MOTHER COULD LOVE!

Yeah a farmer dropped one off at our house without even telling me. My son came carrying in a Hardees cheeseburger box with a chick inside. I was like "What is that thing?" Apparently a farmer who knew my Grandfather (who lived behind me) was pulling through and handed the chick to my son and said take it to your Mother. He found it in his barn when they removed all the hay and didn't know what to do with it. So he sent it in to me, and it was either raise it or set it outside to die. That's just not in me, so I raised it. Then we turned him loose at a nature preserve 45 minutes away. I covered the cage so he couldn't get any sense of direction. A week later, I heard a clatter on our roof. I was like oh boy, he found his way home. Sure enough, there he was. And he brought two others with him, but they stayed above up in the sky. They hung out with him until fall and then they all three flew away. I wouldn't feed him anymore so he was finding food fine on his own. Last summer one flew in probably six feet away from our roof and then circled for awhile right above our house in the sky... I knew it had to be him because no others would dream of coming that close. They never had before. So that was two years after we released him. He survived. This was him right after he was dropped off:

An this was him with my daughter after he returned to our house after we dropped him off at the nature preserve: http://vid1371.photobucket.com/albu...ads/video-2012-08-27-16-23-35_zpszfcdjy34.mp4

Over the next few months he got even bigger than that, by finding food on his own.

Ok, that black vulture is precious! I know a lot of people don't like them, but I love them!

P.S. Mark, yours was a turkey vulture. This one is a black vulture.

 

[RavensGryf]

Thanks for sharing that guys! I love vultures too . I had no idea they'd get so tame! Then again, makes sense that it's not only parrots who get tame, lots of birds and animals do when you hand feed them from a baby. Such a heartwarming story from both Tara and Mark!

Yeah, Karen's a birder, so she knows her wild bird species too

 

[RavensGryf]

Isn't it the Turkey Vulture that is the most common species that we see? I seem to have read that it's common in almost every continent of the world? Probably different subspecies though...

 

[Minimaker]

I think it is a turkey vulture. His face had not started to turn red yet in those photos when he was younger but it did before he left. It was most definitely turning red before he left months later in the fall. The babies of both species all have black beaks/heads until they get older. Everyone here that saw him said he was a turkey vulture-we never see black vultures in our area.