Too new additions to the family!

[SirEdwin89]

I cant decide if my topic title is witty, or just makes it look like I don't know the proper word format for the number 2

Either way though, we have (two) new too's as part of the family! A few of you may remember me from when I first joined the site back in march after inheriting a CAG in somewhat strange circumstances, and then I just kind of fell off of the site. No worries nothing bad, I just broke my computer and refused to try and use a message board from my phone heh.

Well, Having confetti has had such an impact on us, That we ended up deciding to move away from general wildlife rehab to focus on feathered friends.

The two new additions are a Citron, and MSC2. Ely, our Citron, came from by far the worse situation of the 2. in the last 9 months, he had been bounced between 3 different families. The last lady to have him, (where I acquired him) had never had any birds before, but thought it would "be cool" to have one around. She had Ely for 3 months, and when he bit her day 1 she got scared of him and never tried to touch him again. He spent 24 hours a day in a cage that wasn't big enough, in a house almost always alone as the lady left for work at 9am, and didn't get home till 7 at night, and had him on a diet of sunflower seeds, cornflakes, and cheerios. Oh, and she had her sister in law clip his wings, including almost entirely removing his tail feathers.

So far, it has been a mountain of work but he is finally starting to come around. He was conditioned by his previous owners to get attention from screaming, so it's a continuing challenge dealing with the screaming without responding trying to un-condition the behavior, but it is slowly going in the right direction. Last night he only screamed for an hour and a half straight at 4am! haha. And of course he would be about 5 years old going through tooberty.

The better news on that front, is that after only 2 weeks of proper human socialization he is really starting to open up to folks, in fact he is sitting in my lap as I type this trying to figure out why the dragon on my arm doesn't come off when he bites it haha.

Barney our MSC2 on the other hand, came from a much more loving home and was exceptionally well taken care of. However the family was having twins, and they felt they couldn't properly care for him with the children coming. He had a bit of a rough transition period (you could tell he missed his original humans) but the last few days has finally started really opening up to us, and he really is incredibly sweet, though he is still quite young, only about 3 years old at this point.

If i've learned anything else about birds over the last month, it's how much I enjoy the challenge. Not just the challenge of helping a "problem bird" recover, but the challenges that come with simply interacting with and keeping the company such intellectual animals provide.

I still haven't managed to post any pictures of anything for you guys yet, (I know, I am a failure!!!!!) but I promise I'm going to get my butt in gear and get some great shots of everyone up asap!

 

[ToMang07]

Well congrats on the additions, and waiting for pics!

 

[Siobhan]

You ARE brave. One 'too is all I can imagine having and you took on two at once???

 

[SirEdwin89]

You ARE brave. One 'too is all I can imagine having and you took on two at once???

Not *quite* at once. Barney was planned, Ely was a bit more of a spontaneous "this animal needs help" decision. Lady had been trying to sell him and due to his aggression no one that came to see him was interested, and if she couldn't sell him in the next couple of days He was going to go to her "Incredibly irresponsible 12 year old niece" (Her exact words to me, I kid you not) And that's when my little impulse devil took over, next thing I new i was driving home with a bird in the back seat!:21:

It has been going well so far, challenging for sure, a few screaming induced Migraines maybe haha. Though I'm definitely not doing it all by myself, Wifey does as much as I do

 

[smbrds]

Congrats on the additions and glad the Citron is in a better place. Pics, pics!!

 

[Scott]

Congratulations on your new additions of Ely and Barney. Adopting a "rescue" too is such a noble gesture, particularly for Ely who was about to be shunted off to a birdie hell. Never easy but immensely rewarding!!

 

[SirEdwin89]

Congratulations on your new additions of Ely and Barney. Adopting a "rescue" too is such a noble gesture, particularly for Ely who was about to be shunted off to a birdie hell. Never easy but immensely rewarding!!

One area i'm lucky at least, god gifted me with a high tolerance for pain!
Which I put to good use unfortunately frequently...I'm a slow learner with birdy body language sometimes, and it doesn't always help that they are smart enough to be purposefully deceptive. lol

 

[plumsmum2005]

Thank you for giving them a good home and very much looking forward to pics in time.

 

[BIRDIGIRL]

Congrats on your Additions to the family. How is the CAG enjoying the new flock mates ...Well Done offering a home to both in particular the one that was in very bad circumstances. Its wonderful that both toos are responding and coming out of their shells for you...looks like you are going to have "TOO" much fun well into the future. Sounds like you have got off to a Great start with both of them. I too am looking forward to the pics

 

[SirEdwin89]

Congrats on your Additions to the family. How is the CAG enjoying the new flock mates ...Well Done offering a home to both in particular the one that was in very bad circumstances. Its wonderful that both toos are responding and coming out of their shells for you...looks like you are going to have "TOO" much fun well into the future. Sounds like you have got off to a Great start with both of them. I too am looking forward to the pics

She hasn't *really* met them yet, outside of seeing them come in to the house in their carriers, and hearing them. Barney is still in our bedroom in quarantine until early next month, and Ely only just came out of Quarantine himself. Though I will say given her reaction to Ely when his cage was moved in to the living room at first, "best friends" probably isn't on the Agenda lol. She is fine as long as he is on the other side of the room though.

 

[Scott]

One area i'm lucky at least, god gifted me with a high tolerance for pain!
Which I put to good use unfortunately frequently...I'm a slow learner with birdy body language sometimes, and it doesn't always help that they are smart enough to be purposefully deceptive. lol

Congrats on your Additions to the family. How is the CAG enjoying the new flock mates ...Well Done offering a home to both in particular the one that was in very bad circumstances. Its wonderful that both toos are responding and coming out of their shells for you...looks like you are going to have "TOO" much fun well into the future. Sounds like you have got off to a Great start with both of them. I too am looking forward to the pics

She hasn't *really* met them yet, outside of seeing them come in to the house in their carriers, and hearing them. Barney is still in our bedroom in quarantine until early next month, and Ely only just came out of Quarantine himself. Though I will say given her reaction to Ely when his cage was moved in to the living room at first, "best friends" probably isn't on the Agenda lol. She is fine as long as he is on the other side of the room though.

Too body language is more subtle than highly expressive Amazons! Hard to detect eye "pinning" with toos, but body stance and crest movement is helpful. Some are fairly honest while others enjoy the game of lying in wait to chomp.

Good job with quarantine! I've found my Toos largely ignore the single TAG in their midst. Absolutely no aggression, but neither friendship. They will occasionally fly to the other's areas just to check them out. Perhaps you will be lucky!!

 

[SirEdwin89]

So, hoping someone can offer some advice on a minor issue I'm having. I don't know if it's because he has a fear of falling since he was clipped so poorly, or was never fully fledged and doesn't know how to fly period, or it's just because he wants too. But ely has this thing with his grip of death. It isn't at all aggressive, but even standing on my arm 2 inches above my lap he digs his talons in like the world may start falling at any second. This has led to both of my arms being pretty covered in small scratch scabs. And then of course, he has an obsession with trying to bite those off.

Anyway, it's not a huge concern i have thick skin haha, but I was wondering, how (if there is a way) I might go about conditioning him to use a lighter grip. Or if Someone can clarify that it's just a clipped wings thing, and should get better when he is able to fly again?

 

[Siobhan]

Rocky does that, too. He isn't clipped, so maybe it's just a 'too thing. I often have to beg him to either ease up or sit on my leg instead of my arm. Ouch. My arms look like I've been a few rounds with a raspberry bush.

 

[ToMang07]

Best advice I can give is slow, steady movements. And take some time to lean how to clip/file the nails down. When I first got Willow her nails were WAY too long, and sharp enough to give thin razor-like cuts. I have since learned how to keep her nails in check, (and file when necessary) and even when/if she death-grips me, it doesn't hurt.

 

[Allee]

Sorry I'm late to the welcome party! Respect, Congrats and a warm welcome to Ely and Barney! Sounds like you were there for Ely when he needed a friend in the worst way. Thank you for adopting a couple of Toos in need of a loving home. Toos are emotional creatures and as Scott said some are honest and give you fair warning, others are sly and like to ambush you. Either way you'll get to know them and know when they are bluffing. They also have mercurial mood swings, happy, angry, sad, playful, all in a span of a few minutes. They are a challenge but a rewarding one.

Ely may never fly, a lot of Toos aren't allowed to fledge and they never learn, it's also possible the heavy clip is bothering his balance, maybe the reason for the grip. Someone may have dropped him to the floor for biting, it's hard to say. It will take time but as he gains trust and feels more secure, you'll see his personality emerge. The screaming will subside with his security level too, hopefully your hearing won't suffer too much. A routine, good diet and lots of distractions will make a difference. Be careful not to reward the screaming, it's better to replace the negative behaviors with positive ones.

If he bites too hard, with one finger very gently push his beak away and tell him, careful. He's getting to know you, Toos approach everything new beak first including humans.

Wishing you the best, looking forward to happy progress reports.

 

[Terry57]

I am late to the welcome party as well, congratulations on your new additions!
I am so glad you took Ely into your family and I am sure he is going to thrive.
I have no too experience so am useless at advice here, but I would love to see pictures!

 

[BillieD]

I also want to say Congrats on the two new additions to your growing flock. I am so happy that you rescued Ely from a probably doomed and unhappy life. I am sure the more secure they feel the more their unique personalities will shine. My U2 also has the death grip, but it helps just to keep her nails short and filed so there are not any slashes on my arm.

 

[SirEdwin89]

I think filing down nails will definitely be one of the first things i try to get Ely comfortable with. Whenever I wear short sleeve shirts now, people ask me "is there anything you need to talk about Chris".

 

[LeaKP]

I have a small pet nail trimmer for my grey where you put the nail into a small opening and it gently files the nail. Nigel has allowed me to trim now without toweling. Granted we do one nail every few days but his nails are great now. I'll demonstrate each time first by putting my nails in and he inspects it with his beak and then is fine.

 

[Anansi]

Wow, I'm EXTREMELY late to this party! But I just want to congratulate you on your Too new additions! Rescuing them as you have, especially Ely, is a noble thing. And I'm betting it will continue to be a very rewarding experience for you as well as for them.

And as for your arms with those talons, I know your pain! Here are my arms, courtesy of Bixby, before I got the filing perches.

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The scars have since faded, but for a while people wondered if I had a pet bobcat instead of an ekkie. Lol! But well placed pedicure perches, along with the occasional clipping (I'm averaging once every other year at the moment), will quickly get that problem under control.