My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

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CillaAnne
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 9:54 am

My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by CillaAnne »

Hi my name is Jireh and I am 12 weeks old. My mom has so many questions, which I am sure she will find answers to here, but please can you tell her what she should put in the bottom of my cage as it gets very messy and she complains at me a lot ;)

I have to tell you that I like to bite her clothes and fly off her shoulder, am I normal or will I settle down when I am a bit older.

Oh, and how will my mom know if I am a boy or a girl without taking me for tests? Is there any way she can tell?

Thank you and I look forward to being loved and cherished by my mom coz I think I like her a lot.
MissK
Posts: 3011
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by MissK »

Hi Jireh,

I like newspaper on the bottom of my cage, under the grate. Make sure it's under the grate because you don't want to be playing in your poo - yukko. You should make your mom change that paper every day. She can do it in the morning while she's telling you how beautiful you are, or last thing at night so you wake up in a fresh place, or anytime in between. Doesn't matter.

I'm glad to hear you are biting her clothing and flying, not biting her fingers and ears, as so many youngsters do. Flying is wonderful, isn't it? I'm glad you learned how. Never stop! Maybe your mommy will learn to give you treats and teach you tricks to make her company more appealing. Human mommies can be very creative. Maybe you can play a version of catch (we call it "pass") with her and one of your foot toys. I like that, though I never want to give up my toy. Nila gives up his toy when his mommy says "Ta!", but he's got a really talented mommy who taught him that............... Her name is InTheAir. She might tell you how, if you ask her.

There is a very good way for your mommy to know for sure and certain if you are a girl or boy. She can sit in your room with her favourite warm drink (my mommy likes tea) and gaze at you in meditation every day. Over the course of time, say 18-24 months, she can ponder this question, and one day it will be clear to her. Many other things will become clear to her during this meditation as well, so she should do it every single day. She can chant, if she likes, or sing, recite poetry about your magnificence, or just have a little chat. My mommy's mantra seems to be "Perfect!".

I hope you have a long and happy lifetime with your mommy, and teach each other many things.

-Rocky


PS: You'll know my mommy when you see her. She signs all her stuff:
-MissK
AlphaWolf
Posts: 289
Joined: Wed Sep 25, 2013 7:06 am

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by AlphaWolf »

Hello Jireh,
This is Aero and it's nice to see you. My Daddy also is trying to care for me but he has a lot to learn. He puts a lovely white a3 paper on my cage floor. It feels so nice running over it. Every morning I scream to remind him, you should do it too. I agree Jireh, this place is so good. My Daddy is here all the time and I love seeing him click the white paper. Nila is so cool, he is going to teach to make my Daddy fetch, it will be sooooo fun. Ok bye I can't wait to see you in here. Got to return to my cage before Daddy suspects anything. Opps, I did a poo-poo in the paper-thingy. Bye-Bye.

Aero
"Live with parrots and you learn to panic"

AlphaWolf
Little Buttercup
Posts: 345
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 12:03 am

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by Little Buttercup »

Hi Jireh, Nice to see you here. My mommy also uses newspaper at the bottom of my cage. But she doesn't know to change it everyday like Rocky says to do. Maybe Rocky will have some tips to make my mommy change it. I have never bit her yet and I think that is something you should do as well, NEVER bite your mommy, she is the one that will give you your food and delicious treats. I love sitting on the kitchen window early in the morning and make a big noise that my mommy does'nt mind but I can see her running to close the bedroom doors of those who are still sleeping. I just feel humans are weird to be sleeping still at such a lovely time of the day.

Keep well and train your mommy well too. :)

Kiwi
MissK
Posts: 3011
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by MissK »

Kiwi-

She keeps a big stack of papers in a basket under the shelf of my cage. She just brings in the trashcan from another room and grabs out the old and slides in the new. I think she is extra-motivated because she has so many papers to change. She says if she skips a day it'll be all over, and she does it super-fast. I've caught her sometimes throwing away some of my toys that fell down once in a while! :o I think if the papers are dirty it messes with her tea-time meditation......

If you buy your mommy a big paper-cutter it might help with the housekeeping. My mommy prepares lots of papers at once with hers, and then she doesn't have to fold and cut them every day.

-Rocky
-MissK
InTheAir
Posts: 2040
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:24 pm

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by InTheAir »

Hi Jireh,

My name is Nila. I like the other suggestions, especially about how Rockys human likes to tell him how perfect he is. My humans watch me playing and say "you're such a good boy" so I tell them that when I want them to watch me play on my playstand. Humans can be a bit hard to train properly at first, but they pick it up.
They love cleaning up after us. I help clean the house too! My job is to clean the bench while the humans vacuum, I pick everything up off the bench and drop it on the floor. I am good at throwing food everywhere too and making soup! Making a mess is as much fun as cleaning the bench!
Make sure your mummy gives you lots of nice places to play with toys all over them. If she doesn't then you can chew the curtains or keep biting her clothing until she does. I made my humans put play gyms in every room I use, it was hard to get my daddy to put one in his room for toy cars, but I didn't mind because I could just steal car parts and take them to the curtain rail to play with!
There is lots of good information on here, if you get your mummy to read through the forum she will learn lots.
My mummy went to a seminar by some ladies called babara hienewhatisit from goodbirdinc.com and pamela clark and they helped train her for me, so she is much better. She also talks about behaviorworks.org and steve martin a lot.

I love flying, I am really good at it too! I trained my humans to hold their hand out in a good landing position so I can land on it and eat treats. I love treats.
My humans hide my food and treats around cages and playstands cos I like treasure hunts, but they call it foraging. they get ideas from ellieelectrons thread on foraging.

My humans are like kiwis humans, they change my paper when it looks dirty. I don't like walking on the grate cos my feet are different from other birds and it is hard for me, so they put paper on it. I don't really like going on the floor anyway, I like to fly everywhere.

I hope you can train your human properly, there is a thread by Melika which has a list of foods we can eat, I found some of my favourites from it.

Good luck with your human and thanks for posting. I like it when my humans give me a phone to play with!


Yours beakfully,
Nila Sa
Skyes_crew
Posts: 1946
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:49 pm
Location: Hawaii

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by Skyes_crew »

Hi jireh, my mommy uses different stuff in my cage. It's made of crushed up corn. Then she uses this scoop thing to scoop out my poops every day. I like to keep my cage pretty clean so I usually poop in one spot in my cage. It makes it super easy for her to clean and then she has more time to spend with me and my friends. I bite holes in my moms shirt, but she's ok with it as long as she's wearing her bird shirt just for us. I chewed a big hole one time in one of her favorite shirts and she wasn't so happy, but she forgave me :D I like to fly around like rocky and Nila too. I love to zoom down over the other humans heads. It's great fun and exercise. And sometimes they like to run around and race me. Nila taught me that one. You have to meet Nila and his mom. They can teach you so many things. But Nila just got a new flock mate, so his mom might be a little busy right now. I hope you stick around. We have such a great place here where all the humans get to discuss how to take care of us really good.

Hamlet
I am owned by my birds...and I wouldn't have it any other way :D

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Skyes_crew
Posts: 1946
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2013 12:49 pm
Location: Hawaii

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by Skyes_crew »

Oh good...Nila's mom stopped by :D
I am owned by my birds...and I wouldn't have it any other way :D

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InTheAir
Posts: 2040
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:24 pm

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by InTheAir »

Wow, someone left a laptop in my room! I don't know about humans, except they have all the best food and they don't seem to want to eat me after all! They are weird for predators!
When they make noises it sounds like ughhh gaa boooga, but I can recognise a couple sounds that mean they want to share some food "tweet tweet want treat treat?" Means that human is going to offer a yummy thing so I move closer to human and it offers me fruit.
I keep seeing a very pretty bird sitting on a human from outside my bedroom door, so I decided to climb on humans when they have treat treats. The other bird is always busy eating treat treats when I see him. I hope he notices me one day and we can be friends.

- Squidgette
Little Buttercup
Posts: 345
Joined: Wed Sep 05, 2012 12:03 am

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by Little Buttercup »

Good idea Rocky about the paper cutter. But my mom keeps whole lot of paper and whole lot of things that she feel she can make a toy out of it for me, in a cupboard just next to my cage, yet she seems to be a lazy human when it comes to cleaning. Anyway like nila I hardly walk on the floor of my cage, I prefer to be out hanging on my tree and fly around, and just go in to eat. I think she need more ideas on how to re-do my room and fill it up with more treasure hunt opportunities. My room is getting too boring at the moment.

Jireh, how are you doing? Seems like you a very quiet bird. How are you getting along with your mommy?

Kiwi
SunniDai
Posts: 222
Joined: Mon Jun 17, 2013 4:49 pm
Location: Washington state, USA

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by SunniDai »

Hi, Jireh. I have been with my momma since I was 3 weeks old, so we have a tight bond. She spoils me mercilessly. She spoils all of us, but Oscar and Luna don't let her touch them. They are older than I am and have only been living with us for a few months. They seem to be okay with that, though. So do my parents. We all have become fully flighted so the house can get quite fun as we chase each other and play all over the house.
My momma just cleans out the bottom of the cage by sweeping out the dropped food and wiping it down with something she calls vinegar and water. We poop on the outside of the cage because we like to forage in the seed we drop at the bottom of the cage. We like to scrape our messy beaks on the cage all the time, so she has to scrape the bars down with something she calls a wire brush. I don't like that thing. It scares me since I tried to taste it and it poked me.
Make sure your mom spoils you with lots of toys that you can destroy. I like it when my momma makes us toys. She gets all of her toy making stuff out and sits on the floor with it, so I get down and help her. I carry things away from her so she can have more room. I chew on the wood to make sure it is a good piece of wood.
I am a girl. I won't get a ring around my neck. Luna doesn't have a ring around her neck, either, so she must also be a girl. Oscar, though, he has a ring around his neck, so he is different. He started to get that about the time he was two years old. Until then, he looked just like Luna.
I hope we see lots more of you, Jireh.
Sunni Dai
~Dana

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MissK
Posts: 3011
Joined: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:46 pm
Location: Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A.

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by MissK »

Hey! MY MOMMY sits around making toys for ME, TOO!

When I chew my toys apart she lets me keep the bits until she decides to make new toys. Then she collects most of the bits and gets rid of the old jute and spends an afternoon making fresh toys. She puts some of the bits away and brings some fresh bits out of her big metal tub. After all this time, she knows just what I want, but she insists on making a few new kinds anyway. Says something about "novelty" and "enrichment" and "boring".

I don't know, but I'm really impressed with this thing she made last time. It's a really skinny stick with wood bits and beads threaded on it. I can spin the bits or chew them or slide them. It's cool. My last family never made toys for me, and they didn't seem to have any idea of what I like either. It's kinda funny, but this mommy I have now seems to really like it when I play with toys she made. She says it's "rewarding" but I'M the one getting the reward! Right? SHE'S not getting to play, so how is that rewarding for HER? People. I just don't get them sometimes.

--Rocky
-MissK
kefan1
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 11:22 pm

Re: My mommy doesn't know how to care for me properly

Post by kefan1 »

Thank you and I look forward to being loved and cherished by my mom coz I think I like her a lot.
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