Catastrophism and Scientology

[DagwoodGum]

They're a challenge to train not to chew, though, and need to have things that are okay for them to gnaw on so they are satisfied not to chew up your furniture.

When I bought my 1st house up in Minnesota, I rented a spare bedroom out to a former next door neighbor from when I'd rented a room in a boarding house while I saved up to buy the house.
He was a pheasant hunter and would live trap pigeons to train his bird dog and one day came home with an African Grey parrot he'd live trapped at a granary.
The workers told him that the bird had survived the winter that year by perching in the rafters where he was kept warm by the raising warm air coming off the grain fermentation.
He figured it had to have escaped as someone's pet but as it had reverted to wild he had to very slowly gain it's trust and re-domesticate it.
But the thing was mean to me if I tried to get near it and it would fly around the house chewing on the tops of the bedroom doors, ruining them and anything else it fancied.
I wouldn't mind getting another Amazon species but I'd probably pass on a Grey.

 

[Iona]

Glad to hear you like crows. Lots of people don't because they pecked at corpses on the battlefields of WWI & II. Very clever birds but very suspicious of humans. Mine slipped on the ice on my window ledge while I was was feeding it yesterday and fell off. I had to laugh.

Well, I say mine, he's not mine at all, just a wild bird I've managed to more or less tame (nigh on impossible according to some articles I've read on the net).

Its easy to see their intelligence. They are thinkers.

 

[strativarius]

Its easy to see their intelligence. They are thinkers.

Indeed they are, especially the Crow and Parrot families. Mine bosses me about, calls me when he wants to be fed, prises my fingers open with his enormous beak when I make a fist and hide his food, and still doesn't trust me any further than he could throw me despite taking food from my fingers for the last six months.

 

[DagwoodGum]

Oh! I'd love to have seen your parrot waving her wings as she sang.

My pet crow vocalises a lot too, but the last thing in the world you would call that racket is 'singing'.

How did you come by having a crow for a pet?
Did you tame it or raise it from young?
I had wanted one as a kid but my mother said no to that idea!
So I made a live trap out of a rat trap and a coffee can and caught a chipmunk, kept him in the bird cage and he got so comfortable that he didn't want to leave when I was forced to let him go after a year or so because we were moving out of state and I was told "no more chipmunk once we move".
He had learned to enjoy his captivity and all the grains I fed it that he didn't have to work for.

 

[strativarius]

How did you come by having a crow for a pet?
Did you tame it or raise it from young?
I had wanted one as a kid but my mother said no to that idea!
So I made a live trap out of a rat trap and a coffee can and caught a chipmunk, kept him in the bird cage and he got so comfortable that he didn't want to leave when I was forced to let him go after a year or so because we were moving out of state and I was to "no more chipmunk once we move".
He had learned to enjoy his captivity and all the grains I fed it that he didn't have to work for.

I 'tamed' it. Translation - it found a sucker who feeds it fresh raw meat and other delights on demand five or six times a day.

 

[JustSheila]

When I bought my 1st house up in Minnesota, I rented a spare bedroom out to a former next door neighbor from when I'd rented a room in a boarding house while I saved up to buy the house.
He was a pheasant hunter and would live trap pigeons to train his bird dog and one day came home with an African Grey parrot he'd live trapped at a granary.
The workers told him that the bird had survived the winter that year by perching in the rafters where he was kept warm by the raising warm air coming off the grain fermentation.
He figured it had to have escaped as someone's pet but as it had reverted to wild he had to very slowly gain it's trust and re-domesticate it.
But the thing was mean to me if I tried to get near it and it would fly around the house chewing on the tops of the bedroom doors, ruining them and anything else it fancied.
I wouldn't mind getting another Amazon species but I'd probably pass on a Grey.

That's a cool story.

I wouldn't get a big parrot again, unless it was already older and a rescue. I have cockatiels, they don't chew too badly and they're cute and sweet. Mine say, "You're so cute!" "You're a baby!" "Here you go!" and (sometimes) "Good morning." Their sounds are the funniest, though: train sounds, including the rolling down the tracks sound, kisses, dishwasher sound, handwashing sound, and the washing machine. Also, "oooh!" and "Uh Oh" and "mmmm!". They're the most rambunctious in the morning, but pretty good overall. The female (Fargo) likes to try out different foods when I make my meals and gets real excited. She loves buttered toast (not margarine) and I taught her how to get the seeds out of green beans and she's a little piggy over green beans now, ha ha, loves opening them up to get the seeds. It doesn't matter to her if they're cooked or raw. She eats a bit of carrots, a bit of cheese, lettuce, grass seed and sometimes hot pepper seeds. The male rarely likes to try anything new, but he ate the green bean seeds and grass seed, too. That's all in addition to her normal diet and shell grit.

 

[DagwoodGum]

That's a cool story.

I wouldn't get a big parrot again, unless it was already older and a rescue. I have cockatiels, they don't chew too badly and they're cute and sweet. Mine say, "You're so cute!" "You're a baby!" "Here you go!" and (sometimes) "Good morning." Their sounds are the funniest, though: train sounds, including the rolling down the tracks sound, kisses, dishwasher sound, handwashing sound, and the washing machine. Also, "oooh!" and "Uh Oh" and "mmmm!". They're the most rambunctious in the morning, but pretty good overall. The female (Fargo) likes to try out different foods when I make my meals and gets real excited. She loves buttered toast (not margarine) and I taught her how to get the seeds out of green beans and she's a little piggy over green beans now, ha ha, loves opening them up to get the seeds. It doesn't matter to her if they're cooked or raw. She eats a bit of carrots, a bit of cheese, lettuce, grass seed and sometimes hot pepper seeds. The male rarely likes to try anything new, but he ate the green bean seeds and grass seed, too. That's all in addition to her normal diet and shell grit.

Yeah, I had a cockatiel, I think it was considered a "pied", the white with the colored cheeks and top of the head. He was a real trip, used to love to steal people's shirt buttons and crap on my balding friends heads where he seemed to be trying to fashion their little remaining hair into a nest. I gave him to a retired couple who would have the time for him as I was being transferred to Billings, Mont. for my new Greyhound job and couldn't really lug a bird around with me on the buses.
Great memories!

 

[Iona]

I had a great experience last year when I visited a Tibetan monastery. They had a porch that had been set up as a place for birds to visit. All the birds were completely unafraid of humans, and would land on your hand or shoulders, to just sit or be fed. All kinds of birds, large and small. It made a very strong impression on me. I enjoyed it immensely.

 

[JustSheila]

I had a great experience last year when I visited a Tibetan monastery. They had a porch that had been set up as a place for birds to visit. All the birds were completely unafraid of humans, and would land on your hand or shoulders, to just sit or be fed. All kinds of birds, large and small. It made a very strong impression on me. I enjoyed it immensely.

I'm not sure this image is uploading okay, but these are my two pet cockatiels. They are male and female (unrelated) and were on the back, screened-in deck today and excited about discovering the rafters there. (They are only partially clipped so both fly) They are about two years old and haven't figured out how to mate/have sex with each other yet, but it does seem the nesting instinct has kicked in and they are doing the same things wild birds would do and the female is very excited about finding a nesting location while the male is sort of on the lookout for her while she goes back and forth inside.

They have a good life. Real cutie-pies.

 

[Iona]

The upload didn't work, but I can imagine it. They sound lovely.

 

[strativarius]

I'm not sure this image is uploading okay, but these are my two pet cockatiels. They are male and female (unrelated) and were on the back, screened-in deck today and excited about discovering the rafters there. (They are only partially clipped so both fly) They are about two years old and haven't figured out how to mate/have sex with each other yet, but it does seem the nesting instinct has kicked in and they are doing the same things wild birds would do and the female is very excited about finding a nesting location while the male is sort of on the lookout for her while she goes back and forth inside.

They have a good life. Real cutie-pies.

This guy had no problem mating and bringing up his family. In my kitchen!

 

[Iona]

So beautiful.