Hello from Barrow-in-Furness!

The end of the world, I am told!

My name is Liz (28, eek), Elvis (4 1/2) is my Medium Sulphur Cockatoo, Tippit (8-12) is my border collie, Dustpan* and Bucket* (Both 3 1/2 brothers) are my cats, and Pepper (going on ancient!) is my bunny I have a husband (age undisclosed ) as well who tolerates us all amazingly, most of the time I also have some fish - lots of fish lol.

* - named by my husband NOT ME!

We live in town, but are fortunately end of terrace, so no one can hear the screaming lol. Except in the summer, Elvis will shout out the window at Snowy who lives across the road :rolls: They've never met each other, Elvis does not get on with other parrots. This was the reason his last family had to rehome him, he was a gift to his last owner when he was a few months old, but he never took to the other parrot (a grey) or her husband, so there you go. I've had him for a year and a half, we have many ups and downs - I am told this is normal for 'toos, makes me feel a little saner LOL which is hard to do with a 'too in the house to be honest!

He's become a wonderful part of my life, even though he's not really having a lot to do with me when he's out and about, he does beg for cuddles constantly through the cage bars, so just need to teach him to trust again after a vet trip and needing an emergency shower not long after (I put flea treatment on the dog and forgot, was petting them both then realized I had flea treatment on my hand and wasn't sure who was being petted with which hand and if it was bad for him or not, so straight to a deconshower for him lol. He wasn't pleased, but did let me dry him off and cuddle him, but that was about that. He's coming a long slowly but surely.

Fingers crossed, ey? I can't say I didn't know what I was getting into - I fell in love with him the first day we saw him, spent almost two hours with his family and him, he wanted nothing to do with anyone but happily played and watched us all very carefully and interestedly. I probably should have left him and got a parrot that liked me right away, but where is the fun in that?? I am an idiot, but I love him dearly lol. He seems keen on me, even though we fell out lol

hello liz,elvis,hubby and the rest of the clan

i'm sure you will be friends again soon. so is all the screeching down to snowy across the road,is he a too? if they've never met you'll never know if they will get on or not. if snowy is a too it might do them both some good if they met,he might jut need a friend of his own

Snowy is an umbrella, and an evil creature lol. I use to clean over at where he lives, I once said goodbye to him before leaving and heard ****OFF! I went "excuse me???" and got a very sweet "goodbye!" his other favorites are "*name*, you fat ****er!" "*anothername* you little s***!" and other classy things lol. He spends every morning, lunch time, and early evening screaming his head off, its awful! His owner has had him for around 20 years, but has had to start working longer hours etc the last few years, so I imagine he misses her. They're selling up and moving soon, so she can work less, hopefully he'll be happier.

He's so mental though, I don't want Elvis picking up bad habits lol!

*not peeking, honest!*

lol

awww love this photo,was elvis making sure you hadn't fallen asleep in front of the telly

snowy sounds a very errrmm 'colourful' character,i don't blame you for not wanting elvis to make friends with bad language lol

hehe Elvis is such a good peoplesitter he's watching the end of the rugby at the mo, bouncing around his cage during the game LOL


yeah, Snowy isn't my favorite lol he was screaming when I left today at 9, he was screaming when I got home at 5

oh no! the poor boy. is he left on his own alot?

I assume so - mum is at work, dad is downstairs (and afraid of him) I feel bad for him, but not a lot I can do. In the summer will pop around and "apologize for Elvis setting him off" or something daft and say "this booklet helped with Elvis' screaming if you want to have a look at it, its working really well for him" or something crap. She's had him for 20 years vs my 1.6 years, who am I to tell her, you know?

mmm yes it's hard,you can only advise cant you? at least you've tried.

i know people with greys who don't let them out for excercise,not ever and i used to feel i'm banging my head against the wall trying to help. now i dont mention birds,not even my own unless they bring up the subject as i know i'll ask if he's been out his cage yet

Eef :/ Yeah I tend to avoid it with other people. Elvis is no angel, but he seems to be the best kept bird around here (that I know of lol)

Maybe he needs some neglect to appreciate what he has LMAO

blacksheep wrote:

*not peeking, honest!*

lol

lol peek-a-boo! Mine does this too it's hilarious! Oh welcome to the forum Liz!

hehe he'll pull it open then go "arrrrrrrrrrrrrr awwwwwwwww" then vanish when you look over at him, then rinse and repeat lol he thinks he's being clever, then he'll giggle because I am giggling at him, then I'll giggle because he's giggling, and he'll giggle some more, etc etc 40 minutes later I can't breath and he's cackling like my mother and really freaking me out

Hi, and thanks We've been stalking Bob and Diane since we got him, lol they give ace advice! I have found a closer shop but I will never, ever, ever set foot in there again. They had loads of parrots and other birds, true, but all in tiny cages, no toys, most had no food and "some" water, and had two cockatoos standing on large java trees with NOTHING to do - the poor things were pacing back and forth making crying noises and had destroyed tail feathers, it was so heart breaking I wanted to take all those poor things out and take them home, but husband would have killed me Still tempted to report them, but chances are they've been reported and will argue that the birds go home etc and a load of waffle. I know Bob and Diane take theirs home, but these guys were cage on cage on cage of birds, there would be no way they'd bother taking them all out every night. You could just tell by how they acted that they were lonely and bored

They had a beautiful triton in a cage 1/4 the size of Elvis' with two tiny pots - one food one water - both were almost empty, and he tried grabbing anyone who walked by, and managed to grab a few kids - Imagine if one of the kids panicked! Could easily have been a broken leg for that poor bird!

It was so horrible.

Just googled them, seems every pet forum in the UK has a thread about how horrible they are and how many times they've been reported and dodged it! Pathetic that they keep getting away with it!! Disgusting!

i try not to go into petshops anymore as i do find it upsetting when i see one bird let alone dozens. like you i would want to bring them all home

if that particular shop is the one that also breed their birds i think i know who they are,and have a bad reputation

Its in Manchester if that helps. They claim to get them from "good breeders around the UK, as well as our own bred babies!" but had a "cash for puppies" sign in the window, so who knows what's really going on there!


(I still really want the Elviszilla Titron that they had, I bet he and Elvis would confuse each other lol knowing my luck he'd have some weird disease and kill everything in the house on accident.)

It is always sad when any animal is not treated correctly.
We get regular visits from the council who inspect the shop and is something that I always welcome.
Last time we got a clean bill of health but the time before he picked us up on a fire extinguisher that was behind some boxes and he said that if we had a fire we would not be able to get to it. Is he right? of course he is, it was something that we had overlooked.
We try to do things right and it does stress me when I see that some shops don't give a monkey.

the one i know of is closer to home

i don't know if they get inspected or not,surley they must do?

bob wrote:

It is always sad when any animal is not treated correctly.
We get regular visits from the council who inspect the shop and is something that I always welcome.

I imagine the people from the council don't know birds to look for the little signs, like "it ate its own feathers" and not the "oh, his tail catches on his perch" BS that they tried to sell someone who asked on FB. Next time I go down there I may take some sneaky pics and report them properly. Their album online is quite clever never to focus on any one cage or any one bird. People who have nothing to hide and who are generally in the business for the right reason generally don't mind being asked things, the first time I came in to see you I asked all sorts of dumb things about birds, how you kept them etc etc before I'd even buy a toy, you were so happy to help and talk forever my husband got bored and went to the car LOL I bought *sooooo* many toys These guys answered things in "Yes, No, Sorry I need to get *somethingmadeup* done" and vanish!

bob wrote:

Last time we got a clean bill of health but the time before he picked us up on a fire extinguisher that was behind some boxes and he said that if we had a fire we would not be able to get to it. Is he right? of course he is, it was something that we had overlooked.

haha my fire blanket was under a stack of cook books, so I know how that can happen! You just put things where they can fit until you can deal with them later, I do that all the time and often paint myself in corners

bob wrote:

We try to do things right and it does stress me when I see that some shops don't give a monkey.

I bet this lot would sell you a monkey no questions asked!!

jules wrote:

the one i know of is closer to home

i don't know if they get inspected or not,surley they must do?

:/ Sounds like our local chain shop - which I use to call Pets(in)Hell until they finally changed all the staff over. They're still clueless and sell some dodgy looking toys as "fit for parrot" when I'd be iffy giving it to a finch as it looks like it would fall to bits and be dangerous with the slightest touch, let alone a parrot who will actually play with it. The only other pet related places are The Range and a small fish shop that use to be epic then just went to hell.

I mean, all shops will sell toys that are safe for some and dangerous for others. Thats what I like about Midland. I can say "this is for Elvis, will it be okay" and Bob or Diane will go "Hm, well he's a medium bird, so its the right size, but didn't you say he was really destructive? Why don't you try this instead" and find me a more robust version, the shops around here answer everything by reading the packet and agreeing with it LOL

Fortunately these days I have a pretty good idea of what will last and what he will pick apart in seconds, though I was shocked at one toy I got recently, I unscrewed one of the eyelets that are meant to have a clip on it to hang it, and found the bottom was VERY sharp!! Most of them that I've taken apart have been pre-drilled then a flat ended eyelet put in, so when they do take it out they don't poke themselves. I took the eyelet out and let him have the rest as an "on the floor" toy and used the eyelet in the kitchen LOL

Hello everyone, my name is Christine, I have just got my second A/G, my beloved first boy passed away aged only 22years, of course we were devastated and we missed him so much. Our new boy is just 17 weeks old his name is Sparky and he lives up to his name. A real bright spark already! We also have a 4 year old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel called BJ. We are one happy family, all getting lots of love and cuddles,


Hi .
Christine
I have moved your post over here so that everyone can read it.
I am so glad Sparky is doing well and has become a big part of your family.
You will need to post some pictures of him

Bob