HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds

In response to the convulsing parakeet:

I read once that this can be caused by a vitamin deficiency.  At first,
all will seem OK, but then the attacks get closer together and it can
eventually be fatal.

No, I'm not a vet.  I just remember reading this and figured I'd pass it
on.

- Bill G

Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
From: yohan@wam.umd.edu (Deore)
Subject: Re: How I tought my bird to shake hands/legs
Organization: University of Maryland at College Park
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 16:40:24 GMT

 How do you potty train a bird? I've always had the problem of having bird
 poop all over the place...

 Do African Ringnecks make good pet birds???


Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
From: rmura@world.std.com (Ron Mura)
Subject: Re: birds in walmart
Organization: The World
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 21:38:20 GMT

In article <1992Apr10.183535.181@unx.sas.com> sasefj@junebug.unx.sas.com (Edith Jeffreys) writes:
> 
> hi. i was recently in a woolworth's picking up a few odds and ends
> and looked into the pet section. i was surprised to see a whole bunch
> of sad looking birds in 4 or 5 cages.  i was in a walmart a coupla
> days after that and decided to take a look into their pet section
> as well.  same thing there.
[...]
> is this assumption wrong?  if not are there efforts to get general
> merchandise stores to stop carrying birds or other animals?

Unfortunately your assessment is largely correct.  I haven't seen a
Woolworth's where birds are treated properly.  I've gone in when
the store opened and found parakeets that died the night before
in the trash can (which was supposed to be removed before customers
entered) and there are many birds that are obviously not in good
health.  Some appear very stressed.

Occasionally there is an employee who will take some extraordinary
measures, but the store management is interested only in making a
buck.  One employee I talked with a few years ago came in on Sundays
on her own time even though the store policy was to go from Saturday
night to Monday morning with no attention to the birds.

I've written to state authorities and representatives, and it 
usually results in a one-time visit and a warning and then it's
forgotten until the next complaint.  

Stores that don't provide proper care shouldn't be allowed to carry
birds or any any other pets, but it's difficult to make progress 
because officials are reluctant to do anything to interfere with
businesses' the pursuit of the almightly dollar.

-- 
- Ron Mura, Boston, Massachusetts              rmura@world.std.com

From: Terry.Rune@bird.com (Terry Rune)
Sender: FredMail@bird.com
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: BULLETIN BOARD
Date: 06 Apr 92  13:41:00 EST

For those of you interested in lots of bird-related topics, the Bird Info
Network computer bulletin board, can be reached by dialing 303-423-9775. We
have lots of articles on taming, nutrition, avian medicine and everything
inbetween. We have lots of gif files, BoardWatch Magazine, and quite a bit of
shareware. Although the Bird Info Network is a user-supported board, new users
are allowed 3 calls per day of 30 minutes each for a two week period in order
to evaluate whether you want to become a subscriber or not.

We, of course, offer Usenet newsgroups and Internet mail, as well as FidoNet
echo conferences. 

You may reach me at terry.rune@bird.com if you want more information or have
any questions. Hope to see you visit!!



 * Origin: Bird Info Network Gateway 303-423-9775 (1:104/234)
From: thompson@gumby.mgi.com
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: Re: birds in walmart
Date: 14 Apr 92 13:49:09 GMT
Article-I.D.: gumby.1992Apr14.084909.1
Organization: Management Graphics, Inc.

In article <1992Apr13.215328.12228@fmsrl7.srl.ford.com>, bkelley@pms704.pms.ford.com (Brian Kelley) writes:
> In article <1992Apr13.162448.17766@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> bmartino@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Bob Martino) writes:
>>In article <1992Apr10.183535.181@unx.sas.com> sasefj@junebug.unx.sas.com (Edith
>> Jeffreys) writes:
>>     I am appalled at this practice.
> 
> It is very depressing.  I generally avoid the bird sections at those types
> of stores :-(
> 
>>What do you guys think?
> 
> Initially, I didn't have any good ideas on how to improve this situation.
> However, I just thought of something that just might help.  How about
> some paper stickers (the kind that really don't like to come off) which
> read something like 
> "BOYCOTT POORLY TREATED MASS MERCHANDISED BIRDS - BUY DIRECT FROM BREEDERS
> AND PET STORES!"
> 
> These could be frequently stuck very near the glass cage area.   One
> concern is that that the removal of the sticker would not be pleasant for
> the birds, and toxic cleaning chemicals might be used.

You can bet that they would use a strong probably arosal cleaning 
solution to remove the stickers.  Yearsss back when I worked at
K-mart in high school, they used windex to clean the glass doors,
both inside and outside, around the cages.  At least K-mart and Childrens
Palace have gotten out of the bird business. 

> 
> Surely this is a rather radical suggestion, but this really bugs me.
 
One thing that SOME stores/companies responsed to is letter writing.
Just put the letter into your computer so you only have to compose it once
and just change the store names.  Just let them know that you do not
approve of the way they sell/treat there birds and that you will not
give the store your business until they stop selling birds. Yes a boycott.
Most stores/companies reply to all letters written to them.  The more letters
they get the more they are likely to change there ways.  But if you are going
to write to Walmart, send it to the Headquarters, the stores will throw the
letters away, they don't want to look bad to there bosses.  If you can point
out exact days when you saw dead/sick birds in there stores this helps too.

When I worked at K-mart, the birds would come from Florida for
special sales.  They would arrive in boxes with holes but no food or water.
Some of the birds would arrive dead other stressed out.  Since a chain
store usally uses the same ad across the whole country, that would mean
every K-mart store in the country got a shipment the same way. That was
so long ago that I don't remember if they were trucked or flown in, but
I would tend to believe in the truck method, it would be cheaper, even if
you did lose a few birds, I bet they have a good mark up.  Lets see, bird
mill, no vet bills, mass raised, who cares about breeding quality.

my two-cents
maggie
From: indridi@rhi.hi.is (Indridi Bjornsson)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: How I tought my bird to shake hands/legs
Date: 13 Apr 92 11:15:17 GMT
Reply-To: indridi@krafla (Indridi Bjornsson)
Organization: University of Iceland (RHI)


      Hello fellow bird owners :-)


   I have read couple of books about parrots, coctails etc.
many of them great books, but they all seem to lack good reading 
on how to train your bird. What tricks birds can be tought, 
how to teach them that particular trick, what you should use 
as motivations etc.

   So I was wondering. How about starting something like:
"How I tought my bird to ?????", where one would tell about
what he did and how he did it. I'm sure that there are lot of
people out there that have great ideas about training and can
tell about their success in teaching a trick.




   To head off with the discussion I can tell you how I tought
my bird to sheak hand/legs. I have a 2 years old Blue fronted
Amazon, called Geko. 

  The first thing I did was to decite excacly what I wanted him
to do and when. You shouldn't change your method from time to time
'cause that can esaly confuse the bird. The thing I wanted 
him to do was that when I put my bend index-finger out shaked 
it up and down and said "How do you do?", he would grap my finger 
with his right leg.

   I started off by putting the bird on the back off my office-chair
(expl: it's his favorite place in my room), sat myself beside him
and headed off for the first lesson.

   First I took one grain of sun-flower in my left hand and showed 
it to him (expl: sun-flower grains are his candy), so he got all
excited. Then I but my bend index-finger out shaked it up and
down and said "How do you do?", stoped shaking the finger and held
it still before him and held the grain just a litle out of his reach.
So the only thing he had to do was step on my finger to get his candy.
When he got the idea ("by using his finger, I can get the candy, HA HA") 
I stopped my index finger a bit closer to the bird and in a bit more 
height, so he had to climbed up on my finger to get the candy. As 
soon as he grap my finger with his leg (trying to climb up), I just 
handed him the candy and complemented him with frases like 
"Oh what a GOOD boy" etc. Soon he discovered that he only had to 
grap my finger to get the candy.

   I think it only took my about 10-15 minutes until he figured out
the trick, but though he has learned it I always try to remember to 
shake his leg each day so he want forget it. The funny thing about it 
all, is that sometimes he even lift up his leg without me doing 
anything in hope of getting a candy :-)


thanks for your time,
Indridi.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indridi Bjornsson       | No rights reserved. All part of this publication  |
Taeknigardur, Dunhaga 5 | may be reproduced, in any form or by any means,   |
107 Reykjavik           | except intended or intensive sexual harassment    |
ICELAND                 | against elderly animals and children.             |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
From: ttkunat@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (DAVE KUNATH)
Subject: Congo grey chewing
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
Date:  9 Apr 1992 16:01 EST  


	Can anyone give me the name of something that will keep my Grey 
busy ?  I let him out of his cage every morning and evening to be with me, 
but besides following me around he likes to chew everything he can get his 
beak on.  He gets fed a well balanced diet, and is very active.  I'm 
wondering if he is getting bored.  I've tried some wood, but he just walks 
away from it and would rather grab my tennis shoes lace ends (the little 
plasic piece).  If anyone can give me some hints, as to what to try I would 
appreciate it.  

Thanks in advance,

David J. Kunath
NASA Lewis Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio
From: swt@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: Re: Orange juice for parrots?
Date: 15 Apr 92 13:57:03 EDT
Distribution: rec
Organization: Cornell University

In article <dlcogswe.703291524@vela>,
dlcogswe@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Dan Cogswell) writes: 
> Here's a simple one for all of you:  is orange juice/citrus fruit/etc.
> okay for parrots?  A friend told me to avoid feeding citrus fruit to
> my conure becuase of the amount of acid involved.  Still, my bird LOVES
> orange juice.  I've been giving him a shot-glass full in the morning for
> the last few days.  He drinks much more OJ than water. 
> --
> Dan Cogswell               dlcogswe@vela.acs.oakland.edu

I've heard this too, but Keltset and Clancy (African grey and maroon-bellied
vampire) both like orange juice, oranges, grapefruit, tomato sauce, and other
acidic things, and neither of them has shown any ill effects.  Darby, the
green-cheeked conure I had custody of a while ago, also liked oranges and
tomatoes and never seemed harmed by them.  If anyone knows why these things
might be bad for birds, I'd be grateful to hear too.
 
			--Beth 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
swt@VAX5.CIT.CORNELL.EDU|"Watch what you say, they'll be calling you a radical,
			| A liberal,
			| Fanatical, criminal..."  -- Supertramp
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: rdmiller@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Ruth D Miller)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: cute lovebird story
Date: 14 Apr 1992 15:17:36 -0500
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: matt.ksu.ksu.edu

Our clutch of 3 Fischer's lovebirds is now down to one very cute female
(I think).  She's 10 weeks (yesterday), likes to sit on my shoulder and
wander over the kitchen table when I'm working, or come in the kitchen
ans steal from all the bird dishes when I'm fixing breakfast.  She preens
my hair and nibbles my ear and is, in short, absolutely darling.  I thought
I'd share w/you the sillier of her activities of late:

She discovered, wandering around the kitchen table, the sugar spoon in
the sugar bowl.  Being a lovebird, she bites everything, so she went to
bite this (stainless) spoon. Halfway there she saw a nasty, bad-tempered
lovebird in the spoon, reaching out to bite her!  Of course, no coward, she
fluffed up, crouched down and opened her beak wider--but the other bird
did the same!  She stuck out her tongue and got as big as possible--and
Keith and I weere rolling on the floor, she looked so silly!  THose birds
in silverware really are mean!  Not like the bird in the bathroom mirror--
he's really cute, even though he won't get close...

And my brother doesn't understand why we keep these pigeons! :-)

Ruth
From: afkazan@lims01.lerc.nasa.gov (CHRISTINE KAZAN)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: Robin Attacking Storm Door
Date: 16 Apr 92 22:14:00 GMT
Article-I.D.: lims01.16APR199217140675
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

Maybe this doesn't belong in this newsgroup, but I thought it might be a 
good place to start.  For the past few days, a robin or robins   [I can't 
tell if it might be the same one -- they all look alike to me |;-) ]   has 
been attacking the storm doors on my house, front and side doors.  It will 
lunge at the door and then land on the ground over and over again.  At first 
I thought it was seeing its reflection and attacking it, but it only flies at 
the doors and not the windows of the house.  It's the strangest thing I've 
ever seen.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?  I'm worried that this poor thing 
will hurt itself  [and this from a cat lover |;-) ].  Thanks for any tips 
you have to offer.

Chris
From: Sue.Kobel@bird.com (Sue Kobel)
Sender: FredMail@bird.com
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: Re: BIRDS IN WALMART
Date: 15 Apr 92  09:40:09 EST


 >     For two:  The cages are filthy and the birds mangy looking.
 >     For three:  I once saw a 'keet flying around on the metal
 > rafters up neer the ceiling of a Meijer store because it had somehow
 > gotten loose.  A store employee assured me that they would catch it,
 > but I didn't believe it for a minute.  That place is *HUGE*.  How
 > could they possibly corner the poor little guy?  More likely he
 > soon starved to death and they scooped him up off the floor.  An
 > ex-girlfriend of mine claimed to have seen a 'tiel kill himself
 > trying to fly out the big glass windows at the front of the another
 > store once.
 >     for four:  A buyer would have no idea as to the age or health
 > of the bird.
 >     for five:  (this is the one that really burns my oatmeal)
 > I have been told that these birds come from "bulk breeding" farms
 > where they are raised in quantity (not handfed) and shipped to
 > stores in much the same way you would ship inanimate objects.
 > They are packed into tiny boxes with no food or water (or not
 > much) and hauled around like so many boxes of cookies.  Supposidly,
 > a good number (more than 50%) die along the way due to stress,
 > malnourishment, etc.
 > 
 >      I wouldn't buy such birds under *ANY* circumstances, not even
 > to save the animals.  If we purchase them, they will just get
 > more and make a profit.  If nobody bought them, ever, the stores
 > would soon stop selling them (they're no fools).
 > 

Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
From: roberts@studguppy.lanl.gov (Doug Roberts)
Subject: Re: Button Quail
Organization: Technology Modeling and Analysis, LANL-A7
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 20:12:27 GMT


In article <1992Apr10.172407.14144@alw.nih.gov> kaszyn@helix.nih.gov (Eve Kaszynski) writes:

> You cannot have more than one male button quail in the same cage or one
> will eventually kill the other.  This happened to me.  

I can see the headlines now: 

	 "MAN RETURNS FROM THE GRAVE TO TELL HOW
	HE WAS PECKED TO DEATH BY HIS BUTTON QUAIL!"


Sorry, that was too good to resist :-}.

--Doug
--

================================================================
Douglas Roberts                
Los Alamos National Laboratory 
dzzr@lanl.gov  
                
^C^C  ^X^C  ^X^Z  :w  :q  :q! :wq  :wq! ^d  X exit
 X Q  :quitbye  CtrlAltDel   ~~q  :~q  logout  save/quit :!QUIT 
^[zz ^[ZZ ZZZZ  ^H  ^@  ^L  ^[c  ^# ^E ^X ^I ^T  ?  
help  helpquit ^D  ^d ^C ^c helpexit ?Quit ?q  ^Kx  /QY  
sync;halt
From: vaughn@cs.washington.edu (Vaughn Iverson)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: Re: Orange juice for parrots?
Date: 15 Apr 92 19:52:12 GMT
Organization: Computer Science & Engineering, U. of Washington, Seattle

In article <dlcogswe.703291524@vela> dlcogswe@vela.acs.oakland.edu (Dan Cogswell) writes:
>Here's a simple one for all of you:  is orange juice/citrus fruit/etc.
>okay for parrots?  A friend told me to avoid feeding citrus fruit to
>my conure becuase of the amount of acid involved.  Still, my bird LOVES
>orange juice.  I've been giving him a shot-glass full in the morning for
>the last few days.  He drinks much more OJ than water. 
>--
>Dan Cogswell               dlcogswe@vela.acs.oakland.edu


Well, I've been feeding Orange and Tangarine wedges (the little baby ones)
to my Sun Conure for over a year.  He "juices" them with his beak and seems
to love it.  I don't give them every day though, usually 2-3 times a week
because I alternate the fruit that he gets to keep it interesting.  There
have been no problems after a year and he seems to love it (although Apples
are still the favorite).

V     
-- 
 Vaughn Iverson            |  If the State of Washington thought my opinion 
 vaughn@cs.washington.edu  |  was worth anything, they'd try to tax it.
 --------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
 Univ. of Washington, Dept. of Computer Science, FR-35  Seattle, WA 98195
From: qhwpyd@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Cynthia Goff)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: Re: Cockatiel behavior
Date: 15 Apr 92 13:08:27 GMT
Article-I.D.: mentor.45504


     This is the first indication my first 'tiel bird gave me that 
it was a male.  He would also tap his beak as well as bob his head.
Galen bobs his head like a chicken forcing air out of his nostrils,
holds his wings slightly away from his body, walks in an exaggerated
fashion and will sort of bow or swing his head down to the table and
all the way back up again while standing on his tiptoes and then he
will begin to talk or whistle.  (The forcing of air out of his nostrils
is not a health problem.  He passed his yearly check-up with flying    
colors.)  He is hilarious to watch! 
     Like yours, he was less than a year old when this started.  Since
he is a normal grey I knew for sure after his first molt.
Cindy Goff
From: ronb@strl.labs.tek.com (Ron Bremer;5608;50-662;LP=A;)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: Re: Need Advice
Date: 7 Apr 92 15:22:51 GMT
Reply-To: ronb@crl.labs.tek.com
Organization: CRL, Tektronix Inc, USA

In article <AdsAusS00WBM08H7Nm@andrew.cmu.edu>, sh4e+@andrew.cmu.edu (Steve Ha) writes:
|> I'm thinking about buying a bird as a pet, of course.  Since it's my
|> first time, can anyone please give me any recomandation on species? 
|> Thanks for your time.
|> 
|>                                                             - Steven -

You will have to provide more information about what you expect from
your bird.  Did you want a bird that you can enjoy watching and listening
to in a cage or aviary?  Do you want to hold the bird a lot, pet it, and
generally give it lots of attention?  Do you would to occasionally hold
the bird, but at other times want him to entertain himself?  How big of
a bird do you want?  What noise level can you tolerate (or your neighbors)?
How much money are you willing to spend?  Are you able to accept a hard
bite occassionally without loosing your cool?  Do you want a bird that will
have a good chance of learning to talk?  With more information your
question can be more accurately addressed.

After saying all that, my first bird was a cockatiel and I think they are
a great first bird.  They are very friendly and easy to handle.  They are
relatively quiet.  They are small, so they don't take up much space.  They
are hardy, so you are not visiting the vet every other week.  They like to
bluff you with their mean look and hisses, but they seldom bite and when
mine did bite, you hardly felt it.  None of my kids had a problem handling
our cockatiel.

-- Ron --


+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ronald J. Bremer  (503)627-5608  | Here is my final conclusion:   |
| Software Technology Research Lab | Fear God and obey his command- |
| P.O. Box 500    M.S. 50-662      | ments, for this is the entire  |
| Beaverton, OR   98662            | duty of man.                   |
| ronb@strl.LABS.TEK.COM           |                       Solomon  |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
From: susan@solace.me.uiuc.edu (Susan Wrightson)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: Re: cute lovebird story
Date: 14 Apr 92 21:39:22 GMT
Article-I.D.: ux1.1992Apr14.213922.29626
Organization: U of I Dept. of Mech. and Ind. Engr., Urbana, Ill.

Here's another cute bird story:

A friend of mine has a ringneck parrakeet that is quite a talker.
She bought one of those little stainless bowls that you can hang
from the side bars of the cage and put it within reach of the perch.

He dumps all his vegetables out, puts his head completely inside the
bowl (probably to get as close as he can to his reflection) and 
starts talking as loudly as he can!


+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
| Susan Wrightson                         "And there you are, Fast  |
| Academic Advisor                         Eddie, with lust in your |
| Mech. and Ind. Engineering               soul when I want you     |
| susan@solace.me.uiuc.edu                 thinking pool!"          |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ 
From: billc@col.hp.com (Bill Claussen)
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 14:32:05 GMT
Subject: HELP!..feather repost please
Organization: HP Colorado Springs Division
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds


A few days ago, someone posted some information about
a medicine (or vitaman) to help promote feather growth.

Unfortunatly the note dissapeared before I had a chance
to print it out.

Could whoever posted it repost it for me?...I'd really
appreciate it.

Bill C.
From: bkelley@pms704.pms.ford.com (Brian Kelley)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.birds
Subject: Re: birds in walmart
Date: 13 Apr 92 21:53:28 GMT
Article-I.D.: fmsrl7.1992Apr13.215328.12228
Organization: Bird-Peace

In article <1992Apr13.162448.17766@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> bmartino@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Bob Martino) writes:
>In article <1992Apr10.183535.181@unx.sas.com> sasefj@junebug.unx.sas.com (Edith
> Jeffreys) writes:
>     I am appalled at this practice.

It is very depressing.  I generally avoid the bird sections at those types
of stores :-(

>What do you guys think?

Initially, I didn't have any good ideas on how to improve this situation.
However, I just thought of something that just might help.  How about
some paper stickers (the kind that really don't like to come off) which
read something like 
"BOYCOTT POORLY TREATED MASS MERCHANDISED BIRDS - BUY DIRECT FROM BREEDERS
AND PET STORES!"

These could be frequently stuck very near the glass cage area.   One
concern is that that the removal of the sticker would not be pleasant for
the birds, and toxic cleaning chemicals might be used.

Surely this is a rather radical suggestion, but this really bugs me.

  Brian


---
bkelley@pms001.pms.ford.com
Organization: Sophomore, Social & Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA