Perfect Inexpensive Play-house/Tower

[birdlady49]

People handle grief in different ways. Some vow to never never never get another dog/cat/bird/etc. Others think they have to wait a "respectable" amount of time before getting another. Still others need to fill the void immediately.

None should be criticized for their method of handling grief as long as the new dog/cat/bird/etc is immediately given the love and care such a critter demands.

[Macaaaw]

One of the birds I purchased is darn lucky it was sold when it did, and to someone that does hands on inspections. One of the birds had a band that was too small and above the joint, grown into his leg. This would have been there for round numbers ten years. I discovered it running my hands up and down his legs (all the while screaming from under his towel:(

He is all better now. Ring removed, leg all better.

You would think the next owner whoever it might have been would discover it, but how many people purchase an adult grumpy macaw and then just feed it and watch it in their living room in a cage without checking it over? His last owner did not check it, or the vets missed it. Who knows.

So this bird has my "bucks" (my dead bird, not my wallet) to thank for his mended leg.

It all works out somehow.

[Beaks]

the one at sams is stainless steel.

i have one of the 2 level carts that i use to feed and water (no chrome at all 100% stainless and only about 60 bucks)

[sassa]

Gary,

sorry to hear about you scarlet. I know you don't want to hear sorry's as many people already said it over, and over again, so I'll leave it at that.

If it's not trouble to you, do you mind telling me how your scarlet was with you? I hope I'm not impossing, on asking this kind of question.

I really wanted to get a macaw, but I'm undesided on which to get a scarlet macaw or the Umbrella 2. Now I know all about Umbrella, but I know very little about the scarlet. would you be able to help me out?

Thanks, I hope it's not trouble to you, if it is, just say so. I know it's hard to speak of a loved one who is no longer with you. I have gone through the same thing, but slitly different from yours.

[Macaaaw]

I had two scarlets. One thinks I am her cuddle buddy and the one that died. That bird was a woman bird and pretty much only liked my wife. Even with her, this bird was the boss.

Bucks had a nick name: Jerk bird. That name pretty much says it all. Everything was on his terms. Even though, we still miss him. Adding another six macaws did nothing to lessen our loss. I miss his attitude everyday.

If I had it to do all again? Can you say finches boys and girls!

[sassa]

Yes, I understand adding more birds didn't do the trick and will never replace that bird that you lost.

I feel the same way with my TAF(Timneh African Grey) She took flight one morning, when I took her out for a walk with me and my puppy. I didn't know she had grew her wings completly, she normally takes flight in the house when her wings are fully grown, but this time she didn't and took flight out side, stupid me. I lost her now 1 year from October. I immidiatly thought I could replace her with a another bird. I got a Sulpher Crested Too, that had been in a home with other four really young wild kids. Boy could this bird scretch to the top of his longs and he wouldn't stop for a good 20 minutes when we was tired. I really made the mistake in getting him, becuase he had also came from an abusive situation before the owners who had sold him to me. He really needed someone who understood about those types of birds and who could spend more time with him. He was a male bird, my husband is never home and it really hert me to see my husband go and Elmo not knowing where my husband was going to. anyways, I found Elmo a really, nice home in Tennessee out in the country, with a woman who has a husband and whom Elmo grew to love and really close to now. Elmo also likes another Cackatoo, and they both growms each other. So he is really happier their then he would have been here without my husband being here all the time.

I then, had gotten an Eclectus baby, weaned her and stayed with her for about a months after she was finished weaned, then I got her a new home with a poet writer who spends allot of his time at home writing. He lives right here in Richmond. Really nice guy. I thought she too could replace Zina my lost African Grey.

It has been a year now, and I am over Zina although not quite, but I really miss a feathery friend around me and cuddling with me and I'm looking to permantly add to our family a baby whose going to be with me from a few months to hopefully for all our lives. I was thinking about a scarlet macaw, but I herd they are not quite as cuddly as an Umbrella would be. But then again I know an Umbrella is really needy, well so was Zina, becuase I had her that way.

My husband said that I should go with the Umbrella knowing the way I am and knowing the natured of the Umbrella. I'm afraid if I get a scarlet macaw that she won't turn out to be what I want her to be, loving, cuddly, calm and noisy bird, like our household is when it's holidays.

I have done so much research and I thinking on getting an Umbrella, but I'm still undesided, that is why I was asking you how was your scarlet with you or even with your wife. If she was cuddly, warm, nice, likes to stay close to your wife, basically the nature of an Umbrella. I think any bird can be what we want them to be, is just that we have to take the time, and it all depends on our personalities as well. They do take on to their human personalities allot. So this really makes a difficult desicion to make as I wish I could have both, but money can't afford both and I want to give all my attention to one.

[Macaaaw]

My knowledge of Umbrellas is limited and not hands on. I think of them as birds that are needy. They need time, and attention? Scarlets are more of a hands off bird. My female will accept love and give love, but she does not demand love, she just wants it when it is available.

A scarlet makes a great stamp, or a great painting. They make great zoo displays in groups. However, they do not as a general rule make great pets. As macaws go, a scarlet may be towards the bottom of the pet bird list. People on here may disagree with me, but scarlets in general are like the birds that guard the gates of far below places. My female scarlet is a perfect pet bird for me, but she has tried to remove body parts from my wife, and will do so again and again as often as she gets the chance.

I can hold her upside-down. I can groom every feather. I can swing her by her tail feathers. We exchange feeding responses (her to me, I gave up regurgitating - hard on my teeth and it bleaches my shirts - lol) She lays on her back with her feet in the air and loves to be played with. She is a stuffed feathered toy that talks and cuddles and poops. However, she is an odd egg. Very few scarlets get to a pet level like my scarlet has with me. It is much easier and more frequent to get on a deep pet level with Green-winged macaws or Blue and Golds or hyacinths. Scarlets are very pretty, but they are nippy to harsh bites more often than not.

I would like an umbrella, but I do not have that many extra hours in a day. lol

[ROYJOY]

the ones at sams here are chrome plated.

[sassa]

Thank you Gary,

Your story help me allot and it was what I have been looking for, for a few days now, and it has help me desided more and more on the Umbrella. I was speaking with my husband and he said that I should get the Umbrella becuase of my sense of humor and I can't go wrong with the Umbrella. I had found a very informational website last night about birds. It give some info. on the Scarlet, but not what I was looking for. Now it did give a good info. on the Umbrella's and I had desided at that moment, and felt in my hart that it would be better for me to have the Umbrella instead of the Scarlet. But your story just made it a little more easier to stick with the Umbrella instead and that is what I'm going to do.

I had asked the lady whom is selling a scarlet macaw to give tell me exactly what you just said here and she kind of ignored me on that subject and spoke of something else. I just wanted some more info so I don't make the wrong desicion as I have been doing for the pass year.

I'm getting a baby Umbrella from a guy whom I had gotten the Eclectus from which she wasn't weaned yet and I finish weaning her. So I'm glad that he will let me have the Umbrella without having to finish the weaned that way I could finish weaning the Umbrella and he/she would get attach to me and would know from the beginning that I'm her/his momma.

[Macaaaw]

You are welcome Sassa! Enjoy your new baby!