I believe, and again it was a lot of info I was trying to digest, the TO would be in another room in a different cage with dimmed lighting and mainly used for when it was being an overly squawking teenager. When it was quiet and behaved he could join the family again. Time outs were not to be used for everything, like you said working with the bird not just punishing it would be a better approach, but if it decided it just wanted to scream for hours just for the heck of it that would not be good.
Yeah, that would work fine.
On the biting she mentioned that birds use their beaks a lot as a foot, so learning how your bird does that will help prevent mistaken bites, and the bird instinctively bites harder if the object moves away, so when it is climbing on your finger using it's beak you get to know that. Both of the birds used their beaks and I could hardly feel it.
The using the beak as a hand analogy is a really good one. Thats actually by and large the "biting" I was talking about. It happens all too common that a bird will reach out with its beak to touch an owner, the owner will freak because they are "getting bitten" and try to pull away, the bird bites down harder becuase it doesn't want to not touch the owner or worse yet, the owners movements cause it to loose its balance and it feels as if its falling, the owner bleeds.
That said, there is a very distinct difference between a bird "tasting" and "touching" and a bird biting the crap out of you.
I was going to look around and see what avian vets are around here also, and had planned on a visit shortly after if I got the bird, but thanks for the reminder. That is a specialized field? I believe you said you were working on getting that? So most dog and cat vets would not be where you would want to take a bird?
Where are you living at again? I may be able to give you a recommendation on where to go. Yes, avian medicine is a disstinct veterinary speciality (different from poultry medicine) recognized by the AVMA. The specialists are American Board of Veterinary Practitioners: Avian. A good avian veterinarian does not have to be a board certified specialist, they just need to be up to date on information about birds. As a minimum I'd check to see that the are a member of the American Association of Avian Veterinarians---this is the association that publishs the Journal of Avian Medicine and Surgery and gives the annual conference (which is a week of continuing education on up to date avian medicine and surgery topics).
I know several "dog and cat" vets who are good avian veterinarians becuase they take the time to learn about the uniqueness of the avian species. I also know a few who claim to be "avian" veterinarians who are first class fuck ups when it comes to how they deal with avian patients.
Check your PM's too, I sent you some information.
So, what about vaccines? I don't know if they are supposed to get any, but I do know that birds are more susceptible to some diseases so if there are bird vacs you might just convince me to consider some or all.[/color]
I dont' see a reason to vaccinate a pet bird in a situation like this. A vet who tries to tell you otherwise is trying to make a buck or they are thinking of something I'm sure not thinking of.