A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2005 Whiskey Man

Well, I've posted pictures of Lola, Freckles, and my skunks. Finally got a camera with a 10X zoom so I could get a good picture of my crow.

"Whiskey Man"


Named after the "Old Crow" brand!

I have no pets .. its a cool bird though. The last time we had birds, my mom kept 3 parakeets but then somehow they got out of their cage and the cats killed them.

ok, that wasnt very happy..

No kidding!
Sounds like my pigeons...cat got them, too.

Have you seen my parrot pics?
Lola is a trip!

no i havnt actually.. im not sure how to look at pictures or find them.. haha i know how to browse the message board but thats about it.. i really dont even know how to post a picture in a message .. but i can figure it out pretty easily.. i guess i just click on one of those "Instant UBB Code" buttons haha

Don't be pushing those buttons!
The forum will explode or something, I think!

Lola

Right now there is a big hawk sitting about 2 feet from Whiskey's breakfast. So, Whiskey is pretty mad.

If they get into a fight, who will kick butt?

Wondering if I should go out there and tell the hawk to leave.

I WOULD! I'd be worried the hawk would hurt "Whiskey Man"

Well...Lola was wanting to go out there and kick some butt, but I'm trying to keep her calm. She wanted a drink awhile ago, so I got a little cup of water for her, and she threw it and said "Pop!" So, I gave her some Pepsi (mixed with water) and she drank a bunch of it, now she's mean. Wants to bust bad on the hawk. She saw it from the door.

So, I just went out and scared it off...unfortunately, it landed in Whiskey's big tree, way behind the house. It's sitting about 15 feet higher in the tree than Whiskey right now.

So why don't you just have G~Mom send her "friendly" parrot over to have a "conversation" with the hawk! That should take care of it!(but wait til she finishes the video clip/conference call segmant)

I wish G-Mom would have caught that parrot!
That would have been sooo cool, for both of us to have "bad birds"!

I haven't seen "Whiskey Man" since the hawk incident.
Getting a little worried.
I just finished making his breakfast. I hope he's out there in the morning when I go out to feed him.

He finally showed up!

I was sooo worried. He's usually outside waiting for me when I bring his breakfast right after the sun comes up, but he wasn't there. Hours passed, and no crow. I will admit that I did cry during this period! And, now my nose is stopped up and my eyes are swelled for NO REASON!

I was sitting here sending a PM to Jenn awhile ago and I heard him calling me to come outside.
I took the camera with me to get a picture of him busting bad on the cardinal that was trying to get a bite of his breakfast. Not the greatest picture, because you can't see his face, but it shows how HUGE he is next to the cardinal. He's quite impressive!

Ohhh!! I see the cardinal in there! That IS a big crow!!! We have a couple impressive ones around here also, but I don't feed them. There is a big field down the street from us that they find food in.

Yep...he's WAY bigger than all his crow buddies around here.
He won't let them eat any of his food!

Trying to figure out a way to get him to the house I'm moving to. It's waaaaay on the other side of town. (About 12 miles) If I leave him here no one will feed him anymore. It makes me sad just thinking about having to leave him.

Maybe a live trap???

You know...I've thought about that.
I could probably catch him myself in just a few days time. He's gotten pretty tame, and comes right to me. But, then I start feeling bad thinking about taking him away from his home. Like, what if he has kids here and a wife?

I think too much!

I don't think crows have a permanent mate. And you'd be surprised how far they will fly. Maybe if you catch him and show him where you are (the new house) by taking him in the trap and feeding him his favorite as soon as you release him, he'll be able to fly to his regular home and then to your house when he wants to. I bet he's been around that other neighborhood before.

You think so?
Brennan swears that he follows us places. The other day we went to a store a few miles from here, and when we came out there was a huge crow on the electric pole outside the store. He started making his crow noise real loud and flew closer, and Brennan said "Look! Whiskey Man followed us!" I told him that all crows looked alike, but he insisted it was Whiskey. Maybe it was!

Ya know...that's pretty scary in itself, Cindy!!!!

Ms. Cindy,
If you catch your crow, you should see if he'll let you tag him. Try putting a lil cuff around his foot. You can take him to the vet to do this if you want i believe. but ya, Ravins and crows are one of the smartest birds out there ^.^ They could talk if they had the proper structure

Is there any chance that you could walk or ride a bike from your house to your new house? Cuz if you did that, and then just stayed at ur new house, i'm pretty sure he'd get the idea pretty easily that that's ur new location. Just make sure he's following you somehow ^.^ That might be hard though, cuz they can be pretty stelthy when they wana follow someone.

*thinks* don't worry about transporting Lola either. If its just a car ride across town like you say, then you can just take her in a box. The box keeps her blinded from what's outside so she won't get stressed out, and she'll just come out in a new place and be like "huh?" for a while. But she'll get used to it in less than a day

~Phoebe

Last time I moved, Lola went into shock and almost died.
I should probably be doing something to get her used to being transported...maybe put her in her travel cage once a day and see how she does. Kind of get her accustomed to it before I actually take her anywhere.

Sounds like a plan.

I read somewhere that crows and ravens can learn to talk or mimic. Apparently, their vocabulary can be as extensive as a parrot's.

A place I used to live had a lot of ravens in the area. Every day around 3:00 p.m. they would flock in groups of maybe 40-50, sit on the telephone and light standards and "chat" for about half an hour, then separate again. The ravens were so predictable you could set your clock by them. It was freaky at first but really neat to watch them!

I've heard you have to split their tongue to enable them to talk. Not sure if it's true or not. Might have to google it and find out.

It would be neat to have a talking crow, but no way I'd do that to one.

Imagine the conversations "Whiskey Man" and "Lola" would have!

G-Mom

:rolleyes:

I fear they'd be talking about me.

Hey Cindy,
Was it the car ride that stressed Lola out or was it the new house? Because if you had an overlapping time frame...like....an overlapping week or two weeks where you could be in either house, you might be able to desensitise her to whatever stressed her out. Like, if going in the car was it, put her in her travel cage for just a little bit in the next few weeks and then take her out to the car and just sit in the car for like 5 minutes for a couple of days...then take a short drive around the block fora couple days and then maybe for a mile and so on. After each time, reward her with her favorite snack, so that she will actually look forward to going. Then, take her into the new house for a little bit and let her look around and explore. Maybe hide some snacks around so that she will like the new house because she'll associate that with the new house. Stay a little longer each time and maybe slowly transport your household belongings slowly to the new house so that something is familiar there.

When we first got Coho, we were travelling to Stephen's parent's house alot and we desensitised him to the car. He loves going on car rides now. He usually lays in the back deck and looks at people. Its always funny to look in the rear view mirror and see people pointing at him once they've realized he's not a stuffed animal.

Jenn...it's the car ride that scares her, and getting into her travel cage. When she was a baby I'd take her to Louisville pretty often (300 miles) to the vet there, but stopped taking her so far to the vet because I was always afraid I'd get a speeding ticket.

The last several times I've had her in her travel cage have been because we've moved, and she's gone into shock every time. She starts having seizures and once a small stroke. The vet said it was a thousand wonders she lived through it. It doesn't take much to kill a parrot...that's why the vet here won't even see her - he's afraid she'll go into shock and die on him.

That's a good idea, starting out with the baby steps to get her used to traveling. I wish I would have kept taking her places as she was growing up, then it would be a treat to go "bye-bye" instead of a traumatic experience.

OMG!! That's incredibly CRUEL!

No kidding. People do it with a razor blade.
I think someone should split THEIR tongue with a razor blade and let them see how it feels.

Makes me mad just thinking about it.

Someone did...I saw it on Ripleys' Believe it or Not. He's the lizard guy....its gross!

There's some strange people out there.......

You want to see strange? Go to BME's website sometime. (body modification ezine) They have photos of "body mods", ie- piercings, tattoos, and the occasional cuttings. *shudder*

Meg

NO! ! ! ! !

Unfortunately...all I have to do is look in the mirror!

uh oh.. I got the frownie face from Bill.

Where is the *bow down* graemlin when you want one?

Meg

Hey, you get used to it after awhile!

QUOTE "THE LAST SEVERAL TIMES I,VE HAD HER IN HER TRAVEL CAGE HAVE BEEN BECAUSE WE,VE MOVED"
May l beg a question here Cindy how often do you move to a new home .
We have moved 5 times in 40yrs :rolleyes:

At least once a year.
Usually twice a year.
Not a new home, just going back to my home to live awhile, then back here for awhile.
It's gotten a little old now.
This time I'm going HOME!

Cindy

What a lovely feeling the word's "I AM GOING HOME" conjure up. "THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME".
The feeling when you have been away, even though you have enjoyed lt, when you walk through your own front door "HEAVEN"
I even think the house misses us, it certainly seems to cheer up, when the heating goes on, the kettle boils. "Yes we are home" eccentric maybe?
Doreen