 All right, so here we go. We'll see what Lou has to say. Besides, no, she's okay because she's flying around and hanging out. I can't believe it's a she. Hello, my fellow snippers. I'm sorry, Vinnie. I forgot to introduce you. Okay, guys, for those of you who are new here, welcome to my channel. If you love birds, subscribe. And only if you love birds, you don't have to have a bird. You just have to love animals. So here's the thing. I'm here to share with you my platform on Engage Not Caged. My name is Marlene McCohen. This is Vinnie. We're showing you how to live with your parrots that are engaged, which means enriched, involved with, taught, tamed, worked with, and not caged. Vinnie here is playing with this box. All right, now, something really crazy has happened today, which we're going to talk about in a second. But first, I don't know who sent me this. Maybe Squawk Box. But thank you, Squawk Box. This is not sponsored, but Vinnie has found the box. Yeah, and pulled out the toy is cool. So obviously it's a hit. Okay, so everyone go get their Squawk Box. Now, we have a very important subject today. I'm going to talk to you about it in the car. It's very, very important. Also, very shocking. Shocking, shocking, shocking. We are about to do a DNA reveal on one of my birds. Who happened to do it herself. Okay, guys, now that we're in the car, we could talk seriously. So here is the story. I'm not going to tell you which bird yet, because I wanted to be a little bit of a reveal, but basically one of my birds laid an egg. And I think we should have a serious discussion about this, because I want you to know what to do if it happens to you and what signs to look for. Okay, so here's the thing. I was in Vegas meeting up with bird tricks. When I came home, I saw all my birds. They were all in really good spirits. Nothing seemed like anything was wrong at all. In fact, they were all doing fantastic. And then George was sitting with the bird in question and the bird in question, that bird was refusing to leave George just like full of love and kisses. And George was like, oh my God, he's never been like this with me before. But he had been like that in terms of loving, but not in terms of not wanting to like leave him. Okay, that's kind of like a cue when a bird is extra loving, but the bird in question is actually always loving, never a biter, never difficult in any way. Actually nice to meet George and Jenna. So I was a little suspicious, but not completely suspicious. So then we all started to eat dinner and that bird in question was lively, like fine, okay? And when we were eating dinner, George's mom said that bird was really picky about what he ate. I'm going to keep saying he because until I know for certain what sex my bird is, I always refer to them as he, even if I suspect that the bird is a she, I still refer to them as a he because it's just like easier until like I have an official DNA testing. George's mom said, oh, so and so is really picky about what they've been eating. And I'm like, okay, that's totally normal for that bird. And she's like, yeah, he didn't want to eat anything. And I'm like, huh, either she didn't know what to give him but she usually knows. But if she noticed something was different then what I'm going to do is go around and check all their vents. I kid you not. This is something that you should know to do just to see if anything is different about your bird. Usually the vent can tell you and for those of you who don't know what the vent is, the vent is, you know, where the birdie goes potty from at the bottom of the bird. That was just like two things that raise my suspicion. So I went around and checked all the bird's vents but specifically that bird and the vent was protruded a little bit and a little bit swollen and dirty. And I was like, oh my God, I hope this bird is not suffering from egg binding. I knew what to do right away. Basically I took now a hur and I felt the area just to make sure that there was no egg bound in there. And then of course I went to see if there was an egg in the cage. Maybe I should have done that first but my first thought was like, let me just see how this is. So I didn't feel any egg. It really literally seemed like the bird had just laid an egg. So of course I went to see the cage and the bird in fact laid an egg. Now when you're looking at an egg you want to make sure that the shell is hard and not soft because a soft shell could imply that the bird had some difficulty or didn't have enough calcium to lay the egg and that's when you worry that your bird is egg bound. For those of you who don't know what egg binding is or an egg bound bird is, that's when your bird has an egg that it's trying to lay because of certain amount of stimulation or hormones and it can't because it doesn't have enough calcium to actually form the egg which is really important and or it hadn't had enough exercise to push out an egg which is really dangerous. That's why these two things are a very important part of parrot ownership aka companionship. One, your bird needs to be getting enough calcium and vitamin D. If your bird is calcium deficient then your bird won't have the right nutrients to form the egg and that's when it can become really dangerous and vitamin D is important because that increases the absorption of calcium. So when you see, for example, milk cartons and they say with added vitamin D it's because you almost can't absorb calcium without vitamin D. Where do you get vitamin D from natural sunlight, right? So that's why my birds have an aviary and that's why they like to go out there every day and it's important for me to get some sun and to touch on the second part of that the birds being strong enough to push the egg out. That's all in the muscle tone. So that's why having a flighted parrot that has a lot of exercise is really important because the other option if you have clipped birds and they're overweight then the chances of them pushing out an egg becoming egg bound, having to have hysterectomy then you're always going to be going to the doctor for meds and drugs and their liver is so, so tiny. So if you can prevent that then that is honestly the best way. I'm not saying that Lupron shots and things like that aren't necessary sometimes for certain birds but honestly, I believe in prevention as much as possible rather than relying on doctors and that's why it's so important that your birds are healthy, okay? I can't stress that enough. So that comes from diet that comes from sunshine and that comes from having a well exercised bird. Usually birds that have trouble with egg binding are not getting the right nutrients and or they're not getting the right amount of exercise but there's lots of different things too. You can stimulate the hormones in your parrot unknowingly as well. In this case with this bird I'm going to reveal to you who it is in a second. We recently brought in another bird who I'm pretty sure is a male and that's one of the things that can really stimulate the hormones in your bird especially being that my bird is a female. So which bird is it? I'm going to show you right now and then we're going to talk a little bit more about this. It's Cody. Guys, Cody is literally a girl. We were going to do a DNA test on Cody. She did it on herself. Now there's some other important things to talk about because I know they're important to mention. So let's talk about creating nesting materials and things like that for your bird. This is why it's really important to know if your bird is a male or a female because egg binding can be dangerous if you have that kind of issue with your bird. So obviously if you have a male the male is more so going to be prone to aggression rather than egg binding during the hormonal phase. So knowing that you have a female could be a very important part of prevention and safety for your bird. Let's talk about boxes and nesting materials. Most of the time birds really love boxes. Sometimes birds just like to chew the cardboard up and sometimes birds like to go in the boxes. There's a huge difference. Going inside the boxes and sitting in there with a bunch of nesting materials can really induce the hormones in the parrot and create certain kind of behaviors. Cody's never been aggressive near her tent. She has kind of like this setup in the kitchen that she goes to and hides under for a little bit and then comes out. I don't put any nesting materials in there for her. Sometimes I put some toys like plastic toys that she can just play with. She never gets aggressive. She never treats it like a nest. I feel like Jersey would. That's why I don't give her anything like that because I know she's a female and I don't know. I've never seen her get territorial over anything like that or even be interested in anything like that but you just never know down the road. Now it is the season for hormones, raging, biting and that's why keeping a really good diet and working with the light inside and outside is important. So what signifies to your bird that it's spring? Usually that has to do with the light, right? So you want to make sure that you don't have extended hours of light for your parrot because that can stimulate hormones. So what you can do, this is what I've been doing is light is important though at the same time. My birds, they go outside and they hang out in their Avery and then when they come in, I kind of keep their cages during this season half covered. So the doors are completely open. They can go in and out but when they're inside later on maybe like five or six p.m. The same time as like daylight savings before we change it, I kind of like try to keep it a little bit darker inside. So that way I don't want to over stimulate any kind of springtime feelings for them. Also you would want to be careful with misters and spray bottles. I don't know if you guys know this but usually when birds breed, it tends to like rain. It's really hard to breed birds. Usually to get birds to breed you often have to be in a rainy environment or that's when they kind of get in their mode. I believe that when we brought Merlin home, Merlin kind of overstimulated Cody in a way. If you know what I mean, like having a male in the house that can really bring on the hormones. So I don't know if that's something you guys have ever experienced but that's something to be aware of especially if you have a female bird and you're thinking of bringing home a male and then it's hormonal season. That's just another thing to consider. In fact, that's the reason why we have Rocky because he was getting extremely overstimulated by the idea of a female macaw that lived with him that was going through her hormonal period. So here's the news about Cody who is a female. First things first, Cody laid a very healthy egg. No issues, no problems with it. Obviously because Cody gets a lot of exercise and Cody has a lot of calcium and Cody gets the vitamin D to increase the absorption of calcium from being outside. Cody loves being outside. Cody's like the number one bird that loves being outside. But birds can lay more than one egg. In fact, African greys can lay one to five eggs. Five's a little much but they usually could lay about three eggs. So we know that one egg has been laid so far and I just thought that I want to take Cody to Lou and see what Lou has to say about Cody's vent and check it out and I'm going to stop and get some supplies. For those of you who don't have a vet nearby and obviously we have vets nearby but I personally trust Lou and that's another good point. If you guys don't have a vet in your area you might want to seek out an experienced breeder and I know a lot of people love to throw hate in the parrot community and they love to throw hate on breeders but that's not my way and I'll tell you why because when you're taking care of birds they can be the best resource of information for you because who else has hundreds and hundreds of birds coming through them every day? Sometimes even avian specialists they specialize in dogs and cats and they get the occasional bird and they don't really know and they're not with birds or owning birds or living with them day to day which is really important. So if you have a great avian specialist that's fantastic but if you have somebody that is dealt with hundreds of birds in their lifetime for years and has seen everything just think about it in terms of like breeding and laying eggs you know, just to have a store you have to know all these things and he's been in the business for a long time this is who I trust. Now I know exactly what they're going to do what Lou's gonna do he's gonna turn Cody over and feel to see if there's another egg and if the egg is having any kind of trouble then I brought I'm gonna buy a lubricant right now I'm gonna buy some preparation H and it's gonna get pushed out kind of like a pimple I guess that's the best way to explain it if there was any real trouble with it then what would happen was a vet would kind of like poke a hole in the egg and crack it and the bird would pull it out the reason I'm going to Lou right now even though Cody's in great spirits if Cody was a sick bird right now or having any trouble Cody would be at the bottom of her cage trying to push an egg out wings lowered labored breathing Cody has none of that Cody's like totally flying around to Cody's like fine but you can never be too precocious with your birds so I just want to know if he sees another egg coming or if this last egg that she laid her first egg as far as I know was just a little bit hard for her to lay or anything like that because her vent is a little bit dirty so I just want to take all the precautions that I can okay well that was a mouthful I hope you guys learned a lot let's go see what we could do so first stop I'm gonna go get some preparation H I brought some q-tips and some cotton buds and you know what? I'm gonna go back in the house and get a towel because we're probably gonna have to towel her and I'd rather it be a towel of mine you ready Cody? okay I got my towel my q-tips my cotton buds my preparation H that's gonna act as a lubricant just in case and I got Cody alright so here we go we'll see what Lou has to say when we get in there we'll probably have to wait a little while Cody's a really good spirit so decide no she's okay because she's flying around and hanging out I can't believe it's a sheet alright guys amazing thing the funniest thing I didn't film it because I don't know if I want to be filmed and I don't just pull out my camera on anyone but I'm standing there with Cody and this guy comes in and he goes with his two kids and he goes yeah so we're here because of you he said we watched your video on great birds for kids like six great birds for kids and so they're here to get a bird so here's what Lou said about Cody why are you laughing do you want to tell them yourself because you're the you're the famous expert it's probably got an egg without a shell in it and that's why it's leaking out white that doesn't really look like your eggs pee from a bird looks more like a white from an egg that's been sitting cooking in the body kind of looks like that could be could be another egg getting ready to come down do you think I need a vet? no I mean if it looks bad tomorrow if the bird goes down on the bottom it's going to lay another egg if it doesn't lay it within 12 hours bring it to me and let me look for it but she's literally flying around like totally a normal active bird and when they lay eggs normally when they're in good shape they just go all of a sudden they'll lay them off the perch you just don't even realize there's a banter in there so if they're laying too much like cockatiels and smaller birds fine bigger birds don't lay that much generally and they're not a big fan of it yay so Cody's perfect we'll see what happens tomorrow so cute why do you guys smell like chicken? you literally smell like KFC yeah I'll make you so Cody's aced that's what he said he also said good on me for having a healthy bird with a healthy diet we'll see what happens maybe she'll push out another egg yay Cody okay guys so Cody let's bring Cody out so you guys can see obviously Cody yeah Vinnie said yeah Cody well Cody's doing Cody's eating Cody's happy Cody's flying hi are you happy have a bit yeah this is Cody's vent as you can see we're gonna wait a day and see what happens but basically Cody's fine and either another egg is gonna come out there is a cracked egg in there which will naturally come out so I don't think it's the latter though because she's just way too active and excited and eating and happy and like totally normal he also said it could be because it's like her first egg that she got a little swollen we'll see what happens okay so I hope you guys enjoyed this video I hope you learned a lot or something or anything a lot of entertaining things happening always in here I love you guys so much thank you for watching don't forget to check out all my links below subscribe if you love parrots subscribe if you'd rather watch them in my house than have them in yours subscribe if you learned something today I love you guys so much bye