I’ve also created links to many of the books and they will take you to Amazon’s site should you wish to order them or read the reviews.  Here’s a download to all the books in Excel format Butterfly, Birds, Insects, Photography, Pond, Reptiles and Gardening Books

Bird Books

1. National Geographic Field Guide to Birds: Texas
2. Birds of Texas
3. A Birder’s Guide to the Texas Coast
4. The Texas Ornithology Society Handbook of Texas Birds
5. Birds of Texas Field Guide
6. Birding Texas
7. Exploring the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail: Highlights of a Birding Mecca
8. Finding Birds on the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail: Houston, Galveston, and the Upper Texas Coast
9. Guide to the Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds
10. Peterson Field Guide: Eastern Birds’ Nests
11. A Field Guide to Western Birds’ Nests
12. The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America
13. The Stokes Purple Martin Book: The Complete Guide to Attracting and Housing Purple Martins
14. A Photographic Guide to North American Raptors
15. Hand-Feeding Backyard Birds
16. The Backyard Bird Feeder’s Bible: the A-To-Z Guide to Feeders, Seed Mixes, Projects, and Treats

Butterflies And Butterfly Caterpillars Books

1. Butterfly Gardening For The South
2. Caterpillars in the Field and Garden: a Field Guide to the Butterfly Caterpillars of North America (Field Guide)
3. The Life Cycles of Butterflies
4. The Butterfly Gardener’s Guide
5. Butterfly Photographer’s Handbook
6. Butterflies of North America
7. Gardening to Attract Birds and Butterflies
8. The Family Butterfly Book
9. Butterflies and Moths
10. National Wildlife Federation Attracting Birds, Butterflies & Backyard Wildlife
11. A Pocket Guide to Butterflies and Moths
12. Butterflies of Southeast Texas and the Upper Texas Coast
13. Milkweed, Monarchs and More: a Field Guide to the Invertebrate Community in the Milkweed Patch
14. The Butterfly Book
15. The Amazing Monarch
16. Butterflies of Houston & Southeast Texas
17. Finding Butterflies in Texas

Insect Books

1. Dragonflies and Damselflies of Texas and the South-Central United States
2. Stokes Beginner’s Guide to Dragonflies
3. Texas Bug Book
4. Insects of Texas
5. Garden Insects of North America
6. National Wildlife Federation Field Guide to Insects and Spiders & Related Species of North America

Reptiles and Amphibian Books

1. National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Reptiles and Amphibians
2. Texas Snakes: A Field Guide
3. The Frogs and Toads of North America
4. Venomous Snakes of Texas
5. Lone Star Field Guide To Texas Snakes

Gardening Books

1. Wildflowers of Texas
2. Vegetables: American Gardening Series
3. Southern Living Garden Problem Solver
4. Complete Guide to Roses
5. Year Round Vegetables, Fruits, and Flowers From Metro Houston
6. The Complete Guide to Creative Landscapes
7. Howard Garrett’s Plants for Texas
8. Howard Garrett’s Texas Organic Gardening Book
9. Plants for Houston and the Gulf Coast
10. Texas Trees
11. The Organic Manual
12. The Truth About Garden Remedies
13. Gardening in the Coastal South
14. The Garden Lover’s Guide to Houston
15. Landscaping 1-2-3
16. Houston Garden Book
17. Gulf Coast Gardening With Randy Lemmon
18. Planning Your Garden
19. Bamboo for Gardens
20. Garden, Landscape, and Project Plans: 225 Do-It Yourself Designs
21. The Gardener’s Bug Book
22. Great Garden Sources for Texans
23. Plants for Places
24. Neil Sperry’s Complete Guide to Texas Gardening
25. Native Texas Plants

Pet Books (Including, Dogs, Cats, And Birds)

1. Dog First Aid
2. Dog Detectives
3. The Lost Pet Chronicles
4. Canine Body Language
5. Search and Rescue Dogs
6. Doin’ Texas With Your Pooch
7. Schutzhund: Theory and Training Methods
8. Give Your Dog a Bone
9. Grow Your Pups With Bones
10. The Barf Diet
11. Schutzhund Obedience
12. How to Speak Dog
13. Vaccine Guide for Dogs and Cats
14. Dog Owner’s Home Veterinary Handbook
15. Unleashed: Poems by Writers’ Dogs
16. K9 Explosive Detection
17. Dogwatching: Why Dogs Bark and Other Canine Mysteries Explained
18. Tracking From The Beginning
19. Scent, Training to Track, Search, and Rescue
20. Basic Narcotic Detection Dog Training
21. Training the Competitive Working Dog
22. The Man Who Talks to Dogs
23. Schutzhund Top Working Dogs
24. Top Working Dogs: A Training Manual: Tracking, Obedience, Protection
25. Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats
26. The German Shepherd Dog in Word and Picture
27. Herbal Remedies for Dogs and Cats
28. Herbs for Pets
29. Natural Dog Care
30. Parrot-Toys and Play Areas
31. Guide to a Well-Behaved Parrot
32. The Click That Does the Trick
33. Teaching Your Bird to Talk
34. The Parrot Problem Solver
35. A New Owner’s Guide to African Grey Parrots
36. The Alex Studies
37. The African Grey
38. The Ultimate Parrot
39. African Grey Parrots
40. Cat Wrangling Made Easy

Photography Books

1. How to Photograph Absolutely Everything
2. Photoshop Cs5 for Nature Photographers
3. Adobe Lightroom 3 – the Missing FAQ – Real Answers to Real Questions Asked By Lightroom Users
4. 2010 Photographer’s Market
5. Magic Lantern DVD Guides: Canon EOS 40D Multimedia Workshop
6. Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for Dummies
7. Digital SLR Pro Secrets
8. Mastering Digital Photography
9. Photographing Nature: a Photo Workshop From Brooks Institute’s Top Nature Photography Instructor (Voices That Matter)
10. Lightroom 2: Streamlining Your Digital Photography Process
11. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book
12. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book
13. Photoshop Cs5 Restoration and Retouching for Digital Photographers Only
14. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2
15. EF Lens Work III
16. Macro Photography Photo Workshop
17. Photo Portfolio Success
18. The Adobe Photoshop Cs4 Book for Digital Photographers
19. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers
20. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)
21. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers
22. The Digital Photography Book
23. The Photoshop CS Book for Digital Photographers
24. The Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photographers
25. Layers: the Complete Guide to Photoshop’s Most Powerful Feature (2Nd Edition)
26. Canon EOS 7D Digital Field Guide
27. Beginner’s Guide to Photographic Lighting
28. The Hot Shoe Diaries
29. The Betterphoto Guide to Digital Nature Photography
30. The Betterphoto Guide to Digital Photography
31. Understanding Exposure
32. Learning to See Creatively
33. 2009 Photographer’s Market
34. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Digital Photographers Only
35. Photoshop Lightroom 2 for Dummies
36. Adobe Premiere Pro for Dummies
37. Selling Your Photography
38. Winning Digital Photo Contests

Pond Koi and Water Garden Books

1. Ponds & Fountains
2. Goldfish
3. Ortho’s All About Creating Japanese Gardens
4. Japanese Gardens in a Weekend
5. Plants for Water Gardens
6. The Pond Doctor: Planning & Maintaining a Healthy Water Garden
7. Water Gardening in Containers
8. Creating Water Gardens
9. Indoor Water Garden Design
10. Water Gardening
11. The Super Simple Guide to Koi
12. Ortho’s All About Building Waterfalls, Pools, and Streams
13. Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces

In this brief video clip, you’ll hear Coco say the following:

1. Sascha Here! (This normally sends Sascha, our German Shepherd, running into the living room.
2. Come on and eat! (You’ll hear Leecy starting then opening the microwave.  Once the microwave beeps, Coco tells everyone it’s time to eat).
3. Hiccup (Coco doesn’t actually say hiccup, she’s mimicking Leecy when she has had the hiccups).

I brought the birdcam inside and aimed it towards Coco’s (our African Grey Parrot) cage.

This is about a 2 minute video clip, although for all practical purposes there’s not much to look at.  However, you can hear Coco run through a variety of sentences and words.  Also, Sascha is our German Shepherd Dog and Chloe is our cat.

See if you can make out what she’s saying.  In between the phrases I can understand (listed below) she also comes up with some sentences I can’t quite understand or that don’t make sense.

14 Seconds – says “Sascha”

36 Seconds – says “Kitty kisses” then kissing sounds

48 Seconds – says “Hello”

1:03 Seconds – says “Chloe”

1:06 Seconds – says “Ready to go night, night bird?”

1:23 Seconds – says “Baad da da da da, I’m loving it” (from McDonalds commercial)

1:32 Seconds – says “Sascha Fooey!”

1:35 Seconds – says “Fooey!” (in deep voice)

1:44 Seconds – says “Woooooooo!”

1:50 Seconds – says “Hey bird, want some fruit?”

1:55 Seconds – says “Fooey!”

I got the follow up call from the vet today regarding the bacteria that was found when swabbing Coco’s crop (part of a bird’s throat).

She tested positive for the following bacteria:

1. Pasteurella (Abundant growth according to test results)
2. Corynebacterium (Moderate growth according to test results)
3. Pseudomonas (Light growth according to test results)

So now one more medication needs to be added to Coco’s treatment. Her current treatment consists of 0.23 cc’s of Baytril twice per day and Clavamox 0.42 ml twice per day.

I asked the vet if these bacterial infections were the result of anything we’re doing, or not doing and she said “no”, they are just common bacteria found in the environment.

Here’s my questions for any bird owners out there.

1. What can you tell me about these bacterias?
2. Is there anything we could do/done to prevent these infections?
3. If these are common bacteria, why might Coco have been infected?

Coco Feather Picking

Coco Showing Feather Picking

I won’t know until next week how the results of her aspergillosis test and what specific type of bacterial infection she has.  Her blood work and white blood cell tests all looked normal and healthy.  No change in her x-rays (which is good).

Hopefully it helps her.

So I’m running though what may be causing this.

1. Boredom – Since we ended her treatment she does get a little less attention.  I still try and take her out of her cage to be petted daily.
2. Allergic Reaction – We started to give her nuts (we weaned her off of these during her treatment), but now have stopped again.
3. Mites? – I don’t even know what mites are or how she might get them.
4. Something related to her previous illness – She’s shaking her head a little more than normal.  Her personality seems really good. Still talks a bunch.  However, she did see to get tired much earlier than normal tonight.

So besides a trip to the vet, which I will do, anyone else have any hypothesis or ideas?  Do these products like Pluck No More actually work?

Coco makes very few bird sounds, she mainly just talks English.  She controls all the other animals in the house.

When Sascha starts barking, she says “Sascha Phooey.”

When Maggie makes her little squeak sounds to go outside, she says “Maggie, No.”

When Chloe walks by Coco’s cage, she says “Chloe Hungry?”  “Kitty Hungry?”  Then Chloe starts running towards her food bowl.

When I get home, I typically get the “Time To Eat!”

In the picture below, you can see the small cut above Coco’s eye.  She falls every now and then when she’s not paying attention.  She’s also eating a small pine nut.

Here’s Coco standing tall.

Anyway, here’s a close up shot of Coco (with some left over fruit on her beak) taken with my rental lens (more on that in a moment).

Turns out she has/had aspergillosis, which is a respiratory disease (fungal) that occurs most often in African Greys and Amazons.  Honestly, we thought we were going to lose her as she wouldn’t hardly eat and could barely stay awake. The vet suggested that Hurricane Ike stirred up those mold spores that cause aspergillosis and with no power for 9 days and the additional stress on her body, she became vulnerable to this disease.

Fast forward 9 months later and about $5500.00 in vet bills (not including medication costs) and Coco seems to be doing pretty well. She is talking more than ever and her weight has been steady for several months now.

Part of her treatment, which I have to do twice per day, is with a nebulizer.  She’s become quite accustomed to going in this small “reptile” cage, eating her vegetables and fruit, and enduring the nebulizer treatment for 20 minutes.  Actually, she seems to “enjoy” the treatment as she knows it’s her time to get fresh fruit and veggies.

I’ll find out this Thursday whether or not her treatment needs to continue and for how long.  Oh, I should plug her vet (Dr. Natalie Antinoff) as well at Gulf Coast Avian and Exotics.  They’re not cheap, but they are GOOD!