Welcome home Stella

KrystalWolf

New member
May 16, 2019
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0
Hi, i am a new GCC mom. This is Stella, i turquoise GCC. I get to bring her home monday. Ive been lurking and reading posts since last saturday. Ive read alot about bird body language, bird puberty, and GCC being nippy. The last bit is a little diacouraging, however thats why learning to read theor body language is so imprtant to me.

Ive had a cockatiel as a pet years ago and she never bit me and it was a joy to have her around. I will be getting 2 GCC, stella shown below and a yellow sides GCC. Unsure of gender. But hoping a malr and he will be called Starlord. Even ita its a girl she will still be starlord lol. No date yet on the yellowsided for when he will be ready to go home. Not long after monday im sure.

I do have 2 seperate cage so the GCC will bond closer with my boyfriend and I.
 

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Allee

Well-known member
Oct 27, 2013
16,852
Media
2
212
Texas
Parrots
U2-Poppy(Poppy lives with her new mommy, Misty now) CAG-Jack, YNA, Bingo, Budgie-Piper, Cockatiel-Sweet Pea Quakers-Harry, Sammy, Wilson ***Zeke (quaker) Twinkle (budgie) forever in our hearts
Hello and welcome to you and Stella! Beautiful GCC’s, congratulations! You must be so excited!

Separate cages is a great idea, birds appreciate their own private space with their own dishes, toys and perches.

I don’t think I’d worry too much about the nippiness just yet, all birds are unique, it may not be an issue at all. Here’s a few links you may want to browse while you wait for your new family members to come home. Enjoy your stay.

Parrot Food, Recipes and Diet - Parrot Forum - Parrot Owner's Community

Cages - Parrot Forum - Parrot Owner's Community

Behavioral - Parrot Forum - Parrot Owner's Community
 

Scott

Supporting Member
Aug 21, 2010
32,673
9,789
San Diego, California USA, Earth, Milky Way Galaxy
Parrots
Goffins: Gabby, Abby, Squeaky, Peanut, Popcorn / Citron: Alice / Eclectus: Angel /Timneh Grey: ET / Blue Fronted Amazon: Gonzo /

RIP Gandalf and Big Bird, you are missed.
Welcome to the forums and a large conure community! We're here to help you settle in with your new feathered family!
 
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KrystalWolf

New member
May 16, 2019
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Thank you for the note welcomes all. I look forward to learning everything I can and getting to know the community here.

Thank you for the links alle. I will be reviewing all of those at my earliest convenience.

I am trying not to think about the nippiness. The female turquoise that I'm getting is alot nicer than the male I was playing with before we knew the genders ( the male had a deposit on them and we had to wait for the DNA results. Which we got yesterday). So maybe with the proper training and me with the correct education I can avoid bites all together.

Thanks again and I'll be posting more once Stella comes home.
 

Casper223

New member
Apr 27, 2019
327
2
Gulf Coast, Louisiana/Mississippi State Line S/E
Parrots
Umbrella Cockatoo "Zoey"
Hi, i am a new GCC mom. This is Stella, i turquoise GCC. I get to bring her home monday. Ive been lurking and reading posts since last saturday. Ive read alot about bird body language, bird puberty, and GCC being nippy. The last bit is a little diacouraging, however thats why learning to read theor body language is so imprtant to me.

Ive had a cockatiel as a pet years ago and she never bit me and it was a joy to have her around. I will be getting 2 GCC, stella shown below and a yellow sides GCC. Unsure of gender. But hoping a malr and he will be called Starlord. Even ita its a girl she will still be starlord lol. No date yet on the yellowsided for when he will be ready to go home. Not long after monday im sure.

I do have 2 seperate cage so the GCC will bond closer with my boyfriend and I.

Welcome to the Forum KrystalWolf, and enjoy the abundance of great information here. I remember my daughter once told me "Daddy, my Tiel keeps biting me" I asked her to show me, as it was such a sweet, sociable baby, I just couldn't imagine. She offered her finger to the baby to step up, and immediately the baby would check the new perching area with her beak, something cockatiels and most birds do, well at that point seeing the beak coming at her little finger, she immediately and quickly pulled back, and she was bitten lol, I sat my daughter down with her baby, and I had her baby step up to my finger, and she watched, as I described the process in steps for her, and once she understood, She attempted the maneuver again, without incident. It was a learning curve for my daughter, and her baby I might add. But once they were on the same page the behavior ended, and my daughter was much more confident after that. I have seen nippy babies before, but its usually a learning curve the parent figures out and corrects, which brings the pair closer to bonding. Body language is very important, sometimes being an investigator to discover why helps too. One thing about this forum I like so much, when you've exhausted your thought process in figuring out why something is happening, someone else will come along usually thinking outside the box and is able to help. This is a great place for new discoveries, and a place often to post issues, and get feedback from other members, and it all goes to benefit you and your babies.
 

Talven

Banned
Banned
May 4, 2019
451
20
Australia
Welcome to the forum KrystalWolf. Lovely GCC's you have there. Sure GCC can be a little nippy but mostly they are fine. Once you work out body language and the things that trigger biting you'll be fine.
 

EllenD

New member
Aug 20, 2016
3,979
65
State College, PA
Parrots
Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
Hi Krystal, welcome to the Community!!! And congrats on your 2 new GCC's!!!

***I would highly suggest that you have 2 cages/complete setups instead of 1 right from the moment you bring your birds home on Monday, one for each GCC, as they are much more likely to get along and be able to be kept together long-term, and even more-likely to bond-closely with each other, rather than when they are forced to share the same "territory", meaning not only the same cage, but toys, food/water dishes, perches, Mineral-Blocks, Cuttlebones, etc. There is NEVER any guarantee that any 2 parrots that you bring home, regardless of species, genders, OR even if they are siblings from the same clutch who have grown-up together at their breeder's home and were hand-raised/parent-raised together...Parrots all form their relationships with each other just like we as people do: Some love each other and become very closely-bonded, some like each other a lot but can't share the same territory (just like our friends that we love but we still have our own homes), sometimes they get along okay but aren't very fond of each other, sometimes they simply "tolerate" each other, sometimes they dislike each other and must be supervised if they are out of their cages together, otherwise they become aggressive and fight, and then sometime they cannot even be out of their cages together at all, even under supervision, as they will continually go after each other until they injure/kill one another or they are separated. And something else to keep in-mind is that the relationship-dynamic between 2 parrots will ALMOST ALWAYS change after 1 or both birds go through puberty, which for Green Cheek Conures happens typically around 1 year-old, give or take a couple of months; so you need to be aware of that when either of your GCC's reach the age of around 8-months and then up until about 1-year, 2 months. And their relationships will change WHEN EACH BIRD goes through puberty, so if they are not from the same clutch/are siblings, then you've got 2 different puberties to deal with aat 2 different times....

I've got 8 American/English Hybrid Budgies who are all siblings from the same clutch, and I bred their parents and then hand-raised/hand-fed them all myself as the very last clutch of parrots I have ever bred/hand-raised...So I decided to keep them all, and they all live together in my indoor-Aviary downstairs in the walk-out level of my split-level house. There are 7 males and 1 female (poor girl, lol), and besides having to remove her from the Aviary whenever she goes into Breeding-Season, usually twice a year, sometimes 3, which is visable immediately (thank god) by her Cere color, so that we don't have any in-breeding, as well as no fighting or aggression among the males...I got extremely lucky with my Budgies, as all 8 of them get along wonderfully well, and even after they all went through puberty and became sexually-mature they still got along just fine, with no aggression, no fighting, no plucking/mutilating each other, etc. So for most of the year all 8 Budgies live happily together in their huge Aviary, coming upstairs every single evening for about 4 hours to spend time with me when the larger Flock-members are put to bed. And thus leads me to where my luck took a drastic turn for the frustrating, lol...

As lucky as I got with my 8 Budgies all getting along just fine with each other, even after they all went through puberty, when it comes to my 4 larger parrots I am more than suffering for how well the Budgies all get along. From oldest to youngest, I have a female Blue Quaker Parrot who just turned 4 years-old in April, then a male Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure who turns 3 years-old the last week of this month, then a female Cockatiel who is 2 years-old, and finally a male Senegal Parrot who is also 2 years-old right now....I brought all 4 of them home from their individual breeders as just-weaned babies between the ages of 10 weeks-old and 13 weeeks-old, and each of the had tremendous Breeders who did amazing jobs of hand-raising each of them. And while each of them is extremely closely-bonded to me (I have been single and have lived alone for 5+ years now, and I can't physically have human kids, so they are quite literally my family and my kids, including the Budgies)...However, each of them has a different relationship-dynamic between them and the other 3 (they don't have much interaction/contact with the Budgies at all, due to size differences and for the safety of the Budgies and for my sanity!), and my daily life and daily routines are absolutely 100% tailored around my time spent with them whenever I'm at home and not at work or at the Rescue I also work at. For example, my Senegal Parrot is bonded to me and me only, he does not get along with any of his 3 siblings at all, and he immediately goes to biting them as soon as they come anywhere near him...However, he doesn't actively go after them, and he's fine to be out in the house with them and even in the same room with them as long as they stay at least a couple of feet away from him at all times, and as long as they don't touch his territory. And since all 4 of their main-cages are in my living-room area on the second floor of the house, we have to have Kane's cage in the dining-room (open and connected to the living-room), with the other 3 cages in the living-room. They can all see each other well, but we had to train the other 3 that the dining-room area is basically off-limits to them (really only the other 2, as my Cockatiel could care less and never bothers anyone and keeps to herself)...My Cockatiel doesn't really get along with any of the other 3 either, however she and my Green Cheek get along just fine, don't bother each other at all, and are quite able to sit right next to each other with no problems at all...I have even caught my Green Cheek preening her, but only once and that's RARE...But this is what I meant by "They might just simply tolerate each other but not really like each other", that's a great description of my Green Cheek and my Cockatiel...Then there is my Quaker Parrot and my Green Cheek...They are close to each other, but I would describe their relationship-dynamic as "we love each other but we annoy each other constantly, and we can be snuggling together close while preening each other and loving each other, and then suddenly they attack each other with violence and rage, and then literally 2 seconds later we love each other again"...It's really my Quaker Parrot who is the aggressor, with my Green Cheek just going with the flow, he never starts it...So they are the only 2 of my birds who can be out together with me at the same time, but I have to be aware of them at all times...And my Cockatiel cannot be out with them even though she and my Green Cheek "tolerate" each other, because my Quaker Parrot would like my Cockatiel to suffer greatly and die...Seriously...

So you can see what I mean by "My daily schedule/routine when I'm home revolves around the relationships between my 4 larger parrots...Now we do all eat together in the living room, me on the couch and them each on top of their individual main-cages where they each have a food bowl and a water bowl, so we can all see each other, talk to each other, watch TV, etc. And then we spend as much of the rest of the evening before bed this way, just chilling in the living-room with them on their own cages or on their play-stands while I'm reading, watching a movie, on the internet, gaming, playing guitar or sax, etc.
 

EllenD

New member
Aug 20, 2016
3,979
65
State College, PA
Parrots
Senegal Parrot named "Kane"; Yellow-Sided Green Cheek Conure named "Bowie"; Blue Quaker Parrot named "Lita Ford"; Cockatiel named "Duff"; 8 American/English Budgie Hybrids; Ringneck Dove named "Dylan"
So the point to telling you about my Flock-Dynamics is simply to illustrate that you never know what you're gonna get whenever you bring home 2 parrots instead of 1, and even if they seemingly get along wonderfully well and seem to be very closely-bonded to one another while they are babies/juveniles, the likelihood of their close relationship/bond staying the same after each of them goes through puberty is slim....For this reason I highly suggest that you have a cage/set-up for each of your 2 birds, so that they each have their own cage, toys, food/water dishes, etc., basically their own, individual "territories", so that the odds of them bonding-closely to each other right away is much higher, since they won't be having to share their territories with each other right from the start, and then whenever they each go through puberty you'll already have them each in their own territories and everything will just be "status-quo", the idea being that whenever those sex-hormones kick-in for one or both of them the fact that they each already have their own territory and have since the day they came into your home as young babies, there will have been no jealousy/territoriality between them AT ALL at any time during their lives, so they already know that they don't have to worry about "sharing" their territories with each other, and then any aggression that their sex-hormones start up will not be focused on each other (hopefully)...(remember, 2 different birds equals 2 different puberties equals 2 different chances of their relationship/bond becoming aggressive/violent) There are actually many, many people who have gotten 2 young, baby/juvenile parrots at the same time, and who have just automatically gotten each of them their own cages, toys, perches, bowls, etc. without even thinking about how Territorial most-all species of parrots naturally/innately are, and without any thought to them not getting along due to jealousy, dominance, and overall-territoriality, but simply because they either just wanted them to each have their own cages, OR (Very Wisely) because they wanted to be sure that they didn't start breeding and that the female of the pair didn't start laying infertile-eggs chronically once she hit puberty due to her sex-hormones being constantly "Triggered" by being forced to live with a male and share her territory with a male (another reason...*****]And these people are ALWAYS the ones who come here to the forum and become members, and are the ones who always respond "I don't know why but my 2 birds have NEVER been aggressive towards each other, they have never fought with each other, they get along really, really well and have since I brought them both home when they were young babies"...And usually they are responding to a Thread/Post made by someone who's 2 birds "Who have always gotten along since I brought them home, now suddenly started attacking each other (or one bird starts attacking the other), and one or both are getting injured, and I don't know what to do", and we find out that they have always had their 2 birds in the same cage since day 1, and one or both of them are between 1-2 years-old...While in contrast, the members who are responding to this person's problems and trying to help them have always had their 2 birds (or more) in their own, individual cages from day 1, and they didn't even know when they went through puberty because it went so smoothly with NO TERRITORIALITY AT ALL.

So that's the best piece of advice that I can give you right at this critical moment, 3 days before you brinng your 2 GCC's home on Monday, is to please get them individual cages/set-ups now so that your lives remain happy and healthy for the long-haul...Also, I don't know if you're planning on breeding your 2 GCC's and that's why you got both a male and a female purposely, but what you need to know is that the same rules apply to males and females when you put them together! You cannot just put a male and a female parrot of the same species together and have them breed like you can with dogs, cats, etc. Once again, Parrots form their relationships with each other just like we do as people, and in-order for a male and a female parrot to start mating/breeding, they must FIRST like each other, then gradually form a bond with each other, until finally sometime after they both get through puberty and then reach one of the 2 yearly, natural Breeding-Seasons (spring and fall for GCC's), and then IF their bond with each other is strong enough and the type where they want to mate, then they'll mate...I bred and hand-raised multiple different species of parrots for just over 20 years, as did my mom and my grandmother (Green Cheek, Sun, Jenday, and Nanday being the Conure species I bred/hand-raised), and I can tell you that the minute "You Choose" 2 parrots to put together in-hopes that they'll bond-closely and eventually start mating/breeding, based on their colors/mutations and genetics in-general that you desire to breed together, the more and more time you waste...In contrast, if you just allow all of your birds of a certain species to spend SUPERVISED time out of their cages together each day and you allow them to hopefully choose their own mates and develop a close-bond to one another on their own, you'll have a breeding-pair of birds that are going to not only actually mate/breed, but the odds of the eggs being fertilized, viable, and successfully hatching/developing is much, much higher.

Also, last thing I'll say I promise, but I'm assuming that you are bringing home these 2 GCC's to be your "pets" or members of your family, rather than buying them specifically to be breeder-birds...If I'm wrong about that and that actually is your purpose, then there is a lot of other stuff you need to know about obviously, and there are many very experienced, reputable, long-time parrot Breeders/Hand-Riasers here on the forum that can help you with any questions you have or anything you need regarding breeding/hand-raising/hand-feeding...However, assuming that you are NOT buying your GCC's as Breeders but rather as "pets" and to make them members of your family, you need to be aware that it is extremely rare for a bonded-pair of Breeding parrots to STAY BONDED TO THEIR PERSON/PEOPLE. That's something that a lot of people aren't aware of or don't really think about when they first make the decision to breed their male and female "pet" parrots/birds, and it's absolutely heartbreaking when it happens because the owners basically lose their bond with their babies. And it happens simply because when 2 parrots of the opposite sex (and sometimes even of the same sex, as we are becoming more and more aware of) bond very closely with each other in the same way that a parrot bonds extremely closely with a person, then they are basically given a choice between bonding closely with and having their "mate" be either a person, or being another bird of the same species, and of course when given that choice they are pretty much ALWAYS going to choose the other bird, just as we would choose another person in the same situation...So keep that in-mind always before you make any decisions to try to get them to mate/breed if they do happen to bond very closely with each other...
 

Inger

Well-known member
Parrot of the Month 🏆
Mar 20, 2017
3,395
826
Everett, WA
Parrots
Bumble - Pacific (or Celestial) Parrotlet hatched 02/19/17
Holy cow Ellen. If you read her first post, you’d know she has two cages.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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KrystalWolf

New member
May 16, 2019
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So the point to telling you about my Flock-Dynamics is simply to illustrate that you never know what you're gonna get whenever you bring home 2 parrots instead of 1, and even if they seemingly get along wonderfully well and seem to be very closely-bonded to one another while they are babies/juveniles, the likelihood of their close relationship/bond staying the same after each of them goes through puberty is slim....For this reason I highly suggest that you have a cage/set-up for each of your 2 birds, so that they each have their own cage, toys, food/water dishes, etc., basically their own, individual "territories", so that the odds of them bonding-closely to each other right away is much higher, since they won't be having to share their territories with each other right from the start, and then whenever they each go through puberty you'll already have them each in their own territories and everything will just be "status-quo", the idea being that whenever those sex-hormones kick-in for one or both of them the fact that they each already have their own territory and have since the day they came into your home as young babies, there will have been no jealousy/territoriality between them AT ALL at any time during their lives, so they already know that they don't have to worry about "sharing" their territories with each other, and then any aggression that their sex-hormones start up will not be focused on each other (hopefully)...(remember, 2 different birds equals 2 different puberties equals 2 different chances of their relationship/bond becoming aggressive/violent) There are actually many, many people who have gotten 2 young, baby/juvenile parrots at the same time, and who have just automatically gotten each of them their own cages, toys, perches, bowls, etc. without even thinking about how Territorial most-all species of parrots naturally/innately are, and without any thought to them not getting along due to jealousy, dominance, and overall-territoriality, but simply because they either just wanted them to each have their own cages, OR (Very Wisely) because they wanted to be sure that they didn't start breeding and that the female of the pair didn't start laying infertile-eggs chronically once she hit puberty due to her sex-hormones being constantly "Triggered" by being forced to live with a male and share her territory with a male (another reason...*****]And these people are ALWAYS the ones who come here to the forum and become members, and are the ones who always respond "I don't know why but my 2 birds have NEVER been aggressive towards each other, they have never fought with each other, they get along really, really well and have since I brought them both home when they were young babies"...And usually they are responding to a Thread/Post made by someone who's 2 birds "Who have always gotten along since I brought them home, now suddenly started attacking each other (or one bird starts attacking the other), and one or both are getting injured, and I don't know what to do", and we find out that they have always had their 2 birds in the same cage since day 1, and one or both of them are between 1-2 years-old...While in contrast, the members who are responding to this person's problems and trying to help them have always had their 2 birds (or more) in their own, individual cages from day 1, and they didn't even know when they went through puberty because it went so smoothly with NO TERRITORIALITY AT ALL.

So that's the best piece of advice that I can give you right at this critical moment, 3 days before you brinng your 2 GCC's home on Monday, is to please get them individual cages/set-ups now so that your lives remain happy and healthy for the long-haul...Also, I don't know if you're planning on breeding your 2 GCC's and that's why you got both a male and a female purposely, but what you need to know is that the same rules apply to males and females when you put them together! You cannot just put a male and a female parrot of the same species together and have them breed like you can with dogs, cats, etc. Once again, Parrots form their relationships with each other just like we do as people, and in-order for a male and a female parrot to start mating/breeding, they must FIRST like each other, then gradually form a bond with each other, until finally sometime after they both get through puberty and then reach one of the 2 yearly, natural Breeding-Seasons (spring and fall for GCC's), and then IF their bond with each other is strong enough and the type where they want to mate, then they'll mate...I bred and hand-raised multiple different species of parrots for just over 20 years, as did my mom and my grandmother (Green Cheek, Sun, Jenday, and Nanday being the Conure species I bred/hand-raised), and I can tell you that the minute "You Choose" 2 parrots to put together in-hopes that they'll bond-closely and eventually start mating/breeding, based on their colors/mutations and genetics in-general that you desire to breed together, the more and more time you waste...In contrast, if you just allow all of your birds of a certain species to spend SUPERVISED time out of their cages together each day and you allow them to hopefully choose their own mates and develop a close-bond to one another on their own, you'll have a breeding-pair of birds that are going to not only actually mate/breed, but the odds of the eggs being fertilized, viable, and successfully hatching/developing is much, much higher.

Also, last thing I'll say I promise, but I'm assuming that you are bringing home these 2 GCC's to be your "pets" or members of your family, rather than buying them specifically to be breeder-birds...If I'm wrong about that and that actually is your purpose, then there is a lot of other stuff you need to know about obviously, and there are many very experienced, reputable, long-time parrot Breeders/Hand-Riasers here on the forum that can help you with any questions you have or anything you need regarding breeding/hand-raising/hand-feeding...However, assuming that you are NOT buying your GCC's as Breeders but rather as "pets" and to make them members of your family, you need to be aware that it is extremely rare for a bonded-pair of Breeding parrots to STAY BONDED TO THEIR PERSON/PEOPLE. That's something that a lot of people aren't aware of or don't really think about when they first make the decision to breed their male and female "pet" parrots/birds, and it's absolutely heartbreaking when it happens because the owners basically lose their bond with their babies. And it happens simply because when 2 parrots of the opposite sex (and sometimes even of the same sex, as we are becoming more and more aware of) bond very closely with each other in the same way that a parrot bonds extremely closely with a person, then they are basically given a choice between bonding closely with and having their "mate" be either a person, or being another bird of the same species, and of course when given that choice they are pretty much ALWAYS going to choose the other bird, just as we would choose another person in the same situation...So keep that in-mind always before you make any decisions to try to get them to mate/breed if they do happen to bond very closely with each other...




Thank you for all the information. That's quite a large flock you have. I can't imagine dividing my time between that many birds let alone the cleanup and care after working a full day. I can tell you are very passionate about them and I think that's awesome.

1. My birds have 2 separate cages after speaking with the breeder that I wanted to get 2 they suggested 2 cages. They are all setup and will have their own food and water dishes.

2. These birds will be pets. I have no intentions of breeding nor did I have a preference of gender at the time I put my deposit in. I still do not know the gender of my yellow sided but I am "guessing" male. I should know soon the gender. Either way male or female makes no difference as the do have separate cages and will even be in separate rooms until I can establish a bond with both of them. Once a strong bond is formed cages will be moved into the same room ( which will be a new room neither cage is in now).



Stella ( my female turquoise) came home this past Saturday and she is doing great. We are forming a great bond. I am spending time with her daily, saying good morning and good night, hello when I get home etc. I talk to her when she is out and will share my (parrot safe) food with her when I eat. I even brought her in the shower with me for her first bath. She sat on the shower hose that hangs down and got a small amount of water throughout. She let me "preen" her after and was all for "preening" me. Overall I am very pleased how well she is doing and it's only been 4 days since I brought her home.

My concern is that she is going to overlybond with me and have no strong bond with my boyfriend. I have mentioned he needs to spend time with her talk to her etc. but he just complains that she doesn't want to come out for him. I then reply because he doesn't spend enough time with her. I haven't pressured him much or said more than requesting he spend time with her I've expressed mY worry about him being upset when she doesn't like him but likes me. And that's all I can do.

Ive requested he go visit Starlord our yellow sided GCCas he is still with the breeder and Starlord already seemed more bonded to me than him (uh-oh). So he has gone to see him after work this week. I will go see him tomorrow and sat and Monday if they are open. We don't know when we can bring him home. Still waiting.


But I wanted to give you an update Stella is doing great!
 

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