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So, we moved into this house 9 years ago. Here, Dorian's cage is in the master bedroom, down the hall from the open concept living space. Now, I'll admit to sometime being a bad bird mommie. Sometimes, in the morning, I sit and have a cup of tea in peace before I get Dorian and bring him out for the day. Well, apparently he got tired of waiting for me one morning, and decided to climb off his cage and walk down the hall to find me! You could have knocked me over with one of his feathers when I saw him at my feet! He's so confident and cheeky. He bears no resemblance to the timid, frightened parrot I re-homed almost 17 years ago, and it does my heart good, even if I now have to watch my feet in the morning.

Haven't posted Sukie in a while. He turned 8 years old on 4/22 or as best as we can guess. We do the cake thing every year, he seems to like it. Seems like yesterday I pulled him from that nasty Middle East hell hole. Thanks to this place I was able to get him home. A lot of good advice here. No we don't let him eat the cake LOL.

Just my luck. The one time I post in 6-months, it gets zapped by the restore from backup 😆 Anyhow, here' s another try - GreycieMae and friends have all filed their change of address and moved. Thanks to the mess that was 2020 (housing market stalled, interest rates tanked, etc) there was a small window where we could actually make an offer on something my wife had her eye on and actually got it under contract. She has been real estate hunting for 10-15 years. She has always wanted some land and we found a diamond in the rough. The place is a 22-acre ranch complete with a 12-stall horse barn with drive-through breezeway, built-in apartment, tack room, feed room and an office. Then there is a complete enclosed riding arena/shop whatever you want to call it. Then a 9 stall stud barn, which I've turned into a cattle barn. The house isn't bad either, it's bigger than we wanted and is an open-concept instead of the cramped little ranch house we used to live in. There is a 1-acre pond just behind our house that is viewable through the living/dining rooms. It even has a weird little room that is only accessible by going out the back door and enter through the enclosed patio. The power panel indicates this room was a jacuzzi room but all I saw was bird room when I looked at it 🤣. The patio is about to get windows and a door to make it a bird patio! Then all I have to do is get my outdoor aviary moved up from the old house and I'll nearly have as nice a setup as the old place. The cool part about the patio, it's concrete and has drain holes in the patio wall. I've already hit it with the power washer and the water and junk flows right out - so easy to clean it's ridiculous. So back to how we got into the place: as mentioned the 2020 fiasco created a perfect storm where rates and housing prices fell dramatically for a few months. This place was on the market in late 2019 and was snatched up under contract before we could even drive up for a look like we do with all the places wifey is interested in. Apparently the former contract/buyers had a clause contingent on selling their home. By the time early march 2020 and covid rolled around they still could not sell and were on the end of a 45 day extension trying to get a new extension. The owner ended the contract and put it back on the market at a HUGE drop in price. Wifey couldn't believe her eyes and we dropped everything to come see. We saw and the place was a DUMP! Trash everywhere, trees and brush growing up all around the structures, the grass and weeds were waist high, fences down all over the place, even in the dang pond. The house was full of bugs and mice. The main horse barn full of wasps, mice, the apartment smelled of cat pee to the 3rd degree. BUT... the structures are rock solid, the barns are made from massive steel I-beams and in perfect shape. The house is in pretty good shape but everything needs updating - we don't care about that. Brand new, the original owners spent well over 1.5 million building the place in 1996. They were a famous aviator couple, her having set some female around the world record (I can't recall their names). They ran over 40 head of horses on this place for several years and then apparently got in over their heads and had to foreclose on the place. Several people we've ran into said the place sat vacant for several years while the banks held onto it attempting to liquidate it. Our direct neighbor said it completely dilapidated during that time. Then some lady down the road bought it and rented it out for a few years. She sold to a California couple which were the previous owners to us. They didn't make much of an attempt to bring it back and finally vacated in 2018. Once again the place sat vacant and continued to deteriorate. The condition the place was in was the only reason we could get in. The value fell dramatically due to neglect. Oh, one other interesting note: there is no normal internet out here. We are rural, very rural. The only way we get internet is via direct line of sight to a tower located at an airport way off in the distance. There is a tower on the side of our house with a dish at the top that send directly the airport. It actually works really well and is the only way I can work from my house - too far to drive to work anywhere. Anyway - enough text, time for pics! Pond barely visible These bloomed shortly after we closed. A good omen I believe. A couple of pond pics

She has had a bit of a name change. No matter how much I want to be able to say her name 'Muneca', it doesn't roll off the tongue very easy. I started bastardizing her name and calling her 'Moo-Nikki'. Now I just call her Nikki. And since she is the biggest DIVA I have ever witnessed, her altered name goes well with the song lyrics "Hey Nikki you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind HEY NIKKI!!!". She gets to hear my cover of that song quite a lot. I'm glad she can appreciate my singing 🤣 Other than that she has taken a HUGE dislike to my wife. She will attack her any chance she gets. I know it's because she has claimed me as her very own man and Marietta can just get the heck out in her view. The only positive to this is we get to see her HawksHead flare quite a lot. She can really spread those war dress feathers and looks very stunning. But the BIZNATCH is coming with it so we all better watch out. She also makes this huge annoying sound all the time when she wants something. I realized the other day it sounds like the starter on her car has gone bad. I'll have to get it on video sometime. Now that I've heard it as a bad starter in a car, I can't unhear it. 😆

Welcome back! It sure is good to "see" you. I always wonder when regular posters drop off the radar, hoping they are OK. Glad to see you back and recovered from that long illness!

I feel if I touched Alfie's toes or beak I might lose a finger. 😄 He is very much his own bird and I can only scratch his head when he lets me or wants me to. I managed to get a good few head scritches in earlier this week but then yesterday he was back to rotating his head out of the way and looking at me as if to ask what the heck I thought I was doing. Yet when he sees my mum he just melts. I love that they have a relationship but I am also fairly envious at the same time! 😂

Yeah I can imagine losing all the feathers at once would be pretty shocking! I panicked with just these four! Thankfully though, all is good is Alfie's world and I was being paranoid. 😄

Welcome back! So good to hear from you! Sorry you have had a bad run of it with the illness but glad you're feeling better now! I love hearing what HRH Inara gets up to. Her speech and use of language always amazes me. Alfie is mostly a non-talker apart from a few odd words and phrases. He much prefers sounds and noises, especially whistling. I think he also prefers male voices as he seems to pick up words from male voices much easier than female ones... but unfortunately there are no males in the house! I know what you mean when you talk about worrying what will happen to our birds if anything should happen to us. At the moment I don't have a solid plan for Alfie. None of my family or friends are interested enough to take him on. Some are petrified of him. I was hoping maybe my nephew would take a liking to animals and particularly Alfie but unfortunately he's not interested at all. Although my sister is really scared of him so she definitely wouldn't appreciate my nephew bringing him home!! 😂 At the moment I think the only option would be to pass him to a sanctuary if anything happened to me. It's that or a rescue organisation who could rehome him.

OMG, welcome back!!! So sorry to hear that you've been very ill, but I'm so very happy to hear you're now on the mend. Thank you for catching us up on your Inara!

Yes they do seem to form their own opinions about different people. My biggest problem is finding people who are willing to put the effort in with him. He isn't overly socialised because most people I know are either scared of him or aren't interested!

While I was in here, I upgraded the software. Also, a thought. Probably is Sukei specific, but this Christmas I upgraded my 5.1 sound system to a Dolby Atmos. Sukei is a really High strung individual, and I put on some christmas music after the upgrade, and he turned into a statue LOL He seems to be very calm almost statue like, he cant process the 7.1 LOL Disclaimer, this may not work with your Grey :) Anyways Merry Christmas, and Happy New Years.

Huey gets put on a rope in the kitchen every morning while I make mama's coffee. I usually go off to the office for a few minutes until I hear the coffee is ready. It's not unusual for him to fly to their cage area to investigate as he has been in our room all night long. I heard him fly as he sometimes does but this landing sounded different. I stalled about 5m and then decided I better go check in case he's remodeling the wood work. Poor Huey got hisself in a pickle and needed a Halp from the kitchen staff. That footy....and his expression at the end when he finally gets rescued off the door frame. 😍🥰 Halp.mp4

Totally loved this!

We just moved here. Give it some time 🤣

Oh that is so cute! I can’t believe your door look so good! One are all chewed on the tops. My greys manage to hold on me chew them

Haha yes I'm familiar with that little grabby foot move. Alfie has managed to get himself in a few similar pickles over the years!

That foot movement is classic! Guess no bites for you today!

Ah yes, that awkward moment when they realize we really DO have a purpose. The only time Timber let me hold him on his back was a time when he literally was hanging by one foot and beak. I put my hand under his back and he released immediately and relaxed into my hand. It's been several years, but I remember thinking that I had finally really earned his trust.

I'm familiar with that searching foot. Whenever Dorian is startled off his perch, he inevitably lands somewhere awkward and hard to hold onto.

I love the little tentative steps he takes whilst on the carpet. Happy enough to stomp around on the solid floor... but the carpet? That gets really slow and deliberate steps. 😂

I see it now. Dorian is taking inventory of what to target first for when he's out and you don't know it. They always look like they are walking with skis on. So cute.

I figured it out. This should work better.

Huey gets all the girls. That's because he has rock hard abs of fluffers. Tues and Thurs (usually) I get on the bike trainer which is in the attached bird room. Huey always gets excited with the loud music and activity. Here he is busting out some hanging crunches. What a stud muffins... 20210817_112548.mp4

Wow, oh Wow and congratulations! I'm glad Acappella posted on this thread because I otherwise probably would not have seen the description of your property. Thanks for posting all the information/photos. What a perfect property. Clearly, you do an amazing job of integrating GreycieMae into your life. I'm impressed that you can get a harness on her so that she can join you outside. Given all your critters, you've got to be busy but I am sure it is a totally rewarding lifestyle. I wish you the best of luck!

Timber has been known to get on the floor and come looking for us if we aren't in the same room as he is. He doesn't fly, but doesn't hesitate to cruise around on the floor. I'm convinced he doesn't realize he isn't human anyway, so probably thinks nothing of walking about like the rest of us. The only problem is, he really hates feet. This isn't a problem unless I'm wearing sandals. He is compelled to go after my toes if they are bare! We sleep on the second floor and he sleeps on the first. He hears us stirring in the morning and probably vocalizes more then than any other time during the day. If he doesn't think we are moving quickly enough to get downstairs, he runs through his whole vocabulary of speech, plus most of his mimic noises and whistle patterns. I rehomed him nine years ago, and like you Acappella I'm thrilled with the progress we've made over the years. During the first year, there were so many times I despaired of ever having a relationship with him. He was terrified and untrusting. I'd give a lot to know what he went through previously, but can't honestly say how many homes he was in before he came here.

We used to have a similar setup with the birdroom down the hall away from the living room/kitchen area. It was too easy to just leave them all asleep for a bit while we got out of our zombie state in the morning. Now that we no longer have a birdroom and they are all smack in the dining room, there's no avoiding them. Plus, my two Greys sleep in the bedroom with us now. GreycieMae is on a step ladder that has a monster living under it, and Huey has his own rolling perch. They now make note of our coming and going in the middle of the night and if it's near 5-6am, you might as well get Huey up. Greycie likes to sleep in though and will stay put until 7am if I'm being lazy.

Quite an adventure you guys have set out upon. Congrats on the new place.

Wow that's incredible! Congratulations! Would love to see more photos when you get the bird room and patio up and finished!

Wow, sounds fantastic! You sure have a lot of potential there, and I'll bet your wife is in second heaven. Good luck and God bless in the new place

The only drawback to doing this, is he takes 3 months to stop singing happy birthday to Sukei LOL. No worries, Welcome.

Oh my gosh, congratulations!!!! What an absolutely fantastic find! And with you being such a talented handy man I just know you're going to work your magic and build everything into the property and house of your dreams! So happy for you, your wife and your wonderful flock! Thank you for all the pics. Can't wait to see more!

GreycieMae barn manager. We got four cats from BarnCats.org. BP (Black Panther) in the background. Best mouser I've ever seen. Me on Trigger having a ride on the property

The other neat thing about this place: we are 1.5 miles from the Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. Lots of migratory birds and other wildlife at the refuge. Great blue heron hunting GreycieMae goat wrangling in the cattle barn GreycieMae helping feed the pond fishes

Just about everyone has given good advice about many basic things concerning the human to bird or the bird to bird relationships. But everything here isn'tset in stone. What may happen right now with your birds may be in your favor. On the other hand, maybe not. One of the best things to do with pet greys ( for the person who has more than one) is to keep them in separate living quarters because greys each have totally different personalites from each other. The only way for you to experience the very intricate and detailed personality WITH YOU is to keep them separated. That allows each bird to show their full personality without any interference from another bird. You'll never know that full scope of each bird when they're together. They can play all day, they can hang out together but each bird has to have it's own place to go back to which is HOME which is the cage. Each bird designs a cage to their own likes. It'll be different than the next cage. Wanna practice talking to them? Again, they need to be separate because both birds may repeat the exact same thing or not repeat it or only one may repeat it. How does a person know the bird's capabilities? Separate HOMES. Wanna have a specialized relationship with each of those birds? Separate HOMES. Wanna see who's more jealous or possessive? Separate HOMES. Wanna let each bird feel very relaxed when it feels like playing with it's own toys? Separate HOMES. Wanna watch as each bird's personality develops? Separate HOMES. And I can tell you that your birds have come no where near what their final adult personalities will be. There's a lot of other reasons for separate HOMES and none will hurt the birds as far as their liking each other. Wanna see who's the more dominant or passive bird? Separate HOMES. It's very possible that keeping 2 greys in one cage will actually hamper one or the other as far as showing their individuality. But, if you wanna put them together than go for it. My opinion is that greys are so drastically different from each other that I would wanna enjoy each bird by letting them show me their differences. All greys are different and that includes breeding birds. What may go on at your breeder's house is not necessarily the same as what goes on in another breeder's house. I have breeders. When breeding season is over, all are put into a communal aviary. I and my wife can deal with all of them. We;re the owners and they've lived with us for years but if you came around them in that communal area you would see very different birds. I'll put it this way---you would really wanna get out of that aviary quickly. Everyone who gets different parrots thinks about breeding them in the future. It's only natural. But as time goes on you'll see that because your birds are very complex you'll forget that idea. Basically, everyone is saying to keep them separate. Is that so hard? Everyone knows where their birds are at. Let each develop separately. There's not really much more to say, at least from me. Look through the whole thread. Recheck what people have said. Focus on good individual relationships with those greys. Like Jayd said, you may be confusing the words bond and friend. You say that you don't know much about raising greys. Dealing with greys is different than dealing with other parrots. Dealing with Amazons is different than dealing with Cockatoos which is different than dealing with macaws which is different than dealing with conures which is different than dealing with eckletus etc etc etc. People here aren't telling you what will or won't happen. They're telling you what may or may not happen and they're trying to put you on that safe and happy path. Anyway, you've got a lotta years to go by before you may or may not consider breeding these birds. Even in the human world, identical twins need to be dealt with separately because each excells where the other doesn't.

The others are quite right, they both need to be in separate cages and if one wants to become friends with the other then it will happen on their own and in their own time but I imagine that they will tolerate one another but not be friends. The person who told you to put them together does not know much about greys.