neoow

Funny you mention it, because after 7 years of living in my current house, I finally have a dining table! I had a housemate up until recently so my PC and other stuff was downstairs where the dining table would normally go. After my housemate moved out I was able to turn his bedroom into an office and my parents gave me their old dining table and chairs! I only got it at the weekend but Alfie has already been exploring it. BUT! He shows absolutely no interest in my food- never has done. I can pretend it's the best thing I've ever eaten, I can eat it in front of him and I can try and hide it from him and be secretive... he doesn't care! He even sat at the dining table on Sunday with me and was more interested in throwing the coasters around than what I had on my plate! His favourite treat of all time is cedar/pine nuts. They take a while for him to crack open but they are the only treat that really motivates him. So they are the treat I am using and reserving for training. He also likes walnuts... but he will someitmes leave them and they are not as much of a motivator as the cedar nuts.

Hmm, I'm always cautious about sudden changes in behaviour like this. Talon raised some good points about eating/drinking/pooping normally. If you're concerned then I'd recommend a visit to an avian vet, as birds do try hard to mask their illnesses. Has anything else changed in the environment? Have you introduced anything new or moved things around at all? Is she perching and moving around ok?

I've not seen this particular behaviour in my grey, Alfie before. Is it a new behaviour? Is your vet an avian specialist? I'd probably be slightly concerned about the heavy breathing too. That doesn't sound great. If you think your vet missed anything then it might be worth trying to get a second opinion if possible.

I'm so so sorry to hear this Maggie. Jayd was a very valuable member of these forums and offered lots of sound advice over the many years. I offer my deepest condolences.

Haha oh I have no doubt that Alfie will start to use it to his advantage somehow! I'm waiting for him to make the clicker sound himself!

She's so adorable! Thanks for all the updates, it's fascinating to see how quickly she's developing!

Nice! I often find myself trying to draw Alfie- although mine are just doodles compared to these. They make good muses, don't they?

We're still working on it. I'm trying to get Alfie to realise he only needs to touch the stick and not grab hold of it. We've done two or three more sessions since I posted this. I'm now offering treats from a container rather than dropping them on the shelf as that means I can do the training wherever he is. He's happy enough to take the treat from the container and it saves my fingers.

First off, I have never really done any 'formal' training with Alfie. Apart from step up, he doesn't really know/respond to many commands. He sort of knows 'wave' and used to know 'turn round'. I think he understands what I mean when I ask him to fly to me- but he ignores it unless he wants to. 😄 He mostly comes and goes as he pleases. He is good with stepping up to a perch. He is mostly fine with stepping up to an arm but will occasionally refuse or sometimes bite if he's not happy about being asked to move. I've had some 'issues' with Alfie - he took a dislike to me a while back and favoured my housemate who recently moved out. Whilst Alfie will interact with me he no longer wanted to sit with/on me and no longer asked for head scritches. If my housemate was in the room Alfie would follow him and want to sit with him. He also went through a short period of flying to the back of my neck/head and biting me... but thankfully that was relatively short lived. However, things still haven't got back to how they used to be. I've been working hard to regain Alfie's trust and build our friendship back up again... especially now my housemate is no longer living here (he does visit though). I have been trying to start clicker training with a target stick for a while but Alfie usually ignores the stick completely or gets aggressive with it. I've only tried this when he's been in the cage so far. I also have to watch my fingers/hands when offering treats as sometimes he opts to lunge at my hands/fingers instead of taking the treat. This has knocked my confidence with Alfie somewhat, which I know is a problem in itself. So I'm working hard to find ways to improve things for us both. Yesterday I managed to get Alfie to touch the target stick a good few times whilst he was out of his cage. I put the stick close to him, used the command 'touch' then clicked the clicker as soon as any part of his beak touched the stick. I then put a treat down for him on the window sill so he could get it. I didn't quite trust him enough to offer him the treat directly, but putting it down nearby seemed to work. I kept the 'training session' really short and asked him to repeat the behaviour about 5 or 6 times at most. I also managed to get a couple of clips of our attempts which I uploaded to the forums just now. Hopefully these should be available below, assuming I did everything correctly!

Oh Charlie is just so precious! Such a beautiful baby!

Perfect!

I'm really sorry, I can't help because Alfie won't touch the stuff! I have seen others who use it in different ways though- some put it on toast, some mix it in with their birds usual food. Some just put a little dollop on top.

Oh she's so precious! You're making me parrot broody!!! 😂 Are you keeping her or are you looking to set yourself up as a breeder? (Sorry if you've already answered that)

I can't speak for all grey's, but Alfie tends to pick and choose what words and phrases he wants to learn and also picks and chooses what words and phrases he will forget and never use again. He used to say "oi! put the kettle on!" and "nag nag nag!" (courtesy of my dad) but he doesn't use those any more and despite my dad's best efforts whenever he sees him, Alfie doesn't seem to want to relearn them. Alfie always favours noises and sounds over words. He is still picking up odd words from time to time but he will learn sounds a lot quicker and will repeat them with gusto. He does mumble from time to time (when he thinks I can't hear him) so it sounds like he is trying to practice and learn other words. But it takes him a long time to actually learn words. He is 17 years old. It might be worth looking up some videos about how others train their birds to talk to see if they have any tips and tricks. There are probably certain ways you can encourage a grey to talk... but you also need to bear in mind that some are just not big talkers.

Lovely photos! I would love to walk around with Alfie on my shoulder but I just can't trust him up there. He's always tried to get to my ears and now I have short hair, they are easily accessible. I also worry about my eyes. I always admire parrots who are well behaved and will be content to sit on a shoulder for hours without acting up!

Wow. it's amazing how quickly they change. Loving all the progress pics/vids!

😍😍😍😍 So cute! I think I already answered on your other post- but I think this is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about.

Oh look at your precious baby! So adorable! Pin feathers are where new feathers are coming through- so he is either moulting or still having some feathers come through. Perfectly normal. They might be a bit itchy at times so the extra bathing and misting will definitely help.

How fascinating. I'll have a proper look later, I had a quick scroll through the posts and comments but I'm supposed to be working right now, so will check it our properly later!

Hello! Welcome to the forums! How exciting about Ella. It's not a challenge I would be prepared to take on myself! Would love to know more about Ella and your other birds!

These are great! What is it about birds and toes? Alfie loves to go after mine too!

Ouch, that's rough. Alfie is a "no shoulder bird" for that very reason. He has bitten ears in the past and I'm always worried about eyes. I envy anyone who has a parrot that will sit nicely and calmly on their shoulder. Alfie gets bored and starts seeking out ears quite quickly!

Haha perfect! They always learn how to get more attention! Alfie caught me out in a similar way a couple of years back. My dad had been visiting the house a lot to renovate the back garden. He would come through the house to use the bathroom or make a cup of tea etc. If he wanted me for something he would stick his head round the door and call my name and I would come downstairs to see what he wanted. One day my dad decided to pack up and head home and told me he was leaving. I heard him drive off. About a half hour later I heard him yell my name from downstairs. I assumed he must have forgotten something so went downstairs to see what he wanted... he wasn't there. The car wasn't there... it was Alfie. 😄 For a good few weeks after Alfie would yell my name in my dad's voice. It was absolutely spot on and when my dad was visiting to continue working in the garden I often had difficulties figuring out who was actually calling me. He used to yell my name when he was younger because we lived with my parents at the time. My mum would yell up the stairs and I, being a grumpy teenager at the time, would yell "what" in quite a grumpy tone. Alfie learned to yell my name in my mum's voice and also responded with my grumpy sounding 'what'. It did make us laugh, but also made me realise that I probably needed to respond in a nicer way when called!

I would love to learn more about Cricket and it's good that you feel ready to talk about her. I don't really know much about Amazons as I've never done much research into them. I've seen lots of videos where they are talking up a storm or singing etc. They do seem like the class clown of the parrot species. I also understand that they can be quite intense- I don't want to say difficult to handle but if they get cranky about something- watch out! 😂 Mind you- the same could be said for most parrots!!

Yeah I've heard of a few birds that do this. Some like their food softer so will dunk it in water before eating.