Leaderboard

I apologize in advance for my lengthy post. I just like to write! :?) First, an explanation of my forum name – CTGull. I am from Connecticut. Simple so far. Gull – I do not have a Seagull, nor am I obsessed with them. I use this name in many guitar forums, in reference to Seagull acoustic guitars. So, yes, I am actually obsessed with seagulls, but the wooden variety with strings on them. And vintage Yamaha FG acoustic guitars, but that’s another story. We’ve had a few birds in the past 10+ years, including a crazy Amazon and a large Cockatoo. They were total opposites! We currently have a Love bird (it LOVES human flesh!!!), and Alexadrine and a mostly naked male Eclectus. The Alexandrine and Eclectus love to step up and come out. We’ve had a couple birds who did not, including the Amazon. I’ve always wanted a Grey. On 5/21/18 I saw an ad in the Free Stuff section of the local CraigsList for an African Grey parrot. I’ve seen ads for parrots before but they have been scams, stealing someone’s name and phone number. Why I have no idea. Both times I contacted the people and they didn’t have a parrot. So I figured this was the same, but I sent an email anyway. As usual, the ad was flagged and disappeared shortly after I saw it. Just before lunch the next day I got a reply to call him if I was interested in the bird. I replied I didn’t feel comfortable talking about the bird at work and I would call when I got out at 3:30pm. So I called and asked a few questions, with the main one being “Why do you want to get rid of the bird?”. His response was, “We just want it gone.” I attempted to process that for a few seconds before responding. And I arranged to meet at 5:30pm. It had been raining all afternoon and was expected to continue until about 7pm. After a 40 minute ride we found their condo, after driving past the street twice. They have a few animals. Who doesn’t?? The bird has chewed off its wing feathers and has down all over its body. What does the bird eat?? A seed/nut mixture!! They say she won’t eat anything else. The worst thing she said was their ferret runs around and sometimes goes on the cage. OMG?????!!!!!!! I didn’t want another basket case but it’s obvious she isn’t wanted there, so we had to take her. A couple of stubby chewed wing feathers were bleeding after a long struggle to get it out of its cage and into an open wire carrier. We load out in the rain and drive home in the rain. When we get home the rain has stopped, but there are a few droplets of blood on my wife’s clothes and her van’s dashboard and door panel. We bring the carrier in and find the blood stop powder. It’s a struggle to get the bird out and restrained enough to apply the powder. But there are at least 3 blood feathers bleeding, however infrequently. My wife is concerned and calls the local 24 hour vet, which also has an avian vet. We ask our 6’3” 18 year old son to bring in and set up the 30” x 30” x 60something” cage by himself. And we’re off. They take the bird as soon as we get there. And we wait 1.5 hours for them to bring her back. (We’re assuming her.) Then we have to wait for the vet to come out to talk to us. Another half hour. Then we BS with the nurse for another half hour. It’s now 10:30pm. They did the same thing we did, but a bit more thorough. They found 5 feathers bleeding. They gave us (I use that term loosely) some meds, including one for pain, that have to be given every 8 hours. They also suggest dropping her off in the morning and leaving her there for a full exam with the avian vet. So the next morning I get up at 4:50am (my usual time), take a shower, and get my wife up, 1.5 hours before she normally gets up. While we would rather have had the bird set up in our bedroom to isolate her, there just isn’t room at the moment so we have her in the Livingroom next to our Alexandrine. I attempted to take out the Alexandrine to show that I’m not a threat. He’s usually more than willing to step up, but it’s 5:20am and all he wants is head scratches. More scratches. And more scratches. I finally come up from behind and get him to step up and show the Grey. I kiss his nose and put him back. I opened the Greys cage and slowly advance my finger towards her. She growls, as usual. Then she drops her head!!!!!! SCRATCHES??? So I gave her scratches. And tried to get her to step up. Lunges, growls, and wants more scratches. Well, I guess that’s progress. A little chasing around the cage ensues before I got her on my hand (with the other hand) and started to pull her out. She’s looking for anywhere to go. Her first choice is my chest. She latches on my shirt, fortunately only getting shirt. I pull her off and the struggle continues to gently restrain her for my wife to give her the meds. My wrist was very scratched up from her needle sharp nails, but no blood was shed. Progress. I put her in the carrier and load it into my wife’s van. She goes to the vet, I go to work. We picked her up that evening. They said she had a good day. She was tough getting out but was bopping around and making noises otherwise, and watching everything that was going on. She even ate a little of the colored ZuPreme pellets, which is what we use. Excellent!! I’ve noticed, and the nurse at the vet mentions, that the bird seems to like me, she watches me a lot and blushes. Hopefully I can use that to my advantage to get her to step up eventually. My wife pays (we must be $600 into this bird!!) and we go home. So far in the less than 24 hours we’ve had her, she’s spent more time at the vet than with us! It was a little struggle to get her out and into her cage. Since it was 6:00pm, we left to get some food. Later I attempted to take her out for her meds. Nope. Not happening. She put up quite a fight. And we had to give up after a few minutes. I AM NOT HAPPY …… I thought we had made some progress, but she was probably tired after a long day of excitement. This morning we prepared for battle. 5:20am again. Again I took out the Alexandrine (didn’t want scratches) and showed him to her. Again she fought to not come out. She ended up falling off the perch and I corralled her on the bottom. She’s not pinning like she wants to kill, she just doesn’t want anything with us taking her out. She got her meds and we went to work. We can’t continue like this. She’s going to get hurt. And never trust us. I had really hoped I’d be able to take her out to put her on a stand to get to know us better. But I can see it’s going to be a struggle. We want to reduce her stress so her feathers will grow back, but if we have to fight to get her out, I don’t see how we’re helping. Obviously, our biggest problem is not being able to handle, or even take out, a growling, feather destructing, and stressed bird. The change of homes can’t help. I don’t think they ever took the bird out. They just opened the cage and let her walk around, and she would go back in eventually. I’m not like that, I’m hands on with our pets. We also have reptiles (lizards & snakes), along with 2 cats and 2 dogs. I can’t see having a pet that can’t be taken out, even if it’s only for a few minutes here and there. Of course, for my enjoyment, not theirs. Obviously, this bird is not enjoying it!!

Welcome. Thank you for rescuing this Grey. I'm not an authority but I know it is necessary to wait for the Grey to make the first move, that is move at Grey Time.

Thank you everyone, so far!! I should be able to get some pictures this weekend. A little update from last night: I made some progress last night. I've noticed she spends a lot of time looking up. There is a large tray on the top of the cage, about 1" from her head. When I got home last night I removed that tray. Now she can see all around her, and it's easier to see her. I did my usual of picking up the Alexandrine a few times to show he's OK with it. I said step up to him. I tried step up on her and got the usual growling, warning open mouth lunges (no bite) and moving away. Then she changed to putting her head down for scratches. I'm thinking this bird is more intelligent than me. By putting her head down she blocks access to her feet!!! All I can do is try to push her head out of the way, which isn't appreciated. My son and I and I spent 45 minutes talk each other, my daughter, the other birds, and her. I would occasionally pick up one of the other birds, using step up. The other progress, major progress, is she is eating the colored ZuPreme pellets without a problem. She ate for at least 10 minutes of the time the cage was open and we were talking to her. Picking up individual pieces, biting, chewing, rotating, biting, chewing, etc. After the 45 minutes by back was sore from bending over so many times. She never stepped up, but she's allowing scratches. Any attempt to touch her feet gets a small growl and she will move away, even up the side of the cage, and put her head down for more scratches, blocking any other attempts to touch her feet. I think she will come around quickly. She sees and hears the 2 other birds in the room. She sees them getting picked up willingly. She is very curious about what is going one. Her eyes were open very wide just about the whole time last night. I may be pushing it, but I'll bet I get her to step up this weekend. We'll be moving her into our room this weekend, where my wife usually is, the TV and the lovebird. But I'm wondering if maybe she should stay in the "flock" with the 2 larger birds for a while. Not sure what to do. Once I get her out of the cage willingly, or she ventures on top, I'd like to move her primary high bar down slightly, maybe only 1-2 inches, but to get her head a little farther away from the bars, but still have access to the food bowls at that level. And she needs some new toys, the existing ones are tired.

Hello and welcome to the forum! Bless you for taking this poor, distressed grey and for taking such good care of her. The meds won't go on forever, and she WILL get over it with time. It will probably take lots of time. Hang in there and I believe it will be well worth you time. Greys are slow to trust and slow to adjust, but they get there. God bless

Thank you! That sounds great!Try a 1/2 tsp creamy low-sodium peanut butter....Question, will he eat his formula off a spoon? What I used to like to do is put some dry cheerios in his cage. They start to fledge at about 12 weeks....he should be on solid by then. He should be eating around 50ccs per feeding. ....will post more when I wake up LOL....

Hi Jayd, He weighs in at 532g. I suspect that he is older than 9 weeks. I am feeding him Avi Plus Parrot Handrearing formula - the 6 weeks to weaning one. He has approximately 40 - 50ml per feed.

Welcome, we really enjoyed your post, (we also enjoy photos.) When a grey is involved, ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY....This is a typical grey occurrence. Before replying, I'm going to wait and let other members reply...Thanks Rev Jayd

And unrelated to this topic, it seems I can't update my profile because I don't know the proper colour of the sun. Can someone tell me what colour it is looking for???

I have tried to upload a video three times and it always gives me the 'there was a problem'. I have uploaded the same video to Facebook with no problems other than the length of time it took to upload. Can someone please tell me what to do so you can see the video. Thanks

When it comes to preforming parrots the Amazon parrot sits at the top of the list. They are a very animated species of parrots and are often called the clowns of the parrot world. They have a in your face attitude, Are very hormonal when in season and unpredictable behavior can make them very hard to live with if not socialized. Still they are said to be the easiest parrot to train. Their out going attitude, their animated personality and their intelligence along with talking ability makes them a joy to watch. It takes a special person with parrot experience to work with these amazing parrots. They are very loyal and if not properly socialized become a one person parrot. Food for thought: You can take the best person in the world and if you look hard enough you can find something bad about them. You can take the worst person in the world and if you look hard enough you can find something good about them What you find depends on what you are looking for. When you have a Amazon look for the good and you will find it.

I live with a lovely Yellow Cheek Amazon she is a sweetheart with a wonky wing.

🤣 Maggie here...the other evening, I had fixed a special dinner for me and had just settled in after getting Jay's, Joe's, Salsa's, and Rolo's (the dog's) plates for them. As soon as I sat down, I had to get up to help Jay and had my plate sitting to the side and behind me. Imagine my SURPRISE when I sat back down and found a big chunk missing! I looked around and found Joey enjoying himself! LOL....So glad he was enjoying himself!😋🙄

Angels truly exist....an angel from this forum came to us and has given us spiritual, mental, and physical help in our darkest hour. Grey Forums, you have an angel among you...thank you all for your prayers and comments...they all mean so much to us. Love, Jayd and Maggie

I hope he left some for you!

So true!

Ha, good one!

I have a chance to rehome a Blue and Gold Macaw in need of a home. She is about 25 years old and has been with the same family most of her life. I am thinking seriously about it and I am going to try and meet her this weekend I am told that she is a very good talker and that she is people friendly. We will see what happens.

Hoping all goes well for you Ray. Perhaps they are waiting to hear back from someone they hope will purchase their Blue and Gold (good friend/ family member). Waiting is always hard.

This morning I called back the person with the Blue & Gold Macaw. I talked to the wife and she said her hubby was busy and would call back in about 20 min. or soo. That was at noon and its now 6:45. Not sure what`s going on. All I want is a yes or no so I can go on about my business. I gave him background information along with references and phone numbers. Still up in the air

At one time I had a chance to rehome a Too , but changed my mind because of the noise level. I now wish I had taken her in, but that is part of the past.

In that picture list of zons there is a zon that can fit into any home

Our prayers be with you...

Did not get a call back this weekend and today I have a trip to Michigan so I will try Tuesday to get in touch.

I say go for it, you know you can handle it and your heart is ready and willing, hope things go your way.

I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope it all works out for you (and of course the parrot too)

I am waiting for a call back. We talked for about an hour by phone and he did say that he had a sister that was interested, but he did not think she could handle a Macaw. The man wants to make sure she will go to a good home as she has been part of the family for about 20 years. Fifteen years with him and five years with his father. They took her in as a rehome when she was between 5 and 10 years old She had a minor injury to one of her wings and a broken toe. I hope things work out as I would love to giver her a home.

WOW! All excited for you Ray. Can't wait to hear how it goes.

Wow. A blue and gold would be my dream bird, but it will always have to be a dream in my case. I just don't have the room. A pet store in town has a resident blue and gold named Cloe, and I go in to visit with her. She comes with an interesting history. The owner of the pet store sold her as a baby 24 years ago. Now one of her owners, the one Cloe was bonded to, has died, and the family got in touch with Phil to see if he was interested in taking her back. They're not looking for a new home, they're going to keep her. Unfortunately their grey started plucking when she arrived and she's (the grey) a bit of a hot mess. They've gotten her about $300 dollars of stimulating, preening and shredding toys to keep her occupied, but they're afraid it's become a habit now. I say "Go for it"

Oh wow. Such beautiful birds. Not sure I have the space to accommodate one in my home. Do keep us posted.

Wow. You're braver than me. Nothing bigger than a Grey here.

😀😄YES YES YES GOOD PAPA....🆗

Ray, glad to see you posting again.....😉

We were actually considering getting an Amazon until Timber had his health issues. Now he takes additional care and I feel that we need to focus on him. Reading your post, Ray, makes me wish we could have one!

Thank you Ray....Great....