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Z'anybody have those days (of course you do!) where maybe you didn't get much sleep, or maybe something happened , or maybe you didn't get much sleep, and you just can't engage your grey? I'm so exhausted today! Timmy is downstairs in the living room. My parents are drunk, watching TV in the dark. Poor Timmy keeps calling to me. I often have him upstairs with me, but since the two really bad bites, I can't. I can't until my finger is healed. I;m soooooooooo tired, and every time he calls to me, i feel obligated to call back. But I ... I'm so tired that it hurts my brain to do it. And every time he calls, feels like I'm getting woken from a nap, even though I'm awake. I wanna disappear and sleep for ten to twelve hours. But I can't, because somebody I love very much needs me. I engaged my buddy a lot earlier today, but now I'm sooooooo tired! EDIT: The "a lot" applies to how much I engaged Timmy, not how long ago it was.

Sometimes when Timmy's climbing in his cage, I'll tell him "I'm gonna get your piggies!" And I grab his toes. So the other day my mom and I were playing with Timmy, and he's on the floor chasing me, saying "Gonna getcha!" I jumped on my bed, because while Timmy's good at a lot of things, one thing that he's really good at is gettin' piggies! My mom picked him up and tossed him on my bed, but by that point Timmy just wanted his head scratched. Oh yeah! I meant to ask this - is the back of the neck an erogenous zone? Should I not be scratching my buddy there?

Don't know why this tickled my funny bone, but it did!

Poor GreycieMae needed a pep talk. Her just couldn't take the heat, Huey...everything that gets a girl down. 😍 🥰 GreycieMaePepTalk.mp4

Here's that dang smile right in my own house - complete with hamster cheeks. Right at the end, she hits me with her cluck-n-smile. This girl can make me do anything 20191120_062950.mp4

I've been looking at giving Alfie some different play areas downstairs where he spends all of his time. He currently has a couple of areas he likes to hang out - his java tree which is next to his cage and two shelves above the sofa. He also sometimes hangs out on the cat scratching tree. I found a hanging perch which I thought would be great which cost £40 new (a good price!) so I ordered it without taking any measurements. The thing is HUGE! 😂 However, I asked my housemate to hang a couple of ceiling hooks so I have two spaces to hang it - one is opposite his shelves near the fire place (the fire is disconnected so never used) and one behind my PC chair because he likes flying over to see what I'm up to. He hasn't tried it out yet but he is a little curious about it - but not curious enough to go near it. I leave it hanging up in the back near my PC and then I move it when he comes out as we're mostly hanging out on the sofa these days. I did try to take him over to it earlier this week but he shied away so I didn't force the issue. It has a few hoops so I will be able to hang some toys on it as well - but I'm leaving that until he's actually sat on it and used to it. The added bonus is the two food bowls - gives him a place other than his cage to grab a snack and a drink when he's out for long periods. I hope he eventually likes it! Pixel (the cat) couldn't resist getting involved when it turned up. So she is there for size reference. She is not a large cat. 😂

If there is, I haven't found it! For Alfie, I put things on the floor. He prefers being up high so anything I don't want him to mess with goes on the floor when he's out. He very rarely explores the floor so everything is generally safe there. With Pixel and Widget... NOTHING is safe. 🙄

Alfie seems to have been hard hard by his hormones this year. I only had to walk into the room and say hello and he would start regurgitating. Only thing is he will then immediately eat it afterwards. Gross! I also had to be really careful what foot toys I gave him. Anything round was out of the question as he would treat it like an egg rather than flinging it at my head like he usually does. After that he went through a spell of being quite distant from me and then he would fly to the back of my head and bite it. That was after some upheaval when I was decorating the rest of the house though... and I also decided to cut my hair really short so I think it was just too much change in a short time. At the moment we are in some kind of middle ground. He will let me scritch him out of the cage on occassion but he will not put his head down for scritches whilst he is in his cage. He reserves that for my housemate instead these days. He follows me round the room to see what I'm up to and will fly to me as well (without attacking the back of my head).

I had a macaw that would also romance me with regurgitated food. She'd gag/bring it up (I could see the food in her mouth) and then she'd re-swallow it like "nevermind, you're not worth this delicious crop full'. Um, thanks -- really, but I didn't want it anyway. But my male CAG Snickers is quite the lover and is very generous with regurgitated food sharing. (Is there a gag emoticon in these boards?) I think the problem/joy of greys is how intensely they feel things. I admit, he does often think I am his girlfriend. As long as he isn't actually suffering/pining/sad with his delusion that I am his his mate -- it's fine. I provide lots of platonic love, good eats, adequate out-of-cage-time and toys. I just have to be careful where I touch him so I don't send a mixed message (which would be unfair to my Snickers -- I want him happy, not pining). I do think it's best to stay close to head/neck/throat to be safe and keep my parrot happy and within normal cross-species relationship boundaries.

Cats do seem to think things through first. They plot!!! With my dog, I could put an item I didn't want her playing with (or something she shouldn't be eating) up high, and my dog would jump and jump but fail to reach forbidden item. But not so with cats. They look around room strategically and find a path up to the 'supposedly too high' area: (jump up to coffee table, to chair, walk along back of sofa, jump to a shelf and then successfully jump up onto the 'out of reach site' (which was my tall armoire). My dogs never thought things through to figure out a route up. My dogs just jumped and jumped in the same place -- no plan, no success. lol That said, I do adore dogs! (And maybe others have had smarter dogs than me). My armoire is currently out of reach from all other furniture, alone on a wall, and that solved that. (Well, I did have one kitten, Bridget, some years back who could somehow make the jump up to high armoire from the floor (probably at around 5-7 months old) but when she reached her adult weight, she couldn't do it any more. Thankfully! Really, every home needs at least one high safe place to put no-no items! Not sure if such a place exists in a home with Bengals or parrots. lol

Haha too funny! Widget and Pixel are like no other cats I have ever known. My housemate came up with the idea of bengals because I was dubious about having cats. I'm very much a dog person and have always been more wary around cats. He sold me on them because of their personality traits and activity levels. They are both extremely vocal and super active. Widget is VERY smart and will sit and observe and work things out... like how to open doors. Pixel will just charge in head first without a second thought, whereas Widget is more calculated about things. They both chase anything that moves. I have watch Widget jump a few feet in the air and catch a fly mid-flight... so you can see why I don't trust them with Alfie flying around! They are also exceptionally loyal. They are almost dog like in how they know when we are coming home and rush over to greet us. And it's not even just because they are hungry- they seem to genuinely enjoy being in our company and will follow us around the house. They do play together but they play ROUGH. They will fling each other around. Pixel will usually instigate it then scream the house down when Widget goes too far. She's a little princess sometimes. 😂

Oh yeah! Timmy has totally looked up at me with such love in his eyes, and then thrown up! Then again, I've been known to get nauseous around my crushes... "Love you so much it makes me sick"

Ha! Funny video. I've always loved cats because they have so much personality.

Ever see Ariel? She's a Caracal/Serengeti mix. Cats are so dang funny... ArielBossCat.mp4

Gotta agree with Timbersmom! I've always thought Bengals (plus Ocicats and Abyssinian cats) really rocked! But I imagine they require much more care and interactive playtime, plus much more effort in making your home cat-proof since they're so active (and built of pure muscle and gorgeous fur)! If I were 30 years younger, I might go for a more exotic cat. Instead, I've always had a lot of lazy cats. All my cats were very active as kittens but grew up to be super-chill and calm; believing they were meant to solely laze about and sleep on sofas or my bed (and especially on my lap!) I tried using those feather toys on a wand to inspire some playtime and activity in my lazy cats: they'd swipe at it twice (if it passed by close enough to them -- they refused any real effort of chasing it); and then mine would act like 'forget the toy, lady, I wanna nap now." Can't imagine a Bengal passing up a chance to chase that wand toy! Bengals truly are amazing and beautiful!

I've always wanted a Bengal. I remember seeing a video of one jumping from the floor to the top bunk of a bunk bed with ease. I can see why you could never trust them around a bird. I don't trust my two fat, lazy, unpredatory Maine Coons around Timber alone either, but they can't move with the speed and agility of a Bengal.

I forgot to mention under the wings -- mine seems to consider that more sexual -- esp during hormonal seasons. Which is a shame, since he'll raise his wings a bit hoping I'll rub there too. If I go under the wings, it's for 5 seconds max. But in all honesty, it's probably a no-go zone. Mine feeds me (love that regurgitated food... not) so that also helps me back-track of where I touched him that brought the feeding routine on. I don't want to be a tease, yannoe. I probably am his girlfriend in his eyes, but I want to be respectful and maintain a few boundaries with him. A confused parrot isn't going to be a happy parrot, ime.

Pixel is lovely. And I imagine very active !!! Like having a real wild cat! Gotta admire you for adopting them!

I love the three bell perch. I've not seen anything like that before. I reckon Alfie would love that! Still no luck with getting him to go near it, but I'm sure he'll get there eventually. I did consider wrapping the outside in rope too... but I'll see how he takes to it first and might add that later. And yes... I can almost guarantee there will be food splattered up the walls!! 😂 The cat is one of my benglas, yes. That one is Pixel, my little girl. Well I say little, they'll both be 9 years old later this month. My boy Widget was sound asleep upstairs at the time otherwise he probably would have been in the photo too. They just dive into everything haha. The cat tree is a floor to ceiling one. It's in the living room where Alfie lives. When he comes out, I shut the living room door so the cats play upstairs and Alfie plays downstairs. They are never allowed in the same space when Alfie is out as I'm too worried about accidents happening. They pretty much ignore him whilst he's in his cage other than sniffing around him sometimes. They know better than to stick a paw in. When Alfie is out the cat tree is one of the higher 'perches' in the room so he often flies up there to scope out the room (and chew the curtains). He sometimes climbs it too if he lands on a lower part of it. So it's a multi-function cat and parrot tree. 😎

I'm fairly sure head and neck scritches are fine- but anywhere else could lead to some mixed signals. Like most things, it probably depends on the individual bird.

In every parrot's defense: human toes can resemble peanuts to them. lol I always figured neck/throat/upper chest scritches were non-sexual. I suppose there is a parrot out there somewhere with some neck fetish, but I just avoid too many lower belly, leg and 'butt/bum' touches to avoid sexually stimulating them (which may exacerbate/encourage their hormonal responses/behaviours). Just me, and I've been wrong before. Neck and throat/upper chest scritches usually imply a certain level of trust more than an hormonal 'touch', ime. Who knows with these guys -- they could have fetishes we're unaware of. Mine seems balanced and normal when I remember the season and avoid over-stimulating him. I consider (perhaps wrongly) that any scritches near his head are not read incorrectly. Good luck!!!

LOVE IT! I am now obsessed with some ceiling hanging perch/swing for my CAG. Never even thought of a cat tree for a parrot -- lovely idea!!! Shame the one I just purchased is dominated by my new older-kittens. I fear a new one would be perceived as a kitten toy and Snickers (CAG) may not get to use it. Maybe my home just needs time, so all can adjust to changes and them BAM -- a huge new play area for Snickers. (Suppose I could also put kittens in another room for a few hours if I get Snickers a cat tree too!)

That 3 bell perch is in all of my greys' cages. They love to ring them simultaneously. It's one of their favorite toys/perches. I just made an atom out of pliable 1 inch pvc. Right now they think it's a strange evil device hanging up in their aviary, but in time they'll learn to love it.

Very nice! Pretty cat too. Is that one of your Bengals? It may take him awhile, but I suspect Alfie will "take" to them eventually. He'll get past the "if I land there I will die" soon I'm sure.

Wow, we have something very similar that I found somewhere. It's dirty right now because it's been sitting in the aviary awaiting a new rope wrap (Greycie likes the sides wrapped in sisal for easy grip and nice nibbles). I hung it in the living room just for a photo and Greybie instantly decided this was a very good place for it. By the way, your wall will look fabulous with some nice food splatter there 😂

Yes I do. Some days it is very difficult to get out of bed - let alone have to deal with and engage with anyone. 😂 You need to look after yourself too. Make sure you rest and sleep when you need to. Timmy will probably still keep calling out. I know Alfie sits there calling out during the day when I'm not there. He practices lots of sounds regardless of whether I respond. Yes, he enjoys it when I'm there and I DO respond but he's also quite happy chattering away to himself sometimes too (so much so that I couldn't get a word in to call back even if I wanted to!) You're of more use to Timmy when you're well rested and happy. They pick up on moods so quickly. If you're tired and run down, he'll notice. And the more tired you get, the less patience you'll have. So give yourself a break and don't be so hard on yourself. This is one day in a lifetime. Let it pass and hopefully tomorrow will be a better one.

I think that we all have those days where we're dragging ourselves around with a tank almost on empty. I'm sure that Timmy appreciated the call backs. It's reassuring for them to receive a reply to their calls. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for you.

She is lovely.

What a great relationship you have with your girl!

I always look forward to GreycieMae videos. ❤️

She's always been a girly girl kind of a CAG. Here her is enjoying some evening time turning our brains into mush in front of the idiot box. Iposted this a year or so ago but can't find it so re-posting:

Awwwww! Great video -- and such a good close relationship. Seeing so much trust in each other just warms my heart! I reacted with a like' since there was no 'love' reaction! 🥰 The first time my grey laid upside down in my arms -- just WOW! Sometimes nowadays he'll just flop over in my lap and trust my hands to keep him from rolling onto the floor! But that first time, you truly realize what such trust means. You feel both the joy and obligation to this wee grey that is giving you his full love and trust. And mine had been through a few bad homes before I got him in 1997, so I truly understood the importance of not messing up his proper care or ever ruining that previous trust...ever! [insert warm fuzzies here] 🐦