WiredUp

Good advice, this never crossed my mind, thanks!

Things have been going great for a while now. This is me on a road trip with her a month ago when we had snow.

She does not like showers a bit. Weve been taking showers together so far, thats the only way she has not freaked out about water. She has been chewing her backfeathers for a few days now... Worried a bit about that. Got a spray but dont think im gonna use it as i have read bad things about them, but bought one anyway "just in case".

Sam yesterday after her first successful shower which she kind of enjoyed. Shes a big girl now!

Tonight she finally got the button of my computer´s monitor that she has been after for a while now. I only found a small piece which I think is the remaining part of it. How dangerous can small swallowed plastic be?

Report: The new avian light made her curious but seems to avoid it. I still let it shine 2-3 hours a day so that she can get the benefits from it. Nutriberries are a new favourite, but she wastes the most of them as she likes to break them apart but doesnt want to eat the pieces. Weight is now 352, was 359 yesterday.

Her weight is stable as of now and she is really becoming confident with flying and around the house as well. When I say come to my shoulder then she seems to understand it and starts to think of ways to get there, becomes restless and sooner or later comes. When I say lets go downstairs to the kitchen to have some snacks and I say it while we are walking down the stairs, she flies from half-way down the stairs to the kitchen table. So far we are getting along wonderfully and I couldn´t live without her anymore. She has been biting the kids, though, plus my wife today so 3 times total. Seems like she is becoming a bit jealous when they get my attention or if the smaller child wants to take Sam´s toy. She got a firm no and 10 minutes in the cage as a punishment, was very cuddly after that. I have been trying to train her some basic commands, like "nod for yes; come here" etc in context, she chooses to ignore me a lot of the time though and finds something else to do instead. It really is like raising a newborn child rather than than training a wild animal and to be honest, as I have found such a wonderful friend, I couldn´t think of anything better. PS. One thing I can tell that has changed in my family since adopting Sam is the overall happiness of the house. My children have become more loving towards everything and everyone, including other pets and Sam is making a huge difference with my anxiety and OCD.

what does your grey eat as its diet beside nutriberries judy?

I tried to search online but didnt find anything. Can you tell me how much approximately one nutriberry weighs? Im trying to figure out how much do I get per pack and how much do I need, as I need to ship them from UK and they get quite expensive if I order them one pack at a time.

350 yesterday, 352 today so maybe weight is slowly picking up. Ordered some nutriberries yesterday, 1.5 kg, anyone got some experience how long will this last me? Also got Arcadia compact light set, can´t wait to get it, have heard some very good opinions about it.

Microchipping is available in Estonia. Never heard about people chipping birds around here, though. Slim chance that when someone finds an exotic bird that they'll try to find the owner, but thanks for the idea and I will definitely look into it.

344 today. She is happy and seems healthy. I have had dreams several nights now about her flying through the window and flying away.ofcourse psychoanalysis could reveal deep inner childhood problems instead (lol) but it got me worried about her disappearing. I dont want to clip her wings, so got to proof the house instead. My biggest worry is that someone who is visiting and is not used to having birds around leaves the window open etc.

Thanks, just what I needed to hear.

349 today morning, eating like a monster today. Wonder what yesterday´s not eating was about?

Ok, worried now. 343 today, didnt want to eat since morning only nibbles on food once in a while. Dropped from 349 yesterday. As the beginning weight that I got her in, was 410 grams, now the weight drop is more than 15%. I gace her a cuttlefish bone and she is going nuts with it. Her tests were ok, when I got her, but I dont think they do these tests in Estonia, will look into it on Monday as nobody works on weekends here. Is it safe to give the entire cuttlefish bone? Maybe she feels like she needs it as she wont stop chewing it. I also gave her baby formula again tonight and she took 25 cc although she didnt agree to half of it (didnt run away but didnt open beak as well, so I waited for the right moment). Please answer, as you can see I´m worried. I also gave her walnuts and normal everyday food. Only thing that I did differently since yesterday was yesterday nights aloe vera shower mixed with water. Maybe she didnt like that and felt insulted today?

Me when I just got Sam, along with tiel Jack

Oh the flight are not the problem anymore.. She will fly all day, any day, anywhere.. Newest addition to skills is climbing with the help of flapping. Never thought that birds could get to places where she is climbing now lol. Another thing I would not have believed before is the jealousy! Like I wrote before I have a tiel that was here before Sam, so I try to divide my attention between them two + my two kids. When Sam sees me petting my tiel Jack, she gets all restless and starts to squeak like a little puppy and climbing up anything to get to the same place as Jack. Another thing - there is heavy competition amongst them - if I sctrached Jack then Sam will get on my hand. Then Jack will jump on my knee, then Sam will go to my shoulder, then Jack will fly to my head. Actually they get along brilliantly and call eachother out constantly when they are in separate rooms, which to me seems like they accept eachother as their flock. Only time they get nippy with eachother is when they share a plate of food and the food will start to run out - then it´s every man for itself. She is enjoying the baths now, enjoying the scratches and wants to be a part of our life every minute of the day. So all in all, she´s wonderful Only thing that my mrs. doesnt like is that Sam nibbles and gives little play-bites when she wants something really bad or when she tries to give her a kiss. I dont mind that (as I have discovered I enjoy pain in some sort of twisted way, plus shes so cute anyway). Will want to look into fixing the biting in the future.

I got to admit, I was a bit too worried about her weight as she was 350 grams this morning so I took out the big guns and gave her grapes, pomegranate and peeled sunflower seeds through out the day in addition to normal food. I know this is taking the easy way out and giving her the foods that she preferres, but I really am worried and plan to keep this diet up until she is picking the weight up again, then start lessening the sunflower seeds and balancing things out again. I know this diet isn´t exactly healthy, but this is what I have done today, judge me please.

She is very social and loves scratches and sitting on our shoulders, which we allow because then she can come with us to other rooms quickly and be more of a part of our everyday lives. Plus she doesnt poop on us anymore, but chooses to hold it in until we put her on the floor or table. Her weight is now 360 which is roughly 12% weight loss from before fledging so I guess that should be ok. One concern is, that I have started to train her a bit. I dont want to get her to obey my every order, but my goal is that if I need her to come here quickly then she will. At the moment if she is going to fly, then most of the time she will choose the landing site herself. She has learned from my cockatiel that the perfect place for this is my head (ha, I actually think its kind of cute at the moment). Or she will fly to my wife who is in the other room instead of coming to me. She isnt very motivated by treats, so will have to work on finding the perfect one.

We had such a blast today, Sam was flying all evening, at first her aim was a bit off (biiig scratch marks all over my face) but eventually she was flying to my arm. Such a proud dad!

I dont know if it is possible already, but I think she is kind of resentful of me, when I put her in her cage. Maybe she wants me to know that she doesnt like to be put there. She used to stay on the middle perch where the food bowls are, but now instantly climbs to the bottom. I dont know if I should put the food bowls down as well. She was 375 grams this morning, what do you think, how much more lower can her weight get? What is the weight in her case that I should be alarmed from? If I take Sam out of the cage, she is very active, flies every once in a while and plays with everything.

She indeed took her first flight today (not including few jumps before today) - about 3-4 meters. So proud One thing that is bizarre is that she has now slept on the bottom of the cage 3 nights in the row. I have read that young greys may do that once in a while, but it got me worrying again, after she did this again tonight. When I open the door she is happy and nibbling me, running straight to my shoulder and her eating is not worse than before I think. Sorry, if i´m posting about every detail in here, this also serves as my personal diary, keeping facts so that I can check them. Also, your wisdom the greyt people that help me out is much appreciated!

Update: put a bowl of fruit in front of her and after eating - 401 grams. Maybe I´m worried over nothing, I tend to overworry about living beings.

This morning update: 386 grams before feeding. What would you do?