Hi everyone!
My name is Jurey and my wife and I just bought a 16 year old male African Grey. We live in Kodiak Alaska and we don’t know any other parrot owners on the island. We bought him from my co-work’s friend and they had him for 10+ years. We were told that he is a very smart and talkative bird and that we shouldn’t have any problems with him. We’ve had him for 5 days now and so far he’s been pretty mellow. So far he has been mimicking the sounds from all over the house including ring tones and sounds from our appliances. He tricks us a lot when he makes the sound of our home phone ringtone and now we can hardly tell the two tones apart. I tried the “step up” command but he hesitates. He would put on one foot onto my forearm, pause, and then back on his perch. He would do this for several minutes while walking back and forth and making some kind of whining/panting sound. Eventually he’ll step onto my forearm and then step off wherever I take him, usually on a counter or on top of his cage. We are totally new to greys so any helpful tips or advice from you guys would be greatly appreciated.