Dave007

There's a few ways to give palm oil. This is a method that's often used for birds that refuse it. Palm oil is thick. Get 1 small very clean seasoning bottle ( oregano, paprika etc etc) and put the thick palm oil in. Fill it up if you want. Put it in micro for about 30 seconds and then let it come to room temp in the fridge. When the microing is finished, the oil will become cherry red. It'll be very thin like olive oil. Take a very skinny stick, put it in the oil and drip it all over everything your bird eats. This is the oil --before and after microwaving. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v50/DaveVP/Palmoilbeforemicro.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v50/DaveVP/PalmOilaftermicro.jpg

Janet It was never color. It was personality. 2/3/4 or any number of birds can know each personality. Many times, it happens to birds of the exact same color and species. Sometimes, it happens to birds of different sizes. Throughout the years here, how many times have you heard of 2 greys that hate each other? How many times have you heard about giving one or the other bird away because of aggression? In your situation it was the luck of the draw. Most importantly, your ekkie went on to a happy, contented future.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/07/raju-elephant-cries-rescue_n_5564543.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

spaghetti, macaroni, cavatelli, ignocchi and other pastas with Tomato Sauce are very good for greys and other parrots.

Cucumbers and lettuce have no value as far as nutrition. Extremely dark green vegetables are nutritious. Fruit, apples , grapes, cantaloupe and just about any other fruit has no nutritional value other than being a treat. Goes in one end and out the other. Fruits also make the droppings soft and runny. Besides pellets, there should be a decent type of parrot mix in the cage 24/7. Parrots eat differently than humans. With parrots there is no such thing as breakfast, lunch or dinner. 400 gms weight being normal? 400 gms is very light for a congo African grey. Do you know the size of the parents? There's small, medium and large boned greys. One of my pet greys is 571gms.( I own the parents) The other pet grey is 485 gms. My Timneh is 330 gms. Sterling is right. Your bird does seem to be underweight. Your bird should be given all it wants plus that parrot mix. You can't overfeed a grey. PM---forgot to add----And because of it's age and your reluctance to give formula, you should feed warm, lumpy, flavored oatmeal. Quaker Oats sells it---10 packets per box--all different flavors and the sugar that's in it is brown sugar and won't hurt a bird. 1 or 2x a week-- 1 large tablespoon ( or more if he likes it)

So far, after reading your different posts in various places there's nothing you've said that would make me believe that your new bird wasn't a breeder at one time. Successful?, Unsuccessful? Who knows. He's behaving like a breeder, biting you when you're not looking. Acting like a cage bound bird? Definitely. Most breeders are kept in cages most of the time and when they DO have some freedom, they want very little to do with the people who own them. Being shifted from home to home? Thousands of breeder pairs are constantly sold or traded, sometimes 2 or 3 or 4 times. Is this cruel? The huge majority of successful breeders are successful because they have little to no bonding with their owners. Where they live isn't important as long as the other mate is there. Therefore it's very easy to sell or trade with others. Are breeders aggressive? That's a common trait concerning breeders. ******* I'm not saying John Wayne's super sweet. I wouldn't be either if I'd been passed around and treated like an financial asset.*** I've done that frequently. The buyers were happy. I was happy and the birds didn't even know it was done because as long as they were allowed to be and do what they've always done and been, they really didn't mind their new living environment. They had a very minimal bond with me and a very minimal bond with the new owners and a huge bond with each other. There's a world of difference between breeders and pets. The only thing breeders and pet greys have in common is the color of their feathers. Breeder birds and pet greys living together in one cage? Well lets put it this way, feel lucky that the breeder bird hasn't already killed or maimed your pet grey. Even 2 pet greys shouldn't be kept together. They're possessive and jealous of their own things especially their cage which is actually his/her *home* A pet grey is bonded to you and a breeder bird isn't and when a person tries to accomplish too much with a breeder that's trouble just waiting to happen especially when a breeder has traveled around in different environments. Breeders talking which actually makes them pets at one time? --all greys ( breeders or pets if they have that ability or desire to talk using human words) will mimic hundreds of sounds that they hear enough. Why? They're the best mimics in the parrot kingdom. The mimicing means nothing. That's why greys are having long periods of time when they're alone in a cage will go thru their whole human and artificial sounds when no one is around. Their actual real talking comes when greys are talking to each other in parrotese. Gloves---using gloves only creates one step backward concerning accomplishments that are made. *****How do I get him to step up on my arm when he strikes at me? Also, if I just let him climb to the top of the cage by backing off, I'm afraid he'd fly around and hurt himself when I attempt to catch him to return him inside the cage. (I guess I could wait for him to go inside to eat and trap him that way). I want him to step up on my arm.******* *******So he's a good bird. I just want him to be able to enjoy being scratched again and feel safe enough to be moved from place to place on my arm. I'm willing to go slllloooowww, but not sure what steps to take next. ???? Thank you. This isn't mean't to be negative but what you want may not totally happen because of past history of not being physically involved with people. I really don't know why you tend to disagree with that person who said he was breeder when you decided to take him. A huge majority of the time it's people who are selling their birds and telling potential buyers that the birds they're sell were never breeders!! The last thing that t he vast majority of people buying or adopting pre owned don't want are breeders. They want pet birds that they feel they have a chance with concerning heavy duty relationships. *******I know he has had a slew of horrible experiences in his life. From his reactions I know he was chased with nets on the end of sticks and I know people caught him using gloves.******* You know this simply by his reactions or have other people actually sat you down and positively told you these were honest facts?? Well, you've just heard part of the other side of owning and understanding breeders and pet greys. There's much more to know.

I'm terribly sorry about what happened. I know all of us here would have helped if we could. We're all behind you no matter what you do.

Never apologize about ranting. Sometimes, you'll come across scumbags that will break your heart. There's shows on TV that show people who hoard animals. It's hard to watch these shows. Not only does a person walk away feeling heartbroken, they'll walk away feeling angry. I'm speaking for all animals. The worse shows to watch are the domestic animals like cats and dogs besides birds. You know, there's people in this world that seem to have been born that are missing something in their brain. The bad thing is that people who care about living things have to pay the price and see these sickos. I have no sympathy for these creatures who are called people. They're lowlife f*cked up scumbags that deserve to have their stones cut off. AND I'm not gonna apologize to anyone concerning what I'm saying right now.

Not to worry--------This show was in 2009

Yes, she's mad and will always get mad. She may get loud, may seem aggressive, may squawk or growl. Like what I said in those others posts, all of that is normal when it has to do with a bird that doesn't wanna be bathed. I don't think she's plucking because you never saw those areas until now. The white fluffy feathers don't fall out at the exact same time and if she was plucking, believe me you would have seen her doing it. I doubt that her diet has anything to do with anything that going on concerning her bathing. The dust you see floating is called dander and it comes from the top of all waterproof feathers. The dander is natural but messy when bathing. So, if you're uncomfortable with your bird's noise, try something else. To this day my birds still squawk, screech, growl but afterwards they're happy as pigs in shit while they're drip drying and preening. They enjoy staying wet. Plus, they're clean. PS--remember, NO TOWEL DRYING or BLOW DRYING. Let your bird stay soaked.

Instead of trying to figure out why she does or did the biting, it's important to keep your bird in it's cage when visitors come over. There's many reasons why biting happens but the safest way to prevent it is by keeping your bird in a cage. They feel safest in their *home* which is actually her cage. This goes for greys too. 2 of my greys wouldn't think twice about biting someone they're not really familiar with. My TAG is the worst because he'll go out of his way to bite someone he doesn't know.

1----- http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?189753-Bathing-possible-method-1 2----- http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?189752-Bathing-possible-method-2

~~~~~I'm not noticing much improvement at al, although not really getting worse either~~~~~~~ That's a good sign. What you're describing doesn't go away quickly. Humans go thru the same problem. They get sick and their desire for food goes way down but they still follow the doctor's order and take their meds. Eventually, they get better. If your bird is accepting the meds easily that's also a good sign. With many birds, their taking meds causes a problem because thy won't. She tries to eat the eggs but spits it up. Another good sign--she's hungry. Much of what you said is typical of a digestive problem and the easier it's treated the better the prognosis. Staying in touch with your vet and his vet techs is a very important thing to do even if you feel that you're aggravating them. You ask about ohers here that have gone thru the same problem. I'm sure that others have had the same problems but it's possible that their bird got the problem for entirely different reasons. We here can't and won't give medical advice. There are no vets here and doing that is irresponsible. My feelings are the same as above. Stay with that vet and continue all the treatments. One other thing-----in case you start seeing extremely lose droppings, it's because fruit and fruit byproducts can cause loose bowel movement. Also give some very lumpy oatmeal periodically.

NOW, your next step is to have little pieces of his favorite nuts in your hand. Every time he flies over, give him a piece. Then, take him back to the perch. Next, go back to your original place that you're standing in and go thru the whole process again. As time goes by, You'll see him fly over pretty quickly knowing there's a nut waiting for him. THEN one day substitute your arm for that perch. He'll fly over for the nut. Wanna train him to go back to his stand? Just have another person near his stand and have the person repeat what you're doing----back and forth, back and forth. That's one of the common obedience training methods that's done in flight training. Soon, you'll be eliminating the stick all together.

I'm afraid that there are no countries that allow easy access. The easiest place is Canada and even that is hard to accomplish. Some countries don't allow any birds at all. With countries that do, extreme quarantine is needed which can last up to 6mts or more depending on the country. African greys and other parrots are considered wild animals ( which they are) and in certain countries no importation or exportation is allowed. There was person here who lived in China and wanted to go to Thailand. It wasn't allowed so he gave the grey to relatives in China. You would need to contact the proper officials in each country and find out their specific laws and methods.

Hi First off, concerning your bird, you need to understand that parrots can get to used to many things in a short amount of time. Those things can be accepted by a bird when they're very young----food for example. It seems that not much effort was put into giving a variety of foods. He can't be blamed. He just didn't know what the methods were available. Many people want their birds to eat fresh veggies whether they're fresh off the shelf or packaged in the store's freezer. Both are good and contain the same vitamins. What people had a problem with is that their birds refused to eat the many varieties of veggies that were purchased. Many grey son't and it's really not important that they eat every kind available.It's a trial and error situation. Eventually, he'll accept one or 2 kinds. Maybe as time goes on, he'll accept another one. Your second effort should be how to prepare them. Some like veggies raw, others like them cooked, some like them warm, some like them warmer. Usually, the best way to cook veggies is to steam them but remember that with some birds don't like it that way. If frozen, they should be served at room temp. If steamed they should be allowed to cool off. Many birds will take to firmer veggies. Some like them softer. Also try giving raw. Never frozen. The best veggies to pick out are green ones. ALL VARIETIES. Some have no nutritional value but should also be given--corn for instance. It won't hurt. You'll also see that most veggies won't be accepted. That's common. Another thing you might try is intergrating human food--once in a while eggs, once in a while spegetti with tomato sauce. If you're a chicken eater, the bones in the wings are good for them (marrow in bones plus the actual bone). Red palm oil----there' a method that many times works----get an old used small seasoning bootle --( ex--oregano, paprika etc)and thoroughly clean it. Understand that Palm oil very clumpy, solid and thick. . Put spoons of it in the seasoning bottle. Micro until you see the oil turn dark red from orange. The oil is now a liquoid. Let it go to room temp and then take a very tiny skinny item ex--like the internals of a ball point pen dip it in the oil and let it drip all over solid food such as your seed. Your bird won't be able to avoid it because many seeds will be coated with the oil. Now as far as changing seed---That's a hard one and also trial and error but in general, most decent seed mixtures aren't really bad since about 1995. Lots of changes have happened and your bird is gonna need it available 24/7. Some people successfully change over and some don't. Trial and error is important and well known decent brands should be used. Good luck.

Hi Well, I see that you've tried most everything with no good results. There's a chance that your bird had this type of habit before you got her. Normally, when a bird has a bad habit, it doesn't show itself until the bird is totally situated in a home and has completely settled in with the new family. Then, the problem starts showing itself. There's many standard answers to your problem but you've tried them with no good results. I've dealt with different parrots that have serious issues and when a bird is an adult, is rehomed, some of those problems remain no matter what you do. I have one suggestion----try to find some CDs that have a variety of parrots making all different types of sounds. Usually, those parrots are recorded in the wild. There's no particular one strictly for greys but parrots tune in to other parrots as long as human talk isn't involved. You can search online under the headings of NOISY PARROTS,SCREECHING PARROTS.CDs are available. Some come with a soothing music background embedded but the best are the ones that are strictly parrot sounds. Put it loud and relatively near the bird so he/she tunes in. Don't keep it on all day. Don't let your bird get used to it. Use intervels of every 2/3/4 hours for about 45 min each session even if your bird isn't making noise. It just may help if his noise is curtailed by the sounds of other parrots.

If you wanna still use that cage, at least take it off the floor and put it somewhere at eye level. Greys and other parrots don't belong on the floor. *******Third, wont getting rid of the sleep cage encourage cage dominance? ******* If someone told you this, they're wrong. There is no such thing as cage dominance. People move and change their cages all the time. We even have a section here concerning cages and stands. People only wanna know about size of cage, style of cage and quality of the cage. There's no place that talks about cage dominance but people who've removed cages from floors have reported great results. As far as AC, greys can live in warm areas, cool areas. Actually, you having a room that's humid will benefit a grey. That's how they live in the wild. Humid air is good for a grey's very dry flakey skin that contains dander. Cage Cover---use a plain old sheet or any other cloth that can cover the cage. There is no such thing as a Proper Cover. Any cage cover sold in stores is purchased in pet stores only makes a pretty area for the people to look at. In all my years of dealing with greys or other parrots, I've never come across one that complained or cared about what cage cover was used. But I'll say it again----get the cage off the floor because the one thing you can't learn about is a grey's body language when a bird is on the floor AND we have a section strictly for body language. Body language eliminates ********Like I said, the birds biting has been very random and without warning.****** If there's one bird that will show a person what he/she is about to do, it's an African grey. That includes CAGs and TAGS and all of that is in Body Language which 1000s of people here have learned about.

Just like with many other situations, things change. Age and familiarity has a lot to do with changes. Think about eliminating that sleep cage. The main cage is a bird's home, day and night. The biting has been going on for quite a while? Well, birds shouldn't be sitting in cages on the floor. Birds are meant to be high up....at least at eye level ( 24 hrs a day). It really doesn't matter how long this practice has been going on. It's never too late to change situations and methods.

A 3 wk old grey chick should weigh 105 to 110 gms depending on the size of the parentsChicks from small bone structured parents will weigh less than medium or large boned parents.Since you weren't told what catagory the parents fit into -----You need a digital scale to constantly keep an eye on the weight. Make sure that you put in a huge effort to get one~~~~~~~~ A 3 week old chick can die quickly

*****I really think he'd be fine. He adjusts really well to change. ****** Mabe change concerning other things but has he ever had this type of change?? Sharing a cage is only asking for serious trouble. You really have little control with your present bird so adding another isn't gonna solve any problems with your present bird plus there's a good chance that your 1st bird will grow distant from you plus jealousy might occur plus fighting may occur when a new bird is added and you'll never be able to put them together. So you may have 2 birds to hastle with plus you have a dog who you don't trust. Suggestions?? well just think about the situation. You've been given good advice especially concerning how birds get along, how not to house them, jealousy and constant monitoring. This extremely important too----you'll never know the personality of an older bird concerning all things and you should understand that an older adult bird, male or female will never change that personality no matter what you do. .

*****not bite me?**** Just one thing----------welcome to the world of parrots. Putting your mouth next to or in the bars of the cage just to get kisses, is a very bad idea. One day, you're gonna get bitten. Right now, there's no guarantee that he won't do that. Many people here have paid the price of doing that. You'll jump and you'll develop a real fear of your bird which the bird will pick up on and the bird will see and sense that fear you have and any training you're doing will go right out the window.

Ciao, benvenuto al nostro consiglio di amministrazione. well, it's not good that you received such a young bird but it's too late to change anything. It's very good that you have handfeeding experience. I hope that your experience with hand feeding other birds means that you've hand fed such young ones. Your bird needs to be fed at least 4/5 times a day and at each feeding you should allow the bird to eat as much formula as it wants to. Do that with every feeding. As he gets much older, he'll start to refuse one feeding so a little extra formula should be given in all the other feedings of the day. Don't decide to give one less feeding. Let the bird tell you that. Very Important especially because of it's age. As far as growing up with no parents--that sometimes happens to other parrots, usually not on purpose but your parrot can grow as a very happy bird as long as you have a warm, happy, caring relationship. Slight petting is always good. Lots of talking, having food and water always available and most of all, not letting your other animals scare him. That'll cause lots of problems. Other than that, there's nothing more that you can do but pay lots of attention to any health changes and go to the vet. A warm room is always important to such young chicks as long as there's also fresh air to be used for breathing. Heat should;nt be put directly on the bird. It should surround it from at least 15 inches away. I have no idea what you're using to create that heat so I can't tell you more. PS----Giggetto è un bel nome. Buona fortuna.

AND--just remember that you're dealing with a 9yr old rehomed bird. Some things just won't be accepted by an adult bird. There's different rules that apply to an adult rehomed bid.

Many breeders give a recommended seed but the breeders have never tried it out on unweaned chicks so ***recommended*** doesn't mean that the bird is gonna like it.