Dave007

cflanny Now, you don't possibly have any ideas about spoiling this baby bird, would you? Geez, just can't figure out what made me think like that. Maybe cause it's Saturday.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/09/07 02:59

Dan Thanks loads. It says a lot. I hope that it'll give people inspiration and a better understanding of how habits can develop and how they can possibly be lessened. So many rescued birds have a huge amount of minor problems which can be simply helped by proper attention. An official thumbs up to you brother.

""""""when he's due for a poo""""""" That's a real cool line. Perfect sentence to teach a grey. ""Hey Mom, I'm due for a poo. Get the toilet paper out"" Yeah, gotta remember that line.

"""""an he will pick that up and or add it to his vocab?""" Maybe just a few things, but most things he won't and if he does pick up things, you won't hear anything for quite a while.. The important thing is to establish a constant verbal relationship so that he gets to know you. Him talking isn't important right now. Just becoming friends with him is what you should be thinking about cause he really doesn't know you well. """" he probably hit every nextel ringtone there is and like 2 different fire alarm chirps. should i ignore him or correct it or let him open up more? """ You have to ignore it because there's nothing you can do to correct or change that. He didn't learn those things from your household. Having towel near him is a bad idea unless it needs to be used in an emergency, so don't let him see you handling the towel when you're going to him. More than likely, he has a fear of towels from some past experiences. Just one thing I don't understand here--- """"this morning i flew to the ground when i woke up,""""" Do you live somewhere above the house?<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/09/06 23:32

Their official name is Flight Suits. They come in colors. Many people use them to walk their birds around the street and to also have their birds on their shoulders so that the bird doesn't make poopies on their clothes. Personally, i think people are the ones that wanna have their birds wear them. I've never heard of a bird that purposely wanted to be sanitary. If you really wanna use them, start when the bird is young because there's a good chance that an older bird will give you a hard time when you try it on him/her. Don't really know whether they can be hand or machine washed the way people wash their own under garments.

My views are this 1---your breeder is totally wrong about the bird being friendlier. 2--the bird being easier to teach. There really isn't much to teach a baby bird. 3--I believe that you will have a much healthier bird if it's totally weaned by the breeder. 4--I believe that your breeder is being irresponsible in thinking that there will be a 100% guarantee that you will be completely successful with the weaning process even if he teaches you how to do it. He can't possibly know that unless he can predict the future. Every person is different. The usual procedure that's done when a bird is purchased is that the bird is taken to a vet to get a series of tests in order to make sure that the bird is totally well. That's why it's called a *well check* but you should know that a couple of those tests can't be done until the bird is fully weaned and the vet is not bound to tell you to wait until the bird is fully weaned. They just do what they can at the time of the visit. It's not gonna hurt the breeder to keep the bird until it's fully weaned and you'll walk away knowing that the only *teaching* the bird will need is how to start eating regular food, how to step up, how to get used to toys,cages, members of the family etc. There's no guarantee that the breeder will be there 100% of the time if a problem occurs with an unweaned baby nor is there any guarantee that he will have the solution to that problem I breed Greys and there have people who have asked me about taking unweaned babies home with. I always refuse to do that and I've lost potential buyers but there's always other potential buyers just around the corner who will wait until the bird is weaned. They don't want problems nor do I when selling a bird.

Well,only he can tell you what he means by dangerous. I do know that vets sometimes have to remove complete toes because of serious external infections. I'm only trying to tell you what the after effects would be. Later on, you'll never know that the digit is missing. There's pictures of birds that actually have no feet and they're fine. Ask him what type of problems can occur. Ask about the percentages concerning success as opposed to failure. You're right one thing--constantly hurting your bird with those clippings will effect his attitude and from what you describe, it sounds like that claw has to be done much more frequently than the others. So, think about and get into a thorough conversation with the vet.

I believe your vet has the right idea. It's not as uncommon as you think. Lots of parrots are missing complete toes. Some even have all the toes on one foot gone. Many times the parents do this. If your vet says that the only thing to be removed is the first digit, your bird won't loose any climbing/manuevering ability at all. Some birds are born with one complete toe missing. The surgery will not be as traumatic as you think. Actually the constant clipping and eventual bleeding is mor traumatic and as the bird gets older it will avoid you when you do that. If he can't, there's a good chance of him constantly nipping at you because of thepain that will follow. Luckily for you and your bird, the problem isn't as extreme as you might think.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/09/04 22:55

Newspaper is the way to go. Everything else is a rip off aimed at people who are new to owning parrots. What's good about newspaper is that you can see the bird's droppings easily ( color--consistency) Other bedding is BS. Usually a person who's had their parrot/parrots for a long while start to realize that newspaper is the best to use. Another reason to use it is that yor birds can sh*t on the pictures and stories of politicions that are currently running for office. Animal bedding isn't good for birds.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/09/03 19:01

Some think they're real and some don't but if they are real, it was an accident so they're not available for sale like normal colored greys.

For many greys, another reason that room temperature water should be used is that many greys feeling that the water is very cold will immediately decide to take a bath in the cold water. Other greys won't do that but if they do, expect a messy, wet cage.

Many parrots of all species will eat things that have absolutely no nutritional value at all. Corn is one of them. The kernals have no value and the cob has no value but to a parrot, they taste great. There's no harm when they eat those things and other things that have no value. In the future they'll be items that have no value at all which a parrot will latch onto. The only way to stop that is by not giving it and in my opinion that's a waste of time. I often give my greys and quakers corn on the cob knowing ahead of time that nothing will be left. The quakers are the true artists in the method of eating corn. There's never anything left because they have the ability to hold on to every bit without dropping anything that they bite into. They look forward to and I'm glad to give it to them. I givr them Zuccini knowing that there's no value but I do know that they'll consider it a special time when I give it to them. As far as a vet *pumping out* a crop--that's only done when something is actually stuck in the crop. More than likely, it has nothing to do with food. The crop is simply the temporary holding area. The bird eats--the food goes to the crop--the food continues down to the stomach --the digestive juices take over and eventually, the fnal remains gets pushed out of the a*ss to make it's final trip to the bottom of the cage. That's the life cycle of corn on the cob. I buy large loose chunks of millet spray that have no nutritional value but the birds look forward to those chunks. People say * Oh Godd, millet spray has no value*. Well, next time you go to a pet store and buy honey sticks, look carefully--you'll see the millet embedded in that stick. Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/09/02 17:28<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/09/02 17:32

A pre owned adult bird comes to a new house with habits and feelings concerning any cage and other things he's liveed with. All of these things happened and developed in the past. Most consider their cage as a safe house. A pre owned bird could have been caged for long periods of time in the past. Certain types of training was never pursued in the past allowing the bird to choose the way he feels about his safe house. When many greys and other parrots are out of the cage the situation is different. They'll respond to different types of training. Once they're back in the cage, that whole situation reverts back to the way it feels about that cage and the bird has no intentions of changing those intentions or habits. Many pre owned birds won't allow a person to put their hands in their cage to feed the bird. Some will scream. Some will fly frantically. Some will seriously bite that person. Others won't do any of those things when a hand or object such as a perch is put in the cage. In your situation, just stay with the outside training. He obviously doesn't want his space invaded with objects that he's not used to having in his cage. Your bird is 10 yrs old and has 10 yrs worth of habits that have been allowed to permanently develop. What's going on is just one of the situations that periodically go on when the bird is an adult and pre owned.

Well, that's a good plan of action but not to worry, all baby TAGs and baby CAGs will all be friendly, happy and sweet. Sex doesn't mean anything except to people. PS--make sure that whatever bird you buy is fully weaned.

You're very welcome. Glad to help both of you.

Debbie One other thing--Congos and Timnehs can't breed with each other( 2 different kinds of birds) nor would they ever want to.

More than likely another collar won't be tolerated and will probably get destroyed much faster than the first one because your bird now knows how to do it. The large percentages of birds that are using collars don't take kindly to them. You can add novel ideas to what you're doing though. Go to the store and buy a Feather Duster. Make sure it never gets used by anyone. Hang it on the outside of the cage in a corner until your bird accepts the fact that it's there. That will take 2 to 3 weeks or even less or a little longer. At that time take Duster and put it in the cage in the same corner but make sure that the bird can easily get to it. Many birds start to substitute that feather duster for their own feathers and start to preen on it frequently. I've seen it work in the past. I told a friend of mine about doing that with his amazon and it also worked. His bird was plucking a 2 inch circle of feathers on the breast and eventually put a hole in it's skin. Think about it. It can't hurt.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/08/31 17:16

A grey does that when it's being affectionate or reacting to someone being affectionate to him/her. It's a grey's version of kissing.It's also a way that a grey will signal you for attention when you're very close to it's cage. Nothing to worry about. Goes on all the time into adulthood.

<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/08/27 17:59

I'd like to add on that proper formula is one of the items that will keep a bird's feces very solid and easy to read as far as problems being there. water will make feces thinner but in the future, you're also gonna be giving your grey many other thing that will make the feces watery. You'll also be giving things that will be making the feces firmer and finally, you'll be giving things to your grey which will make the color of the feces different so as Tracy says, it's imperitive that you always have the water there.

They're more afraid of lightning. Put a cover on them when that happens. Thunderstorms really don't frighten them. They will make a parrot sound off really loud though. Sometimes they do that with music too, trying to out do the sounds. There's a lot of thunder storms when they come from and long periods of drought. They just perch on the canapies of the trees until the storms pass<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/07/08 23:00

From what you say, it seems like random vocalisation. He;ll scream at the toys. He probably does this too when he's play fighting with them. Absolutely normal. You say he can fly around when he feels like it and climb on the top of the cage and then screams. Unusual but try to put different toys up there, especially a cowbell. He'll play with it, scream at it but eventually slows down cause of the energy he spent. THEN, he'll start all over with the bell at another time. If he goes on top of the cage with the intention of going after something, then does go after something, he might be feeling that he's accomplished something and the constant screaming might lessen. Understand that it's hard to really know what your version of the screaming really is. Other people might find that when their bird does this, it seems normal to them. Understand that this isn't meant as an insult. I definitely feel that I know what type of screaming you're talking about though and is can be annoying and ear splitting. As a matter of fact, to some people it might even be scary. Greys scream periodically and eventually and temporarily stop. You say he goes to other places and everything is fine. Little screaming. My greys periodically do the same thing BUT try to imagine 3 of them doing the same thing:ohmy: One other thing you never mentioned is whether he instantly does this on the stand and never stops until he leaves the stand. Some greys do that and some don't. It has to do with personality and most of the time, a person just has to live with it. Some people might say to remove that part of the cage but I wouldn't agree with that. He obviously loves that area cause I get the feeling that he's the one that makes up his own mind about going there. Putting that bell up there will still make him scream but it might also break up the amount of screaming. """"Do you think that spoiling him has made him, lets say, some what unappreciative of the time money and labor put into trying to make him happy and content with his life? because it sure seem like it? """" That's the last thing you should feel. He sounds very contented and probably feels that he has the run of his area. If you think that way, you're only beating yourself up for absolutely no reason. It definitely doesn't sound like a medical problem. Think about it for a minute---- " Doctor, my bird has a problem. He likes to go on the top of his cage and when he comes down he stops. Doctor, do you think my baby is crazy? Doctor, please do some physological tests cause I know he's happy. Doctor, do you think he's got a split personality? Doctor, do you know if there's any rooms available at the Mental Institution for Birds???? So, how's the doctor gonna handle that?:whistle:<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/07/08 19:17

1--does he go on the stand by himself or does he get put on and taken off the stand? 2---does he scream at toys on the stand when playing with them or does he just scream at nothing? 3---is the stand next to his cage or other play area? 4---does he seem to ignore the stand most of the time? 5---does he try to fly off the stand after a short period of time?

'Secondly, I would really like it if my Grey was socialized in a way that would allow strangers to hold or pet him. With the proper socialization would this be possible? How would I go about socializing a Grey in this way? ' Socializing a grey starts with getting the grey used to the owner/all members of the family and anyone else that lives there 24/7. All the people in the house have to deal with bird evenly on a constant basis and that includes feeding and chores and physical handling. Many times, people even have trouble getting the bird to be friendly with other members of the family. Greys don't take to strangers very well, especially children. Many people have to put them in their cages when people come over. The bird becomes very watchful and very quiet. They're extremely leery of lots of things. It's not unusual for a grey to bite when the bird is approached by people who are casual visitors. As a matter of fact it's not unusual for a grey to bite the owner later on for putting him in that situation. Think about socializing him with you and your family. That's an accomplishment. If you live alone, he will bwe a one person bird if no one else lives there and there's nothing wrong with that. Greys and quakers can get along with each other depending upon their personalities. They won't necessarily 'play' with each other but just hanging around each other can be considered a plus. I have 2 quakers and both get along with my greys except for one. That quaker is intent on biting that grey's feet. Of course, there's always exceptions.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2008/07/07 00:25

I agree with Dan about the many different aspects of breeding Amazons, especially about certain topics. The most important is agression. Thare's about 17 to 20 types of Amazons that exist but there's usually only 7 or 8 types that are popular. The rest are simply next to impossible to get and some of thosesimply can't live in a pet environment. The most aggressive one that's usually sought out is the Double Yellow Headed Amazon because of it's beauty. That type is also the most aggressive. The least aggressive would be the Yellow Naped Amazon. As far as warning signs concerning biting, even though they have them, they will wait until you're extremely close before showing those signs and will quickly bite while those warning signs are being displayed. A grey won't do that and after learning a grey's body language, it's a simple thing to just turn around and walk away As Dan said, horones are very obvious in older birds and an adult bird will get extremely nasty even if the bird is in the sexually 'aware stage as opposed to the sexually 'mature' stage as far as nastiness and biting goes. You can triple that nastiness when it's breeders that are being discussed. Then you have the health problems. Amazons are more prone to internal health problems because when people can't cope with them, they usually wind up in a cage. When in the cage for long periods of time, they get obese as opposed to greys and other species. The obesity then works it's way down to internal problems of which they're more than one. Then comes the time for having customers. The best Amazon to buy is a baby so you need to have potential customers because having a bunch of amazons around is just an accident waiting to happen. In shelters, the amazon is actually the second most abundant. The all time leader of parrots in shelters is the cockatoo which have so many problems because people who get them have no idea what they're getting into. There's basically only 2 reasons that they're in those shelters--one is extreme noise--another is self mutilation because they need so much time out of the cage and constant physical handling--a grey can cope with being independent. A TOO is just the opposite--Another is the serious sneaky biting problems that occur. They don't show any warning about that and a bite from them is very serious. Instead of Amazons, you might wanna think about parrots that can cope with communal living. But if it's amazons that you're focusing in on, yellow collared and yellow naped are the safest to deal with. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule about everything I said about Amazons but not concerning TOOS, especially the Lesser Sulpher Crested and Greater Sulpher Crested which are also sought after because of their colors.