Dave007

So this latest update of Alex. This is his first time giving kisses while he is out of his cage.

 

Use the Video--Photography Section for your Videos.! This is strictly a Welcome Room

Dave, she is allergic to aloe vera (blisters). Greywings thanks.

As an alternative, go to the pharmacy and purchase a tube of 1% hydrocortazone cream. It's also harmless and birds don't usually bother with it. Use it often and make sure the cream is rubbed onto the skin, not just the feathers.

Anyone know if it's safe to use pure organic coconut oil on a small pluck site?

Thanks, Lisa

I really don't know why you would wanna use a product( coconut oil) which a grey finds tasty, on a plucked area where the area shouldn't be aggravated.

Go to a pharmacy and purchase aloe vera gel and put it on the plucked area.

Let the Video buffer before watching

Ok some of you may already know me as I keep asking about my new CAG who is 18 years old (Alex).

I was reading, and watching some videos about parrot and one of them said that I should not over feed my parrot. Also seeds are not good food. Now I am confused since all my life I feed seeds to my parrots and they had food till their container is empty and I refill it again.

 

I bought African Grey Parrot food from pet store and I am feeding Alex with it. It has several different seeds and nuts. (No peanuts in it!)

Also I fill his container in the morning and I wait till it is finished. Sometimes it takes him two days, sometimes one and half day to finish 90% of it. Then I remove remaining because it has so many broken shell in it and put new food there. Am I doing this wrong? His food bowl never goes empty.

Also is there any specific food type or brand that I should use as his daily food?

 

Thank you for your help.

Your bird should have access to food 24 hrs a day because there is no such thing as breakfast, lunch or dinner. Birds eat all day long. They never overeat.

Your bird should have a decent seed mix all day long and vegetables and a little fruit everyday. The fruit isn't important because it contains no nutrients. Dark green vegetables have all types of vitamins. Any vegetables should be removed after 2 or 3 hrs because they wilt and dry up. Then give more. They should have clean water available all day long. As far as brands of seed mix, there's many great brands and also decent brands. You may buy a great brand and your bird may not like it. You may buy a decent brand and your bird may like it. OR visa versa. Experiment with different brands. If the one you're using has different seeds but not many peanuts then it's acceptable. Also remember that your bird is 18 yrs old and changing diets or adding to diets many not be accepted by an adult bird who's used to eating certain things. Many adult birds won't accept veggies. Some will. Baby birds are more flexible. Stay away from avocados. They're toxic. Some human food can be given. Pasta is liked by birds. Chicken bones are liked.

What are some good ways to start socializing my new baby I am bringing home?

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[TD=width: 100%]1--A grey should be acclimated into the whole family. Allow the least amount of opportunities that will let a grey become a one-person bird. The whole family has to be involved with the bird in all areas--feeding, treat giving, cage cleaning, adding toys and handfeeding certain types of food.

2--Your grey should be in an area where your average daily constant habits, conversations, household chores, relaxation and guests are nearby. Putting a grey or any other species of parrot in another room with no human contact or visuals accomplishes nothing. The bird has to learn to accept all different things and the owner needs to help that parrot do all of these things by putting the bird into the mix of things.

3--Your grey needs a decent sized cage and eventually he/she will have to be let out of the cage every day for as much time as you can afford. Putting a playstand nearby helps alot. The cage needs the type of toys that can handled roughly. A lot of scrap pieces of wood are necessary for chewing and destroying. It's either the wood or your furniture.

4--When you bring your grey home, it's not a good idea to be handling him a lot until he/she feels good about that new cage and it's contents. Everything else ahead of the bird is also going to be new and learning about them in a relaxed state is best accomplished from the security of it's own cage and no time limits should be placed on the grey re when anything should be accomplished. All greys are different from each other.

5--It's a bad idea to allow your grey on your shoulders because they have a bad habit of biting necks, ear lobes, nape and head hair, breaking jewelry and sometimes biting the face. Not all do but it's a habit that should be avoided. You never can tell what's going to happen to you when you can't see the bird up there.

6--Greys are very quiet birds that have the ability to mimic anything it hears and at the same decibal level be it other animals or phones or dogs barking or being scolded or the kids being yelled at by the parents etc. In other words--Greys need to be classified as the ultimate sponge in the parrot world.

7--You need to supervise any out of the cage time when you have other animals around. Never under estimate another species of animal and it's possible daily attitude be it dog or cat. many times, even other species of parrots need to be watched when put together. It's impossible to tell who will like or dislike each other.

8--Greys are very leery of new things and especially leery of kids that are running around erractically nearby. In general, most greys aren't fond of children. The younger the child the more nervous it gets. Either the child has to be taught how to be calm around a grey or stay away from the bird. Greys are able to sense when a person or people is afraid of them and that in itself will cause a parrot to bite that person who has a fear of him. That also applies to adults. The older children have a better chance of being taught to understand the general personality of a parrot be it a grey or other species of parrot.

9--Introducing different animals to each other simply involves letting them constantly check each other out from the safety of the grey's cage. There are no special tricks to doing that and whether they will take to each other is not something you can predict.

10--Most houses are 'hectic' and that causes the grey no problems as long as he gets used to the 'hectic' atmosphere all around. The exception to that are kids darting in and around the cage, possibly bumping it and keeping the bird on edge.

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Hi all,

 

Im so excited! I just went to go and pick up my baby yesterday, not sure of gender yet I have to go and get he/she tested.He/she is a 12 week old CAG and loves human company, he/she loves tucking his/her head under my arm and sleeping. Im in love!

 

How do I teach him/her how to step up? I was told to wait until I clip her nails so he/she can learn how to climb etc. Is this true? His/her nails are so sharp, it hurts! Can anyone give me any tips/advice this is my first baby grey. The breeder says he/she loves oats with purity juice, how do you make that I have tried but she does not seem to like it.

 

Thank you

Michaela

This room is for new members for introduction and welcoming new members.

as new member of the board, please start using the different rooms concerning all the different subjects you wanna discuss.

Toys----Toy and Play stand room

Feeding---Bird food room

Different ways to handle bird such as stepping up, wing clipping, behavior------Training Room ----Etc etc

More responses are gotten from the members reading those different boards.

I know I have tried to adjust to this plucking thing that Isaac has a habit of doing. However, I am not sure how much longer I can accept it. I mean, it appears to me as if I am not doing enough for him. Over the last few days, he really took off and started getting some feathers in bunches. Just when I am willing to let it go and be happy anyway. Awesome yeah? I came home tonight to a larger feather pulled out on the floor of his cage. One he had to absolutely gouge out to get off. What a peach. No matter how good I am to him, he is just going to show me that he wants to self-destroy. This is the thanks I get for all my hours of attention and the way I take my life COMPLETELY OFFLINE for this bird. Man, I have been more than caring and persistent...and loving....but right now...I am saying I need something. Jesus friggin Christ...he sits there and preens continuously. He's okay...he's not okay. His feathers are coming back...nope...today we are ripping that all out. Look...aren't you proud....not exactly little boy. This is a huge back and forth thing with me and each time it happens to a large degree like this, I question everything. I don't even know just how f'd up he is willing to make himself look. Holy mother of all that is good in this world....tell me....HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DEAL WITH THIS???? I have a bird who makes me look like a bird abuser.....all for being everything that I can possibly be for him.

 

I am now...desperate. Someone please tell me how to deal with this. I have seen birds that chew their tummy. I could live with that. I have not seen birds that do what Isaac does unless they have been neglected. Isaac gets un-freaking-believable amounts of love...what gives???? Make it make sense to me. Give me the story I give everyone else when they look at me like I am horrible owner after all the stuff I do. I really need help moving forward on this. Just when I think I know I can be okay with it...he goes and rips a couple of fatter feathers out.

 

If you have a bird that plucks all over...show me a picture...cause I haven't seen them like Isaac. This stuff is ROUGH on my heart. I love him way too much for this to be the result. It doesn't seem normal at all to me. I need help figuring this out. I don't know what to do.

Elven

I feel your pain, your frustration, your anger. I can see that you feel that the bird shouldn't be doing this because of your love from day 1. I can see that you're ready to get very angry and you're ready to wring his neck. I can see that you're starting to feel that your love meant nothing to this bird. I can see that you think the bird is being spiteful. You're at your wit's end. I can see that you would never get another bird, especially a grey again. All of this is natural. Many people will say that a grey is the last type of bird to get if complete knowledge of parrots isn't studied. I totally agree with that and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of other people on all sorts of boards are having the same specific problems like you. Look through past posts here through the years and you'll see the same posts like yours. A bigger sinner is a cockatoo. In bird shelters, the biggest amount of birds there are greys and TOOs. They're complex birds. They're intelligent birds but most of all, they have one major basic habit-----mutilate themselves first instead of going after people. I'm not gonna guess what's wrong with your bird. I'm not gonna say it needs more love. I'm not gonna say that you did things wrong. I don't live with you. I don't know your personality. I don't know whether you excessively spoiled this bird but from your past posts, I can guess that you did. I may be wrong.

Right now, you need to think about preventive items to deal with your bird's condition because in a sense it is abnorolal.

I don't know what country you live in but the product below seems to greatly help birds with that problem. I've recommended it before and it's worked. It takes a while for it to work. Constant usage is required. Relapses may occur.

This is an old page from Avitec . More than likely, their web page has been redesigned.

Type in

AVITEC.COM

On the left, look for PLUCKING/SCREAMING Products. Ignore the SCREAMING part of the label. Nothing can make a bird stop screaming---click on it

Third picture from left ( spray and jar in picture) click on it

there's 3 choices

1---premixed bottle

2--small jar, powder in it (8 oz)

3--large jar, powder in it (16 oz)

-------

Get either 8 oz or 16 oz jar with powder in it. Stay away from premixed bottle

1 rounded teaspoon powder to 8 oz room temp water in a sprayer. It also comes with it's own measuring spoon.Heavily soak your bird down once a day. If any remains in the sprayer, use it on any other birds sitting around. Discard what remains at the end of the day.

The product sinks into the skin, subdues the itchiness, softens the top layer of skin. It's useless on outer feathers. It leaves a slight coating on the skin so the bird doesn't fin f\d it tasty. It's none toxic.The feathers aren't the problem. The skin is the important thing. When a bird plucks, it leaves the bare skin very irritated and dry and itchy. The bird has no choice but go after those areas for relief. That relief feels good. SO---PLUCKING, CHEW{NG, BARBERING,FOLLICLE DESTRUCTION begins.

I would go out of my way to get the product or at least get a product that's similar. These products that are sold in pet stores are simply bullshit.

Like I said, I don't know your country. I'm not experienced in repeating posts about giving more love, moving cages, etc, etc. I've done that stuff and it made no difference. My biggest suggestion concerning a cage was for people to bring their grey home and make sure that the bird is in the middle of the traffic so it can see what's going on daily.

One other thing you should buy is an item that greys use in the wild. They get their most important essentional vitamins from it. This product should be given in small amounts on seed, bread, trreats.

This item is called RED PALM OIL. All countries sell it.

Thanks Dave. It is important to use our rooms as designated so a panicked grey parront quickly knows that health answers are in the Health Room. Food questions in the Food Room. Baby bird questions in the Nursery Room.

Thanks very much. The advice/suggestion is only given so that people are given an abundance of information, many methods of doing or learning things by many people, showing the importance of other rooms. It also allows many new people to meet other new people as well as experienced people.

I find it very annoying to spot 3 or 4 different subjects being addressed when I sometimes visit the Intro room just to say hello.

2 CAGs

1 TAG

2 Quakers

Plenty for me because plenty of personalized and individual

attention can still be given to all especially since all have totally different personalities.

For new members, please start using the different rooms concerning all the different subjects you wanna discuss.

Toys----Toy and Play stand room

Feeding---Bird food room

Different ways to handle bird such as stepping up, wing clipping, behavior------Training Room ----Etc etc

This room is strictly for introduction and welcoming new members.

Also, I would appreciate other members here to give out the same advice to new members so it doesn't look like I'm the bad guy here. Unfortunately, someone has to do it and it would be appreciated if others also do it. Redirecting a person isn't a difficult thing to do. All of the other rooms are here for specific reasons.

Many members here who have good advice concerning different subjects don't always visit the Intro Room to read about these things so advice isn't given or doesn't get spoken about.

Our local PBS station re-ran this the other night & will have it on their website for a little while, anyway. Thought I'd post the link for anyone who hasn't already seen it.

 

"From the wilds of Costa Rica to suburban America, a lovable, quirky cast of parrots will reveal their unforgettable tales and the bittersweet world they share with humans. Nature explores the difficulties of raising parrots."

 

http://video.pbs.org/video/2365119731/

Thanks for posting the link

I've seen the vid before and it should be on top of everyone's list to see. It's gonna explain lot from people hands on people

Now, this is not intended to scare ANYONE!

Just want to educate everyone as to WHY it's so important to take the

neccesary steps to prevent the spread of Swine Flu any further.

EXCELLENT posts by everyone! Of course, this opens up a sensitive discussion " To trim, or not to trim"... I'm a firm believer in letting babies learn to fly, develop chest muscles. I am also supportive in " trimming back SLOWLY", during terrible twos that usually extends thru the threes.THIS requires finding the BEST trimmer... a trimmer that knows your bird from the beginning! I can't tell you how many horror stories I have heard from people, unable to find that perfect trimmer! ( I have one that has known Sophie from the beginning!).

Sophie was " clipped", when I first adopted her. Since she was already two, she was quite easy to train, and our open cage concept was successful. It wouldn't have been, if she was free flighted! In retrospect... it took her a decade to learn how to fly, and thats not a good thing!

We want them to fly... we want them to learn... I believe we need to find a " balance". You can't unless you have an amazing trimmer that knows your amazing bird! Nancy

First off, a person should only be given proper or possible solutions to particular problems. All of the situations that the OP has mentioned have nothing to do with ***this opens up a sensitive discussion " To trim, or not to trim*****Nor does it have anything to do with ***THIS requires finding the BEST trimmer*****. None of these actions will help to arrive as a solution.

When a bird is in a situation that this person is dealing with, a bird being clipped or unclipped won't stop the behavior that's going on especially if it's occurring in a house. Flying around a house with unclipped or clipped wings won't stop a bird from doing these things. There's thousands of people out there that can give proper wing clips. There's nothing special about it. Thre's no big trick to finding one. For some people, yes it is, for others it isn't.

THis person is simply letting the bird go where it shouldn't go, probably because he doesn't have the basic knowledge of what a bird can do. When an inexprienced person finds out about these things or experiences these things, anxiety builds up. An inexperienced bird owner usually goes looking for possible solutions. Unfortunately, a mistaken solution appears on a board ( especionally a responsible board) and that person decides to use it. Only the bird feels mental and physical pain and only the owner feels sorrow and is at a loss for what to do next. The damage is done. The wings are gone. The birds cannot do what birds should be doing.

Please refrain from using past discussions from certain subjects that at the time were relevent such as bird clipping.

In the OP's disussion, it all had to do with control or lack of control, not shortening the natural abilities of a creature that has natural assets.

To use another thing as a comparision, a person has a cat that likes to scratch things that upsets the owner.-----should the conversation be about how declawing the cat solved or didn't solve the problem? Did that cat lose natural functions?

Concerning wild creatures, lots of thought needs to be learned before wrong answers are given.

Don't mix other subjects in areas where they don't belong.

It`s softer than a napkin and more absorbent, so they say.

Then the best thing to do is go where the sun don't shine and ask what type he or she prefers. Just make sure that the ass isn't farting when you ask.

Is it possible to teach your parrot to stay? Storm has suddenly become a very busy boy. He never wants to stay where I want him to, always flying around, his newest destination is the kitchen sink,not sure what the fascination is about it other than that I do NOT want him there. i move him, ask him to stay, he looks at me with his eyes pinning and holds up his leg for me to pick him up, if I puck him up he's fine, if I just walk away it suddenly becomes a race to see who can get to xxx faster......I pick him up, replace him and say stay.

 

I have 2 huge boings hanging from the ceiling. one in the kitchen and one in the boot room so he can people watch out the door.

 

He has a cage in the living room, a play stand in the living room and a table perch that goes wherever I take it ....he has TONS of areas to play and LOTS to play with. He has foraging toys, chew toys, noisy toys, foot toys etc etc this boy lacks for nothing.

 

He will be 3 in a couple of months and I suspect that may be part of the issue. I really do not feel comfortable with him having so much access to the house, I have a blanket blocking the kitchen from the living room...this blanket now is full of holes that allow a certain parrot to go through to get to the kitchen. He is afraid of hats so I even went as far as hanging up a hat..it worked for a few weeks but now he kinda likes those hats lol....

 

SO how does one teach a very stubborn parrot how to stay where I put him.....

First off, your bird isn't stubborn. The only parrot that will stay in one place is the type that's been trained to go from one perch to another and not fly away until a signal is given but that only happens with a bird that's being trained to fly from one perch to another or one hand to another. That only occurs when a bird is being taught how to fly with a harness. Other than that a bird won't stay in one place just because you tell him to stay. Only domestic animals can be trained to stay in one area. Parrots are wild animals. In order for you to achieve what you want, you would need a large area to put the bird in when you don't want him flying all over the place ( like an aviary.)

*******He has a cage in the living room, a play stand in the living room and a table perch that goes wherever I take it ....he has TONS of areas to play and LOTS to play with. He has foraging toys, chew toys, noisy toys, foot toys etc etc this boy lacks for nothing.*******

None of these things have anything to do with him staying in an area that you would like. A bird would like to be out of a cage or cages much more than in a cage. Toys have nothing to do with staying in one place. There are no toys that are made that advertise that their product will help to train a bird to *stay*. A perch is simply a landing spot and when he wants to leave, he'll just leave.

You need to deal with your bird totally different than any domestic animal you have or know about. A bird needs to be confined in order to stop him from going from one place to another.

This is also very common in other oriental and East Indian countries.

Dave,

 

Would boiling them work to kill off any potential bacteria. My son brought up this topic with his chemistry class today and his teacher mentioned dropping the nuts in 240deg water for 10-15 minutes...

 

Seeing our Caiques enjoyment when he gets a glimpse of these nuts I don't want him to miss out...

I really have no experience with boiling water. The only thing I've had to do is rely on very hot tap water for certain nuts and baking for other types of nuts.

I do know that putting unshelled peanuts ( also known as monkey nuts) in boiling water would destroy the shell and probably the internal nut. For that type of nut, baking is the best way to go. For other very hard shelled nuts, you can try boiling water but again I have no idea what'll happen. I know that peanuts, walnuts, brazil nuts, hazelnuts can withstand a short trip to the baking oven. They're aren't too many other types of nuts that are available for parrots. So you can try it out in boiling water but don't experiment on your birds. You should eat them first, see how they taste, check the consistency and color of the nut and check the smell. Personally, I would stick with methods that have already been proven to be safe even if a teacher talked about other ways of doing it. It doesn't really take much to turn on and preheat an oven.

One other thing----Aspergillus is most common on and in soft shelled peanuts. The major reason is that those types of nuts have broken shells in which contaminents may get into. One other thing-----Brazil nuts are commonly given to macaws because they're the only parrot that has enough strength and powerful beak to actually break them so buying them is a waste of money unless you have a macaw.

Got a question on this subject. Since our grey doesn't like nuts I've never given this much thought but our caique would hop a country mile for a raw peanut. I've tried to get him to eat human grade peanuts with NO success. He will only eat the nuts that come in the volkman hookbill after I shuck them. Reading this thread over he weekend I decided to bake his bag of nuts in the oven as indicated earlier in this thread but now he won't touch them.

 

Are caiques at risk for aspergillosis as in one of the books I have by J. McMichael (a wealth of knowledge regarding caiques) never mentions aspergillosis in his writings...

 

Thanks in advance

Aspergillus can affect every parrot species. Greys and amazons are most suseptable . Even wild birds can sometimes get it although it's not common. They don't breathe in dusty air, don't eat moldy food or live in areas where the mold can develop. They can fly away from all these bad situations.

The disease can develop in other ways too. Usually indoors. As far as your bird liking or disliking certain nuts, compare that situation to natural foods that a parrot will eat such as vegetables. Hypothetically, lets say that there's 10 good kinds of vegetables for a bird to eat and a person buys them. Just because they're healthy and a natural food for parrots, that doesn't mean that a parrot will eat all the different vegetables that are purchased. Luckily, maybe 3 or 4. That's why we suggest doing different things to the vegetables to make them more appealing but that doesn't mean that the bird will change it's mind. Some will, some won't.

The reason it isn't mentioned in a book is because it comes in a specialized book on bird diseases. That book would include all diseases that affect all parrots.

AS far as I feel about nuts in the shell, I believe in baking or cooking or rinsing all kinds because a person doesn't know where the picker last had his/her grimy fingers or dirty hands. They also may have a cold and sneezed on them. Maybe they just came out of the restroom.

Don't you get excited and thrilled when you find out that people have been stepping on loads of grapes with their bare feet just to make wine.

Great video Dave. But, you forgot to name them all!!!!!!!!! (smile)

Life is so cruel. Imagine, you'll go to sleep tonight going crazy about those names.

This hasn't been replied to in a few years but I have been recently reading on other forums about people not feeding any peanuts at all due to this issue. I have fed Scooty peanuts the past 10 years and have had no issues thus far. Of course, that's not to say the next one could be the one that does it. I buy his peanuts from the pet store in the pet bird section (not the wildbird section) in hopes these will be treated a little better in regards to processing. I'm sure that's just wishful ignorant thinking but I'd rather have that then the bulk bin at the grocery store that who knows what gross crap has been coughed out on them and touched with nicotine hands and everything else. Like I said, this might just be my mind justifying buying those over the others offered.

 

My questions are for those of you that do feed various nuts and peanuts and things, do you bake them first? I heard that some people do that and it will greatly minimize the risk. If this is accurate is there any documentation proving that thought process? And if so, what is the preferred baking temp and duration? Peanuts are Scooty's favorite high value treat and I'd hate to take those away from him after so many years.

 

However, after working in the veterinary industry as long as I have...I cannot stand it when someone says to me that they let their dog eat cooked chicken bones because they've done it for years and never had any problems...or my dog doesn't live outside so I don't need to give them heartworm prevention. So, I don't want to be that jerk person that says that I've fed peanuts for 10 years so they have to be safe and everyone else is wrong....you know?

 

What are your thoughts?

There's nothing wrong with human grade peanuts. I've given them for years with no ill effects. If you don't feel like buying a large bag of human grade peanuts then get as many peanuts from a seed mix bag as you can. Get a baking tray, spread the nuts out. Us as many as you can. Heat up oven to 350 degrees. When ready, put tray in oven for 15 minutes. Voila, human grade peanuts. No disease, no parasites.

Peanuts are the only one that I take the shell off because the shell is so thin that one bite and the peanuts wind up in the cage tray. So I hand feed all of the birds.

AS far as walnuts, because they're so big I crack one in half and give the birds a half nut and they dig in and remove the nut.

One of the favorite nuts my birds love are almonds. I never crack any of them even though they're difficult to crack but each bird wants to eat them unshelled. It takes a while to crack them and then they dig out the internals. Cracking unshelled almonds is very good for the beak.

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