Dave007

No, it's fine. Have a mineral block and concrete perch in the cage so he can periodically file it. Both can be gotten at a pet store.

Small amounts once in a while won't have any effect on your bird.

As a bird gets older, certain habits develop and if not corrected or dealt with, those habits will continue as the bird gets older. In your situation, your bird is 14 yrs old and has been plucking for years. It's probably been going off and on for years. This is called chronic plucking. More than likely, it'll never stop. It's been going on for years and the bird has grown up with the plucking. A bird can stay very healthy and basically happy even though it's a chronic plucker. There's another type of plucking called acute plucking and that type will eventually stop because acute plucking usually has something to do with an incident that's recently happened. ***The other issue is biting. We think this is because she was left in a cage with very little socialization. However, after a year of many attempts she is still not very friendly and wants to snap at everyone, chew our clothing, the walls and pull up carpet. Let me add that she is not a stranger to my family and knew us all well before she came to live with us. She loves for us to talk to her and she is even curious enough to come out of her cage and come near us but that is about it. She is so very timid and is always on the defensive. I really want to turn things around for her but everything we have tried seems to be futile. Has anyone had anyone experience with changing the bad habits for a bird and making them happier? If I didn't provide enough info, just let me know. Thanks for any advice I can get! ****** Again, a bird gets very used to being in a certain situation for years and eventually, it becomes part of their makeup. Being defensive, timid, quick to nip, not being overly friendly can develop with a bird that's been partially cage bound and that too more than likely has been going on for years. A bird looks at the cage and considers it a safe haven. It's happiest in it's home. Again, a bird can be happy after mainly living in that situation. It's a trait now--one year, no luck. You may need to live with the bird as is.

Greys aren't taught to talk. They learn to talk by association. If you do something often enough and speak about what you're doing at that time, eventually, the bird will see what's going on and repeat it. A grey knows when to talk. Example--you're going out and you say *see ya later*, eventually the bird will see you leaving and will say the same thing. If you're coming home and say *how ya doing*, eventually the buird will see and hear you coming back and will say the same thing. They won't confuse the 2 things. That applies to feeding, talking and playing and other things. Average talking can start from about 8 mts on and that can vary. Just remember that not all greys talk no matter what you do but they do talk in their own languqge which takes a person a while to understand.

The only thing to do is to have it rewelded back together. There's no other wiring that will keep the 2 pieces together.

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

You may have many birds--those birds have particular traits but now, we're talking about a grey. Plus it's a bird that has lived in different environments and in any one of those environments, plucking/chewing/pulling could have developed. It also has traits and is known to do many things that other parrots don't do. One major thing is plucking/chewing. You really don't know whether your bird is a chronic plucker or acute plucker. What she does could be ingrained or just a new thing. Time will tell which it is. Bad clips can cause plucking and chewing. Sometimes diet can be a small cause for doing that. I've seen loads of greys that were chronic pluckers who were eating a proper and varied diet and they still pluck and chew and pull. Some birds who calm down from stress situations may stop. Others won't. You can stop interupt her but if she wants to pluck, she will and sometimes interupting her will cause her to do it more intensely. Some will say that spraying a bird with aloe juice may help but it doesn't help with chronic pluckers. OR, her skin may be extremely dry which will cause intense plucking at the skin area. OR, it could be the humidity or lack of that may cause plucking. OR, it could be that the bird is around other birds. OR, it could be from a new environment that the bird is in. No one can tell you whether it will stop. Only time will tell before you know how to classify the bird as far as what the type will be. If you want a product to keep around the house for all your birds this is it but if you're intent upon using home remedies, you may not have any luck. Type in AVITEC.COM On the left, look for PLUCKING/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. 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.

Weaning foods are never used on chicks that young. The bird needs formula, plenty of it and very often--at least 4 times a day. Screaming is a definite sign that the chick is not getting enough formula. When the bird is finished eating, there should be a large bulge in the upper chest area. A chick who's been fed the proper amount at each feeding normally goes to sleep for about 2/3 hrs. ****After i fed her she always screams and ask for more but i sure that i give exactly what she supposed to get.If anybody talks to here or wants to just take on hands she screams and thinking that its time to eat and always trying to look for food in hand or anywhere**** Well, obviously you're not giving the proper amount of food and the bird is telling you that. Playing----greys that young aren't interested in playing, just eating, picking at some things and sleeping.

***Don't like birds. Hardly at all. **** Thought so. Glad we cleared that up.

I use some pellets so that I can guarantee that they all get palm oil. The palm oil is very thin and liquidy and I drip it on the pellets, the pellets totally absorb the oil and the birds eat the pellets. I use any kind that's available when I'm shopping. I'm not a big fan of pellets being a main food that parrots need.

One question-i'm not really sure about it so i'll ask you By any chance, do you like birds? For some reason, I get the feeling that maybe you might say yes although I could be totally wrong.

A TAG is considered a small medium sized bird. A CAG is considered a medium sized bird. There's a smaller TAG cage and a larger CAG cage. Getting the bigger is better though whether it's for a CAG or TAG. The big difference concerning size is when buying a Flight Aviator. A TAG needs the smaller size. The CAG size is too big. There's pictures of the birds that the Aviator fits.

There's no difference between the two other than basic personality. Either personality is easy to handle but they are 2 different birds. Timnehs take to new things much more quickly than Congos. A Timneh is an extrovert --a congo isn't. Congos need much more time to investigate new things--toys--new cages--new people--new environments. Timnehs need much less time. Amazons and african greys are very different species and in the amazon world, there's many personalities. Some are loud, some aren't. All are intelligent. The subject of talking rarely comes up on amazon bird boards because there'sso many different ones to pick from. The main topic of discussion on amazon boards have to do with aggressiveness or lack of. Price difference------The congo is more popular because of all the hype concerning their talking. They're also more popular because of their coloring. Timnehs have a very different beautiful color and eventually, an owner can easily see that. They have no red tails. They have marroon to dark grey ash tail coloring. Sadly, coloring and size has to do a lot with pricing. The reason for the price difference is because all of the information that's put out has to do with greys. Little is put out concerning timnehs. Articles, utube and other info concerning greys has to do with their talking plus the other reason is their coloring. Most people who put out videos of their out congo has to do with ability to talk or the ability to play with toys. Timnehs do the exact same thing. Interaction with people is the same for both birds. Each has to be socialized into a family setting. Simply because of your questions, I can that you haven't had experience with greys and greys are different than amazons. It's a new experience and the last thing I would advise do do is that you get a rehomed bird. A rehomed bird has habits and ingrained traits which he/she will bring into your home. Those may be very difficult to handle. Those habits and traits can't be changed. Here in the US, there's very legitimate places to buy rehomed birds BUT those organizations will also tell people who adopt that they'll be paying a visit within 6 to 8 mts to see what's going on with the bird and if theres serious problems, a person has to give the bird back. sme people only have Congos. Some people only have timnehs. Some people have both. I have both and I can tell you from past experience that one of my congos and my one timneh wouldn't have lasted very long in an inexperienced home. They were given to me because each had drastic but different problems. Both were adults when I got them. It took a long time for my wife and I to deal with the timneh and his problem. It took me even longer to deal with the congo because of his problem. One last thing I would never do is to tell my neighbors about any congo or timneh I may have. There's only 2 medium to large sized species of parrots that you may have to tell a neighbor about----a macaw--a cockatoo. Two of the loudest birds around.

Munch Well, you still didn't say how old your bird was when the vet told you she was underweight. Weight varies with different sized birds. Protrusion of the keel bone varies too. All of my greys are adults and I can feel the keel bone on all of them if I feel for it. One of my greys has a keel bone that's protruding more than the others but at one time it was a bird that never flew and had no feathers. His bones still protrude but he's healthyThe biggest problem with keel bone protrusion has to do with muscle buildup. Many people who get their birds clipped when they're very young doesn't allow muscle strength of the wing areasto develop and get muscle strength. The most obvious place to see that is the keel bone. Most of those birds try to fly and instead they fall and bounce off the floor and hurt the keel bone. I'm not gonna argue with what the vet said but he should have said that the bird is continuing to lose weight if that were the case. There's different ways to feed nuts. In your situation, you should take a variety of them, take the shells off, break them up in small sized pieces ( the size of a baked bean), put them in a different bowl and let her check them out. Leave them in the bowl. All types of nuts are excellent for birds but they have nothing to do with weight gain. The nuts simply provide vitamins. The same thing applies to veggies. Corn is useless for a bird. It provides nothing but it isn't harmful to a bird unless loads of it are given. Celery, cucumbers, lettuce are useless but it won't harm a bird if given in small amounts. None of these items have anything to do with weight gain. In the supermarket, there's bags of premixed veggies and most of the time all of them have corn in the bags. Try broccolie, kale. Give carrots, plenty of vitamins in it They won't provide weight gain. Give some human foods---clumps of pasta with some tomato sauce on it. It's messy but many birds like it. That too won't provide weight gain. Try veggies cold, warm, raw, steamed. All of these items provide vitamins. The most important thing concerning food for a grey is the vitamin content but vitamins don't provide weight gain. One other important thing here is that the solid foods, no matter what they are should remain in the bowl all day long. Birds don't eat like people. There is no breakfast, lunch or supper. Birds eat all day long. The only foods that should be removed are veggies when they get soggy and shrivaled up. I would say that your bird is eating fine but eating fine has nothing to do with weight gain. You need to keep the bird healthy and not worry about weight gain. The only time you should be worrying is when a bird starts losing weight on a constant basis. That's a sign of illness There's different ways to feed and make food. Concerning Dan---about 3 years ago Dan posted a few pictures of a food concoction he invented. It was a great creation and to this day, I still have those pictures my bird food file. I'm gonna assume that mant people tried it and had success. I tried it and it went over real well with my birds. I also fed it to breeder birds and they too loved it. So, take it slow. Strenght is the most important thing here.

Well, it sounds like she handled the problem and she seems to be alright. Actually what you descibe makes me think that your bird is doing all the regular things better now than before the accident. So, there's nothing to worry about. Don't clip her wings again.

Very important here----How old was your bird when you thought he was underweight? What was the weight before and afterward? None of the foods you mentioned will make a grey gain weight. Most greys won't become obese or gain a lot of weight because of the species but other species of birds will. Any weight they may gain has to do with the size of the bird. Is he a small boned or medium boned or large boned grey? The weight is very different with these sized birds. A person can have a bird that may weigh approx 385 gms or approx 470 gms or approx 565 gms and larger. There's a big difference between giving a healthy diet and giving a weight maintaining diet. If you say she gained weight, what was she eating when that happened?

These are just 5 models from good venders and each vender has other items for sale at their main outlet. The vendors ask the customers to visit so they can see the complete line. Each of these items can be bid on or purchased with no bidding Just look for the words BUY IT NOW next to the item. You'll see the actual price with no bidding. There's many pages of cages and you may see something you like. Just make sure you look at the price and you'll see the difference regarding regular pet store prices. Specific info on each item is at the bottom of their product. http://cgi.ebay.com/LARGE-BLACK-VEIN-DOME-HOUSE-OPEN-TOP-PARROT-BIRD-CAGES-/290570908072?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43a76031a8 http://cgi.ebay.com/A-E-Cage-Co-Large-Dome-Top-Bird-Cage-Platinum-/150605216362?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2310c53a6a http://cgi.ebay.com/A-E-Cage-Co-Large-Play-Top-Bird-Cage-Sandstone-/110688199561?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19c587e389 http://cgi.ebay.com/Prevue-Select-Parrot-Bird-Cage-Model-3153-/120413196148?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c092f8f74 http://cgi.ebay.com/Prevue-Corner-Parrot-Macaw-Bird-Cage-Model-3156-White-/120374686292?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c06e3f254

Any person here who's only been checking out name brand cages as a first time cage should really take the time and visit Ebay. They have a huge selection of high quality cages for any size bird that exists. The cages are brand new and no bidding is required. Their prices will absolutely beat any cage company's price. The cages are made the exact same way as brand name cages. The quality is excellent. They come in all styles, sizes, colors, are powder coated. Warranties are included. There's been hundreds of people here on the board who've purchased there throughout the last few years and were very happy to the point that they would purchase there again if they got a second bird. Buying a cage there allows a person to spend more money that they save on extra neccessities.

A typical single cage size for a CAG is approx 38/40 inches high without the stand , approx 28 inches deep, approx 33/35 inches across. They need cages in which they can go left to right as opposed to height. That applies to CAGs and TAGs The next size smaller is made for a TAG so if you can find stackable cages in which each cage for a CAG and a TAG has those approx dimensions then buy it. Many people don't use stackable cages for greys because they're high but narrow.

Those bar spacings are really too big. That spacing is made for much larger birds. You need to understand that at one time or another, your bird is gonna start climbing on the inside roof of the cage frequently and that spacing wouldn't be safe because of the large openings. The proper spacing on a cage is such that a bird isn't able to stick it's head out. This is what your cage spacing should be and it doesn't matter whether it's a small or large cage.. 3/4 to 1 inch openings http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v50/DaveVP/cagebars-1.jpg

Young greys are nothing like adult greys and eventually you'll see that. There's nothing unusual about what your young grey is doing. Young greys like new toys. Some don't.----individual personality Young greys like new foods. Some don't.----individual personality Young greys have to learn to fly and all will crash into windows, walls, curtains and many other things. Most of them will try and try again. Hesitation won't stop them from trying again. Most greys won't talk in front of strangers and many times that includes owners that are around them. Most greys, young and old don't like being handled by strangers. The basics here is that your bird learns to trust the immediate family as far as handling. Don't worry about strangers or casual visitors. Don't force the issue. If your bird bites one of them, you're stuck and more than likely, he'll bite a stranger or casual friend again and because you put him in an uncomfortable position, he may bite you too especially after you do it again. You're gonna be stuck again.

There is no set time but usually when a bird starts to act more independent ( approx 1 yr or so) and wants time by itself to explore things. That's the time a grey is starting to act a bit more aloof which is their personality. A grey may get a little nippy because other things are attracting him/her. It takes a while ( a short time or longer time). Greys are all different so a set time is impossible to give although you'll definitily see the changes. You can always try to teach your birds things as long as you don't do things that'll cause an attitude and fear.

Yes, you can refrigerate it. It will last a little longer. The reason for keeping it cold is because aloe juice is actually used by people who have digestive problems. MDs tell these people to use it because it helps with that problem. It's also very good to put on the skin of a bird. Now more than likely your bird won't like being misted. Many don't but if it's necessary, it has to be done. The bird may screech or yell or growl and it means nothing concerning his attitude and feeling towards you afterward. Some people immediately stop using the juice the minute the bird reacts like that because they feel like they're harming the bird but that's not true. The method used that will make the juice most effective is to mist directly on the skin. Outer feathers are waterproof so any fluid just rolls off a bird. The nozzle on a mister can usually be turned so that the fluid comes out in a stream like a water pistol. If he's a screecher/ growler, get close to the bird with the mister and use 1/2 squirts and aim between the skin and wing feathers. That it'll make the skin wet. Eventually, the bird preens and the outer feathers get wet. The same goes for the tail feathers. Actually, using the juice regularly even if there's no problem is great for a bird. Getting the bird soaked is good. As far as temperature, the juice can be used cool or room temperature. When bathing, most greys like to bathe in cold water. Don't worry about a good experience. It needs to be done. Don't worry about the bird's attitude. Many greys hate being bathed but are happy later on when they spend long periods of time. I bathe my greys frequently and afterward, they preen for up to 3 hrs. There's an article here about the juivce. I'll try to find it and give you the link. The link----- http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?189967-100-natural-aloe-vera-juice

If she's not chewing the ends then yes it was a bad clip and many birds who've been clipped don't grow all the feather back evenly. Many birds are irritated with new feathers growing back unevenly and will pick at them. Because it takes a long time for flight feathers to grow back evenly many birds go after the longer feathers. And sadly yes, it's gonna take a very long time before your bird has an even set of flight feathers so expect damage now and then. The shaft of a feather is like a follicle. New feathers grow through the shafts and blossom. The shafts should always be there after wing and tail feathers fall out. No shaft, no feathers. When a bird's head is molting and you take your finger and rub the head starting with the neck towards the top of the head, you'll finger hundreds of shafts where the new feathers will come out from. Go to a store like Walmart and purchase a gallon jug of 100% ALOE VERA JUICE and put some in a mister and spray the area plus under the wings frequently. Use full strength. A bird who's been clipped is an itchy bird. The juice calms that down. The gallon jug costs about $10. Actually, use it on his full body frequently. 2 or 3x a week.

This is important. Do the right thing by the bird and let the store fully wean him. Loads of things concerning unweaned birds being sold has been discussed here in the past. There's a lot more to weaning a bird other then learning how to continue the last 1 or 2 feeding. Many other things can go wrong at home especially if this is your first grey. Some people have had many problems after getting an unweaned bird. Other people haven't. You need to play it safe. Many stores won't sell unweaned birds. Many private breeders won't sell unweaned birds. It's against the law to sell unweaned birds in the UK. After bringing home a baby grey, there's loads of things you be doing and learning about. Hand feeding a bird shouldn't be high on that list. The store shouldn't mind if you tell them to fully wean the bird. After all, they want your business now and in the future. Think about it. I haven't steered you wrong yet. Better safe then sorry.