jeep21243

hello all, due to a recent divorce i am having to move out of my home. my Grey Jack is roughly 2.5 years old and very comfortable in the house. I have had him since he was about 6 months and has never been a plucker and for the most part is very well behaved. I can already tell he is getting scared by the boxes that have begun to populate his play areas but he seems to be doing ok. My worry is though that when we move to my new apt things are going to go south. I usually spend anywhere between 3-10 hours with him per day, most of which is hands on time, or he sits with me at my computer desk or watches tv with me, etc... but when i move i am picking up a small part time job. I will still be home on evenings, so he will get at least 3-4 hours outside the cage time every night, and of course on the nights i dont work my second job closer to the 8/9/10 hour line (or more depending on weekends). i was hoping you all might have advice for how i should handle Jack in the new home. He took really well when he was a baby moving in to this house and has never plucked or anything like that, so i hope this move goes well, hes still very young, but any adivce you all might have id love to hear. thanks in advance. ~Brent

hello all, im trying to get some tips on changing my Greys diet. He is approx 2 1/2 years old and had been mostly on a diet of 50/50 seed to pellet ratio. I have been progressively trying to mix it over to an all pellet ratio but he seems to not be liking it so much. I started to buy the Kaytee Exact diet which gave a 2 week progressive guide on shifting him to the new food, but ive noticed that Jack flings all the pellet out of the bowl and digs for the seed and eats hardly anything else. now that its started to almost no seed he seems to be getting irate. He flies around a lot more than normal and has been screaming quite a bit plus hes started biting... He also flies over to the basket where his food is stored when i walk out of the room looking for his seed. I have read that continuing to give him seed can lead to liver complications further on down the road so i dont want to give in and let him go back to the seed diet, but at the same time hes getting really angry and he doesnt seem to be eating very much other than the fruit and vegetables im giving him. Is this just withdrawl that will pass in time or should i consider putting him back on some seed and progressing its phase out over a larger period of time?<br><br>Post edited by: jeep21243, at: 2008/05/08 18:34

hello everyone, today my 1 year old grey congo flew off his cage and landed on my floor and in so doing he bent one of his flight feathers that are growing in. it didnt look bad but he gave me the squwak that it hurt and i looked at it, it looked ok and he sat with me for a while then flew off again. this time when he landed that feather was clearly bent in his wing. Now about 2 months ago this same thing happened and i took him to my vet who showed me how to pull those out and explained to me that greys are "heavy" birds and until they have their flight feathers they are prone to crash. so i flipped him on his back but wouldnt let me get near his wing, so i flipped him back over, let him perch on my hand and he flapped his wing and the feather came out. i looked at the feather which looked fine, and there was only a slight hint of blood at the very tip of it which i assume is the folicle, not even enough to run. my bird hasnt cried in pain since, and hes flapped his wings several times since then without issue. there has also been no blood to come out of his wing at all. I spread his wing by hand to be certain, and found no blood on his body under where he tucks his wing or running anywhere, so he appears to be perfectly fine to me. i watched him for about an hour to make sure, but then had to go to work. at no time did i see any blood anywhere, but wanted to check with you all hear to see if this seems normal. all the other websites i check about broken blood feathers say that if bleeding continues, consult a vet, but mine never seemed to bleed at all. thanks in advance.