Christina

I have purchased some of her DVD's and they are very good. Her training takes time and patience. I've tried it with both my blue and gold and my TAG and it works. It's time consuming, but it builds trust and will improve your relationship with your bird. I would definetly recommend her videos.

That is absolutley fabulous. I can tell by your other post that she is a little character. I wonder what the ratio of "hams" to "closet talkers" is?

Finnigan says the funniest stuff to me. Just this morning, we are in the bathroom getting ready for work and she was being a little minx, into everything, and I said, what is wrong with you and I swear she looked right at me and said, what is wrong with you. Would she say it again in front of my husband? No. :angry: She said to me other day, be careful, hot, and made the blowing sound that you make when its hot....will she say that in front of anyone else? NO! :angry: She just makes the blowing sound. She won't say anything except PeekABoo in front of anyone and she barks like a dog(I don't have a dog). She also screeches like a macaw (I do have a macaw). My husband and son just look at me and shake their heads. I think they think I'm insane.:unsure:

Very cute. Poor little thing must have been scared.

I say the same things but, then when something happens, they are like, why would you have a pet like that? Of course, I could refer them to the thread here, something about all the reasons I love my grey! But I still don't think they would get it. :ohmy: Oh, well, it is only a few that are hard headed, everyone else seems content with a few steps ups, verbal interaction and learning about the species. So, all in all, I suppose its a fine trade off.

I don't mean the shopping, I mean the "well intentioned" relatives that won't listen when you tell them to leave your bird alone. For example, my mom is over, Finnigan is in the kitchen with us and will step up very nicely to new people. She generally is uncomfortable, but will do it and let them hold her and talk to her a minute. Well, she decided she had had enough step ups and flew up on top of the refridgerator. My mom chases her down to the fridge determined to get her to step up again. I tell mom, leave her be, she has had enough. Mom keeps putting her finger up closer and closer, and finally Finnigan gives her a bite. My mom says "she bit me, I can't believe she bit me". I was like, what in the world did you expect? I told her to leave her alone, she flew away, she backed up, she did everything she could do as politley as she could do it and you still persisted. If she was a cat, hissing at you, you would have stopped, or a dog growling. Jeeze, then you are pissed when she bites you? Maybe she is pissed that you couldn't take a hint. Of course, mom proceeds to lecture me on how I baby this animal if she was a dog she would have been immediatley corrected. I pointed out the fact that she is not a dog, but this didn't seem to hold water with mom. Does anyone else have "non-bird" people come to the house and then have to listen to a ration of crap about how crazy you are to actually own birds?

This question is for those who have bird that like to talk or whistle. Do you ever try to train them to say one particular thing or make one particular sound? If so, how do you do it? Finnigan says "Peek-A-Boo" and I have trained her to say it on cue using treats and praise. But, I haven't been able to get her to say anything else that she doesn't usually say. She isn't a big talker, and that is fine, but she seems to prefer training of a thinking type rather than physical if that makes sense. For example my b&g will raise his wings, turn a circle, roll over, anyway, lots of physical things. Finnigan just looks at me, almost like it's beneath her. She seems interested in whistling and saying her peekaboo, but I don't know if I'm trying to teach her right on new words or new tunes. Now, I know they each have a mind of their own, but if anyone has been successful at this, I would love to hear how you did it.

I just finished teaching my TAG how to fly. She was clipped when I got her at 10 weeks. I also had the same thing with our blue and gold. Now they were much younger than yours. The advice you got is first rate. I would only start closer, a few inches. I jump and flap to you from the counter, is a monumental moment for your grey. Build up to futher away. It's a matter of confidence. We also flew both our birds from one person to another. Mostly from the least favorite to the favorite person. Even if that meant walking back and handing the bird back, so they could fly to the favorite person again. Again, start with a small space, only a foot, then work it to be bigger. The other thing I would do is place many things around the house for her to land on. The one thing I noticed, is sometimes when they are just learning to fly, they take off, and then get this "holy cow" look on their face, like "now I'm up here, where do I go". It caused alot of crashes for our b&g until we figure out that he needed places to land. We put boings and perches around and took him to each point so he knew and viola....the crashes subsided. Finnigan benefited from this learning curve and I can't remember one crash from her. I'm sure she will learn fast if she is watching your cockatoo fly. And from your description is sure sounds like she wants to go. Start small and one day she will just go and go and you will be standing there, like I didn't know she could do that. It's pretty cool.

I would try reverting back to giving her a treat when she does what you want. I don't know if that is how you initially trained her but, giving her new found stubborness, I might try rewarding her for doing your bidding. No point in getting into a pissing match with your AG....if she is like mine, I will always lose, so I just need to outsmart her. Which is often a challenge. Let us know how it goes.

Finnigan is chipped. She had no adverse reaction to it whatsoever. She was playing and eating fine as soon as I took her home. Of course, she did get her favorite treat for being a good girl...french fries. Yum!

Now that is funny! Finnigan tosses everything out of the bowl that she doesn't like...I'm always like, hey, I wanted that!:ohmy:

Well, Finnigan seems completly disinterested in any training session. I'll keep trying though, she is a smart cookie...Thanks for you replies.

If you are holding a training session with your grey, how long does it usually last? I just started with Finnigan, just trying to teach her little tricks just to give her something to think about. Well, I train her and my macaw at the same time...Finnigan lasts about 5 minutes...max. My macaw (who is a year older) will go forever and seems to really relish the challenge. I can almost see Finnigan thinking that this is way beneath her. Such a little snooty girl. But I still think that to challenge her to learn things is a good idea.

Finnigan prefers to talk outside. We have a screened in lanai and when she gets out there on her boing...she goes to it. I have heard her say my son's name (like I'm yelling for him..exactly!), I Love You, Be Quiet (to the macaw), Be Careful, Hello...inside, she says Peek A Boo....and that about covers it. Go figure. Crazy birds.

I think that is great. My poor Finnigan was harshly clipped on one side when I got her. The vet clipped the other side so she wouldn't spin as crazily, but wouldn't match the other clip as it was extreme. Her wings are growing out and we are starting to teach her to fly. Here is a website that has a lot of great reading and weighs in heavily on the pros and cons of free flight. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Freeflight/message/70012 I found this web-site from the required reading section. http://www.shynefoundation.org/articles.html

I would try the food thing. I would actually make a sweet potato like a baked potato in the microwave, put some applesauce and cinnamon sugar in it, mash it all together. You might have to make it sweeter to cover the medicine taste. Serve it warm and see if she will just eat it off the spoon. Unfortuntely, you will only be able to do a little mash for the medicine so the medicine taste might come through. But give it a go. My birds love a hot mushy meal each evening and sweet potato is a favorite and its good for them. Good luck...sorry you are having to go through this.

Our blue and gold was clipped when we got him as a baby. We kept up that tradition for the first year of his life but then let his wings grow out. He flies everywhere now and has gone from a nervous nelly to a very confident bird. When he first started flying he huffed and puffed like crazy for the smallest distance. Now, he flies in circles around the room and doesn't huff at all. I think its a great thing if you are able to make a safe environment for them but like others have said here, its a big commitment. We have all the glass in the house either covered or it has something on it, all ceiling fans are off until the birds are in their cages. Loki (b&g) won't put on a harness yet so he can't go outside or on trips without his carrier. So, there are a lot of positive and negatives to each side. You need to decide for yourself which one outweighs the next. We don't have little children who forget to shut doors nor do we have alot of people in and out our house, so this works for us. Finnigan's (TAG) wings are growing out now and she will be allowed to fly. I don't think that decision is for everyone nor do I say I'll never clip their wings again. But for now it works for us and the change in attitude and health for Loki was for the better, so we will keep it this way for now. I know that this wasn't any concrete answer, but I don't think there is one. Good Luck with your decision.

Someone posted a while ago about this show on parrots. Well, I found the whole show on the internet (at least I think this is the same one). Here is the link, and we, as grey owners will find it very intersting. http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=42569

Those audios are great. How old is Harrison and when did she first start talking? Finnigan is just over a year and has just started what I deem as trying to speak. You know when they sit and keep making noises with the occassional phrase thrown in there? And most of the noises sound like she is saying something but you can't make it out. Anyway, I was just wondering. Thanks.

I noticed that one thing that Finnigan does not do, is hold on very tightly when she is perched on my shoulder. She seems to slip and slide quite a bit if I make any sudden movements. I started telling her to "hold on" if I was going to bend over or move to one side, anything that might throw her off balance. It didn't take long and now all I say is "hold on" and she grips her little toes tighter. I don't know why she won't hold on tight the whole time, but she won't. It didn't take much time to catch on to the "hold on" command though. I know that doesn't help with sudden stops, but if they learn to scrunch those toes, they seem to get better at it instead of slipping off and fluttering to the floor as much.

That is a shame. We went to a similar sanctuary in Georgia, they do however adopt out. The one thing the man said as we were speaking to him, was that people don't think when they make arrangements for their birds (as in if you die and set up a trust for the bird to go to the sanctuary)is that your bird has lived with human interaction and all of sudden they go to very little of that, and its very hard on a bird. If you have someone to take him if you die, then you should do that, or give permission for the sanctuary to adopt your bird out if they find him/her a good home. I had never thought about that. I guess I automatically figured that my birds would be miserable without me. Probably just my ego talking.

What a cutie!

Finnigan wakes up at 7am sharp. She starts low making quiet whistles and beeps, by 7:26, she is loud! Carrying on like a fool, and you can hear her little feet running back and forth at the bottom of her cage. She is a hoot. Of course by then, she has woken our blue and gold and he starts with this "hello", over and over and over again until you go and get them. We don't mind, if its a casual day, we bring them both into the bed, which they seem to love.

Good buy! I did the same thing this weekend. We have a second hand baby store near my house and I stocked up on rattles and stuff. The birds love them and I paid about $1 a piece. Can't do that at a bird shop. :-)

Finnigan just turned a year old and only says...Wheedle Whee. Which was just a silly game we played. Our Blue and Gold says Hello constantly and she won't say it to save her butt and if she ever learned a word, that would be it. I'm with Dan, I say the same things over and over and she doesn't seem to care. That being said, in the last month, she has picked up her verbalization allot. She whistles and beeps and says wheedle whee every day about 100 times a day. I believe that if we keep up talking to her, it won't be long and she will start popping out with words and sayings. Even if she doesn't it, its okay...her laser sounds and whistles are still the most beautiful sounds and she communicates her mood quite well with all of them.