Talon

i am so very sorry and heartbroken for you.

Hi, I have never heard of sleep flying........I do have one grey who gets night frights frequently. She sleeps in my bedroom, so I am aware of them. She will start thrashing around, and then fall to the bottom of her cage. I have a soft touch whichni keep on the bottom of her cage, and a nite light rightnnext to her cage. It seems to lessen them quite a bit. I don't believe they can fly while sleeping, probably was awake, and startled .

Hi Kim and welcome to our family. I adopted both my greys sight unseen. Never a first meeting. Trust me, you WILL be able to bond over time with any bird. Certainly going to visit would be great for him to get to know you and your presence. After seeing him from a safe distance for his sake, I would lovingly, quietly go up to him with a treat, a calming, soothing voice, and especially, don't be too forward ormpushy to touch him or pick him up. Let that be his choice, if he wants to step up on you, great, but do so cautiously and slowly so as not to startle him. Hope that helps. Can't wait to hear more. Keep us posted on your decision, but please make sure it will all work out with your hubby and chid. This bird needs his forever home, not too be passed on if it doesn't work for you.

Golden words! This deserves to be a sticky. Thank you for this. It is very touching.

I will say, that we all do it a bit differently. I adopted a 2 year old after having another grey for 2 years. Introducing them went quite quickly, but under strict supervision. I had my older kids to help. What is your situation?

Do you have both birds right now? A little history would help with the advice.

Welcome to our family! Love the pics! Cant wait to hear more! Please know that birds and snakes don't mix! I hope you keep your snake out of site from your bird.

Hi and welcome! I would discourage flying to your head behavior. One of my greys was allowed to fly and land on your head also. Allowing that behavior will make them dominate you. You will have to teach the step up command. Try either using your hand or stick, putitat the stomach and apply light pressure while saying step up. Over time, your bird will get it, and lots of praise when they do get it right. My grey stopped the head flying pretty quickly. Now she never tries it. Patience and lots of praise!

Welcome to our family. Wow. An amazon for 46 years! You must have lots of stories to share with us. I started an amazon room after purchasing my first amazon a year and a half ago. Please feel free to share with us.

Welcome to our family! I look forward to seeing pics and hearing more!

You must be so excited. Can't wait to see pictures.

Sorry, don't know where you can get them. I buy them in bulk for my 3 birds. I can imagine they would be hard to cut.

What adorable pictures you captured. Thanks for sharing them.

Love it! Thanks for the directions, I think I may get ambitious and try one myself soon.

Has anyone noticed how long our Pets are Top banners have been missing? The site seems to be down,and all our banners on Greyforums are missing.......hmmmm.......

I stay logged in on my blackberry and iPad, but not my desk top.

If you resized them when you uploaded them, perhaps the settings weren't quite right. Try resizing them to forum size pics, then they will show up as thumbnails, but will be able to enlarge.

I would put him in his new cage asap. Let him watch you set it up, add toys, etc. Let him climb all around it while you do. I put all 3 of my birds in their new cages as soon as I set them up, and then made a huge big deal about it as they were in there. Lots of positive attention and fun. Never had a problem doing it like that. Make it a fun project they help with and watch, it will be comfortable for them. They also watched me climbing inside while I set them up, I think that helped also. I also bought the largest cages possible for them. Spoiled they are!

One of my 3 birds has a sleep cage in my bedroom. The other 2 don't and they sleep downstairs. All my birds get covered at night. Their cages are big, so a black sheet only covers the top half. They can go down further in to peek out in the am while they wait for me to get them up. Bedtime is anywhere from 8-9pm depending on our household schedule.

Yes, the more places you have for her to play on, the less likely she will want to be with your hubby. But someti es, they just want to hang out with their favorite person.

Never smoked either. Starting up after 25 years is stupid!!!! Sorry Janet, but we love you and want you here healthy!

I had 2 adult cats when I got my first African grey. Since then, I lost one to a coy dog, and moved leaving the other one with my ex. Since then, I have 3 parrots, and got a kitten. All is well, the cat knows, the birds will come over and try to nibble on his tail or ears, I never allow the birds to be unattended with my cat around. One bite or scratch and th birds would surely die from the poison bacteria that cats emit to their prey.

I buy the packets of oatmeal that Judy talks about. I put a very small tsp.of sugar in the raw in it, cooked with 9.5 alkaline water in the microwave. And that is what I eat for breakfast, this I share with my 3 parrots. Nothing fancy"

Yes, I agree with Acappella, it is too soon to allow him the privilege of your shoulder. He will have to earn that as you bond to him. 3 weeks is very little time to think your going to teach him anything. He is still adapting to his new home, sounds, people, etc. greys are slow in their evaluation process. They are incredibly smart, but cautios and careful. It will take much longer to expect him to lear the final behaviour you are expecting, but by being consistent, he is learning every time you are. As for the biting, he is testing you, and will continue to do so for some time. Wear long sleeves, put him down every time he bites you. But personally, he would only be allowed on my hand until he learns that you are not "his" perch to chew on and bite.

Oh boy, this is always a tough behavior to break, but with patience and consistency, it can be done. I would refrain from the water pistol tho........ When you are about to leave the room, can you use distraction by giving a treat that requires some work, or a special off limit toy perhaps? Ignoring the behavior is the best and will over time work, but it will take a long time. Perhaps the tv for distraction? My birds get very quiet when. The house is quiet, but some birds don't like loud noises and will get quiet, perhaps the tv up loud might work also. When I leave one of my birds, I g et very excited about a distraction toy or treat as I go near them and try and keep it from them, they work to take it away from me and then feel like it's forbidden and concentrate on it as I walk away and tell them I'll be back soon, which they now repeat when I leave. Good luck and keep us posted on what works.