judygram

The first thing I want to caution you about is do not feed the peanuts in the shell as they may contain mold that is toxic to your bird, I always throw out those and give my grey human grade shelled unsalted peanuts. The second is to provide separate bowls for fresh foods, seeds and pellets if possible as the fresh foods will make the pellets soggy. You can keep pellets and some seeds but not too many in the bowls at all times for birds eat all day long and change out the fresh foods often as they will not last all day in the bowl.

Hello Joe and welcome to our family, congrats on your first grey. I would put the cage in the living room or family room, whichever is the room where the family spends most of their time when home, a grey likes to be with the family and where the action is, they want to feel like a part of the "flock" so do not put the cage in the basement.

It looks nice Deby, you did a wonderful job with it, thanks for sharing it with us.

What a great looking toy, just how big is that thing, is it big enough for a grey to crawl thru?

Hello Joe and welcome to our family, congrats on deciding on a grey. I hope you have researched it thoroughly so you know what you are getting yourself into for this is a lifetime committment and greys live long lives. This bird will require a lot of your time so be sure you can provide what this bird needs, food, cage, toys, vet bills and a large part of your day. They thrive on human companionship and do not do well when left to themselves for long periods of time. You will learn a lot from reading thru the threads here as it is filled with firsthand experienced owners and do ask those questions you may have and we will help you in any way we can.

Congrats on taking in these two birds as they needed a home and you are doing the right thing to read thru the threads here as you will learn firsthand about these precious creatures. Greys are very cautious and take to change slowly so take it easy and allow them time to settle in and feel comfortable, this is more so with adult birds that are more set in their ways, you can open the cage and allow Koko to come out on his own and let him set the pace with any interaction he may want from you. Yes the puffing up is an indication he is wary of you but that will subside when he gets settled in, don't push him for more than he is willing to give right now as you want to establish trust with him and a grey's trust has to be earned, this can take weeks, months or longer but it will be worth it. You will find lots of threads of what you can and cannot feed your grey by reading thru the threads in the bird food room, seed is part of their diet but so are vegetables, some fruit, nuts, legumes, grains and some protein sources. He does need some toys to occupy his mind especially when no one is home and you will find lots of suggestions in the playstands and toys room or browse thru the online sites for lots of ideas. He looks like he was well taken care of, a handsome fella, thanks for including it in with your first post.

My grey and in fact all my fids stay quiet until I uncover them in the morning and that is usually early like 6:30 or so on weekdays but later on the weekends so I have no problem with them vocalizing before I am ready to get up. That is funny that your grey wakes you up with "here kitty kitty kitty at the same time every morning, Rocky is quite a character.

Congrats on deciding to go ahead with your wish of adding a grey to your family and glad to hear you have given it much thought before you made that decision for this should be a forever home and greys live very long lives. That cage is fine and you can go with a slightly smaller cage if space is limited, lots of us have the playtop cages so they have an area to entertain themselves when they are out of the cage. I would stay away from corner cages as they are limited to being placed in corners and that may not be where you would like it placed all the time and go with powder coated or stainless steel. When you bring your grey home put him in the cage and let him get used to it, leave the door open and let him come out on his own, don't put your hand inside the cage to get him as some greys can become territorial about their cages and don't like hands invading their space. Talk to him and tell him what is going on and what you are doing and he will come out when he is ready, when the family is around and having a conversation he will eventually want to join in and let him decide when he is ready to interact with you. A grey can be taught to poop in special places and some do not like to do it in their cages, this is something you can work on after you get him home but it will take a while and there will be accidents from time to time.

I have 3 fids and it is a job just to keep up with all the little feathers everywhere but it is something we bird lovers learn to put up with or learn how to deal with them, vacuuming them up seems to be the best way and one of those little handheld dustbusters comes in handy for just that.

It sounds like Hawkins is a well adjusted fella and doing fine, its great that you could stop by and update us on him and we look forward to hearing a lot more about him if you would indulge us more often.

My grey will sometimes whistle a tune but we haven't figured out what it is yet but I doubt it is the Andy Griffiths show as we seldom watch it but that is cute, maybe she can get a video of it sometime.

I am so sorry to hear this Andrew and it will be very hard on you to have to give up Chloe and Dexter but your health comes first and if this is what your doctor says you must do then you must, I do hope you find good homes for the both of them.

Hawkins has grown into a handsome little fella, you can really see the difference from the pic of him in your avatar, thanks for sharing them with us.

He is a handsome fella from the pictures you shared and that is not much of a place he has plucked, maybe being in a new environment he will stop but only time will tell, if I were you I wouldn't clip his wings any longer, allow them to grow out and let him fly. Yes if he is molting he is itchy and frequent baths will help with that, you can also use aloe vera juice to mist him, it is soothing to his skin and will help moisturize the skin. They all will shake or twitch their head from time to time, sometimes it just serves the purpose of realigning some feathers or an errant feather on the head or close to the cere will cause them to do that.

Congrats on your addition of Aristotle, even though he may not be as tame as you would like I am sure he will warm up to you in time, just be patient with him and let him set the pace of when he allows any touching or interaction. I am a little upset that they had his wings clipped, had they been keeping them clipped or was this a one time thing? They should never have done that and I hope he doesn't continue to pluck or has the bird been plucking all along and they clipped the wings to give you an excuse for the plucking. Hmm, makes me wonder just what is going on here, hope you can get to the bottom of it.

Congrats on bringing home Pancho and you know what is next, pictures please.

Jill is right, humans have no control over the dilation of their eyes, it is strictly a response to the amount of light entering the eye, parrots on the other hand have control over the dilation of their eyes and you will see them rapidly changing in response to the way they feel at that particular time, pinning of the eyes is when they stay small and that is usually right before a bite is imminent.

Barbara, I think you are going to find there was nothing you could have done to prevent what happened to Neo, even if you had been home at the time you would still have lost him, he may have had some physical defect that didn't have any warning signs so don't beat yourself up over what you can't control, he knew he was loved even in the short time he lived but now he is free and flying over the Rainbow Bridge, he will not be forgotten.

I am so sorry you lost your grey but I feared the worst when you first posted but there was nothing we could do to help, I think there must be a virus or something going around your area and I would be very cautious about getting another one until more research is done.

My grey will take a bath in her water dish just about every day but they should be bathed or misted about 2 to 3 times a week, never use a blow dryer on them, allow them to dry naturally and bathe them early enough in the day so they do dry completely before they retire for the night. Greys have a preen gland at the base of their tail that they distribute oil over the feathers, hence you will see water running off their backs but daily bathing will not wash that away.

Its kind of hard to tell from that picture, if you could post one that shows the beak in profile then we can see it better but if you have concerns that the beak is too long then do consult your avian vet for they are the only ones who should do any trimming if its necessary.

You must be so happy and relieved to have Jimpster back, you are so lucky to have him back safe and sound.

You are very lucky to get Jimpster back, so glad he was found.

You have that little baby spoiled rotten and he isn't even home yet, how sweet he sounds and taken with you already, makes it harder to wait for his homecoming doesn't it.

Barbara, I am so sorry to hear of this sad news, you must be devastated but I imagine that the necropsy will reveal there was nothing you could have done to prevent it, these things happen sometimes and take some comfort from the fact that Neo had a loving home for his short life. Please accept my condolenses on your loss.