Grey2Day

Thank you! It has been quite the experience, as I am sure you must know.

Hello! Just coming back to this page for an update on Keto and Gracie. I was finishing my masters when we added all these birds, and so had no time for message boards! But I see that we are coming up on 5 years with them, so I will let you know how things are going. It was so funny to read the above when we had first gotten them, because very little of their respective personalities has changed. It took them about a year before we could count on them not biting us (actually 5 years for Keto and I, since it was only recently that I could carry him from cage to perch without the Gauntlet of Good (a thick dish towel wrapped to protect my hand and arm)). He adores my husband, and Gracie adores me, so I guess we are all good there. Gracie has turned into a shameless snuggler but only in the evening (head-rubbing time). There is always a risk of being nipped in the morning! It has been FOREVER since anyone broke skin. Keto is the talker, and says the most amazing things. He has always had his "with us" vocabulary, and you can hear him muttering other things when we are out of the room, but could never quite make out the words. About a year ago he really stepped up his game. He says things that appropriate to the situation, sometimes things we have never heard him say before. He plays the "come here" game where he makes the request and I pop into the room and go out again, rinse, repeat a few times. One day I was running late and told him I didn't have time today and he said a long drawn-out "Oh no...." with perfectly sad inflection. He went through a short period where he said "F*ck you" several times, and when i called over to him "Not that one, Keto, that isn't very nice" he replied "Oh yeah?" and said it one more time, after which he was ignored for the rest of the day and never said it again. It is clear that he understands everything we say, sometimes knows the right response, and has a large enough (hidden) vocabulary to keep surprising us. He has said "Oh no" with different inflections, always appropriate to the situation. Gracie continues to be the whistler. We have shared with her Westminster and Bach, among others. She had repeated parts of the chimes, but is more often her own composer, sometime stringing together a good number of notes, which she can then repeat. Great fun! The "beaking" happens whenever we let it, always with either cage bars between them, or a thumb securely hanging on to feet. The outcome is always identical to when the first came. They both get involved, Gracie gets too aggressive, Keto hates it, and we pull them apart quick. It is clear that they love each other, and they each get a little nervous when the other one is out of the room. All in all, things have gone well. They are an endless source of entertainment, despite their demands. And parakeet Birdy is still rounding out our flock.

Thank you very much for your input. We are new to birds in general, let alone greys, and we need all the help we can get! LOL You are absolutely right that they often drop food while they are chewing. I had never noticed that before, but now I will be cutting them up. I'll also stick to fresh or frozen veggies. I bought no added salt beans, but didn't think about the preservatives. As for pellets vs. seed--I can't seem to find a consensus on this one. Many people say pellets are mandatory and must be 80% of the diet. Others say no, and when I look up wild grey diet it says that they eat a lot of seeds! So to know the right thing to do on this one has been tough. I just keep listening to all the arguments for and against and hope I do the right thing.

I know that birds are messy animals, and that they throw a lot of their food on the ground, but just how much food should I be throwing away every day? When I got Keto and Gracie they were sent with an unmarked bag of seed mix that they had been eating. They seem to throw at least half of it on the floor, and stop eating out of the dish at some point where I discard half a dish of what looks like good food and give them fresh, which they dive into. They finish any fruit I give them, but when I give them a canned green bean, Gracie eats about a quarter inch of it and drops the rest. Same for anything else I give. I leave the pellets (which I have been mixing in) as long as I am comfortable with (everything gets pulled out daily). I feel like I am throwing away more that 3/4 of everything I give them. Is this normal (and something I should budget for) or are there better ways?

Gracie has taken to warm oatmeal quite nicely. In fact, last night I had to resort to heating some up to get her back into her cage. Keto turns his nose up at almost every vegetable or grain I offer. He takes a few pellets, and loves his seedies and the nut I give him every day, but I cannot get him to take most other foodstuffs. Neither likes cooked sweet potato, but Gracie will eat raw strips of it (which Keto will play with, if not eat.

Brat Birds, I wasn't thinking about punishing them, just to make them stop fighting for a second so we can split them up. It works to throw a pan of water on two fighting dogs or cats, so I thought the "shock" diversion might work here. So far since we moved their cages further apart we haven't seen this happen again. Timbersmom, are you telling me they CAN break the skin? LOL. My sister took an Amazon from this man a few months before I took the greys, and my introduction to Juanita included enough blood to run down my arm! That experience did make me a little gun-shy around Keto and Gracie. but now that they have each bitten me several times I was beginning to think that their smaller size rendered them less able to do damage. Their bites are quick (Gracie once got me while I was scratching her neck at her invitation) but really don't usually sting much. And you are saying that they are holding back? Maybe they DO like us after all!

Hi all, just an update on Keto and Gracie. They have bitten us several times (lol) but they have also stepped up and accepted scratches at times. They also don't want to be off their cages at all. They come out and climb on top, but if we try to carry them away from the cage, they hop right back on. We were able to find out from the ex-wife about that beaking behavior. She says she was told that is a mating thing they do, but that Gracie sometimes gets carried away and all of a sudden starts fighting. Anyway you look at it, we will always have to supervise these two when they are out together (moving the cages a little further apart helped). And keep a spray bottle handy, just in case, I guess. Settling in is slow, with a lot of steps back for every advancement we make. No bites have broken the skin, though, so I guess they haven't been THAT mad at us! Gracie seems to eat just about everything I give her (she loves warm oatmeal!) but Keto turns his nose up at everything. At least he seems to be taking some pellets (something I was tole he would never do). Really, he just wants me to hand him nuts all day!

No, I don't think that it is a sandpaper perch, I know those are bad. I checked and I think that it is a calcium perch. Again, I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing.

murfchck, they weren't striking at each other. It was more like the beak pulling that you describe. As for the flock call, Gracie makes all sorts of beeps and whistles, so I always whistle to her when I am in other parts of the house. I already had a particular whistle that I used for the budgie (Birdy), and Gracie picked that one up right away. She uses it when she wants to see me. katana, there was indeed a yellow headed amazon in the house as well. After the gentleman's wife left, he was downsizing his flock (his health already was unwell) and had given my sister the amazon (who had liked her when she visited). He had intended to keep his two greys. I am not quite sure how well these birds had been cared for the past few years (or ever, really. I don't like their perch situation!) They had been on a seed diet and some of their feathers are curled on the tips (malnutrition, i think?) Pellets have now been added, and Keto has taken to them fairly well (he is at about a 50% mix and eats all of the pellets now). Gracie is being more resistant, but I am increasing the ratio every day or two, and I believe that she is eating some of them now. I am learning which vegetables they will eat, although they aren't really gung-ho yet like they are with fruits and nuts. Also, the perches. They had a wooden branch perch that ran the width of the cage, and a therapy perch higher up that that they seemed to spend most of their time on. The diameter is too big (although they have room to flap they can't really hang on) and I believe that therapy perches in general are bad?? Maybe you can help me with that one. I have added a smaller rope perch, which they love, and spend so much time there that I feel comfortable moving (or removing) their former favorite perch (the therapy one). I have read several different things about perches, so I don't know yet which way to go with that. I should add that I never had birds until the budgie we got two months before this happened, and my husband's last bird was a budgie he had as a child. How strange that we got the itch to get a bird so shortly before we found ourselves with a whole flock! Anyway, our ignorance is profound and I am most thankful for any help we receive along the way. P.S. Gracie came out today without incident and explored the whole "aviary" (our former living room, lol). She enjoyed going back in her cage, though!

Thanks for all you suggestions. I will try them one at a time a few more times before I go to the neutral zone. This is just so new for all of us! But about that behavior....Does anyone know if that was an aggression display, or maybe something else (request for regurgitation?) I know that Gracie was making these little chirping sounds while she was doing it. She didn't do the thing with the wings that baby birds do when they are chasing Mom for another handout, but the chirp sounded sort of like the one baby sparrows make in the yard when they are being weaned. Again, I have been having trouble finding information about parrot behavior with each other and am hoping that a multiple-bird owner here can help.

Thanks for your suggestions. I think that I will only try one out at a time for a while, and see how things go. Unfortunately I do not have the contact number for the ex, and my sister says that she has been neglecting her calls (the split was recent and the ex wife knows my sister is critical with her over the circumstances). The man who owned them has been in a coma, so I have been unable to get more information from him. Today my sister heard that he is doing better, but not yet speaking. Any way you look at it, I will keep the birds safe as long as needed, and I hope to find out more about them in the future. Gracie likes blueberries, Keto is partial to apples, and neither one accepts pellets (although we are fixing that). My sister took an Amazon in this distressed time for the birds, and I have to say that I am certain I have the better arrangement! No screeching, and no bites yet, either. LOL I will very happily return them to their home if and when he is able to take them, but until then (which might be never) I will be savoring every moment of this adventure.

My husband and I recently re-homed two mature Timnehs when their owner suffered a second stroke and his recovery became uncertain. While he was getting therapy after his first stroke (staying with an out-of-state relative) his ex-wife had been coming in to feed the birds (for about a month). When he took a turn for the worse his ex-wife (a friend of my sister's) was going to get rid of them, so I offered to keep them in case he recovers and is able to go back to his home. I know how awful it would be for me if I lost my animals because of illness. I also realize that may not happen, and we might have these beauties for a long time. My only bird experience is with a budgie we currently have. Keto is a male, about ten years old, and I was told that he is a good talker, likes boys, and is a little mean and bites, although he seems to get along with my husband just fine. Gracie is 15 and I am told that she mostly whistles and has a preference for girls. We went and got them about five days ago and until today had not let them out of their cages. We wanted to let them get comfortable and learn to trust us. They are quite friendly, seem attention starved, and have stepped up on both of us on command (while still in the cage). They have also let us both scratch them on the neck regularly. So today we let them both out. Keto stepped up on my husband, who put him on top of the cage. So far, so good. Then Gracie wanted out, so I brought her out, too. She climbed from her cage onto Keto's, and then they started "beaking" each other. At first it looked like they were kissing or greeting each other, but after a minute or two it didn't stop. Keto started to look like he didn't like it and flew off down to the floor. We got them both back into their cages without incident (or any bites!), but now I don't know if I should let them out together or not. Does anybody know the type of behavior I was seeing? I searched the internet for this type of parrot behavior, but all I can find is information on how they are with people, not each other. I just want to know if they are safe being out together. They have apparently lived together for Keto's entire 10 years. Thank you for this forum. It was very helpful in helping us decide that we could take on these wonderful birds.