zandische

Hi guys! I am a little concerned about how much Vitamin A Athena is getting. She doesn't really like brocolli or carrots, and won't eat them unless I feed her from my mouth (which I'd rather not do except every once in a while.) I've tried mashing them up, cooking them until they're soft, making a pulse out of them, and even shredding them - but she won't have any of it. So do you think with the diet below that she gets enough Vitamin A in everything to make up for it? Breakfast: A piece of fruit (peaches, raspberries, strawberries, cantaloupe, pomegranite or whatever else is available) Warmed, soaked pellets In the bowl during the day: 1/2 cup of seed mix, almonds and pine nuts, 2-3 nutriberries Dinner: Frozen veggie mix mixed with Oatmeal and shaved cuttlebone (veggies are usually a mix of peas, corn, peppers, carrots and brocolli with garbanzo beans, kidney beans, black beans and small white beans - she throws out the carrots and brocolli and eats everything else) Another piece of fruit Basically it's a breakdown of 1/3 seed, 1/3 pellets and 1/3 fruits and veggies.

My Athena is a dna'd female and she is definitely bonded to me (a woman.) She will let my husband hold her and loves to give him kisses, but when it comes to Momma, there is no substitute. In fact, I wasn't even considering a grey until she picked me at the local bird show by leaping into my arms the first time we met. Proof positive of love at first sight =) (That is not to say she won't switch loyalties later on when she matures, but I'm hoping that through regular socialization we will help prevent or curb the switch.)

Makena - your pic had me laughing so hard! That's such a great shot and that is just the look Athena gives me too! Judy - yes, she is a wonderful little bird who has changed my life. I feel privileged that she picked me for her person

Makena - Athena does the same thing! It is so cute. If she is in her cage she will go to the bottom and roll over on her back to get our attention. She pumps her little legs in the air and it looks just like someone doing the "bicycle." Of course we have laughed every time she does it, so now she knows it's a sure fire way to get our attention if she wants to be let out. As far as teaching her lie on her back, she decided to do that on her own. She started with the bicycle trick, then started doing it on her big perch about 18" above the cage floor. She is more conure than grey in that respect though - she isn't terribly dexterous on two feet, but she is a wonderful little acrobat. One day I was holding her and stroking her back and she just flipped upside down on her own and laid back in my hand! She of course thought it was a terribly funny surprise for momma and couldn't get enough of my excited kisses and beak rubs. She does it all the time now. She thinks it's a game. If she flips upside down, momma gets really excited and gives her lots of kisses. I have figured out it is one of her ways of saying "I want your attention," instead of just taking her for granted. She likes to hang upside down and also lay back in my hand. She even let me carry her around the house on her back the other day. And the other night she met our neighbor for the first time and had to show off by flipping over for him. Of course, there is a lot of trust between us so I would make sure if you try this with your grey that you do it in slow steps that don't scare her. The worst thing you can do is try to force her to learn a trick that breaks that bond. In my case, rather than flip her over without her consent, I would put her on the floor with me and roll over on my back to simulate how it was done. Every time I did it I would say "Roll Over!" and laugh myself silly to generate her excitement. Then I would give her lots of kisses. They are smart birds - they will figure out what you want them to do if you are patient and understanding! (And conversely, you should be willing to accept that they may just decide they don't want to learn your trick!)

Hi Beccy...Athena was a little picky at first too but I just kept putting the vegetables in her bowl. I also eat them in front of her, and make all kinds of noises about how good they are, which will usually get her curious enough to take a bite. Most of the time she realizes she likes the food after one bite. The trick that has worked the best with her - I put a piece of food in my mouth (like a celery stick) and she will go nuts tearing into the end of it. She loves it when I feed her birdy style. She will eat anything that way, even her hated foods like brocolli!

Thank you lovemyGreys! My fireplace does have a flue and we always burn it with the flue completely open (part of the reason the heat isn't very efficient) but I don't think it has a catalytic converter. I think maybe the carbon monoxide detector is a good idea...I just didn't want to inadvertently put bad fumes in the air.

Now that the weather is turning...a new worry has begun to cross my mind. Do any of you have a gas fireplace that you run with your greys in the house? We typically don't run the fireplace because gas is so expensive (and it doesn't put out much heat anyway, so it's mostly just for show) but sometimes we do like to curl up in front of the fire and relax. Considering how sensitive parrots are to fumes/smells/vapors, do any of you have experience with gas fireplaces and your birds and do you have any information to share? Athena's cage is in the living room, about 20 feet from the fireplace. We always vent the air up the chimney, but I'm still worried about taking the chance.

Athena "blushes" all the time. I think it's just when she gets excited, active or very happy, all of which seem to cause an increase in her body temperature. There is definitely a relation (at least in her) to body temperature and the pink color, though sometimes I have no idea why she's heating up. So maybe when she's pink for no apparent reason, she's just happy her momma is close by ;-)

Just to add in my exp - Athena is almost 7 months and has been shedding 3-10 downy feathers a day since I brought her home. There are some days I only see a couple of downy feathers floating around, but lately it has increased quite a bit. She also lost 4 contour feathers from her belly/legs area (the ones that are tinged with the red coloring that goes away in adulthood.) She's healthy, no bald spots, maintaining weight, eating heartily (for only 384 grams, this bird eats like she's twice that size...) and performing her acrobatics like mad - and since she always has pinfeathers, I suspect she's just molting. As for molting times, everything I've read suggests its a) in relation to the bird's age and b) generally within a specific timeframe - like every 8-12 months. Given that broad range, I'd expect Athena to be going through her first molt between late Oct and Feb, but of course the range might be larger or smaller depending on the bird. So a bird born in July/August might molt in early spring or summer. Anyway, that just seems to be the consensus in what I've picked up on my own research. Just like anything with birds though, there doesn't seem to be one "set way" for anything! They're all going to do their own thing regardless!

I talked to the vet today and she agreed - she says the sweetener may be linked to cancer and has been thought to cause kidney problems over time. No more for my little t-rex!

Hi folks! Ok, so Athena LOVES Crystal light. She got in my glass of Ruby Red Grapefruit the other day and ever since, if she sees me pour a glass of juice she goes for it! Does anyone know if this is bad for her? The only things I can think of that might be bad are the Aspartame and citric acid. What do you guys think?

Hi Silver, Not sure how easily it will work with an older bird, but with my baby grey we have been saying "Be Careful!" whenever she does something we don't want her to do. One of the things we resolved not to do was let her get on our shoulder. So what we do when she tries to get up on our shoulder is say "be careful" in a calm but firm tone. She knows that phrase means for her to behave, so if she pushes her luck I'll put my hand up and block her path, while saying "be careful" until she obeys. (Then she gets praise.) I don't ever physically force her down; instead, I allow her to realize that I am in charge and she simply isn't going to be allowed to do what she wants to do. Sometimes she's just plain stubborn though, and even though she's just a baby and doesn't bite, an obstinate bird can still be a pain in the feathered tail. So that's when she gets a cage time out. That usually only lasts a couple of minutes, which is plenty long enough for her to realize she's not behaving. EVERY time we've let her out of her cage after a time out session she's responded with warmth and affection, as if she's trying to say, "I'm sorry mom!" So my recommendation is to choose a common phrase (maybe you even have one already) that you can use consistently to let the bird know the difference between good behavior and unwanted behavior. Reward your bird (I don't use treats but many people do) every time he obeys. And though it may sound a bit silly, you might actually talk to your bird and let him know that shoulders are no longer ok to perch on. Point to your shoulder several times and give him the phrase. Then the next time he tries to get up there, give him the phrase and either block him, reposition him, or put him down. And of course if he resorts to biting you, immediately put him down or give him a time out. Just remember to be consistent, even through the stubborn times. Hope that helps! <br><br>Post edited by: zandische, at: 2007/06/30 08:49

Anyone ever give garlic cloves to your grey?

I also forgot to add that Athena also eats from our plates. She just gets a little food and we've been trying to teach her to eat on her own plate, but at least she's sharing mealtime with us. She went nuts this past weekend over a piece of pepperoni! (a small one, mind you!)

Athena is 16 weeks and I try to change out her foods every day with something new/different. Here is what we try: Morning: 10-20 cc's of hand feeding formula Seed/pellet mix Fresh water Evening: A couple of fruits: tangerines, strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, kiwi, mangos, oranges, banannas (she really likes the sweeter fruits.) A couple of fresh veggies: Kale, Chard, cucumber, broccoli, asparagus, mung bean sprouts, carrots, tomatoes fresh water She isn't really interested in "treats" per se but she definitely has some favorite foods, so sometimes I give her those separately as "munchies." She especially likes strawberries, asparagus and sprouts. I think she would eat them every day if she could!

Hi Beccy and everyone, My baby, Athena, is 3 1/2 mos old an and just came home a few days ago. She is quite a talker! She gets very excited in the morning and evening when we get up/come home, flapping about in her cage and making little "barking" noises. We've been encouraging this, as she seems to be genuinely happy and excited to see us and we think this is how she's expressing her happiness. We'll even join in by raising our voices dramatically with lots of "hi's" and "hellos!" and "missed yous!" to match her emotion. It's also at this time that she gets lots of kisses and scritches and general fuss made about her. During feeding she does a lot of "babbling." She'll squeak, bark, chirp and gurgle. It doesn't seem to be from excitement, so I think this is just her way of communicating with her "flock" during what would be a normal socializing time in the wild. She talks a good deal more if we talk back to her or chirp/squeak along with her. As for biting our fingers, it's more like "beaking" because she's not really trying to bite us, she's trying to taste our fingers to see if we have any good stuff to eat. Sometimes she beaks a little harder than others but I don't think she means to, I think she's just excited. We've been discouraging this behavior by saying "Be careful" in a warning voice while making eye contact. She wasn't really getting this concept until the other day when she tried to climb on something that was really slippery (the chrome water faucet) and I knew she would fall if she tried to balance on it. So as she was slipping and sliding I said "Be careful!" several times over and finally she stepped back, cocked her head at me, and then abruptly stopped trying to get up on that slippery perch. Now when I tell her to be careful she will hesitate, and I think she realizes I am warning her about something scary. Athena is not super clingy but she does prefer to be in the same room as we are. If she feels the need to be with us she will fly to where we are at. At first she would try to land on our heads too and I think that was just because they were the largest, easiest landing surface. So we started putting our hands up in the air and moving to position ourselves so she could land comfortably on the hand. Now when she flies to us she is very good at looking for the hand rather than our head and will land on the hand almost every time. By the way, she gets lots and lots of praise when she lands on the hand! Although it's not always convenient to stop what we're doing so she can fly to us, I think it helps strengthen her confidence and trust in us so she doesn't feel the need to be quite so clingy. We also bought a short table-top perch that we carry from room to room and she has learned to fly to the perch as well. As long as she can be nearby that's really all that's important to her. We don't really carry her around in the house except at feeding time; we will just hold up our hand for her to fly to and let her choose if she wants to come with us or not. Oh, and btw, we don't use food rewards either. *I* find it much more rewarding (and I think she does too!) to shower her with tons of kisses and happy words. I'm super-new to being a grey momma but hopefully my experiences can be of some use to you too!

Hi again guys! I visited my baby at the breeder's today. She's super sweet, and has already been flying about, but she's extremely clumsy when she's down on the ground. She doesn't seem to know what her feet are for! She doesn't like to perch, and if you set her on a perch she will slowly climb/flop her way down until she's sitting on a flat surface. Sometimes she holds her feet up and looks at them as if she isn't sure what she's supposed to do with them. And if I pick her up on my fingers, she wobbles so bad I worry she'll fall off. Now, she WILL perch if she has to (if I set her on the flat bottom of a playstand, she will come to the very edge of the stand tray and perch on the edge, waiting for me to come pick her back up) but if I try to hold her on my fingers or arm she has a fit. Again, even in these instances she's very wobbly. She doesn't like high places (except my shoulder, of course) and prefers to snuggle in a hand or the crook of your arm. She's three months old as of today. Has anyone experienced this in their baby and/or would you say this is normal clumsy behavior that will go away as she matures and gains more confidence, or something that should be looked at by a vet?

Thanks guys for all your comments! So basically, I should stop trying to be neurotic about it and just be flexible. It makes sense after all, since all the info I'm reading says to give greys lots of variety! She is just a baby still and of course, very easy-going.

Thank you, Beccy! I appreciate your advice! I guess it makes sense that she'll develop her own individual routine. Thanks again.

Hello, I am a new grey owner and I apologize in advance, but I know this is going to be a very newbie question. My grey won't be coming home with me for a few weeks yet and one of the biggest questions I have been wondering about is how to set up her schedule properly. From what I've read, Grey's need at least 10 hours of sleep each night. If she goes to bed around 8, that means she'll be waking up around 6. This works out ok for MY schedule, giving me about an hour in the morning to prepare her food and give her attention, but since I don't get home until around 6 that only gives me 2 hours in the evening to be with her, and I'd really like more time. How do you working folks handle this? Do you let your grey "stay up" and then wake her up before work for breakfast and some head scratches, with the expectation that she'll catch some winks while you're gone? What about feeding her unspoilable food (seed/pellets) for her morning meal without really disturbing her, so she can eat when she wakes up? Or do you think it would be better to give her a full 10 hours of sleep and just enjoy what time you get to have together, even if it's only a few hours? Thanks for your advice!