afenismom

Parents to Afeni (our grey) and Phoenix (our SI Eclectus)

Our poor birds...i swear we don't always do this! LOL It's just so cute...she LOVES that necklace so we let her wear it sometimes!

SO...Afeni didn't actually do this herself...we did it to her. We've been desperate to get her to stop plucking so one night we put a t-shirt on her. She hated it and we had to take it off of her, but not before we got a picture! This picture makes me laugh. Enjoy!

Exactly when should grey's start to talk? I hear and read that it's mostly after a year... How early did your greys start to talk? And what are the best ways to teach them words? Simply talking to them and repeating words? Afeni is 8 months and she doesn't talk at all. She mumbles in a robotic voice and she makes a ton of different sounds and whistles. She was saying Hi in a really sweet voice at one point but she stopped saying it. Thanks everyone!

Wow my grey Afeni LOVES showers. She has a shower pirch also but i hold her on my hand and put her directly under the running water and she loves it! She even sticks her face in it. Both my grey and eclectus like showers.

ZoesDad Thanks so much for your help. I don't know too much about the breeder of which Afeni came from. The pet shop didn't give us much information, although we did ask. We had been looking for a baby African Grey and the pet shop called us the day she came in and we were there that night. We went to see her just about everyday after that until the time we got to take her home (about 3 weeks later). She was around other birds at the pet shop and was also handled by the staff there. She was spoiled from the second we met her! Her "human of choice" would be by boyfriend. She was a gift from me to him and he is her favorite person. He spends A TON of time with her, even taking her with him when he's out running errands. Afeni first started plucking when she was alone, but we noticed her plucking a few feathers out the other night when we were in the room with her. The vet says if she wanted to she could pluck her entire chest out in 20 minutes, so we're glad it's not that bad. I think i am going to try to put their cages next to each other, and try the few little tricks you mentioned. I'll let you know how it goes. THANKS!!

Picture of Afeni taken last night.

We actually got afeni from a pet store. (this was before we learned about the breeders in our area) Our eclectus, Phoenix, was purchased from a breeder. They actually do spend a lot of time around each other. We tried to introduce them to each other as soon as we brought Phoenix home. We take them outside and let them walk around together, we also let them walk around the house together. But when we put them on the same pirch Afeni gets aggressive with Phoenix. It also seems like they try to communicate with each other. Afeni will whistle, them Phoenix will whistle and that'll go on for a while sometimes. If we're home, our birds are almost always out of their cages or being played with. Our attention towards Afeni has not decreased. And Afeni's cage is in our room so she's around us a little more that Phoenix, whose cage is downstairs in the family room. Would it be better to put their cages next to each other in the same room? If the plucking is due to jealous, what can i do to help that? Thanks to everyone who responded!!

We've had her since december. Her cage has been in the same spot since we first brought her home. We started adding a little bit of roudybush to her food and thought maybe that was why so we stopped the very next day but she tried to pluck a few feathers out again last night. Her wings have also been clipped since before we brought her home, not too much though, she can still fly. She plucked a small area on the left side of her upper chest. That small area is now bald. I've attached a picture but that was about an hour after she started, she isn't bald yet in that picture. She's our first bird. So we aren't completely familiar with everything but try to read as much as we can. We also own a Solomon Island Eclectus which we just got last month. We thought maybe she could be jealous? But we keep them in seperate rooms and seperate cages, and still give Afeni as much attention as before. We talked to the breeder who we got her from and he also told us not to pay too much attention to it, but it's hard. Especially when we actually see her do it. I really appreciate your reply and would appreciate any other information.

Hi. I have an 8 month old grey named Afeni and she started plucking her chest feathers out this past saturday night. We took her to the vet monday morning and had her tested, all the tests came back negative. She's very healthy and VERY spoiled. Has anyone else had this problem?? We're worried we wont find out what the problem is before she plucks out more of her feathers. Any suggestions are GREATLY appreciated. THANKS!!