hveusnthbrige

Yes Beccy I cover him up at night. For right now he's got a night light too so we won't have any nightfrights. You guys were right, he's a pro climber already lol. My Mom came to visit him while I was at work and he climbed up to the top grate and hung from it using his beak. But of course he managed to find his way back down just fine. It's tempting to help him in times of distress but he needs to learn and experiment and making mistakes is part of it. He loves making cute little baby noises. Quiet little Ahh!'s and Eee's and lots of gargling sounds. Right now he's eating dinner since I woke him upon arriving home from work. For a 10 week old he sure does put that food away easily on his own. He looks happier than a pig in.. mud.:lol:

Nah its fine, I've had 2 tiels in my room for 4 months now. Plus I'm allergic to nothing. I just got home from being at my friends house and being very stealth quiet.. he's fast asleep and speaking of sleep I might join him. He'll get lots of misting and bathes whether he likes it or not! lol They come from a rain forest after all.

lol Beccy. His cage is in my bedroom too! He'll prolly take like 10 years off my life with his feather dust...

Ok here's some pictures. I had to dummy up his cage as the breeder instructed. He will perch on his own but he cant be trusted quite yet. He spent some time playing with toys and eating.. and he spent a couple minutes hanging from the top of the cage.. with my hands underneath of him during the climbing lol. Now hes getting sleepy and the foot is going up. It was actually difficult to get him to go into the cage and stay there, he just kept wanting to come out and play with me. Fortunately there's no quarantine period away from tiels. They have already met him while at the breeder for grooming visits. They are quite cautious of Mirek and want nothing to do with him. Yet they have witnessed him sitting on my bed flapping his wings all crazy and energetically so they're both prolly pretty put off by his size and power. He's 10 weeks old now. Far younger then I would have thought a Grey could come home at, yet looking at him as I write this, it's obvious he's perfectly content with his back to me preening himself happily. As for the weight of 481g, I'll weigh him a few more times at various times throughout the day. I expect he will loose a little weight as he is getting accustomed to his new home and beginning to realize his clutch mates are not with him any longer.

Today the breeder told me if I wanted I could take him home today. He hasn't been handfed for 2 weeks so he's nicely weaned. I'll post some pictures shortly. He's sitting on my bed right now eating happily. He weighs 481 grams. I'm just so excited!:lol:

CD you're a big softie!:blush:

Ah Dan, your baby hatched nearly the same time as mine. I have no hatch certificate as my breeder refuses to even approach the cage until they have been hearing baby noises for 2-3 weeks but my approximate hatch date is May 1st. It's very trusting of your breeder to let you take him home. I bet you're just thrilled to have him coming home shortly for little visits. Looks like Dayo is doing fantastic. He's got all his feathers mostly figured out seems like. Mirek is still growing in his feathers a little at a time. Hopefully I can report on his weight so we could compare our Cameroons. I'm going to visit Mirek tomorrow but don't plan on taking any pictures until Wednesday. He's 1.5 weeks from coming home. Cage is set up already. Everything preped! I hope this Grey is worth it, I dumped a girlfriend for the sake of getting this bird haha.

I'm with Dan.. still at the Breeders lol! My friend has a Grey that's 13 years old though.

My breeder offers a 7 day vet check up warranty. Actually 'warranty' is such a inanimate word. Guarantee is better. If the bird dies on the 8th day home, $1,700 goes with him. That's a risk with buying livestock. You assume responsibility upon taking the task of caring for the animal into your own hands. Also a very good idea to read several books about Greys, avian behaviour, avian training, avain diet and basic info concerning similar behaviour species such as Cockatoos, Amazons or Macaws.

Hahaha Richardsmommy! You know it! I loved that show. It's time for another Good idea/Bad idea! Good Idea: Whistle while you work. Bad Idea: Whistle while you eat.

I feel the need to reach the level of genius.. I want to excel and having sound, solid debates is the way to do it! Sorry to those who enjoy cute, silly conversations.. I'm a big fan of getting dirty and poking the controversial stuff. :evil: =========================================== Oh Edit!: I was going to share my advice I gave a friend on dealing with her brothers' Blue & Gold. Stewie has a gender preference toward males because women typically fail his "lunge test". Jen visits her brothers house every few months. Stewie is a very sweet bird when in the company of his Daddy and never bites him or causes any trouble. For those that don't know of the Macaw lunge test, it's where the parrot waits for you to come a little closer then holds its wings out a tad and fluffs out all its feathers and abruptly jerks its body at you to see your reaction. If you jump back away from it, it knows it's above you in the hierarchy. If you stay still and dont even blink, it knows not to mess with you. Anyway, Jen failed the lunge test on many occasions in the past. Stewie had zero respect for her and would hiss and bite and lunge at her all the time. Well one day she had to care for him so she msn'd me asking what she could do when he had to be picked up and moved as Stewie has no cage an has free reign of their house. First I told her you need to speak it's language.. lunge back! So she walked over, stood in front of Stewie and then lunged forward at him pointing her finger at him and warned him in a nasty voice some idle threats. To her suprise, he responded to her lunge by leaning back and cowering down. Next I told her, you need to speak in a military voice and demand and a step up in a way that makes the parrot think if he doesnt do it, he will never see Daddy ever again. So she issued the step up command from a distance to begin and then put her arm up to him and demanded him to step up. Stewie got on her arm without one slice of hesitation and waited calmly for his next instruction just as he's trained. Shortly after they sat on the couch together and Stewie was throwing out all his words at Jen in every effort to impress her. All she had to do was be the boss.<br><br>Post edited by: hveusnthbrige, at: 2007/07/07 04:42

Yes I agree, dblhelix knows how to have an intelligent debate on a touchy subject. I am enjoying the ideas so far people are providing, its a good topic that anyone can improve on and refine constantly. I had forgotten to mention the wobble "earthquake" trick for when a bite occurs to distract the bird by making it unbalanced. This method did not work with my male tiel though; he absolutely hated it and would bite again almost immediately. That's when I tried ignoring him after he bit me but then he figured out that biting got me to put him back in his cage so his signal to put me away was bite me. Then I tried laddering and bam! problem solved almost immediately. I thought about it today while at work and tried to dissolve behaviours down to the core cause. I came up with the bird is trying to convey its message to you! Well obviously! Looking through his eyes and um, standing on his perch..?? I think of the parrots vocabulary, his repertoire of body language and his current request. -"How can I use those 2 communication methods to tell Daddy that I want to be left alone and have a nap. Hmm, I know, I'll put my foot up and tuck my head down, if that doesnt work and he comes at me I'll growl at him, and if he tries to pick me up, I'll bite him. I think he should understand that well enough. Seems simple and obvious to me!" So really this is what I think it boils down to is getting that communication across. The same goes for us.. How can I get the bird to understand me? Well if he screams I'll put him back in his cage and ignore him.. but then everytime he wants back in his cage he'll use the commonly understood screaming. The parrot doesnt scream because he's being bad, he thinks screaming means 'put me away'. So instead screaming is fixed with a time out cage, in my mind, this makes me feel like the bird has been appropriately communicated the effects of screaming(could be anything though, screaming is just 1 example used here)

My 1st bird got the name Pinkie because he is one silly bird. Named after a cartoon mouse from the old Animaniacs show from the 90's. Birdy #2 got the name April because she had been DNA sexed as a female. She was also very sweet and affectionate. My Grey had several names line up: Blue(arent they Red if anything?!lol), Seth(a little bit too evil..), Edward/Eddy/Ed(but then he'd be Ed the talking hor.. bird?) and lastly Dex/Dexter. I like the name Dex, I may still use that for bird #4... :whistle: lol, someday. I settled on Mirek because it was simple and easy to pronounce for the bird. I got it from a friend who also owns a Grey. His Grey's name is Cherry. Upon telling some friends at the bird store about Cherry they misunderstood me somehow and thought I had named my Grey Mirek so they started calling him that without me knowing. I arrived for my next visit and they said "I'll go get Mirek for ya, 1 sec.." when he was brought over that time, I looked at him and said, I guess your names Mirek, it's official!

dblhelix, laddering works for a tiel but this is why I began this topic, I have concerns for using it on a Grey. So in effect I'm trying to think of definitive methods to avoid it like you say. Cockatiels seems to 'reset' every morning. If the day or evening before he was being belligerent and got a laddering treatment, he will look at me a little hint of angriness in his eyes. But the next morning... all is well once again. Yet, the behaviours that induced the laddering also returns! So I think I am going to adopt a new method in effort to correct it. I have no doubt in my mind that a Grey will not 'reset' its emotions toward a nasty person. It seems like laddering is a last resort method, or a coarse adjustment in their behaviours. I do know many aviculturalists that use it and they have many fabulously behaved birds that love their owners to pieces. So another method I sometimes used is a Time Out cage in another boring room that just has water in it where he goes for 5-10 minutes. But I no longer have a 2nd cage so I won't be doing this anymore.

Haha Judy, yes its truly amazing how the Greys can portray their emotions with simple body language. It's one thing they need not ever be taught. Even the younglings do it flawlessly as if they've had years of training and experience. Mirek will go from happy playing with a toy to down right terrified in an instant and its deadly obvious. So far my favourite is self defense. I was holding him one day and I picked up a package for a harness to look at, which I bought, and he got up an stuck his head right out at the package and mantled out his wings while growling the most evil sound with nasty beak posture. He tried his best to attack that plastic package but I decided not to stress him out and took it out of his view. Even now I think about him doing that and can hear that growling sound in my mind. I am going to make it a point to stay in this birds good books. lol:laugh:

What your method of punishment for your bird? As birds do not understand negative enforcement its not like a dog that will straighten up with the yank of a choke chain for running around during a leisurely walk. Or a little brat kid that gets a spanking on the arse from Dad for playing with matches. And I know that some people will say punishment is cruel and you should never resort to training this way. Yet all things considered sometimes it comes to this and its nice to have an invasive method of teaching that will not result in a grudge from the Grey or any undue harm. The method that I have come to accept and understand is when the parrot is doing something displeasing that ignoring wont correct, for example it bites your ear while on your shoulder(ignoring works on things like screaming), is: I will quickly initiate doing very fast step ups around waist level at arms length. One step up after the other causing the bird to flap its wings furiously and become rather exhausted from all this work and exercise it's being forced into. If the bird gets tired I will promptly demand for it to comply by emulating a drill sergeant and demanding another step up. Once I see the bird huffin and puffin I'll put it down and then tell it thats what happens when you bite me! This method got my cockatiel to stop biting me in almost 2-3 episodes. I now use it if he bites the other cockatiel. If another person in the house gets bitten then I tell them to give the bird this treatment to show it whos boss. So far my father hasnt done it enough so he still gets a stern hiss from the bird and bitten at times. Pinkie will not dare hiss at me or bite me as he knows that it will result in the step up neverending ladder of doom... Even after this method of punishment the bird holds no negative feelings for me. The hen cockatiel, April still begs to have her head scratched by me and clearly loves me to death so I know it doesnt form a grudge against me. So again, what do you use as your form of punishment? And to those people that have no positive comment in this topic please refrain from initiating a forum war. Pleasant, insightful conversation please!:side:

Ya towels are a good plan; I was thinking about foam being eaten.. lol:S . Yes Judy, he's a good guy. He tells so many stories. 2 weeks ago he told of a guy looking to buy 2 ringneck doves, I cant quite remember the specific name, but the guy wanted to release them at a wedding. Just like in the movies! We all then took bets on how long these handfeds would last before either, not finding food and starving, eaten by a predator, hit by a car, flying into something. Worst case they survive and then the southern ontario canadian winter arrives and then he described how a bird freezes to death. He turned away the chance to sell very unlikely and hard to sell birds. Very good of him! He's also on the board of directors of the local parrot clubs. He's consistently a judge at parrot behaviour contests and also simple avian beauty contests as I like to call them.

Dan, the first day home he should be left alone mostly so he can find his food and water and feel that his cage is a safe place as that night he will have to sleep there. The 2nd day you can go see him and pay attention to him as normal and also from then on. If the cage is someplace somewhat busy thats fine, just ignore him as you would normally once the novelty wears off in a few months. Pretend as if nothing has changed! For all intense purposes, he's been there all along:whistle: I did this with my tiels and they got used to my erratic schedule quickly.

I thought so. 11 weeks is quite young in my opinion. But like the breeder says, the bird is fully feathered, he eats on his own(not yet but he will very shortly), he perches, the future owner.. me, came and visited him twice a week since he was 4-5 weeks old so he knows someone already. I guess theres no reason why not. He's successfully bred and homed about 100 Greys not to mention the thousands of other birds so I think he knows his stuff. If he says he can come home then I feel I can trust him. Plus in visiting the shop probably 30 times I've got to know him through listening to other customers. He seems to turn more people away then he sells to so I feel okay with it. I think I'm going to have to put some foam on the bottom of the cage for a week or so due to him being so young and clumsy. Or reduce the size of the cage is an option too. I could weld up a grate simple enough. Also, for the growth of him its in my profile page. All the pictures are dated so its obvious how he's coming along.<br><br>Post edited by: hveusnthbrige, at: 2007/07/06 01:04

And Josey will love the unexplained attention! Start with something simple like a wing mantle trick. Little of that model/rival technique ought to do it.

Thats like when I'm holding my baby and he stuffs his head into my shirt an then makes little baby chirps but they radiate the sound of complete happiness....:blush: Aaannnnd then he takes a big poop on my shirt. Sweet. Awesome. I love the poop. MmmmMmm poop!~! lol. My friends look at me like, aww gross, it pooed on you.. right on your shoulder. None of them understand why but it doesnt even phase me. It's a bird people thing only we can understand. Your in the yard and you step in your loving doggies little pile of lawn fertilizer and you're furious. Then you come inside and your parrot leaves a nice one on your shoulder, nope, it's alright. Change this shirt, it's all good.:side: Mirek's tounge is black with stripes of pink and white but it's mostly black.

You're correct Judy. I am thrilled to say the least. Oh I forgot to mention I think officially he is 9 weeks old. Hatched May 1st... I think I can count..:blink:

So here's my baby as of this afternoon on July 4th as I promised I would post pics of. I was unable to weigh as he isnt quite willing to balance on a perch yet but I think it's a safe bet to guess at 400 grams. He's a big fatty haha he feels like a good solid pound of gold. Mark, the breeder tells me he would bet money on him coming home in 2 weeks. Mirek is on the right in the cage picture.

It took me 4 months to find my breeder. I just kept researching and emailing over and over. It was a lot of work but I knew the amount of work would pay off. 4 months for likely 50 years... it's a fair trade. Mirek cost me $1,700 CND$ out the door and all the junk to go with him cost about $1,000. And I still dont even have him home yet!

I'm planning on building a play stand myself of some sort. I hold back though because I'm thinking of having a smaller upstairs cage which would likely have a playtop anyway. I really like those Java play trees made by Kings Cages too. The price is right too for those!