matt314159

That's so cute! Ponti love mashed potatoes as well, dives in face first!

Fantastic Job! I am so glad you gave baxter a good home, and I am sure he is too! He sounds like he's quickly coming around, and I think the love you've shown him and the care you've taken of him shows through, he sounds like he's starting to accept you as one of his flock! Keep up the excellent work, and keep us all updated, I want to hear about everything!

The final product looks great! I'll take two! (seriously if you wanted to you could make and sell those!)

The steak is currently marinating and I'll be firing up the grill in about 15 minutes, actually!

I think ponti does the same noise, kind of comes out as a muffled "boof boof"

We've been talking it over and I think she's bout convinced. I don't think ponti would take a harness, and she's clumsy enough with her bum foot that I don't really want her out of her cage at all while she's outside, I just feel more comfortable that way. We live in the desert, so the summers get VERY hot (100-115 degrees) during the summer...it would be between 5-7pm when we take them out during (well, techically after since I would want the grill off and let the smoke clear first) our barbecues and such. I just feel so bad when the whole family is out on the patio socializing after a nice grillout, and the birds are inside whistling their little lungs out trying to get our attention!

If you want to save money on toys, we have found several good toys for ponti at wal-mart and other big-box retailers. The lady at a bird farm near us suggested it...you just go and buy baby toys! They're made of non-toxic plastic, and if you use a little common sense picking out the toys, and buy them with an eye for what can come apart when they chew it up, etcetera, you can give them a lot of fun on the cheap! I'll have to post some pictures of ponti's toybox and which ones were original baby toys.

I'm certainly no authority on this, and I'm sure people disagree, but I don't think i would recommend using a stick to try to get him to step up. i would wait until he's ready and then steel myself to getting bit, and use my hand. Something about the personal touch seems to be reassuring to my birds, anyway. Approaching them with a stick/perch is more than likely to frighten them more than just your hand. Again, just my $.02, but that's how i would probably approach it. But regardless, wait until he's ready.

That's a start, I'm glad she is enjoying her treat. Greys are attention whores, so give her as much as you can!

Sometimes ponti gets grumpy the next day if she gets to bed too late. Usually manifests itself in the form of her being exceptionally nippy towards me. She's never ignored me before, in fact, i can't get her to leave me alone most of the time.

Ponti likes any toy we give her! She used to be scared when we'd add a new toy to her toybox or cage (i should take a picture of her toybox, she's got way too many toys!) but now she likes anything we give her. Though despite the copious amount of toys we keep her supplied with, one of her FAVORITE toys is....bottle caps! She's got a collection of multi-colored and multi-sized plastic bottle caps now, and she goes NUTS for them when she plays on her toybox. She'll spend hours chewing them up, stacking the smaller ones inside the larger ones, seeing how far she can throw them, you name it, it's endless entertainment. A close second are ropes and leather straps. She likes to undo knots when you tie it up tight.<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/08/28 20:27

That is a good idea! Ponti sometimes does stuff like this on her own with a slice of cantaloupe or apple. Aren't these guys a blast to have around?

That is sad, and like judy said, kind of confusing. Greys can spook easily, and the slightest environmental change can be extremely upsetting to them (They're foragers, and being prey birds, they have to be extra careful to be on the lookout for changes to their environment, lest a predator sneak up and eat them) I guess my only advice would be to, without crowding the bird or being too overly aggressive and pushy, try to engage her by talking to her, maybe showing her some of her favorite toys (nothing new), and just generally being there and being reliable for her. Might be kind of worthless advice I guess, but I don't think it would HURT anything...

Ponti was mumbling at 5 months, said her first small words at 6 months, and by a year old, she was talking up a storm. Ponti hatched out in December 2005, and here is a video I took on December 20, 2006, when she was almost exactly a year old (give or take a week or two, I don't know her hatch date)>

We had similar concerns about ponti, as our household usually has the living room light on and the tv on until 3am sometimes, with others getting up around 5am, so there's only a couple hours of peace and quiet that the living room can offer the birds. What we did was get ponti used to going into her travel cage as a "sleep cage" at night. Some time between 8:30PM and 9:30PM every night ponti starts asking to go to bed, and we put her in her sleep cage, and take her off into the spare bedroom and she sleeps on the dresser in there in her travel cage, which we cover with a towel. (we leave the front exposed in the summer, and cover more of the front in the winter) Maggie, on the other hand, is still frightened by her travel cage, (yeah they each have their own) and so we just cover her cage with a sheet and try to keep the TV volume low. Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/08/28 15:22<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/08/28 15:24

Ponti goes NUTS over ice cream, but we never give her more than a taste. My thinking is that if foods high in sugar and salt are bad for humans, they're probably equally bad for birds, so she gets a limited selection of those kinds of foods. ponti will chase my bowl around trying to get a lick of ice cream, saying, "want a bite? let's have a bite! Is that good? yummy yummy yummy! Come here! Get over here! It's hot!" (Ponti associates any change in temperature, hot or cold, with "It's Hot"...if you give her a food that's either warmer than room temperature, or colder than room temperature, she says, "it's hot"...)

$48 for a dna test? Holy crap I paid $18 through our avian vet, and I've seen mail kits between $20 and $25. All you send in is a little feather, not even a big one, it doesn't take much at all. They also certified her free from a whole list of diseases, one of which was chlamydia! :blink: Loki is sure getting big in a hurry, and prettier every time you post pics! Such a beautiful face!

Cute pics! Thanks for sharing!

I don't usually let ponti that close to my face. Maggie just rubs her head on my chin then puts her head down for me to scratch her neck. So no nose picking here!

We got ponti when she was six months old because the breeder said she was having a little trouble learning to eat. I was patient and waited until the time was right, and it was worth it! Ponti came into our lives in May 2006 I got ponti for free because I did some extensive computer work for a lady who used to own a pet store, and I told her in trade for payment, if she could put me in contact with someone who could get me a deal on a grey, I'd call it even. she said, "I've got a lady who owes me a grey, when she comes through on that, we'll give her to you" And true to her word, a few months later, ponti entered our family. For that I put Jan on the "family plan" when it comes to computers....free tech support for life! We bought maggie off craigslist for $350. When we arrived and saw that they had her in a cage that was way too small for her, and that they were keeping her outside 24/7, we practically threw the money at them and took her home. Kept her across the street at my grandparents house until we were certain she was healthy, had our avian vet check her out, and now she's part of our family too! We've had her since early july.

The only thing I'd pitch in with is cover the bottom of her cage with lots of towels so that the inevitable falls will be softened. Ponti has a bum foot and a leg that was broken and healed wrong, and thus she is pretty gimpy. We keep fresh towels on the bottom of her cage all the time, because the falls were quite often. Not so much anymore, but we still keep it padded because she still slips up now and again. Judy's right, they don't know any different, and they have an amazing ability to adapt to the toughest of circumstances with aplumb. Good luck!

Ponti used to do that whenever my dad went near her cage. After a few weeks, she stopped doing it when he came by her cage, but would growl at him when he reached inside her cage. After awhile she got used to that, and would actually step up on him. IT was funny too, because she'd step up on him, and then have a moment of realization that said, "hey, i'm on this guy I don't like" and THEN she'd start to growl again. She's used to him now and steps up without a problem. Took a few months of working with her though before she wasn't scared of him.

Excellent points made by all. In fact, I hope you don't mind, but I copied the OP's post and stickied it at another forum I help out at (Small plug for the site, www.euphoricarythmia.com it's a general discussion forum where pretty much anything goes) Anyway thanks for the posts, great stuff!

I think that iwll do! LOL! You're going about this the right way, gettig a grey is just like having a kid! I wish more people would treat getting it as seriously and with as much exhuberant anticipation as yourself.

Nice job! That is going to be one spoiled bird!