matt314159

har, har! The key is to somehow convince her without her having to be wrong on the subject. Yeah I hope I can find a better job when I finish things up later this year...otherwise with as much student loan debt as I have, I'll be living in a van down by the river, just me and my parrots...<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/08/24 23:12

hahaha that's too funny!

Thanks for the kind words everyone! danmcq wrote: Yup, it's the same ponti from youtube I didn't know anybody watched any of the other videos except the first one I posted which has a couple-hundred thousand hits now. Yeah, ponti has a few too many toys, but of course I wouldn't want to spoil her or anything! As many toys as she has, her favorite toy of all is---PLASTIC BOTTLE CAPS! There's something fascinating about them to her. She'll try to pull them apart and tear them up, stack them inside each other, see how far she can toss them, etcetera. Of all the toys in her toybox, she will dig through all of them until she finds a bottle cap.

Thanks for the quick and thorough reply! I laughed out loud when I realized that I made my mom sound like my wife in the post, that was unintentional. I'm a 24 year old graduate student mooching off my parents until I get my thesis finished and find a job that will be able to pay all the bills. I'll try to bring this topic up for discussion again and convince her. Ponti especially loves being outside. She really comes alive, swinging from the ceiling of the cage, beating up her toys, etc. Maggie just seems to be content wherever she is. The outdoors is nothing new to maggie, as the place she was staying before we got her was out on the carport...she lived outdoors in her cage 24/7 except during winter. Now she likes living indoors, but outside is fine too, it doesnt get her especially excited like ponti.

Great pics, thanks for sharing! She sure is light-headed, but so beautiful! She looks like a sweetie!

Thought I would finally post pics of my babies on here! First we have Ponti, our CAG. She's almost three years old now, and we've had her since May 2006: Ponti HATES her Snoopy toy, she goes crazy if you toss it at her, she picks it up and throws it across the room. She's not scared of it or anything, but whenever you show it to her, it's like "Get this thing OUT OF MY SIGHT!" Ponti being a psycho: Next we have Maggie, a 10 year old Timneh that we bought just this July. Despite being thrown into a completely new situation after 10 years (her old owner died) she is surprisngly well adjusted and such a SWEETHEART! She loves me to death. Within a day or two she was snuggling up on me when I kicked back in the recliner. Whereas I typically get bit a few times a week by ponti, I have still never been bit by maggie, which I find amazing! I still haven't had time to take very many good pictures of maggie so those two are about all I have. They were taken the first day we got her. The old caretaker had her on crap seed and a pretty bad diet. In the month or so that we've had her, she's actually filled out quite a bit and looks a lot healthier. Anyway I just thought I'd introduce my kids to y'all! B) Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/08/24 12:38<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/10/06 07:36

Hey everyone, I'll try to be quick with this question. We've constantly had a disagreement about this at my house, and I'm curious if anybody here can authoritatively settle the score. We got a nice big cage to put out on our covered patio to take our two greys out with us when we have summer barbecues, etc (once the bbq is off and there's no more smoke of course). Problem is, the boss of the house never lets the birds go out there, unless it's a completely still day without the slightest hint of a breeze. If there's a breeze at all, however warm, however slight, she won't let the birds come out there for fear they'll get sick. This mindset comes from the idea that you would never put their cage anywhere there's a draft indoors, so therefore a breeze would be the same thing. I come from the mindset that says don't take them outside on a chilly day or a windy day, but a nice summer day in the high 80's with a slight breeze should be completely fine. So who's right? Anybody want to weigh in with their experiences and opinions? Any and all comments are welcome. Our birds LOVE being outside, they have so much fun, and I'd like to do it more often for them.

Physically there's no way to tell male from female, it needs to be DNA sexed. Though with ponti, I was 99% she was a girl, and I turned out to be right. I guess I had a 50/50 chance at worst, but there were telltale signs that led me to be fairly certian. For a grey, you're going to need to make a lifelong commitment to the bird, as they can live 45+ years easily. They're messy. They're loud and will invariably scream at the wrong time in a TV show, so make sure you have a tivo. You'll get bit and pooped on, but the rewards of having such a wonderfully intelligent companion far outweigh the downsides. You know you're a bird lover if you've ever accidentally gone out of the house with green bird poop on your shirt or pants.

Ponti was already using her voice and saying things like "hello" when we got her around 5 months old, and within the first week she barked like our pomeranean, beeped like the microwave, said "Buddy! go outside and go potty!", and "you're so pretty" By 9 months old, she was a chatterbox. It is always entertaining to hear her start to say something new, sometimes, it comes out clear as a bell, other times you can hear syllables and the general sound of the word and she works it out and clears it up with time. One of the early things she said was to make smooching/kissey sounds and follow it up with "kissy kissy kissy!"....except when she first started saying it, she had a hard time getting the K's out right and it sounded a lot more like "pussy pussy pussy!" but it got clearer with time. Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/08/22 19:25<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/08/22 19:25

I know how you feel, Missa818! Most of the time, our Ponti is a sweetheart, but now and then, she'll bite the heck out of my hand for no reason at all, hard enough to draw blood. I almost think that she thinks it's funny. On my end, however, it feels almost like a betrayal. If she pulls that stunt, she goes right back into her cage, and I leave the room for about a half hour. The reasons are twofold: 1- So I can cool off and quit being mad at her (I'll admit it, I take it personally sometimes even though I shouldn't!) 2- Being left alone/ignored is just about the worst punishment ever for ponti. The other thing I've found is that I really have to bite my tongue and try not to yell out in pain and I try not to draw back my hand in fear from it because both those things are reactions that I am 99% sure Ponti finds to be amusing/hilarious. I just try to bite my tongue, put her right back in her cage, and leave the room and ignore her for a little while. Oh and about "happy wings" Ponti does that too! i think that's universal grey speak for "i'm really happy!"<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/08/22 19:16

Haha, fun reading! To the original post, I wouldn't want to be really repetitive on any set of catch phrases. From the start we just talked to ponti in meaningful phrases and short sentences, always pointedly talking about what we were doing around her so she could understand: "fresh fruits and veggies!" and "Look, fresh water!" when changing those out, "Let's go beddie-by!" when it's time to put her to bed, "May I have a bite?" when we share food with her...that kind of thing. They will develop a sense for what the phrases actually mean and begin to use them to tell you exactly what they want and need. We've had ponti a little over two years and she says probably a couple hundred words, and she actually understands meanings behind a ton of them (though not all) Then, in contrast to Ponti, our CAG, we adopted a 10 year old TAG last month. She talks, but she says things like, "Praise the lord!" and other such stuff that people have taught her through repetition to mimic, but the words have no meaning to the bird really. Whereas Ponti will talk to you with at least some amount of understanding, Maggie simply imitates speech most of the time. I'd prefer to nurture the understanding aspect of it more than teach it to blurt out something funny but meaningless to the bird. I'm sure others will probably disagree, and I hope I don't come off overly pushy/preachy/opinionated. I don't mean to be. Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/08/22 12:16<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/08/22 12:18

haha, adorable pic misty, thanks for sharing!

Any updates? I'm so glad you found a place for him in your home!

Hey all, it's been a long time since my last post. We recently asked our avian vet this exact question. We decided to adopt a sweet, 10 year old TAG whose owner had died, and when we were picking up the bird, the owner's roommate said, "maggie just LOVES chicken!" which struck me as odd. I've had my CAG ponti for over 2 years now, and it never even crossed my mind to let her have meat. it didn't seem right so when we took maggie for her vet visit, I asked him, and he said, "yeah, they pretty much need all the food groups" and then went on with the usual caveats about nothing salted and all that, but he was totally fine with it. So we started allowing the birds to have meat if they want. Maggie scarfs it down, but Ponti doesn't much care for it. It's funny how they have their own tastes.<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2008/08/22 11:12

GeorgeC wrote: Wow! Can I come live in a cage at your house? :woohoo: Looks like you take really good care of your baby! I don't know if I want to buy a 2nd new cage just for the patio, the first one was $300. Until then we'll just keep doing what we're doing: Take her out on the patio in her small travel cage. At least she gets to experience the fresh air and the great outdoors! (without an extra $200-$300 out of my pocket!)

That is an excellent question, and one which I would be interested in getting some guidance on as well. We've got an old cage in the back yard that needs cleaning up, but we'd like to put it on the patio and give Ponti a place to go when we all go outside for BBQ's (after the cooking is done and the smoke clears of course) I was thinking the best way would be to pay somebody to professionally strip it and then powder-coat it, which actually fuses the paint into the metal, but is there a non-toxic spray-paint that the birds can't chew off the bars, or, if (when?) they do, it will be non-toxic to them?

I'll chime in with everyone else here. Get the discharge checked out, you don't want to let it go if he's sick. But as to adaptability, my pride and joy, Ponti (an almost 2 year old female CAG)has a broken toe and a leg that is now gimpy because of a break that healed wrong. (I should clarify. One of her back toes is useless, it flops around every which way, sometimes it bends around the back of the perch like it's supposed to, but more often it bends back around over the front of the perch, she can't control it) This is in addition to a leg that broke and is now healed, but is now bent at an odd angle It has had no effect on her self-esteem, intelligence, emotional development (am I talking about a kid or a bird here? lol) or anything. She doesn't even know she's handicapped. She does look somewhat surprised every time she slips and falls off her perch and ends up on the floor of the cage (like, "how did i get down here?") but she gets right back up again. We've adapted her cage as best we can so that she can get around easily and as safely as possible. We noticed that with wood perches, she slipped off them much more easily, so we have gone to rope perches (don't anybody even get started on the rope-perch debate. I've been severely scolded by some professionals for using them, and others say they're perfectly fine, so long as you keep them in good repair). She also has to have a layer of towels on the bottom of her cage, and for night-time, she goes in a little travel cage, with a toweled floor, and a perch about 2" off the floor...sometimes she sleeps perched, but more often than not, I peek in and see her sleeping on the floor, flat on her face. When she starts to fall asleep on a perch, her likelihood of falling increases exponentially. Believe me, we've seen it! Anyway those are just a couple of insights into how it might be a little different with a handi-capable bird than with a "normal" bird. You'll love him just as much, and he'll grow up to be a perfectly healthy, well-adjusted bird. If you look at ponti's youtube videos (just search Ponti African Grey, or user matt314159) you'll be able to see how well she gets around despite what, upon close inspection, looks like a pretty messed up foot. She does great! Good luck Kasia! Let us know how it all turns out!<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2007/10/13 09:37

I can't think of any questions off-hand, but if Tui's dad is going to be reading this, I want to say that Tui is one of my favorite parrots on youtube! I'll post back if I can think of any questions, but I thought I'd make sure he knows how famous Tui is! We've got a celebrity among us!

I think with some patience, nicole, she will come around. look for changes over weeks and not days.

danmcq wrote: Well, we were new grey owners and didn't know the rules yet (like rule #1: Find and get familiar with a good avian vet in your area that you can trust!) so we took her to the local animal hospital, and the vet x-rayed her and splinted it as best he could. She had to stay in her night-time cage (a little travel cage) for about 8 weeks, if I remember. He had to re-do the splint at one point, because ponti decided that standing in her water dish with her bad leg felt good. Later when we found a competent avian vet, he X-rayed her leg (about 6 months after the accident) and it showed how the bone healed wrong. instead of being straight, it's about a 10 degree angle with a big knot at the junction. So her leg will never be back to the way it was. He said the proper way to fix it would have been to use pins, but since it had already healed such as it was, he did NOT want to re-break it, which is the only way it could now be fixed properly. Re-breaking could a) cause nerve damage b) could cause the bone to shatter and become irreparable, and a few other things that just were not worth the risk. But given the angle the bone is at, I have this sick feeling that all it will take is one more time of her landing wrong to break it again. Compound that with the fact that one of her back toes just goes every which way, it's all floppy. Broke I guess? the avian vet said there wasn't anything he could do about that. The broken toe, she already had before she broke her leg. In fact I think that's part of WHY she broke her leg, when she landed, i think she might have rolled her foot because of the bad toe. Sorry, I don't want to derail this thead, I'll let y'all get back on topic now! <br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2007/10/10 07:28

danmcq wrote: We keep towels across the entire bottom of ponti's cage, because she has one bum foot, and it makes her way more likely to fall from her perches than most other birds. She is getting a lot more adept (it's been over a year since she broke her leg) at getting around but still falls often. This also goes for the lesson about being careful for your grey if it can't fly properly. Ponti was atop her cage when we first got her, and, without thinking, somebody carried a large box in from outside, which totally freaked her out, making her "fly" off her cage, except her wings were trimmed...she landed on the corner of our fireplace bricks and broke her leg.

Thanks for posting those great videos, imran. Tui is one of my favorite's on youtube. Along with marvin and that guy who does his vlogs. Thanks again! Might just have to get a clicker and start working with Ponti on this!<br><br>Post edited by: matt314159, at: 2007/10/09 12:06

I agree with the other posters, the thing to do seems to be to ignore them entirely when they're screaming. At least for Ponti, it's the worst form of punishment! But when she is quiet again, we give her all the love she can handle! I've found that negative reinforcement rarely works at all with these guys. It's tough sometimes, but rewarding good behavior seems to have much more impact on a bird than "punishing" bad behavior. Incidentally, probably one of the worst things you can do with a screaming parrot is to yell at them. They don't really (well, at least mine doesn't anyway) have a sense of being in trouble when they're getting yelled at. They seem to think you're simply getting just as excited as they are, and try to top you!

Ponti shakes her head if she's listening to music. Only certain kinds. She prefers Opera, swing, christian, and bluegrass. She actually kind of acts like it irritates her at first, then she'll start bellowing out in whistle or song, trying to top the sound level of the music.

Ponti will usually start with a "Tweet!" that's like the standard grey, "where are you!" call, and then goes to the wolf-whistle, to which one of us in the house usualy replies, "why, thank you". That usually makes her happy. and if you're in the room with her but not over by her, and she wants you to come to her, she'll say, "Come here!"..."Come here!"..."come on!" and makes a sharp click click sound that I can tell from the tone she's trying to command action! it's funny!