EZFrag

Hi there, So Clara is almost 2 years old now. Hand raised her myself. Unclipped, flying around the house, having a ball. Gets her fruit and veggies regulary. She prefers oranges, apples and red bell peppers. Very chatty. Lovely little thing. I noticed something about her feathers on her abdomen. It is starting to look like this: Like the one on the right. What exactly is happening to her? I assume it's only natural,so I'm not worried, but I only ever saw it in photos. Does it have any significance?

Hi There, I figured it is time for an update on my Clara situation. So Clara is quite the bundle of love. She is very attached to me, bite those that scared her previously(Two girls decided that it was a good idea to let a 20kg steel plate fall next to her cage. It was an accident of course, but Clara is now appears to be scared of them, biting them, as in lounging and attacking in self defence) and she allows the neutral people to touch and stroke her(My father and other friends that aren't falling in the "They scared me" category). Giving the circumstances, this is acceptible behouviour for me. She absolutely loves cuddling, and is extremely curious. She became a very capable climber, now that she can use her wings to help her stay afloat while she jumps or while she needs to keep her balance while covering a big gap. Her pastimes includes exploring the room, nipping on a pair of shoes, nipping my feet(which includes leaving one or two for me to step in, when I get up to take a break). She is starting to learn how to fly, so there is an extreme amount of flapping. She doesn't make those ear piercing baby "feed me" cries any more. Instead, it seems, she is starting to learn to vocalize properly. She also seems to understand the meaning and the emotion behind me saying "No" to something, stopping what ever she is busy with, looking disappointed, and moving on to what ever was next on her agenda. Sometimes she gets more upset than necesary, but I just ignore that. She seems to be fully weaned. When I give her formula, she'll have two or three bites, then move on to something else. Her treat for her at the moment is either cucumber, or peanuts, that is still in their shells. She also already had her first bath. She looked like a prize winner after that. So all in all, everything is looking good. Thank You to everybody that responded when I had questions. I doubt I would have gotten far without it.

Well, thanks for the advice... She is eating her pellets, but shunning the formula, as if it came from lucifer's butthole. I guess this means she is weaned?

Yea.... but actually, I think I'm going to get a second opinion. An "Expert" visually sexed her, and all the tell tale signs I see, points to female. What about DNA or Surgical sexing? Do they hurt?

So I have Clara here. She is a cute, energetic African Grey. She responds very well to her name. Turns out though, Clara ain't a she, she is actually a he. Now I'm scouring the internet to look for naming databases where I can add Clara to the males list, so that I don't look like a complete tit.

Hi there, I have a dilemma. Clara is an African Grey that is 10 weeks old. I started her weaning about 2 weeks back, and she is doing excellent. Chows down 2 cups of pellets in about 3 days. And she also eats veggies without any issues. Here is the thing. Her crop is permanently full. (Permanent in the sense of when I want to feed her formula, it is not empty) You can feel without a doubt that there is food in her crop, and quite an amount. I also caught her drinking water earlier, so that isn't an issue either. The food in the crop is moving through though. She isn't having trouble digesting it. Do I still give her the formula? She doesn't stop eating the formula until everything is done, and yesterday after I gave her the formula, she looked like a balloon. She also kept moaning in ,what I only could imagine, discomfort. What is your take on this?

Little Clara isn't little any more. She EXPLODED in size. She is eating her pellets like it is a new hobby (Still giving formula though) and I started to introduce her to the outside. Let her prance about in the backyard while I stand guard. Luckily the neighbour's cat is too fat and lazy to try anything, and our own one doesn't give a hoot. The dobermann is submitted to her today, so I think everything will be just fine. Somewhere in the next 2 weeks I'll let her try veggies, and fruit maybe. I'm trying now to get her to drink water as well. I drink water from a clear bottle in front of her, and then pour the rest into her water bowl. I did that with her pellets as well. Unfortunately a no go for the water yet.

Is there any danger in letting her eat this way? I mean, it is way less of a mess, it seems she is eating at her own comfortable pace, and as a bonus, I don't have to worry about accidentally jamming the spoon down her throat (I actually had nightmares of this).

She is currently perching on my hands as I move her around from on place to another. One of Dave's posts gave me the idea of letting her hook her beak onto the one hand first, then let her climb on the other by herself. Works like magic. No struggling to get her of wool blankets and so on. The ladder I got her fits that description. She is currently sitting on it. And nibbling on the cage :confused: I hope that wouldn't be problematic. I really hope they don't. I really don't want to get aggressive with them.

So I was getting ready to feed my little one, standing up to fetch her spoon. I came back to this: She started grabbing onto the sides of the feed bucket, which is why I started to hold it, just incase she might accidentally toss it over. I'm very proud of her

I went to the petstore to go fetch a few toys for the little one, as well as some nice screw bowls I want to use for the weaning later on. I asked him for the number of an avian vet nearby (Even though I suspect she is female, I'm no expert), and he gave me a number and name. He also mentioned that the vet will probably trim the wings, toe nails and beak. I'm am very much against it, especially the wings. Not going to happen at all. Beak also a big no. And the toe nails as well. I've read Dave's post series about trimming the wings, so I have that covered. What I want to know is why they want to trim her toe nails and beak? Are they hammered or is there a reason for it? And am I obligated to allow them to do it? Will I have to fight them over it?

Yes, yes, I was thinking the exact same thing about 10 min ago. Washing towels seems way more appealing than having to figure out what to do with all the messy newspapers anyway.

I try to keep her there, but she climbs out again, even with a small blanket over. So I just put her with the bucket into the cage now, just as a precaution. I'm going to see if I can get her proper toys today. She doesn't seem interested in the custom one I made her anymore. She is eating properly still, vigorously asking for more food afterwards. Her weaning time is coming soon though. Another week or so. Even though I enjoy doing it, I cannot stress how important it is to get the little ones when they are already weaned. It is literally (yes, literally) a crap load of work, and the process of raising an unweaned little one takes up a lot of time. Three hours of my day goes to only feeding her. Then there is the huge amount of time going into supervision. There is no free time with this, and it can definitely NOT be done by anyone who is running a normal day job, with kids, without discipline etc. The load would simply be too much and the little one would suffer severely.

Yay Toothbrush is working, her chest fluff is returning. She also seems to be developing, what I assume to be, blood feathers on her chest?

But I did. I purchased her fully knowing that she will be young, how to feed her, what to feed her, I have her weaning pellets, a HUGE cage. All that stuff was before hand. We just don't have that specific age law down here (young baby parrots, not the other one). I only learned of that when I came here.