Echo's Mom

I know we are all parrot lovers here, but I also know that crazy bird owners also have cats, dogs and other species, so am hoping for some ideas. I've searched the net, been on cat forums, etc. but am not having much luck. I have the world's pickiest cat - and it's driving me nuts. I got him last year (October) when he was about 4. He was found wondering outside. He's a Siamese / Himalayan mix, neutered, and a very loving affectionate cat. When I adopted him he was eating whiskas. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to what I will feed my animals. Echo gets only fresh wholesome food, I make my dog's food from scratch, and I've always done the same with my cats. Raylan (the cat - and bonus points if you can figure out where I got his name from LOL) tested 16 types of cat food before he finally settled on one - Stella and Chewy's dehydrated raw - CHICKEN ONLY. Well, they recently had a problem with their chicken formula so now I can't get it in Canada - I've tried everywhere. I spent $1700 at the vet two weeks ago to make sure there were no health issues (he's perfectly fine, not even "thin" or dehydrated.) I have spent $300 in the last two weeks buying different types of cat food trying to find something else he'll eat - nope! (The dog, on the other hand is having an absolute field day eating what the cat won't!) I am fully aware that a cat can't go for long periods of time without food because of liver issues. He WILL however eat ANY type of human food, regardless of what it is - he even ate an olive last night. I have tried feeding him his food on the dining room table (while I was eating), no go - he snagged some broccoli off my plate and took off down the hall and ate that. I have tried gravy on his food, tuna on his food, salmon on his food (his food - is any type of cat food I have). I have tried multiple combinations of cat food, baby food, salmon, tuna, sardines, etc. I have tried different locations, different bowls, plates, etc. he simply sniffs it and walks away. Today is Friday - on Wednesday I thought I had success - he ate some of the New Zealand chicken and venison dehydrated food - but it wasn't rehydrated yet - I dropped a piece on the floor and he pounced on it. So I gave him some more - he ate about 10 pieces. Thankfully he drank water afterwards, because seriously, eating dried food? Icky! So he ate Wednesday night and Thursday morning, but last night and this morning he won't eat again. The weird thing is he doesn't beg for food constantly - only if I'm eating does he try and steal food off my plate. Does anyone have any new ideas or suggestions? Thanks so much!

OMG ... so funny! I did have one of the keyboards upside down and she pushed it off the desk onto the floor ... and it landed right side up! It's exasperating but hilarious at the same time! I have another new one, it's wireless as well. I hide it in my fabric - she hasn't touched any of that YET!

Welcome! I have an Echo! And a female GSD also! Yes, the first couple of weeks can be scary! I remember (WAYYY BACK!) thinking OMG, I'm going to kill this bird because I forgot something! Looking forward to stories! Marion

It's so funny how some greys want the keyboard, and other's don't care. I wonder if I make it more enticing because she's not "allowed" to have it!!!

Thanks so much, I knew someone on here would have some info ... pretty neat that I knew Dave would know! And I haven't been on here that long at all! Much appreciated!

LOL the keyboard is wireless (they all have been) I have a tablet, it's NEVER brought into her / my sewing room. YUP, gonna have to start remembering to put it in a drawer LOL what a PITA!

I'm hoping that Dave has some input! I have a friend of mine who is trying to do research (and not having much success) on falconry, and training parrots (it's all paper-based / armchair discussions, nothing "real" - she doesn't even have a parrot!) using food as a motivator. She is trying to find articles on "working your bird for food" The stuff that she is finding on line is simply too general. Does anyone have any references I could send her way? Thanks, Marion

HAHAHA ... I can just imagine how much that one costs! She's pretty quick at finding out where I hide it! She's destroyed two laptops (because I forgot to close the lid), and this is the fourth one she's destroyed ... in 5 years, so I'm not doing too bad! I had a plastic cover that went over the last keyboard ... that lasted about a week!

I bought this keyboard two weeks ago! Yesterday, I was sewing (Echo and I share the sewing room!) and I heard click click click and turned around ... this is what I saw: Yes, she is hiding under the table pulling off the keys ... here is the result of 10 seconds:

This is a tough one. My last boyfriend didn't do a lot with Echo, but she loved to fly and land on his shoulder and give kisses, and cuddle with him. When he passed away, she looked for him for a couple of days but that was it. I had always done all of the cleaning / feeding / handling of her from the time she was a baby, so I don't know if that played a part. Grey's can be so finicky it's a really tough one to figure out. I wish you luck with your grey, and I hope your separation doesn't become a nightmare.

LOL With my luck, she'll have a hole chipped out and she'll be meeting me on the fence outside!

I've lived in the house for 4 years (today is the anniversary LOL) and it's only been in the last 3 weeks that she has discovered that she can get there. Apparently, she just realized the curtains were NOT solid, and she could land on the curtain rod and make her way down! So, give it time, and I'm sure there will be damage to the window sills (I hope not LOL ... she's pretty good at not destroying stuff in the house, which is why she gets to stay out of her cage all day in her room!

Echo only has a sleep cage, and is free in her bird room during the day (well, from 6 am to 9 pm LOL) I have a dog walker that comes Monday - Friday and the other morning, she texted me this pic of Echo ... stalking her! There was also a video of her running up and down the windowsill bobbing her head and hollering out HELLO HELLO HELLO! Gotta love those greys!

OH BOY! That's mean's I'm a golden ager too!

Echo doesn't like tall black skinny lamps. I tried and tried and tired, and I ended up putting it upstairs. The only other thing that freaked her out was the pet dyson vacuum cleaner. I brought it back and got one with a quieter motor, and she accepted that one no problem. They are funny creatures for sure!

I had a quaker many years ago and she was a feisty little thing ... she would bite / lunge / nail me every single chance she could. I brought her home with a badly healed broken wing and broken leg - she had been thrown against a wall. I tried all kinds of things and the ONE thing that worked the best? I put some seeds in a tablespoon and offered them to her ... it took a couple hundred tablespoons of seeds going helter skelter before she got the idea that I wasn't trying to kill her LOL Once I got her eating some seeds from the spoon, I was able to move the spoon around and have her come towards me. Then I introduced a perch (for her it was a small dowel with some vet wrap on it) and worked on getting her up on the perch. From the perch to my hand - the whole process took me about a month - and a lot of seeds that went flying LOL ... but once she got over her fear, she was amazing! I would come into the room and she would run / wobble / hobble over to me as fast as she could to come and see me! Good luck, and patience will always help you succeed!

Well, that would be fun! Just a note of caution tho - some greys might be afraid of something because of a negative experience / scary experience from a previous owner! My grey, Echo, doesn't like ANY nail polish on my fingernails, so I don't wear any or she tries to pull my nails off She doesn't like black baseball caps, but any other colour is fine She doesn't like a plain boring hemp coloured boing, it is has to be multi-coloured I've had Echo since she was about 5 months old ... and she hasn't had any other owners, or "traumatic" experiences ... so her likes / dislikes are personality - not "fear" based from consequences

Very cute!

Sounds awesome!!! Just a word of advice - watch those dogs!!! Echo and my first dog were awesome buddies ... she would call Abby over and would toss food at her, she'd fly and land on Abby's head and preen her ears / neck, etc. They had a beautiful relationship ... SO ... Echo was NOT afraid of dogs. My current dog, Kyleigh, sees Echo as lunch in a box. Kyleigh is superbly trained, and will not leave a down command - that I have no issues with it at all ... BUT if Echo (because she has no fear of dogs) decides to land ON Kyleigh, I fear that all bets would be off! Have fun

This is a bit tricky for me ... I yell WITH Echo LOL ... we sing, dance, holler, whoop it up ... and yes we are both VERY VERY loud. I have yelled NOT THERE when she is flying around and want to land on the TV ... and she does listen to that ... does that count?

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE follow the info / suggestions you have been given regarding socializing your grey! I lived alone for years with Echo, and 4 years ago my dad and I bought a house together. We have separate living spaces - share the kitchen and dining room. Echo is NOT a fan of strangers, or ANYONE else BUT me (and my two parrot sitters). If my dad needs to help me on something on my computer, I have to put Echo in her cage as she will go after him. Granted, he's never tried to be "friends" with her ... but she is not a happy birdie when anyone comes in to her bird room. Personally, I have no issue with this, and it hasn't caused me any problems - I'm not married, have no kids (I'm old LOL so that's a non-issue now LOL). My parrot sitters have zero issues with her (mainly because they understand greys!) BUT if you don't want a "one-person bird" don't isolate your grey from people!

Echo regressed a bit after I had her at home for a week. And I brought her home at 16 weeks or so ... she was fully fledged and able to fly when I brought her home. I did the oatmeal on a spoon for a couple of weeks - still left her food for her, and she "weaned" herself off after a while (I don't remember how long, it's been a while!)

And if you need to scrub poop (LOL IF ... you WILL be scrubbing poop!) vinegar and baking soda is a great combo ... fizzes right up and softens poops ... piece of cake to clean up then!

You're welcome ... and if Zoe gets frightened on step 3 (for example) go back to step 2 and make sure she's really happy about step 2 and then try again with step 3 ... as long as she sees you aren't forcing the issue ... (i.e. do this or else) ... she will start to trust that the new things can be fun!

Bathing should start fairly soon so she doesn't develop a fear of it! You could try using a lasagna pan with water in it - put it on a table and put some macaroni or something in there to make it enticing. Echo loves to take a bath like this. I can also use a spray bottle on mist - Echo's not "thrilled" with this, but she doesn't fly away (Echo has full flight, so I'd know if she hated it!) or freak out about it. The shower is loads of fun BUT I'd wait to make sure Zoe is really comfortable with different perches, etc. AND START SLOW! I bought a shower perch (this is Echo's favourite way to have a shower) and did slow steps. 1 - getting Zoe used to the bathroom (it's scary in there LOL) 2 - getting her used to sitting on the perch 3 - getting her used to being on the perch with water running (not on her) 4 - getting her used to being on the perch with water running, and the shower curtain / door closing Once you've got those down pat (it might take days / weeks / months) you can start introducing the water. I'll try to explain how I did it - keep in mind every bird is different! Echo's on her perch at one of the shower, and I'm in the shower under the spray. MAKE SURE YOU COOL THE WATER DOWN! I would cup my hands and gather water and toss it just under the perch - I did this a couple of times and it was hilarious - she was trying to catch it. (repeat a couple of times) The next time I tossed the water onto the perch - so her feet got wet ... again, she kept trying to catch it. (repeat a couple of times) The next time I got her tummy wet, etc. and slowly moved up - I was never "tossing" water over her head just around her and on her tummy and feet. This got her used to getting wet. This whole process took me about 2 weeks - I was lucky - I got Echo as a baby, just like you have with Zoe - so I had no previous fears to work through. CRITICAL - make noise and make it fun - Grays love drama - so when I was tossing the water under the perch I was hooting and hollering - wow, look at that - yippee, we're having a shower, OMG this is SOOO MMMUUUCCCHHHH fun!!!! YEAH ... (I lived alone at the time, so could be as loud and vocal as I wanted LOL) Once she got used to that, I turned the water pressure down really low, and the temperature too, and had her on my hand. I'd duck her under the water for a second - like passing her under it ... and remember - it's a celebration - OMG Echo - did you see that? You got wet ... wasn't it wonderful .. WOW ... lots of fun ... and I'd do it again and again ... While I was doing this, she had access to her perch so she could fly off if she wasn't liking it. She never flew off ... she was chirping and whistling and having a grand old time. Once she was an "adult" I increased the pressure a bit more and would wave her around on my hand under the water ... she LOVES it ... she makes all kinds of noises, whistles, yells WOW at the top of her little birdie air sacs, flaps her wings, opens them up under the spray, and has a grand ol time. (I now live with my dad, and the first time he heard me in the shower with Echo he had no idea what the heck was going on! He was trying to figure out why his daughter was so thrilled to be having a shower! LOL) So that's what I did, and I've had success ... I also leave it up to Echo to decide HOW she wants to have her shower / bath. Some mornings when I go to bring her to the bathroom, she flies back to her cage and says NO NO NO ... OK, so no shower today. What I then do is put down a pan of water for her. Some days she likes that, other days, she doesn't. I've never forced her to take a shower / bath with me ... but I have done the misting with the spray bottle if we get past 5 days of no shower / bath. And funnily enough, the day after she gets misted, she ALWAYS wants to come in the shower with me ! Not sure if it's because the misting reminds her of how good it feels, or a matter of FINE, I'll take the dang shower, just quit misting me LOL