samansad

One thing I learned from Alex is that if he brings upper part of his beak towards me it means he is gentle and kind but if he goes towards me with front of his beak he is getting ready to bite. Alex used to bite but I followed suggestion from our friends in this forum and I learned to spend time with him while I am not too close to him and wait for him to come to me. It has been more than 2 weeks that Alex does not bite me anymore and if he doesn't like what I am doing either he goes away or with top of his beak he pushes me away or he bite his cage. Some people are saying that being with Grey is like being with a kid and I say getting a Grey to like you, is like courting a girl. I am not saying that girls are mean. No please don't get me wrong. I am saying that as a guy we do all we can, without expecting anything in return just with a hope that she will like us. That is how I treat Alex. Another thing I learned, is walking fast towards Alex makes him freaks out and gets ready to react. So Whenever I want to approach him, I tell him from far that I am going towards him and start talking to him from far and look at his body language. If he doesn't like then I show a treat and go towards him, then if he is happy, I go and play with him and gives him the treat. If by seeing the treat, he still shows that he is not happy, I just give him the treat and leave him alone. I think that made him realize that I don't approach him no matter what but I respect him and his space.

Wow good job for that awesome treat

Well Alex never bite my lips but if he does then will make his beak bloody because even bleeding lips or finger will not push me away from loving him and trying to bond with him. lol Guys thank you so so much for always encouraging me.

Thank you so much for posting this video. I think this video is a must watch for any person who wants to have a parrot in his/her house. I am happy that I did not buy a bird and I rescued one. Hopefully I can give Alex a real home that he will love and enjoy to live for rest of his life.

Thanks for your advice. Anyway Alex freaks out if you bring stick, or even peace of wood close to him or even if you hold it and go close to him. I don't know what happened in past to him, and I need to be so careful with things that scares him. I am working on building trust with him. He trusts my face and give kisses! He doesn't run away if I go close to him and tell him I want a kiss. Alex last owner was not able to bring Alex on her hand! She said Alex walk on her laps but never trusted her hand. This sounds like Alex has a huge fear of hands and I need to build trust with him. I had ringneck from a baby till it grow up, and seriously having a baby is so different from having a rescued bird that is 18 years old. 18 years means so much memory.

Being their parents sounds good. Indeed Greys feel being loved and they show love. Thank you

Dave007 these are great advice and thank you for your help. Well Alex never bites unless I bring my empty hand closed to him when he is out of cage. When he sees the treat he never tries to bite. He comes towards me and get his treat and eat it in front of me. Usually when he wants a treat and I am not offering anything he goes for a kiss, because he knows I will give him a treat after kisses. Even when I play with his beak he doesn't bite and he stay calm and allow me to touch his beak. What amazed me is that yesterday he allowed my brother who does not play much with him, and not taking care of him, to touch his head. That was a sign for me that I was pushing too much since he trusted my brother more than me. Also I see this strange reaction from him when I am giving him water or food. Sometime he doesn't like me changing his water or food, and he fluffs. But I give him a treat and he calm down then he allows me to change his bowl. Again thanks for all your info and helps.

Yup I am willing to wait for him even if it takes years. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much for your encouragement and great advice. I am not sure which sound you are talking about but if you mean the sound on 00:27 part of the video. It is Alex by himself. When he doesn't like me being close to him or when his food bowl is empty or when he doesn't like what I am doing (like cleaning his cage) he make that sound. He bites his cage and try to make that sound to tell me he is not happy with something. I think here he meant leave me alone!

Thank you Neoow and JeffNOK for your great advice.

And here is the new video that I posted from Alex. I am trying to teach him how to step up and he is running away!

Ok, so after I learned not to make any reaction when Alex bites me, now I have new problem. I am trying to teach Alex to step up, but he run away from my hand. See the video and please give me advice on what I am doing wrong. Thank you

Some of you may already know Alex and watched his videos. I was advised that I should keep posting about him here. Alex is 18 years old African Grey. Based on his last owner, he had 2 previous owner but last owner was not sure. His last owner thought Alex is 9-10 years old and she told me that Alex is semi-tame. He has this problem that he chew his tale completely. But knowing all these things, I knew I want to help Alex. I drove around 4h to another state picked him up and brought him home. He had few days of honeymoon and after that he showed how stressed he is. He is living with me for almost 6 weeks and he improved so much. He is still scared and I can see that when I get close to him, he starts shacking but when I offer him grapes he gets it and eat it with joy. Although he is scared, he is trying to build relationship and talk and even gives kisses to me, but he is scared of hand so much. I am planing to post his videos time to time and hear advise from you guys. Please feel free to give me any feedback or advise. All I want is to provide best home and life style for Alex. I know it takes time and happily I am patient enough to wait even if it takes years. So here are some of his videos and I will keep posting about him. Thanks in advance for your wonderful advice and encouragement. You guys are really the best help. 9th days of being with me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oOXKnzC1pk First time he stepped out of his cage: He started giving kisses in his cage: First time trying to teach him to step up and I failed lol: Alex giving kissed out of his cage for the first time:

So this latest update of Alex. This is his first time giving kisses while he is out of his cage.

Thank you everybody for your wonderful advice. Alex is building more trust everyday. Just to give you an update here is the video of Alex giving me a kiss while he is out of his cage. He start giving kisses while he was in his cage from second week but out of his cage he is so scared. Even when some body passes by, he run back to his cage. I am not sure what had happened to him in his past life but I am willing to be patient and work with him slowly. Please feel free to give me any advice. Thanks again

Ok some of you may already know me as I keep asking about my new CAG who is 18 years old (Alex). I was reading, and watching some videos about parrot and one of them said that I should not over feed my parrot. Also seeds are not good food. Now I am confused since all my life I feed seeds to my parrots and they had food till their container is empty and I refill it again. I bought African Grey Parrot food from pet store and I am feeding Alex with it. It has several different seeds and nuts. (No peanuts in it!) Also I fill his container in the morning and I wait till it is finished. Sometimes it takes him two days, sometimes one and half day to finish 90% of it. Then I remove remaining because it has so many broken shell in it and put new food there. Am I doing this wrong? His food bowl never goes empty. Also is there any specific food type or brand that I should use as his daily food? Thank you for your help.

Thank you so so much for your advice. I know Alex is pretty awesome bird. He still has fear and sometimes I can see he is shaking. What I like is that, he comes and get his treats from me even if he is shaking out of fear. He has a better trust when he is in his cage behind the bars(I have to be outside the cage, not bringing hand inside the cage). He likes giving me kisses and he never even tried to bite my lips. He is not going on the lower part of his cage even if I put toys for him. So I am not sure how long it will take for him to trust me enough to come down from his cage. He didn't have a good life before and I am sure some his fears come from past. He is so afraid of other pets and I am happy that I don't have any other pet. He enjoys talking and whistling and he likes to play whistle game. Again thanks for your advice.

Hi all, I adopted Alex less than a month ago. He had a stressful life. But he is accepting his new home and start trusting me. He gives me kiss and never try to bite my lips. Anyway he still bite my hand and he bites so hard and so painful. I am trying to make him trust my hand and slowly teach him to Step Up. Well I cannot make enough progress since he bites. You can watch this video, it shows my first attempted to bring my hand close to him while he is out of cage. You can see how aggressively he bites. If you can please watch this video and give me advice and tell me what I am doing wrong. Also I am thinking to use gloves so when he bites I don't need to pull my hand away. I started using gloves yesterday. First few times he was scared of my hand in glove and he didn't like it. But I started feeding him while wearing gloves and he accepted my gloves. He bite but when I tell him No he stop biting. Is it ok to use gloves untill he learn not to bite? FYI: Alex is 18 years old. Thanks in advance for your help.

Thank you for the link. It was really helpful. I watched the video and tried it but Alex doesn't like it. Here is his video of taking shower. I appreciate your comment.

Well mine doesn't back away, he get's angry, start screaming, making himself big and try to reach the spray to bite it. But I never thought about temperature. I try warm spray today to see how will he react.

How should I bring him to Vet? is that ok I use towel to catch him and put him in a small cage? You know our relationship is not that close that he comes on my hand or trust me enough to do it by himself.

I have a question. How should I bath Alex? He doesn't come to my hand, and if I spray water on him, he gets mad and doesn't like it at all.

Here is the new video of Alex giving kiss and me touching his beak. Thank you guys

Guys thank you so much for your help. Alex is improving in his personality. He answers my good morning and he doesn't like me to go to sleep, so he keeps saying good morning when I say good night lol. He is enjoying his time, out of his cage more but still staying on top of his cage only and not showing any sign of allowing me to touch his feathers. Anyway he hold his beak out of the cage and I slowly start touching his beak and he stays there and looks in to my eyes and allow me to to clean his beak. Is that ok to touch his beak? He doesn't show any sign that he wants to bite. My biggest concern now is, he used to chew his tail and that is the main reason his last owner wanted new home for him. Right now he is plucking his feather more and I am worry and want to help him. He loves to chew paper and I give him so much but still he is plucking his feather. Is that normal because he is new in my house? Do I need to do something? How can I help him to stop it? Do I need to bring him to a vet? Thank you every one for your help.

I love what you said, to tell him where I am going and announcing myself. Thank you