Lurker

Sweet! Thanks for all the feedback crew! So I'm just going to take my grey down to get chipped and ask the vet to get some blood or feathers to send out. Thanks again! Another thing...is it bad luck to say give a bird a male name and them find out its a female and change the name? Or vice versa?

Welcome to the gang Bob! There's some good folks around these parts. I'm glad your grey settled in better than mine...still nursing the wounds...to my ego that is...

That's cool. Where do you have them registered? Is there like a centralized avian chip registry? I'm assuming that is an additional cost?

OK...first newbie-why-does-he-bother-asking question. The local "Bird farm" in town has an avian vet on staff. They're having a "Surgical Sexing And Microchipping" event coming up in the next couple weeks. I did an internet search on surgical sexing and it described it as ACTUAL surgery! I thought they just put a probe into a vent to take a feel and called it a day? Is this still a viable option given the relatively easy access to DNA sexing? If DNA is the way to go then how do I get a feather or blood for the sample? I don't want my Grey to hate me because I plucked a feather from it. Still trying to build trust...know what I mean? By the way...it really doesn't matter to me what the gender of my grey is...I'm just curious. As for the microchipping...is it worth it? What data can be stored? Retrieved? Is it just like a P.I.T. tag? Who holds onto the record and how is it verified if the chip ever needs to be used? For identification purposes I assume? I wonder about irritation or my bird digging it out of its skin. Any thoughts, opinions or advice is greatly appreciated. Ok that's enough rambling for now...whew!

Thanks everybody for the kind words. I have to admit I've been on a lot of forums and this has to be one of the friendliest and non confrontational spots around. Anyway I tried to upload some pics from this morning...hope I did it right. I know not to rush a Grey so it's a challenge going at Rex's pace. I have tons of questions but I guess I'll post those in the appropriate(to the best of my limited knowledge) subforums. I'm just tapping away on my lunch break so I have to cut this one short. Thanks again!

Hi everybody! My name is Al. I've been lurking this site for about two years ever since I began researching to get a Grey(hence the name Lurker). I live in Southern California. My family includes a wife, three beautiful daughters, a female German Shepherd, cockatiel and of course now a Grey. I picked up the Grey about two weeks ago which should make it four months old now. The first week was rough and I have the scars to prove it. My Grey was hand fed but still pretty mean...more on that later. Long story short it has come to trust me somewhat. It still sqwuaks when I open the cage but it steps up. We've got the step up command down okay...but just okay. We can shake hands...or feet however you look at it. Also this Grey loves head scratches. As for the name...originally I went with Echo...not too original...I know. But last night I saw Jurassic Park and saw the T Rex and thought "Oh that's the same mannerism as my Grey!" So BOOM! Rex it is. My tiny dino overlord shall henceforth be known as Rex. Yeah...that feels right.