danmcq

Welcome Gazreesy to the forum. Congrats on your new baby grey. I am looking forward to hearing much more about him. The new cage sounds great.

Congrats on the new baby grey. You do need to get that room up to at least a constant 20 Celsius. Below that is too cold. As I am certain you know, they are from the African equatorial zone meaning they need warm temperatures and also higher humidity for good health.

Went fishing caught 4 Deer A once in the history of mankind kind of thing. The Best Day Of Fishing Ever! Some fishing stories are a little hard to believe but this guy has pictures to prove his story... I've heard of salmon jumping into boats, but never anything quite like this... Tom Satre told the Sitka Gazette that he was out with a charter group on his 62-foot fishing vessel when four juvenile black-tailed deer swam directly toward his boat. "Once the deer reached the boat, the four began to circle the boat, looking directly at us. We could tell right away that the young bucks were distressed. I opened up my back gate and we helped the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals onto the boat. In all my years fishing, I've never seen anything quite like it! Once on board, they collapsed with exhaustion, shivering." "This is a picture I took of the rescued bucks on the back of my boat, the Alaska Quest. We headed for Taku Harbour. Once we reached the dock, the first buck that we had pulled from the water hopped onto the dock, looked back as if to say 'thank you' and disappeared into the forest. After a bit of prodding and assistance, two more followed, but the smallest deer needed a little more help. This is me carrying the little guy. [/url] My daughter, Anna, and son, Tim, helped the last buck to its feet. We didn't know how long they had been in the icy waters or if there had been others who did not survive. My daughter later told me that the experience was something that she would never forget, and I suspect the deer felt the same way as well!" I told you! Awesome! Our Lord works in mysterious ways... "Kindness is the language the blind can see and the deaf can hear." - Mark Twain

Only us grey owners know this to be true. As you state, the rest of the non-grey owning world unfortunately and errantly believes we are liars or insane when we speak of the intellect and cognizance of our greys. Thanks for sharing this. I love hearing of Gracie!

She probably does like your family. But would prefer to see them in her home, not theirs. She is no longer the docile baby of just a few months old to a year old. She is in her two's and is exercising her will stronger than ever and using her best physical and verbal ways of letting you know she has no desire to go to your parents house. As you know, a grey has every inch of your home mapped out and is comfortable and confident in it. She knows and expects the routines and times they happen through out the day and evening. When she goes to your parents house everything is different. The schedule, the sights, sounds, people and interactions. To say she would be anxious and not her normal self is just the tip of the iceberg of whats going on in her brain as it analyzes everything in real time. If you could take a pet scan it would look like a lighting storm going in there. Of all the parrot species, greys do not like change, stick solely to their flock and reject all others. So in a nutshell, Gracie is a normal grey. You expected anything less?

Welcome Nizakov. I don't know what sound your referring to when watching the streaming video from your nest box camera. Why don't you introduce yourself and your breeder greys. When was the last time you checked the nest box?

LOL, well that explains it. Nothing starts until a good after the meal burp to signal letting the conversation begin time. I am certain more well follow from Escher. Thanks for sharing this.

What a very entertaining video of Miss Dayo. I don't what it is with greys and "Crazy Legs", but when they lay down like that or sometimes when perched on one foot it's like their leg just goes all spastic in the excitement of it all. She is looking beautiful also. Thanks for sharing this.

It is amazing and a marvel to see it unfold and take place as they age. I find it intriguing as well at the words and phrases they decide are important to them and use them most frequently. I love the "Give me a kiss" interaction, how warming and endearing is that?

Greys for the most part have a favored person. That is you. They remain fairly consistent in all interactions with that person. All other people will receive different privileges based upon how well the grey likes them, if it feels like a scratch, wants to step up or interact with them at all that point in time. When people are visiting and interacting with you and your grey, there are many dynamics at play. The grey may feel happy at first to see them and wish to interact. Your grey may start feeling like a person is taking the majority of your attention and become jealous and display unfriendly behavior at that time. There are times a grey just does not wish to be bothered with interaction and wants to sit and chill. It is things like this that cause the different responses you see your guests getting from your grey at different times. It is completely normal in my opinion. If you have the opportunity and time, it is really a good idea to try and teach your family and friends a little about grey body language so they can recognize when your grey is accepting of and wanting up close interaction and when he is clearly showing through body language he is not interested at the time.

I agree with others 100 percent. If this started after flying in to a mirror initially, your zon could have a blood clot, hemorrhage etc. causing this. Only an avian vet can diagnose anything like this. Let's put it this way, if your mother all of sudden started having an eye issue like this, would you put off dialing 911? Believe me, thats how serious this could be.

Dayo does not say his own name. Well very rarely, he will say it if he is fearful of something and he reassures himself as he SLOWLY approaches it while saying "It's ok Dayo". Just like humans, we don't walk around saying our own names. Dayo will call our other parrot, my wife and I, my sons, grandchildren and dogs by name when when addressing them. Some greys do say their names though as Timbermoms does. But, that does not sem to be the "norm" for a grey.

Welcome Quirky and Jake, it's GreYt having you here. Thanks for the nice introduction. We are looking forward to hearing much more as this journey progresses.

Wow Murfchick, that is awesome. It dwarfs your grey. I can imagine a lot of playtime goes on with that. Thanks for posting this.

Good questions! You have received a lot of great responses from several people here. I'll give my take on this from our experience in selecting dayo or should I say he selected us. When we decided to get a grey we search for breeders in our local area. We found one just a few minutes from our house. As it turned out they had two clutches of Grey's that were approximately 6 weeks old. We started visiting the breeders 3 to 4 times each week. At the age of approximately 10 weeks old, two Greys started coming to us each time we came. One in particular we wound up naming dayo would run to the front of the cage climb up the door and start calling to us from the cage when we walked in. He could not wait for us to come to the cage and open the door so he could step up. The other grey we named Leah would then also run to the front of the cage and have one of us pick her up. Over the next six weeks until the grays were 16 weeks old dayo and Leah consistently came to us while the others stood far off. There was no doubt that dayo and Leah had chosen us. We wound up with just dayo. During the first six months dayo was my wife's cuttle muffin. He tolerated me and interacted with me, but not nearly as much as he did with my wife. Even though I was the one that wanted a grey and considered him mine, I had to face the fact that my wife was his cuttle muffin. I was the one that got bit most the time and I put up with it. I would correct him of course, but I still occasionally get bitten to this day seven years later. From six months onward dayos personality started changing as he aged. At one year of age he started becoming more independent. He would bite my wife occasionally and me more often. He still enjoyed his cuttle times with my wife and scratches etc. At two years old he became a real hellion and was becoming very independent. Then what was his, what was ours was his, if he could see it, it was his and if he thought about it was his. He would violently protect anything he considered his by biting. He would at times fly and either bite your hand or fly around to the back of your neck and give a good pinch. This continued for the entire year he was two and also into the third year. He was also becoming more independence to the point that he would enjoy just sitting in his own areas such as on the play stand top, of the couch or on the kitchen counter. He still had cuttle sessions with my wife in the evenings and got scratches as well. Continuing on years four through seven, dayo has mellowed out. Bites are few and far in between. He is very content most days just to set hang out on a tree stand back of the couch and just enjoy sharing our living space with us. Evening time is when he normally want scratches and just kicking it with us while he sits on one of us most the time my wife. He is fully mature now and has truly established himself as his own individual with his own personality. Long story short, even though he chose us did not mean he would remain a cuttle muffin for life. He has become a true African grey that maintains all the wild instincts. We now let him choose how he wishes to interact with us and when. It would be of no use to continually try to make him the cuttle muffin he was one of baby. It wouldn't be natural, it would never happen and it reminds me much as we watched our own human children go from baby to adult, they will never be that baby cuddle they were in the beginning. So as others have said, taking in a baby, a two-year-old grey or even an older grey, the grey will dictate the relationship. They each become individuals, some will remain cuttle muffins, but not many. I personally, knowing much more than I did in the begging, would not hesitate to take in a grey or any age in need of a home. The reason I say this, is because of our own experience. Getting your grey as a baby or adult will result either way in the grey being who they will be regardless of what you wish for. I love the grey species as a whole and am not disappointed the Dayo became the gregarious and glorious creature he was intended to be. Only you though, must decide if you want the experience from baby to adult or not. Thats the only difference.

There are many different types of hanging play gyms. We have a little difference hanging play gym than the one pictured. Our birds enjoy hanging out on it. Here's a photo of ours.No matter which type of hanging play gym you choose. I have no doubt your birds will enjoy them.

Thanks for sharing the original meeting of you and Misty. I love the natural tree stand that you have in your house for him. He looks like he's enjoying the mince pie immensely. I'm sure you have a more photos, videos and stories to share with us over the last 10 years that you have spent with Misty. I hope you share them with us over this next year.

Wow Stephen what a way to bring in the new year. It's good to hear everything worked out okay for you. A ruptured appendix can be very serious. As others have already said it's very possible that Isaac could have possibly sensed the underlying illness. I hope this New Year's Day find you and Isaac in better shape. Take care of yourself my friend.

Your new grey looks to be in good health and very acutely aware of what you're doing. Thanks for sharing these photos.

LOL! Nothing is sacred from the Beak! Thanks for sharing this. Happy New year!

Thats good to hear breezy. You are both going to have a wonderful life time journey with your grey.

Just my opinion, but no one should use a glove so they can pick up a parrot with out fear of a pinch or bite. Your grey is a baby and beaking is what a parrot does naturally. They beak everything to learn texture and firmness. At that young age they have no idea if they are applying too much pressure or not unless it is a living thing that gives feedback such as you are doing. Drawing blood or a firm pinch means your grey did not want to be picked up by your husband. As already mentioned, your husband needs to at least put enough effort in mentally to watch and learn body language. It's not the birds fault when someone ignores body language then gets a hard pinch or bite. Having and caring for a parrot must be unconditional love and understanding. If your husband never wishes to get a pinch or a bite, he should not even try to interact with your grey. Getting mad and saying you should get rid of your grey because he was bitten is ridiculous and coming completely out of pure anger at that moment. Your grey is very in tune with emotions and feels that anger from your husband. They respond to anger with a defensive bite because they are fearful of being harmed. If the grey was as big as your husband, it would knock your hubby on his ass and then your husband would know he needs to change his attitude and how he interacts with a grey. Here are some links you and husband should read, print them for your husband since he does not belong to this forum: http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?109373-Body-language-most-frequently-seen http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?126227-Grey-Personality-changes-in-years Your grey being a baby right now is going to change rapidly over the months and years to come. The present age of your grey is very dependent on the parents for everything and this is the time they learn not only how to survive and food types and sources, it is also when they learn how to interact properly with the flock. It is crucial that you and your husband learn all you can on teaching and training your baby grey how to interact with humans. It is your utmost responsibility how to interact with a grey. They are wild creatures and not like a dog that has evolved it's relationship with humans over thousands of years and become "Domesticated" and seek out a relationship with us. It us us that must learn how to properly interact with parrots properly and understand they are going to be a wild parrot no matter what. As your grey hits 6 months, 12 months, 2 years etc. You are going to see your grey become much more independent and display it's wants, desires, likes, dislikes etc. If you ignore anyone of these, you can expect a bite are possibly even an attack. I am not saying this to scare you, but to forewarn you so you understand the importance of what your teaching your grey at this point in time. It will determine how your grey interacts with you and other humans the rest of it's life. It is a huge responsibility to taken in a care for a wild creature. It's life and how much it enjoys it is hanging solely on you for the next 40 to 50 years.

How true. Thanks for posting this.

Congrats! The words will just continue to flow over time. I am looking forward to the day you can capture it on video.

Happy B-Day Ray!