danmcq

Many people have their birds step up to move them from their cage to either go somewhere else or simply to place them on their shoulder where they like to reside. The only time you do not reach inside a birds cage, is if you know they are cage aggressive or cage bound..... Most birds have been trained to know step-up and will lift their talon when they want out or up. They are very intelligent, even if they cannot speak like an african grey and will understand what you are asking and either lift their talon or leave it down meaning they do not want to come out. Both my parrots can not wait to get out of their cages. Dayo will ask for us to open the door and tell us he wants out. Jake the Conure will lift his talon and if ignored will go into a screaming mode, hang on the side of his cage and flap his wings furiously on and off every 10 seconds. All parrots have been trained, some intentionally and some by owners that never bothered, yet believe it or not the parrots were trained by the actions the owner performed. It was either a pleasent thing they looked forward to or a negative thing they came to hate and thus became cage bound and or cage aggressive. The good news is, with a ton of patience and love, it can all be overcome.

FYI for all newer members: Shanlung is one of our most knowledgeable and respected members. He would never do anything that would harm his birds. Remeber, moderation is the key operating word when anythig may be lised on some site as bad for your bird. Some thing are not harmful if it is in small quantites and not frequently given. Every once in a while Dayo likes a sip of my coffee, nip off a cookie etc...

I like Judy's response. Couldn't have said it better. If you go to Harrison's website, you will note that they recommend offering veggies and small quantities of fruits. Does the vet tech understand that pellets do not grow in the wild? I wonder why the wild birds didn't die off long ago without them....

LOL - I know how much enjoyment they get out of destroying the "Other Birds" toys..... Thanks for sharing this.

Cute video of the "Nigh-Night" routine at your house. Thanks for sharing it.

Thats wonderful news Heather!! Thanks for the update.

As Birdnut pointed out, their vision and mental processing power of it are far superior to ours. They see every detail down to slight specks we would never even notice....maybe even how a single eyelash or two shaped differently. They really have no smell capabilities at all. All the mental focus and acuity is by sight and sound, sight primarily.

Thats a great story! Thanks for sharing it. They do keep us entertained with their opinions don't they? Dayo will sometimes laugh when watching TV and sometimes it is something that is not funny to us humans like a person getting blown away by gun fire or a bomb. Maybe he thinks it funny we do that to our fellow humans?

Boy is that right! They are NEVER fickle. It's either yes or no.

Judy is right. A very negative association with boxes will take a while to overcome. As she suggested, having it in view, also with a fairly large square cut in the front for entrance and you playing with it and making big fun noises and hoopla with it may peak the interest enough to explore it on her own terms and ever so slowly getting closer and closer to it. I use Large 10lb Milk Bone boxes and also the long skinny 12 or 18 pack soda cartons.

Cardboard boxes are fine for your fids. It is thought to be two things 1) Foraging behavior. 2) Nest activity that they do to clear any poo that may reside where they are going to lay down.

I think we all learned through a ton of trial and error, formal education and then trial and error with that. In the later years, we learned to lighten up, see things from other perspectives by listening to our peers, that we once thought were mortal enemies because we thought our way was the only way. Every great person became great at what they are known for through trial and error. Some keep learning and refining, some learn enough to get them by and stay at that level and some try and just give up. The world is full of all the various levels and we all learned something from each type person on our way down the path of enlightenment, understanding and wisdom. So ask all the questions you wish, before you think you know it all.

I hope all goes well and the antibiotics take care of this. It is also possible that AnnaBella became infected by another source than the breeder. Critters such as reptiles, cats etc. also can be carriers. One note as well, it is one disease of the few diseases that can be transmitted to humans.

No, this was the first time he had gotten a prized possession while any of our family has been here. I am positive they are NOT thinking about getting a parrot any time soon.

I am glad you all found it as an amusing story. Kim and I laughed about it AFTER our Son and family went to bed that night. But, the good news is, there were no bruises other than to some pride about how well behaved Dayo is. These greys are always a surprise just waiting to happen.

Just had to share this video.

So my Son and Family came down this weekend. Dayo and Jake know and love them all, all the way down to the 1 year old toddler. Both birds interact well with the adults, children are off limits. My Son and Daughter in Law like Jake the conure on their shoulder, but not Dayo, his large size and beak just scares them too much. All went well until Saturday afternoon. Dayo was doing fly by's and spotted an ink pen my DIL had just placed on the table where she was working on one of our laptops, Dayo circles around the room, lands on the pen and grabs with is beak and flies off before she can she can yell unspeakable curse word. So she calls, I and Kim go running to see what the hell is going on and Dayo up on HIS hanging wine rack with pen in beak chomping, but not yet broken. So I and my wife play football offense as he ducks, weaves and scrambles about. Finally my wife got a hold of the pen and the only way to get it from Dayo was to pull hard enough that he released his talons and took off in flight to avoid being pulled through the air along with the pen. Kim takes the pen back and gives it to our DIL, walks out, Dayo flies in like an eagle on a death dive, lands on my DIL's shoulder, pinches her cheek before she knew what happened (no puncture) then he hops down, pulls a key off the keyboard and goes flying off with his wonderful Pterodactyl scream landing on his wine rack again.... I go to get the key, he flies to my head, releases the key, tries to bite me, gets shooed off and then flies to Kim's neck and nips her with a good pinch. I then go and get Dayo off her on my forearm, place my other hand over his back lightly and quickly take him and place him in his cage before he decides to take a digit off my hand holding him lightly down.... He stayed in the cage the rest of the afternoon, pacing back and forth, contact calling and later finally calmed down, asked to open the door and let him out. Well that was four hours later and he was finally past his rage that we had taken his prize pen he claimed as his and all went well the rest of the weekend... I must say, I had to keep from laughing while all that went on, but had to teach him a lesson in proper manners with guest and us, regardless of how pissed he may be...... Thought I would share a normal day with a grey with "Tude".

Hoping for the best with Anna Bella.

I hope you do get that new baby! Dave - I think you got them backwards....

It's good to hear the vet got you on a new regimen. The blood tests when lab analysis is completed will give a lot more specifics on what could be an underling cause for the calcium and vitamin D deficiency

Just order an avian sun 5.0 bulb and stand from the cheapest website you can find. It should be able to reach over the top of the cage and should be placed approximately 18 inches above where Issac normally perches. It will not cause cataracts. Cataracts are caused by placing the light to where it is shining from the side and directly into there eyes. It is also caused by people using the wrong type of bulbs normally intended from reptiles by a moronic pet store clerk. Reptiles require much high levels of UV. If your cage is too tall for the avian sun stand an arm to reach over it, then get the feather brite swag lamp Kim has gotten. UV full spectrum lighting is necceary for all our birds health unless you can take them out in full sun each day for a few hours.

At his age, he knows what he wants and what he will allow. One thing about the cage and cleaning or moving toys around while they are in them. They will many times bite and puff up because you are invading their home and messing up their toys. My wife can do many things to our greys cage with him in it, I cannot without watching where he is and ensuring no finger, face or body part is close enough for him to deliver a bite to. In regards the face, nose lips ect'. Do not get them near your grey. They are very soft and can be pierced by what they grey considers a very soft warning or exploratory nibble.

Ditto to all other replies. Let the expert determine when the time is right. Most would not let you take it home anyway before they know the baby is ready. I know your feelings and I think we all wanted our greys home sooner as we visited them constantly until they were ready. One thing our breeder did do, was let us take our grey home for 4 to 8 hours and interact with him, get him used to his soon to be new cage, home and people on weekends staring from week 12 to week 15. Perhaps your will opt to do that as well.

YOur right, the honeymoon is over, biting is a normal behavior many times and you just need to be very acute at reading his body language. It has nothing to do with hormones, it's a parrot and when body language is missed, bites occur.

Getting your CAG as a baby and socializing it with your while while teaching them what is and is not acceptable is the best way to go. Most very young child are so active with fast jerky motions that your new grey will learn quickly to stay away from them when they are all fired up. Hopefully if you keep your grey flighted, he or she will just fly away when those high engergy moments take place, other wise a growl, scream and possibly a bite will take place.