danmcq

Welocome Daniel and Pooka! It's GreYt having you here. Thanks for the nice intro, photos and video. I'll bet you have a ton more to share as well and I'm looking forward to it.

Yep, 12 hours does seem to be the recommended and norm if you count the naps in the day time. I would say dayo our grey sleeps about 8 hours during the night and takes naps at various times through out the day. He will not go to his cage until we shut down the tv and go to bed ourselves which is normally between 9 and 10pm. Jake the conure is totally ruled by the daylight hours. When that sun starts disappearing in the horizon, he crawls in his cage and calls for us to close the cage and cover him. At 630 am, both the birds are anxiously awaiting to be uncovered. Every grey is different though. It seems to me many greys do not wish to go to bed until the entire household is ready to.

We have had dogs all our lives. Your right, they do take care of themselves most the time. They don't need 24/7 attention like a parrot. I suppose it all boils down to pack versus flock mentality. As long as the dogs know your in the house somewhere, their happy to just snooze, after their day walks and romp arounds. A parrot wants to be able to see you AND be with/on you a lot of the time. It also takes a lot of work to provide a parrot a proper diet and get them to eat a wide variety of healthy foods for them. A dog, well they'll eat anything the can reach and until they have to throw up if they eat too much. I will say after being gone for a few hours and coming home, both dogs and parrots are just anxiously waiting for the door to open so they can mob you. It is a fact that us parrot powers are a much smaller group and most family and friends do not understand all the muss and fuss we must do to take care of their every need.

Well, we tried to discourage the multiple regurges because Dayo would empty himself for kim during that time. Just assuring and providing a distraction like a foot toy helped in getting it down to one most the time. We know it is a natural instinct. I personally do not think it is healthy for them to regurge 2,3 and even 4 times. I could be wrong, but it's worked for us and dayo.

I believe you may need to use a perch for the step up when she requests by raising a talon. That is possibly what the previous owner used. From the photos and your description of her exploring and hanging out with you all, she does not seem at all fearful of the new surroundings our people and pets in the home which is great. There is nothing wrong with letting her explore as you are. The hardest part of having a rehomed grey is learning the up close and personal interactions, how they are used to doing etc. from her previous home. You'll learn over time and I hope you can avoid the bites as yo learn her body language to avoid those bites. Well at least the majority of them. We all pretty much get a bite every now and then because they are master of the poker face and sucker bite. She seems very happy in your home to me. Thanks for sharing all the photos, I love them!!!

ajlinva - Thats what this forum is all about, asking questions, bouncing things off of others and trying to provide the best home for our greys as possible. I think perhaps you took Dave's post wrong. When we do not know or suspect something may not be good or possibly even harmful to our greys, we always defer to asking an avian vet. We would never want to give advice off the cuff that we really have no clue about and end up harming anothers much loved grey by our incorrect and bad advice. You've explored all avenues in trying to stop the plucking and kudo's to you for that! The sock your using now is sometimes necessary to stop the plucking of that area to give that irritated area time to heal and regrow feathers. You can take it off and mist with 100 percent Aloe Juice. let it dry and put the sock back on immediately. Perhaps if the re-feathering is accomplished using the sock, once taken off and the irritation from the previous plucking is gone, the plucking may just stop. You just never know until you have tried it. I saw your request to be removed from membership. But, I believe somehow we may have offended you without any intention of doing so. Sometimes our words and intentions are misunderstood and taken the wrong way. You've been a member here since 2008 and I certainly hope you continue to be. The only goal of this forum is to share information with each other and enjoy hearing about others greys and helping if we can.

Just a note on this. The regurging can happen through out their life. It is a natural instinct and it is a sign of their love and need for you. I did not mean you could stop it completely. As I pointed out about our Dayo, he will regurge sometimes just seeing my wife when we walk in the door after being gone for a few hours. I just meant to discourage it from happening over and over by just calming them, telling them it's not necessary in a very sweet and calm voice and perhaps diverting their attention to a foot toy , just stopping the scratching for a minute or so etc. At first, dayo would regurge two and sometimes three times in a row for my wife. It then lessened over time.

You can try ringing your breeder, but I suspect you'll get a "This number has been disconnected".

Oh! Well welcome to the Bite Me Club then.

Congrats! Looking forward to lots of updates and photos.

LOL Dave. Perfectly stated from a parrots point of view. I laughed and also related to the entire list of abusive things.

Well, thats a really good question. Getting a baby is no guarantee that they will bond with you. They could become your love muffin or another in your home. Also, they may allow some up close interaction, but not like you hear and see some stories of. I got Dayo for me, but my wife has been his love muffin since we started visiting him at the breeders for 6 weeks old onwards. But, even not being his love muffin. I still enjoy just having watched him grow from a baby to full adulthood. They are amazing whether they like lots of up close interaction or not. I kind of view them as a human child. When just babies and young children, they will hug, sit on your lap and just love on you. When they hit there teens, that all disappears. Many times the same is true with a grey once they hit 1 to 2 years old and onwards. So in other words it seems to me to be not much different in rescuing a grey. The exception is they come with baggage from their previous owners. The good, the bad and the ugly. Some rescued greys are love muffins, some will be more stand offish but still be a joy to have from the get go and lastly some will be a work in progress for many months and possibly years. But, the most important thing I try to pass on to anyone considering getting a parrot either as a baby or a rescue. Is you do so with unconditional love just as you have for a human birthed child and it's for life. Yours or the parrots. Rescuing means you wish to take them out of the hell they were in and welcome them in to your home knowing that whether they love you are not. They are safe, well taken care and will never under your care experience abuse physically, mentally or dietary.

Well, she is smart! You offered your hand for a step up and asked wanna step up? She walks over and gives a 3 second slight nip which meant "No Thanks". 3 seconds is nothing really. If they truly want to bite and damage, they will latch on and keep clamping harder and harder some times even moving the beak side to side as they do so. One thing when you ask for a step up, if you don't see a talon go up, that normally means no. Speaking of bites, just to illustrate. My grey Dayo is not my love muffin, my wife is his love muffin. Anyway, I haven't received a bite from him in probably a month, so I was long over due. He was laying on his back on the couch next to my wife last night as she was scratching the top of his head. She got a phone call, Dayo stayed like that with his talons up in the air. He looks over at me as if to say, ok you can take over the scratches now. So I give him some for about 30 seconds, then like The Exorcist movie, his eyes turn black, his head spins around and he grabs the middle of my middle finger and clamps down hard and flips his body over. Then I start saying no bite as I left my finger away. He stays clamped down even harder as I lift him clear off the couch, then he starts flying and staying clamped down and I'm still moving my hand up and down as he keeps on flying with it, then THANK GOD he finally let go and flew over to the T-Stand... So then gushing blood, I tightly hold the wound and make my way over to get a paper towel to stop the bleeding. Now thats a BITE. Just for comparison of what you experienced. Anyway as Judy said, avoid the hand contact for now and just let her tootle around and come up to you as she see's fit.

GreYt name. Most greys like spicy hot foods like hot peppers, red , green etc.

Nice photo of Kizzy! Beautiful scenery too.

Oh, I know you are enjoying and soaking up every second of her new adventures. I love the Bull Rush! That and the boot stomping. I believe you have a punk rocker there. I would imagine her adventures takes a lot out of her, as she is fearful, happy, bold and yet not letting the fear overcome her desire to explore, be free and discover life as it should be. No doubt that heightened alertness, fear and stress she pushes past takes a lot out her. But, you can imagine she is rim sleeping and visioning the wonders the world has to offer for her to explore and enjoy.

Bless you for giving Raven the best home she could have landed in to spend the rest of her short life feeling loved with the best of care money could by. Also, thank you for sharing this heat touching story with us. Raven will forever leave her mark on many people.

The important thing is she is out, roaming, raising hell and exploring. I love reading of her adventures and step by step accounts of her actions and responses. She is starting to realize she has a will she can actually exercise without being tormented and locked down for life in a cage. But, she has her more friendly moments as well and I thinks she's doing GreYt. You have done a wonderful job in giving her all the time and patience she has needed.

Your doing great so far. It's just slow as you go. Getting it around and under the wings could take a while. But, the way your are respecting his rejection when it gets outside his comfort level is spot on. The most important thing, is to make certain a "Bad Experience" for him does not happen as much as you can. I don't know if you've watched the dvd that comes with it. But it clearly shows and recommends slow and steady steps as you go until they are fully comfortable with a step before trying to progress further. My grey, when I first finally got to the step of getting the harness almost tightened went into a tantrum and wrapped himself all up in it, start biting it and rolling around etc. It took a few minutes for him to settle down and a couple of peanuts to keep his beak busy while I untangled and got it off him. I was very close to cutting it off, but the peanuts worked. It took several tries over a couple weeks before I actually got it fully on , tightened and took him for a stroll outside. Then each time I got the harness out, it was hit or miss if he would actually let me get it fully on and out for a few minutes. This was when he was between 6 to 8 months old. Now, years later, we no longer even try. He became more and more resistive. He has no desire to go out in the harness now. So we have a pak-o-bird and a travel cage he loves to go in either. It's actually much safe in a carrying type cage because we have hawks every corner you turn around here.

Jesus, the first cage was bought for a budgie? Well, for a 100 bucks I'd by it if I lived in that area just as a spare. I agree with the others that #2 is better. Greys use a lot more of the width of a cage than they do the vertical.

Yes, Mint plants are fine for parrots. Enjoy some yourself along with him. Cute photo!

Great replies by all.Only one thing to add in regards flight and perhaps crashing in to a window or mirror. Close blinds, cover mirrors or even put parial see through stickies on them so it will be obvious it is not an opening. It takes them a while to "Know" what a window is and where they are in a new home. Plus, I suspect your grey probably did not get a lot of flight time and taking quick banks, hovering etc. have probably not been perfected yet. It takes many flights and time for a bird to learn all the critical flight skills to avoid obstacles and crashes.

What a cutey pie! Thanks for sharing this.

Nice! I am so happy for you. Thanks for sharing the photo. The only thing missing is you need an eye patch... Arrrrr.

Oh she is so in love with you! That is sexual behavior.