danmcq

Congratulations Pam!!! Looking forward to hearing how this is going and seeing some photos. :-)

Hello Karen, It sounds like there are many dynamics taking place in Pippins life. He has had a terrible time with wing clips and vet visits. He is maturing and it sound like he is transferring his affections to other family members, as they do sometimes (Which is fine and normal behaviour sometimes). He now has a competitor for attention, namely the addition of the Amazon that has latched on to you for attention. I could be wrong, but I have a gut feeling the addition of another bird to your home, whether a Grey or not. Is just bad timing and would increase the changing social dynamics in his flock and home. With you linking the arrival of the Amazon to the timing of Pippins spiral downwards and shift in attentions. I think you hit the nail on the head in terms of his reactions and change in favorites and feather plucking. You may just need to sit back for a while and not try to force interaction with Pippin. Let the relationship with your husband and son blossom and encourage them to spend as much time as possible interacting with him and giving him the love, encouragement and support he needs to overcome his present resentment and perhaps a slow down in the feather plucking. It may be hard, but you can enjoy Pippin still from a distance and love him just a strongly as you always have. Just as our children grow and change their need for up close and personal interaction. So do our Greys as they mature and start becoming more and more independent. To sum this up, you have two things to work on here: 1 - Let the new relationship take its natural course between Pippin, your husband and son. Encourage them to give him all the time and love he requests. Let them be the ones to mist him, care for him etc. You can still take part too, but in a lesser degree. But, you should as much as he will tolerate. 2 - The feather plucking and need to mist with Aloe, place gel on any red and irritated areas needs to be done consistently. Also get some Red Palm oil and start including that in his diet. There are threads detailing the use of Red Palm Oil and how to mix it in with foods undetected by your grey. Just type in Red Palm Oil in the search filed and hit enter to find them. I do hope Dave will also comment on your post, as he has tons of experience in dealing with exactly this type of situation.

Congratulations on the arrival of Chazwick!! I see he is already showing off a few aerial moves for you as he checks out his new home. It's good to hear the two are communicating a little across the room. :-) Looking forward to hearing more as time a familiarity progress as he settles in.

Welcome Michael, Christine and soon to come Gregory!! You have done a GreYt thing in checking out rescues instead of running out and buying a baby Grey. Kudos to you!! The others have given expert cage advice and opinions. Thanks for posting the photo of Gregory and Christine. :-) Looking forward to hearing lots of updates as the day draws near to bring Gregory home and cage selection. :-)

Welcome Davey and Alfie!! It's GreYt having you here and looking forward to hearing more from you and seeing some photos when you get a chance. :-)

Wow, it sounds like Cooper has been making great progress under your loving care. He sounds like a real joy to have around and interact with. Thanks for posting such a nice update on him. :-)

Wow, awesome. I love the coloring and intense red against the very contrasting Black Feathers on this TAG!! Jen - Hope you don't mind, I edited the link so the image would just show. :-)

A magician was working on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. The audience would be different each week, so the magician allowed himself to do the same tricks over and over again. There was only one problem: The captain's parrot saw the shows every week and began to understand what the magician did in every trick. Once he understood that, he started shouting in the middle of the show. "Look, it's not the same hat!" "Look, he's hiding the flowers under the table!" "Hey, why are all the cards the Ace of Spades?" The magician was furious but couldn't do anything, it was the captain's parrot after all. One day the ship had an accident and sank. The magician found himself on a piece of wood, in the middle of the ocean, and of course the parrot was by his side. They stared at each other with hate, but did not utter a word. This went on for several days. After a week the parrot finally said, "Okay, I give up. What'd you do with the boat?"

Oh boy, I feel so sorry for Pippin. I can see why he would be constantly irritated and with no supporting layers of overlapping feathers to help protect and cover the new ones growing in, they are delicate and exposed to hit objects and get knocked loose or broken easily. But, in the photo, he looks like he is just happy to be with and around you in his home. :-) Hopefully Dave, who rescued a Grey that was plucked clean almost, can guide you in the right direction to and get you off on a good start at this stage of the game.

Wow, nice photos. Sarge sounds like a real joy to have around. Thanks for sharing these. :-)

Ah Ha, Cracker is now graduated to a "Metallica" hard rocker I see, with the spiked hair to prove it. ;-) Great photo of that little sweety!!

LOL and Amen!! {Feel-good-0002006E}

Know that the entire house is up, dogs fed, birdies fed, people fed and 4 cups of Joe down. I'm working my way through all the GreYt posts on this site from all our beloved members. :-) Good stuff, can't ever get enough. I do know wifey is looking at me with that "When are you going to do something today?" look.... :whistle: :lol:

Awww, Sushi is a cutey!!! :-)

Thats great news Bea on Otis!! It does sound like a new and perhaps overwhelming trip for him and I assume probably his first such fairly long outting. They do get "Strange" after events that affected them and they are processing all that. Almost like a woman that has become miffed over something. ;-) Then remains silent for days. :-)

I agree with Baxtersmom. As they mature or if they are already mature, they do have a mind and will of their own. There are times that we may simply want them to step up for just a little loving. The timing may be bad for them and they want to continue preening, playing, eating or whatever it is they are focused on. By backing away, running or whatever action they take to avoid it. They are letting us know it's not really what they wish to do at that time. I do not know of any Parrot that will step up 100% of the time when asked to do so. They may exist, but I just haven't ran into them so far. Thus meaning that probably 95% have a mind of their own and will not blindly do something just because we decide we want them to do something else. There are times it is a "Must Do" and thats when the back of a tightened fist comes towards them that they can not get a good bite on and they are forced to step up they can be moved where need be. They will also learn to read your body language and temperament and know when it's not an optional request. :-)

Dave's right on, as always. We have always kissed Dayo and let him explore our lips, from the outside only. But, when he becomes excited, there have been are few little nips that really wakes you up to the fact that lips are like butter and that beak can easily crack open Almonds shells. We are now VERY cautious with any beak to mouth activity or even movement by him towards that area unexpectedly. A VERY painful point in fact of how quick and how bad a bite can be. Just last night upon returning home after being working out of town for 4 days. I was interacting with Dayo, high-fives, scratches all that lovey dovey stuff and then started playing with him. He has a Bell he loves to get very aggressive with and so I reach up, rang it and said get the Bell!! Well, instead of attacking the Bell, as I had expected, he attacked my hand instead like it was the Toy. Not expecting this, I was not prepared or even the slightest concerned this would happen, but he bit the S#$T out of my hand!! Right between the thumb and index finger where the large muscle is between the two. The only thing that kept him from severing the large blood vein therein, was instead of pulling away, which is a fairly natural reaction, I pushed toward him to throw him off balance and not be able to complete the bite through my entire hand. I now have two very deep and painful puncture wounds, one from the bottom beak and one from the top. They are only about a 1/4 inch inside my hand at a depth of 1/2 inch from touching each other. The point of this, is if this was the lip, it would be an emergency trip to the hospital for stitches and a permanent ugly facial scar for the rest of your life, barring reconstructive plastic surgery. So think about the possibility of sometime.......not expecting it........out of the blue.......BAM :ohmy:

Congratulations Cflanny on hearing the firsts words!!! What an exciting day that is for every Grey owner that eagerly anticipates it. :-)

Wow, Karen, you have really been through the mill with Pippin. :ohmy: Obviously you have done everything you can in the way of Vet visits, provide a good diet, foraging and play toys, great home environment and lighting. Thanks for posting such a thorough update, which sheds a lot of light on Pippin and what he and you have been through. How does Pippin interact with you now? When he decides to come out of his cage, is he interested in being close to you or interacting with you on any level? I really feel for you and Pippin. It's been a tough 2 years and it will be a long process to help him become feather once again and to stop the plucking due to the irritation he is surely experiencing at this point. We do try to provide as much support and empathy as possible in a virtual environment such as this forum. It provides us all a connection with others that have the same common interests and true concern for all and their flock. There are many here with tons of experience in every area of Parrot keeping that you can imagine to include helping a Grey overcome plucking and how to best put them on the path to becoming fully feathered again. I am positive they will respond to this post also. I am looking forward to hearing more from you and seeing some photos of pippin when you get a chance. :-)

Welcome AlphaWolf and Rebel!! Wow, you've had Rebel a long time and obviously did a wonderful job in taming him and getting him adapted to cohabitation with humans, which I am positive was a real challenge. Kudos for that. :-) It would be interesting to hear about the techniques you used and how he progressed over time. Looking forward to hearing a lot more from you and seeing some photos when you get a chance.

Welcome weetinks!! It's nice having you here and looking forward to hearing more and seeing some photos when you get a chance. :-)

Welcome Pugwash and Elvis!!! It's GreYt to have you here. Looking forward to hearing more from you and seeing some photos of Elvis once you have that sorted out. :-)

Man, what a heart rending story Pat. I feel so sorry for tha woman and her FIDs. My prayers are for her .....

Thats wonderful news Pat, thanks for the update. She is one big beautiful girl!! :-)

This is interesting. My Grey fights to get at our coffee cups and we must be on the watch at all times as to not forget and set a cup down and go do something. We come back and his gulping down coffee like a madman. Will definitely get him warm water and see if that will resolve the coffee battles. :-)