danmcq

Well, as Lola ages, she is becoming more adventurous and also not thinking twice about biting the one like yourself that is not the favored love muffin. These behaviors will need to be dealt with in different ways. The first is her chewing on things she likes doing so on. The only way to stop that is first put a little stuffed toy with eyes on those trouble spots. She will not venture there any longer until she becomes used to them. Once she does, you get another different looking stuffed toy wit eye's. You can also get up a gazillion times and remove her from where she is not allowed, but that normally does not stop them. The bites you are receiving can only be slowed by you paying very close attention to her body language. You probably already know as you go in for a step up if she wishes to or not. If she does not, then just back off and avoid the bite unless you must get her to put her in the cage for example. When she does bite, tell her NO BITE and take her to her cage for a time out immediately and leave her in there for around 5 minutes then let her out again. This will help lessen those bites as well over time as she learns that bites equals cage time. Of course she may still choose to bite and suffer the cage time once in a while because you may have just pissed her off. I hope this helps. Others will have comments as well.

Big Bow's to you MoonRock for bringing this up. Yes, funds for purchased DVD's are sent to the Alex Foundation: Life with Alex: A Memoir Their website: http://lifewithalexmovie.com/ Click to enlarge. This 55 minute video is a compelling tribute to the famous African Grey Parrot known as Alex. This DVD contains never-before-released footage of Alex using meaningful human speech to convey his daily thoughts and feelings. We learn about Alex’s daily life, relationships, and accomplishments, all of which changed forever what we know about how animals think. Also included with this DVD are “Special Features” of Alex, Dr. Pepperberg and the students who worked with Alex. A portion of the proceeds of this film will be donated to The Alex Foundation.

Great story on Misty's cognitive abilities Steve. I love reading stories like this. Thanks for sharing it.

They have released this movie. Just posting to bring this thread to the top so others can view comments be others on this. If anyone has gotten and watched this, it would be great to hear a review. Here is a link to Bird Channel with a write up and links on the page. http://www.birdchannel.com/bird-news/2012/08/16/life-with-alex-dvd.aspx

Very cute!!!

How old is Alfie now, around 8 or 9 months? He is certainly feeling his oats and finding the biting game to be big fun. But, you know what they say about waking sleeping dogs. That next time Alfie may receive a deadly bite back. He certainly deserves to be told NO and placed back in his cage anytime things like this happen for at least 5 minutes. Please make certain he is placed in the cage immediately so there will be no doubt it is due to whatever bite he just delivered. You do need to get this under control, as I am certain you already know.

You are presently her flock and security. It is normal that she relies on being with you as she learns from you what is ok and normal. As others said, she will become bolder in baby steps over time. Enjoy these baby days/weeks, you will cherish them the rest of your life.

Tyson is highly intelligent (As you know). One of the first "human" contact calls they learn is the phone ringing. They very quickly realize that sound brings the response of coming and getting the phone. Perfect example of reasoning. I always responded with "I hear you", "Just a minute" or "Here I come". The most important thing is to use a short phrase that he will know has meaning and what to expect. Just the sound of him hearing a response gives him several pieces of information, like how far away you are, that you are in the house and in which direction etc. Good morning is cute and very appropriate in the sense he knew you were sleeping and it was time to get up and feed the dogs. They know time tables very well and will be your personal schedule assistant in case you fall down on keeping with it.

LOL - Oscar probably finds human thoughts on grey intelligence laughable. He is probably thinking "If you only knew the half of it Lady".

Based on your introduction in the welcome and him screaming. It is not near the time to let him out of the cage. As I said in to welcome room, just relax next to his cage and let him become used to the new environment.

Welcome Baz and thanks for the nice introduction. If I may, I would suggest you take that floral arrangement off his cage. It probably has him terrified just being in the cage with it. Screaming means terror and he is friegthened by the new surrounds and you it seems. Try to make the area close to him as nuetral as possible. Just sit close to him and read, watch tv and talk to him in a soothing way. The first order of business to is let him know he is in a safe environment.

Oscar probably wishes you would just stay on one side or the other. Just kidding! It is really good to hear he awaits you with anticipation.

Oh, sorry to hear this. Thanks for the photo of Francis. Guinea Pigs can be very endearing to have and share life with.

That is the beginning of a growl, but not seemingly in a serious way. Baby greys make some of the cutest natural sounds. Very cute.

If drinking water is purified using distillation, the resulting water is cleaner and more pure than before. The water is safe to drink. The disadvantage to drinking this water is that most of the natural minerals in the water are gone. If these minerals are desirable (e.g., calcium, magnesium, iron), the distilled water might be considered inferior to mineral water or spring water. On the other hand, if the initial water contained trace amounts of toxic organic compounds or heavy metals, you might want to drink distilled water rather than the source water. I personally would use bottled spring water if our tap water was not good. However, our water here is very good straight from the tap.

He is over preening and may be starting a little plucking in that neck area. It could also be molting in that area. If it is molting, until those feathers have fallen out and new pin feathers are coming in. They are very itchy and irritating to a bird. They can look raggedy until the new feathers are fully in. Either way, the first thing I would suggest is to start misting him with 100 percent Aloe juice from a spray bottle especially in that neck area. It sooths away that itchiness if you do it at least 3 or 4 times a week. If you have not already familiarized yourself on using Aloe juice, here is the link to Dave's article on it: http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?189967-100-natural-aloe-vera-juice

What a pleasant environment for Kya and Emeka. I can only imagine and visualize them hearing that music and singing . The bathing reaction by Kya is an interesting behavior related to Maple Leaf Rag. You have got to get a video of this! In regards Emeka's sounds and reaction to Rosie. It is certainly from a previous home and experience. They do learn barking dog and cat sounds. The "rarf rarf rarf rarf rarf" is cute and makes sense and is hilarious! I look forward to reading these updates on their progress in your loving home.

LOL Dave.

How very true Dave. People should not let the pressure they feel from all those advertisements that if your not feeding pellets to your birds, dogs, cats ... on and on your doing them wrong. Sad really what commercialism does to people.

Wow Jeff, it sounds like you are teaching Gracie very similar to how I have taught dayo over the years. He will do exactly as Gracie. He will say "It's ok Dayo, it's ok" when approaching or experiencing something he is not terrified of, but is unsure of it.

Whois info on this website, you can see it's owner, mail address, email address and phone: Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (http://www.godaddy.com) Domain Name: PRETTYPARROT.COM Created on: 26-Sep-01 Expires on: 26-Sep-15 Last Updated on: 20-Mar-12 Registrant: Line/Design 1938 Fisher Trail Atlanta, Georgia 30345 United States Administrative Contact: Kovac, Jane Line/Design 1938 Fisher Trail Atlanta, Georgia 30345 United States +1.4043214488

A little more on "Why your grey acts as it does" for your perusal. I have already talked about the wild instinct of our greys even though they were hatched in human environments. When you bring home your baby grey, it is for the most part following your parrontal lead to observe, learn and be provided sustenance by you and family members. This is how they learn to behave and survive from their parronts in the wild and spend the first few years doing so. So why is your grey so alert and psychotic sometimes? This takes us back to the wild instinct that will never go away. Life in the wild is dangerous, and sometimes it is difficult for us humans who are comfortable in our lives to understand this reality. A prey animal like a grey, could be “snatched up” by a predator at any moment of its daily activities, especially a partial ground feeding prey animal. Food may be plentiful one month and scarce the next. Therefore, they are programmed to live in the “now” and adapt their behaviors in order to survive. Although we socialize our greys in our homes, they still operate from an overlay of instinctive reactions. The better we can understand this, the better we can help them feel secure We know that wild greys are highly sensitive flock animals that rely upon the group for physical and emotional protection, more than many other parrot species. They are seemingly psychically attuned with one another at every moment, as well as physically connected with one another, particularly when at their most vulnerable position, which is on the ground. They are incredibly observant, and if one bird picks up on a predator, they all move in unison at once. The same is true in the home. Greys have a reputation for being psychically tuned in to the thoughts and feelings of their human flock. If a favored human is stressed out about a job or relationship, the grey picks up on it. Although it may not understand what exactly is going on, it does pick up that “something is wrong.....there’s danger.” It is important to be aware of this tendency and to comfort our greys when there is something stressful going on in the home or even outside the home that your grey can see from a window or hear. The key is that we need to try and teach our greys so they feel safe in whatever situations they may face as possible. But, they are not fragile birds and do not need to be over-protected either. It is important to introduce change in increments and at their pace, but variety and new experiences are a must. Think about it. If a grey sits in the same living room day after day, with little variety in activities, items in it and view of the room, it probably will instinctively freak if an item has been moved to the other side of the room, as it could be a predator. However, if that item is moved every now and then, the grey would probably be more relaxed and used to the change. It is our obligation as their caretakers to introduce our greys slowly into situations so that they can handle whatever comes along in the human environment as much as possible. Based on the "wild side", It is no wonder greys have a reputation for being psychotic. The new owners for the most part, have no idea of the underlying wild grey of that cute fluffy feathered grey they just brought home. It is to all our advantages to see the wild grey inside and try to understand why they act and respond as they do.

All I can say is "You are so beautiful", wow! Such a sweet moment in time.

GreYt Post! Well put and enjoyable to read. Rescue is a wonderful thing, landing in their final lifetime home.

Well Geeez Dave good questions and good topic to continue discussing as well. #1 - My answer would be you must keep feeding them the parrot mix and not giving up while still offering foods of various types. You just never know which day they may pick one up to toss and as the texture and flavor rings a pleasure bells in the greys brain it thinks "Wait a minute, thats good, lets try a few". #2 - My answer would be the same as #1. Personally, I would suffer the expense of those various foods and just keep on keeping on. But, thats just me! I would certainly never take away the food they will eat and try starvation as a motivator hoping they well eat the pellets I keep putting in the cage as the continue a hunger strike.