danmcq

He's thinking this is different and fun. Plus I can see under my cage and now by being upside down, I'm bigger than you. You are now looking up at me. I don't know any creature, much less a grey that would be content with just sitting and playing in the same spot day in day out hour after hour. It is not natural for any living thing to do this. All creatures very nature is to explore, touch, taste, smell, shred, eat etc. No one will ever get a grey just to sit and be happy in that one place like a cage top, t-stand, tree stand etc. If anyone expects that to be the case, they should not have gotten a grey. To place them back in their cage because they are exploring is just wrong on so many levels. I do understand though, if your busy and you cannot keep an eye on them or they keep interrupting something you must do, then place them on your shoulder (if you allow them there) and let them at least take part in that manner, which most will be happy to do. If you know you are going to be busy doing something before letting them out of the age. Just leave them in there until your done. Lastly, if they are going somewhere not allowed or chewing on something like a chair. Go get them a gazillion times if you must from that spot or place something there they are afraid of there. To avoid chewing on furniture spots, you can place towels, fleece blanks that look nice etc. Then your couch will not be damaged by beak or poop. When company comes over, remove those covers at that time. I hope this helps a little.

PTFE is the primary cause of avian death when a teflon pan is overheated, not PFOA. But, regardless of of the various chemicals coming off overheated teflon. It is a known fact it is deadly to our birds and all teflon as a safe guard should be tossed.

Wow Melba, that is good interaction for just 10 days at your home. I suspect Claire's experience with men, namely with the previous owners husband and glove gave her a bad impression of male humans. But, even that can be reduced over time as well.

It sounds like you had some good interaction at your homecoming. I do doubt that Oscar is wild caught since he is only 8 years old. All imports of wild caught greys were stopped here in the usa in 1992. I look forward to hearing the update on how last night went.

Try different color grapes, if you haven't. Dayo will normally toss green grapes. But, Red or black he loves. Also, this is true with apples, he loves fuji's, red delicious are ok, the green he does not seem to like much.

Oh so sad. My heart goes out to you. The others have all given good advice on a diet change for a future grey.

Not that I know of. Dayo will just shred and toss that peel and dig in to eat as much banana as he can. They pretty know which part of any fruit is the peeling and the good stuff. Ever watched one skin a grape? You'll see the skin drop intact and devoid of the meat complete. They can do things with a beak better than we can with a knife.

Your morning greeting, short it may have been, but the important point is you made Oscar feel like a valued flock member. Unlike a dog with pack mentality of an alpha leader, as you probably know, a bird has the whole flock mentality with no leader and a communal existence with all being on the same level and doing everything as a whole. The block placement is very interesting indeed. It was obviously not just played with and tossed there. Greys do almost everything for a reason. He was certainly sending a message in my opinion. Not to any dog-o-morphism, but they will do this as well with a toy they wish to engage you with. When we both worked full-time out of the home, a morning greeting, food placed etc.. Then it was out the door for 9 hours. Coming home, the dogs were at the door going nuts, the birds going nuts with sounds etc. and it was truly a zoo for about 10 minutes. You will experience the same I suspect soon with Oscar anticipating your walking through the door.

Absolutely beautiful! Thanks for sharing this Dave. It restored my acid washed eyes.

Your right, Oscar is summing you and your intentions up. Your going to work and being gone for hours, then coming home and basically ignoring him while taking care of your dogs, no doubt had some level of impact on Oscars mentality. What specifically that was, well only Oscar could know. My feeling is to always go with your gut instincts. If you are discerning a difference in growl, body language and closeness to you. Then you are probably reading it correctly. Heck as much as he has growled for who knows how many years, he could be saying volumes based on tone and intensity. If so and you are picking up on it, he will realize very quickly you are paying VERY CLOSE attention to him. Good for you!!! You probably already know this, but it is going to take a long time to get to the final point of how much Oscar is going to trust you and how close he will interact. You will have good days that you thought you had finally broken through and then be smacked down almost seemingly to square one the next day. But through it all and over a long time, you and Oscar will always remember those moments. I hope the good ones become the "Norm" for you both.

A still photo taken at a few moments in time really does not tell you anything about a greys personality. One may be camera shy and the other not. It makes no difference and doesn't not tell you anything about how any grey will be after you get them home and spend then next years/decades interacting with them. In my opinion, 90 percent of behavior is based on the owner that interacted with them from say 16 weeks on to years. The other 10 percent is the instinctual and intelligence portions of the grey building knowledge of the human world based upon experience in it. Just be happy you have a baby grey coming soon. Feel the parental pressure yet???

Thats wonderful. You are no doubt on cloud 9 today and rightly so.

Oh Jesus, my eyes ... my eyes.... pouring acid in them now, so as to never see anything like this again!!! Dave - YOUR NOT RIGHT!!!!!

What a pleasant morning it seems you had with Oscar. He really is coming along nicely with your patience and love shown to him. Whne you leave, if you don't alreasy do so. Tell him you are "Going to work" and you'll "See him later". He may already know what that means, but if not, it will be reassuring to him over time in terms of you'll be back. As time progresses, he may even surprise you with an "Ok, See you later".

You kind find many various price Avian scales online with a perch attachment to just have your grey step up on. http://www.oldwillknottscales.com/veterinary-pet-scales.html http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=avian+scale&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=14480950087&hvpos=1t2&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=221561644521966577&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_1x3a13cviw_b

Awwww, nothing like hearing that little baby grey panting sound. This is normal and instinctual. I miss that endearing sound.

I was thinking exactly this as well when I first read his wings were not clipped. Which of course makes sense because he was never out. But, being blind in one eye would make flight very dangerous. I am truly against wing clipping. But, this is a case where it would be wise to do so, as you state, to protect him from flying in to things. I personally would not even try to teach him to fly. Because when he must turn towards the blind side, he could be turning directly in to a wall for example. A wild bird blind in one eye would not live long in the wild.

Oh boy, yes the arm offer was a bit of a bad idea. It's encouraging to hear that Oscar chewed on the wooden toy. In regards the crumpled paper, he was ceratainly going to check it out, but being on the cage bottom with a possible threat coming in the room triggered the instinct to get as high as he could. Him vocalizing while you were reading was not being rude. He was actually just kicking back and joining in. Greys do this often at times when they are comfortable. I suspect he laughed at your incorrect interpretation.

How interesting on that door closing sound. I wonder if it is linked as well to previous homes where he may have been kept in a room and that sound was associated with him being left alone again with no interaction. If he truly is linking that door closing sound to you leaving. He may respond very quickly to this and quite down so as not to be left alone. Oscar is one sharp grey.

Normally when a parrot does this action, they are moving food in their crop. I have seen it many times.

Many parrot owners work full time and they have healthy and happy parrots. Just keep toys and foraging items in the cage to keep them entertained. They adapt to your schedule. They should however be out with you in the evenings for 4 hours if possible and of course weekends and holidays can be all day cage out time. GreYt photos!

There are many 20+ year old greys out there that do not pluck. With proper care and a good home they will be fine. In the wild. There are tens or thousands of unplucked greys as well. It is unnatural for any bird to pluck. The human environment, diet and events are what can cause plucking.

Thanks for the useful tips I hope others find helpful. We have a whole thread on Homemade Toys here: http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?104267-Homemade-Bird-Toys

Wow, that wonderful! Thanks for the photos.

Your not anthropomorphizing at all. Parrots (especially greys) are one of the most intelligent creatures on this planet. The can and do learn human language and understand exactly what words and phrases mean. All creatures understand hurt, pain, fear, anger etc. Oscar is studying your ever move, body and facial gestures, voice tones etc. They are more astute of a persons body language than most humans are. You are doing everything right and this is a great thread for others who rescue greys from bad homes. Thanks for starting and updating this thread. I look forward being able to share this rehab of a grey through reading your and oscars relationship progression here.