Jacob

Hi all I received this message in my inbox today : - ----- NOTE: ------ This is a message from marymab at www.greyforums.net ( http://www.greyforums.net ). This user did not see your email address. If you reply the recipient will have your email address. www.greyforums.net owners cannot accept any responsibility for the contents of the email and of user email addresses. ------ Message from marymab to you: ------ Hello, My name is mary, i got you from..greyforums.netand i want to have a good relationship with you, please i need your cooperation, am yours mary this is my email address,(marymabou009@yahoo.com) THANKS ALOT PLEASE CONSTACTS ME IN MARYMABOU009@YAHOO.COM I wonder has anyone else had one and what link, if any does it have to the forum? have we beem attacked by spammers? Rather disquieting, I think Jacob

My dear wife's really upset. We got our parrot, Jacob, in 2006 (he's now 2 and a half) and he liked her best showing real affection with hugs and kisses and allowing her to handle him. He used to do the regurgitation thing whenever he was with her and make daft baby parrot noises. I was the one who was mistrusted and while he would fly to me and sit for a while, I was bitten regularly and couldn't pick him up for a hug at all. We haven't changed anything we do or the manner in which we behave but recently all changed and I am now favourite and getting all the affection - and I mean all. I can now handle him and he is really demonstrative when I'm around. When Jacob is in his cage, he calls to my wife and lets her stroke him and kiss him most times but he does try and bite every now and again, which doesn't really happen to me now. When he is out it is worse, as Jacob now bites her if he lands on her and flies straight at her and lands on her head where he pecks hard before flying off laughing. He sits about afterwards saying 'No biting!' before doing it all again and it is worse if I leave the room. Sometimes, he is his old self and wants her to hug and stroke him, which she does but has to watch the abrupt change from big hugs to hard biting, which does happen very quickly. It's like he has completely transferred his affection. My wife has now backed off and is really reluctant to have him land on her or try to get him to step up, which they always enjoyed before. Naturally, this is causing unhappiness for both of us. I would welcome any advice on how to overcome this or is this just how it's going to be from now on? J

We take Jacob and our three cats on holiday to the Highlands of Scotland for two weeks each year and travel up in the car overnight. He copes fine with all this, as we put his cover over the cage (which is 23 ins high x 23 ins wide and 33 ins long) about half and hour or so into the journey and he sleeps through til we wake him in the morning for breakfast. He copes fine in his cage for the duration of our stay, and comes out in the car daytripping wth us. He gets to come out of his cage in the mornings and evenings and flies round the cottage or plays with his toys on the cage. All told, he's absolutely fine and is happy simply because he's with us. If you have accommodation that allows Toki to come out I would have thought that she would cope with the smaller cage and settle in fine. It's making it a home from home I think.

You could try whistling or making a different noise to distract Midnight. We had builders in for a week and Jacob started imitating their power drill, which was driving us mad, as he did this incessantly. We started whistling (music) scales and praising each other for doing it "right" and Jacob picked up on this, as he wanted to be a good boy too. He soon returned to his usual talking and whistling and it was much easier on the ear!

Hi all Does anyone elses' CAG do chin ups? - that is holding onto the cage bars with their feet, sticking their beak through, opeing their wings a bit and pulling themselves up and down - Sort of like Ted Heath laughing, if anyone remembers that in the 1970s. It seems like Jacob's just asking for a kiss because when you walk over and kiss his beak, he does it even more & just looks pleased. It does look really odd though.

We get the same problem with Jacob sometimes and have found that leaving him to wander about on the top of the cage for 5 or 10 minutes, without interference, before trying to get him to step up works rather better and avoids the "get off me" biting bit, which happens when he first comes out. Once he's worked out that he really is out of his cage and that we're doing fun stuff, he wants to come and play with us and so steps up fine. As usual, a bit of patience and good distraction techniques work best and maybe Refund wants to take things one step at a time, as it were and make sure he's "safe" before the next one.

Thanks all Vet says Jacob's fine and healthy, which is good. His diet's good, he has zills of toys and spends most of his time downstairs with his mum and dad. He gets out a lot and loves his adventure pack (cage within a rucksack), which means he gets to go everywhere. He thinks he's just had a hissy fit that night because he's growing new feathers and is itchy but we need to watch out to make sure it doesn't get to be a habit. He's threatened him with a collar if he does it again! Thanks again for the advice, as I feel better now. Jacob's mum

Hi This is my first post so please excuse any errors. Jacob is a one year old African Grey who until now has been a happy and joyful bird. Over the last couple of months he has pulled out a few feathers, especially in his tail but it is obvious that new ones have been growing through and these look fine. He sleeps in his own bedroom upstairs in his large cage with a cover. Last evening he went to bed as normal, albeit a bit reluctantly, as he had been playing, and we had the heating on for the first time since December, as it was cold. This morning he gave us all a shock, as he had pulled out all his top feathers and down around his neck and on his lower back. Most of his neck looks plucked and a bit red but there are some sheaths and pins showing - moreso on his back. We're booked for the vet tomorrow but has anyone else had this problem and has anyone any advice? Thanks Jacob's mum