makinmagic

So my grey Tsapa is about 4 months old and everyone says he is huge for his age (vet, bird store owner etc). I've had him for 2 months and I am in love with this bird. He is amazing and quite cuddly for the grey in my opinion. I can't even imagine how I went 30 years without owning a bird, I got so attached to him. I have couple of concerns... First one... he doesn't seem very smart. I can't get him to learn any tricks at all. I am hoping it's because he's still a baby. I have been trying to teach him "wings" trick (when he would extend the wings on command) for weeks and got absolutely nowhere. I tried to get him to stack the pyramid - nope. I tried to get him to use foraging toy (like this https://www.arcatapet.com/fullsize/16271.jpg) and he just doesn't get it, he keeps banging his beak on the side of it and even if the box with treat is open he doesn't realize the treat is there. He does step up most of the times now even without a treat, but I think this is just because he is always anxious to get somewhere. So, is this normal at the age of 4 months? Second is that he is very needy and tries to fly where he is not supposed to. He needs for me to be in the same room as I am, to see me. As soon as I get up from the chair to go to the bathroom/feed the cats/etc he sterts screaming and if I don't come back he will eventually try to fly to get to me. He usually ends up on the table and poops on it He is clipped, but got very good at flying. He can fly a good 20 feet or more. I really would love for him to stick to his HUGE parrot tree and nearby HUGE playstand with dozen of toys, foraging toys, ropes etc. How do I get him to be content alone and not be so attached to my presence? The only time he's content alone is when he's in his cage. He spends most of the day out of the cage, his cage is actually in the empty room and he only sleeps there (we both mostly work from home, so we're always here, except for a trip to run errands or a grocery store). I'd appreciate any general advise on how to deal with such a young baby to raise a well-mannered and trained bird

We are doing great Went to the vet, blood and stool samples are perfect, still waiting on couple more tests, but I think we have nothing to worry about. In 3 weeks Tsapa went from 426 grams to 480 grams. I feed him oatmeal with banana from the spoon every night and he now knows and expects this ritual now. As soon as he hears me pouring water into the kettly to prepare his oatmeal he starts screaming in excitement I am amazed every day how smart he is. He still only steps up after seeing a seed (unless he is anxious to get somewhere or just take a ride on my hand, which is quite often). Few days ago he started soliciting a head and cheek scratches, he bows his head in a funny way and expects to be scratched as soon as he sees me approach. It's adorable. I know I must teach him independence, but it's so hard to resist his charms. He LOVES spending time with us, he hangs out on the sofa with us at nights and falls asleep on my hand. We also managed to give him a nice shower, I am not sure how much he enjoyed it, but he certainly didn't hate it. He won't try a new food until he sees us eating it. And some many more little funny and curious things about him. We are truly happy to have a privileged of raising this wonderful bird.

Oh no, he wasn't force weaned. It's a very good small breeder who legitimately loves his birds. I think he has something mixed up with his bookkeeping. We are not decided yet on wind clipping. We would like to take him outside after we train him to wear harness and I don't want to take chances, so he probably will remain clipped as now. He does step up by himself when he's anxious to get somewhere, he actually demands me by his side by screaming and extending his leg up front, like "hey, come here!"

So we got our boy Tsapa, a CAG, a week ago. We dreamed of having a grey for a long time, prepared the best we could and read everything out there on the internets. However, as it came down to practice, I am LOST. First confusion is the age of out boy. Breeder said hatch date was May 24th... bird store owner looked at the pic and said that there's no way this baby is less than 2.5 months old because they are not even weaned at this point. Tsapa was weaned a week before we took him (according to the breeder). How old do you think he is? Second concern... he eats A LOT. First few days he ate not that much and I, having no idea how much they are supposed to eat, thought it was the norm. In the past couple of days he eats about half of his awake time. He eats pellets very slowly, chewing for a long time and leaving most of the pellets in crumbles. Doesn't touch the crumbles. I am thinking of saving them and making birdie bread or something. Today he ate: about 2-3 tablespoons of pellets (hard to estimate). 1/4 of sweet potato, 3 grapes, a dozen sunflower seeds or so (for training), quite a bit of oatmeal (LOVES it) and 1/4 of a pear. He just eats all the time. Is this normal? He poops A LOT too, huge droppings, the morning one was the size my cats make. He poops every 15 minutes or so. Third concern: Step Up. He is a very very smart boy apparently, it took him just a couple times to realize that when he steps up he gets a treat (sunflower seed). So now he ONLY steps up if I show him the seed first. If he doesn't see the seed, he won't step up, unless he is anxious to get somewhere, like the sofa. Is this normal? Should I keep trading seeds for step ups? I think that's it that worries me... otherwise we're good. He is a curious baby and very smart. He nipped badly first couple of days, but stopped nearly completely. He sometimes asks for head scratch by extending his neck and looking down. He doesn't mind being touched and petted, but tries to step away unless he demands head scratch himself. He likes to sit of the sofa with us at night, falls asleep on my lap and even slept on his back on the sofa yesterday. We have an appointment with avian certified vet on the 14th to do a complete health check up with all the tests. Will have to drive 2 hours, but I think it's worth it. Thank you in advance. Any advice you could give to a new parrot owner is greatly, greatly appreciated.