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Thanks! It's nice to have someone else around who remembers our passed friend, too. He of course still mimics her, so it's a bit like having a bit of her voice left. Willy is of course his own person, but having him back in my life has been a comfort after losing my friend.

Generally, when people find horses unintelligent it's a translation/communication issue. The ungulate brain developed and acts differently than most brains we humans learn to deal with, and their communication is 97% body language, so can be hard to miss or easy to misinterepret. I've spent 30 years with horses, and 20 doing rescue. I find their logic unparralled and their instincts unmatched. That mare I referred to was hands down the most intelligent and well rounded being I've ever come across, humans included (not that they're hard to outshine).

Right now we're just introducing one new food at a time, so I can watch his poos and reactions. He's regularly eating pellets for breakfast now, if somewhat reluctantly. Veggies are next. Until yesterday he was even refusing plums. Luckily I work from home so can take frequent breaks to coax him. Also, he gets to throw his discards at me while I'm trying to work. 🤣

Right. It had never crossed my mind that he could forget me, unless there's a Grey version of dementia. Not parrot related, so please forgive me; but one of my most satisfying "yes, animals have memories, too" experiences was with my best mare (had her from when I was 14 until she passed when I was 31). Now granted, this mare was off the high end of most charts, but this moment stood out: I had just moved her to a new pasture closer to my new home (she was 22 at the time), and the property owner wasn't too experienced with horses or their behavior, so he invited all his friends to see the new addition on the day of her arrival, without informing me that there would be a welcoming party. I pull up with the trailer, and my mare is none too pleased, *at all*, to be greeted by an entire crowd of new people. She exits the trailer with an angry flourish and promptly goes into full blown show-off fake tantrum mode (strong, ancient Arab/Saddlebred lines, so she's a pro at showy tantrums). She's successfully scaring the crap out of everyone watching, who all expected some old, used-up mare, and she and I are just having a blast. I'm letting her scream and run in circles around me, she's doing her best demon impression: teeth bared, nostrils flaring, neck tense and high, eyes rolling, legs flashing, effortlessy gliding, and everyone just keeps backing further and further away. (I was in control at all times, this was not unsafe, and no one, including myself or my mare was in any danger. Purely psychological fear, no physical threat or chance of injury- just to be clear. This was typical of her. All show. If I had asked her to stand she would have calmed it down to slowly trotting in place instantly.) Then all of a sudden she just stops and stares at one lady. The stare lasted maybe a split second, and back into show-off mode she goes, but it grabbed my attention as it was totally out of character. A few minutes later I grill the woman my mare singled out, and it turned out she met her once, just prior to my purchasing her, to try her out. The entire test run had lasted five minutes before the lady decided the mare was too hot for her and declined. So, my mare remembered her from one brief test drive eleven years prior. So, yeah, never doubted Willy would recognize me immediately.

Holy heck! Froot Loops! They're not good for anyone! If I'm going to have sugar for breakfast I go for a cheese danish, lol. Not that that's much better. Thanks to your advice and some Google searches I've now got him to eat pellets for breakfast! I take his feed out at night, and give him pellets first thing in the morning. I ate a few in front of him the first day and then offered to share. Worked like a charm! Also, they're delicious- he may have to fight me for them. 😉

Wow, that looks good! I'll have to order the Volkman mixes. Thanks for the recipe, I will give it a try! I'm a little reluctant to go through too much prep initially, as he refuses all veggies. He picks them out if I mix them in his seed mix, and throws them on the floor in a mic drop sort of move. He was always like this. Even the fruit he'll take is limited. (He just threw plum all over the floor because it was not an orange.) Have you had any experience with this sort of dramatic refusal, and conned a picky eater into loving veggies? He has such a limited palate. As for guineas, our neighbors hate them, but we had zero fleas or ticks this year. 😄

Thanks again for the welcome, everyone! Willy's doing really well, talking up a storm and seems overall relaxed and playful. Right now I've got him in my studio (attaching pics from his view- forgive the plant mess, I just moved everything back inside for the winter, and am placing everything painstakingly), as I'm generally in there working. He has a rolling play stand, and I'm setting up a flight cage in our living room for him, too, so he has a cage besides his studio bedroom cage, and can be more in on the action after he's settled a bit. He's going through his sounds to see what gets my attention when I'm not in the studio. I am ignoring anything I don't want repeated fifty times a day. 😊 We took a nap together yesterday during a nice autumn thunderstorm. (After I managed to get soaked wrangling the guineas and chickens back into their coops, lol.) Only issue I'm having so far is trying to get him to accept pelleted food and veggies. Always was a seed and fruit junkie, and that has not changed. I'd like to balance his diet, though. Any tips?

That must have been rough, divorce is no fun. (understatement) That's great that you got to see Odie again- bet it was a heck of a reunion! I developed a habit of clicking on every ad for a Grey I saw on CL, just looking for him. I saw the pics first (my profession is very detail oriented, and relies on my ability to see subtleties and differences in individuals, so I'm something of a freak when it comes to seeing.) I saw the pics and just knew it was him by posture, mannerisms, and colouring (gave me goosebumps and all), then read the text, saw the name, and dialed the phone as fast as I could.

I was sooooo lucky I saw the ad so quickly. It was only up for an hour and I was one of three people who had already responded. And the rescuer was so kind to have me meet him to see how he reacted to me, and gave me dibs because I knew him previously. Just so, so lucky.

Huh, I never gave it a thought that he could forget me; I don't forget people that quickly, some horses (lots of ungulates, actually) remember people even if they've only met them once, and dogs retain scents for life. Never even entertained the possibility that a Grey could forget a person they'd known for years.

Well, his name, age, location, the history that the rescue was aware of, everything he says, all the sounds he mimics, and his band. Plus, he recognized me. That was important, too.

Yup, that's correct, not quite a decade, but almost..

His name is Willy, and he's 26. Long, sad story short:: we've been reunited after nearly a decade. I couldn't take him when my life long best friend (she's since passed away at a relatively young age) decided to rehome him, regretted it ever since, and just found him last week on Craigslist when a rescue was rehoming him. He's had an alarming number of homes in his life, and we just spent the best first day reminscing. I've done equine, canine, and feline rescue for decades, but just got into birds (guinea fowl, chickens, zebra and Gouldian finches), and finally, thanks to an orchid hobby, keep my home warm enough for the indoor species. I have nearly zero parrot experience (did due diligence before bringing him home, but am still a noob), except second hand with Willy back when my friend had him. He's home forever now. I know the cage in the pic is too small for him. It's only his "bedtime" cage in my studio. I work from home, so he'll be out while I work, and I do have a parrot flight cage that I'm setting up in our living room so he can watch tv with us, too. This all happened very quickly, but I'm doing right by him, finally.

Hello, I'm a new owner of a rescue(?) African Grey, and have just passed the 24 hour mark. I've had some negative experiences on completely unrelated forums in the past, but when I've stumbled upon a good one I've found them to be unparalleled sources of knowledge and experience, and a quick perusal of this site led me to hope that'd be the case here. I've got no burning questions thus far, but thought I should introduce myself, so, hello!