terryspear

I see that you do have a sleep cage and I think that is good. We changed Corey's sleep arrangements when I realized that the night time was hardest for her. I think it has to do with the fact that birds, when they sleep, are very vulnerable because they can NOT fly to get away from danger. This is generally all birds, not just pet birds. I could be wrong but I think it's a built in fear/behavior instinct that most birds have. So, the first thing we did was create a "night time" cage for her in our bedroom. I have a sense over the years that Corey clearly did want to be with her humans at night. Except for the very front of her cage, we cover all the other sides of the cage with towels. And we keep this cage very clean: vacuum out all the dust and any feathers [not when she is close to this cage]. However, if changing your Grey's sleeping cage is bothering your Grey, I would trust your instincts. Then, we have a low night light in the hall [probably 8 feet from her cage]. I think this is also important so she can look out and see that she is safe. The other thing that I think helps our Grey is giving her showers. Luckily for us, she trusts my husband and goes willing to him [on a basket] when he showers. [She probably gets up to 1 or 2 showers/week]. He puts her under the shower spray until she's very wet and then hands her to me to be dried off. She used to let me gently dry her with a hair dryer but now she will only let me towel her off before I return her to her cage. We do this during the day when it's still warm in the house so she doesn't get chilled. You might try to order the "Pluck No More" product from Kings Cages. Hopefully, they will ship to your location. If that doesn't help, you could consider contacting The Medical Center for Birds in Oakley, California and seeing what they would recommend. I know that most Vet hospitals are busy but they might tell you what they would recommend in your situation. Maybe your Vet could obtain and prescribe what the Medical Center for Birds recommends. It's worth a try. You might need to push because sometimes the only way you get what you really need is to be not only informed but also kind AND insistent. I do think it's worthwhile to try to reduce stress for your Grey. I know this is not easy. We have a small space that we take Corey to play. It's private and quiet. She asks to go there by saying: "See Your Box" and she calls to us when she wants us to come back to her regular cage or other places in the house. I know that you do not have a lot of space but maybe you could find a closet your Grey would like. One thing that gave me ideas of how to engage our Grey was watching YouTube videos of an African Grey called: Einstein. Einstein and his family live in Texas, USA and they frequently film Einstein going about his life. If you searched on "African Grey, Einstein" in the YouTube search bar; I bet you would find videos. I am sure people will point out that Einstein also displays effects "feather destruction" behavior but I think Einstein's humans do a good job of living with him. Continue to try different things: slowly and methodically [one at a time]. Introduce things slowly. Greys do not like a lot of change in their life so you have to move slow. I really hope that something I wrote can help you and your Grey. Greys are amazing creatures and they deserve the best chance of a quality life.

I'm sorry to hear about this. As you know, this is not an easy problem to solve. When we started to see this problem in our Grey [probably more than 15 years ago], Corey, we tried a number of avian vets. I was NOT happy with most of the solutions we heard about [or tired] until we got Corey to see Dr. Brian Speer in Oakley CA at the Medical Center for Birds. He said that this problem was just beginning for Corey and that we basically needed to engage her more. We were both working full-time jobs at the time and she was being left alone at least 9 1/2 hours a day for 5 days per week. Lucky for us, our work status changed and we could spend more time with her after about a year or so after this started. At the time when this problem was most severe for Corey, Dr. Speer was treating Corey with a pain-killer [I don't remember if he specifically determined what was causing her pain] and probably what amounts to a mild, avian tranquilizer. They were both liquid solutions. I don't remember specifically the names of those drugs. These drugs [and spending as much time with Corey as we possibly could and trying to do everything to reduce her stress] we managed to bring her feather destruction habits under control. If you look at her pictures now, she looks fine: fully feathered. I have heard of some avian vets prescribing drugs to control hormones in female Greys but we never had to do that. Corey has never shown any interest in laying eggs [even though we know she is a female]. Over the following years, whenever it looked like this problem might be coming up again we tried Kings Cages Pluck No More. This probably doesn't work for all Greys but it did seem to help Corey. Fortunately, we haven't had to use it in the last 10 years and that might be because Corey has us so well trained to take care of her in the way she needs to be cared for. Here is the link: https://kingscages.com/pluck-no-more/ As other people have written, it's good you are seeing a vet but you probably know that you need to see the correct vet [an avian specialist]. I wish you the best of luck. Best, Terry

Dear Shanlung, I am so grateful to see your recent post on Greyforums! I had seen some of your previous posts on a different forum years ago. Now, I know of one concrete "good" thing to have come from the Covid19 pandemic: Vorona found a home with you. My husband and I also have a Grey, Corey, who was never allowed to learn to fly in that magic early time period when they are young. I can't say Corey can fly as well as Vorona BUT she now can land safely most of the time. Thank you SO much for writing about Vorona! Terry

Wow, oh Wow and congratulations! I'm glad Acappella posted on this thread because I otherwise probably would not have seen the description of your property. Thanks for posting all the information/photos. What a perfect property. Clearly, you do an amazing job of integrating GreycieMae into your life. I'm impressed that you can get a harness on her so that she can join you outside. Given all your critters, you've got to be busy but I am sure it is a totally rewarding lifestyle. I wish you the best of luck!

Like Greytness, we use a cotton, braided rope perch for Corey. We have different sizes so she isn't forced to keep her feet in the same position all the time. I captured a picture from the internet and pasted it into a document [attached] so you can see it. Corey really likes these perches. She also has a manzanita perch in her cage and she will go to that perch sometimes. RopePerch.docx

Thanks for the replies of keeping your Greys entertained. We also try to keep Corey with us during our normal day [sitting on cardboard boxes or on John's shoulder]. Is Timber's seizures related to low calcium or do you know? Years ago, Corey had seizures but when we supplemented her diet with calcium, she stopped having them.

So we often get a request from our Grey, Corey, to "Look Around". Corey is typically on top of her cage when she makes this request and she usually has an idea of where she wants to go in the house. It's interesting to me that while she can get up on her cage if she is down on the floor, she just won't get down from her cage on her own. We are probably very lucky this is the case since we don't worry about what will happen if she is left alone on top of her cage because she just stays on or in her cage. She has always been interested in the dryer [and the washer]. We have a front loading washing machine and she likes looking at the clothes being washed through the window. So recently she wanted to see the washer and dryer and indicated that this is where she wanted to go by shifting her weight so that I would take her to that part of the house. This time, there were no clothes being dried in the dryer and when we got there I opened the door to let her see inside. Being the opportunist that she is she quickly took advantage of this event and hopped off my hand and perched in the dryer to check it out. Fortunately, it was fairly boring inside the dryer and so I could convince her to step back on my hand after this brief interlude. She sometimes makes comments on our tour, like: ooh! or scary. We have various tours around the house that I take with her. Often, she wants to find my husband: her favorite person [my husband foolishly thinks that "looking around" is a very boring activity]. So, I thought I would report on one of "our" more favorite African Grey activities. Do you guys have any activities that your Greys like to do that you can share? Thanks, Terry

Thank you, JennS: More ideas to try!

Timbersmom wrote: This came up recently with another member. Have you checked with your avian vet? Sometimes they have names of bird sitters or might know of someone. I have checked with general vets and the one local avian vet office: no luck. I got referred to the Bird Shop [which does a nice job of stocking bird supplies and even sells a limited number of parrots] but I just can't put Corey in with 10+ other birds. I have also contacted the local Parrot Rescue organization for bird sitter suggestions. Maybe I'm being too paranoid here but the idea of leaving Corey in a cage for 2 weeks while we are gone with only periodic visits just doesn't sound good to me. Corey hates being locked in her cage. She will generally not leave her cage when we are home [her cage door is open/unless we have to close it for safety reasons] and Corey asks to be taken from her cage to other places she can safely be in our house. When my husband and I had to leave everyday for work [for the typical 9-10 hours we had to be gone] she developed a [somewhat minor] feather mutilation habit. It took us a long time to get her out of that [with the help of an avian vet]. We are not retired and I just don't want to risk that again. I am totally laying out my worst concerns now because most all of you know what I am writing about here and probably won't think I'm too crazy. This isn't an easy problem to solve.

Thanks, again, everybody for the well wishes. We could take Corey to our friend with the Lorikeet but the problem with that is that this is a very chaotic household. Their Lorikeet probably likes all the action, our Grey would not. Since we just moved to Davis, we don't really know anybody that would be willing to step in and live at our house.

SRSeedBurners: Do like all the other Californians - move to Texas. I'll sit a birdy! That's very sweet. And, can't say we haven't thought about moving from CA: it's expensive!

SRSeedBurners: Thanks for the laugh. Corey LOVES sugar cookies and can spot it when my husband or I try to sneak one. Most of the time, we just don't have them in the house. Neoow and Timbersmom totally described our experience with trying to get Corey to eat veggies! Totally!! At least now, I don't feel all alone in this bird diet "adventure". Greys are such amazing human trainers.

I know this is a bit of a long shot but here goes: we have a 20 year old, sweet Congo African Grey and we need to find care for her when we travel. I’ve called the offices of the avian vets around us and no luck. We live in a house on the outskirts of Davis, California [approximately 20 minutes from Sacramento]. Davis is a university town [and UCD even has a Raptor Center/which I also contacted]. We would be willing to trade bird sitting responsibilities with someone somewhat close to Davis or we would be willing to negotiate what it would cost to have someone sit for Corey. We would really like someone who has at least some experience with parrots. We really don’t want to board her with a lot of other birds because of the disease risk. Corey has briefly met other parrots [e.g. we have had a friend with a Lorikeet] but she hasn’t spent substantial time with any other parrots]. We do not clip Corey’s wings but she came to us clipped. She will not fly voluntarily but WILL fly if startled. Since Corey was apparently not allowed to learn to fly [she came to us when she was probably a couple of years old] she is really not a good flyer and we want to minimize how often she takes flight in fear. Like probably most Greys, Corey really likes social interactions. She likes to be in her playbox and she is not a very loud parrot but she has a relatively large vocabulary. So, we are hoping to travel for a couple of weeks starting on August 9, 2021. Any chance that someone might be interested in either swapping bird sitting responsibilities OR being paid to sit for Corey? Fingers crossed, Terry

It is interesting to me that a LOT of parrots seem to be totally attracted to junk food. Like Timbersmom wrote: if it isn't good for them they are going to love it. Always seems like an uphill battle to get good food into them!

Thanks for the photo tip. You might be able to tell that Corey's spine is curved. It took the right avian vet to point out to us what was going on. [We were originally told it was a problem with her hip structure.] Apparently this was due to a lack of calcium when she was very young. I can tell that this issue has gotten worse over the years [we do supplement her diet with calcium]. I hope that it doesn't cause her too many more problems as the years go by but clearly it throws off her posture and her foot position.

Thank you, everybody, for your welcome and thoughts about getting care for Corey! I really appreciate it. I will look into contacting appropriate vet offices for possible Corey bird-sitters. So, to post photos, do I just attach them to a message or is there a more elegant way of uploading photos? I managed to get a fuzzy picture next to my name and I uploaded another picture to my profile but I have no idea if anyone can see that picture. I couldn't find instructions on the website but I probably just haven't looked hard enough. Again, so wonderful to meet Grey people! Grey people seem so rare and yet I look at the number of people who have joined this forum and am just blown away by the participants.

It’s great to have found the Grey Forums and so many kindred souls! A big thank you to Kevin for admitting me. My husband [John] and I have a 20+ year old Grey named Corey. We have shared our life with Corey for more than 18 years. When we met Corey, she was in a tropical fish store in a strip mall near Sacramento. She was clearly a “fish out of water” in that store. The thing that sealed our fate was that she chose us; we didn’t [initially] choose her. When I knelt beside her cage and talked to her, she bent her head for a scritch. I knew that wasn’t typical behavior. Based upon Corey’s eye color [she did not have the eyes of a young Grey], we figure she is now at least 20 years old. We truly had no idea how our life would change when we decided to buy her to get her out of that fish store. Our first challenge was that she was completely terrorized about getting on anyone’s hand. She just wouldn’t do it. It took months before we could get her to step up on a basket so we could move her around the house. Then, once we could get her on a basket, we started working to get her to step up to our hand. That took another few months. We figured that the person who owned Corey before we did, probably did some very destructive/instinctive thing while Corey was sitting on their hand and Corey decided that sitting on a human’s hand was not a safe thing. The other challenge I had was that she [probably like most Greys] tended to prefer just one person and she was very partial to John [she seems to like men more than women]. Luckily for me, however, she was not aggressive toward me and as long as I wasn’t competition for John she tried to be cooperative with me most of the time. We’ve weathered most of the difficulties of sharing our life with a sensitive, smart and talking creature. I remember being totally blown away by the fact that she not only picked up an impressive vocabulary BUT sometimes she absolutely used those words in an appropriate context. When you tell people that she can use words in a novel and appropriate fashion, you can tell that they think you are just reading too much into her behavior. But they don’t know Greys. I was shocked by how much social interaction she needed and the harm that could come if she wasn’t sufficiently engaged [we ran into some feather plucking issues early on when we had to work out of the house]. I also realized, years ago, that she was much better at training us that we were at training her. It’s a humbling experience to share your life with a Grey. Our main challenge now is that John, Corey and I have just moved back to Davis, California [near Sacramento, Ca] and we do not have a reliable way to provide care for Corey when we have to travel. I will spend a bit more time looking through the posts on the Grey Forum to see how other people have dealt with this issue. So glad to have found you all! Terry