BMustee

here is a picture of him/her. You can see he sits a little odd due to the leg. Here he is with the other two...it looks like he's yelling at them to knock it off.

I'm thinking I need to start thinking of names.:laugh: I know the handicap isn't going to be an issue ether, heck I have birds with worse handicaps than him. I'm just worried about Elmo...not giving him 100% of my "free" time but only 50-60% of it. I would feel better knowing he is with me than anyone else though...and I know that he would have a great life here with me. I talked to my parrents about it too and they both wouldn't mind me bringing in another Grey...esp one that is free and needs a good home. I don't know why I'm feeling so apprehensive about keeping him. IDK, maybe I just over think things.:laugh: :laugh:

I would echo Dave on this one. I'm sure you paid "sweet baby price" for the bird and you got a rescue. I would feel the same way as you about not wanting to take it back due to the obvious mishandling of the bird but like you said, you haven't bonded with it and know one could tell you for sure if she's going to have any health issues in the future.

I do the DNA tests at my work and the nail clipping for the blood sample isn't as bad as what people would think. I also prefer the blood to the feather test because I don't think I could pluck a bunch of feathers off a birds chest...clipping a nail a little short seems less stressful to me.

I'm always happy when someone does their homework first and know that the bird they are getting it the right fit for their home. I'm sure you are going to have a blast with the TAG, and he'll have a great home with you.

So, I'm still caring for the 3 baby CAG's and we have been talking about what we were going to do with the baby with the broken (and now healed) leg. We were thinking at first that we would sell him at a discount to someone very knowledgeable about parrots and could deal with a handicapped Grey. Then the owner said to me and my manager the other day that the breeder offered to come and get him and replace it when she has more babies. Steph and I both brought up concerns that the breeder might put it down and that we wanted to be sure it got a good home. The owner then said if she was to get a little bit of a refund she would let one of us (bird dept. people) buy him for $200...which is a pretty good deal. She said this looking right at me though so Steph said "Well, Berna doesn't have $200 to blow right now..." and so the owner said she would figure things out with what to do with him. Well today she came up to me and said "If the breeder was to give us another baby for free or refunds the money for the baby, would you take him?"...as in for free!!!! I didn't know what to say, and I told her I wasn't sure so she told me to think about it. So, what do you all think? I really didn't want to have 2 greys cause Elmo is my baby, and I always told myself that I only really wanted to have 2 parrots. So that only left room for Ethel down the line. I do really love him and I'm sure I could make room for him and feeding and caring for him wouldn't be an issue, but I'm not sure how happy Elmo would be with the new brother or sister, and if I would want to have 2 greys. I just want to do what is best for Elmo, so what do you guys think...<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2009/02/02 01:32

I'm SURE you will be able to get her to come around. We have had 3 Amazons come in the store in the last 3 months...all cage bound and untrusting. Two of them (a 15 y/o YN and 25 y/o YF) both step up right out of the cage and are starting to enjoy scratches. The thrid (a 3 y/o YF) is still being worked...he won't step up out of the cage but once out loves the lovin'.

mjames74 wrote: I HATE THOSE PEOPLE!!! :angry: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I also hate the people that say they "USED" to have one of "those birds"...and then start asking me how much we sell them for. Yeah, like I'm going to sell to these a-holes. I seconf the Kudos to Dan for the detective work. I'm kind of glad this is a made up bird up for trade...I felt so bad for him.

I wouldn't think that he ate it ether. The macaws at my work pull buttons off of shirts all day long and always drop them when they get bored of them.

Treat animals like family huh...you got a mother for trade too?

DNA is the only way of sexing your grey. The tail, eye and head shapes can only be a "guess" at best. I have seen males with grey tips on the tail and females without them. We had a baby grey we DNA'd and all the girls thought it was a girl and sure enough it was a boy. Elmo, my grey, however is a typical little girl...403 grams, small head, and grey tips.

Complete bands will have the year of birth, state it was bred in, breeder's code, and hatch number. I have seen some bands with just the state and breeder code on them, and some with just the hatch number. If your band only has "o268" on it I would say there really isn't any way of finding out anything.<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2009/01/27 18:57

Congrats on the upcoming baby!!! Everyone has given good advise on ways to get him ready for the new addition to the human family. I would say that taking him to "pick out" a new friend wouldn't be a gret idea though. With all the activity going on in the store you bird will not behave in the same way he would in your home. Also, all the pet stores around here have a "bird sales final" policy...once it's out the door you cannot return it. That is because so much can happen to a bird that could cause it's dealth in just hours...like flying into a window causing an untreatable infection in the spine...or catching a disease from any birds the people may have in their home.

One of the girls that I work with has allergies and asthma and when he is around the cockatoos too much she will start to loose her voice and need to use her inhailer. She just trys to limit her contact with the cockatoos to keep herself from getting bad.

I have 2 finches with bad/missing legs and they get around great...my Zebra's leg was broken and healed worse than the baby greys and the Owl had half his leg amputated. Because this baby grey will never know what having "normal" legs are like he will act like nothing is wrong. What I would think he will need as he gets older is flat resting spots, various sizes of perches, probably a bed, and ether no clip or a long clip so he'll be able to use his wings to comp for the leg. I'm not sure if he will need a special setup for eating because at his age now I can't tell how well he will be able to use the bad leg.<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2009/01/27 18:29

I say get what YOU want, not what you think your grey would want. The chances of him getting along with another grey aren't any better than any other types of parrots. I would be a sucker for the Senegal, hahn's, TAG, or some of the Amazons (YN, DYH, BF)

Yeah, it is a really quiet grunt. Those MUST be some neck rubs you give him:woohoo: hahaha, j/k. Don't let that keep you from preening and loving on him.

Hmmmm, I think it might just be the "love" noise. The noise they make is when they are charged up is a mix between a grunt and a hard exhale...if that makes sense. Most of the time the wings droop a little bit when they make the noise too and they get really twitchy.

I want to read that book SOOOOOOO bad...how is it?

Hahaha...in the second pic it looks like he's about to go into Bow Overload! What bow to distroy first!!!

ahhhh, shucks...your too nice. :laugh: :kiss: He is SUCH a sweet baby too. He can't really walk (if you can call the baby hobble a walk) very well, but after I feed them he always seems to make his way over to me and snuggles into my hand. If I could I would keep him myself...I'm already that in love with the little guy.

I do have a great job...but with the good comes the bad, like sending these little guys to their new homes. I was gave them a better look-over yesterday and noticed something wrong with one of them. His leg looked as though it had been broken and was already rehealed crooked. I took them to the vet today to have the leg bands cut off so I had him look at the leg and he said I was right about the break. There is nothing he can do about it because it's already been healing so he's just going to be a "special needs" grey...so he'll only go to someone that KNOWS parrots.

The store just got 3 new baby congos in and are staying with me for a few weeks (till they are fully feathered). I took a quick video of them after I fed them while they were getting settled in for the night. I love them at this age...the tiny noises and fuzzy bodies!!! I could just eat them up!!!!<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2009/01/25 07:42

The amazons sure do love to sing...and that one is the best I have ever heard!

She should be fine with you leaving seeing at though you will be having someone come over to visit and she has a birdie buddy in the room. A few tips that could make it easier on her would be to have your grey get to know the person that is watch her before you leave if she doesn't already. You can also get her a few new toys...esp. a preening and a shreading toy. That could help incase she gets the urge to start plucking.