BMustee

Mine does the bobbing and weaving when he really gets going but he has learned that he must be very gental with his beak. We play "Gotcha beak" and "Eat yo' face" and thats when he gets all crazy. He will grab my fingers with his beak but will only use a tiny bit of pressure...he'll do it to my face too, but will only drag his beak across my cheek...never bites. In time he should learn too, just let him know when he is doing it too hard.

I got my CAG at 6 weeks old and I didn't come up with a name till he was 9 months...so your not alone on the problem of naming. I named mine Elmo because when he really gets into "play mode" I can flip him on his back and he acts like a Tickle me Elmo doll. I say let the right name come to you, after all you and your grey could be stuck with it for 50 years. :laugh: (thats how I justified taking so long LOL)

I use the Feather Tether on Elmo and pretty much the only reason he is able to be put in it is because I started putting it on him while he was a baby (like, 10 weeks baby). There are ways to get older birds to allow a harness but you first must be able to touch them anywhere (under wings, back, tummy) and only after you can touch them like that can you try to get the harness on. Try putting only sections on at a time and give treats while doing it.

My grey normally will gurg for my hand...he's never really gone for my mouth, but there are a couple Macaws at my work that do try to get right up to my face. I give them my hand and it always works. The gurged food don't bother me but that huge beak pumping right next to my face does. :laugh: Plus, it gives the message thet I want to give them food back.

LOL...Elmo does that all the time! I need to get a picture of him doing it too.

One thing you could do is put your hand out for the "gift" or take the beak between the thumb and index finger and pump right back to mimic what another bird would do.

That is soooo cool. I'll have to bookmark this.

I would say there is hope for Oliver to become a talker again. Seeing at though he has only been with you for 4 months he may still be on the fence about talking to you, but if he is making noises it sounds like he will be coming around. Also, Karma for you for taking in a plucker and getting him to stop. That really shows how much love and support you give him.

Tari - I still hand feed my grey from time to time for the same reason. I hand feed some of the adult birds at the pet store sometimes too. I found that a lot of birds really like the Gerber baby food (the kinds in the little jars) hand fed to them too.

All it takes is hearing something one time. It could be from the TV, radio, one time slip from you. There is a story in one of the books I read of a priest that had a grey and one day he was hanging a picture and hit his finger with the hammer. He let out a few colorful words and they grey picked it up from just the one time.

The 25 year old hand fed bird is an obvious exaggeration, and in no way do I condone force weaning. I have heard of many cases of weaning becoming more difficult because they are never given the chance to become a little hungry in the afternoon and want to really try eating on their own and then ending up having the “weaning window“ shut(and by a little hungry I don't mean starving and thinking they are going to die hungry). I did put in my post to maybe push his late afternoon feeding back a little bit, but if he was crying for it to give it too him. I didn’t say to just cut him off. It was not clear if he was getting fed at night or not because I have never heard of having the night feeding being dropped first, so I treated it as 3 feedings. I got my CAG at 6 weeks and he weaned at 15 weeks…by his choice, not mine. After I noticed he was picking at more food I dropped the afternoon feeding and he never looked back. He couldn’t wait to get into his apple sauce and blueberries when I would offer it to him a little before he would get his afternoon feeding. Not long after I took him off the afternoon feeding he would want to stuff himself when I would offer him his fresh food in the morning and then one day he just didn’t want his night feeding. As of right now, I am hand feeding 2 macaws, 4 greys, 2 umbrella cockatoos, and 1 Eclectus. One of the greys (a TAG) is pushing 5 months and he is still being hand feed because he still wants it. If the methods I use are force weaning I would imagine he would be weaned by now. Also, my grey is one of the most well adjusted greys I have ever seen. He can be picked up by 99% of people…including strangers…he doesn’t fight to the death when he gets his nails gone or when the vet is examining him and taking blood samples. He tolerates change like a champ and has never bit anyone without reason (he bit me once because a finch got out and he didn’t like that one bit) so the way I weaned him did not produce a nervous, neurotic parrot.

Well, are you with him all the time right now? Also how old is he? While they are young they can ajust to change much better than older greys that are set in their ways. I got my CAG in May and in October I had to get a second job, so I can be gone from 6am to 9pm, and he is completly fine wih it as long as he gets lots of love when I am home. I would say start getting him used to being alone for longer periods of time now so it's not a shock when it happens. Also, be sure he gets lots of toys to keep himself amused, leave a radio or TV on, or even get a fish tank for him to watch. I don't recommend another parrot for him because he may not want you as a friend anymore with another bird around.

Everyone has given great advice, I couldn't have said it better myself. Don't push your new feathered family member into something he doesn't want to do because it could really push any progress back even more. Your wife my also want to sit near the cage and talk and read aloud to him...greys/parrots seem to respond to that pretty well.

Given the fact that this is a new set-up after years of being the same it doesn’t matter that he has seen one before…it’s still new. If I was you, I would take him to an avian vet for a blood panel just to rule out anything health wise, but it may just be a waiting game for him to get used to the tank. How close to his cage is it and how big is it? If it is too close you may need to pull it back a bit so it’s not right in his area…and as he gets used to it move it back.

LOL...it's knee slappin' funny when he runs on the truck. He trips on his own feet! I'll have to get a video of it one of these days and post it.

WHAT! They kept your birth certificate?!?!? When are you supposed to get it back? I've only been out of the state of FL 2 times in my life, so I don't see myself crossing the borders anytime soon.

At the pet store we don't give the cockatoos or the macaws it at all...the grey's don't get it that often. My only BIG scare with Elmo was when he just weaned and I gave him a big sprig of millet before I went out for a little while. When I got home he had eaten every little seed off the sprig and his crop was filled. I touched it and it felt just like a hacky-sake or beanbag ball. I was flipping out and I called my breeder in hysterics. He started laughing about my description and told me to relax. He said not to worry just yet and wait and see if the crop would start to empty on it's own. Sure enough it did, but ever sense I only give him small sections at a time.

He sure is!:laugh:

Here he is in the bathroom...his fav place. Trying to get out of the shot ...and trying to eat the camera!

Elmo running on the truck I think there is something down there! mister Mysterious <br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2008/01/18 01:58

So, he gets handfed in the morning and again in the afternoon...is he being fed at night too, or really the question is how many times a day are you hand feeding him? At 12 weeks he should be on one or two feeding a day. Ether morning and night or only at night. Normally problems with weaning are really owner issues...not to say this is th case. If baby birds are not given the chance to eat on their own they never will, and before you know it you got a 25 year old being hand fed. If you are only feeding him morning and late afternoon I would push the afternoon feeding back a few hours to being in the evening. Now, if he is REALLY crying for food then by all means give it to him, but if it's just a halfass wine for it then don't. At that point he will probably check out the "big bird" food. You might want to try the weaning pellets and soft food like apple sauce...that what my grey was really into when he was weaning. Mine weaned at 15 weeks, and I believe he was at 11 weeks when he went down to 2 feedings so your not too far off the mark. Keep us posted on your babies progress.

Yeah, it's a good treat for them here and there. It's not high in fat like sunflower seeds and is fun for them to eat as well. I have heard that millet is also good for plucking birds because it keeps them busy picking all those tiny little seeds instead of picking feathers.

I work in a pet store and we have 5 baby greys right now. They love Sherri and I because we feed them and we see them for hours on end. When the people that have deposits on them come in they don't know them from anyone else that comes in looking at them...so when they do start to realize that you visit them they still don't see you as a "parental" figure because they are still in the pet store, still around their current "parents". One girls TAG would nip at her every time she wold come in for visits (at least once a week). She took him home about a month ago and I talked to her last week and her and the TAG are the best of friends, the biting has stopped and he lovers her very much now. So like everyone else has said...wait till he is home.<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2008/01/16 20:19

The first pic is Otto waving "Hi". He loves doing that trick, and the scratch under the beak was his reward for doing it. He would do it for Ice tea too. :woohoo:

I agree with Judy on this one. We need to know how long you have had him for and because he has hit sexual maturity and not properly trained he will be a bit more difficult to get to come around.