BMustee

I'm with you Judy...if you can't afford to fix your dog/cat, you don't need one, and if your too lazy then you won't be giving it the best care so you also don't need to have a pet ether.<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2007/10/30 18:50

I myself did get a baby grey but this was after months of looking in the "for sale" listings and calling the local rescues. When/if I get another bird it will more than likely be a rescue. I have a part time job at a local pet store and no matter what kind of discount I could get on a dog or cat I will NEVER buy one...I'll only go to my county shelter. The way I see it is there are the greatest dogs of all ages and breeds there and you get them for under $100 and you saved a life. When you go to a pet store you can pay $500, $1000, or even $2000 for a dog! One store in town has a bulldog pup for $2000...I can't see paying that much and then your supporting puppy farms to top it off.

WOW! That is amazing how much they grow is such short amounts of time. {Love-000200BF}

Same with dogs. My grandparents had a poodle that ate Oreo's every day and that dog lived to be 15 years-old. I still would never let any animals eat it just because there is that big risk.

MrSpock pointed out in another post that mixing the gel and water is useless...you really need to use the juice.

Well, mutilation is a very difficult to break. Because you know that he started the mutilation from his separation agsiaty I would not put him through that situation again until it is solved. If I was you I would take him to an avian vet to see when treatment he/she would recommend.

The post about getting rid of a grey due to a cuddling situation...or really lack of...really got me hot. I can't tell you all just how angry I get with people that are irresponsible pet owners...and not just with birds, but with all animals. The fact that there are animals that are the sweetest and most loving things you have ever seen are being put down in our shelters every hour, minute, second, breaks my heart and knowing there is nothing I can do to save them hurts even worse. I wanted to post this video on here to do my part to help. I want to warn you all though, it is disturbing. I'm the type of person that can watch anything, but this short slide show made me sob. I think watching this and seeing the facts about the kill rate in the US would make anyone change their minds about not fixing their animals. I don't want anyone to be offended that I posted this, so I want to make it clear that it is a very unsettling thing to watch yet educational to what is going on at all our local shelters due to pet overpopulation. http://www.brightlion.com/InHope/InHope_en.aspx

eve wrote: That has got to drive you nuts...not only do you think someone is calling but you might have a dead battery too! LOL The only noise that my grey does that can get under my skin is this loud high pitch tone. I have no clue what the heck he is mimicking though. The only thing I have heard that will discourage a parrot from making a certain noise is to ignore it. Don't give any attention or anything...just like if it was screaming. The one you have to do is establish a new call for attention that you can live with.

I would like to talk about the clipping for a moment. You said his wings are clipped but he is still able to get to the other side of the room. With his passion for flying I would be VERY carful with the clipping. If you were to clip to the point where he can no longer glide he will drop like a rock and run the risk of keel bone and beak injuries. I clipped seven feathers on both wings on my grey but left them long enough so he can glide but no longer can get lift. I would say your best bet is to keep picking him up and putting him back where you want him. It can take forever but he will figure out what you want him to do.

My CAG chewed through a 3 musketeers bar. I also didn't see how much he may have eaten but it couldn't have been much. He never had any signs of anything wrong, so I think yours should be ok.

Look, I have handled just about every type of parrot on the US market and NONE of them like being touched all the time...not even sweet tame caiques. I hand fed my grey and he to is 7 months old and he is my best friend...we do everything together. Does he like getting scratched all the time? No, he's a grey. He likes his loving before bedtime and a few times of HIS choosing during the day for his preferred amount of time. He gives me little kisses when I ask for them to show his love and that’s more than I could ever want from him. To tell you the truth, I think you are one sorry mother****** for getting animals and disposing of them just because they are not 100% what you want. A few of the members said to get a puppy or a bunny, but you should be BANNED from ever getting another animal...EVER! Dogs don't like getting pet 24/7... and hell, girlfriends don't like it ether. People like you make me sick...you get an animal and don't think that it has a mind of it's own...this is why shelters are so full and thousands of loving animals are being put down every day. I got news for you buddy...if you want an animal that will want your putrid hands all over it anytime you choose then you should buy a stuffed toy. I hear they just came out with new Care Bears, or you could get a "fur'real friend" toy...they like being petted, till the batteries run out. Plus, I think you are a real coward for not responding to all of us. Did you just want to post to let people know how much of a c**t you are?!?!? I'm being harsh...but trust me I could do much worse if this wasn't a "family forum". I hope you give that bird to someone that will truly love it for who he is...and just for spite I really hope he's a cuddler with the new owner.

{Feel-good-0002006E} Yeah, I don't know why he does it but it is sooooo cute when he's does...he all like, "you need to get in on this!" He does trust me a lot, and never stays mad at me for more than a few minutes. He's by far my best friend...other than the boyfriend that is. :laugh:

With his weight stable than he is doing good and weaned. Has he started fledging yet? I can't remember the exact age mine started dropping the weight so if he has been stable on his weight now then if he starts loosing but still eating good don't worry it's normal.

I have always heard Congo Greys wean at 12 weeks, but that is just an average. My grey weaned at 15 weeks, but I have heard of them weaning up to 18 weeks and as young as 10 weeks. I would watch his weight and make sure he is eating well because most don't wean that early.

Mine LOVES face rubs...the area around his eyes is his fav. He lets me kiss and give raspberries on his tummy and lets me give him foot rubs. He likes to put his feet in his beak all the time so sometimes he will put his foot in my mouth! I guess he thinks that because he enjoys chewing on his feet I would too. I'm working on getting him ok with under the wing touching and he's starting to come around.

EBay has really good deals on cages. here is the cage I got for my grey. http://cgi.ebay.com/Parrot-Bird-Wrought-Iron-Cage-32-x23-x66-WI32AS-R_W0QQitemZ250180702336QQihZ015QQcategoryZ46289QQcmdZViewItem

I'm sure he is going to be eating a lot more on his own without the feeding in the afternoon. He will let you know when he is ready to drop the morning and night. My grey would get really watery poop when his formula was a little to watery. It's nothing that he should be going to the vet for, but maybe thicken his formula up a little bit. If you can't watch him eat, or even if you can, the best way to monitor how much he is eating is feeling his crop. Remember that he won't fill it so you should feel a little mass at the bottom of solid food.

It should be warmer in GA than MI so I don't think there would be any problems from that. As for the laws I don't think there is anything about parrots in any state.

One thing I was wondering...how old was he when you got him / how long have you had him?

My baby had a lot of water in his poop...doesn't sound like it's something to worry about. One weird poop isn't something to call the vet about.<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2007/10/26 17:01

He will be loosing weight, and if he doesn’t there is something wrong. At his age he should be starting to fledge so he will get skinny. As babies they weigh more than their parents do but they loose a lot of the weight at fledging and then gain back some to the normal adult weight. If they don't loose the baby weight they run the risk of severely hurting themselves when they try to fly...like breaking their keel bone. If he was to get food in the airway there is nothing you can do...its pretty much instant death. The crop burn and sour crop are harder to pick up but at his age he shouldn't be as much at risk for sour crop due to colder food...but too much food and overfilling/stretching the crop can cause some major problems as well. I STRONGLY urge you to drop the afternoon feeding. If you go too long without giving him the chance to eat on his own he will never want to. Dropping the afternoon feeding isn't as stressful as you think it will be...you said he picks at his food even after getting meals, so this is a good indicator that he is more than ready to start the process. The nighttime feeding is the most stressful to drop and that’s why you keep giving that meal till they just don't want it anymore. My grey is 7 months old tomorrow and I still will give him a hand feeding now and then to strengthen the bond we have and to keep him used to it so just incase he ever gets sick I can give medicine to him without a lot of problems and stress. You really should test the waters and see how he does for a day or two. I would be willing to bet money that he will be fine and will barely notice you didn't feed him. I know what I'm saying seems like it would be mean to do but really it's not. I breed finches and hand fed babies got it good compared to a normal wean from the parents. I researched finch weaning and my parent birds go right on track with the norm but the babies always beg for more food. They learn to eat more food at that point and grow into perfectly healthy birds, not one has been lost due to starvation. Not to seem like I am picking on you for this but the biggest cause for baby parrots to refuse to wean isn't really the parrots at all...it's the owner’s refusal to wean. It's good to feel needed by our little feathered babies so some people don't want the joy of the experience to stop and think of a million reasons to keep feeding them but it's really not doing the babies any good. You won't be forcing him into weaning, but guiding him to it.

Is the twitching a bobbing motion? Young greys bob their heads to swallow so this may be what you are talking about. The crop acts like a "first stomach" and it drains food into the "second stomach" as needed, so on the three feedings a day he's full almost all the time. At 14 weeks he should be on one feeding a day so it's not going to hurt him if you drop the afternoon. Like you said before you thought you may be a bit of a hypochondriac with your baby so there may be some fear on your part that is keeping him from weaning. I don't condone force weaning, but you need to help him take his first step towards it. Around the time of the afternoon feeding put anything and everything he seems to like eating in front of him and give him some time with it. He should start picking at it and getting some food down. When they eat on their own they won't fill the crop like it would be from hand feeding, so if you touch it you should only be able to feel a little solid food in there. Don't give him the afternoon feeding and maybe give him his night feeding a little early if he seems to be ready for it. I know it will be hard to do...keeping his afternoon feeding from him...but it can become more difficult to wean if the "optimum" time is missed. I'm sure you don't want a 3 feedings a day 20-year-old bird. I was a bit nervous when I took away the afternoon feeding as well because I didn't think he was eating as much as I would have liked but the hand feeding is what keeps them from eating as much. I bet as soon as you pull that one feeding he will take to eating like a champ.

Not to be a downer on this but many times you need to have more than one subject animal. I did a science fair project on Betta fish and triggers for aggression and I had to have 3 fish to do the project to "prove" that it was not just one overly aggresive fish. Don't worry...I wasn’t doing cage matches with them. I tested to see if colors, shapes, hand drawn pictures, photos, and mirrors would trigger the aggressive behavior. I was thinking, maybe your daughter could team up with some of the members on the forum that have digital video cameras and have them do the same experiments with their greys and send her the results. This way you would get a number of birds involved and have hard evidence to back up the findings. Just my thoughts.

I know...I'm on fire today :laugh: I would also like to let you know not to clip his wings right away if you plan of doing it. Let him learn to fly and land gracefully before you clip. Letting them fly for a month or so lets them learn to maneuver and become more confident…clipping to soon will make your grey very clumsy even into adulthood.

I didn't mean put the Aloe bath in the cage...just the feather toy.