BMustee

On the weight issue I was never huge on tracking his weight, and at 14 weeks he will probably start to loose weight as he starts to fledge, and they can loose a lot of weight...going down into the 350 range. When they are loosing the weight it is much more important to make sure they are still active bright-eyed and eating. You said he was a big one so he will be on the top end of the weight scale. Mine is pretty small for a CAG so yours would weigh a lot more than mine.

I would go to the store before his next feeding and get a thermometer. At his age he is probably out of the woods for stuff being to cold but I would give him the formula at 105 still...that may be why he doen't want to eat as much. I said before mine loved apple sause and he would eat that cold at the same age as yours so my thinking is that some people food gets nasty when cold so maybe formula is the same way.

I would cut down to the 20ml on the next feeding. If he looses intrest at that point then he's letting you know he's done. And make sure to always put the tip in on HIS left side...you probably know that but I wanted to put that just incase. My grey didn't want to eat pellets when weaning. He loved apple sause, bluebarries, grapes...stuff like that. Try giving him stuff like that while still offering the pellots. I heard that putting fruit juice on the pellets gets them more interested but that never worked for mine. He may also not like the kind of pellets your giving him. Mine hates the fruit flavored kind and will only eat the brown "original" ones with a little bit of cockatiel/lovebird seed mix sprinkled on top. The grooming is a good thing. Mine would never preen when he was that age. As long as he isn't plucking feathers out then he is doing very well. I would also start giving him baths now...that way he gets used to them while he is still young. Everyone here is a big fan of giving Aloe Juice baths so you might want to pick some up for your grey as well.

{Feel-good-0002006E} You gotta do what you gotta do!

The barfing could be signs of over filling the crop...at 14 weeks my grey was only taking 20ml in per feeding. Also, what are you feeding with...spoon, syringe?

First thing I want to say is DO NOT TEST THE TEMP ON YOUR WRIST...this is dangerous. Get a digital meat thermometer and feed him the formula between 105 and 110 degrees F...nothing cooler or hotter. A baby cannot regulate temps like an adult so if it is too cold it will cause sour crop or slow crop and to hot will burn holes in the crop walls. Also, don't always go by the formula amount...use it as a guide. The crop will start to shrink as he gets older and he will not be able to eat as much as he would before and you don't want to over feed him. My grey's crop dropped half it's size by the time he was on one feeding a day. Start getting a feel for his crop now so you know how it should feel full. I feed a number of baby greys, macaws, and cockatoos at my pet store job and we do not measure to the T how much they eat, we know they are full by the feel of the crop. The first feeding you want to drop is the afternoon feeding. At 14 weeks he should be good and ready to drop it so I would go for it now. Feel his crop before you feed him. If there is some solid food in there don't give him that feeding. Do the same thing the next day. If there is food in it drop the feeding. Still give the morning and night feedings but because you know he is able to get solid food in he is good for the afternoon. The next feeding to drop is the morning. Offer him easy stuff to eat like apple sause and see if he will eagerly eat on his own. If he dives in then he is good and will not need that feeding. Continue on with only the night feeding. This feeding will continue to be his "security" feeding and he may very well want to continue getting it for a while. He will loose interest in time and when he stops crying for it at night test the waters and see if he won't notice not getting it. It sounds like your doing well otherwise so I won't bore you with all the other stuff. As for the hot feet, Parrots body temp is averaged around 105 F, and humans are only 97 F. They will feel hot to use because we are colder than they are. The ruffling of the feathers and stretches are signs of a happy grey. That’s how the get comfy. Sneezing without discharge is normal and nothing to worry about. They sneeze to clear dander or down that gets up there and if it is only once or twice a day isn't a sign of illness. Parrots will pant when they are wound up not just if they are hot, so panting after a trip to the vet is to be expected. Please e-mail me if you have any more questions.

Yeah, having a pattern is a good point. I like dark browns and greens so it would hide a stain perfectly. I would never want light solid colored funiture just for the stain reason alone. :laugh:

No problem B). I'm always nervous about my breeder finches health and anything I have learned that helps anyone else I want to get out there. Too bad I had to learn about egg binding the hard way but hopfully from my loss I help other birds. I'm always freaking out right before my finches lay eggs because right before a normal egg lay they will look fluffed and have a "pushy" look to their vents, but as long as they are pooping and active they're good. I always watch them very close...even the ones that have had previous clutches...because of that one time. Right back at ya' with the karma!

Oh yeah...I would not recommend wood or wicker. The wood would get chewed on and wicker can snag toes and nails in it. I have wicker furniture on my front porch and my grey snags his toes in it so if you didn’t notice a toe caught in it he/she could really hurt himself.

I would not buy any funiture treated with anything. I have heard of a number of people that have lost all their birds within hours of bringing stuff treated into the house. This goes for the carpet as well. The one story that I read said the woman asked the sales guy about the stain protector being safe and he told her there would not be a problem and all three of her parrots died. I would be more worried about the cat claws than the poop because you can always steam clean any poop stain, but claw marks are forever. I have a canvas material on the chair in the bird room and it does great with both poop and cats.

Once a bird passes it's first egg the chances are slim it will ever be egg bound. I myself lost a female Star Finch to egg binding...it was her first egg ever. I wouldn't worry too much about it if your not breeding her because some birds won't lay eggs just to lay them. Like Tari said, some extra calcium could help and feed her a well-rounded diet. The signs of egg binding are sitting fluffed up and looking like they are trying to poop/push a lot. If you notice that she is fluffed, not as energetic and isn't pooping anymore that is when you need to go to an avian vet ASAP! They are trained to get the egg out safely.

Everyone thought you were asking about the "bitter Apple" so that’s why we have all answered accordingly. I have not heard about a lot of success with the "bird friendly" spray products and I wouldn't use them if I had a plucker. The first thing you need to do is take your TAG to the avian vet. A vet trained for dogs and cats have no clue what they are doing with exotic pets and birds so they should not be considered as an option for a complex problem like yours. Do you have any feather toys in the cage? I have heard that pluckers will switch to "plucking" and preening the toys instead of themselves. The Aloe Juice can be found at many Wal-Mart’s pharmacy department. If you don't have any stores that carry it there are plenty of places online to buy it as well. Also, I don't think that you being gone for 8 hours a day makes any difference in the plucking. You said he will pluck when you are there so it's not a "detachment" issue, plus a distraction is only just that, it's not a fix. Try putting the feather toys in the cage, aloe juice baths, and get him to an avian vet as soon as you can get him to one.

Yes there is. For one the chance of these birds getting along to the point of being able to share a cage is slim to none. Most birds that can be kept in the same cage are littermates or have been raised together from only weeks old. If you were to get the other grey and just stick it in your 4 year olds cage she could and probably would attack the baby. Second, a 4-year-old grey is not going to be sexually mature yet but soon will. Just because she has not laid an egg does not say what sex she is. Lets say you got the other bird, regardless of the sexes of both if they bonded they probably would not bond to you the way a single bird would. Some birds like Hyacinth and Buffon's macaws are known to be more open to human companionship even with a bonded partner bird but greys are not known for this so if they were to bond you would not be someone they would want to spend their time with. The rule of thumb is if you want more than one bird you need more than one cage.

I don't mind the bird poop too much...I would much rather clean parrot poop up than dog poop. :sick:

I had the same thing happen to my BRAND NEW CAR 2 weeks after I got it. Some kid hit it with his bike and put a big gouge on the quarter panel. The mom told me when she came to look at the damage and pick up her son that she would pay for it. When I brought the estimates they said that I "endangered" their child because I was blocking the sidewalk and they were not responsible, but in my neighborhood the driveways are so short that you can't park a car on it without blocking them. I say the car didn't jump out in front of him...he ran into it! These people are the absolute scum of the earth because the father called me at work just to harass me about the whole thing and told me his older son his two cars parked in the street and blamed the people that parked them there. These people need to be taken out of the parenting pool because they are teaching their kids it's ok to damage people’s property. AHHHHH…. I’m still pissed about it and I still have a gouge/dent in my car!!!!

I've never heard of pooping too much harming a bird. They can only poop out what is already "ready" to go, so it can't hurt them to let it out 5 minutes before they would have gone on your pants. I sometimes take my grey to the toilet before he needs to go and he will give me this look and just want his reward scratches. I bet he has had some poop training in his lifetime, and I'm sure you giving him ample toilet time helps a load too...lol<br><br>Post edited by: BMustee, at: 2007/10/24 19:33

Yeah. My grey is probably just about due for his first molt and I will remember what you said about the first being a ruff one.

oh yeah...and don't come back in the room till he has been quiet for like 5 minutes.

What I did when my Sun conure started screaming was leave the room. I know this can be dificult, but walking over to the cage to cover it is still attention and will not fix the problem in the long run. Any time Ying Mo screams stop whatever you are doing and leave the room...don't look at him, say anything, just leave. When fixing screaming most people give up to easiy because it does not get better over night...in fact it will get worst. If he screams for lets say 30 minutes at a now, he will start screaming for 45 to an hour, maybe more, before he starts screaming less. This is why most people give in and ether yell at it or give it other kinds of attention because they think nothing is working. Keep with it and the screaming should stop in time.

Good to have you back!

hmmmm...you say all his feathers look like down? Are they his normal feathers that look chewed or is it strait up down feathers? I have not yet gone through a molt with my grey but the Sun Conure I had molted all the time and he would never look ruff during molts.

Most of the time the little poops that he lets out on the carpet are all solid waist, so most of the time it will only dry to one or two fibers so you don't even need to do anything but run the vacuum over it. The what I call "Pelican poops" are the ones you got to scrape at first.

Mine does not scream at the usual times. He will do this loud sharp noise when he feels like it...mostly when he's chatty...but it seems he just likes to do it just to do it. Having the grey 3 weeks and now it's just starting to do it sounds to me to be a normal timeline for your grey to have bonded with the family and is now screaming for everyone in the morning as a role call. Thats what they do in nature and they will do it in the home with a human flock too.

I have seen products that are like bitter apple that do not contain harmful chemicals...I think it was in my Bird Cages 4 Less catalog. I wouldn't use a product made to go on a table leg on the animal itself because the stuff in it could harm it. You should first take your TAG to the vet for a full work up and start giving Aloe Juice baths without water added. Don't ever give any attention to your bird when he is plucking...you said he plucks more when you try to distract him so it might be he is doing it for attention. I would leave the room when he starts doing it to be sure he knows he won't get anything from you when he plucks.

I'm not going to chip mine for the exact reasons MrSpock pointed out.