Jane08

They do have dander but to be honest I have never had a problem with it and we have 2 greys. It's not like the whole floor or table have been covered in it. I do vacuum everyday though, but that is more for the wild west look of down feathers that accumulate everywhere especially in the corners of the rooms, not to mention the food that has been thrown around the room as well. Bathing them does help with the dander, but it certainly doesn't stop it, you will always have the dander. We also have an air filter in the birds room as my boyfriend has allergies which helps reduce the dust. With the bathing you just have to try different things, some like the shower, others a bowl. It really does depend.

oopps sorry if I upset you, I will send tissues over immediately, hehe Seriously though you will find that they will be great company for each other. That is why we got Kea for Rangi as I couldn't stand the thought of leaving him alone by himself all day. Now he is one happy bird. Not long now, how exciting.

I heard this conversation, Rangi was training my boyfriend the other day. Rangi: Fredrik, Fredrik Fredrik: Silence, no response Rangi: Fredrik, Fredrik Fredrik: yes Rangi: What does a dog say Fredrik: Woof woof Then I was on the phone last night with my boyfriend as he was away and I let him speak to Rangi Fredrik: Hello Rangi: Hello Rangi: Can you whistle Fredrik: Whistles Rangi: Good boy

That is exciting that they are coming home. We now know who won't be able to sleep unitl Thursday. It's even worse when they come home, you will be wanting to check on them all the time when you get them home. I remember the first few days when Rangi came home I was so paranoid about doing something wrong and every morning I would fully check him to make sure everything was ok...he must have thought I was nuts.

Dave is totally right, please be careful about some of the books and advice out there. We read a few books that were recommended to us when we first got our grey and went with what they said, only to find out we had harmed our grey. I still get sad thinking what we did to him. Lucky for us we went on a workshop with Barbara Heidenreich and she has a book called "good bird" that helped us. After that workshop it was like we took a new bird home, he was so happy and so were we.

I am sorry you have to give up your grey because of the screaming. I feel very sad for Rico and hope you find him a nice home. We also had a screamer, she did it all the time when she was young as well. It does take commitment, patience and time to turn it around and make it stop. It is good that you have decided to find him another home if you don't have the commitment to look after him. Please have some compassion for Rico until you can find him a new home and realise that he didn't ask to come and live with you. Good luck with finding him a new home.

LOL, well they say if you get pooped on by a bird it is good luck, you must have loads of good luck when you are out in the car.

Could it just be a phase she is going through, trying it on to test the boundaries. Our 2 have phases of that and Rangi is going through the biting phase again now. He flies and lands on my hand and places his beak aorund my hand and increases pressure. I have put it down to it being spring as I find this really affects them the sudden change in light hours and it is quite rapid here. I think he is also hormonal as I catch him doing the mating dance for Kea more often lately. The biting also happens more when he wants something we have, when I take him away from somewhere I don't want him to be, or he gets over excited when playing. I find that he is testing the boundaries. Another thing is that he is molting and has lots of spikes on his tummy, which also might cause his bad attitude. What I do when I know he is like this is if he wants to land on my hand I have him land on my wrist which is where I can withstand the bite better than the hand. I place him immediately on his perch and tell him no biting. Lately as soon as he bites I also slowly lower him to the gorund and sit him on the ground for a few seconds and then ask him to step up for me again. I tried putting him back in the cage but he would fly off and I was not going to chase him as I know he finds this funny. If he flies and bites and then flies off again I totally ignore him, I don't want to make it fun for him by chasing him. I think the worst thing you can do is let them know you have lost confidence, she will understand this and do it more. Another thing I do is if I see he is in one of those mooods I train him, just little stuff like to wave just to give him some structure and it also gives me a reason to praise him, which is really important when he is going through a phase. I don't want to constantly be telling him off so I need a reaosn to praise him.

Jillybeanz, Kea was also an amazing whistler when she was young but never really spoke. Then when she hit one her talking took off at warp speed. Now she talks all the time. I really think them just doing all the whistles and mummbling is a real sign.

Don't feel discouraged, our female bonded to my boyfriend and she hated me and I am sure she plotted ways to get me out of the house. She would bite anytime I came near her and I was so upset about it all. So I came up with a strategy to win her over....Bribery....this seriously works. At first I just started by not touching her or asking anything of her just going up to her at different times and giving her treats. I did this for awhile and then started to ask more from her to place her foot on my hand and she would get a treat. It took me months and months to gain her trust with baby steps. Now she is the most gentle loving girl that I could ever wish for. She comes to me willingly, steps up for me, lets me know when she wants me, sometimes she even lets me rub her head. I also train her and she loves it. This has really brought us closer together. Of course I don't have the same relationship that my boyfriend does with her but I am happy that the biting stopped and I can see she likes me and we interact and have fun together. The best part of the day is when she sits on my hand and we both watch life pass by outside the window and I tell her what all the things are that she can see. We can sit there for ages just gazing out and talking.

Casper I know what you mean about the guilt. We always spend as much time with them outside the cage before we go out. I also put an extra treat in the cage for them. The first year we only had Rangi so I couldn't just go out and leave him by himself. Once we got Kea for him I felt better about going out as they had each other. You are a big softie casper but I totally understand when their little eyes are looking at you begging for attention. You then have to think that you need a break as well.

For ours it depends what time of year it is to what time they wake up. In winter I actually have to wake them up about 6am and the weekends about 8-9am. Spring and summer are a different story, it gets light about 0330 and in summer it doesn't really get dark the sun just sits on the horizin. The first year we had them they would wake at 0330, but now we have blinds and they wake about 6am or a little before that. Rangi is the first to wake up and he starts chattering away.

Here is the list. I also swear they tag team us, one distracts us while the other destroys something. -Chewed the curtains off in the kitchen -Chewed through the cable to the roof light (was not plugged in) -Swings from the living room roof lamp (had to remove it) -Flies to the standing lamp and chews the lampshade -Climbs down the living room curtains to chew the cords to the blinds -T-shirs have been chewed -Books -Climbed down the shower curtain to the shower head and chewed the rubber bit off - Climbed down the shower curtain to the bathroom sink and chewed the toothpaste -Chews the doors frames, actaully hangs from them and chews. -Chewed the wood off the cupboards in the kitchen -Lands on the back of the kitchen chairs which are wood and chews the back of them. - Chewed through the black out blind in the bedroom. - Tries to chew the couch, but I am having none of that and place a blanket on the back of the couch where they perch and they chew the blanket instead. -Chewed the tassles off the couch cushions. I am sure there is more, I swear you have to have eyes in the back off your head. I am lucky in one way, Rangi actually tells me when he is up to something so usually I can race out in time to stop him.

I also found them to need more time from me than I expected. In the morning they have 1 hour out of cage time and then in the evening they come out about 1700 and go back in about 2100-2230. The weekends they are out of the cage about 8 hours of the day. Like everyone said there is then more time spent doing other stuff for them. One thing we also did the first year we had them was we didn't go out at night and leave them alone, there was always someone home. Now we have started to leave them alone at night in the weekends say if we want to go to dinner, partying etc. We put them in about 30min before we leave, have a light on. By the time we get home in the early hours they are fast asleep.

I will do a conversation that I heard our 2 having yesterday: Kea: I am going in the car to buy food Rangi: What is for dinner Kea: Pizza Rangi: What, yummy. It is so yummy with food (he also does the smacking of the lips sound at this stage) Kea: Goodbye Rangi: Coming soon

The tummy thing is the worst. I was home all yesterday with it. Our 2 knew I wasn't well as they heard me throwing up and were quiet for 2 whole hours, didn't hear a peep out of them, which is very unusual as they normally can't stop chattering. Rangi even flew to me and looked all concerned and started to preen my hair. Hope you are feeling better soon. Try some sprite, my mum would tell me that when I had an upset tummy and it works, just sip sprite.

What great progress you have made, he really feels comfortable with you. You must feel very honoured.

He is a big boy, big and beautiful, what a great photo. I guess he is trying to get all the energy to grown now because when he is ready to fledge he will drop weight to help with the fledging process, otherwise it will be like trying to lift a huge jumbo jet off the ground with all that weight, hehe.

I really feel for you and know what you are going through I thought our female grey was going to drive me to a mental home. I then sat down and realsied I was the problem and not her. Once I changed how I approached her and interacted with her it stopped. It seems though that Ziva had been doing this for quite some time and has got attention for doing it, especially if she knows the words like shut up etc. So this has been reinforced with her before you got her and she thinks it's normal. You can't be upset for her screaming when this is what she has been taught, it's not her fault. When she screams have some compassion for her, look at her as though you love her and you will find that you will feel calmer and better able to deal with her. Maybe repeat to yourself that it is not her fault to remind yourself of this and be determined that you will teach her the right way to behave. You are doing everyting right, when she screams ignore her, when she makes a good sound reward her. By reward I mean give her a treat, or get excited and raise the pitch of your voice and exaggerate a verbal praise just like you would do if a child did somehting amazing and you were so proud. If you are praising her and she screams stop and turn away from her and ignore her. You are also doing the right thing by leaving the room while she screams. She will be picking up on the tension that you feel when she screams which she will enjoy big time. You say you don't let her see that you are upset but believe me she will feel your emotions. Try to talk to her more like luvparrots suggested in a calm voice ask her things that you know she knows the answer to, or tell her what you are doing, explain everything to her. She does want to be a part of your family but she doesn't know how and the last family taught her that screaming was the way, so she has just continued that. Find toys that she finds interesting, especially foraging toys, show her how to play with them, get excited when you show her like it is the best thing ever. Do some training with her to stimulate her mind, this is very important they need stimulation. You could start to teach her to step up using treats. Last but not least just remind yourself that problems that our greys have are nearly always our creation, or the owner before you as in your case. Try to remember it is not their fault. Post edited by: Jane08, at: 2009/05/06 10:05<br><br>Post edited by: Jane08, at: 2009/05/06 10:08

Jesus Dave, you have done amazing things. I really hope people read your post and take note

Totally false, it's a myth. In fact they teach each other to talk and our 2 even have conversations with each other. Rangi will ask kea what is for dinner and kea will reply with her favourite meal that day somehting like, pizza, spag bol, sausage. Rangi asks Kea what does a cat say and Kea goes meow and Rangi replies good girl. They have many more conversations as well. It's very comical to watch.<br><br>Post edited by: Jane08, at: 2009/05/06 09:00

LOL Dan, we have to say the same thing over and over otherwise you men wouldn't do anything. We all know that when men talk, it's something important or logical because it usually starts with "My wife says...." We have a male and female grey and they both talk as much as each other.

Great photo Azzie, 11 month old puppy, he is huge, hehe.

I would also go with the shower room if he is ok with this. Sit him somewhere in the shower room and even the heat and humidity from the shower going is great for them. In the cage you could try putting in some branches with leaves on at the top of the cage and wet the branches so that the water runs down on to Zico. I would not go for the dunk him way he will hate it. You want to make bathing a good experience. Our female also hates it and we laugh make lots of noise get her excited throw toys into the water put treats in the water and she gets so excited before you know it she jumps in. We then make a huge noise praising her. She is so bad she won't bath every week, but sits in the shower with the heat everyday.

Firstly you would need to keep them in separate cages at the start and slowly introduce them. They would need everything separate, ie, food bowls etc. There is no guarantee they will get on, but the chances are very high when they are so young. If you get a new bird you would have to make sure that you do everything for Zico first and the new bird second. Zico has to know he is number one bird. This is a very important thing to remember. When you first introduce them outside the cage you will need to supervise them to make sure there is no fighting. You might see some interactin that looks like fighting, like beak clashing which is normal, just make sure they don't harm each other. Introduce them slowly and don't rush it. It depends what you want to achieve, do you have the goal to have them in the same cage, or separate cages and just playing outside the cage together? Our goal when we got a girlfriend for Rangi was to have them in the same cage and it took us about 3 months to achieve this and have them comfortable with each other. They are now bonded to each other, but also bonded to us.