Jane08

When they are young they do need a lot of attention, so this is why he is asking for cuddles and to be held. This is totally normal for a young bird. The screaming at that age is also a way for them to say they want attention. Our female started with the screaming when she was 5 months old. Everytime she screamed we just ignored her and as soon as she made another noise that we like we praised her big time. Ignoring the screaming is the only way, but you do need to teach her to replace the screaming with other noises that are more acceptable for getting attention. It took us months to get our female out of the screaming and now it is so rare I can't even remember the last time she screamed like she used to.

Both of ours are fully flighted and we would never clip them. When I come home from work my heart leaps as they both fly down the hallway to meet me. That is one special experience I could never give up. I love calling them and having them fly to me, having races from the living room to the kitchen to see who can get there first, playing peek a boo and having them get so excited that they fly around the corner to get me, seeing them chase each other around the house screaming their heads off, the incredible body control and timing they have when they fall and I think they are going to hit the floor but at the last possible minute they turn over and fly off to safety.

Our greys also do not go on the floor and as Lisa says Im thankful for that. Personally I would not want my greys running around on the floor by themselves as they are so vunerable. Why can't you have different perches so that your grey can fly around and follow you instead. Both ours always follow us from room to room and know exactly where to land.

Does anyone else take their birds to meet other birds sort of like a play date? We took our 2 to meet another 2 greys at their house. They have met once before. I was totally amazed with what happened. They were all out at the same time and our female fell in love with their male. They were preening each other and regurgitating for each other. They did it twice in the time we were there. She does it with our male so I was suprised she would also do it with another bird. They told us that their male does not even preen their female so for him to do it with our female was surprising. Our male also amazed me as he was on top of their cage which he has never seen before or been in and then he just decided to climb in the cage and sit there. I know they are flock birds, but I really didn't expect them all to get on so well.

This is so odd our male grey who is 2 has just started the same sort of thing. He nibbles my hands as well and even tries to clean my finger nails. I just assumed he was preening me as sometimes he stops and starts to preen himself and then resumes on my hands.

I'm on the other side the one who didn't want the birds because all of the reasons you state. My boyfriend has always wanted one so I finally gave in. I had no choice when our grey came home as he fell in love with me and how can you not love a bird that panics when you leave the room, wants you to cuddle him, loves riding on your shoulder, flies to you when you walk in the door and is so happy to see you. My friends think I am completely nuts which I totally understand, I mean I used to be one of those people that thought people who had birds were crazy, hehe. Amazing how having one completely changes your view.

At xmas we were away and they both had to sleep in the bedroom with me and in the morning our male would hear me move and then he would stretch and make the creaky noise and then look at me to see if I was getting up. When he realised I wasn't he started to stretch again and really exaggerate the noise and then look again to see if i was getting up. I love that noise it's like they are saying I am so content and relaxed.

We have 2 creaky birds. They both do it when they stretch each wing. It is so cute to hear. Ours now for some reason really exaggerate the noise as well when they stretch. It was the first noise our male made when we got him nearly 2 years ago.

Dan I thought you were going to say that Dayo was making the noise "may day, may day, going down, going down" I don't know what to make of our 2. They have a game that they played last night where they chase each other around the house. They got up on the cupboards and the female rolls on her back for the male and he jumps on her with both feet. Well you should have heard her scream. The thing is she gets up and comes back for more. He then gets her head down and grabs her whole neck in his beak. It is so funny how she comes back for more and they stand there and our male comes towards her and she puts up her foot and gives him a few slaps around the head. I used to worry about it at the start that they were hurting each other, but it seems like they love to play this way as the next minute they are the best of friends.

Oh yes they do have attitudes which I think is great and so funny to watch. One miute our male can be as sweet as pie to me and the next he is bashing all hell out of a toy. Ours also have their mad moments where they fly like crazy around the house chasing each other and screaming at the same time. It is so funny to watch. They definitely have times when they want to be left alone and let you know. Our male is usually the one who will simply walk away and our female will look at me like what the hell do you want and I know that they both need their own time.

I bought a Java stick in the UK when I was there visiting. I was in Birmingham so got it from the local per shop Kings Heath pet shop. They are expensive, but well worth it our greys love it. We have it in the cage in a corner and it has now become our males sleeping perch. I think he likes the odd angle feel on his feet. Our female then takes the perch during the day to sleep on.

Do you think the ratio of pluckers/chewers is different between flighted and clipped greys? So, would you see more greys become pluckers if they have been clipped when young or at any stage of their life and less pluckers if they are flighted?

My boyfriend came home from being away and he asked our male grey what was for dinner and our male grey usually says chicken or spaghetti, but instead for the first time ever he said shut up ok. I was stunned and my boyfriend looked at me and goes how could you. I was like what and he goes he told me to shut up. I said no you must have heard wrong. Thankfully our grey didn't say it again all night, phew. Then suddenly this morning our male grey tells out female grey to shut up. Thankfully my boyfriend wasn't out of bed yet to hear it. Oh I hope he stops with that, hehe.

We run the light in winter and we leave it on all day when we are at work. It was funny the first time we turned it on for our female as she had no experience of it. Her eyes went big and she was looking around in wonder. Obviously she started to see things in a different way and was amazed. They are much happier birds with the light and many times I have come home and both of them are perched under the light fast asleep, sort of like they are sunning themselves.

Here are some pictures of our little guy who was only 5 months when he first started his molt. http://www.greyforums.net/component/option,com_joomlaboard/Itemid,27/func,view/catid,5/id,44845/ As you can see he also had bald patches on the back of his neck which freaked me out. They got worse than that as well and I ended up calling him turkey neck. It did turn out to be a molt that went on for months.

It will happen over time, nothing you can do to help him. Our male started out at that age trying to talk and it was very unclear. The more he practised the better he got unitl we could finally understand the words. At that age he also sounded more mechanical when he spoke, but now he has picked up more a a normal voice.

We have 2 CAG's, one is just over 1 and the other is 2. Neither of them have chewed their feathers. 50% seems a bit too high. Recently I was at a bird meeting and of the 20 greys there only 1 was a plucker.

We had a calm night. My boyfriend is away so I am home with the 2 little monsters. I opened the curtains in the kitchen and one sat on my shoulder and one on my hand and we watched all the christmas lights outside and the people. They were fascinated by all the action outside. Our male then wanted cuddles and turned so his head was facing my back, pushed against my cheek and turned his head around gently grabbed my nose and I rubbed his head and back for him. Our female who hates me touching her let me gently stroke her beak. Great night!

Our male is bonded to me, but never does he learn any words from me. I know this because I speak English and my boyfriend speaks Swedsih to him. Our bird only uses Swedish and 1 English word that was not taught by me. He learns everything from my boyfriend and speaks with his voice. He seems to be so fascinated with my boyfriends voice that every day he sits on his hand and listens to him speak and then a few days later he repeats the words. The thing is our male bird knows the English words even though he doesn't say them. I say to him in English it's time for a shower and he looks at me and says the word in Swedish to me. I then ask him in English if he wants to come with me and he raises his foot and says in Swedish up. That is his way of telling me he wants to come with me. Our female also speaks with my boyfriends voice and learns everything from him and from our male grey. She is bonded to my boyfriend.

Sounds like he is just young and this is such a short time to have him. You need to give him time to get settled into his new home. It's all new and scary to him. Our female went through this screaming and she grew out of it. We also kept up with the hand feeding once a day and I think this helped her as well. She is one now and we still hand feed her once a day. Don't force the shower, just try different things and try and make it fun. In one year I think our female has showered completely maybe 3 times. All the other times she just gets a little mist. She hated it and we will not force her. Only now is she starting to get excited about it and think it's fun. This weekend she go so excited she hopped right in the bowl and had a splash around and we misted her.

We had the same thing. When we got our first grey he hated my boyfriend and would bite him. He loved me, so I did back off and actually stopped giving our grey cuddles, treats etc. My boyfriend then did everything for our bird,cleaning, trainng and hand feeding once a day and this is where they bonded. Our grey gets affectionate after his formula, so I would stay away and finally our grey would want cuddles from my boyfriend. Now they are friends and our grey flies to him everyday when he gets home from work. He can't do everything I can with our grey, but it is 100 times better. Our female is also the same with me. I started to train her to step up, so she got used to being on my hand and learnt that only good things happen when she is with me. Over time she has come around, but doesn't let me really touch her. I think I have touched her maybe twice in a year. She is bonded to my boyfriend. Now I have this relationship with her that she tells me when she wants me which is fine with me. I can also play with her, by scrunching up paper and she rolls on to her back on the table and rips the paper. So I know she must trust me if she rolls on her back, but I just can't touch her.

You should give them more time. When we got our second grey it took about 3 months for them to finally get on. What do you mean they don't get along, what do they actully do to make you think this. Do they clash beaks, go for one another?. Is it one particular bird that is the problem? At the start we had a lot of beak clashing. I think one thing for us that helped is that we hand fed them once a day together and then each time after feeding they got all affectionate and started to bond more. They would eat the leftovers off each others beak and start to preen each other.

We will also be taking our greys away for the xmas holidays. We have a considerably smaller cage at the place where we are going, but like you ours will spend a lot of time out of the cage. We also don't have them sleeping in the cage at night when we are away. They have a spiral that we attach to the roof in the bedroom that we sleep in and they are very happy to sleep on the spiral because they can see us are high up and feel safe. It's a good idea when you get there to show Ice around the house and you will know by the body language what Ice finds scary and what Ice finds ok. We did that with our female as she freaks out a bit. We calmly walked around the house and I talked to her telling her what everything was and where everything was. When she grabbed a bit harded with her claws or leaned back I knew she was scared of something, for example she hates the ceiling lights being on in the hallway. Also if Indy has been there before then hopefully Indy will let Ice know that everything is ok. Good luck

My boyfriend has always wanted a parrot and loves birds. Being honest here, I didn't like birds and couldn't think of anything worse than having 2 of them living with me. The day we went to meet out first grey I took one look at this majestically posed bird (he was sitting tall all puffed out like he was proud to show himself off), he let me touch him and I fell in love. We brought him home 2 months later and he hasn't stopped loving me and I haven't stopped loving him.

You can get great harnesses nowdays for them, like the aviator harness and they are fantastic. We are working at the moment on training our 2 to put on these harnesses. We also take our ones in the car and always have them in a cage. We use a small dog cage and have it sitting on the back seat between the 2 front seats and our female stands up the front of the cage so she has a clear view of us and out the windscreen. I can easily turn around in the front seat and talk to her. Our male likes to sit at the side window and look out at everything.