Jane08

If she is scared then don't put her in those positions and ask her to touch Murphy. For the moment she should not be touching him at all until she is fully confident with it. They can smell fear a mile off and they play on that fear as well. It's like a game for them. Our female Kea was exactly the same with me and I was scared to death of her and hated her actually. I then had to change my attitude first and realise it's not Kea's fault it's me. So I decided to find something that Kea and I could do together that we were both comfortable with. I always asked my BF to leave us alone so we could have special time together without him around. She loved learning new stuff and doing tricks, so I started at the beginning and taught her to step up on my hand using treats. The first thing I did was just give her treats and ask for nothing in return and then moved on from there. Anyway she thrived and our trick training took off all at Kea's own pace. We did this for maybe 10min a day. This was how I built a relationship with her and I became more confident in handling her. Kea also became happier being in my company and stopped biting me. I must admit this did take me about a year, but it was well worth it considering how long she will be in my life. Never ever did I touch her without being 100% sure she was ok with this. Now I can give her head rubs but only at certain times and only on her terms. Everything I do with Kea is on her terms, even when I ask her to step up I always ask her first and watch the signals she gives me. My BF has a totally different relationship with her and can do anything with her just like you can with Murphy. Still I love the things Kea and I do together, they are our special times. I also know Kea loves those times as well as she usually asks me for a kiss and I lightly touch her beak with my lips and she lets out this little scream of joy. Never ever in a millon years did I think that we would progress to that stage.

Congrats on Gandalf Try not to be nervous as he will sense this and not make him confident to step up on your hand as he will also be nervous and not sure. Talk to him and tell him what you want to do and ask him if he is ok with this and keep up the talk all the time while you ask him to step up. Then tell him what a good boy he is and praise him. Talking to him will also help to calm you down and take away the nervousness as you approach him. If at any stage you or he feel uncomfortable then just take a step back and try again...no need to force it, take your time he will let you know exactly what he wants to do just follow his cue. If you are scared of being bitten then practice first having him step up onto a stick that you hold and once you feel comfortable with that then progress to the hand. If you are nervous about holding a bird that size or dropping him then don't be he is an expert at knowing how to perch and make himself comfortable. Just listen and watch his lead he will help you out in how to handle him.

Congrats and you will have so much fun with 2 greys, you will see a whole other side to your birds that is truely amazing. As for advice...just enjoy and follow their lead when it comes to them getting on, they will tell you exactly what they are comfortable with and what they want......oh yeah and don't be surprised if Echo teaches Thumper things that you wish she wouldn't

Oh no they have been taken in by the bluff of wanting a scratch. This is very common and I am sure we have all been through it until we got wise to the body language. The key is to watch the eyes and see what the feathers are doing. The eyes will be dilated and the nape and back feathers will be raised, but not the head feathers. This is a very hard one to distinguish as they come up to you with the head lowered and you think oh how cute and go to scratch them and then bam bite. They are masters at it. I suggest you really watch the body language next time and if you see this don't touch him, he is pulling a bluff. I have always found the key is to watch the eyes they tell you everything. Rangi does it to my BF, he walks up to him lowers his head and actually touches my BF hand with his head waiting for a scratch. My BF then goes to Rangi I am not falling for that one as we can see by the eyes that he is pulling the bluff.

From my experience with our 2 they do this quite often and make all the noises for each other, regurgitate and dance and like everyone says they like each other. I have never experienced any problems with them wanting to spend less time with us just because they are bonded to each other. In fact they make the little noises for us as well and are over the moon to see us and interact with us. I love to sit there just watching them when they have their bonding sessions it's so cute the things they do to each other. In actual fact I have found that they are more protective of us than of each other even though they are bonded together. So I feel it is possible for 2 greys to be bonded and still have a great bond with the owners.

We also cage our 2 when friends come over. The friends always say hello to the birds and stand near the cage. I really cage them for their own comfort as people who don't have birds really don't know how to react when they are out and can make the bird nervous as well. Once we have finished dinner then I let the birds out to meet everyone. We have a perch by the dinner table and they sit there and the only people they fly to is my BF and I. If someone shows interest and ask to hold them or touch them (Rangi is the only one they can hold, Kea won't let anyone else touch or hold her yet) I then prepare Rangi for it and tell him what is going to happen and talk to him about it before they come near him. So for example if they want to touch him I give Rangi the command for touching his back which is "pat you back" and then I touch his back and then the person touches his back. If they want to hold him I tell him to step up and he will no problem. All the time I am talking to Rangi so he knows everything is ok and I tell him what a good boy he is. I do this because most people are nervous and he feels this, but with me telling him all is ok he is really calm.

We have one of each and our little girl is a right little so and so, much worse than our boy. Seriously though there is no difference between a boy or a girl so don't worry about it.

I assume this would be if you gave them excessive amounts and it has never been really documented with birds. Red blood cells in birds contain a nucleus which could offer some protection against cell rupturing. Cats and dogs don't have this nucleus. Again no conclusive studies have been done. Both of ours have cooked onion if for example we are having spaghetti bolognaise. I wouldn't stand there and try and pick out every piece and always think that small amounts in food once and awhile would be ok.

Great video. The best part in Aussie is at sunset seeing huge flocks of coloured birds flying over, it's like the sky is full of them.

Oh yes Rangi was like that when he was younger and I got so fed up with the fight every night. So I did the one thing that he thought I would never do, left a light on and went to bed and just left him there sitting on his perch outside the cage. I said good night see you in the morning. Let's just say the next night he was more than willing to go in the cage at bedtime. Must admit now though that they have their own room I have them sleeping outside the cage on their hanging perches....Rangi even puts himself to bed sometimes and flies in to the room to his perch when he is tired. Took us ages to get to the point where I now say to both of them good night, have a good sleep and Rangi usually flies to me to be taken to bed and Kea steps up for me to take her to bed.

Lol I didn't even notice so used to seeing feathers like that sticking out on our 2.

Oh that is so cute she is clinging to the window looking out. She looks good, nice feathers.

Very common reaction. I also wish you had visited the forum earlier to ask for advice. Many of us have been through what you describe and especially at the age that monkey is at, it's a very difficult age. She wasn't on a power trip, she was 2 years old and pushing the boundaries, seeing what she could do, developing herself. Anyway saying that it is done now and you will just have to be patient with monkey and I hope you decide to let the feathers grow out again so she can get back her flying skills. They really are easy to trian when they are flighted and they love to learn as well.

That is great news one day of no screaming is major. Did you do anything differently or was he different in some way? With Kea when she didn't scream I thought about what had happened through the day to see if I could pin point anything like a change in her routine, an activity that we did differently that might have prevented the screaming. Murphy sounds like a right character and I know what you mean about thinking you have a monster, I thought how is it possible for me to be landed with 2 monsters when other people have sweet greys. I actually feel lucky now that I did have 2 monsters as they have taught me so much, challenged me, pushed me and brought out my creative side in how to deal with all the issues they went through. Murphy is totaly normal in my eyes and you will look back at this later on and laugh about the hard time he gave you. I certainly look back now and laugh at how I was late to work as I sat on the couch holding a bit of string which was attached to Rangi's cage door, so when he sat on the perch at the door I would pull on the string to close the door.....he was in the phase of I won't go in the cage and you can't make me. I was determined to out smart him, hence the string attached to the door..another creative moment.

Ah, our greys are the masters in manipulation, they know how to make us feel bad. Murphy is young and will be going through alot of changes in the next 2 years or so and you will see many changes in his personality and his interaction with you. The way I dealt with the changes was just to say to myself it's a phase they are going through and it will pass....which it did until they found another phase to be in. You will see some big changes in him as he tries to find himself, where he fits into the family and how he is meant to interact with the family. It is not easy for him and he needs alot of guidance from you. I have only found now when our 2 have reached 3 years old that they have finally started to settle down, they know who they are and how things work. For the first 2 and a half years they tried everything and I mean everything. Both have tried the I don't like you because you ignored me or did something I don't like. I just leave them to it when they are like that and don't worry about it, they soon come around. Our male grey Rangi went through a biting stage and we just dealt with it until he was over it. He also went through the stage of hating my boyfriend but this also passed. Kea as I said was the screamer for months when she first got home and then she got over it. She also was a biter towards me, but we worked through that as well and now I get kisses from her instead of bites. Both went through the stage of I don't want to go in the cage and I will fight you tooth and nail not to go in. We dealt with this phase until it changed. I guess what I am trying to say is this is not uncommon for Murphy to be doing this and you might even see other behaviours that concern you. All you can do is exactly what you are doing using all the methods to help him through these phases and saying to yourself that this will get better. Only time and patience is going to make this better.

I know how you feel we also had a screamer and she went on for months and months. It started not long after she came home. We even had discussions about rehoming her as I was in tears alot with her. In the end I think what changed was my attitude towards her I became more compassionate knowing that she had left her home as a baby and was now in these strange surroundings with us and she didn't understand anything and her only way of telling us was screaming. We needed to teach her to communicate in a better way. If I was out of the room I would tell her beforehand where I was going and that I would be back shortly. While I was out of the room I would call her name to let her know I was still around. After doing this for ages she suddenly whisted to me when I called her name and I called back good girl, you are so good. This has continued through the years, so now when I call her she still let's out the same whistle as a reply to me and I always reply back good girl, you are so good. I did my best to ignore the screaming just like you are and when I heard her make a noise I liked I would rush in and give her so much praise. We taught her this way to contact call us with a nice whistle instead of screaming. She was slow but finally the light bulb went on and she understood that screaming got her nothing, but certain whistles got her everything. There were times when I also knew she would scream (like for you it seems to be the morning), so I would give her things to keep her occupied. This really worked as it distracted her and she forgot about screaming. It took me ages to find things that would occupy her, it usually ranged from a foraging toy which took her time to chew her way through, to a palm nut which took her awhile to demolish. I gave her bottles as she loved the challenge of unscrewing the cap, a bell pepper filled with her favourite food, paper bag filled with toys etc. You really have to get creative on that. I can safetly say that it won't always be like this forever so hang in there. Just try different methods to deal with it and take a deep breath when the screaming starts and take yourself to a happy place (being anxious will make it worse) and realise that he doesn't know how to communicate with you and this is what he thinks is right. You just need to teach him a different way.

Hhmm good question. Greys are special and unfortunately the "because I said so" doesn't go down well with them. I have tried that and you can see their eyes pin, feathers getting prepared for a fight, feet clenching on for dear life and believe me they will pull out all stops not to go in or not to do what I ask. Now if I approach it slightly differently and tell them that I have to go to work or to the shop etc and that they have to go in the cage and explain everything and why then everything is ok. It's like you need to treat them as an equal, show respect and actually ask them instead of demanding. I see my greys as my friends and I treat them as a friend, explain things to them, talk to them all the time about what is going on, what I am doing. I don't see it as they walk all over me, it's more like I respect the fact that they are intelligent and can think for themselves and actually make decisions for themselves. I just use methods to help them make the right decisions when it comes to choices that they have

So it's that time of the year again when our feathered friends are going outside, which is a great time to ask all the questions about how to protect them outside and from what. First question, can our greys get ticks? Last night I saw Rangi had a small dark spot just above his eye and I thought it might be a tick, but it's so hard to see. I have had both of them outside for the last 2 days. The other pest that I was wondering about is mosquitoes, we have them so big here that they bite through your clothing and leave big red welts. In the evening I take the birds in as I am afraid that they will get bitten. Heat and sunburn. I guess like any pet our greys can get sunburn, so I only leave them in the sun for 10min or so and then move them into the shade. I also watch out for the heat as those feathers are great insulation and I am guessing it wouldn't take long for a grey to heat up. I have heard adding ice cubes to their water when they are outside is a good idea. I also spray them with water to cool them down. Any other nasties that we should watch out for when we take our greys outside?

Glad he is in a better mood. Must admit I am no expert and they must know what they are doing, but it seems strange that they take the blood work from the foot. It seems such a tender place to take it from, no wonder it is swollen. When we have taken ours the blood work is done from around the front of the neck area as they have always told me it's easier.

The only other way to do it is if you train your bird for the vet visits, which would take a lot of time and patience. I am the same with ours they hate it. One thing we do is not go in with our birds. We hand them over in the cage and sit in reception and wait. I have always felt that then they won't blame me for what happens and when I get them home they are so happy to get out and be with me. I always make them their favourite dinner and give them favourite treats.

Here is some video of our workshop. Rangi is 53 seconds into it, learning step up with my BF. Now I look back at it he was so young 6 months old and we had a long journey ahead of us. http://www.youtube.com/user/GoodBirdInc#p/u/48/cQoemTDQg3I

I went to one of her workshops and can really recommend it. At the time we were new bird owners and had just got Rangi and we had some issues with him. She was brilliant and helped us to work everything out with Rangi. We even took Rangi with us for the 2 day workshop.

Rangi and I have started with the who can stick their tongue out the furthest. He pokes his tongue out at me and I do it back to him. He then tried again to stick his out further this time. I then stick mine out and wiggle it at him. He then copies and has it all the way out and wiggles it. It's so far out I can see the pinky bit way at the back of his tongue. We can go on for ages sticking our tongues out at each other...very childish, hehe.

Rangi totally told on my BF the other day. I was away for over a week and my BF was meant to be on a diet of sorts, just cutting out the chocolate and chips. So I got home and was alone with Rangi and Kea just catching up and suddenly Rangi says "chips". I thought I heard wrong and said what is it you want Rangi. He then goes "shall we go and eat chips". I was totally shocked and wondered how he had learnt that. He then said "can I taste chips". It then clicked that while I was away my BF was obviously eating lots of chips and Rangi had learnt it from him as he always tells the birds what everything is that he has. My BF then comes in the door and I said to him, did you have chips when I was away. He looked all guilty and started to laugh. I then told him Rangi had told me about the chips. My BF then goes I didn't have many and then I said to him I hope you didn't give them to the birds. Again a guilty look and he admitted giving them a very small bit of a chip. So great to know that when I am away that the birds will keep an eye on my BF and report back to me, HAHA.

Don't stress about it, I can also tell you it's not hard to spoon feed. I was also a beginner when we did it. One tip I can give is if you use a teaspoon bang the sides up so they are folded up to make the spoon narrower and it is easier for them to take the food and less messy.