Jane08

I really wanted to watch a documentary on TV last night and we all sat in the living room. As soon as it started our little grey decided he was going to start talking. I told him to be quiet as I couldn't hear and he actually laughed at me. I was so shocked. He talked all the way through the program and then as soon as it had finished he was as quiet as a mouse, wouldn't say boo. He sat there and looked at me like he was so proud of himself. I had to laugh, what a character. I swear he knew exactly what he was doing. I swear this bird does things just to wind me up. Like when I get comfy on the soffa and he then decides right how can I annoy her. So he flies up on the curtains and yells "get down". I then have to go into the kitchen and then he comes down. He does this numerous times and thinks it's so funny. My boyfriend thinks its so funny as well as he himself also does things to wind me up. I think the bird is getting it from him.

This weekend we gave our boy some palm nuts and sugar cane for the first time. He went absolutely nuts over both of them. He had the sugar cane stripped in no time. I watched his eyes when he had the palm nut and his pupils were getting small then big, small then big and I could see how excited he was. It gave us alot of pleasure to see him so happy.

If our bird has been running around alot or flying I then offer him water as I see him standing there with his wings held away from his body trying to cool down. Also if he steps up and I feel his feet are really hot this seems to be a sign for our bird that he needs water. We are also teaching him to ask for water when he needs it. Of course he has water in his cage all the time, but I am sure he is just too lazy to go and get it and would rather have his servant me bring it to him.

oh yes it is sore. When we first got ours he was the same and our arms looked like we had been in a fight with cats. We got alot of comments from people at work about all the scratches. It took about a month on the perches for them to become filed down.

adorable, the second picture looks as though she is smiling, hehe

We don't clip our birds nails as he looks after this himself. We have alot of different perches that he runs around on and that seems to file them down.

I must admit I am one of those people who can't ignore a bite, it is just a shocked reflex reaction to yell. I think it is the fact that I never ever expect him to bite me and he doesn't. Except for one time. I had my foot strecthed out on the table and he just ran up and bit it, I swear he didn't even realise my foot was attached to me and thought it was a toy. He got me right on the big toe and I let out a yell. He froze and looked at me. He hasn't done that again. One thing you have to be careful of when they bite is actually pulling away as I did with the toe bite because of course his beak was still attached and I pulled him across the table.

You will get to know the signs when your bird has had enough. When I am playing with our 9 month old and touching him all over he tells me to stop by either flying or walking away or sometimes he even lets out a little growl and will push my hand away with his beak. I then immediately stop. I also watch the look on his face as this tells me alot as well. He gives me the look like, what are you doing, I don't want to play with you anymore so stop touching me. He is a right little character.

We use sunflower seeds as his treat when we train him. So we have taken then out of his diet and he only gets them when he is being trained.

Oh yes we also have a spoilt boy and when I tell people what we spend on the bird they are horrified. He also has all the toys, food etc. Wherever he wants to go we make it bird safe for him. Every minute I am home I spend with him, either just watching him or playing with him. My hours are spent thinking about how I can make him happy and worrying about letting him down and not doing a good job. The best time is at night when we dim the lights and he knows it is bedtime and he flies into his cage, has a play with some toys, some food, cleans himself and then settles down on his perch for the night. God forbid that we decide to go to bed before he is ready. If I try to sneak off while he is doing his bedtime preparations he promptly races out of the cage making noises to let me know he is not ready. I then have to sit back on the soffa while he climbs back in his cage and starts the bedtime preparations again. They are the cutest and most intelligent birds and this comes from someone who didn't even like birds before we got him.

We had the same thing when we first got our bird. He loved me and didn't like my boyfriend and would bite him. We decided to let my boyfriend do everything for him. So he would feed him, clean the cage etc. I backed off and would just be there and would not even give him head scratches or food. It is much better now and they have bonded in their own way. My boyfriend is the main person who feeds him and they are able to bond after this. The bird will sit on his shoulder and they cuddle. They also play games together which also helps them to bond. We still have times where my boyfirend can not touch him and this is particularly when the bird is with me. We just know these times and my boyfirend knows when to avoid touching the bird. I think the bird sees my boyfriend as its mother and I am the birds wife, hehe

Oh yes ours does that as well, except usually the toy he is trying to get to is my hand. He hangs upside down and then he likes me to gently brush his downy feathers under his wings and stomach and he brings his beak through his legs and nibbles his feathers and my hand.

oh that is so fantastic. I would love to help rescue some poor birds. I just can't understand how people treat their pets like that. Soldier looks very dashing

Really, a normal molt does not leave bare spots. I am sure our bird just molted and the back of his neck had a completely bald spot just like the photo of lulu shows in the 2nd picture. We made sure we misted/bathed him alot and I rubbed aloe gel on it. Now the feathers are growing back no problem.

Oh laurie we are in the same position. Our bird was never meant to fall for me, he was my boyfriends bird. I think he was amazed considering I didn't even like birds. He is also talking about getting another one in a few months, but I am a bit hesitant as one is alot of work, but he tries to tell me that 2 birds will be just the same.......like I believe that, hehe. Lovemygreys, I can't even imagine how you cope with 4.

oh yes the ding of the microwave. As soon as ours hears the microwave close he is there and wants to be held up so he can see what is being done in the microwave. To be honest I didn't even like birds before we got him and had never had anything to do with birds before, but he is incredible and I wouldn't change him for the world.

If only that worked for us to get him back into his cage. Ours also recognises the cheese packet and as soon as he sees something he wants he makes these noises (sort of like baby noises) and he starts yelling his name. They are worse than a dog when it comes to begging for food. At least the dog can't fly and crawl up your arm towards the food. I swear this brid would have the food out of my mouth if he had half a chance, hehe.

Does anyone else have a bird that is food crazy? Ours is 9 months and suddenly in the last 2 weeks he has become food mad. He hunts for food and is always there when you open the fridge. We can't eat anything by ourselves as he is always there begging for some (I swear he knows what the rustle of food sounds like). We feed him enough, fruit, veg, seed in the morning and for lunch. Dinner is whatever we are having ie pasta etc and he even gets some formula and mashed sweet potato. We don't want to overfeed him, but he seems to be constantly hungry lately. Is that normal or is something missing from his diet that he is looking for?

We also do not clip our birds nails as he doesn't need it. He seems to look after them himself and we have perches that he runs around on that do it for him as well. The perches we use are made from calcium and this means he can also eat them. Another perch has a rough surface on it and we also have big tree branches in his cage.

The main thing I would change is that I would have gone on a bird course before I got the bird, so I would have known how to look after him from day 1. I would have given him more time to settle in before we started to trian him and I would not have used the training techniques that we found in some of the books. i.e. gently press him on the abdomen to get him to step up. It is good to read what everyone would do different for us who are new to this. For example about the touching your bird all over. I have started with this and play a game where I put my face towards his feathers and he thinks it is so funny and lifts his wing and I snuggle my face in under his wing and make kissing noises. He loves me to put my face into his feathers and kiss him. I do it all over his body. I also use my hands and touch him everywhere, even when he is upside down I stroke his stomach. I must start with the harness, so that he can go out in Summer.

We got a cage for our bird which is 115 x 90 x 185 cm and we have also out a play gym on the top of it.

Our little boy (7 months) does this as well, but only with me and I am his favourite. I didn't think it was a nervous bird, as he does it when I am near him and it seems like he is excited to see me and can't control himself because he paces up and down on his perch panting and runs up to me panting. He even flies to my shoulder and touches my face while he is panting.

We let our bird on our shoulders and he loves it there. His nails are not a problem because they get filed down when he runs around on his perches. He loves to sit there and comb my hair with his beak and nibble my nose. Sometimes though he does get excited and likes my ears, so I just put him back on his perch and if he flies to me again I hold my hand up and he lands on my hand and I place him back on the perch again until he has calmed down.

Sorry this is all new to me but I have never heard of anyone actually putting on gloves and grabbing their grey to put it in a travel cage. No wonder the bird was pissed, I would be as well if someone physically grabbed me and forced me in somewhere. I know this is just my opinion but I would never physically touch our grey unless he wanted me to touch him. A few times I have been late for work because he has not wanted to go into his cage and he can sense my stress and acts up even more. I have to sit down for 20min or so and calm down and try again and think of another method to get him in. It usually involves the perch that we have on the door. I get him to that perch and before he knows it I close the door and he is inside the cage. One day I even attached string to the door so he sat there on that perch thinking to himself ok she is on the soffa she can't shut the door and I gently pulled the string and suddenly he realised the door is closed and he is in the cage.

I also use a full spectrum UVA and UVB lamp 26w with an inbuilt ioniser.