Jane08

Yes we give our bird lactose free milk and also we use rice milk. I also make him a smoothie from this and add lactose free yoghurt, and some fresh or frozen fruit. He chatters away when the smoothie machine goes on and we all sit down and have a smoothie together.

We use cheese (small amounts),sunflower seeds,granite apples (I think those are pomegranate in English), rice crackers which he loves. Pull those big ones out of the cupboard and he is over so fast. We also use a type of biscuit, pepper biscuit. I also use myslef as a treat. When my boyfriend trains him I stand beside him and when the bird does the right thing he gets to come to me for a cuddle.I then put him pack on the pearch and we start again. It is so funny when he is on his pearch waving his foot telling my boyfirend to hurry up I want to get to her. We also use toys.

We had the same problem with our bird. My boyfriend was the main carer and he hated him and would fly to the other room when he was there. If he went up to the bird it would turn it's back and fly off. The bird would not interact with him at all. We were advised to clip the wings so that he would be forced to bond. Anyway I am gald that we didn't. My boyfriend gave him time and lots of treats. So everytime he approached the bird he had a treat to give him. After a month of constantly doing this and not forcing the bird to do anything it didn't want my boyfriend could pet and interact with the bird without it flying away. It has now been 2 months of my boyfriend working on bonding with the bird and now everytime he comes up to the bird it walks over to him and stretches its beak up for a kiss. It is the cuttest thing in the world to see. Don't give up hope, lots of time and patience is needed.

Our little man wakes us up at about 7am. he whistles softly to let us know he is awake. So we let him out at 7am and don't put him back in the cage. About 8-9pm he will fly into his cage to go to sleep.

Thanks for the reply and you are right we are nervous because we have only had him for 3 months and have to get used to all the phases that he will go through. I put water on it this morning and the Aloe Vera. Our bird must think we are nuts because we scrutinise him most days to make sure everyhting is ok and see what changes are going on. I guess over time we will relax a bit more

Another picture

Hello, We think our litle boy is molting, but not sure as it looks a bit weird. It's on the back of his head and the feathers have thinned out. Does anyone know if this is the case or is it something different. We have tried to bath him but he hates it and the last time we did it was a week ago and he got totally wet. I'm just not sure if this is a dry skin condition and not molting. I have attached pictures of what it looks like.

We have our little one on our shoulder, he loves it there. I even bend over and go up side down with him and he gets so excited. He loves cuddles after dinner on the shoulder and he likes to comb my hair for me and stretch with his beak and kiss me on the lips. If I don't let him on my shoulder he stands on his pearch and waves his foot at me telling me he wants up. I have started though to not let him fly straight to my shoulder, but to know that I have to put him on my shoulder and then he is allowed there.

Lisa I am so glad that you are also using the positive reinforcement. We have gone back to the basics to re teach the bird step up. So we found his favourite treat and my boyfriend puts his hand up and the teat in the other one and asks him to step up. He then streches his head out to grab it and he was given the treat and we praised him. We did that for a bit and then suddenly the bird put one foot up and we gave him the treat and praised him and after awhile he stepped up and we gave him lots of treats and praise. We also look at his body language when he is ready to do it and then we bring our hand up for step up. We don't stand there for ages with our hand up trying to get tell him to step up. We also use the birds love of me. So I stand next to my boyfriend and he puts his hand up and calls the bird, the bird then couldn't wait to step up on his hand becuase he knew that the reward would be coming to me for a hug and then I would put him back on his pearch and we would try again. It works a treat and already the bird is so happy, he is not scared of my boyfriend coming over to him. He even contact called by boyfriend for the first time yesterday when he got home from work. My boyfriend came in the door and yelled hello and the bird called back. First time ever. Good luck and let me know how it goes for you.

Hello, I can recommend a course, book and DVD that we have used and we have got results. http://www.goodbirdinc.com/ This lady really knows what she is talking about and I would not have believed it if we had not gone through the course and seen the changes in our bird. There is no quick fix but over time and patience and training your bird can do anything.

Hello, Thought I would give you all an update after we went on our 2 day training course. It was the best thing we have done for our bird. This course was fantastic. Our bird has changed around in only 2 days. He now allows my boyfriend near him and to interact with him. We were told the there is no need for us to clip his wings and that there are far better ways. The course was all about positive reinforcement training and not using negative reinfocement, which we had been doing sometimes. For example step up training. I must admit I feel quite angry and upset at all the books that told us when teaching our brid to step up, if he doesn't do it to gently press against his chest. This is totally wrong and you should never have to physically touch your bird to get him to do this or any other command. Here is the link for the lady who runs the course. We also got her book and DVD's which are great http://www.goodbirdinc.com/ I really recommend everyone using the positive reinforcement techniques as it is much better for our birds.

Thanks for your advice. I talked to my boyfriend about getting the wings clipped, but he is not keen on that as the bird loves to fly and he enjoys it so much. I think we will just have to stick at it and hope it gets better. Really it has been the same for the last few weeks. If my boyfriend is in one room the bird is in another room. I told him to block off the other room so the bird had to be in the room with him. My boyfriend is not sure whether to just leave him alone and hope it gets better or force interaction, like follow him when he goes to another room and then keep following him if he flies away. Even if they are in the same room and the bird is on a stick the bird just turns his back on my boyfriend. I am also getting exhausted because when I am there the bird won't leave me alone. It got to the point where I have to put a new toy on my shoulder so he won't fly over to me because he is scared of the toy. Even if I walk past him he has his foot up waving it at me and telling me he wants to come up.

Well from the 7-11th I tried to back off and just went to my boyfriends place and I just sat there and let my boyfriend do everything and I did not give the bird attention. Then I had to go away overseas to work for a couple of days and that is when the bird started not wanting to be in the same room as my boyfriend. We have tried to rack our brains about what the grudge could be but there is nothing, except for the struggles into the cage in the morning, but surely that is normal. I also thought the the bird might think that it was my boyfriends fault that I have to leave most nights to go back to my place. That's sounds so stupid though. I feel so bad because my boyfriend has wanted a parrot all his life and he was in tears about the fact that the bird doesn't like him. Oh Bmustee that is so sad to have to give him up and this is exactly what I don't want my boyfriend to do. I have asked him if he would rather just call it quits and get rid of him, but my boyfriend loves him and said he couldn't and he will just have to accept that ths is the way it will be.

I will let you know how the training goes, we are in dire need of a miracle. This bird now won't even be in the same room as my boyfriend when they are alone. He just flies to the next room. He even tried shutting the doors and keeping him in one room but the bird just turns his back on him. It breaks my heart especially when I go there and the bird races to me and the look on my boyfriends face is heart breaking. Do African Greys have the ability to hold a grudge against someone for some reason? Like the fact that my boyfriend struggles to get him into the cage every morning and is the main person who disceplines him, so the bird might hate him for that. I have tried to start with the discepline, like if he bites my boyfriend I put him staright in his cage and tell him why and then come back after 5 min and take him out. I seriously have to laugh sometimes as it seems like I'm talking about a child, but that is how I see him. hehe

We did exactly what Beccy has mentioned doing. He couldn't come out of his cage until he would step up. He soon learnt it was not fun to be in the cage and does it everytime now. It's too hard if he is out of the cage because of the flying off to a high height thing. I now tell him to get down form there you know you are not allowed up there. He then immediately flies down.

Thanks for you reply, it really helps. My boyfriend has been doing the clicker training and it's going really well. The bird also has no problem stepping up onto the hand when given the command, actually he is fabulous at it. He never bites my boyfriend when he is on his hand, it's just if he tries to stroke him. Although this morning he did fly straight at my boyfriend and bit his ear and it was bleeding. It's so hard to ignore the bird when he flies to me and then tries to snuggle under my chin and makes it known with those baby noises that he wants to be cuddled. He is so cute though. We are going to attend a weekend traning course in October, so I'm hoping the lady who takes it can help us out a bit.

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me. My boyfriend bought an African Grey and he is 5 months old. He has had him for 3 weeks now. Anyway the bird has decided to bond with me and will only let me stroke him and actually flies to me and runs to me when he sees me. The brid is mean to my boyfriend and won't let him touch it and launches at him with his beak open as if to bite him. He is a totally different bird when I am around. It makes it difficult as well because I don't live with my boyfriend so he is the sole person looking after the bird most of the time. It's really putting alot of stress on us and it makes me feel like I don't want to visit my boyfriend because I hate to see him upset when the bird gives me all the attention. Is it possible to train this behaviour out of him, should I stay away for an extended time, or should I go over but just sit there and not interact with the bird? Thanks for your help. Very stressed girlfriend.