siobha9

{Love-000200C5} Happy Birthday Charlie!!!

Aw congratulations! That is so exciting... will you have to wait till the weekend after? Or can you go during the week?

African grey parrots can rival chimps (and dolphins) in creative language use and complexity of reasoning. Birds aren't supposed to be our close evolutionary cousins, and they have much smaller brains.

Hi Kerry, Welcome to the forum. If you are looking for information about greys then you have definitely come to the right place There is lots of information here so you should find lots of answers. Or feel free to ask any questions you think of. You are doing the right thing by doing your research first, because greys certainly arent for everyone! Siobhan

danmcq wrote: That could explain some of the road accidents round here... Maybe we should bring our birds with us when we drive to warn us of oncoming traffic :laugh:

Alls well that ends well. There isnt a bother in the world on her now. She has been flying round the house, from chair to chair and from door to door. Her wing is fine, her ego is fine, and finally my heart is also fine :blink: Herself and Oisin have had their nightly cuddles and I have just put her to bed! Whew! Hopefully she has learned her lesson and she will keep her wings tight against her body when playing on the floor of the cage. In hindsight she was probably playing with her bell. She has one of those holey balls with a bell inside which is supposed to hang from the top of the cage, but she unhooked it in about 30 seconds. She loves to play beak ball around the floor of her cage with it. I'd say the game just got too rough and her wing payed the price:unsure:

There are many threads here about toy making also. Here is a good one which contains links to other threads also. http://www.greyforums.net/forums/african-grey/69584-home-made-toys.html<br><br>Post edited by: siobha9, at: 2008/06/06 21:34

Dave007 wrote: Yep, normally she blames me when something happens to scare her, so I was delighted when she went for cuddles instead of bites. I have no idea how she managed to get her wing under the grid, but the main reason she couldnt get out was because she was trying to pull her wing out, but she actually needed to move her body forward and keep her wing still if you understand me... Thank God I was home. I wonder how long it would have taken her to figure out how to get out... she could have broken her wing wriggling so hard. All I can say is I NEVER want to hear that scream again as long as I live... it was horrific :ohmy:

I have just had the most terrifying experience with Liath. As you may know I always put my greys in their cage at mealtimes due to too many rows at the dinner table. (Their table manners are atrocious!) Well we were sitting having dinner and one of the kids commented on Liath... I looked around and she looked like she was lying on the bottom of the cage. I asked her was she playing peekaboo and she just sort of grunted. Next thing she started screaming... it absolutely terrified me. I jumped up and ran over to see what was wrong. I have no idea how she managed it, but she had her wing caught in the grid on the floor of the cage. I had to get a towel to protect my hand from her beak and she screamed and screamed while I jiggled and wriggled her wing free. Her whole wing was under the grid while the rest of her was above it. Anyway once I freed her I picked her up, and she tucked her head under my chin, snuggled in and panted for ages. The poor poor baby! :ohmy:

I hope you don't think I am being rude when I say this, but honestly if your grey gets bitten by a Rotweiler you won't need to worry about the saliva, as more than likely the grey will be dead. A puppy of any breed is completely unreliable and under no circumstances should it have access to your grey. I have 2 dogs who tolerate my greys quite well, in fact I would go so far as to say the dogs are afraid of them. But I would NEVER give them an opportunity to hurt my greys. They are always supervised when they are together. Many grey owners here have dogs and do allow the dogs to interact with the birds, but only supervised, and only because the dogs are older and have proven themselves to be reliable. You are right to be worried!

For the record, my name is Siobhán pronounced Shuvawn (yes that's right there is no b sound in my name )

Liath (pronounced Leah) is the Irish word for grey. Oisín (pronounced Usheen) which was the name of the breeders son, is a legendary warrior and the son of Fionn Mac Cumhall in Irish Folklore.

I know I am a bit slow, and this post is almost a year old, but I just spotted it and its brilliant! I thought I would bring it back to life for anyone else who has missed it. Great photos Melissa :laugh: Have you ever let Talon beat you at Monopoly since?

Your dog is so cute... like a big cuddly teddy bear. Doesnt look like Talon wants to cuddle him though!

I could lend you Oisin... he is very good at "roughing up" perches.... he chews right through them !!!

Thanks Tari... I will print them and get the kids to learn it for homework:P

I showed this picture to my kids this morning and they were singing "I believe I can fly" all the way to school. The only problem is that's the only line they know:angry: Freddie is adorable;) !

Actually sunflower seeds arent nutritious for a grey at all as far as I know. I am going through the wars with diet at the moment too. I am trying for the millionth time to wean them onto pellets This is a controversial question, and no doubt you will gets lots of different views. Personally I think that eating the same thing day in day out can't be healthy or even interesting. I am a firm believer in feeding lots of different stuff, and my greys get everything I do (with the obvious exceptions of chocolate etc). Their base diet was a seed and nut mix, and mixed beans and sprouts and lots of people food. But I am trying to cut out the seed and replace it with pellets. Its day 3 and its going ok so far. To be on the safe side, I would add a handfull of a nutritionally balanced food like pellets every day just to be sure he is getting everything he needs.

My vote is for Dorian. I know we have 2 Dorians on this forum already, but that doesnt make the name common, it just makes it extremely clever! I wish I had thought of it when naming my 2.... oh well I will just have to call my next grey Dorian :lol: :lol:

GandalfTheGrey wrote: Exactly... in the beginning I felt like a complete idiot asking Liath "What are you doing?" as if I expected an answer and telling her "I'm getting dinner" etc. I always thought if anyone hears me they'll think I'm mad. And I know the kids had a few laughs at my expense. But eventually Liath learned "What are you doing?" Then instead of my rambling, I could actually answer her questions. Interestingly a lot of her early phrases were questions... Whatcha doing? Do you wanna step up? Where are you going? Who are you? and of course WHAT?:laugh:

I am so sorry to hear about your wife. It must be a terrible time both for you and for Jasper. It will take time, because he has to get over the loss of his owner too. As for letting him out for exercise. If you let him out before he eats in the morning on a weekend or a day you have time on your hands, he should go back into the cage himself when he is hungry enough. This might help you until you can get him to step up without biting you.

But you had nine months to choose your daughters name.... In nine months time, I am sure "Baby" will have a name:laugh:

I think it would be quite unusual for 2 people to be totally nuts about birds with neither actually owning one. I was the bird nut, and my husband didnt want anything to do with them. I started showing him youtube videos of really cute greys doing tricks and holding conversations, and I aroused his curiosity just a little. When I finally found my grey he still wasnt interested in me owning one. I told him I would let him off Christmas and birthdays for years if he would let me buy it. Eventually (after some tears on my part:blush: ) he gave in. Within a few months he wanted his own grey and a year after getting Liath, Oisin arrived in our house. All isnt lost for you yet.... try the subtle approach, if that fails scream and cry a little :laugh:

Yes but its also totally maintenance free That sounds incredible, I can picture you sitting on your rocking chair, rug across your knee, pipe hanging out of the corner of your mouth watching the deer and the bears, and hoping one of those turkeys will just fall over and die in time for Thanksgiving

Yep, I second that. Remember you will have this grey for the rest of your life with any luck, so choose wisely. I know thats hard when you are so anxious to get one.... That really is rotten luck though isnt it?