Acappella

Your baby is beautiful. You might consider getting her/him used to an aviator harness while she's young so that you can take her safely outside to fly without fear of losing her. Jay is right, your life has changed. Welcome to constant cleaning, feathers stuck to your clothes, bird dander everywhere, and of course, lots of laughter. She'll amaze you every day, and we encourage bragging!

You're so cute That's the way they relax, with one foot tucked up into their chest. It means she's settling in nicely.

Sorry to hear about your bird plucking. The more info you can give Dave007 the more help he can provide. He has the most experience/knowledge on this issue on the forum, IMHO. One thing I do know, they feed off our stress. I know it's hard, but just take some deep breaths and be calm and happy around your baby, and provide lots of distractions like foraging toys and toys for destroying. Please let us know what you've tried already so that we can help.

What a pretty baby with her red factor belly. Dorian has colour on those feathers as well, but lighter, more pink than red. Hope you have a good weekend getting comfortable with each other.

I purchased them through a pet store. Here in Ontario Canada they're distributed by Burgham. The branches themselves are from a company called 'Beaks!' I think A&E Cages carry Java branches. Alot of stores can order them but don't keep them in regular stock because of the space they take up. Hope this helps.

Oh, poor Gracie, and poor finger. I know the way they are when they start to panic like that. It happened once with Dorian and a rope toy. It was years ago, but I can still remember his awful scream. Hope I never hear it again. If Gracie likes playing with and chewing rope toys they can fray and snag our babies. Dorian loves rope, so I switch the rope in all his toys to 100% cotton Supreme rope. It costs more because instead of fraying it comes apart in tufts, sort of like a cotton ball, but it's still strong enough to make a swinging toy from. They're a lot less likely to get snagged in this type of rope, and it seems to have worked here so far. It comes in different widths and is used specifically in bird-safe toys. All Dorians toys are made from this rope except his comfy perches and his boing, and I keep a close eye on them for fraying. Hope your finger is feeling better.

I checked in hoping for better news. Hugs to you and Anya. Hold every moment you have with her in your heart and know we're here for you whatever happens.

Thank you for taking in Waldo. I think it's very brave to open your heart to an animal when you know his long-term health prognosis is not great. He's very lucky to have found you.

I really live your Gilbert updates. In some ways you're way ahead of where Dorian and I were one year into his life with me. He may have some issues but I believe in his heart he's a very resilient little guy and will become a better and better companion in the months and years to come.

Oh come on. It's been a while since we had a good poop discussion.

Also, try putting one hand around on her back to steady her, and when she gets on your wrist put your thumb over her talons to steady her.

Great work.

Actually, the wood chewing could be a positive thing. If he likes chewing wood, take advantage of it and give him lots of options. Make sure the wood is bird-safe, and then make some toys. Start out with smaller ones, since he seems to have a problem with nerves you don't want to further stress him out with huge new toys. Look in the toys room here for toy making ideas. After all, if he's chewing wood he isn't plucking feathers. Big hugs to you both from Dorian and I. you'll be ok.

lol. Jay, are you trying to live vicariously through another forum member????

I know if Dorian is up late (usually my fault) he goes into what I call tired birdy mode. Gets really hyper, attacking toys, climbing around his cage like crazy. We have got a bedtime routine established, so all I have to do is ask him if he wants nite-nite scratches and he comes right down to me. My guess is your baby is a little over stimulated with all the new things happening. Like Jayd and Wingy said, start establishing a wind-down bedtime routine, and make sure your baby gets 10-12 hours quiet and dark sleep time. Maybe ask your breeder what the bedtime routine was. Let us know how it's going.

Yeah, just pay very close attention to their body language for signs of either fear or aggresion, and try to keep them off each others cages to avoid them attacking to defend their homes.

My first instinct is to make sure this is behavioural, not medical. Between him choosing to sleep at the bottom of the cage and this aggression, I'd want to make sure he's OK physically. Their cues that they're sick are not ever clear, but aggression can mean they're actually in pain. Considering the awful situation he came from, and the way he was delivered to you, a vet check could be a really good idea. After all, best to get all the traumatic stuff out of the way so that the relationship building can really begin. Make sure the vet is an actual avian vet, not just a small animal vet who sees birds. It is such a specialty. If you do have to towel him try to do it from behind so that he doesn't see who is doing it. (hard I know with a bird that doesn't trust, maybe having two people would help.) If you can't manage it, don't sweat it, I'm just giving you something to think about. Anyway, that way when you take the towel off (and you'll feel like a pratt doing this) you can throw the towel down, make angry faces at it, tell it "bad towel" etc... You're trying to dissociate the unpleasentness of the towel from you and your hands. Since in Jaq'os life up to now he has only had bad experiences with towels it will be much harder to make him comfortable with one, so just work with where you are right now. You have years and years and years and years to work on a towel anxiety. In my Dorians' first 3 1/2 years the only time he was ever out of his cage was to be towelled and torn out to have his wings clipped, so he hated towels (and hands, and he was extremely cage aggressive and trusted no one). It took more than three years with me before he would step onto my hand and come into another room of the house with me, and almost 5 years before he would step up from inside his cage. Now I'm taking him into the bathroom with me when I shower and working on getting a towel closer and closer to him. I can get just about a foot away from him with a towel in my hands before he starts to get nervous. It might be another year before he'll let a towel touch him voluntarily. I'm not telling you this to depress you. I just want you to know what a timeline can be with a grey. To give you some hope, check out my video in the homemade toys forum room titled 'Playstand I made for Dorian'. You'll see how gentle and trusting he's become. All my time and patience has been more than worth it.

I keep clicking of the close-up of Filbert because it makes me smile every time. Between the beaky grin, the mohawk feathers and the food covered beak he looks like a cartoon character brought to life.

You guys make me tear up, but in a good way. Thank you.

When I had to spend $600 a few years ago to take care of my cat Jac's absessed tooth my family (who are almost all farmers) thought I was crazy, but I never even thought twice about it. Feathered, furred, scaled, or finned, they're all family.

Is there a parrot rescue anywhere near you? They can be a great place to find people who love birds and want to see them well cared for. I know the rescue near me will housesit in my home, or board at their rescue. (I've looked into it because I may go to Holland in the spring for a month). Or try the local animal rescue. They sometimes have contacts for 'bird' people if they're not set up to care for fids. Make sure if you do find a foster situation that you put the terms of the foster care into a written contract.

Oh, your poor baby. So glad you got her to the vet in time. Give her a scratch behind the ears from me when you get her home.

These demonstrations of love when we need them most from our fids, especially from our 'birds with baggage', mean so much. Never doubt that Gilbert loves you and knows he is loved, even on days when his luggage is extra hard to handle.

A contact call is something they do when their flock is out of sight. It's "I'm here, where are you?" Also "You haven't left me have you?" Important for your sanity that they choose a sound that doesn't drive you to drink If you're out of the room and Jaq'o makes a sound you don't like, DO NOT respond to it unless you want to hear it hundreds of time a day for the next few decades. When you hear a pleasing sound respond to it either with a sound or word of your own or echo his sound. btw, it's a good rule of thumb to not ever respond to something you don't like. For instance, if Jaq'o gets comfortable and starts to talk and you find out he has a potty mouth, like many people here with re-homes have, don't laugh or pay any attention to it. Grey's love getting reactions, the more dramatic the better. That's why you'll see people here talking about keeping a straight face until they're out of the room. It's called extuinguishing a sound and I guarantee it's something you'll have to do at some point in you're life with your new-to-you baby.

Those babies are precious. Just spend some time surfing around the various forums here. There's lots of information. Of course, we're here to help if you have any questions.