Lillipilli

Kuki is out of cage and interacting in life with me from 7am - 11am in cage, quiet time, sleep time 11am - 2pm out of cage and with me again 2pm - 6pm all up we spend 8 hrs a day together.

I wonder if I am crazy, but I always wonder if my grey (female) will continue to bond well with me, or suddenly decide to take on my husband as her favourite. It would be sad for me, she was my dream bird, I saved, and waited so long for her, convinced my hubby I needed her, and I'm absolutely besotted with her. I do all the feeding, cleaning, but I want her to be very involved with the family to develop well socially. So far everythings working well, she goes up to hubby for cuddles, food, chit chats, as much as me. But I have the fear, that she will eventually like him more, and I'll just be the cleaner/feeder. Is this an irrational fear? I know it's silly but bringing up our children, he's always been the one to shy away from the hard stuff/responsibilities but always had so much fun playing games. I never enjoyed it that way and always felt like the mean, rule enforcer, while his impression in the kids hearts is always fun. It would be dissapointing for me to spend the rest of 50 - 60 yrs cleaning up after and caring for my bird who actually adores him more. Am I incredibly selfish? I don't want to set provisions up for this not to happen, and keep Kuki only to myself, cuase that's not whats best for her. It's important to me she has her independence and is well socialised.. I read a lot that a female bird will reach sexual maturity and just pick a male in the household to bond with, and same with a male bird. Is there anyone who has not had this happen?

I understand the way you feel. I was the same for months before my little one came to live with me 3 1/2 wks ago. I was so excited, it was very hard for me to take the breeders advise and "start our how I meant to carry on" with her. I wanted her with me every second. It's only been short, but what a beautiful adventure, I'm every bit in love wiht her that I thought I would be, and more! I hope the time flies by quickly for you until you have yours.

It's been 3 1/2 weeks now with my new baby grey Kuki (cookie) I've had some worries that can only be related to having a new addition in the house. "why isn't she eating as much today as she did yesterday?" "is she ok when she's making all those sounds before she goes to sleep?" "Does she realise how sharp her claws are?" lol I'm so lucky the breeder is so patient. As you can imagine, I've been on the phone with every little thing. 2 days ago, Kuki decided that she loves her family and when every she felt the urge would fly over to us. We lift our forearm up for a landing. As sweet as it is that she wants to be close, and as funny as it is when I tell my friends outside the home, my arms are scratched by my baby bird, the looks are priceless! I sometimes just want a few days to heal my arms. Does anyone think they resemble an eagle, even in a tiny way? Kuki has still been spoon fed. As soon as she came to me, she eagerly took to her warm vegetables with lentils or beans mushed up to a runny baby food consistency. More for comfort than need, her breeder made sure she was fully weaned, I wouldn't of had it any other way. Sometimes, I don't think it's been a good idea of mine, but she's been asking me for a bit of this comfort food around lunch time, so I warm it up and give it to her. As much as I thought this would be a problem, she seems to only ask for it randomly. This is my first bird. I was so nervous to begin with but I've got to say, I never expected to feel so emotionally overwhelmed by the mutual love, she has accepted my two teenage sons and hubby also. She flies to them, dips her head for cuddles. She's even warmed up to my teenage sons friends, which I do like for the reasons it's developing her socially, I also don't like too much. I discussed this with my breeder and she said it would be a good idea to get her used to some cage time, in the same living area so she can still be a part of everything, well! she doesn't like it much, but I can see it's a very good idea. If I have repairmen or whatever come over, It's very safe! or a persistent non family member who insists on constantly reaching out to touch, despite constant reminders to just talk to her she likes that better. My diet has cleaned up so much, I can't thank Kuki enough for that! I chop up loads of veges and lightly steam them, with beans or lentils, she wants what I'm having! So she gets it. This created an obvious problem, when my sons want their cereal, there she is, flying over, dipping her head in their bowl. These times, the cage is real handy, the breeder was right! "start out how you mean to go on" Ok, so it's not all good, she went nuts when I was eating pretzels one day, so excited, diving into the bag and pulling them out to munch. I felt awful about it, there could be worse things I spose, but the salt was worrying me. I said to t he breeder I was looking for a cuddle bug. Id' read quite a bit that greys weren't really huggy, but I got me a huggy one, there's times where I feel like saying, 'c'mon, I've got things to do here!' but NO! she wants to be tickled, loved and kissed. It really is good for the heart! Sorry I go on for so long. I saw the word 'blog' and felt the urge to share my first experiences. I love Kuki so much, I could go on and on, sorry to be boring with these mundane daily events.

your story just pulled on my heart strings. What a lucky AG to have you come along.

Wonderful pics, I can see by your sweater it's warm where you are. My arms have little scratches up and down, It's hard for people to understand that it's because my bird loves me when they see my forearms... lol

I took some pics of Kuki's first shower, I have a powershot s315 I'm looking into getting a better camera, but I do' tknow enough yet, to be spending that much money! I think Kuki was a bit embarrased I took her picture after her shower.

I picked up Kuki (cookie) yesterday, but had little time to spend with her, we drove for 14 hours there and back, such a long day. But today I've had a chance to get to know her a bit more. We get along very well. I'm sorry if I've not picked the right forum to introduce her, I took some pics to share.