HilaryQ

Hi all, It's been a few years since I posted - which is indicative of the fact that life with our 3 yr old CAG has been easy sailing! We got Atticus as a hand-reared baby from a wonderful breeder in CT. He is a calm boy in general, never flustered by our loud/active dogs, cross-country moves, vacations to in-laws, etc. He is bonded to both my husband and myself (thankfully) and is generally NOT a biter. He will give the occ. nip when he steps up - very rarely it will be a hard nip. Nothing unexpected or hard to deal with with the usual measures as described in other posts. The problem is that, for this month, we are staying with my parents and although Atticus loves the loud music and activity, he has developed a "bird-itude". His wings are clipped but he can fly short distances - recently he's been flying to family members (my mother, sister, etc) and biting them without provocation (ie offensive, not defensive behaviors). And when I calmly tell him to step up to remove him from their shoulders, he'll pin his eyes and attack me too! In addition, when he is sweetly sitting with me and I am approached but a family member he may pin and attempt to bite them -- or me. Multiple times now he's drawn blood (fingers, cheeks). He is his normal sweet self once the family member is out of the room. The situation will change in about 5 days (when we move back into our own home) but it brings me to these questions: 1. Is Atticus showing signs of puberty/sexual maturity (3 yrs old)? If so, when can we expect him to settle down and accept "strangers" as he used to (if ever). 2. Should we give him a period of no strangers once we move home agan - therefore avoiding the behavior and preventing it from becoming concrete? Or should we saturate his experiences with lots of "strangers" and work harder on the counter-conditioning and positive reinforcement? My husband and I are both comfortable dealing with and preventing nips, even hard ones, but my question is mainly should I expect from Atticus as he matures in terms of his perceived "strangers" ... Sorry for the long post - and thanks in advance for your help!

Ronda, as a veterinary student about to enter my final year of clinics, here is my humble advice. A bird vet is obviously ideal, but if the closest one is 2 hours away I personally wouldn't hesitate to call around locally and find out what vets are familiar with (and like) treating birds. They may not be a boarded avian veterinarian but that doesn't mean they aren't more than qualified anyway. I myself plan on treating birds, dogs, and cats equally (and equally well) but I do not plan on getting boarded. If you have a local vet, if you ever have a crisis you don't need to drive 2 hours (and let's face it, two hours may be too long if your bird is having a traumatic or respiratory crisis). Also, the yearly checkups won't seem so bad -- just a quick pop-in pop-out visit and you're home again - no ordeals necessary!! So call around to your local vets and find out who sees birds on a regular basis. I bet you'll be surprised! hilary<br><br>Post edited by: HilaryQ, at: 2008/02/06 03:16

Atticus does the "I am baby hear me roar" thing with the persistent digging through the air over his water dish... Always looking to see if we're noticing him!

Atticus does the "I am baby hear me roar" thing with the persistent digging through the air over his water dish... Always looking to see if we're noticing him!

Hannah I can't believe you've posted 250 times and you just brought Juji home. Atticus, who also just came home two weeks ago, loves to sit next time me on my playstand and listen to me tell him about his friend Juji. Has Juji croaked out any kinda-words? Atticus is sure trying his best. It's a crackup. And he also has no fear of our two australian shepherds. One of them, Ennis, our little girl, loves Atticus and wants to kiss him all the time but we don't let her. Wilder, our middle aged guy, is scared of Atticus which is just as well. Anyway, wanted to share our happy flock news too.

I love babies!! Gizmo is adorable.

lovely photos!!!

I heard that it's not necessarily the best for the bird to hear the same thing over and over again, as they do from a CD on repeat. Something about them going a little batty -- I know I would! But maybe for short periods of times it would be beneficial to play it for your grey. I like to leave the radio on while I'm gone. Or maybe you could leave the TV on, set to a nice bird friendly station... I think someone recommended Nick Jr on an earlier post?

Oh how very sweet Dan! Maybe one of these days we'll get there

My Atticus is 15 weeks old now and since he can't talk yet my husband and I are pretty much saying whatever we want around him... I wonder if this will come back to haunt us! (Even if we do stop as he starts talking more.) Not that he doesn't babble incessantly already!

Atticus hates his baths! He'd rather fly around the house in circles than ever get misted or lightly drizzled on in the shower. But he does babble up a frenzy when bathtime is over!:laugh:

Thanks! That helped! I'll be better about searching before asking, next time.

Sorry... I re-read the old threads and it sounds like most people use aviator harness... so i suppose I'll go with that unless somebody thinks I should get the feather tether instead.

Hey gang, Does anyone use a harness with their bird? And if so, which one do you recommend? I'm looking at the feather tether and the aviator harness, but I'm not sure which to get. Thanks! hilary

Yeah I can't imagine not having a name.. sometimes you just have to decide on the name and go with it -- let them grow into it.