yvette

Well, my Bently is starting to warm up to us even more and he has learned to climb into his cage all by himself when I ask. This to me is huge!!! Anyhow, my husband noticed something today that I had never seen. My bird is missing a toe on one foot! :ohmy: It makes me sad because I spend so much time with him and it took my husband a glance to notice the problem! It is an old injury, I guess. The reason I say that is because the missing toe area is healed well. It is actually smooth, no stump or anything. Like I said , he acts perfectly normal and I never even noticed! The reason I am mad is because I cant believe the store I bought him at didnt bother to tell me.:angry: Would it have made a difference in my purchase? Absolutely NOT! I guess they thought telling me would kill the sale. Then I am also mad becasue I can only imagine what kind of horrible life he must have had before me.:unsure: I spoil him rotten, but I can just imagine some hellish owner abusing my baby then selling him off to a pet store. Is it possible he was just born that way? Could it be some genetic defect, like from inbreeding? I honestly feel sick :sick: and now see my baby as "disabled" even though I know he is capable of doing everything. Its like I now feel sorry for him although I know deep down inside he is in the best home he can be in and will have lots of love and attention form an entire family and will never be abused ever again.

another quick question....he does not have his wings clipped yet, will the vet do this? I am afraid if I get him a traveling cage and the vet isnt careful, my baby will fly away.Sould I do this clipping before I go to the vet myself?:unsure:

If I bought a scale, how would I get an accurate weight? I think I need to wait until I can work more with him. As for the vet, I have not looked for one yet and I am afraid this is going to stress him out more and we will have to start from square one all over again. As for the finger licking, he does this when he is on or in the cage and I place my hand up to his feet.(in other words, no bars between us). If he is in the cage and lets say I am sitting on my chair next to the cage, once I raise my hand to touch him, thats when he runs off or starts climbing away. Its so funny because he almost seems to be screaming for s head scratch or a touch. He puts his beak into the widest slot (corner slot, not too big, but bigger than the side slots) and he whistles and fluffs his feathers while his little head is bent down. I can almost kiss him, but as soon as my hand comes up, he is off! He is such a tease!!!!

I am sure he will too, I just worry.This may sound strange, but at least with a baby, a cry can mean lots of things, but CAG are usually pretty quiet! As for the step up, still no luck. I still let him out of the cage and he enjoys it so much. Then I have to chase him around the cage until he gets in by himself! Much better than flying around the house like the first day which I knew was dangerous for him. The reason i asked about the age, several videos I have seen with CAg and their owners, well I notice the birds look bigger- say "fat" . Mine looks pretty thin. I was told he was 4 years old and was still growing. Is this true? At what age do they stop? Thats why I thought maybe he is younger- he doesnt have the body of the birds I have seen, but he does have a hearty appetite. He is really comming along now- still cant touch him or hold him, thats ok. I touch his feet and he licks my fingers, but thats about it. He is now making more human sounds. Not words, but gargles and mumbles. Small ones, but every day is somehing new! One thing that I know for sure is that I do need to give him lots of time. He was at a store for several months and according to the owner, she would just go visit them while she changed their water and food bowls. Other than that, no special attention, no "out of cage" time, so its no wonder my baby doesnt know what to do. He does know how to chirp like a finch and canary though! lol

Ok, so as you know my bird has been here with me exactly one week and he seems pretty comfortable around us. We still cant touch him at all, but he does take treats from us and is chirping/ whisteling up a storm. He repeats all whistles and barks like a dog and hoots like an owl. I of couses melt when he does this and praise him and he does it again! And every time he does, I praise him. Not when he whistles though. Anyhow my question is this, we are noticing that his whistles sometimes sound like words. For instance you can clearly hear him whistle "pretty bird" but doesnt speak the words. Does this make sense? It seems like he replaced the words with whistles to make the same sound without speaking. Is this normal? As I said before, when we speak to him, he shakes his head and from what I understand, this is normal, but could it be that he has a serious problem and thats why he is transforming what we say into something he hears or what is your opinion? I know he can talk, he was at least saying "Hello" at the store when we bought him? Also, is there any sure way without going to the yet to tell a birds age? Regardless, talking or not, I love my baby, I just hope he is okay and if there is something I need to do to help him, I am ready for that too.

I am having the same problem. My Bently doesnt know how to climb back in. Its like he is afraid to climb down the side to go in through the large door. My cage does not have a top opening. I let him out 2 days ago and after a few hours I wanted him back in. After trying , he startd flying around the house. I grabbed a baby blanket and picked him up with it and talked gently to him as I did it. He seemed scared after that and got really quiet and groweled at us for a while every time we got near the cage.Then he got ove it and was fine. Well, yesterday he was afraid to come out of the cage, but he eventually did. This time I wanted him to climb in alone, but he didnt and it was almost bed time. He would try, but seemed scared and would give up. We tried the step up method, but he doesnt know that trick yet. I had my hand up to his chest and he would lick it and pinch my fingers ever so slighlty. Once I saw he was tired, I explained I had to use the baby blanket and he stood still and let me. Problem is he didnt want to let go of the cage. Well he finally did and he was pinching my finger hard....but still not hard enough to draw blood. He them was fine, drank water , ate and was his happy chirpy self.(no growling this time!) Is it possible that this is going to be the routine everyday I put him back in the cage?

can you tell I am paranoid??? lol

thats good! Well, what about head shaking? My bird does this alot, almost everytime I talk to him. It almost seems like he is shaking his head like "no". I bought a book and it says that sometimes they get a seed lodged or a feather might be close to the ear hole. Sometimes i think its the pitch of my voice, so I use a different tone, but he still shakes his head. Can this be a sign of something?

I promise I wont. Everything he has done so far fascinates me. He is such a smart bird, and I do talk to him alot. Everything from telling him what I am doing to where I am going when I leave. I do offer him certian foods, but often he takes them from me and flings them across the room! Then sometimes he takes it, so I never know what he is going to do. Do you guys have a seperate sleeping cage for yours? I try and get everyone out of the livingroom where he is at by 10pm sharp and I uncover his cage at about 7am. Is this enough time for sleeping?:unsure:

oh good! He loves to repeat sounds and LOVES to watch a CAG named "Ruby" on youtube. He goes crazy, dancing and copying her chirps. Ruby talks, but he avoids that part! lol I have lots to learn but love my baby to death! His name is Bently, but I am thinking of changing it.

That is great! Mine also seems more and more open day by day. Every day is a new whistle. What I notice is that he does repeat chirps and whistles....is that bad? The owner of the shop said that I should never whistle at him because he will stop talking because whisteling is so much easyer. Anyone think that is true?

OOps...forgot to add, we brought him home last Thursday on 2-14-08! 5 days ago....

Hello all...I am brand new to the site and love it already! Lots of good info here and everyone seems so nice. Here is my introduction. My name is Yvette, and I am 35 years old. I had a mexican red head about 8 years ago, but he hated my daughter and would constantly attack her( she was a toddler at the time). So I had no choice but to have him rehomed. Well, the kids are much older now and we were now ready for a new member to add to our family. We decided on an African Grey because they seem so amazing and intellegent. Anyhow, I really wanted one right away and no breeders had any available, so after looking all over town, I found one at a feed store. He is 4 years old and was chatting up a storm at the shop. well, I fell in love and brought him home. He hasnt said a word since! I know I have to give him time. He eats well and seems to do some crazy little dance. (he flaps his wings and bobs his head up and down quickly- looks like a mating dance or something). He is warming up though because we can ger really close to the cage and he has his face up to the bars, but once we raise our hand to touch him, he backs off. Once the hand comes down, he runs back. He does do LOTS of loud whisteling and chirps, but no words! I work with him daily...looks like best times are early and late afternoon. Any first time stories you can share with me would be great! I worry so much, but at this point with all the trauma of comming to a new home, last thing I want to do is traumatize him again with a visit to a vet, He does not like to be touched. I let him out of his cage today and he refused to get on my hand or get back in the cage. He was flying all over the house! I had to throw a baby blanket over him and carry him over to the cage. It will be a long time before I try that again! :woohoo: