pegn53

Oh my gosh, I just saw that when I left this site. It was so funny because I saw someone else on here was teaching their grey that too.

One thing my sister does with Harley is she always talks softly to her before letting her out or putting her to bed. Then once, Harley's in the cage, she continues to talk very quietly to her. She even sings the lullaby song to her. One thing to remember is that that cage is THEIR territory and they seem to want us to respect that. So if Harley's in her cage, we wait for her to come out. Yeah sometimes we have to chase her around the top too to get her to step up. But I really feel Harley responds to quiet "sweet talk" from us and slower movements so we don't startle her. Wild birds will fly away at movement, so I assume that quick movements startle my bird.

One thing my sister does with Harley is she always talks softly to her before letting her out or putting her to bed. Then once, Harley's in the cage, she continues to talk very quietly to her. She even sings the lullaby song to her. One thing to remember is that that cage is THEIR territory and they seem to want us to respect that. So if Harley's in her cage, we wait for her to come out. Yeah sometimes we have to chase her around the top too to get her to step up. But I really feel Harley responds to quiet "sweet talk" from us and slower movements so we don't startle her. Wild birds will fly away at movement, so I assume that quick movements startle my bird.

I think most of us are multi species households so we're going to know about members' non avian species too. I was interested in how my household would adapt to a bird, but my old, old cats just don't care. In fact, if Sis is sitting in the chair holding Harley (Harley curls into the crook of Sis' arm and rests her beak against my sister's cheek or nose while she's being petted), there will be one or two cats up there too. They all get along. If Harley walks around, the dogs will follow and sniff, but don't bother her. The older dog (13) will, however, jump at her if she happens to do something sudden like fly and crash and I go to pick her up. She doesn't try to hurt her, she just gets excited, but trust me, I'm faster than that old dog at getting to Harley. She's *very* closely supervised when out of her cage so it's only happened a couple of times. I've always felt honored that something as fragile and delicate as a bird trusts me enough to hold and touch them. When I had cockatiels I just loved them.

Awww, thank you Judy. Ummmm, actually, I don't mind that Harley has bonded so with my sis. She knows I love her and wants her petting and sweet talk from me too, and quite frankly, Sis can enjoy the "feeding" attempts. Sometimes Harley gets so worked up that she needs to go back in her cage for a few minutes to calm down, then Sis takes her back out. We know it's a love thing and don't want to reject her, but I think I read in here somewhere that it's best to let them settle down and bit and then take her back out if you don't want the completion of the feeding attempt. She doesn't do it all the time thankfully. Hello to all the other new members too. Reception here is lovely. I've been reading a lot of the forums here when I've had questions before (i.e., about scented candles, foods, etc), but thought I'd join because this is quite a nice site.

Thanks, everyone. I think she needs some floor time too just to at least stretch the foot. She does have different size perches so that's a good thing. About the kitty gack, yeah, I have 4, so a day without kitty barf is like a day without sunshine. And you gotta love that noise they make before they do it.....unless you don't hear it and step in it on your way to the bathroom at night. LOL BMustee. Thanks again.

Harley was either in or on top (there's another perch with cupholders on top) of her cage when she first came home with us. Of course, she can climb down off the cage and do a walk about so we had to monitor her excursions. Then we got the rolling perch which has several perches she can step up or down on but she can't get onto the floor from the rolling perch. Watching birds outside, they perch in trees but walk around on the ground. I'm thinking that Harley needs to have monitored walk abouts so that her feet aren't always wrapped around a perch and they get some stretching. Am I right or wrong? She does love to explore but more importantly, her foot health is important to me. Sorry if this has been covered previously, but I couldn't find it when I did a search.

Hi everyone. I've been in here numerous times since bringing Harley Jean (named for the girl in "Pure Country" movie w/George Strait)into our home. Although I've known and loved Harley for 10 years, she came to live with my sister and me in Dec. 2007 because her previous caregivers got divorced and it was best for her to come with us due to space, time etc. She's adapted well, loves (and I mean *loves*) my sister. I'm the "mean" one who cleans her cage and takes her in the shower with me. Rosemary is the nice one who, although I pet her and hold her, is the one who "cuddles" her and gets the benefit of the little whimpering noises and attempts to feed my sister. I've had cockatiels so I was very aware of how messy birds can be. Harley is a Congo Grey and quite sweet and a real comedianne. We've given up candles, haven't used the fireplace since we got her. Our house is very open and we're pretty fastidious about her cage. We've also got 4 cats (who couldn't care less about her, really) and 2 dogs whose main interest in her is what food she'll toss out of her cage. Rosemary tries very very hard to introduce fresh food to her in the morning and she gets a seed mix in the evening. We changed her routine from morning seed to morning veg & fruits, some manner of protein like HB eggs, cottage cheese, etc. because we figure she's hungrier in the morning and will eat that. And she gets lots more fresh with some frozen mixed veg. She previously was getting more frozen mix (carrots, grn bns, corn). She's not keen on the fresh and frozen mix but we keep at it because it's healthier for her. I've got a question, so I'm going over on the other message board to ask.