Amber

Hello, if he is itchy, maybe you should get a suitable mite and louse killer from your vet just in case. Once some greys start to pluck, it unfortunately becomes a habit. I think bad diet often plays a part in plucking. I'm not at all saying you feed your grey wrong, as there are other causes for plucking, but have you read up about diet, and have your grey on a very high quality diet? Good luck and I really hope you get him sorted out. <br><br>Post edited by: Amber, at: 2008/07/08 13:14

I think it all depends on the individual bird. Our grey is generally quiet and does little clicks and talks throughout the day. She gets rather excited when "Daddy" is home or at tea time, then she can be very noisy at times and it hurts your ears! They definitely all have the ability to be extremely noisy, but some are just quieter birds than others!

Tuki loves my boyfriend to bits and seems to dislike me! He lets him scratch him and touch him anywhere! If I try to scratch him, he puts his head down then bites me! It feels horrible! Especially when you've wanted one for years and it's your bird and you do everything for it! It is very true that they seem to love the person that least likes them! Very strange!

Tuki hates water too, although she will sometimes have a bath in the dogs water bowl! She hardly ever does this however! I just get her on my arm and put her in the empty bath, that way she can't get out, then I get the shower head and spray her gently until she's really wet. I can't put the shower head too close to her as the climbs on it in an attempt to escape! All the time I spray her, she repeats "Tuki up!" She just wants me to pick her up! I make a bit of a fuss of her and put her on her perch to dry, and she's fine!

Tuki hates water too, although she will sometimes have a bath in the dogs water bowl! She hardly ever does this however! I just get her on my arm and put her in the empty bath, that way she can't get out, then I get the shower head and spray her gently until she's really wet. I can't put the shower head too close to her as the climbs on it in an attempt to escape! All the time I spray her, she repeats "Tuki up!" She just wants me to pick her up! I make a bit of a fuss of her and put her on her perch to dry, and she's fine!

Thanks, I'll have a read through. Tuki is 4 years old. I've clipped her flight feathers before in the warmer months as we have the doors open and I don't want to lose her. She can fly well at the moment as her wings are longer than her tail! The doors are starting to open now and I have to have her shut in her cage. I don't like clipping her wings and I remember last time she would chew the feathers where I had cut them. I think it felt weird when she preened them, then they were suddenly shorter than normal! I'd rather not have to do it, but I don't want to lose her and I know she's tried to fly with her wings clipped and doesn't get very far! It seems our only option other than keeping her caged, which I feel is worse than clipping her wings!:unsure:

Oh I'm so glad you don't think it's anything serious. Thank you. A couple just stopped in their car next to me when I was walking home and asked if I'd seen their cockatoo that flew away. It must be awful to lose your parrot. I'm definately going to clip Tuki's wing feathers again now!

Hi everyone, I'm a bit worried about Tuki. She has these lines on her beak which look a bit like hair-line cracks. They look a white colour but I think this is just due to her dust. On the pics of her you can see what I mean. Does this happen or is it a problem? It's definately not the same as when she broke the tip of her beak when she was younger, that was very distressing and it bled. What she has now just looks like lines. I just wondered if anyone knew what it was?

I think that by age 3, they have begun to reach adulthood, but they are not sexually mature until they are 5 or 6 years old.

African greys can pick up what mood we are in! If you are nervous or angry, they know. This is why they get on well with people who stay calm and are positive!

Well isn't that strange that hand reared birds do it too?!!! I love sun conures! I've heard they can be noisy little things though! :laugh:

Thanks for that. I have 2 dogs so I have a big bowl of water for them. Tuki always goes to the bowl after I've filled it up and splashes water absolutely everywhere lol! I've noticed she also tries to bathe whenever I am hoovering! I've read that this may be because the hoover is loud like a rainfall and it makes them want to bathe! I'm not sure how true this is of a parrot that has never been in a rainfall though!

I think Tuki is about to start a moult. She has a few ratty edges on her tail feathers and I've noticed a few feathers in the bottom of her cage and little downy white ones stuck on the bars of her cage! Should they have any supplements during their moult?

She doesn't regurgitate for the bell but she makes the neck movements like she is going to! She has regurgitated for my partner Martin and also for my mum! I'd love to be 100% sure that she is female. Is it expensive for a DNA test? They can do it by pulling a feather out for testing can't they? Maybe I'll ask my vet.

My 4 year old female (I think) grey has a big gold bell hanging on a chain in her cage. She loves her bell and always plays with it but recently, she hangs by her feet from the chain and tries to mate with the bell. :dry: She gets rather excited and I wasn't sure whether to take the bell away or is she ok doing that? I ignore her when she does it. She makes her funny little grunty love noises too. What age are greys sexualy mature? I'm starting to wonder if she is a he! :huh: Or do females show sexual behaviour too?

The cockatiel will be with me a lot as I am hand rearing him/her. I think I'd better clip Tuki's wings again incase she flys at the baby. She has grown her wings and can now fly well indoors. As the warm weather is coming, the last thing I want is to lose my beloved grey out through the open door! I don't think I should have let them grow back because now she knows what it's like to fly again and I'll feel bad clipping them again. You learn from your mistakes though don't you?!:pinch:

Thank you and thanks for the link! I don't think Tuki will get on with my new baby when it arrives. I will keep them apart so the baby doesn't get hurt. :dry:

Thank you. I thought it would be very boring to eat the same thing all the time, that's why I give her lots of different things. She loves grapes and gets angry when I don't give her more even if she's had some! I can't give her many, so I have to hide them! Her food contains some dry pulses, but I'd never thought of soaking them, that's a great idea, they must be so much more tasty that way!

Thanks for your replies! It's just funny how she does it after we've covered her up. She's not a baby but is still very young (4 years old.) She makes us laugh so much. I'd miss her soooo much if she wasn't here!

In the evening, Tuki lets us know when she wants to be covered up by saying "night night!" We go and cover her cage up. Sometimes, after we have covered her up, she goes down to the bottom of her cage and starts to scratch the newspaper with one of her feet! If I uncover that corner a little, she just stops scratching and peers up at me with her beady little eye with her head tilted on the side and her head down low. If I cover the corner up again, she starts scratching the paper again! She never actually rips the paper up or anything. Does anyone know why she might be doing this? She looks so funny!<br><br>Post edited by: Amber, at: 2008/04/15 17:30

Tuki has a bowl of complete extruded diet in one bowl as I know it has everything she needs in it. I used to feed her 'Kaytee exact rainbow', but have recently changed to 'Harison's high potency coarse' as it is organic and has no colourings in and I also read that greys do best on a high potency diet all year round as they have higher nutritional needs. She really seems to enjoy this food! I know some people only feed the extruded diet, but I also give Tuki another bowl of 'Tropimix' for large parrots which contains grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and tropican pellets. She also has fresh fruits and vegetables everyday and of course fresh water. Is it better to just feed a good quality extruded diet and forget the other food? Don't the parrots get bored of the same thing all the time? I want her to have the best quality food I can buy and have looked around and found these to be the best ones. What do other people think? Please help!

Hello, In the near futrure, i will be geting a 10 day old cockatiel chick which I will be hand rearing myself. I was wondering how you can tell if an African grey likes another bird or not? I used to have a budgie and Tuki (my grey) just used to watch him. If my budgie was flying around the room, I would keep Tuki in her cage as I wasn't sure if they'd get on. If my budgie landed on the outside of Tuki's cage, she would quickly climb round inside of her cage like she was chasing him and I had to quickly get my budgie off as I was afraid she would bite his little legs off! However, I have seen a budgie and a grey in a magazine sitting together and they looked like friends! Do they need to be brought up together as babies to be friends? Any help on this subject would be greatly appreciated, many thanks, Amber.

The basket with the handle sounds like a good idea, but Tuki won't come out of her cage in the morning until she's had her big morning poo! I've tried to get her out, but she will NEVER step up from inside her cage, only when she's out of her cage. She will bite in or around her cage, she's very possesive of it.

Nobody teases her. We used to scratch her head through the bars of the cage but she won't let us do that now! Yes she does love my partner and other males, even strangers! This is why I think she's a female. She has even regurgitated food for a male friend of ours!

I got up this morning and thought I'd had a brilliant brainwave to stop Tuki doing her big morning poo across my floor. I thought I'd lower her perch right down so it was almost at the bottom of her cage and tempt her down with treats, that way, when she did her poo, it would go straight onto the cage floor as is would have less distance to fall right? WRONG!!! She just hung on the back of her cage and pood through the bars and all down the wall behind it! Yuk, I don't think I'm going to be able to stop this now she's started it. :sick: