goldn1

Welcome ajlinva! I too took in a 10 y.o. rehomed grey a couple months ago.....she also had cage territory issues and still does, but she's getting better every day about letting us touch her in, on, and around the cage. Unlike yours she does bite HARD, lol. Once we got her home we saw an almost immediate change in her attitude, in part I think due to the fact that it was a completely new place and people. We didn't get to have several visits getting to know her, probably a good thing for her. Not sure I'd have adopted a 10 y.o. with serious issues if I had known all I know now, but I wouldn't trade her for the world. In two months time she has learned to come in and out of her cage at will, play fetch with us, talks up a storm and learns new words every day, will let us rub her beak and occasionally her head through the bars of her cage. She will now take a treat nicely from our fingers, and will let us pick her up when she goes to the floor. We have changed out toys repeatedly, she tolerates a bath (but she's not happy about it), and although she will still occasionally lunge at the human hand (a.k.a. the bird killing wiggly thing) that invades her cage, she usually laughs now when she does it. Re-homing a grey is a challenge, but it is also very rewarding. At 10 years old these birds hopefully have a very long life ahead of them yet and our goal should be to just make sure they live it as peacefully and happily as they possibly can. Good luck with your new fid and welcome to the best place for support and advice you could have ever found. The other people here have gotten me through more than one frustration when Dorian decided her timetable was much more important than mine, lol. Pam

We're going on our second month with our Dorian, which when I think about where he/she was and where we are now is amazing progress! I need to learn to be grateful for the small steps! Ours is a 10 year old who for her (I always refer to her as a SHE, even though we really have no idea, lol) first 7 years was reportedly cage bound by an elderly woman who was terrified of her. For the next three years she was with a woman who seemed well intentioned but from what I've learned did more harm than good. Dorian was given no choices about anything ever. She was always toweled out of her cage and had her toes pinched to keep her under control. She is terrified of sticks, and although she's getting better she is still very scared of hands, and towels ARE evil bird eating monsters :angry: . I don't think she'd had a new toy or perch in years,and she is coming around but she's not too sure change is a good thing yet. We've pretty much learned we have to give her options, but if we leave the old stuff in her cage she will hang from the bars rather than use the new perches or toys....we've rearranged her cage several times weeding out the old things so that she has the option of which new toy or perch to use but the old things are temporarily disappearing until she gets used to the new things as well. She REFUSES to eat anything besides zupreem fruit flavored pellets and seed, and a few select treats. Doesn't matter how long I leave other food in her cage, or how much of it she sees me eating, she's not touching it unless it's to throw it out of the cage on to the floor, lol. She's almost as stubborn as I am! The touching game sounds like a great idea.....might be a good way to get past her beak which she does allow us to touch (at our own risk, of course). Btw, update on the oinking......in my desperation to get the oinking to stop I tried other animal sounds....so now we're up to "oink, oink, oink, QUACK"! :silly: We don't have an avian vet within an hour of us here so I'm sure a house call here would rival the national debt .

Update: Dorian got a good spray bath on Saturday.....she was flinging water everywhere which I saw somewhere indicated she was trying to get herself wet, so I did it for her. I figured while she was already mad I'd do some major cleaning and rearranging in her cage. She got over it when we took her outside in her cage and let her watch us do yard work in the sunshine. Last night we were watching tv and I guess she was feeling ignored, next thing I knew there was wing flapping and a grey on the floor walking around...lol. After some convincing she did step up, let me hold and pet her, even whistled and said hello in my ear (OUCH). It's kind of funny, every time I start to get frustrated with how slow progress seems to be she pulls a new stunt to remind me it's worth it to be so very patient and not rush her too much. Btw, she's a very smart bird...I've been watching some of the youtube videos of talking greys, Saturday morning we watched the one of Einstein on Pet Star...Einstein says "Oink, Oink, Oink" once. I listened to the video ONCE.....guess who now repeats Oink, Oink, Oink (and Dad's laugh) over and over and over and over again!!!! Sounds like we have a farm in our house.....between the bird chirps, chihauhaus barking, and now pigs oinking and it's all one bird making them!

Funny, must be the name. We have a re-homed Dorian as well and she/he is just as stubborn as yours sounds. I got her a lovely playstand weeks ago and she will tolerate it next to her cage but isn't the least interested in getting on it. She'll let us play fetch with her on top of the cage and will now put her beak through the bars of the cage for us to rub. But if you put your hand anywhere near her on or in the cage you're likely to pull back a bloody stump. She's not having it! She hasn't been off her cage for almost three weeks now and I think we're also at a stalemate. I put the playstand in front of her cage door to one side last night while she was on top figuring she'd have to get near it to get back in.....the little poop waited me out for almost 2 hours before she let Dad bribe her back in with treats. She too is terrified of sticks and towels and I don't want to traumatize her but she needs a bath (hasn't had one since we got her a little over a month ago and HATES being sprayed) and while we have made progress she needs a vet checkup, beak/wing/nail trim, and I need my fingers for work. Any suggestions????

Dorian's favorite game is fetch....we got her a flexible plastic ball with all kinds of holes through it (it's a dog toy), she can grab it anywhere easily and tosses it. Her favorite part is to hold it until you turn your back and then throw it as far away from you as she can. She'll even throw it from inside the cage, which is how we "tricked" her in to letting us put our hands in the cage....she wants us to play and doesn't want to move an inch to get the ball herself....lol. We've also started dancing.....I bob my head and say "wanna dance? let's boogie" and she bobs right along with me....I look ridiculous but she is hilarious doing it! Oh, the other one, which she doesn't seem to like much, is where we play like we're gonna get her tail, she doesn't get mean about it, but she's not letting us touch her tail either...lol.

I can't get it to work.....{Feel-bad-0002006A}<br><br>Post edited by: goldn1, at: 2008/04/25 04:46

Ours looks similar to Harrison's, but beige. I was curious if the Java pieces could be incorporated in to ours, but haven't tried it yet. Dorian tolerates hers being next to her cage, but won't go on it yet. It's been two weeks now.

Hi Melisa, welcome! I understand your concern, 3 weeks ago we met a hostile, terrified, 10 year old Congo. I was looking at a baby conure, figured that was a good "step-up" from the cockatiels we'd had up to then. Then Dorian showed up on Craigslist, so we went and met her. We had NO CLUE what we were getting ourselves in to, but, in less than three weeks she has gone from lunging at us if we even paused by her cage to taking treats from our fingers gently and letting us play with her and occasionally even touching her. If I knew then what I know now I probably wouldn't have even considered a re-homed grey, however, I also wouldn't trade Dorian for all the babies in the world. My next grey, hopefully next spring, will be a baby. And Dorian will have a lifelong home with us. I can't make a suggestion to you of which to get, but I do wish you luck finding YOUR new fid.

Dorian has some "pink" on her feathers around her legs. But I haven't really noticed any anywhere else on her yet. Those pics of the almost all red factor are amazing/strange...is it like the blue and white one, do they charge more for the red factor?

That's great! Dorian kept turning her head and listening...wonder if she could tell it was another grey? And now she's talking (and barking) up a storm.

We use a plastic chair pad too...Dorian always has to go on the floor the instant she gets out of the cage! And a lot of vacuuming.

DeltaMagazines.com has it for $8.75 US for 12 issues (new or renewal)! I just ordered mine! And you can pay with PayPal so no credit info to an unknown site .<br><br>Post edited by: goldn1, at: 2008/04/04 05:24

Amazing!!! I go home early this afternoon cause I have a stupid cold, open Dorian's cage door just to see if today she'll decide to grace us with her presence. Less than a minute later she's climbing out!!!! She's been sitting on top for almost two hours now, she even played catch with the us with the ball we bought her the other day, best investment ever (it's actually a dog toy!). See the new pics and movie on my profile! I'm taking your word for the fact that she will manage to find her way back inside Tracy, she keeps trying to figure it out. I did put my hand out to see what her reaction would be, she didn't try to take my hand off, but she made sure I knew it wasn't gonna happen. I ordered her a playstand today, hopefully once that gets here she'll be happy to stay outside of her cage longer. Anyway, thank you all for the encouragement and support! She's making amazing progress, and I'm more confident than ever that we'll be okay. Pam

Thank you all!!! She did come out the second day we had her, my son came in the house and she freaked out a bit so we ended up having to towel her to get her back in the cage. Since then she hasn't been interested in coming back out, which I've tried for the last couple days again. I will keep trying as that seems to be the less stressful suggestion/method for her that I've seen. I work all day, although my fiance' is home with her all day so she's getting used to him too. Most of my time with her is in the evening when she actually is the most vocal and seems the most willing to let us be anywhere near her, which is good. Tracy, thank you for all the good advice, the help and the offer to sit with me all day . I appreciate it, and may take you up on it as soon as I get a day off. I'm not concerned about her being a lovey dovey bird, considering what she's been through I think letting us touch her without trying to take our hand off would be such amazing progress I couldn't ask for more. Toweling her is out of the question unless it's an extreme emergency, that is what got her in this state to begin with . I will check out those other sites, as soon as I get a chance. Her cage does have an open top, with just a perch that can go up there. I was waiting to get her a playstand until I could get her out, but didn't consider she might come out if she had something to play on........duh! lol I'll get her one as soon as I can. Caroline, we don't have an avian vet for her yet, but her beak is overgrown in one spot and not sitting right and since it's been so long since she's been to a vet and she has a curvature of the spine I feel that we should have her checked out for at least a clean bill of health before too much longer. A home visit is a great suggestion and I'll start calling around as soon as possible. Dan, thank you for the encouragement and the suggestions. I know this is going to take a lot of time and patience I just am nervous about making matters worse for her since she's already been through so much. It would be so much easier if she could just tell me how to make it better, but I guess that's out of the question although she does certainly let me know when she is unhappy! Thanks again all! I'm so glad I found this forum, I have a feeling you're going to be invaluable for me and for Dorian. She won't be able to thank you for helping to make her life better, but I certainly will! Pam

Caroline, Less than a week at this point, so I know it's early days, but the "stick guy" seems to think the longer you let it go the more likely it won't change.

Help please. I've been doing a ton of research, read two books on the subject, ordered two more, looked everywhere online and I can't seem to get a verifiable opinion anywhere. Dorian will NOT let us get anywhere near her, she makes her "go away" noise (sounds like a coffee pot gurgling) and fluffs up if she even thinks we're going to come near her. One book said we should take our time, let her learn to trust us, give her options and let her come to us by rewarding her with food. Another article online said that we should use two sticks in an enclosed bedroom/bathroom and pursue her until she learns to step up. These are of course, short versions of the theories. I honestly don't want to make things worse for her, I'm concerned letting her do this in her own time will mean she never does and she'll be stuck in that cage for the next 50 years! I'm also concerned that chasing her around a bedroom with two sticks and telling her to step up will make her fear us even worse than she already does. Do any of you have experience with a bird that is terrified of you, and hates people? I know each bird is different, but she's already been so tortured I'd hate to make things even worse by picking the wrong option. I'm willing to be patient if that's what it takes, I just don't want her to be stuck in a cage forever and she really needs to go have a vet check her out (she hasn't been in over three years apparently) so we need to be able to handle her. Help! Pam

Hi all, Glad to find you. Adopted a 10 year old slightly handicapped female (former person's guess) CAG three days ago and we were seriously lied to, but now that we have her I would NEVER send her back to where we got her from. We are her third (we were told) family, her first person left her in her cage for 7 years because she was scared to death of Dorian. Her second person (the one we got her from) forced her to be handled for three years by toweling her out of the cage and then pinching her toe to keep her under control. It doesn't appear that Dorian was ever treated kindly or was given a choice about when or by whom she was handled I'd like to believe it's from lack of knowledge and not lack of caring. All that aside we should have never adopted such a "high-maintence" bird for our first CAG, but I couldn't bring myself to leave her where she was and I was ignorant of just how serious her issues were going to be. So, I need help, advice, and probably a nurse by the time I finally get her to trust me. Bear with me please, I'm probably going to ask what seem to some to be stupid questions. We're going from having a couple hand-fed tame cockatiels to a CAG that has SERIOUS issues with people/hands/fabric. On a happy note, she talks up a storm as long as you don't go near her, "Go 9'er's" is one of her favorites, and she has startled us a few times already with a well timed cough, laugh, or clearing of the throat. Last night she decided to mimic exactly the answering machine beep and took me quite by surprise. I'm optimistic that our hearts are in the right place and coming here and asking for advice is a step in the right direction! A new CAG mommy, Pam