parrotlady

Bobby sure is a little fighter and I am praying he will find the strength to get through the tests and receive the treatment he needs. My thoughts are with you, Matthew and Bobby.

He's making normal Grey whistles and nice sounds to attract your attention. He isn't screaming at all you would soon know if he was. Does he get to spend periods out of his cage exploring? Grey's are very intellegent and they love to be involved with all of our day to day activities.

I recommend to all new owners to continue with a spoon feed for this reason. I have a Grey of 29 years who gets all excited when he sees the spoon coming.

Does Bobby like banana or any other form of soft food? Medicine can often be squeezed onto or inside a favourite food and eaten without the bird realising. Failing that the only other way if your bird is not used to eating from a spoon is to gently towel him and quickly administer the medicine. I wonder with the pellets if he isn't drinking enough to moisten them to digest through the crop. After having been on a seed diet for so long he may not be used to the increased drinking which is required from a bird on pellets. Crop infections are caused by food staying in the crop too long and this could be a plausable explaination. All my birds are fed a very good quality seed with plenty of fresh fruit, veg, pulses, rice, pasta etc.

So glad to hear that you acted quickly and got her the help she needs. I hope the next 5 days will pass quickly for you and she makes a speedy recovery.

Voted.

Good luck. It sounds like whatever it is you've been very observant and caught it right at the beginning. Well done.

I'm afraid that if she were mine I would book an appointment with an avian vet. The fact that she's not eating and all puffed up are causes for concern. How are her droppings? and is she perching properly with one foot up?

Here are my tries.

She sounds like she is doing very well. Her weight is spot on to what mine generally are at that age. Can I just say to be careful with the pine shavings, they can try to eat them and choke to death. It's worth removing them and just placing kitchen roll in the brooder. The wing flapping is perfectly normal and helps to build up her muscles. If she isn't crying for more formula and is gaining weight I don't think you need to increase the amount. Might be worth making it slightly thicker.

Here are a couple of photo's showing a full and and empty crop. The only problem is that as the chick grows and their feathers develop it becomes harder to visualy see if the crop is full but you can tell by touch. Also as the baby gets older and starts to feed itself more the crop won't buldge like it does when they are very young as the food is getting eaten over a perdiod of time and not all in one go.

Many young grey's have a lot of extra red feathering ( a lot of this is due to the hand-rearing formula) most of these grey's moult out the red feathers at first moult and don't regrow any more. Other reasons for red feathers are far more sinister and most Greys with PBFD develope them. Also birds with kidney disease and some who have damaged the feathers regrow them red. Then just to confuse matters you have the adult birds who just naturally have extra red feathers who are 100% healthy. I have one male who has red feathers towards the bottom of his chest, only about six feathers but with every moult he regrows them in the exact same place and has never developed any more. If a mature Grey suddenly developes extra red feathers it is usually always a cause for concern.

Forgot to add a congo grey's weight can be anywhere between 350g-650g most of mine are around the 550g mark and are all fit and healthy. With a clipped bird you can still excersise him by holding him on your hand and holding his toes with your thumb (or finger). Hold your arm high in the air and drop it down (quite quickly). He will automatically start flapping and the flapping will help build up his chest muscles and reduce the fat build up. Just make sure that you are holding his toes securely so that he doesn't fall.

Please do and try to change your Grey's diet. Through your love of him and wanting to give him what he wants you are shortening his lifespan considerably. This type of snacking will lead to kidney disease, gout lack of vitamins and minerals which are essential to his well being. Don't offer any seed in the morning at all instead only give the fresh. This can be vegetables, fruit, pulses etc. When you do give him his seed/pellets (later in the afternoon) only give him a maximum of two tablespoonfuls. This way he will still be hungry enough to want to try the new (healthy) food. Don't worry if he makes a mess of it and throws it around, persevere and keep offering it. He will learn to accept healthy food but you must be persistant.

Thank you all very much for the lovely welcome. My pet Grey's do all live together. It has taken time to get them to this stage but now thankfully we don't have any issues.

Well done for booking her an appointment with the vet it is always better to be safe. I think a large part of her balance problem will be due to the wing clip. We had a rescue come to us with a wing clip and she couldn't even balance on your hand, any movement and she would fall of. She also used to fall of her perches and we did as has been suggested. We lowered all of her perches and placed a folded up towel in the bottom of her cage and covered it with newspaper. I'm happy to say her feathers have now fully regrown and her balance now is excellent. There can also be many other causes of bad balance so it is good you are having her checked. Good luck at the vets.

I've found with both the training and the petting bribery can and does go a long way. Find out what is your birds favourite treat, I personnaly use pine nuts as they are small and can be eaten quickly so the birds attention is straight back on you. Another good seed to use is the sunflower seed. African Grey's cannot have too many sunflower seeds as they are high in fat but they are excellent for training purposes. If your birds normal daily seed contains sunflower or pine or basically which ever is your birds favourite seed it is worth removing them from the dish and keeping them purely for training. Begin by rewarding the bird with the favourite food as soon as they show the behaviour you are asking them for or if they allow you to touch them where you are trying to touch. In the beginning if your bird isn't very handable use the reward when he allows you to take a step closer. If the bird behaves in a way in which you don't like ignore it and don't offer the treat. Provided you are using your birds most favoured treat, you keep the training sessions short and you follow the treat with a softly spoken word of praise you will be surprised how quickly your bird will learn. The secret to success is to make sure that the favoured treat is only available to your bird through good behaviour, petting and training.

What I would do is go back to square one. Place the cages at a distance apart and give them seperate out times at the moment. Always feed and fuss the older Grey first followed by the baby. He is jealous and he needs reasurance that he is still just as important as he was before the baby arrived. Over time you can slowly move the cages closer together and begin allowing them to spend very short periods of time out together. The slower you take things the more likely they are to be successful.

At 4 years old the bird is still very young and can be socialised. The key to being successful is patience, patience and even more patience. This will apply not only to you but to your whole family. There are lots of ways in which you can help him to be more social and stop his biting and I'm sure myself and the lovely members of this forum would be only too happy to help you with this. He is not a lost cause and he can become a treasured member of your family but before commiting to him just be sure that you are going to be able to put in the time and love which he is going to be needing. I have ones here which have taken two years to turn around so to speak so don't expect too much too soon but the rewards you will gain when he is ready and chooses to come to you for his head to be given a scritch and returns your love with his is priceless.

Glad to hear that everyone loves him. Jack!!! just when I was getting used to Chester lol Love the photo's he looks like he has made himself right at home.

A good method for training an older Grey to accept the harness is to first begin by getting them to accept a spoon feed!!!!! Find their favourite food mash it all up or liquidise it and offer it from a spoon (this is also useful for when medication needs to be given) Once they have become used to the spoon feed and look forward to it you can begin the bib treatment. This consists of a piece of paper towel with a hole in the middle. You pull it over the birds head and it acts as a bib. If you get into a mess it doesn't matter as the paper can be easily ripped and removed. I have found this method very useful to help train older birds to accept having something pulled over their head. Once they are happy with the paper towel you can move onto the harness.

They really are all individuals. I have one of my babies who didn't utter a single word until she was three years old and I've another who was talking when only six months old.

Be careful when you introduce them. It's not the Caique you have to worry about it will be the Grey's. Caique's maybe small in size but I think nobody has told them and they have the courage of a lion.

Hi Tracy, I'm happy to be here. I apologise already I'm no expert on forums and my photo's have come out too large. See you tomorrow Tracy.

I think you could be right there A couple of photo's I believe we are always learning and I would never claim to know everything. Always happy to learn new ways to enrich the lives of my babies.<br><br>Post edited by: FairY, at: 2008/04/20 15:21