zooman

wow I remember that feeling. so excited for you. yes put your new one in its cage and let her settle. I just sat and read bird talk magazines and just kept mine company lol for the first day. stressful for them for the first day.

welcome and great video. I have a 4 year old TAG Zuri does the exact same thing as soon as he sees me in my uniform for work. starts with beak rubbing on my hand then wing fluttering and regurgitation of food. sometimes smells horrible haha. I figured it was a mating thing but weird only does it when I'm leaving to work. funny thing is. in the morning he's soo grumpy and wants to bite me. started couple months ago thinking its a nesting behavior. what do you guys all think? soon as he's on his day perch he's a perfect bird. also been seeing him scraped the newspaper into a corner of his cage. anyone else's do this? yes I also know all too well about bad wing clipping. he's free flitted now but when I first got him he was clipped and took him to a "avian vet " and learned quickly wasn't. they hacked him really bad, poor guy.

I also commend you on your research. some people get in over their heads. I have a 4 year old TAG named Zuri. I have to start by saying a parrot is probably the most challenging pet a person can have. I have had cats dogs, pigeons, rabbits and aquariums. he also is a great pet but everything you learned with children will help raise a parrot as well. he's given me scares, love, and companionship but also sometimes grrr moments just like a child would. one thing you should remember that I did not know when I got him was the difficulty in finding a vet who knows anything about parrots. I don't know where you live but in my experience is very important. I have to drive far to get to his vet and they charge mod since he is an exotic. not sure if this will be a factor but something to consider. I found at least with mine he's not exactly great with strangers or kids. he doesn't bite but I've had a few bites over the years so kids around one should be a consideration. because they hurt! but I'd imagine if you started with a grey young with kids would definitely adapt. I also was always told Greys were loud mine is quiet but same time I find if it's loud in the home the parrot will be louder. no proof of this but my common sense tells me it be true. as for flighted well you'll find this is a touchy subject with whom you ask. I have had mine flighted and clipped in the last 4 years. life is easier clipped with it. but is the bird truly happy? what I've been struggling with so I'm trying the last 3 years being fully flighted. hope this helps

well from my experience exactly a week ago today anything is possible. mine was gone for almost 3 days. I will say if he is not found already he will be. hunger will be his main issue. obviously he knows people mean food. so my guess is he is closer to you then you may think. if like you said sits at the window a lot he sees the area. good chance he's around. but of course someone dishonest may have him signs of the times. hopefully not. by the 3rd day we said only way we'd find Zuri is if he found us. we had looked high and low. keep thinking positive if he's fully flighted he def could get back up to your floor. mine never flew before and he easily reached 10 stories high when I last saw him. calling him sunrise and sunset I've been told helps they are most active then. I hope your reunited soon

speaking from recent experience, keep looking. mine went missing for 3 days last week. posters everywhere!!!! don't be tunnel visioned to one direction. birds will try and backtrack at least ours did. keep looking. soooo sorry it happened I know exactly what your going through. but posters and searching best bet. someone may have him and not sure of it being a pet. good luck and don't give up. we also put an add on local ads and on parrot911 website. they sent us great tip email.

yes from what i read greys arent water lovers, but its a curse too, he gets mad when i have a shower without him. haha its that bad eh? she feels your muredering her..haha hes defintely picky with the water temp so maybe try warmer water?

ya exactly just switch feet to save the other for later lol, i couldnt imagine being on my feet 24/7 though so relaxing one would be why.

oh i see what you mean, yes mostly he keeps his feathers down, i sometimes will lift his wings and tell him its time to wash your pitties, and flip him upside down to get his underside, but thats usually 2-3 x a week. mostly just whatever he gets wet when he begs for his daily gulping. my common sense theory was that their parents food was warm when they were fed and somehow it brings out the instinct. I only say this because now thats its summe and i take cooler showers he sometimes turns his beak to the cooler water and waits for me to warm it up just for him.

wow great idea wingy about the backpack idea. although have to be a modified one with vents all around, your getting my building brain going. his carrier now is a modified cat one where i cut window holes all around and put bird safe mesh, but he never chewed it until that day. weird isnt it? I was throwing the ball around to his sister a miniature pinscher so im guessing he wanted to play too. and twix yes it was cute and made me tear up too since he hadnt spoken a word all day, think he had a sore throat anways poor guy. so the "time for bed" was a little hoarse lol

nothing to worry about the others are correct. she needs her sleep. I never covered Zuri he has his own room and I draw the blinds and it's dark enough. I know it's tempting to keep looking at her cause it's new and they are so cute. but your waking her when you do. they are prey animals so they are always alert even in their sleep.

patience is key. the others gave great advice. when I brought my TAG Zuri I sat near his cage for hours talking to him and took me 2 days for him to be sure he could step up without shaking. 4years later and he can't leave my side. hope you 2 have made headway since your post.

lol def not Hercules. just awkward carrying bulky cage. the carrier I was using worked til Friday. the backpack one looked like he wouldn't get the uv and large point of bringing him outdoors. I'll look into it though I have a TAG so maybe the small version is enough.

Zuri is in the shower with me everyday as well. for some reason he has a fascination with getting his beak under the warm water and gulping down the water. he always has fresh water in his bowl so I dunno why. he gets drenched 4 or so times a week. most days he gets water on him but not deeply never really opens his feathers. but maybe I'll limit it since danmcq if that's what he's been told my avian vet said it was fine. confusing.

I have seen those. they look great. is yours heavy? we typically walk to a nice trail and fields and sit out in the sun and shade with them so I wanted something I'd want to carry a little distance.

thanks for your kind words. yes it was an absolute test of my will and optimism. and yes I will be looking for a new travel carrier. when I bought him I had 2 choices one very girlie one with flowers or a plexiglass one I felt may be too hot to have him in. but after this weekend I will have to invest in the new backpack ones. he is bouncing back really well and trying to give him his fav treats get his weight back up.

hello everyone. it's been a while since I've posted but I do come on time to time and read your posts whenever I have a chance. I want to share my absolutely scariest 3 days of my time with my TAG Zuri. I've had Zuri now for 4 years and honestly the first 2 he was clipped and couldn't fly. I let his wing feathers grow in after to allow him to be a true bird and until last Friday I didn't regret it. I decided to take Zuri and our dog Zoe to the park to get fresh air and sunshine. we live in Canada and summers are too short. I have a custom (bird safe) travel carrier made from a large cat/dog crate. enough so that Zuri can get sunshine as we live in a condo so I do not have a backyard. Well anyways we were having a good time my wife and I and didn't realized he had chewed through a corner of the screen and was wedging his way through the hole. I have been using this carrier for 3 years so never thought of it. he got out and climbed ontop of the carrier and to my horror he went to fly to me but caught a gust of wind and set him away to the left. he began to climb and tried to turn back towards us but must've panicked and sped up and kept gaining altitude. he started heading for a deep forested area and I took off to track his path. unfortunately I lost him because I couldn't see over the trees, I ran as hard as I could around the bush to the other side and began the search. we searched for almost 5 hours to no avail. I went through the bush and my wife the surrounding area frantically looking for Zuri. his last direction was south and we figured he must've kept going that way. I never realized how great of a flier he was til that day. his stamina must've been great with the last 2 years training of flying in our condo. It was getting dark and we went home and printed 50 copies of flyers and posted them everywhere in the neighbourhood. we woke up and sunrise after a sleepless night and began calling him and ringing his fav bell in the area. we searched all day again and broadened the area. our neighbourhood is filled with forest and nature areas so it was no easy task. the dread set in as we have countless raccoons, hawks, cats, crows ive seen, we kept hope. again a horrible sleepless night now with sunburn. this night it got cool around 17 degrees celcious. sorry don't know the conversion to Fahrenheit. day time temps were in the high 30's again celcious. it was now Sunday morning and I'll be honest I was thinking very bad things for him. we this morning now gone door to door at sunrise and put flyers in people's mailboxes. thinking maybe someone has him in their backyard and don't realize what he is. we came home at noon exhausted and empty. my eyes were dry and painful from the crying for 2 days. at around 1pm we got a call asking if we have found our parrot. we were so excited to get a call but it wasn't that he was found. we again felt despair. not more than 30 mins later our angels called. she said we think we have your parrot!!! my wife hardly knew what to say and forgot to get her address she was soo excited. we raced out the door. when we got there it was Zuri, exhausted dehydrated but aliveeee. he only had a slight scratch over his right nostril probably from landing in a tree. these wonderful people said they were asked by their neighbour to help Zuri because she had to get to church and didn't know what to do with him. he had flown to her porch that morning and wouldn't leave. the husband didn't know if Zuri was tame and put a stick for him to step on and Zuri instead stepped on his hand. he brought him into their home and feed him sunflower seeds and water. he then went to the local store to see if there was a poster and there was ours. what's amazing about this all is that Zuri had done a complete 180 turn back from the direction we saw him go. he was now less then 1 block from our building. it was almost a mile back from where i last saw him and over a very busy highway. when she told us her address we were in shock. I thought he would be miles away not a block. he knew the direction but since we were in a building he couldn't pinpoint where. but since we take him to both our in laws homes he must've felt the drive to go to a back porch course this is my common sense thinking only Zuri knows. the lesson of this story is never give up on your bird and don't tunnel vision one direction they may go. like Zuri he may just have enough instinct to go the direction home. he slept most of the day Sunday and made us tear when he told us at sunset "time for bed" just like normal and it was a sight and sound for sore eyes. today he has bounced back and been 99% of his normal self. we are just soo happy to have our little guy back into our family!

Aww that is soo sad that she lost her freind..I cant imagine it dying from cold it would have to be pretty cold..there must be something else there if the rest of them didnt die you know? prob some health problem that she didnt see, since birds hide their illness, thats really sad though. Hope your Sammy and Zsa zsa are doing well?, Zuri has been acting weird lately maybe alont he same lines for some reason he didnt want to come out of his cage the other day first time since the first day it was weird..i was like ok, walk away then hed call me back id be like ok ready? and hed climb back in..i dont cover their cages so maybe something spooked him i dunno..he shook it off and starting to act normally again today. Id love to ready their minds geeze make our job easier..like dad i had a bad dream last night..lol I havent taken them our recently its been frigid the last couple weeks so they have stayed where its nice and warm.. Ive really missed coming on here but i work later into the morning today being an exception got off early so i thought id come on..and say hello..Im trying really hard to find time to come on for sure.. Keep the forum going!!

Hey; Just thought id check in and say hello, I have been super busy and working hard to save some money. I spend every possible time with the boys and they are doing well, zuri since switching food seems to be coming out more in color in his tail, hes in a molt right now. Hope your are doing well, I cant say ive had mine long enough to become hormonal. They are just turning 3 zuri is 2 now. I have only lost about an hour in the morning with them so its still been good. Ive just taking zuri with me on some errands..and made them some special toys. Hope I can come on soon and chat again normally soon.

Sorry i havent been around in this economy when my boss asked me to work a few more hours i couldnt say no to the extra money so i wont be able to come on as much have to get my sleep to spend time with my boys. Its sad your families are going through losses through the holidays it is hard i can imagine especially sudden losses can really hit hard. I feel really bad for your daughter that must be really mind boggling when its so sudden and senseless. On a lighter note that happens to me sometimes too, Ive napped and found tiago chewing on bad things as well when i first got him i worked straight nights and would nap throughout the day and wake up to him being a pain like that. Hope you dont miss me too much.

Well its the last day of the year wow, where did it go?? Just want to wish you ladies a very Happy New Year for you and your families and all the best and good health for your fam and bird family as well. Hope 2009 is a great year. Ahh shes alive! Well wow that really sounds like fun...joking i hope I dont have to go through that. I guess thats where the flighted part is a bit tricky huh? I dont know what id do if i saw them chewing the cupboards. IM glad your birds leg is ok that would be pretty scary to have to deal with and the vet bill. I def agree they are very laid back Tiago is more than happy playing on his own as long as he has his time on me, but nt nearly as much as Zuri needs. And plays with his toys!!..urghh Zuri just seems to play less and less with them and now hes a designer birds and only wants to play with store bought ones mine arent good enough..lol I dont know what i have to do to engage this bird in toy playing..he rather just talk whistle and preen than do anything else for the most part and eat that boy can eat!.

and thank you for your post poppy I do want to get a cat one day again and worry since Zuri and Tiago will hopefully be in my life for many years. I would not want to do anything to jeopardize their life

Maybe she got bored of this forum or just busy id be with all those birds!! Def i was like hey they are amazing animals and great companions but its not something you should do just because they talk and look beautiful you know? I took him out more so because it was wayy unusually warm during the holidays on christmas eve day we got about 20cm of snow then 2 days later it got so warm it almost melted all..wacky weather. But i dont take them out too much during the winter i feel bad they arent made for that, India and Africa dont really get that cold..lol

My 2 are out from noon to 8pm on weekdays and weekends about the same I work nights and i have a dedicated play are safe and they are both clipped but when i do go out they go to their cages.

Sound advice from all!! I agree adopting a bird is a very serious decision I pondered about for years before buying my first. I too couldnt imagine giveing up my 2 but only one thing could make me do this and that would be allergies. Would i do everything possible air filters etc for sure!! but if you look at it this way your grey lives an avg of what 30-40 years or more..how long does your child live at home? 18-20 years? then what you buy a baby bird to fill the empty nest and they outlive you? then they are given away, or maybe if their lucky find a good home with a trusted family member maybe that child that you gave the first because of? Please believe me when i say im not judging you and I dont know what I'd be thinking id be scared period just having a child..lol. If its time and flight area your bird will adjust. Please make sure you think it over.

I took Tiago to my families house and they all loved him, hes the only social one. Zuri is not a people person but me. IM trying to work on that. But Tiago got some people thinking of birds for pets. I told them to call me and get the dirty info before getting one on a whim. Its def not a decision someone should take lightly. Ive been thinking of getting a cat too. Cats were a very special part of my life til my beloved cat died about 10 years ago. Im just so scared with cat and a birds they usually dont mix..lol..ever hear of it working with anyone?