darth_mint

He was always kept inside a cage at the pet shop, and he simply won't come out now that he's home. Occasionally he sticks his head a bit out of the door chasing my fingers, then he'll shoot back in and give the opening a weird look. I'm guessing he doesn't like coming out because at the pet shop, they'd only take him out to trim his claws or clip his wings, and he disliked that. Not blaming them as they had nearly 300 birds of different sizes to look after He gets plenty of interaction as my dad and sis are constantly dropping in and out of the balcony where he is. I'm going to try tempting him out with a treat this weekend...though I have a feeling he'll freak out and run right back in...

Home for almost exactly one week, and Nicky's made up his mind about the rest of his "flock" (my parents, sister and me) The way he behaves to all of us is wildly different and pretty funny! To my dad: mumbles non-stop when he's in the room, glares at him and snaps at any fingers my dad tries to put in the cage. I guess he still remembers being grabbed on the first day... To my mum: gives her what she describes as "slimy looks" and croons "Hello" in four different voices whenever she comes into the room. And imitates her voice most out of everyone in the house! To my sis: Yells "Hello" when she comes in, then ignores her unless she gives him something to eat. To me: every time my hand comes near the cage, there he'll be wanting to lick it. He listens so attentively when I try to teach him vocabulary, like holding up a book and saying "Book"...but he never talks when I'm in the room :blink: He learns a new word or two practically every day, too. Yesterday he was laughing like something out of a horror movie, today he started saying "Help" and "Oh dear", and frequent mumblings hint at even more to come later. Can't wait until he's ready to come out of the cage, life will get really interesting then :laugh:

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." - Mahatma Gandhi If that shop were selling electronics or textiles or anything other than living animals, I bet their goods would be looked after better. Heck, there are people who look after their wardrobes and their cars better than they look after their pets.

Update: Nicky's finally getting the idea that gnawing on my hand is a Bad Thing Today he gave me a pretty nasty pinch while I was petting his beak (he won't let me touch him elsewhere yet) I went "Ow" and turned my back on him. One minute later I turned back and he was sitting there very quietly. This time he didn't even try to nibble my fingers. I feel so bad! He had such a miserable look to him when I turned away. Do they usually learn that fast? Seems he only took a few days to figure it out and react to such a low-key cue. I didn't even get up to leave, just spun round on my butt.

Oh gosh that picture is so funny! It reminds me of a budgie I had who would do a headstand in her nest box. She'd crawl in, push her head down into a corner, slowly bring her feet up off the bottom then roll over until she was flat on her back with her feet up in the air, like a cartoon picture of a dead bird. It gave me an awful fright one day - thought she really was dead and reached in to touch her. Upon which that little bird sat up on her tailbone with both feet stuck out in front of her! Then she lunged forward from that strange sitting position and latched onto my finger so hard I yanked my hand back out and she came with it. Had to shake her off, awful little thing, and she took a pretty good chunk of skin with her. I wish I'd been able to video it...very funny in retrospect, though I was yelling my head off at the time. I'm not sure if it's nesting behaviour, but I think some birds just like sitting in weird positions...maybe it's their version of Zen? :laugh:

I've seen my birds' pupils expand and contract a lot, usually they do it when they're having a LOT of fun - chewing something or eating something tasty. Especially when they're taking something nice in their beak, their pupils will contract and become tiny as they clamp down, and stay tiny as they chew. At the same time their head feathers flatten while the body feathers may flatten or puff up. To me, this looks like a sign of pleasure and not a warning of a bite coming. Their facial expressions tend to bear this out. I've never experienced a bird "pinning" in an aggressive manner, in fact when my budgies were attacking my hand aggressively they used to puff up as they charged and their pupils would dilate rather than contract. Admittedly my experience is almost exclusively with budgies B) but Nicky behaves the same way. (He also contracts his pupils when he's about to use my hand as a chew toy!) At first it got me nervous because of all the stuff I read about "pinning" but he really is not doing it aggressively. He's just...excited? anticipatory?

Someone in an adjacent apartment to ours is spraying vast amounts of an oil-based aerosol insecticide on a daily basis, and it's getting into our balcony. It was so bad this evening that I actually became briefly nauseated on entering our balcony and smelling it. :sick: The stuff takes hours to dissipate and is becoming a serious hazard to Nicky. Had to move him into the living room this evening to get him away from the pollution. Poor baby freaked out and can't sleep now. I'm seriously thinking of making a complaint: police, town council, whatever. The volume of insecticide they are using is honestly ridiculous and there is so much I can't even identify which direction it's coming from. Anyone have suggestions?

Nicky starts dozing off when the sky gets dark around 8pm - his cage is in the balcony of our apartment, which is open. I have a problem though, the light from adjacent rooms spills over and keeps him awake, and the balcony doors can't be closed. I've tried covering the cage but he freaks out when I bring the cover near him. (maybe he thinks it's another parrot-killing device? )So the poor baby ends up sleeping late. And no one in the household is willing to go to bed at 8...guess I'll have to work around his anti-cover campaign somehow...

It's just day four, and Nicky's been exchanging catcalls with the birds outside since sunrise. I swear he's come out with every single sound made by every single bird in the pet shop and in the neighbourhood, including a crow which he only heard once yesterday! That's three hours and counting of non-stop bird noises, wolf whistles (WHERE did he learn those?) occasional car engine noises, some pretty rude sounds my dad was making at him yesterday :laugh: Anyone else get this volume of noise from their Grey? Does yours do it spontaneously, or exchange calls with the birds outside? (As I'm writing this, Nicky is sounding off with crow croaks, and sounding more like a crow than the real thing ever did)

Perverse little monkey, after I used "No Bite" and walked off, when I came back he made a nasty lunge at my hand instead of nibbling. He did that twice, then went back to treating me like a chew toy. Hmm...wonder who's teaching who here... Nicky is my first Grey, but I've had budgies for years and I know all their tricks. Some of his behaviour isn't too different from theirs. Funny though - the budgies acted a lot more mature, if less visibly intelligent :laugh:

Ack! You're probably right about him thinking it's a game. I tried rewarding him for letting me pet his beak without biting. The little monkey did get the point, but after two rounds of petting he apparently decided chewing was more fun, threw the treat away and tried to pull my thumbnail off :blink: Right now he won't come out of the cage even when I open the door fully. I've tried moving my hand up under him, and he straightaway bends down and starts the chew toy business. Will have to try "No Bite" ASAP, my skin may not hold out much longer!

I've been trying to start Nicky on "step-up", first by just getting him used to my hand. But all he wants to do is beak me! Even when my hand is outside the cage, he'll stick his beak through the bars and try to chew on me. It's not biting - I've been bit before and boy do I know the difference - but it hurts when he starts gnawing the finger joints. Plenty. I started fisting my hand to protect my fingers and he took to pulling up little pinches of skin (fortunately I don't have much flab) and chewing on those. Like I'm a chew toy How can I get him to stop? He starts reaching for me every time I put my hand in the cage. I kept it there so he wouldn't start thinking beaking was a good way of chasing me off, and wound up with a double row of little purple bruises from knuckle to mid-forearm where he pinched. Ow...

Adorable little pest! In between larger parrots I'd kept budgies in the cage Nicky's now using, and put netting over the bars so they couldn't squeeze out, tied in place with nylon cord. Netting's gone now, but some of the cord is still there and he's amusing himself untying it knot by knot. Also smearing a lot of chewed-up pellets on the cord, because he's still eating...

Well, Nicky has spent the entire morning eating! I gave him a pellet/seed/nut mix with a lot more variety than the one he got in the pet shop, and he's been snacking out of it for three hours non-stop. Is that normal? I offered him some human food too - bread and fresh raw veggies. He threw the bread away and shredded the veg, I'm not sure how much actually went down his throat. He's a terribly messy eater. He'll get distracted while he has a pellet or nut in his beak, and drop it half-chewed - or he'll grab a random clawful of the mix, pick something out and drop the rest all over the place while he's concentrating on what's in his beak. Going to try offering him some cooked rice and fresh fruit around lunchtime

Thank you for the encouragement everyone! Nicky's finally sound asleep - in a most uncomfortable-looking posture with his neck arched all the way forward. He's managing to ignore the miscellaneous sounds from the rest of the house, I guess that's a good sign. I expect to be jolted out of bed by some appalling parrot noises early tomorrow morning :laugh:

Nicky woke up briefly while I was in the shower (parrots can pick the most incredible times!) and made an unbelievably loud oriole call. I heard it in the bathroom and was wondering why an oriole was awake at this time! :laugh: I've been using an interaction method which worked very well with my budgies. Every so often - 30 mins to 1 hour - I drop by the room where he's sleeping, very quietly, to check on him. If he's awake I say a few words very softly, keep my body language relaxed and drowsy, maybe even sit down beside the cage and close my eyes as if going to sleep myself. It always sent the budgies to sleep, and Nicky seems to be taking it well too. At least, he closes his eyes when I do. Then opens them again when I get up to leave...

Poor Nicky. I have a terrible feeling I mishandled him, and on his very first day too. I brought him home in a cardboard box, and when I opened it, he tried to climb out - and couldn't! He kept slipping back down to the bottom, and started flapping. My father was watching, and before I could say anything he barged past, grabbed Nicky and shoved the poor bird into the cage head first - just as if he was handling a chicken! I don't know if Nicky is ever going to forgive him. Nicky's taken up station on the food tray, and hasn't budged for the last four hours except to climb partway up the corner and down again. He ate some mix, dismembered the shell of a nut, threw some bits of chewed-up food out of the cage, didn't drink anything. What should I do next? It's 8pm or so and he seems to have gone to sleep, still sitting on the food tray. I'm keeping the room dark and asked the rest of the family not to disturb him. I need to think of a way to reassure him, let him know that awful welcome isn't going to be a regular thing - I'm so scared he'll develop a fear of hands!

Hallo everyone, Today I'm heading down to a shop to get my first African Grey. I have to confess to a lot of nerves. I don't know if I can look after him properly. I've kept budgies for fifteen years, though they never bred; and I'm passing familiar with Eclectus and Cockatoos; and that's the extent of my parrot knowledge. I can't explain why I suddenly decided to change from budgies to a Grey, especially when everything I've read seems to indicate that Greys have totally opposite personality profiles to the small and hyperactive birds I used to have around. But I found a fifteen-month-old Grey who gave me a funny sideways look at the pet shop and then stuck his beak through the bars and licked my fingers... Anyway I hope to hear about other people's experiences with their Greys, get advice and hopefully do right by that ball of grey feathers who'll be entering my home in a few hours' time. Just got to remind myself he isn't a budgie...