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Hi I have to leave Charlie all day and he is fine. I have had him 5 years and not had problems caused by leaving him. I know its not ideal but If your grey starts with this routine they accept it. I do have a cockatiel in the same room and I am sure they keep each other company. I also leave a radio or tv on and think of things to occupy him,I am sure it will be ok.

Let us know how you get on at the vets. Hope everything turns out ok. Sheila

Yes I like "for the love of Greys" It makes a lot of sense to me.

I would always take the slow and gentle approach,yes it may take longer but in the end you have the birds trust. I too read all sorts of conflicting advice in books, in the end its a matter of choice what advice you take. I was lucky enough not to have any major problems with charlie but I can see he would not take kindly to being pushed. Go slow and let your grey grow in confidence. It will happen one day.

Katka appears to be doing fine, she is lucky to have an owner willing to work through the problems. Keep up the good work. Sheila

Hi welcome to the forum. As people have already said, work on step up. If you get a pinch just ignore it but try and take notice of what is going on when he does this, are you returning him to his cage. taking him out of the cage. petting him, cleaning his cage , is he on your arm, shoulder ect.See if any pattern is emerging. He is probabley still settelling in so its early days. I would not allow him on your shoulder untill he is more trustworthy.You cant punish a bird for anything, such as flying where he should not go to but by being consistant with removing him from the out of bounds furniture and returning him to a more suitable perch he should cotton on. Always praise and give healthy treats when your bird is perching in a good place and when he stays their. Good luck. Sheila

oh poor Katka, I am glad this bird is now in a more stable environment, well as stable as it can get with such a large flock. What issues does Katka have and how do you help her with them. How exciting getting another bird. I am a Liverpool lass and just dote on my two birds. Sheila<br><br>Post edited by: she, at: 2008/09/25 11:36

What a heart warming story. I am glad you shared it with us. I experienced real empathy with my old horse Dulcie.I truly believe she helped me through a really bad time.Dulcie is in the big field in the sky, but years later two cockatiels I had also proved to me how animals can sence human emotions.Animals say so much without saying a thing. and they say all the right things. God bless. Sheila

Hello, welcome. You have some flock their,look forward to hearing more about them all. Sheila

Great picture. Glad you are safely through Ike.Sheila

I am glad Lucy is getting on better with your husband, the few days you are away will really help,she will be relying just on him. In answer to your question about the nail clipping. I dont think it is normal for nails to bleed a lot after clipping, I suspect it is because they have been clipped a bit short, It is not unusual though.

I understand completely. I am leaning towards having Cracker my tiel clipped, purely because he insists on flying towards the grey when out and I am on edge. I may find a compromise by having him clipped in the winter when he cant go in the aviery of a day and let his wings grow out fot the summer, its a hard one, but one I am prepared to make for the sake of his safety,it sounds like clipping is the option for you. Sheila

I am also having the same problem with my grey and tiel.Both are fully flighted and if let out in the house the tiel flies to the greys cage,certain disaster.I put the grey in another room if the tiel is out. In the summer its not a problem as I have an aviery where one or the other can go in. I am dreading the winter though. I have thought of clipping, ,the grey has been clipped before but my vet recomended I let him fly and only clips for certain reasons so he would take some persuasion to clip him again.This is a debate that will go on and on, to clip or not. I believe it is better to have your birds flighted but can also see many justified reasons for clipping. I did find life easier with the grey clipped , but cant bring myself to have him clipped just for my conveniance. My vet has a saying "if you dont want a pet who flies, get a hamster".

Cracker is hand reared and tame as they come, he just has a bad temper when he wants, He can be the sweetest cockatiel ever.and then will fly at my hands and just attack, I just take it and try and ignore his tantrums, often I think it is because I have been scritching his head and then stop so he is having a hissy fit. Any ideas anyone.

Greys can like all parrots be noisey. All I can sugest is making sure he is occupied, ie lots of toys, time out his cage and plenty of human interaction. I can also sugest a more alternative approach, How friendley are you with the neighbours,a friend of mine had trouble with her neighbours complaining about her bird, she decided to introduce them to the bird and she even persuaded them to call in on the bird while she was at work. They soon grew to like the bird and understand a bit more about parrots. I am not sugesting you let strangers handle your bird or enter your house, my friend new her neighbours quite well, but perhaps talking to them and introducing the bird may help.I also agree with the idea of extra sound proofing.It may be the best idea.<br><br>Post edited by: she, at: 2008/09/23 20:42

I am so sorry, having lost birds myself I know what you are going through. Believe me you did all you could for spike and more. I was really hoping for good news, but Spike is ok now. God bless

I would sooner take a bite from the grey than my cockatiel, boy does he hurt.

Yes it is worth remembering cheapest is not always best, but at £400 I did not think I was buying a cheap product, with vet bills and the cost of replacing the wite it cost round £1000. Once again I was relieved insurance covered the vet bills. But more relieved Cracker is ok.Thanks every one for the concern. I believe their is little to no regulations govening pet products. I now buy all toys and feed from a company I trust. I also went to the company who replaced the wire for a new cage for Charlie a few weeks a go. They remembered Me and the birds and imediately asked after cracker. I felt safe in their hands.<br><br>Post edited by: she, at: 2008/09/22 19:52

I found the advert on ebay for the company who built pet housing. I phoned up and liked what I was told.They were only about 10 miles from me so it seemed perfect. The aviery itsself looked fantastic and they even put it up for me. Trading standards were useless. just telling me to write letters which I sent recorded delivery, all ignored even though I checked and they had been recieved and signed for. Ebay would not help as I arranged payment myself.

Cracker was hatched in Jan 07,He had a rough start,being sold to me far too young and me having to finish weaning him with little experience of hand rearing.Anyway he came on well and in the summer of 07 I decided to get him and Charlie my grey an aviery to exercise in.I saw an advert on ebay by a local company who were very reasonabley priced. A week later the aviery came and I was thrilled. It was fantastic. I cleaned it and proudley put Cracker in it first. Charlie took his turn later. This went on for 4 days and then disaster struck. I came in from work one afternoon and Cracker was in his cage vomiting every where.He looked so ill. I had him at the vets in the hour. The vet asked if anything was new,toys,feed dishes ect.Yes The aviery. Cracker was xrayed and had metal particals in his crop and gizzard. I could see them clearely.He was given injections 3 times a day and stayed in the vets for over a week. At one point he took a turn for the worse and was not expected to live. The vet even took him home with him at one point. I contacted the man who I got the aviery from who did not want to know. It turned out that the wire was imported from China. I had to also have charlie xrayed to be on the safe side although he was fine. I contacted trading standards who also where not much help. Because it was an aviery and not a childs toy I dont think they took it seriousely. Added to that was the man who I got the aviery off just stopped trading, I found out I was not the only one after compensation from him. In the end I got a really top class company to rewire the aviery, That cost me another £200 ontop of £400 vet bills. I was lucky I had him insured and the vet bills were payed. I just want to warn people about this so they can watch out for their own birds. Cracker made a full recovery and is one feisty character.

I find it hard to fault tiels, they are brilliant.If only cracker was still a baby. He is a spoilt, agressive monster now but I love him to bits.He has had some bad times, heavy metal poison, but thank god he is fine now.I will post the metal poison story in the health forum

No I tried to up load it and it came up that the file exceeded 250 Its on my profile page though.

Hear is a photo of my cockatiel Cracker and his brood mate at about 2 weeks old.<br><br>Post edited by: she, at: 2008/09/21 19:52

Dave You are so right. Charlie lets me know he is about to do something forbidden by shouting "im watching you" or "ah Ah" or his favourite is "Ill batter you". Its so funny. He always tells me when he is about to nip by saying "no bites" and if he does nip he shouts "ow ow".and then laughs. Sheila

Yes Charlie loves his box. I put small foot toys in as well as bits of food treats, I often wrap these in paper so he works a bit. It does keep him ocupied for a while.