margieb

Hello and welcome

Hi congrats and welcome

I am sooooo excited! This week was the first week that Izzy decided to let me give her scratches..I mean really long scratches :)I started bringing her into my bedroom around 7:30 ish every night with the lights dim and the tv on really quiet and finally she started to let me scratch her neck and head...even her face and beak. She started to like it so much that now she will even lay on my tummy and fall right asleep while I scratch her!! I feel so honored right now that she is trusting me that much.

here is the latest pic just from this morning.

lol let me try the pics again

Well hard to believe but baby Izzy has been with us for 3 weeks now. She is stepping up great and no longer tries to get up on shoulders. She is getting much more comfortable now and trying very hard to say some words! Here are a few new pictures of her in her new flight suits <br><br>Post edited by: margieb, at: 2008/12/16 16:32

last one

another one

Oops I will try again

I thought I would post a couple of pictures of our new "little girl" Isabel..Izzy for short<br><br>Post edited by: margieb, at: 2008/12/02 02:26

She is so darn quick about getting up on your shoulder before you hardly have a chance to stop her. She flies really well!! She was fully flighted when we got her. We were really hoping to leave her fully flighted but with the new surroundings and new people, at first she would just take off and fly and crashed and then we were scared she would hurt herself so we asked the breeder what they suggested for a minimal wing trim to keep her safe from crashing...yet at the same time keep her safe from falling and getting hurt and to keep her feeling comfortable. They suggested having 5 feathers trimmed. That is what we had our vet do and she does not crash at all, yet she can still fly quite well and land perfect. I have been getting much better at keeping her off of my shoulder to begin with takes some practice lol I understand you can't make a bird "like you" or pick you we have 3 "re-homed" birds and two of them took a very, very long time to trust us. Calm talking constantly, giving them choices to come to me on their own free will, offering them a fun, safe environment and spending tons of time with them either one on one or just simply sitting by the cage talking and reassuring them has definately paid off. They both are very bonded to me now and will actually seek scratches and attention. We just never had a "baby grey" before and I wanted to be sure I am on the "right path" with her Today she actually laid in my arms like a baby would for the longest time allowing me to give her soft scratches on her neck...and she made the cutest "baby noises" and kept grinding her beak and then fell sound asleep!! I think I must be doing ok so far..lol That was the best feeling ever to have her feel comfortable enough with me to fall asleep in my arms!!!!

Hi Dave, Thanks so much for all your input and advice. We do constantly talk to her and she does show many signs of relaxing and starting to get comfortable. The stubborn part I was refering to was mostly when she is asked to come off of our shoulders. I offer for her to "come down" once and if she resits then I am just a bit more firm and then she will come off. I just wanted to make sure we are doing the correct things at such a fragile time and age for her. That is also the part that I refered to as her "bullying" is when she does not want to come off of our shoulder. Perhaps as you pointed out "bullying" was not the correct term to use. She otherwise seems to enjoy being with us and until she gets comfortable enough and trusts us enough I have been showing her affection by talking to her and just sitting with her watching her play with her toys and shredding boxes.

Hello, We have a 13 yr old CAG that we had adopted when he was 12 and wanted to add another CAG to our family. We got a new baby two weeks ago from a breeder and she is just now about 4 months old. Her hatch date is Aug. 3, 2008. When we went to visit her at the breeders home, she seemed ok, a bit shy but they did have her in a flight suit and were able to handle her. One thing we noticed right away is that she always wanted to be on their shoulders and when they would go to take her off she would make a huge fuss and squawk and then they would just leave her on there. They said she was very bonded with them and enjoyed scratches at night. Since we brought her home, I do not let her on my shoulder and if she hops up there I do take her off. She makes a big fuss whenever you ask her to do something. They said she was not trained to step up and I have been working on that with using a small piece of cashew to reward her when she steps up and that is helping quite a bit. However, she still seems to be very "stuborn" and does not really care for attention or scratches much. I don't know for sure but it seems perhaps she got away with doing anything she wanted to do before even if they felt it was not appropriate? Could that be part of the problem? Or am I expecting too much from her? I do not force her to accept attention or affection however, I do insist that she does not go on my shoulder and that she steps up a few times while she is out playing. I want her to "like us" but at the same time I do not want to allow her to be a "bully". She does not seem at all "scared" of us it really does appear that she tries to bully us into letting her have her own way 100 % of the time. Do I continue to praise and reward her for good behavior and once she understands what we would like from her will the affection start to come? She has on a couple of occassions allowed us to give her scratches for awhile and seems to enjoy it.

Here are a couple of pictures of Joey Post edited by: margieb, at: 2008/10/13 21:45 lol let me try one more time <br><br>Post edited by: margieb, at: 2008/10/13 21:46