brianL23

It is speculated that she may be at least 18 years old. And the male is much younger. They were rescued quite a while back from an abusive situation. No idea how long they were with the first owner. The second owner became to elderly to properly care for them so they were relinquished to a friend of mine who operates an exotic bird store that also specializes in re-homing rescues. They were with that gentlemen for 10 years prior to being a part of my family. Frank shows the most signs from being at an abusive home. He is almost deathly afraid of hands, otherwise he is rock solid. Between all of his moves he hasn't plucked or stopped eating. He just doesn't like hands. It has been 2 years and a lot of scars with me and I am still trying to build up the trust with him.

Thank you. I will be taking that advice.

Hello, Well my name is Brian. My wife and I took in two rescue CAGs about 2 years ago. We believe one is male and that one is female. However, we have never had them sexed. The one we believe is male is named Frank, and the female is Honey. The names came with the birds. Over the last two years I have tried to handle Frank, however the only time he will perch on my hand without tearing into flesh is during bath time. Honey on the other hand is quite amicable when it comes to handling and could stand a few rubs before she was done. Recently however, Honey has become more friendly. And this is where the strange behavior begins. She will drop her wings, and wiggle her rump, while letting out little whimpers. Is this some type of mating dance? I did say I have had a grey before, he would grab onto my hand and regurgitate and would even roll onto his back for some tummy rubs. But this behavior from honey is something I have never seen before. I would love someone to help me out with this one. Thanks Brian

I hope I am posting in the correct forum. I recently adopted two african greys. An older gentlemen had them for about 8 years. They have been living in a large cage together for that time, so when I brought them to their new home, I decided to keep their same living situation. The previous owner gave me all of his stuff, cage, playstands, ect.. They are a male and a female. They have been at my house for about a week now, they seemed pretty well adjusted. Recently in the last couple of days, the male has started to pluck the feathers around his tail feathers. So much so that his rump is nearly bald. Now I know this may be a temporary thing, due to new environment and a complete change of people around. But would anyone have any suggestions on how to curb this?

Thanks for your reply! Honestly in the instances where he has his regular sitter, and I return home from a trip, he can be quite angry bird. He will usually not want me to touch him for a few days. It is not until I here him say "come here, up, up" that it is cool for me to be in his space again. But today he loves the shoulder and he is putting his beak right on my cheek. Being a total lover.

Judy, I pretty much thought so, just wanted a sane voice to confirm, thank you.

Hey there folks, I recently had to go away on a trip for business, as I do about once every couple of months. I have a regular person that takes care of my CAG Savage while I am gone, stays at the house with my CAG and keeps him in his normal enviroment. Things were always great when she takes care of him. Well this trip didn't work out for my regular to watch him. I had to board him. At the last minute I had to take him to a new place. I know this stresses greys out quite a bit. So to make a long story short, I pick him up from boarding, and he had plucked out the majority of his tail feathers. I guess what I am looking for is a voice to say that it was most likely the anxiety of being in a new place that made him do that. I am a little concerned, and hoping they grow back. Poor guy just wanted to be held when I picked him up, hasn't wanted to get off my shoulder since I brought him home.

Hey everyone, I have been absent from the forums for quite a while. Although my presence was never really big. Anyhow, I have a 1 year old grey named Savage. He is pretty cool, very playful. I have let his flight feathers grow in, and yes I know this can be dangerous in some aspects, but I figure he is a bird, and needs to experience the essence of his being and learn how to use those wings. He takes flight around my apartment, and is pretty cautious. Usually he only flies to join me in what ever room I have ventured off to. So back to the harness issue. I would like to take him outside and what not, so I figured a harness would be a good idea. Well Savage isn't really digging the harness idea. I have a few beak sized pieces of skin missing on my index finger to show for that. I know greys take a while to get used to an idea or anything new. Any suggestions on how to get him used to this harness and save some skin?

Hey there, my grey, Savage, is not so nice to visitors. My neighbor is the only person he truly shows any affection for besides myself. Any other visitor basically gets the third degree. If said visitors walk by his cage, he go outside his cage and follow them with boarderline aggression. I am wondering how to curb this behavior. He will talk around anyone, and will get quite vocal.

My grey is named Savage. I was stumped for a name for a while when I first picked him up. Well put some toys into his cage for him, and he destroyed them very quickly. I was still stumped, I was leaving for work the next morning, and I threw on my sunglasses and said goodbye to him, and he puffed up and started growling at me! So at that point he became my little Savage. I never wear sunglasses around him anymore.

Good to know! Yeah, I do see feathers coming in covered in a sheath. Some tail feathers are coming in, as well as some feathers around his neck. Those little fluff ball feathers are all around my apartment! I think I could make a small pillow with what my vacum has collected in the last two weeks!

Savage will put part of my hand or finger in his beak, not biting just holding, and move my finger or hand away from where he doesn't want to be touched. Or sometimes he moves me to where he would like to be pet or scratched.

I know that during a molt, new feathers are coming in. But what does this look like? Do all of the birds feathers fall out? Or is this a gradual process. My bird's feathers are not falling out, just curious as to what to look for before/during a molt.

I had just given him a shower...he was pretty upset with me.

My grey, Savage, and I are new to the forum. He has been in my home for about a month now. Savage is 8 months old. He adjusted to his surroundings rather quickly. When I first brought him home, the only sound he made was his yell, or his pterodactyl impression as I like to call it. He has since learned many other sounds and a step up command. He has pretty much gotten away from biting.......hard at least. I guess you know your neighborhood isn't that good when your grey loves to mimic a police car siren! <br><br>Post edited by: brianL23, at: 2008/12/14 14:42

I have been trying to figure out where my CAG, Savage, gets some of his sounds. I have figured most of them out. There was one in particular that I was struggling with. Well, I live alone, I'm a guy. I have a bad habbit of leaving the door open in the morning when I first use the bathroom. Savage is mimicking the sound of me peeing! When I figured it out, I almost died laughing.

He is sleeping.....he just doesn't like to be in his cage! He clings to the walls if I make him stay in his cage.

So maybe someone can help me with this. The first few days I had my grey, at night I would put him in his cage for sleep. I did leave a night light on for him, but at night he would wake me up by screaming and flapping around his cage wildly. I would go in and calm him down, talk to him for a while and put him back into his cage. More often than not he would climb from his perch in the cage and cling to the bars of the cage. When I would wake in the morning, he would be in the exact same spot clinging to the cage bars. So after about a week of this, I would leave his cage open and he would just sleep outside his cage on a fold down perch. He seems perfectly content with this. He no longer flips out at night. If he were to flip out I would wake up. I am a very light sleeper. So I guess my question is is this a normal behaivor? Has anyone else encountered this? Please shed some light on the matter if you have any experience dealing with a similiar situation.

My grey, Savage, loves to go through all of his sounds and words once I am out of site. He will whistle and say a few words when I am with him too. I am a little lucky because I have a job that does allow him to come to work with me. So I take him to work a few days a week so he is not alone all the time. If I am doing chores or whatever, I will usually take him into that room with me, if I want him to be quite. But I like to hear the different stuff he picks up on, so sometimes I will leave him alone for a bit while I am doing something just to hear his new stuff. Just the other day, I was sitting with my back to him and he said "Do you want some fried chicken?" When he does decide to talk some of the funniest stuff comes out of his mouth. I actually think it is kinda fun trying to figure out where he may have picked up a certain phrase or sound.

Cool Cool, thanks for the advice!

Has anyone tried giving a hard boiled egg yolk to their grey? Recommended or not?

Here are some recent pics!

Thank all of you for welcoming me. I have put up a few pictures of Savage. I will be taking some more very soon. I am trying to get some video of him while he is going through his list of different sounds, but every time I try to record him he stops. Ahh well. As he is coming out of his shell, he is becoming more and more vocal with each day. Every new day since I have had him has been different from the last.

This is very true. He does have the power to break chicken bones open, he could surely take a piece of my ear. I am learning his body language. He is a lover sometimes, and other times he lets me know when he doesn't want to be handled. You seem like you have a wealth of knowledge on owning a grey. The winter climate is pretty dry, do you use humidifiers to keep your birds climate more bearable?

You may be right about that! I have only had him for about three weeks though. He had been up there many times, and for a long time that day. So I got him to take a shower today. He didn't like that one bit. He didn't bite me, but the water wasn't so lucky. I was letting water run down my arm and off my hand onto him. But he made it through. However he is pissed right now, but clean!