tonino

Baby Girl is a different African Gray. As Gloria settled in, she was less and less interactive and rarely spoke. She was becoming more and more sedate in her everyday behavior. When a friend of mine came around, she would come to life.....allowing her to take Gloria from the cage and responding with mimicry and a lot of excitment and animation. It got to where Gloria would get excited just hearing her voice. We had known that Gloria was hand fed and raised by a woman but had no idea how much that imprinted on her. Needless to say, Gloria lives with our friend. Parrots are so unlike dogs!

Greetings! My African Gray is 3 years old and was previously owned by a women who treated her like a child. Baby Girl (BG) was allowed to eat from her plate and had so many toys in her cage that there was very little room for her to move around. We adopted her (because the woman couldn't spend as much time as she thought the bird needed) about four months ago. BG is wonderful. She is very tame and will perch on most anyone's hand....even strangers. She is very well socialized. Here's the reason for the posting. Her chest, part of her wings and part of her back are covered only in down feathers...no mature feathers. She came in that condition and I believe has been that way for a long time. The vet, an experienced bird vet, told us that she looked to be in great condition so he really doubted a metabolic condition and had three recommendations: (1) Spray her 4-5 times per week;(2)Wean her off seed and get her onto a pellet and add fruits, veggies, protein, cod liver oil avian vitamins, etc. and remove all but two toys. We did all this two months ago and her condition improved very slightly. Question: Has anyone of you had any experience with this type "condition" and if so, any suggestons? Thanks!

We have been around parrots for many years and can't imagine being without one. This past spring, we didn't trim our CAG's wings becasue it was the first spring she didn't pick her feathers so, we thought that the wing clipping could have possibly been responsible for the feather picking that seemed to happen at the chang of seasons. Well, one windy day in May the cage got blow over, the door unlatched and the rest is history. We spent months looking and hoping and doing all those things that folks do in our situation but to no avail. We decided to get another parrot and that resulted in a YN amazon who was supposedly down to two feedings a day. After getting Casper home, he was soon on four feedings and it took another three months to wean him/her. Casper is delightful but it's not the same as the AG. So, two days ago, we acquired a CAG by the name of Gloria. She is three years old and is the unfortunate product of a divorce. It was obvious that the previous owner was holding back her tears as we took Gloria from her. We assured her that this Grey landed in the right hands. Gloria is beautifully feathered and is missing a few toes from her days in the nest. She is able to do everything any other parrot can do in the area of mobility and dexterity. She talked on the way home and has not stopped. Although she chatters quite a bit, her speech is not clear so we are slowing ours done when we spaek to her. She is great at mimicking sounds, cough, home alarm system beeps, etc. Her previous owner told us she was not handled much so she's nippy and is capable of inflicting a painful bite and she doesn't step up. But, we are already getting her to take food form us and we were able to scratch her head a bit. So, it will take time and patience. I don't think Gloria has ever had a feather trim but that's not the case any longer. So, we added Gloria to our household of pets, the YN amazon, a wonderful Monk parakeet and two Bullmastiffs who have leraned to not flinch when a parrot lands next to either of them. I was very impressed with the content of this site and the friendliness of the communications so, I decided to sign-up and sign-on. Take care!