shazia

Hi Me and my husband tried spraying mist over Mika 2 days ago, while he was in the cage. How hot or cold should the water be? Also how much should we spray him, should he be fairly wet or drenched? Mika did not like the mist spray and became fairly angry afterwards gave my hubby a nasty bite, but was okay a few mins later once we had stopped. I was thinking of getting my hubby to spray him 2-3 times a week, is this a good idea. Also after the spraying giving Mika a treat so he gets used to it. Is there anything else we can do so he does not get upset when we spray him? Thanks

Thanks for all the advice. What are pinning feathers, and where are they normally. I was stroking his head gently this morning and have noticed that whenever we stroke him he finishes off with scratching himself. I also noticed that his scalp is light pink and whitish dry (is that normal). I was pushing some of the feathers apart to look at his scalp in more detail, he has some feathers which look like grey nettles, are these just new feathers. Thanks

Hi I don’t think the poop smells. We change the bottom of the cage everyday and clean it thoroughly. I have noticed the small comes form Mika when he is licking himself (preening) and shakes around to let stuff off him (not sure what the term for that is). He does scratch quite a bit and preen himself all the time. Is this a bad thing? I think he is healthy since we only give him veggies, seeds and parrot mix and water. He will get the oven baked chips sometimes or toasted chapatti which he loves, but his diet is really good. Please advise further if you feel we are doing something wrong. Thanks Shazia

Smell Issue – Happens every so often. I don’t think Mika is ill (he not a she by the way). My husband thinks I can smell everything due to my heightened sense of smell during pregnancy, but I do not think that is the case. Do African greys or their cages smell normally? If so what type of smell would you attribute it to? Biting issue – Mika was fine with me up to about 1month ago. What are pin feathers? Mika normally bites me when I am stroking him. It is odd since he will put down his head for a stroke and the sometimes lash out at you. Other times he is fine. But sometimes when I want to stroke him he will fluff up into attack mode meaning do not come near me or I will bite, I tend to then stay away from him. Yesterday I was stroking him while he was perched at the top on my door and then all of a sudden he bit my finger. I pulled away and there was some blood. I am not sure if he was trying to bite or just beak and I got scared. I find it so difficult to understand the difference. My husband yelled at him and closed the door, on him and we ignored him for a good 20 minutes. We felt so bad doing that, but hubby says we have to in order to train him. Also recently over last few weeks he has started pecking/beaking harder at my husbands fingers and ears. My hubby normally yells at him and says NO, which stops Mika. He is closer to my hubby so maybe that is why he listens to him. We got an African Grey thinking he would be tamer and gentler that other parrots, especially since our baby is due in a few months. Do you think Mika will be a danger to our baby. What precautions would you advise us to take. Thanks Shazia

Hi All Mika is now approx 8 months old. Recently he has started to bite both me and my hubby (more so myself). The odd thing is that he allows for me to give him food and stroke him as well. But sometimes he will go into an attack mode and try to bite at my fingers. My hubby did not believe it at first until Mika went for him just recently. Hubby now raises voice and tells him to stop, or walks out the room which normally calms him down. I am not sure why Mika has started doing this, and what we can do to stop him from this behaviour. Especially with a new baby coming etc I do not want any bite type of issues and want to resolve them as soon as possible before the problem becomes permanent. Any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks Shazia

Hi All Does anyone have/had the following problems with their Greys? 1. I have never taken Mika into the shower to give him a bath. He usually washes himself in the cage once every 2-3 weeks, I think. I tried squirting him with a water bottle once but since it was more of a squirt than a fine mist Mika did not like it and started flying each time I hit him with some water. Is it better to hit Mika with a fine mist type of water spray? Does anyone shower their African Greys. I do not want to scare him, and not really sure what to do. 2. Does your Grey smell. I am not sure if it is Mika, the food or the poop. But sometimes his cage/ or he starts to smell really horrible. It’s not my pregnancy since my sister has smelled it too. Does anyone know why this is. Also what is the best type of air freshener that is safe one can use. Something that I can use in the apartment? 3. Can I use air fresheners, plug ins etc in other parts of my apartment other than the living room where Mika is situated? Thanks Shazia

Hi All I need some advice. My Grey ‘Mika’ is about 8 months old at the moment, so still fairly young. We have placed him in our living room, since this is the most used room in our 2 bedroom apartment. Currently the living room is fully carpeted with a thick rug, the issue is that Mika seems to like pooing and a lot of the time it will go onto the carpet, so we have to keep cleaning carpet. I have a new baby on the way and was wondering if by fitting in laminated flooring to ease the cleaning process and adequately disinfect. Can anyone share their views: Do you prefer having your African Grey on a hard floor rather than carpeted? Will it get too cold in the winter if I get hard floor fitted in? Thanks Shazia

Hello All I am not sure if you remember me hence the reason I am replying to a post I posted in February. You will all be pleased to know that I waited out my first three months of pregnancy. I am now 6 months pregnant and I love my African Grey loads and loads, and I could never imagine life without him (even though he is a naughty ). He is part of our family and settled in well. He has said his first few words: Peek a Boo, Hello, Mika, What you doing…. the list is fast growing. I am so grateful to have him in our life I love him a lot and cannot wait to introduce our baby to him vey soon with God’s will. I want to thank you all for your advice. I will post picture of him soon. My adorable lovable Mika!  Shazia x

Hi Firstly I would like to thank everyone for replying and for thier advice. Please do not get me wrong we give Mika alot of attention. When my husband gets back from work he spends atleast 2 hours with him. Currently he is doing everything with cleaning etc. I just give Mika food in the morning so that he knows that I am hear and bonds with me abit. I think i am going to try and gte over my 1st trimester and see how it goes. Just being stressed out like this is not good for any of us especially the baby. My husband is being really caring and trying to provide us all with the due attention and care we need. I know he so wants to keep Mika. a few questions I do have are: 1. If we do decide to rehome him, how long should we leave it before we decide this? I mean will the bird not adjust after a certain number of months around one family? 2. If Mika is toilet trained to poop in his cage, will he then never poop outside? Currently Mika has the freedom to fly around our living room. He does not poop while flying. Only when he crash lands out of nervousness, or when he is in his cage. Its the poop in the cage which is making me sick, and probably due to my pregnancy i guess. I do not know if i will feel like this after preganancy since I have nothing to compare it to. I found out i was pregnant the day we got Mika. If God wills all will be okay for all of us. Again Thank you all for your caring responses.

Dave007 - Thank you for your response. I feel like if I ask my hsuband to move Mika to his parents again or re-home him, he will hate me forever. I don't want to do this. Don't get me wrong I do like Mika (honest). I am just really paranoid and hate the mess. Will this ever change? Get better? Did anyone else go though anything similar and overcome it?

Hi Sallas, Yes my husband takes care of the mess himself. I give him a hand sometimes, cos I just dont think he cleans things the way I would normally do it. I did not realise the amount of mess that Mika or any CAG would do before we got him. I am just really paranoid all the time about the mess. I don't feel like eating around him. Always washing my hands after I touch him and getting my husband to do the same. Washing my clothes etc. I feel so bad for feeling like this. My husband says that once Mika mature in a years time and as time goes on he will learn, and there will be more benefits. He will poop at the bottom of cage and not make a mess etc. He will be more intelligent. But I am still paranoid about the poop, and for our baby that is coming. I feel like if I ask my hsuband to move Mika to his parents again or re-home him, he will hate me forever. I don't want to do this.

Hi MistyParrot - Thank you for you advice. I do not think my husband will be willing to move Mika. I did mention to him to move him to his mum and dads house for a few months. Maybe its the first few months of pregnancy that are really not helping. Don't get me wrong MIka is being cared for. I change his food and water every morning and give it a stroke. My husband does the rest. It's just that sometimes I really don't want to be around him. I know he will sense this. I feel bad for feeling like this, and I am really trying to change but nothing seems to help. I am wondering if there are other women who have been pregnant and how they found it.

Hi I am going to cut to the chase because I really need some advice. I am about 8-9 weeks pregnant and my husband I just got an African Grey about 1 month ago. I am finding it really hard to bond with it, and don’t want to be around it since I am not used to be around animals. On the other hand my husband is an avid animal lover and has kept many different pets in the past. In the beginning I was all excited about getting our African Grey Mika. Now I feel sick around it. We have placed him and the cage in the living room. I feel sick looking at the poo, or when he does poo out side the cage sometimes. Although my husband is doing everything so that I don’t have to clean it up. I still feel ill whenever I am near Mika. Now I try to spend as much time as possible away from the living room. I do not want to interact with him due to the fear I may pass something onto the unborn child. I have fear of how we will adjust with a new baby and parrot in the same apartment. We live in a 2 bedroom apartment, and everything seems so small. I am a clean freak, and having a cage with poop in the living room just makes me sick. I am sorry I do not want to complain, I really want to bond with Mika and not think like this. But I just cannot help it. Can someone please please give me some advice. This is really depressing me. Thanks