Palomitablanca

Thank you for all your support & advice.. :cheer: !! I was chatting & singing to Lola through her cage bars this morning she started to lower her head for me to tickle the back of her neck. I was actually touching her with my finger then when she raised her head I let her play with my finger with her tongue & beak!!... She was ever so gentle, no gripping on at all. Think I might have overcome my :silly: fear of her beak now.. Next stage is to see how I manage to get her out of the cage without hubby's help.. tomorrow!

Hi Casper Thank you for your really quick reply. I'm still giving Lola little treats through her cage bars & when hubby is here & Lola's having her playtimes out of the cage on her playstand or my comp desk. She's not clipped as we decided we wanted her to retain her flight ability - as have all my birds - & just occasionally she chooses to land on my head which I don't object to at all. She even flew onto my outstretched arm the other day while I was Almost 100% good with that until she decided to have a taste of my bare arm. By no means a bite just a little peck of my skin. At that stage my tummy did a somersault & I quickly asked hubby to tell her to step up on to his hand. So I guess the problems with me! As you mention Lola does instinctively realise when she's out of her cage that I'm just a tiny bit nervous. It may stem from the fact that our female kak, Milly, had behavioral probs when we inherited her. She'd get herself into all kinds of panics, precarious situations (claws firmaly stuck in the hi fi speaker mesh, wedge herself into the tiniest gap behind a cabinet) In the early days she'd give me some pretty painful bites while I was rescuing her.:pinch: :blink: :woohoo: Even though I'd stay calm & gentle with her.. LOL! So I'm probably imagining how much worse a few bites from a bigger beaked AG would feel! Ha ha! One of the reasons hubby decided on an AG, other than he'd wanted one for years, was to keep me company as I have a mild form of agoraphopia & as I love birds Steve rightly thought that an AG would be good for me & vice-versa for the bird. She'll hardly ever be without compay & I work from home. In the coming months, or as soon as I can handle her outside her cage I do want to start some 30 to 40 min daily morning training with her. She's pretty good with step-up with Steve already but at approx what age is best to start training an AG? Also what is a good, safe age to introduce her to a pellet diet, besides continuing with her daily fruit & veg we'd like to get her off the commercial nuts & seeds mixes? A big thank you & am loving the Grey forum:)

Lola our AG is almost 8 months old & I am now her main time keeper & I love her company. My hubby got her at back in September whilst working away from home. She adores him & the bonding is very obvious. Now we're all back together as a family when his work contract ended. Although I'm used to parakeets, have owned kakarikis for 5 years this is my first experiences with an AG. I do love her to bits but do confess to being a little nervous of her beak!! It's a lot bigger than my little kakarikis beaks! And so far she's not even attempted to bite hubby or me. Initially, although she was very happy to take a peanut treat from me I felt she was very aware of my "nervousness" & understand this in turn probably made her "cautious" of me. But little by little I'm beginning to feel more confident & at ease with her & I think her with me too as she's living in my large home office - as does my male kakariki - separate cages. So Lola, Arnie & me happily share our communal space. I have lots of chats & whistle songsw with her. She's already saying hello & how you doing & can whistle the Laurel & Hardy tune almost perfectly, wolf whistles, etc. So nearly all is well. Arnie & Lola are fine with each other. Separate cages. Separate flight times out. The problem is I'm frightened to handle her when she's out of her cage & I won't let her out unless my hubby's in the office.. My hubby really tries to make me feel confident but I suspect it's just a case of taking it a stage at a time until I feel confident. If anyone has any tips to help me over my silly nervousness I'd really appreciate it. ..... As I'm typing this she's singing her head off from her cage just 6 feet away from me.. It would be lovely if I had the confidence to open that cage door & get her out onto her playstand which she really loves.:laugh:

Hi again all. We've had a very busy two weeks with moving house so our apologies for the delay in saying a big thank you to all of you for your replies. Will be posting again soon. Very Best Wishes, Pam & Steve x

Yes, Lola our grey is a big strong giant already compared to Arnie our kak. We'll be carefully watching when Arnie is out for his flight playtime as he's very inquisitive & may land on Lola's cage to investigate even though he's super-speedy his size puts him to disadvantage. We won't be letting them out at the same time. If Lola lands on Arnie's cage whilst he's in residence he may get quite a shock! Fingers crossed that they enjoy each others company across the room in their separate cages. If they don't cohabit well we'll put them into separate rooms but we're hoping that they will accept each other & at least enjoy the pressence of a feathered friend... Time will tell!

Hi everyone - many thanks for your lovely welcoming messages - we got lola at 14 wks old and she has just celebrated her first 1/2 year birthday..lol we look forward to updating you as lola grows - After many hrs of talking with her...she has finally replied quite clearly her first "hello"! so we are thinking of renaming her Lola Lionel Ritchie..lol - best wishes to all & speak again soon..Steve:silly:

Hi, Does anyone have any information on how Kakarikis & Greys mix when sharing the same room? Both birds have their own separate cage by the way. Arnie is a 3 year old male Kakariki & Lola is a 6 month old female African Grey. Arnie's already established with us & Lola will be the new addition.

Hi Judygram Thank you for your lovely welcome. Yes, Lola's a young lady & was 6 months old yesterday on 14th January. Steve (my hubby) got her back in late September from a well respected, known breeder in the North East of England. Steve & I have had separate homes owing to his working commitments over the past few months but he's returning home in a couple of weeks with Lola. She's definitely bonded with him & I've had several occasions with her & am hoping she'll be as confident with me as she already is with Steve. We already have a little 3 year old male Kakariki parakeet, Arnie. We're hoping that Lola & Arnie will like each other even though they're very different in size, nature & character. Obviously they've got separate cages & I'll be giving them separate flight times out until I discover how they interact with each other. If anyone has previous experience of Greys & Kaks sharing the same room I'd be really interested to hear how they get along? Have been doing some more reading on the Grey Forum site & it's absolutely brilliant. Thank you for all being here. x

Hi everyone! We've joined the site today & think it's great. This is the first time we've been keepers of an African Grey so we'll be looking in just about every day for tips & advice on our gorgeous 6 month old Lola. See you all soon. Pami, Steve & Lola. x