chimaysmommy

I would definately get him to a vet just as a precaution....When we were doing our research before Chimay came home to us, I had read a thread here where a grey was plucking, no one could figure out why, and in the end it turned out to be an ear infection. If the vet can rule out any physical reasons for the plucking, then it's psychological. In the meantime though I definately agree with the others in that you should not acknowledge the behavior...fussing over the plucking might encourage him. Keep us posted!

Thanks for all the positive comments guys!!! I just LOVE this forum and EVERYONE in it!

That is FANTASTIC NEWS!!!! I was reading through this thread tearing up, heart breaking over the little guy's disappearance, then read the post where you found him and let out a squeal!!! My co-workers think I'm crazy...ha ha!! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: Please post pics!!!

TOO CUTE!!!! I was just talking with someone here at work yesterday about a clutch of baby robins that her dad found abandoned in their backyard. She was trying to help him with figuring out what to do to help them and I found this website I thought users here might find helpful if this ever happened to them too: http://www.messingerwoods.org/babybirds.htm

Wow I think you might be right...I never considered jealousy before!

Ha ha! She's best friends with my current boss so I try to keep a low profile.

So my former manager at my job is really getting to me...she's a big time bird-watcher, and loves birds of all kinds. Ever since the first time I told her that we were getting a CAG, she has been SUCH a Negative Nancy about it!!!! Always the skeptic, telling me that it's too much work for us to handle, that we'll want to throw in the towel eventually, and that Chimay is going to be a huge handful of behavior problems. UGH!!! We're at work, and I'm trying to stay professional and just not let it get to me, but WHY would a person make those kind of assumptions? She knows nothing about me...just feels a little like an insult. Like she's judging my abilities as a parrot parent :angry: Fortunately she isn't my manager anymore, and she doesn't work in this department so I don't have to see her all of the time. I know her opinion shouldn't matter, and it doesn't...but hearing it all of the time from the same person just gets under my skin. Okay I'm done!! :laugh: I feel better....Thanks to all who read/listened!

I remember when we had a TAG while I was in high school, she would stick her little butt out and poop at a straight-to-the-floor angle. Not so much with Chimay....he lets go at like a frontwards angle. About two weeks after he came home, he let loose one of his enormous "morning deuces" off from the side of his playtop and all with one shot he nailed his piggy-pinata, perch, cage bars of course, and his food dish. He is a talented boy to be sure. To add insult to injury there was a little bit of splatter (:sick: ) at the end which got on the walls a little.<br><br>Post edited by: chimaysmommy, at: 2009/05/11 23:12

Aw!!! That's so cute...Our Chimay just learned how to whistle as well. He's almost got the "wolf whistle" down, but just making a whistling noise in general is his new favorite thing to do.

Chimay is out of his cage just about all of the time that my boyfriend and/or I are home...He's out of his cage from about 7:00am when I get up to get ready for work till 11:00am when my boyfriend leaves for work. Depending on my schedule, he comes back out of the cage at either 6:00 or 7:30 until bedtime at 9:30. So all in all, between 6 and 7 hours total on the weekdays. He's out a lot on the weekends. He gets at MINIMUM one session of one-on-one time per day during the week, and sometimes 2 or more on the weekends. Then of course there's the produce shopping, toy shopping and the ever-wonderful poop patrol. Ha ha. Thankfully we did plenty of research before deciding on a grey, and had a pretty good idea of what we were in for when we got him.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! How exciting! Keep us posted with his progress in learning even more!

Yippeeeeeeee!!!! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: Pictures pictures pictures!!!

Oh I can't wait I can post something to this thread!! Chimay has JUST recently picked up a talent for whistling, and he still makes low garbled noises when he's "practicing" his human-talk. He's about 5 months old so I think we've got some time to wait yet. I'm excited to read others' convos with their greys! Keep em coming!

I would be a little leary of catching bugs outside....you never know what sort of pesticides, chemicals, nasties they've come into contact with and could get into your grey's system. If you really really want to try the bug route, be safe and go to a pet store where they sell crickets/mealworms/etc. fit for animal consumption.

Received this response from Joe at www.birdsafestore.com: Cindy, Yes they are made by the same company -- but no conclusive tests were done on the pinata or the bird in question. I regularly give those pinatas to my own birds without problem. This is another unproven case of hysteria that is going around the internet. Unless conclusive tests are done, nobody can know what is going on. Joe

I'm training Chimay to accept the Aviator harness right now...Working with him on the collar first with one wing in. I've found that my bird will do ANYTHING for a pine nut. We've gotten him to the point where I just hold the harness up with a pine nut and say "put your harness on" and he stretches his little turkey neck out and lets me slip it on.

Chimay came to us with a "partial" clip from our breeder, which is fine by me because his primary flight feathers are still quite long and he is very very able to glide safely to where ever he wants to go in our apartment. That being said we do plan to allow his feathers to grow out and not clip them. My primary thoughts on it prior to reading any of the posts on this forum were a) Safety--as previously stated here, I feel that if Chimay ever escaped somehow I would feel much better knowing that he has the capacity to escape a predator or other dangerous situation. Also, he would be better equipped to find his way home. b) Confidence--I want Chimay to be a confident happy grey for as long as he's with us, and I don't believe that clipping could be good for his psyche. c) Fun!! I really believe that with the progress that Chimay has made with getting acquainted with his harness that we're in store for a lot of fun in the sun, and I want him to be able to experience flight...he is a bird after all

You're welcome! Be sure to let us know if the gruff garble forms any first words!

Well we've made some progress! I decided to use the same approach and take a couple steps back and just work on getting him to accept putting his head in the harness. We worked up to having him put his head in then I hold it in place for a count of 3. We'll probably keep up the same pace for a while longer, maybe next week try getting a wing in. The good thing is that even since the frustrating experience of trying to put the harness on right away didn't traumatize him. We do a little exercise each day, where he "acknowledges" different items. I'll hold up his wiffle ball and say "what's this?" When he beaks it, I say "my ball" and give him a treat. We do the same recognition-type activity with his harness, and he still beaks the harness when it's presented. So he's not afraid of it....yet. Ha ha

I don't know if you can ever really know without having the DNA sexing test done. We were not going to do the test with Chimay, but our vet explained that aside from the benefit of just "knowing," we will be able to better identify gender-specific health and behavior issues (i.e. aggression, egg binding). My suggestion is not to guess and have the test done to know for sure if you can.

Poor Ecko! Chimay gets frustrated as well when he's inside of his cage while we're home. He doesn't bite the cage bars or anything, but he will put his head down in the corner and kick his leg back like a bull charging the cage wall. I would like to assume that Ecko wouldn't be able/willing to bite the cage bars so hard that he hurts himself but I don't know that for a fact. Hopefully someone with a little more experience with a cage-hating birdie will have more advice. Sorry

Oh my gosh...that's awful! I hope that poor birdie gets well soon. For anyone who purchases from www.birdsafestore.com, I have emailed them to ask where their pinatas are manufactured as I recently purchased a frog pinata from them that I haven't given to Chimay yet. I'll post their response to this thread when I get it.

How old is he? Our Chimay is about 5 months old, and trying to talk...when he starts trying out his human-talk, his voice drops and gets raspy and kind of gruff. It's a dramatic difference in tone and volume to his typical birdie chatter. If he's young and just trying out his hand at imitating you, that might be the reason for the change in voice

Greetings! I've only had our grey for about a month or so, but I'll do my best with your questions and hopefully more will respond with reinforcements or other ideas. Have you tried talking to him when you're in the room? Not the typical "good boy" "pretty bird" two-word phrases, but conversational stuff? I feel so silly when I do it, but when I get home I ask Chimay how his day was and start "thinking" out loud about my day. I know he has no idea what I'm saying but it seems to encourage chatter out of him. Do all of his feathers quiver, or just the belly-feathers? If it's just the belly feathers then (from what I understand) it's a sign of happiness and contentment

Aw!!! Your poor scalps! I've been fortunate to have never had a birdie land on my head, but my breeder said that when Chimay and his clutch-mates were fledging she had several head-landings a day. Best get a baseball cap! Maybe they won't like the look of the cap and start aiming for a new landing place. I know my mom's cat HATES baseball caps and will avoid anyone wearing one...even her!