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Chikki does this sometimes as well.. But I have not noticed any patterns to it.. But whenever he does it, I show my displeasure by talking to him that it is a sick thing to do.. As he has done it very rarely, I have not had serious concerns.

Thanks for your inputs guys.. I am finding it hard to find the Cockatiel mutation I want if I was picky about it being hand reared. How important is it for cockatiels to be hand reared?. I see a lot more options if I was flexible with going for an aviary bred cockatiel. Is it difficult to tame an aviary bred baby cockatiel?

Thats an important feedback judy.. appreciate the inputs.. I will ensure I give most importance to Chikki, so that he doesnt feel jealous or anything!! I hope he tolerates his companion!!

Thanks for the inputs Judy.. I was doing my Post Graduation and so was a bit busy with that, hardly browsed during the last year. Thankfully have more time at my disposal now. BTW - can you give me a bit more insight into how you got your three birds to co-exist. Chikki is very attached to me, and he has a personality. He chooses his friends, and sometimes he can be aggressive to me - much like other CAGs. And he is free to fly in the house. I am just worried that Chikki might attack his new companion. Did you face something like that. How did you manage such encounters?

All, I have had Chikki (my CAG) for 3.5 years now. While he is doing great, i felt he would need some company during the day as my wife has started to work now. I am thinking of a Cockatiel (not in the same cage). I wanted to go for a Cockatiel as my wife can play with him a bit more freely than she does with Chikki.. I just wanted some inputs from previous multi-bird owners on the dos-and donts. Any pointers to already existing inputs are also welcome. Regards,Arun

this is an invaluable post.. but admins, can we get such posts that people should read even before they buy a bird and make that a forum.. something like THE GREY LOUNGE.. we can call it, FOR PROSPECTIVE PET OWNERS.. this will help because, otherwise people who want to get an AG would just go there and go thro the posts.. now, they would have to search the entire list of forums to find something relevant, or have to create a new post which would probably be history in a few weeks!! thoughts??

Wonderful post.. Now that Chikki has started with his first few words, I would like to talk about him and feel proud as well .. Chikki now says Chikki, Chikki Boy, Chikki Pakki(Pakki is a tamil word for someone who eats a lot of junk, a lot of!!).. and more importantly he says Hello.. though he says Hello in a slightly different voice, that doesnt sound as exciting as the other bits, he does it at the right context.. especially when I am on my phone.. he even says it along with my ringtone, which is awesome.. cant wait to hear him say more contextual phrases/words!!

Jess.. I am in a similar situation.. Chikki will be 1 year old by March 31st.. he has been making different types of sounds for some months now, but no proper words yet.. a couple of days back, my bro claimed that he said a vague HELLO when he was receiving a phone call, but i havent heard him much.. but he does mimic the beep noises on the microwave, heater and all that.. and i have trained him on many tricks which he does to perfection.. so, i am just waiting for the next logical step.. i really would love to see him talk, but that doesnt mean i would love him any less if he chooses not to.. but it would be fun to see him talk .. i am quite anxious as well.. just like you.. fingers crossed

thanks all.. this is my first trip with Chikki and I am really looking fwd to it.. i hope he enjoys the trip with us.. i am very excited about it.. hope things go fine.. will share some snaps and experiences with you!!

Thanks for your inputs.. yep, it is generally his beak that he uses to communicate to me.. be it pooping or any annoyance.. but annoyance notification is a bit harder .. I came home and found him still a bit nippier.. though not painful, its not his usual self.. i put him back in his room and left the room for 2 minutes.. when i went back to his room and picked him, he was fine and has been behaving for about a couple of hours since then.. looks like i was a bit too paranoid here.. i am going to see over the weekend, if he gets back to old ways.. if he doesnt, i will check with the vet on monday.. now he is watching some videos of African greys talking on Youtube!!

thank you very much ecodweb.. i am glad that i asked!!

Greywings.. I am not sure if Chikki is male.. I have got used to calling him a He.. he is 9 months old almost.. everything else about him is normal.. i cant see any difference in his droppings!!

All.. i am going to scotland on a 5 days trip in jan.. not the best time, but i am going along with my friends.. i am taking Chikki with me.. i have informed the train and the accomodation providers about it, and they are ok .. I plan to get the Pak-o-bird carrier for him.. http://www.24parrot.com/Pak-O-Bird-Travel-Cage-Small--Choice-of-2-Colours-P83120a/ I know it will be good for his travel in the train.. and he can stay in there when we are settling down in our cottage.. but will it be ok to take him out in carrier in the cold?? I know the purpose of the pak o bird carrrier is to take him out, but will the carrier be warm enough?? have anyone used it to take your CAGs out when the temperature is between 0 to 10 degrees celcius?? If I cant take him out in that bag, I would very well leave him in the cottage when we roam scotland.. So please let me know!!

All.. I havent been posting very actively here for the last month and a half.. sorry about it.. the last couple of days have been a bit concerning to me.. I got Chikki a t stand and it has kinda become his potty stand.. so if he feels like pooping, he lets me know by either slightly biting my fingers or my ears depending on where he is on me .. i take him there and he happily sits on the t stand and poops.. this has gone well so far.. in the last couple of days he has been a bit weird, he gives me a slight bite(they know the right pressure, which hurts and which dont) to get my attention, and when i take him to his stand he doesnt poop, well sometimes i know before hand that he wants something else, because it would be 2 minutes after his last potty that he bit me.. i am not sure what he wants.. but he is happy to eat when i give him something to eat after the attention grabbing bite.. my wife is at home, and she has just emailed me saying Chikki seems to be eating a lot more today than usual.. i knew he was a lot hungry yesterday when i went home and i fed him a lot last night as well.. is this something to worry about.. does he need a vet visit??.. so far he has been doing fine.. has his toys.. has his noisy time.. has fitted well with the family(no longer attacks my wife or my bros).. gets 4 or 5 hours out of the cage time everyday and more during weekends.. its been perfect so far.. he will be nine months old on the 1st of jan FYI.. or is this just a period of edginess they go thro from time to time??

wow thats cool!! how old is chimay?? i am so excited for you and cant wait for the day when I can post the same about chikki.. god bless chimay!!

Megan.. On top of what the experts have opined, I would like to add something from my personal experience. Chikki used to be aggressive to all except me once he was out of his honeymoon period.. my elder brother really loves him and received a few nasty nips initially when he used to handle chikki.. the same was the case with my younger brother.. I was off to the US for 2 weeks and my brothers took care of chikki.. except for day 1 seems chikki behaves to them very well.. in fact my younger brother managed to bath him when i was away.. and since then his aggression towards both my brothers have come down drastically.. my wife is still in the hitlist though ).. So something that I have inferred from my experience is, if you let your Grey have one on one time with others and you stay away for a day or two, that might help build the bond between your grey and others.. Atleast that worked for me!!

hats off.. i am honored to be a part of the family that loves their pets so much!! if i were god, i would have given Rishi with another 50 years of healthy life just as a complement for his parronts' love towards him.. i hope the real gods feel the same.. my prayers are with you.. admin, i would like to give karma to ramsabi.. do i do it thro some magic click or would the admins do it??

JUst one more thing folks.. I have been checking Chikkis weight for a few days now and find that he only wieghs between 400 to 420 gms. Should that concern me.. He is 6 months old,almost..

I have been having some small cute breakthroughs with Chikki over the past few days.. his food habits are back to good old days and the seeds are purely for training sessions.. today i trained him to turn around, which to my surprise, he learnt in about 3 minutes. i was so glad, and when i put him on his training perch again later, he did a turn to win a treat!! how sweet!! But i had to stop treating him and start adding a cue so that he doesnt do it all the time to get a treat.. another weird/funny thing that happened today.. as some of you might know Chikki has got his own room which is our conservatory.. in summer it is generally bright till about 9 pm.. and now it gets dark at about 7.. i kept the lights on for him today so that he can play around till he felt sleepy.. these days he goes into his cage when he is hungry/sleepy on his own.. but today he continued sitting on play top till about quarter to 10.. and when i tried to put him into the cage, he wasnt very willing, so i didnt force him.. he comes on his perch again.. and then i thought, may be switching off the lights will make him sleepy, and i switched it off.. almost as if it was a reaction he kind of stretched and flapped a couple of times and climbed into his cage through the rope.. and settled in quietly.. i was really amazed.. does he think the bulb to be the sun?? and does switching it off mean its night time for him!! any similar experiences??!! i am really amazed and at times when Chikki shows me signs of brilliance!!

literally in tears hearing the news!! May Macey's soul rest in peace.. i hope you recover from the trauma soon!!

So glad.. thank god!! Btw, after you are settled and once Macey is back, please do share the Vet's findings on the sickness.. thanks..

Macey will soon be alright.. my family will pray for his quick recovery.. i can empathise what you are and the little thing is going through.. god bless Macey..

Leia.. i was in your situation not long ago.. my bird wouldnt eat anything other than seed food.. and i had to buy a big bag of seeds and place it at his vicinity so that he ate atleast that.. i know it hurts when he doesnt eat what you want him to.. the best way is to patiently wean him out of this situation.. 1. Initially give him seeds mixed with healthy food, with seeds being the most part of the food.. its ok if he doesnt have the other foods.. if his beak touches the texture of the other food bits, that more than sufficient for a start.. 2. try having the healthy food bits in front of him and make sure you show enthusiasm when you eat it.. one day or the other his curiosity will get the better of him, and he will soon want to atleast try what you enjoy so much..in that scenario dont give him the food straightaway, but tease him by offering it and the plucking it off his reach and have it in front of him.. 3. After some instances of these acts, you can allow him to taste it.. 4. try this act when you know he is hungry without him having had the seed mix, say in the morning!! i am not sure how much my advise helped.. but these steps have certainly helped me in the last couple of weeks.. dont lose hope.. and be patient.. yours seems to be a bit more intense problem than I had with chikki.. so it might take longer than 2 weeks.. also remember, 7 hours is not a big time in terms of parrots' food cycle.. when the birds are out, they start feeling extremely hungry only after 3 days of no food!!

There is always hope.. i am a newbie to the bird business, but i have known patience to pay off in such situations.. have u tried clicker training?? i know people train really aggressive birds using the technique in no time.. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Bird-Click/ and also try getting Melinda Johnson's book on clicker training.. when you join the group, in one of the folders, you will find a detailed step by step explanation of how one of the forum members trained a very aggressive/nervous bird to accept food and step on to her hand.. it might help you in this scenario.. as to first hand advise, i would let the more experienced people in the forum to help you..!!

This forum offers excellent advise in terms of how to modify your bird's diet.. on such advise i tried is this.. have the food that you want him to eat in front of him.. he will surely get anxious and start trying this.. here is my story which happened over the last couple of weeks.. i had to fly to india on an emergency during which my breeder who looked after chikki got him into seed foods.. and when i brought him home after just a week, he wouldnt have any of the healthy foods he used to.. i tried this method of eating in a plate in front of him, having rice and showing off my enjoyment, eating flakes/veggies/fresh fruits and he would be watching it.. his curiosity got the better of him and he soon wanted to have it.. offer it to him, and when he is about to grab, take it off his reach and eat it yourself.. after a couple of such drama sessions, he will be just ferocious to pounce on it the next time.. slowly, he started having a bite at all these.. and now he eats rice/flakes/harrisons/veggies a lot better than 2 weeks back.. and i have happily shifted his seed diet for just training sessions.. i bathe him everyday in shower.. because chikki was 2.5 months old when i got him it was easy for me to set it as a habit.. with a slightly older bird, you might have to take it a bit slowly.. but it does keep him healthier..