Ophee

I've only minor experience dealing with a Grey but based on experience with a few other breeds just introduce them slowly. If you are at all unsure of how they will get along never allow both birds to sit on your shoulders at the same time. Never introduce them around or on the cages, they can be very possessive of the cages. I had my 7 year old Grey for about 6 months when my girl got a Sun Conure who is about 10 months old. We started out holding them in the same room and after a few weeks I held both of them on either hand and very slowly brought them within reach of eachother but ready to separate them instantly. I repeated this several times a day over a period of 2 weeks until I was sure the grey wouldn't hurt the Conure nor the Conure provoke the Grey. I still don't allow them to play on the same surface but given that my Grey was abused I'm not willing to risk her accidentally or purposfuly injuring or killing the Conure. Knowing your bird's personality will help a lot in determining how he/she may or may not react. Better safe than sorry though! Animal/Animal interactions can't be safely determined via Animal/Human interaction. Good luck!

Well just received my first real bite... Am I one of the elite now? :woohoo: I was sitting on the back porch drinking my coffee with Weasel in my lap getting her head scratches... Our usual morning routine. Out of the blue Weasel grabs my hand with her feet and proceeds to wrap herself around my hand in a very cat-like manner and lays into the back of my hand rather vigorously - OUCH! I then spill my coffee (freshly poured I might add) right on my groin... I think most men here can easily imagine the string of words that followed. I then told Weasel "No!" to no avail so I firmly took hold of Weasels head and gently pulled telling her "No" once more. This only made her bite me again this time completely hooking her bill under my skin and pulling. Well I'd had quite enough so I shook her off my hand, picked her up told her "No bite!" and put her in her cage. She of course immediately begins cooing and keening begging to be let out. Needless to say, she's still in her cage as I type this! Hopefully this is just temporary and related to it being spring. She's never been a nippy bird, she will gently grab a finger to let me know when she doesn't like something but in the past 2 days she has become a little bit nippy and today was the first time she's actually bitten me.

Someone actually made something called Poopoff? I got quite the chuckle out of that :laugh:

judygram wrote: Weasel is her original name, she was old enough and in pretty bad shape so I felt it would just further complicate her recovery to introduce a name change.

Thank you for the input, one more question, Weasel will sometimes make a loud "rasping" sound that lasts for about 5-6 seconds, seemingly at random though never when I'm holding her. My first thought was that she wanted attention but usually she will use the phrase "come on" when she wants to be picked up. Come on is the phrase I trained her to step onto my hand with. Any ideas on what this loud rasp is attempting to communicate? Oh and in case sex has any bearing, she IS female determined via DNA sexing.

So glad to have found this forum, I've been a bird lover for many years and after wanting to own a Grey for many many years I was offered a rescue through a friend who is a breeder. Weasel came to me from a New York all the way to Oregon about 8 months ago, she was returned to a breeder by a gentleman whos wife apparently was jealous of the attention Weasel required and tormented Weasel until Weasel had plucked a good portion of her wings, her entire belly and neck down to bare skin. After being told of Weasel's condition I knew she would be a challenge and a huge commitment if she were to be saved from the destructive behavior. After nearly a year Weasel has ceased the majority of her plucking but unfortunately it seems she did it for long enough that nothing but down will grow on her stomach and even then she still has a bare patch of skin completely devoid of down or feathers. She was rather timid when I first got her but luckily she seemed to take a liking to me from the start and within a month had staked her claim on me. Within 3 months she scared the hell out of me one morning as I was leaving for work but saying "buh-bye!" in a distinctly female voice (She had not spoken until this point). To this day she still does not choose to speak often nor does she have an extensive vocabulary as she seems to prefer a wide variety of "sound effects" which is in and of itself rather amusing as her favorite noise is a burp.

First, I'm glad to have found this forum! A little information on my Grey Weasel (She pops at the appropriate spot when you sing Pop Goes the Weasel) She is 7 and her diet consists of Zupreme's fruit pellets, fresh fruit, fresh veggies and mixed nuts. She is a rather picky eater and I've had some trouble getting her to eat anything but the pellets which I know are not enough but unfortunately that type of food was all the previous owner fed her and she's reluctant to eat much else with the exception of a few treats I allow her such as chicken (I was rather shocked the first time she snagged a piece from me!) specially prepared for her without seasonings or salt. It was about 8 months ago I took on Weasel who was formerly abused by the previous owners wife and daughters. She HATES women, when my girlfriend gets anywhere near her (or any female for that matter) she narrows her eyes to mere slits and hunkers down. She will also do this if I hug or in any way make physical contact with my lady. This behavior has only gotten worse with time as she has pretty much decided I'm her mate (nibbling, cooing, attempts to feed me etc.). We have tried working with her but after a few nasty bites (She will even actively pursue my lady if I put her on the floor) we have settled at a point where she is willing to be hand fed by my lady but that is as far as we can seem to get. Any suggestions on how to approach this problem? The plucking isn't as aggressive as it was when I got her, she was bare skin from the neck down, but she still won't let more than a few feathers and down grow on her belly. I haven't witnessed any plucking in my presence nor has my lady but every now and again I find a feather that has a "notch" where she pulled on it but only wound up getting part of the feather so I assume she is still plucking though I think part of it is also that some of those feathers will simply never regrow as she essentially killed them with repeated plucking. She receives a good amount of attention and spends a lot of her time sitting on me and playing with me so I'm at a bit of a loss on how to discourage the plucking that continues no matter how minor it may be. Any advice would be appreciated.