Azzie

I've a 17 month old CAG named Cleo and a German Shepherd, Jinx, who's almost 2. They get along great, and often have supervised play time together. Cleo does not get frightened when the dog barks, but she does occasionally startle when Jinx throws her toys around on the wooden floor. I dare say they are good friends, and Jinx is often found trying to push her toys or stolen socks through the bars of Cleo's cage, with Cleo hanging off the other side trying hard to pull the items in. I had the dog before the parrot came along, and I don't recall any incidents of either one being frightened of eachother, just a lot of curiosity.

Cleo is 17 months and not a big talker. She says hello, occasionally mutters and mumbles, but seems to prefer to whistle Colonel Bogey and mimic my two lorikeets. She might not speak, but she sure knows how to communicate, and it's very clear she understands what is being said. Her behaviour is a dead giveaway if I ask her if she wants some yum yums, come out of the cage, have a shower.

Gave Cleo her first ever cooked chicken bone today, making sure there was a good amount of meat left on it as she loves chicken. Well....the meat got shredded off the bone and dumped on the bottom of the cage, she had no interest in that. But the bone, that was a different matter. She brutally cracked it open (what a terrible sound!!!) and starting lapping up the marrow inside. Her face and beak are a right mess, covered in dark red globs of the stuff, and her eyes are nearly popping out of her head with glee and joy. The dog is hovering nearby, fretting about why the bird gets such a yummy treat and she doesn't. I'm still sitting here shuddering every time Cleo cracks the bone a bit further. What a cannibal, eating her cousins like that!

Just now, Cleo was sitting on her perch and I was standing next to her. She was leaning forward, had her wings out from her body a fair distance and had dropped them. She making making loud throaty "eh eh eh" noises, and regurgitated for me. Now I know the 'gurging is a sign of love and affection, but what about the rest of her body language and her noises? Is that all part and parcel of it?

Bigbird, I am in the end unit of a block of 4 appartments, but the neighbour was out the back of her garden, and the bathrooms are towards the back as well. Elvenking, it took my Cleo about NINE months before she was ok with just sitting under the water. I guess some AGs just take to showering like a duck to err...water. Loupin that's a beautiful photo! Cleo has the same shower perch. She has this habit of trying to peel the suction cups off the wall, with disasterous results. She hasn't learnt that lesson yet though. Veenyx, I've tried the spray bottle on a few occasions, and she tries to run away from it, whilst screaming and squawking. I guess we will just stick to showers.

Cleo has been tolerating showers for some time now. She will walk under the water and let it fall on her, but never opens up her feathers. Until today. I saw her do it, so decided to praise her lots. I've learnt she responds better to excited high pitched squealing, so there I was yodelling up a storm of "Whoooowhee goooood girl, you're allllll wet whoooooo". I didn't realise I was making that much noise until my neighbour came and knocked of my door to see if I was ok. I've had abdominal surgery in recent days, and she was concerned I might have hurt myself, with all the hollering going on :blush:

So Madam Cleo enjoys the occasional leaf of silverbeet to munch on. It must have been a bumper crop this summer, as the leaves I bought were gigantic. So I put a washed massive leaf in her cage, but instead of eating it, Cleo decided to bathe on it. I have read older posts about people trying to get their parrots to bathe or shower, but since Cleo is fine with showering, I never bothered with a leaf. It was quite amusing to watch. I have never seen her puff and raise her feathers up the way she did this time. Unfortunately the leaf was not quite up to Cleo's eager rolling, rubbing, flapping and tramping on, and was soon reduced to a shredded mess. After her "wash", I gave her a small length of sugar cane, her first one ever. After the initial momentary suspicion, she accepted it, and proceeded to rip into it with glee. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she realised it tasted sweet AND she could shred it. The perfect toy if you ask me! I've not heard a peep from her for the last 45 minutes.

As it turns out actually it would be a mobile air conditioning unit, not the type where part of it is installed outside. I think I'll give that part of it a miss, I just don't want to take any chances at all.

Possibly moving to a brand new house later this year, and there's the option to have air conditioning installed. How safe is this for my birds with regards to chemicals used and emitted?

Dan is so right! Today she was saying "doing doing doing" over and over, except it didn't sound like do-ing. It rhymed with the word "boing". She also accidentally said hello today, in the same manly voice.

Thanks for the positive reactions guys! You all manage to make this so much more exciting than what it already is! Any theories on why Cleo decided to use that phrase to start with, as it's not something I use overly much with her. I love you, Pretty girl and Hello are much more used in front of her. The other thing that surprises me a little is that she does not copy any household noises, such as the phone or microwave. She does however have the whole lorikeet noise thing down to a fine art, including the cute little sneezes that sound like "chi chi chi".

Yesterday morning I woke up to a strange sound. I couldn't place it initially, then I realised it was Cleo saying "What ya doing, what ya doing", over and over in a sort of alien type voice. She sounds very manly, with a deep gravelly voice, and of course she wouldn't stop, saying the same thing for about 4 hours. It was fantastic to listening to. Sometimes she forgot half the words and just ended up saying "what what what". She is 2 weeks shy of her first hatch day, and I am much looking forward to many interesting conversations with my girl.

Hi guys, long time no see! I hope you and your fids are all hale and hearty. Anyway thought I'd post an update on Madam Cleo. She's 10 months old now. She's doing a lot of speech practice, and spends hours each day whistling, making all sorts of beeps and boops and some very weird noises. It sounds like she is trying to say "what are you doing", but what comes out is "wawawawa woowin". I find it fantastic to sit here and listen to her though. Cleo is very sweet, still loves the occasional snuggle and totally reverts back to baby mode when we do. Still eating like a pig, and she's very adventurous when it comes to trying out new foods. Her weight is still around 520 grams. She recently discovered that chewing holes in curtains is a lot of fun, and that swinging from them upside down is ever better. She's molting at the moment and is looking a bit disheveled. If she happens to see a down feather floating somewhere, she loses the plot. For some reason Cleo HATES them, and will attack these floating menaces with a lot of screaming.

Almost like you guys are psychic! Got up this morning, checked the cage, and found 2 small red feathers on the bottom of the cage, plus another small amount of grey ones. I think the reason I panicked initially is because Cleo seems to enjoy picking up the moulted feathers to groom and play with them, so when I first saw this small pile of mangled shredded feathers, my first thought was oh please no...she's plucking. But I've watched her like a hawk, and there is no plucking, plus I can see them fall out when she shakes. Thank you all for the reassurances and your own updates on what the babies are doing!

*sniff*...my baby is growing up!

Cheers for that! I just wasn't expecting her to moult at this age, having been informed by our experts here on the forum that it won't happen until around 18 months. It was just an EEEP moment when she shook herself vigorously and 4 grey feathers gently drifted to the ground lol.

Cleo is now just over 9 months old, and appears to be moulting already. She is losing a small number of feathers from her head and neck. She is not plucking them out - I see them fall out when she scratches or shakes herself, and when I am playing with her. I have noticed a large number of pin feathers growing through as well, all around her face, head and neck. Short little spiky ones on her head, around her beak and ears, and large fat ones on her neck. I thought they didn't start their first moult when they were around 18 months old, or might this be something else? She is her usual happy self, playing, eating, destroying and lots of whistling and vocal practice. She does seem a little more itchy than usual, but I would say that is due to the keratin coating of the pin feathers coming off - you can see the flakes on her back after a wee scratch. Any ideas?

I'd like to nominate my dog Jinx actually! She is always coming over to try and play with Cleo, doing that doggy play bow. Cleo is often keen too, trying to grab the dog's nose with her foot, or trying to nip it. Jinx is also very good at offering her toys to the bird so she can play with ( I don't let it happen though, doggy spit!). It is also wonderfully funny to see how they wind each other up when Cleo is in her cage and Jinx is watching her.

All greys are evil, to a certain extent! It comes with having a high level of intelligence, being empathic and knowing JUST how to push their slaves' buttons lol.

Yep Cleo does the exact same things! And the biting of the remaining attached foot worries me too lol, it wouldnt be the first time she's fallen off her perch. And when Cleo is hanging upside down, she yells and screeches lol.

My German shepherd (1 year old) gets on great with my Grey (7 months old). I still supervise them very closely, as the dog does get very excited and could accidentally hurt the bird. They do play together, with the bird trying to grab the dog's nose with her food, and the bird teases the dog when she is in her cage and knows the dog can't get to her. Like Dan said though, when the bird flies and flaps, the dog instinctively jumps up at the bird, except when birdie decides to annoy the dog by dive bombing hahah.

I got Cleo at 3 months, and she was pretty clumsy for the first few weeks. She was fully flighted, but her landings weren't so hot. I thought I was doing the right thing by keeping her in a much smaller cage for a day, to let her get used to things. Once I put her into her massive cage she was much less clumsy, and I noticed she was using her wings to steady and balance herself. She wasn't able to spread her wings in the small cage, so I think that might have had a lot to do with it. Cleo still does occasionally fall off her perch, when she's playing rough with her toys, but she seems to prevents heavy falls by flapping her wings. Still, scares the hell out of me, all that yelling and screaming and flapping.

Cleo started regurgitating around 6 months old as well. She still does it every time we have a rough play session. She will stop mid-play, have an up chuck, swallow it back down whilst smacking her beak (as though it is very tasty!), and carry on playing.

Greystar, Cleo does come to the side of the cage when I'm near. She does this also when I'm not paying attention to her, but for example when I am cleaning or cooking. She just likes to see what is going on. Greys are very social creatures and love being involved in daily household routines. Cleo will also go to a certain side of the cage if the dog is sniffing around there, or my lorikeets are nearby. Coming to the side of the cage can mean different things. Curiosity, as mentioned above is one. She also has a little solid platform attached in a corner of the cage, and she likes to sit there and chill. When she really wants out badly, she will hang from the cage door and holler at me. Cleo does whistle, chirp, cheep, quack and cluck. Although Cleo and Star are similar in age, you've only had your baby for just over a week, so he might not be totally comfortable yet whistling and making other noises. The fact he does acknowledge you with sound is a great start. As far as Cleo playing with me (as opposed to toys), that only happened about 2 months ago. All that time I spent with her beforehand was all just building trust. Admittedly during that time I did wonder if Cleo and I would ever be friends, as she appeared rather aloof and standoffish. As it turned out, she was just being cautious. Greys are naturally cautious birds, and it can take months before you completely win their trust, but once you do, you have a friend for life. For now, I'd suggest just taking it easy with Star. Go at his pace, he will let you know when he is ready for more hands on stuff or different types of interactions. Hand feeding him little treats is good, it shows him that hands aren't something to be afraid of, plus it lays the ground work for teaching him to step up and step down. Feel free to whistle to him, you will know when he is listening to you - he will cock his head sideways and look at you. Eventually, I have no doubt he will imitate whatever you whistle. Cleo is learning the Colonel Bogey march at the moment. She can get the first few bars right, then just makes up her own ended, which is usually a very exaggerated wolf whistle.

Uncooked corn on the cob, grapes, toast, crackers, scrambled egg will make Cleo fall off her perch with delight. She turns her beak up at any sort of nut.