Azzie

It takes time and patience to win the trust of a grey, and three days is VERY early in the piece. This girl has had some recent major upheaval in her life, so is probably feeling insecure and uncertain (new people, new environment) Distance yourself from her a little physically, don't try to get her to step on your hand. Talk to her quietly from a distance she appears comfortable with, pull up a chair and read to her. Talk to her in a quiet soothing voice, tell her she's a good girl, that it's ok. Continue being nice, but take it at her pace, not yours. This can be frustrating, especially if you want to cuddle and play with your bird, but if you want to succeed and form a bond, you have to step into her world. The biting is her trying to tell you she doesn't like what is happening at the moment. Parrots speak in parrot language, which is simply body language, and you will have to learn to speak that too. A week probably isn't long enough anyway to get a feel for whether you are compatible with the bird.

http://www.birdyboredombusters.com/boings.html These are boings. Mine hangs in the living room for Cleo to play with when she is out, and she goes crazy over it.

That is one heck of an awesome cage and set up! No wonder she is so happy and doing so well!

How do you make or get alkaline water? About the only thing I can think of is to add sodium bicarbonate, but that would taste foul and might mess up a bird's internal acid base balance.

Just make absolutely sure the toys are safe. Most toys have a warning on them that they are to be used under supervision, and with good reason. Nails and feet can easily get caught or tangled in seemingly harmless toys. I learnt that the hard way with one of my lorikeets, whom I found hanging upside down one day, with her toe tangled in a piece of thread from a toy. Blood everywhere, little birdie in shock. Mad dash to the vet, who glued the wound and gave her fluids. She survived, but the rear toe turned black and fell off.

Oh that's brilliant Dave, thank you very much! I actually had no idea a crop could get so big, and sat so low down. For some reason I thought it was closer to underneath the beak. Thank you!

Sandblasting I think would be the easiest and quickest way to get rid of old chipped coatings and rust, but I don't know about the cost. I've had a quick look at prices, but there's not a lot. I found this, a British site: http://www.triple-s.co.uk/prices.htm and this: http://www.absolutepowdercoating.com/price-misc.html Hopefully it will give you some idea as to whether the cost is worth it.

I wonder if someone is please able to post a picture that clearly shows the crop of a grey. I've been reading a bit about PDD, and I admit I haven't a clue how and where to feel for the crop. I tried searching on google, but was confronted with gruesome necropsy pics, so I am not going there again. I basically would like to know how to locate the crop, how to palpate it, and what a normal healthy full crop looks and feels like.

Hope this is of help: http://www.landofvos.com/articles/kitchenxv.html http://www.landofvos.com/articles/kitchen.html http://birds.about.com/b/2008/05/05/growing-herbs-for-your-bird.htm http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww24eii.htm You are not wrong with it being difficult to find info on this. I googled "parrots herbs spices safe", and it mostly came up with ways to roast a turkey.

I'm in tears right now. I am so sorry for the loss of your beautiful baby. Bless you for your strength and willingness to fight alongside with your birds. I always looked forward to a positive update on how Kopi was doing, and it always lifted my spirits, for he was a part of our little family here. You will be in my prayers, and I hope you will find comfort in knowing that your fids were so well loved and had nothing but the best.

I agree with Dave. Why remove these babies from their parents when you are not sure at all what you are doing with regards to hand rearing them? Hand rearing birds is not something to be taken lightly, as small mistakes can kill a bird quickly, so it's not something for a novice in my opinion. Dave, once baby birds have been removed from parents, is it possible to return them to the nest to get the parents to take over again, or will they be rejected?

Birdpoop is very deadly, if it comes in huge amounts and dropped from a great height.

Whilst on the topic of vets and drawing blood, how and where do they get blood from a grey? It's not as if veins are readily visible or accessible.

Can't you use some putty to mold into the damaged area?

Naahhhh not bad bird. It's what parrots do, they chew and destroy stuff. Maybe don't let him out on his own next time lol. At least it was only a cupboard, and not an electrical wire.

My Cleo does it all the time, especially when I am calling out to her. To me it seems it's almost an acknowledgement, "I hear you". One thing to keep an eye out for is an ear infection. The ear hole has slightly different feathers covering it, but they should be the same colour as the rest of the bird, not stained or brown coloured, as this can indicate a discharge. Also when snuggling your bird, or if she sits on your shoulder, give her earhole a quick sniff lol. There should not be any odour, except for maybe her typical sweet warm birdie smell.

After the threads in the food room about raw pumpkin and seeds, I gave Cleo some raw seeds for the first time today. She straight away set to opening it up to get to the kernel inside. It made me wonder how she knew what to do with it. Heck I didn't have a clue that the inside actually contained the green seed thing that you buy in supermarkets, so how did she figure that out??

Poshey, here's some sites that might answer parts of your question: http://www.petalia.com.au/templates/storytemplate_process.cfm?story_no=351 http://www.robharvey.com/information/hand-rearing.html http://www.hilltopanimalhospital.com/hand%20raising%20birds.htm

You're not crazy. You are perfectly normal in the world of african grey owners. Lovely video!!

Blood loss leads to a condition called hypovolemia, which is a decrease in circulating blood. In an acute emergency, a vet can inject fluids under the skin of a bird, to quickly increase the fluid volume in the bird's system. This case does not appear to be acute, since you've had him home for a few days. I would suggest keeping your bird warm and calm, as he may be in hypovolemic shock and in pain, and encourage fluids by offering him any fluids that he really likes (some kind of juice maybe.) You could also use a syringe to drip small amounts of fluid into his beak on a regular basis, but I dare say he won't like that much. However, replacing lost fluids IS important, especially if he won't drink by himself. You can also offer him foods that are high in water, such as watermelon, chard, tomato and cucumber. An electrolyte replacement drink may also be of use. I don't know what they are called in your country, but I imagine something like Pedialyte would be available. Again you can slowly syringe this into the bird's beak. If you are at all concerned though, or he appears to be deteriorating, take him to the vet immediately. I assume the vet treated the broken blood feathers?

http://www.shinysunscrossstitching.com/BirdandDucks2.html

http://www.arwickboldt.com/LIS753/exercise05.html I seriously love the little fella dealing to the carrot.

I don't know why some people are so worried about bird poop. I have 2 lorikeets, who have incredibly watery poo due to their diet. One of them, Sam, loves to hang off the side of the cage and squirt a meter or so into the dining area. Or on my face, as the case once was. Was face to face with her, blowing kisses and what not, when she decided to let one go which hit me right on the mouth.

My experience is that they are nocturnal and like to run inside squeaky wheels at night when I try to sleep lol.