Sindbad

Hi every one. Unfortunately, no news other than continuing the search. I just came back from Long Beach where he was lost. I put more posters every where. I'm feeling that the more time passes, the less hope there would be of his return. Please keep us in your prayers. Thank you all for your support.

Hi every one.I really have to thank you all for your support. I started my day reading your thoughts and immediately, I took off to where I lost Sindbad. Was there around 8 AM.... posted about 20 flyers on electricity posts on each corner and a couple of convenient stores.. I walked around whistling his favorite tone.. I listened to hear if he was vocalizing... but all in vain.I left around 11. Then I went back with my wife around 3 PM and looked in the area until around 5:30 PM... absolutamente nada. I called the animal control people and I posted ads. on Craigslist and Parrot 911. Haven't heard a thing. I will continue to look for him tomorrow... but I doubt he is still free. Probably somebody found him. Sindbad was nice to every one and would never refuse to go to any one even if he sees them for the first time. I can totally picture his landing on a fence or on the floor a and stepping onto the first hand that comes close to him. Every time I come home, I feel as if I'm gonna hear him calling me. His sounds are still echoing in my ear. I feel that this little guy has really touched me and left a stamp on my life. I'm pretending that I'm only concerned about him, but deep down and when I'm typing in front of a monitor, I can't stop my tears. I really hope I'll find him and get him back in my life. Good night every one.

Thank you all for your great advice. I did email Parrot 911, and posted an ad on Craigslist. I also made flyers and will post them every where. I have been walking a couple of blocks in every direction around the dealership. May be I can hear him vocalizing. By the way, he was lost in Long Beach, CA, just in case any of you lives in the area. Thank you all again for your prayers, which I need very badly. Merry X-mass.

I'm having really dark thoughts of him being scared and lonely... or being messed up with by someone who catches him and does not handle him right. This is not the best neighborhood. I also don't know what to do when I go home and he's not in there!!! Please every one, if you're reading this pray for him and me. I'll work on the poster idea.... and I may get his cage from home and put it here outside.

Hi every one. I have bad news. My sweet African grey, " Sindbad," flew away two and half houes ago. I brought him to the office today and he was scared of every thing, and I kept calming him and helt him most of the time. I stept out of the office to talk to the mechanic (I have a small dealership) and I was holding him... and suddenly for no apparent reason he flew in one direction then to another and went up high. I tried to follow him but the sun blinded me for a few seconds and when I was able to look I couldn't see him... there were many birds flying above. I've been walking in the nighborhood since then and I was not able to find him. What do you advise? I feel so bad. I know he must be scared now, and I'm feeling horrible. Please advise.... do you think there's any hope? What should I do?

thank you very much for your detailed instructions. Quite honestly I don't know how to talk to a 2 or 3 year old because I enver had one, but your post will help me a lot. The one thing that is very true is the kind of attachment I developed with him. I never had a pet in my life and I never thought I would be attached to pet. But I truely treat Sindbad like a child. And I was very hurt when this situation happened. Dark thoughts jumped to my mind and I started thinking if never gets over it and I had to find him another home, I felt horrible. So I decided to do what it takes to win him back. Thank God he is much better now. But I will follow your instructions. Man, I need to print them and memorize. hahaha

I acutually took his cage out on the patio in the open air. but you actually brought in a good idea of not keeping him inside till tomorrow. We've had them spray three times in the past few years and by the time we were back at home, we couldn't smell anything, but you never know if there could be something toxic to him that we can't smell. Thanks a lot for bringing this to my attention.

Thank you all for your wonderful tips. More important, thanks a million for your reassurance. When I saw him in the tray, I was worried that he might be stung by an ant... and that would be painful. We sprayed and tomorrow the pest control team is coming to do treatment. May be I'll take him to work tomorrow. He seems to be ok now.... except that he wouldn't allow me to touch his back .. and sometimes his neck, and I haven't tried to say "no" again. But if he is manipulative of this, I will say it when he needs to hear it. do you think I should? :huh: Any way, I'll be patient and I'll put this behind me and hopefully he'll forget. Thanks to every one who responded.

Hello again everyone. I know every time I write I'm just making sure my dear Sindbad is normal and nothing is wrong. This time, I know some thing is wrong. Sindbad is always a happy bird. At times he bit, but in general he is always sweet, always singing and repeating the few words he knows. A few days ago, I went home took him out of his cage, put him on top as usual, talked to him a little bit, then I went to my desk. There was an empty dish that has little crumbs from the sandwich I was eating in the morning. To my surprise, the dish had at least 1000 ants. yes, you read it right one thousand. I was stunned. I took it to the sink and found the more in the sink and on the counter. I went back to the desk and found lines of ants coming from a whole where the satellite cable goes. I freaked out trying to deal with this ant attack. Suddenly Sindbad decided to go to the try at the bottom of his tray where there he has thrown some food to chew on the newspaper in there. I was really scared that he might have ants on him. I yelled at him saying "Sindbad, NO go back to the top". He didn't do it. So, I rushed to him saying no. He was so scared I guess and started running from me up and around the cage. He was screaming with that panic scream that we never heared from him. I held him and he was still screaming in panic. I tried to quite him and hiss him as usual but he was pulling his beak away from me and screaming. When I put him on the cage he ran to the other side. I was so saddened because he is my buddy. I got him because we don't have babies and I was treating him like my baby, literally. I never did any thing that would make him so scared of me like that. I always said no firmly and he understood it. so he did quit when he heard me saying no ** well most of the time** I spent the next couple of days tryign to get closer to him again, and he started kissing me and chewing on lip again. But yesterday he was eating in his cage, and he started picking up the things he does not like in his food and throwing them in the bottom tray. I was passing near and I said "Sindbad, No." And he had another panic attack screaming the ugly scream. I went to him but he came to me and shortly stopped screaming. I'm really depressed because of this. I don't know how to handle this. I can handle him dowing crazy things, but it just makes me feel terrible when he shows that he is scared of me or he doesn't like me. What should I do to get him back to our normal relationship? He used pick up words from me, laughs like me, kisses me, etc. He didn't do that with my wife. But now he is cautious of me, although he still does every thing he used to most of the time. Please help. Thank you very much for your kindness. P.S. Any unkind response is really not welcome. I became a member of this group for the support not for negative feedback.

Well, thank you every one for sharing your thoughts and giving feedback. Just to let you all know, I'm not wining, nor am I annoyed in any way by my bird. I just wanted to make sure every thing is ok. The minute we walk inside our apartment, we take him our of his cage and he sits on the perch on the top. and when we sit to watch TV, we take him and give him neck rub for some time. As far as the noise goes, I'm just worried someone may complain. And yes, he likes the echo of his loudest whistle when he on the patio. His cage is beside the patio. We mean to place his cage there since it is entertaining for him during the day to see all those birds handing on the paddle boats in the middle of the lake. That is in addition to his toys and the TV/music we leave on during the day. When friends are over, It's usually after 8:00 PM. We just have to either put him in his cage and cover him or just live with his whistling and try to say things loud enough. He was not so loud until I made the mistake of teaching him a specific whistle, and we surprised he picked. We laughed at it, and he would whistle it very frequently!!! I hope you guys understand I'm not complaining about him. I'm just learning form you what is normal and what needs special attention from me. Thank you again every one.

His cage is in the living room by the patio/lake. He can watch TV with us. We sit like 10 feet away from him. but we are busy talking to each other. He also whistles when I'm on the phone or watching TV (on and off of course)

Thank you very much Judy. I do praise him immediately when he does poop... and he does associate the word with the action and responds to it. But if I don't predict when to ask him to poop, he would just do it any where. Also he stands on his cage and sometimes he poops outside, sometimes in his food or water too... which surprises me. Right now our problem is with loudness. When we have guests, they get really annoyed by his nonstop loud noise. Also we have a big lake in front of us and there about 30 other apartments overlooking that lake. Sometimes he likes the echo his whistles make and becomes annoying to everyone (I guess)... nobody complained yet, but I'm worried. What should I do?

Sindbad is my first experience with birds, and he is great. But I guess I'm just a bit confused about a few thing and I thought of asking the Gurus out here. ) 1. Sindbad gets scared very easily.. also of every thing new to him or even my hand movement sometimes while he is nearby. 2. He does all his whistles and talk shows on his perch, but if I go to him, pick him up or give him attention, he is quite and very uninteractive. Is that normal? 3.Nowadays he is becoming very loud to an annoying point. What should we do to get him to be quiter? 4. Sometimes he bites, and he is very tricky. Usually he would take my finger in his beak or rubs his beack against my hand... I guess it's a sign of love. But sometimes he does bite. Like I would be rubbing his neck and he would bite me suddenly. Oh by the way he is molting. 5. How long does it take for him to molt. We're tired of vacuuming his little cotton-like feathers that fly every where. 6. We tried to potty train him and all we got is that now his most uttered word is "poop" his majic word to do it. hahaha. Any tips? 7. When I'm away for a day or two, he puts a show when I come back. He spreads and lowers his wings and makes different voiceless sounds and he would dance and make those sounds as long as I'm standing beside his cage for up to 30 minutes. But some other times I feel that he doesn't like me. ( He steps away from me when I go to his cage!!! he is a weirdo I'm telling you Sorry for all those points in one posting, but I always want to post, but I get busy with work and never do. Thanks for your help in advance. Have a great weekend. )

Thank you all for writing. Jaak, you have raised interesting points. I shower Sindbad about once a week, in the weekend. I gave him a shower on Sunday and that was a couple of days late. I got him a spray to stop itching. It contains Aloe in it, but probably not the Alo juice every one here is talking about. I just got what the girl at the petstore recommended. I sprayed him after the shower. He seems to be itching less now. As for his showers, I use a sprayer, and I fill it about three or four times to make sure he iscompletely wet. He hates showers and keeps trying to avoide the water. But yesterday I also put him in the sink under the faucet (water was in spray). He freaked out in the beginning then he gave up. Am I showering him enough? Or is it too much? As for sleep, he takes naps in the evening but actually we turn the light off around 11:00 or 11:30. He wakes us up at 7:00 AM. He takes frequent naps though. Sometimes I take him with me to work, and I see he takes frequent naps... and even on the weekend, he does take naps. Is he getting enough sleep? and if not what should we do? We can cover him earlier, but we put his cage in the living room so that he can be part of the family and live with us. Thanks.

Hello Folks. Ijust have a couple of concerns that I thought I may share with you and ask for your expert advice (being the novice CAG owner that I am. Sindbad is a very nice and happy male. Once we come back form work, he is whistling and talking non-stop until we settle with him. We take him out of the cage as soon as we're back and give him neck rubs and shower him with attention. Yesterday, I was bathing with the sprayer and noticed that his back lower neck has a spot of about 1/2 inch with no hair. It does not show up when he is dry but was very clear when the feathers were wet. He is also losing a few feathers (2-3) of different sizes daily recently. I also noticed that while we are giving him luvluv (neck rubs ) sometimes the feathers are coming off in my hands even though I'm being very gentle. Not too many. There are some pins at te bottom of his neck, so I'm guessing he is molting. He is a year old now. I've also noticed that in the last week or so, he screetches tensely and in violent movements of his beak, and if your hand is close to his head, he'd bite you (gently) but tensely when his is done. Today I started doing more research. I collected 4 feathers that I found around his perch and examined them carefully. They did not show any signs of biting or plucking. They were just straight and beautiful, EXCEPT FOR ONE. It looked like he after it fell, he was playing with it, which I caught him doing with a mid-size feather that showed no sign of plucking at all. What do you guys think? Should I be concerned or is this really what molting is? Thank you all.

[file] Hello Falks. I finally found the time to search for the welcome room. It never crossed my mind that it would be under forums. I thought it would be easier to find. This is not my first post, I posted before about my new CAG Sindbad, and I got great feedback. Thank you all. Sindbad is now 11 months old. He is a sweethart, although sometimes he is just mean and he bites. But overall he is a very nice guy. He was known in this community with his first owner as "Tango" He is not talking yet, but he is making a lot of whistles and clicks. Recently he has been doing that too much and he is starting to do it very loudly, probably because our 15 month niece who is visiting us is being loud as well. Both of them are cautious of each other. Hahaha.

I saw him nipping his feather two times so far. I'll keep an eye on him for another day. Also now observing him, he is not shaking his head as much, actually at all. I don't know if I'm being paranoid. I will start the seach for an avian vet as well.

Good morning. Just another question from the novel CAG owner to the experts. ) I noticed that he is grooming himself most of the time, which seems natural to me. But I saw him cutting the tip of a feather every now and then. He is also shaking his head in a quick move sometimes too frequent (like once every 4 or 5 seconds). Should those be any alarming signs? Thanks.

Thank you all for all your great help and advice. I just wanted to make sure he was not going through something serious that I was unable to detect. Apparently I have a lot to learn about him and how to deal with his issues. I will bear with him and see what other signs he will give me. It is just so strange that he changes completely like that overnight. Now when I carry him and pass by the cage, he leans to go to the top of his cage, he tries to bite me many times, and he seems ot have a problem with me, though I'm very soft and gentle with him all the time. May be it's a mood swing!!!

Thank you so much for the reply. I've been refreshing the page waiting for some assistance. Sinbad's eating habits are strange but have been consistant since we got him. He only eats his Pellets or seeds. I tried to get him to eat vegetables or fruits, he moves his head away. The only thing I got him to try was cranberry guice. I'm tending more to think that he knows we love him dearly and he is the center of our attention. But I don't know how to modify his behavior. Ignore him and leave him in the cage? Or let him out of the cage? Can I give him time out? As for the vet, do you know how much it costs to have him checked? Are there any other signs that would alert me to the need for a vet other than being grumpy and obnoxious?

Greeting folks. I'm a new member and a new African Grey owner (first time). I'm just exploring the site, but I'm forced to write asking for advice. I've had "Sinbad" for about 9 days so far. I got him from a very nice couple. He is only 10 months old. Ever since we took him in the car on the way back home, he's been so sweet and so loving. Once we're home in the evening, he is calling on us nonstop till we pick him up, and he would enjoy us until bedtime. He'd enjoy never ending neck rubs, and he is simply amazing. Last night he was different. he does not want us to rub his neck as usual. When I had him on the desk as I was checking my email, he insisting on chewing on the microphone. I tried gently to keep him away, which always worked with him, but this time he was audacious. I took him back to his cage. His behavior started to change. I never got made or yelled at him. He hates going inside his cage now. In a few minutes, I took him out, but he refused to let me give him the neck rub he loves. When I tried to kis him on his beak, as I always did, he bit my lip, and it was hard. I still did not yell at him but of course he knows he did something wrong. I don't know if I could descipline him somehow without making him upset. Today in the morning he wouldn't step up except to get out of the cage. When I tried to put him in the cage before I left to work, he was so upset. I took him out again to comfort him. He never had a problem with his cage over the past few days. I took him out and he stepped up on my hand only to grab the door and climb on top of the cage. Then he refused to come to me and he flared his feathers and was ready to attack at any attempt to take him . I gave him a few minutes and tried again in vain. I had to wrap my finger with paper tissues to get him to come and place him in the office. I believe there is something terribly wrong here. Please give me advice. I'm sorry for the long post.