Loukas

well I've realised that if I ignore him for a bit, after about 20 mins he stops the scratching and settles down. I guess there's not much else to do than that. In the mean time Im struggling to get him to step up onto my hand. He steps up to a perch whenever I offer it to him even before having the chance to say step up but when I put my hand in front of him he steps away. Maybe its because the first time he was out I blocked him from certain places (Ie under the tight couch he was trying to go) by using my hands and he's now confused Maybe, I hope, its just too early for him to step up?

That's crazy! There's got to be something one can do. I mean I know they're birds and they tend to do it in the wild but if he does this every day for the next 50 years we're going to have problems.

Hey all, hope you're doing well. Yesterday I discovered napping but today its scratching. I had him outside his cage all day and the second put him back he's on the ground scratching till everything is out of the cage. Well almost everything since he only does it on the same two corners. I've read that it could be either that he wants out, or that he's looking for food "that may have fallen out of trees" or that he's doing house keeping and cleaning. Honestly it looks like he wants out! He isn't eating anything fallen nor cleaning since it's always the same two corners. So now I have the issue that even though with 12 hours outside he still goes nuts when I put him back!

Thanks for the vid! I've added a few more toys to his cage. I love the spiral rope though8 Ive got to get one of those. In the mean time Apollo and I are having fun outside the cage more these days, but he got tired after about 40 mins and took a nap: <br><br>Post edited by: Loukas, at: 2009/07/11 13:17

Thanks for the info. unfortunately I don't think I'll see many acrobatics though as I live in a one bedroom apartment. I gues he could fly from the living room to my bedroom and back. Now that I see he is more confident in the apartment and with me, its time to at least teach him to step up. He has done it before but I believe that it was mostly accidents or he does it only to flap his wings or in yesterday's case to fly off. By the way, who is this Chet Womach guy? He is EVERYWHERE! Has anyone on this forum tried his "DVDs"? I've seen a couple of the free videos but I am not convinced. He's got these long long pages where he's trying to convince you that he's the best and has testimonials and all for pages before it gets to the product and the price. It looks like those "Build abs in 1 week" kinda businesses. But I had to ask cuz he is referenced everywhere. Speaking of training, every time I see him poop I keep saying "Go poop" just to see if eventually he'll learn what it means... Is this a waste of time? I would really hate it to be a waste of time cuz i tend to say poop 20 times a day! Also when I saw him nipping the power cords I removed them from his beak and sternly said NO. If I keep doing things like that, ie removed object and say NO do you think he'll learn that NO means NO? Thanks for the help team!

Apollo flew yesterday! What a sight! he seemed massive! He flew from one side of the room where his cage was all the way to the other where he latched on the the top of the curtains! I was hoping he wouldn't poop all over them, which he didn't but the only way I could get him off them was by offering his perch from his cage. I put him back in his cage at which point, while my arm was still inside the cage, he used it as a launching pad, took two steps and he was off again right back on to the curtains! He doesn't seem able to fly from the floor though, only if he's perched. Is this normal or will he be able to take off from a flat surface as well?

Honestly I would even play in your cage! It looks like a toddlers bedroom! I dont know if he's telling me these things just cuz Apollo is still on 14 weeks or its just bad advice. From now on, every other day I'll add something new to his cage, whether its a perch or a new toy until it looks homey. By the way, is there a possibility that he could be afraid of certain toys and thus block his access? Should I sit and play with the toy and him the first time? Probably, lol. Sorry I figure things out as I write. So far I've hung a toy on either side of the perch up against the cage. He doesn't seem to be afraid of them as he attacks them often. I tried hanging them from the top rather than the sides but he reaches out to play with it and looks like its slightly to far for him or he might slip off trying to bite it.

Hi! Thanks! I think he's cute too. I've got a few more pics on my profile page. Only now realised how to add pics on the post. I believe the bird shop owner told me to keep only one cuz they tend to just sit on the highest one available. I still think I'll add at least one more cuz the cage is massive and technically empty if I only leave one. Oh by the way, the bird shop guy also told me to add only ONE toy (I added two though, I may be new to raising birds but everybody needs more than one toy). Yea I read up a bit on the cage covering. I think I might start to cover it cause sometimes I watch tv with the volume at a very normal level and he tries to sleep. I figure if I cover it he gets a little more darkness. Speaking of sleep. When I see him try to sleep, every 6-7 seconds or so he shuffles his feet as if he's about to fall off and restabilises. The perch is the same as in my avatar so I don't think its a bad one or too thick. Maybe its a little too smooth. Its such a hassel to have only one bird shop in the city (and Brussels is relatively big) and having a bird shop owner who thinks that the bare minimum is sufficient to raise a healthy bird.

Thanks a lot for the reply! I've tried keeping him on a towel but he keeps biting it. When he's out it doesn't seem like he wants to play with me, he just keeps investigating. He always aims for under the couch or under the cabinets and I try to prevent him cuz if he goes under there and doesnt come out on his own I dont think I'll be able to do much without scaring him. In any case its still the begining and we're both getting used to eachother. I do have to get some perches for outside the cage. By the way, I was told to only have one perch in his big cage. Is that normal? Also, I was told not to cover the cage at night either. I haven't and I guess he's sleeping cuz so far I haven't been woken up by any screaming. But I ask just in case. Thanks again for the help!

Hey all! I managed to post a few pictures. It took me a while to scale them down to size. I took Apollo to the bird guy cuz he wanted to weigh him and take a look at his feathers. He told me that he's gained good weight, is very gentle and his feathers looked great. At which point he busted out these massive sicssors and said "so shall we cut the feathers?" I was shocked and told him to put the weapon down. I asked asked him that if we cut the feathers before he learnt to fly then he'd be clumsy to which he agreed but added that if he learnt to fly then he wont cut the feathers. He said its more traumatic to him to have learnt to fly and then cut rather than cut before he learns. I said that its only been 4 days that ive got him and that maybe we should give apollo some more time to to get used to me and my apartment before we do anything. He gave me 2 weeks to decide. So basically, either I cut before he learns to fly or if he learns to fly then I dont cut. My issue is that I live alone in a one bedroom apartment so basically theres the living room where the cage is and my bedroom. There's not much space to fly anyways. So I was thinking of just not cutting them and let him keep his sanity. The problem is that as you all know I am totally new to taking care of a parrot and I am slightly clueless as to what to expect if I do let him fly. And I mean both the pros and the cons. I can't possibly always keep him away from cables and other things in the room that he'll naturally want to investigate that might harm him. Please help me out a bit from the perspective of a clueless newbie. This morning Apollo let me have it cause yesterday I worked long hours and had to go to a dinner with my boss so I didn't have a chance to let him out of his cage. I figured that at 1130pm when I arrived home was too late to take him out to play. In any case, this morning when he saw me he was sceeching soooo loud. I didn't know what to do. This is bound to happen once in a while. I've read that greys need a routine and Im worried now that when work related things happen then he might go crazy. I dont mean that I regularly will keep him locked up but there's bound to be days that I simply wont have the time to let him out for a couple of hours. Besides the playing with him when he's out, which I love, for every 2 hours out of the cage I have at least an hour going over the carpet and floor looking for poop and there's always minimum 5-6 steamers to find. Please let me know if im going to have serious problems because I really do not want to cause him harm but I also have to take care of the house, my job and myself in the hours Ive got from the time I come home till bedtime. Is there a way at least to control the pooping or is it something babies just do, or something he'll always do even when older? How do you cuddle with a grey on the couch if every 5 mins he's pooping on you? I know its a long post (as always) but im quite worried.

Thank you! I liked Apollo since Im greek and its easily translatable in english, greek and I hope parrot! Yeah he makes a lot of sounds! It seems only when Im around though. Whenever I go to bed or I wake up in the morning he is always quite (except for slight sounds that are mixed with the sounds of his toy getting attacked). The moment im in the living room he start chirping away. He makes such a wide variety of little sounds. He hasn't been able to say Hello or another human word, Im not pushing him at all for that since I still want him to get comfortable around me and my apartment first before I try to get him focused on the training perch. I gotta say though that a lot of the sounds are not "birdie", almost as if he is practicing human words. He get loud too at times, I tend to hear windows around me shutting, but as long as I talk to him calmly he tends to quite down to listen to me. He is definitely fledging! I will allow him to take flight although I do not have many perch like places for him to land on yet (So far he's been eye-balling the wide screen LCD, I hope thats not the first thing he's going to aim for ). I've yet to decide whether or not to get him clipped. I dont worry about escape cuz even with the feathers clipped I would still always close the windows. Im really against it - I still get a pain seing a bird in a cage honestly - it kind of gets to me. The bird store owner I guess doesn't trust me much since im new to raising birds but rest assured that the decision will be my own as i alone will have to bear the consequences. The next task is to introduce him to the bath. Its day 3 and Ive only misted him from above with the water bottle so far. At night I still have to feed him some baby formula even though he eats solid food on his own including pellets, however I tend to get a bit of the formula on him and I don't think preening will suffice. I'll keep you all posted and thank you for checking in on this thread and helping us out.

I brought my 17 week old Apollo home 2 days ago! The first few hours he was a little nervous around me and new people and just froze up. But after an hour or so he really got comfortable. I also was given him earlier than expected since he had already started eating pellets and other hard food. I had him in a smaller cage the first day but he got really excited seeing me struggle to build his bigger permanent home. Once he was in the big cage he really started vocalizing and perching up on one foot and griding his beak. One piece of advice from a newbie if I may: I also was extremely nervous and confused (even though I was reading up on greys for 8 months prior) however, the moment you see your baby happy it all melts aways and you're like - "of course he's happy!" Just give em the attention and love that they so deserve and offer you.

Hi all, just wanted to give an update on how we're doing. I decided to name my grey Apollo. He's in the big cage now and loving it. I had a question about flight. When he was out of his cage yesterday and on the training perch, he would hold onto the perch and qnf flap his wings as if trying to fly. My question is: Is he actually trying to fly but cannot do it yet or is he flapping for some other reason? I know it might sound like a newbie question but, technically I am : ) Also, I started obvserving him closer just to get an idea of his body language and I noticed that he tends to stand on his right foot a lot and tucks his left up under his belly. While doing this he usually does this vibrating thing with his beak and tongue. I've read that greys do this while relaxing and usually when preparing to go to sleep but Apollo tends to do it 5-6 times throughout the day and not necessarily when he's about to sleep. Should I be worried or is this just a really relaxed bird? Oh, and one last question: Should I always let him clean himself (with the help of a mist spray of water) or do I also need to give him a clean somehow ie with a wet towel or something. So far I have just let him preen himself which he tends to do often and quite well. It looks like he takes pride in it. Thanks once again for all ure help.

Thank you all for you great advice. The big cage is built, clean and ready for him. Regardless of what the owner says, in the end, there's no way I could leave him in the small cage for two weeks. I'm happy to say though that at least he eats a lot, even though he has a preference for the sunflower seeds and the fruit first. He loves attacking the little toy he has hanging in there as well. Ive got a couple of bigger ones for his new home. Its bed time soon over here so I'll post some updates tomorrow. I'll try to post pictures as well. Thanks again for the info

Hi, thank you very much for the speedy reply. Just to clarify, the pet shop is actually only a bird shop. He supposedly specializes in parrots but has other types of birds too. The issue is that he is the only bird shop/seller in the entire city of Brussels, (Belgium). I did some research and he's been open nearly 30 years... not that it necessarily makes a difference. I also told him that I read to put the perches lower in case he falls in the big cage but he said that the bird was going to climb up the cage anyways and could still fall. On the syringe (just to clarify, there's no needle of course), I indeed said "what if I shoot down the wrong side" to which he replied that, that is only possible when the bird was younger, in which case he wouldn't sell it and proceeded to show me how to do it. He is just over 4 months now (so 17 weeks old). Today in one bowl I had this muesli type food that is for birds mixed with half chopped fresh apple and in the other bowl i made a mix of pellets with some sunflower seeds. Then he has his water bowl which i try to keep as fresh as possible. He eats well. I ve seen him drinking too. This is really the first full day with him so Ill observe more as time goes by. In terms of the wing clipping, Im not for it either but he told me before I bought him that he would not sell him to me if I didnt get them clipped every 6-7 months. These two weeks i was told he can fly when he gets out of the cage. I guess its the "fledging" period you mentioned? I'm a little confused, thanks again for the help, Im really trying to make it perfect for my little bird.