katana600

It really is a mystery to decipher what makes this little guy tick. I am not hopeful that I will understand him, I have had a husband well over three decades now and I am no closer to seeing inside his head as I am with Gilbert. I will take what I can get and call a truce. LOL. I have been enthralled and intriqued but whatever Rachel is doing "right" and it comes down to what Gilbert prefers at any given moment and that will change. Last night he did the lure of a tuck and posture for a scratch and the sudden attempt to sneak in a bite. He did it again this morning. I have to admit in my deepest heart of hearts, I was glad to see him do that. Not for him to be aggressive to her, but to breathe a little sigh of relief that it is not just me. It doesn't seem fair that she can come and go and he just joyfully welcomes her home but if I leave for a few hours even, it is met with disdain and suspicion. LOL. I do think that is because when I am gone, he doesn't have anything to predict whereas when the others come and go it doesn't affect when he is fed or given his night time almond or what lights are left on long past when he asks to go to bed.

Our vet and techs have toweled our parrots and I believe that is a necessity and they have become greatly skilled at doing it quickly, safely, efficiently and for good reason. They have also taught me the technique in the event we have to administer meds or if we have an urgent need to handle an uncooperative bird. If you have already built trust with your own parrot and have learned about the personality traits and how to handle them, in my own experience, the toweling and vet visit is a small setback and takes a little while to overcome. It is well worth it for the benefit of keeping them healthy and the vet is a wealth of information and support.

I am feeling that magnet drawing me to come see your flock. She was offered the job! Starts at the end of this month so we will definitely be coming through in a U-Haul. It is a twenty hour drive from here to Abilene and we have hauled furniture between there and Georgia a time or two (or ten) and Midland/Odessa is not that much further. If I am coming through, Gilbert will be with me.

I can add nothing to the conversation of his origin or classification. I just wanted to say what a gorgeous parrot he is. His eyes are so bright and he looks relaxed and has a wonderful home. Congratulations. Have you decided on a name for him yet?

This is great news! You are making great strides. Hooray for Timber, he is such a handsome sport. His play stand is really nice. Hooray for you too. It is hard to keep going back and trying new things when a "no" sometimes mean you lose a little blood. When these rehomed parrots finally accept you and cooperate, it is cause for a huge celebration.

This is day 502 since taking Gilbert "hostage". He seems to have decided that I am the old one and I adapt to his techniques and challenges and is taking a different tact to endear himself to the younger person in the family. He will do anything for Rachel. He will step up for her almost every time she asks. If she puts him on the floor stand, he will come to me from there and he will also willingly step off her hand onto mine. For the past few days, I have been rolling the floor up close to his cage so he is able to step off that onto the cage on his own time. Today for the first time, he initiated the change from his cage to the floor stand and explored it to his little heart's content. He is making progress.

That is a lovely photo of Ana Grey, she is beautiful. Happy hatchday pretty girl.

Aww, what precious pictures of your girl. In for a penny, in for a pound eh? Your home is like a magnet for these lovely parrots, glad you are able to give them your loving care. You are blessed, as are they.

Aww, poor little fellow, that must have hurt. As others have said, he may be grumpy and suspicious while this is fresh and for now watching and deciding to take him in for a check of his leg is the best you can do. We did have our first baby fly into a wall and even though the vet said his wing was not broken, he did give him a pain reliever and that seemed to make a difference. We have the tall door on our cage that has concerned me for this type of thing happening so I got an elastic "bungee" cord that I use to hook from the bottom of the door to the cage to keep one of the dogs from accidently closing it on tender toes. This may set him back a little but I don't think he will hate you or anything like that. It had to be really scary for you too.

You have come to the right place because we not only understand what your birds mean to you, we are of the same mind because our parrots mean so much to each of us. Whether we have one or a ton, each one is unique and valued as an individual. Seriously, before we brought home our first little parrot six years ago, I would not have understood the devotion either so I forgive extended family and friends for not getting it. Once they come and visit they love the stories they can tell but they still don't quite get it.

So glad for you to join us Nikki. Tango is a lovely boy. I am looking forward to hearing more about your life together. We have a feather picker too and I have become accustomed to him showing his fluffy little undergarments. It will be interesting to read about what you have tried and I might learn some things about entertaining Gilbert too. Thanks for coming in to our forum.

At bedtime, when I gave him his night time almond snack he flung it and tried to bite me. I guess he was still annoyed that I cleaned up all his grafitti and art work, LOL. Ten minutes later he was posturing and asking for scritches. That little nursery rhyme of the little girl with the curl being very very good, or horrid comes to mind. Either Gilbert has not found his middle ground or I have yet to discover the grey areas, because it is still either hot or cold, black or white, sweet or wicked where he is concerned. I much prefer these sweet moments but I can forgive him as quickly as he forgives me. This morning he is sweet again, just a regular little snuggle bug. Well, with that said, it is within his clearly defined limits. He has now expanded his zone of contact to include a second perch in his cage. To Dan's earlier point of something I may have changed that initiates his periods of distancing himself and getting grumpy, I have been thinking about it a lot. Each time has included what he would consider betrayal. When I have gone away for a weekend, I come back to a grouch. When I needed to spray his chewed and irritated tail feathers with aloe, that was a snubbing. When I took him to the vet, he handled it all with surprising calm, but took a long time to forgive the infraction. Unfortunately for him, all of these upsetting things are necessary and he is ever so slowly gaining the ability to roll with the changes and challenges.

Oohs and aaahs for baby Vai, she is just precious. This picture brings back memories of one of the happiest days of my life when I was bringing home our baby. Congratulations to you and Vai.

One thing is certain about sharing our experience with our babies or our rescues or our long time companions, things change on a daily basis. Sometimes those changes are so subtle as to be nearly imperceptible. We have been celebrating some milestone moments with Gilbert for a few days. Then, right smack dab in the middle of the most rewarding exchange, he was taking a pine nut from Rachel, then dashing down to the opposite side of his branch to take the next offering from me when he deliberately, with malice did a cobra strike bite on my finger with no obvious signs of provocation. Just a momentary overload to be sure but it was dramatic and left me bleeding and a little bewildered. As long as he was off his cage and unapproachable at the moment, I took the opportunity to thoroughly scrub his cage. One thing I would like to note is that I was wondering about the vinegar in the water "burning" a cut even though it is an antiseptic and I pleased to say, I was using a stronger mix than most of us would use in drinking water for our greys and there was nary a sting. In fact, by the time I was finished, I could barely see the punctures in my finger. I still put some antibiotic on it. And would you believe that Gilbert had a few hours back in his cage where he withdrew in a snit, then he came out and asked to step up and come back to the floor stand. I gave him another little sampling of pine nuts and while he didn't snap at me this time, he didn't say he was sorry either. LOL. He does usually say "sorry" after a surprise nip. I imagine he is saying how unpredictable I am as well. One minute I am talking sweet and giving him a treat and the next minute I am cleaning HIS cage without his permission. Hahahahaha.. He is certainly a work in progress.

Those pictures tell a story of abundance and appreciation. I love your pictures and the faces of your happy parrots. Great job.

Once the vet washed her face and head, there were no more spots or stickiness. It seems that in her struggle on the initial visit, she may have broken a tiny little blood feather and then was scratching it after she came back home. It was worth going in a second time, especially since we had no clue what started all this. As for the little birdie hug, she is not in the mood. LOL. In six years she has been so sweet and accepting even of vet visits and annual blood work. This time is different and she has been avoiding me and refusing to come out for playtime or for her night time snuggles. She stands on her boing and her eyes pin and she seems to think about coming out but she ultimately refuses to come out of her cage. She is eating well but she refuses any treats from my hand. The little stinker. If I put her treat in her dish, she will go take it and eat it, but anything I hand to her gets the toss. She will get over it in time but she is letting me know that she did not like the events of her past two weeks. I think she and Gilbert are planning an overthrow of the current regime. Funny though, when she is refusing to come out, I can scratch her head and lean in to the cage and give her a little kiss on the head and she makes kissy sounds back at me. She has just decided that coming out of her cage right now is not an option. It makes me wonder if Gilbert did make contact that night, but all other evidence points to that not happening.

Once Gilbert got on the tall wooden floor stand, he was big stuff. I think he got more exercise in an hour than he generally has in a month. Our vet said to encourage him in this and since he has been soooo receptive to Rachel I am taking advantage of his love for her. She got a job offer in Texas and will move by the end of this month so we are going to work together every day while he is in such a receptive mindset. When he got on the floor stand we moved it between us. He will allow her to touch his head and he will take pine nuts from each of us. When it came time to put him back to bed, he was NOT wanting to come off the stand. He offered to bite her and he was even less cooperative for me. On these occasions, if I just show him a fleece square and tell him he has to step up, I put the fleece square just draped over the far end of the stand and he came running to the other end more than willing to step up for me. For the most part, I have been reluctant to use this tactic because it really does scare him and his chest heaves and trembles. This time however, he was more confident and he just seemed like a "normal" parrot who just didn't like the idea of being near the fleece. He has only been toweled by the vet. If I have him on my lap or the arm of my chair, he has absolutely no reaction to standing on the colorful fleece square as a drop cloth. Draped on his play top or on the stand is a totally different experience. I much prefer when he is cooperative because he wants to be and not because he is scared. This is a special circumstance though because we are finally getting to a place where he is not shaking, frightened and traumatized. I am very careful as to using "tools" to gain his cooperation unless they are positive reinforcements. With his newfound bravery he is getting to a place in our relationship where he is starting to "push back" in a healthy way. He is amazing and awesome and always just one step ahead of me, the little booger.

It will be okay while you are gone. You made sure she was in a loving environment and when you come and go, she will learn trust. It may be hardest on us when we have to be away because we worry so much about them.

What a busy home you have created. Thanks for joining us, I am looking forward to reading more about your entire flock.

That is a great idea. We are going to be in our hometown and Gilbert has traveled up there with us several times now. He was great traveling in the car and we are really looking forward to this time now that he has been with us long enough to trust us more. The rescue remedy is a homeopathic solution and it seems to be making a remarkable difference. As I am typing Gilbert is away from his cage for the fourth time today. Earlier he was on a blanket on the sofa going between Rachel and me and accepting some pine nuts for encouragement. Now he is on his floor stand and he is going to one side to visit her, then coming to my side. He is just making some big strides and showing a lot of new calm behavior and is amazing us all with his cooperation and relaxed posture.

To Timbersmom, I agree with what you say about the look of longing. From the beginning Gilbert would offer his head for a scratch but we had about thirty seconds before he would pull away, the fear is too great for any kind of extended contact. He continues to seem to "want" contact but he is so conflicted and nervous about it. When I read this forum long long ago, I would often see reference to "grey time". Gilbert is teaching me that a year and a half is a blink in the eye of grey time. He has to come through this on his own time and I see opportunities to increase contact in a positive way and I back off when he has had too much. His little "hey" voice is always our cue to see what he wants next.

Gilbert gets real standoffish and downright ornery sometimes. Sara said he was like that with her too. His "low" sessions seem less frequent and less pronounced and his good weeks far outnumber and outlast his withdrawals so I am still encouraged that he is making forward progress. Yesterday my husband walked right up to him and Gilbert let him scratch his head and then Gilbert spontaneously offered a foot for a step up. David was thrilled at the invite. Gilbert put one foot on his finger and then got scared and took it back and it pleased me to no end that David just encouraged him and told him "it's okay, maybe next time." Then after a trip to the airport again, Rachel came home last night. Gilbert was all over it, he was so happy to see her and probably more active and boisterous than I have ever seen him. As she came down this morning he was all over himself asking her for a step up. One more thing to note. Our vet suggested we might try the Rescue Remedy drops for Gilbert when we are anticipating stressful changes coming up, like vet visits or travel. He said it would take about two weeks to show any signs that it might be working. He said he recommends just trying it and then we will see if he has a positive change, then not to use it all the time, just as needed. It does seem to be helping. What I have noticed and my family has remarked on is that Gilbert isn't trembling like he normally does when anyone gets close to him. We are going to give it a chance so that when we take an RV trip over the labor day holiday, we won't have any surprises or adverse reactions when we are away from home without his usual vet. We are watching him closely and he seems to be doing better. It is not a long term medicating situation, but if it opens the door to him being more relaxed and helps his nerves enough to seek out human contact, so far, so good.

That is a funny story of all your greys screaming with delight. With my timid little fellow, it will surely scare the dickens out of me when I hear it for the first time. I know we will get there. Glad to think about all the rowdy play from your flock.

I do love reading about you and Isaac, it never changes, you just get more and more drawn in by his charm. I can just hear him when you try to sneak off to brush your hair without his help. "Oh jeeze, there he goes, he always makes it look goofy, I better go show him how to do it right." LOL. Also when I was reading about the Google Now, I was expecting that Isaac was the one to speak to the phone to make it do his bidding. Before long, he will be ordering pizza for himself. Thanks for keeping us updated on your life with your wonderful friend. This is the stuff of legends and we were there from the beginning with you.

I think Daniel is referring to the "earthquake" technique to break a bite in progress while you are holding the parrot. The word "jerking" means different things to different people so it sounds harsh but what I originally pictured mentally isn't likely what he is describing. If Ava is biting on approach to touch her, it could be so many things. Gilbert will attempt a bite on my sometimes because he is being cage aggressive, sometimes because he is in a bad mood and sometimes for who knows what. It is true that some greys do not want to be touched at all, some will only tolerate it under special circumstances with only certain family members. Watch Ava closely for opportunities to have positive interactions, giving her a treat etc. Greys are subtle and don't just naturally go to biting, it seems that is a strong reaction. However, what starts for one reason sometimes continues for totally different reasons. It is hard to get a "feel" for the situation through the internet. Do you have anyone you know with parrot experience? Is there a breeder in your area who could come and talk and watch the interaction to help give you some clues to what Ava is doing? If I recall, she is still young and it doesn't make sense to me that she is biting you. She may be oversensitive to her "zone" where she wants people to be or it could be so many things. Hope you can sort it out and have that loving relationship with her that you want so much.