katana600

Yesterday was the first "back to normal" routine for me since summer. Our quilt group came over to work in our basement workshop. Gilbert was in rare form on the main floor calling out to us, whistling and being playful and entertaining. I couldn't resist bringing him down for a little while to see the girls and say hello, then I took him back upstairs. I noticed he was being quiet, so I came back up to check on him and he was off his cage, on the floor at the top of the steps making his way back down with the ladies. I put him back on his cage, gave him some treats and closed his door for a while. When I came back upstairs, his cage was empty! I started looking for him and heard him casually say "hey" from the back of an armchair in the living room. He had opened his food door and came out on his own. Whats more, he had flown! The chairs are on long legs and he usually will scurry under there to hide, but he is showing more interest in getting out and about. It looks like I will have to take him everywhere in the house with me, I can't bear to lock down his doors if he is that determined to be out with us. Every day that passes makes me more certain that he will have his gift of flight again sometime in the near future.

My grey isn't near as adventurous as Ellie, nor is he flighted just yet. I am going to keep watching your posts because when he does become flighted, you have already worked out all the logistics of making some beautiful and thoughtfully constructed play areas. Well done Doug!

Your work with Cocoa is evident of a bond of trust between you. I love that you are teaching children about her and they are clearly enjoying the time they spend with her on the playground. The bottom most photo in black and white of her preening is captivating. Thank you for sharing your love of your grey with others.

Your photos capture a feeling of peace and serenity. Thanks for bringing that to our homes. Beautiful.

It would be hard to determine whether I was delighted more with Isaac in the video with his sound effects and charming personality or with you just thoroughly and genuinely loving every aspect of your adorable little friend. Your posts are always sure to bring smiles and a warm glow of parronthood. Thanks for all you do in this forum.

I have been drawn into this room to learn about all of you with "blended families". I had heard that in general if you are going to get multiple birds, they should be from the same continent. All of you with your Amazons and Greys are giving me ideas. LOL. Actually, I am not planning to add a bird, but if I did, it would surely be an Amazon and I would have all of you to thank. Come to think of it, I was not planning to get a parrot and currently have two, so it is not out of the realm of possibilities. I come in here and read how you love your Zons for different reasons than our greys but everyone here thinks it was a great decision to get the Amazon. Thanks for all your work to bring them into our lives too. And Ray, we share a birthday month and I loved your food for thought.

Jon is adorable. He looks a little like our Java from the same family. She also likes to play on her back. Whenever she is in my hand she will flip over on her back and make kissy noises and I kiss her on her neck. I think it is the cutest thing to see her little feet up in the air. Once, in my sewing room she scared me by stealing an instrument with a sharp point, the flipped onto her back to juggle it like a circus performer. She is a little clown and it looks like Jon is as well. Java doesn't talk much either. She is capable, she will come out with something clear and plain and then not repeat it for months. Her voice sounds a bit like a synthesizer, you are probably too young to recall Eric Clapton, but that is the idea. Even though Jon may not talk to you, he sure can get his thoughts across to you and communicate in his own way. I can tell you love him thoroughly.

I love how your whole family is getting in on the introduction and naming. It is just delightful that you are building a bond with Ella-Rose and Missy. Great game plan you have, brilliant.

You are resourceful in keeping your home warm but it has to be nerve wracking. Hope you have power restored soon and get this behind you. Our furnace igniter went bad and it took almost a week to get a new part. We are not near as cold here as you are but it caused us to worry about our bird's safety and warmth, I can barely imagine what you have been going through. Bless you and your flock.

That is unbelievable! I think I could count on one hand all the greys I have heard of in my lifetime who would ask for more when it comes to showers. Good for Gemma and her YouTube pals and good for you too!

We have acquaintences who had a macaw and would leave him out more than in his cage and would even leave the house without putting him in the cage. They had him for years and had gotten to know him really well and trusted him and didn't have other animals in the house. There was a time when they returned home to find their kitchen cabinets "remodeled". I don't have any up close and personal experience with a macaw, but if you did get one and left it out, even if the expense of the cage was no issue, do you think Ajax would object if he was caged and the new bird was free? I am home most of the time, leave my birds out all day, but there are times when I am doing something dangerous like making hard candy with really high temperatures, or even just making dinner when I might be distracted, so I close the door to the cages and can't imagine not having the cage for each them. Plus, you really need to have a travel cage in case of an emergency. There are days when they haven't been in the cage all day and I daydream about how much more space we would have in the living room without two huge cages, but then I clean that cage and think how much I appreciate the mess being "contained". As for the toys you have that Ajax doesn't use, our supplier has a few racks of the acrylic toys and wooden toys for most birds, then he has about five times as many of the really big toys for the macaws and they are shockingly expensive. I do agree with Brian that the initial cost isn't the only consideration of expense. We had a sick bird and his vet bills were more than his original cost for a two day hospitalization.

This is just the most fun ever to think of names for your new little bundle of Joy. What ever you decide to name her keep saying it with Murphy so if the happiest situation of all comes to pass that he returns home it will roll off your tongue for the pair of them. There is no hurry to give her a name, one day you will realize that something you were trying on for size just became a perfect fit. Either that or she may pipe up and reference herself. Our guy Gilbert came in knowing his own name. Sometimes if he is out of sorts, like during a thunderstorm he will say "Gilbert okay" as if he is reassuring himself. Your girl may settle in and surprise you. We had a coffee theme going at our house with Java and then Kopi. My friends asked if I was going to rename Gilbert and I couldn't do that since he knows already who he is :~} but... I do call him Gilbert machiatto grande when I am really smitten with him. I love how your family is coming together with the love and laughter of having a grey in your home again.

Thanks Chezron, I have not been able to get him outside in the sunshine just yet. When I say he is a plucker, it is stress plucking all at once. He pulled fifteen to twenty flight feathers just before I came to pick him up from his foster mom caretaker after she put him in a travel cage. Once this summer he met one of my friends and immediately disliked her and plucked just a couple of flight feathers that day. Other than that, he doesn't pluck his downy feathers nor does he barber his feathers. I followed some of your posts about the wonder of sunshine and I did get him an avian sunshine lamp. We don't have a safe place to take him outside to get sunlight, but I sure am working with him so he could wear his aviator harness and go outside with me. It would be wonderful if he could sit on my shoulder and go on walks with me. He is still building trust with me and we take two steps forward and one step back as the rhythms of our life bring changes that challenge his coping skills. He isn't ready to be handled much. I wait for him to show me that he is ready and don't push him, he gets startled so easily and is really nervous and wary. He does have a backpack and I have used it to transport him short distances in the car, but his balance is not good. I covered the perch in vet wrap and it makes it a little better for him to keep his grip, but he isn't confident in there yet either. The little guy was rehomed a few times and hasn't been known to fly in the past 2 1/2 to 3 years but when I see him now flapping and getting across the room, I am very encouraged that one day soon he will get lift and our whole life will change, mostly for the better, but I do believe he will be a mischief maker when he gains his confidence. I am keeping the sunshine suggestion as a high priority because I know he needs it and because of your encouragement from the success it brought to you.

Gilbert has been grumpy for a couple of weeks and now he is getting back to his happy go lucky little self. I have more and more hope that he is going to be flighted some day. Usually at night he will say "ready to go night night" about eight pm. Sometimes he will start and stop with "Ready" and I usually say "ready-set-go" and offer him a step up and a ride around the room. For a couple of days he has been saying "Ready" and then laughing. Now he says "Ready" and attempts flight from the top of his cage. He can get across the room, albeit descending the whole while. A few months ago, he wouldn't get more than a few feet from the door of this cage. It is so cute. He makes a bumpy landing and then pulls himself together and comes scampering over to where I am. After a couple of weeks of luring me close with the offer of a scratch then trying to bite, I have really enjoyed that he wants to be close again. He has been trying out some new sounds and keeps us laughing. His latest favorite word is "Walter" He overheard me pass along a message on the phone regarding Walter, he heard it one time and decided he likes the sound rolling off his tongue and said it for two days. He says Walter is a good boy. LOL.

Captain Jack is a name for him to grow into. We are also fans of the movies. He is so cute the way he is stretching and alert. I saw our CAGs when they were five weeks hatched and their beak was solid black. Our TAG came to us full grown so I don't know if the characteristic flesh color of the curve of his beak was there when he was tiny. I think in the pictures I have seen on the forum, you could see that beak coloration. It is hard to see in the picture, but I would vote CAG. Can't wait to see which one he turns out to be now.

I think all of us have that deep-seated terror of being separated from our grey gurus. I can't bear to think of how Gilbert would be in another home much less outdoors without us. It was only after reading your thread and thinking about it, I read where the chip can become ineffective or can come out. I think we should train our birds to say Greyforums dot net so they can lead their rescuers to learn more about greys and find us over the internet! We have moved too many times for the address to give me peace of mind. I think every time I turn on my laptop, I will tell Gilbert I am going to greyforums dot net. That way if he sees a computer I can hope he will lead them to a good place.

I think it is wonderful for you to reach out to George. Even if you are just a bright spot in his day and interact with him every day, for now that has to be a boost to his spirits. For whatever reason if the doctor can't keep him at home, you have a wonderful opportunity to build a bond with this bird and learn more about him every day. If George responds to you, and it sounds like he is doing so already, you may well be a candidate for him to have time out of his cage in the short term and a loving caring home in the future. Good luck. Also, I was scared of bites and still think they are no fun, but as Gilbert gets to know me better we have fewer of those kinds of surprises.

I love following this thread. Gilbert's newest thing has been to tell me to get up in the morning. He goes through lots of different variations of calling the dogs and asking them if they want to go outside and other things that I usually do first thing in the morning. Once he learned "Get Up", he has been demanding that sometimes starting when my husband leaves for work around five. Sunday I made the wrong move hooking up the utility trailer. I "forgot" the motorcycle was loaded already and just reached down to move it two inches to line up with the ball and have had to lie about on a heating pad for a couple of days. Gilbert can't understand why I am lying about in the middle of the day and has been chiding me to "wake up", "get up", "stop thaaaaat", "WHAT are you doing?". Hahaha. He is a little taskmaster. We also acquired a very small injured kitten and whenever he sees her he calls out "pretty girl" which is something he had reserved only for me and Java. He calls the dogs and himself "good boy" or "c'mere bud" but seems to get the pronouns right.

I am glad he is doing better. I don't take bathing lightly, mine is also quite ticked when he gets bathed and we are still new to each other in the past six months. He quit speaking and kept his back to me for a week the first time. He still runs around screaming and carrying on when he gets lightly spritzed but he really needs it to keep the new feathers coming in from being too prickly. He seems to do a little better every time and he gets over it a little quicker each time. I didn't have the experience you did with the dark wet feathers the next day though. In an hour or two Gilbert is dry, his skin is soft and he doesn't have as much dust. I think it is taking him time to realize baths are a good thing. Well, not yet a good thing, but at least not so much of a gawd awful thing.

Ah yes, that mouse and the computer in general is considered an adversary. Our smaller parrot does the same thing. She gets on the mouse pad and even if I keep picking her up and moving her to my chest to hold her with my left hand, as soon as I touch the mouse, she tries to get back on the mouse pad. She even learned where the tab of the laptop lid fits to turn off my computer and if I am not watching every second to guard it, she will shut off my computer. And let's not even begin to mention how she snatches off a key from the keyboard in a split second and then it takes me a long time to get it back on. I started using a towel over my hands on the keyboard and then adjusted acrylic table meant to be for my sewing machine to make a "guard" for the computer and she eventually learned to coexist. It took a long time to teach her to leave my computer alone and I still wouldn't trust her long enough to get a cup of coffee or answer the phone. I love it when she bows her head next to the mouse and waits patiently for her turn now.

This is a picture of the type of aloe vera juice we use. It is meant for human consumption and doesn't leave a numbing. I am sorry you had this experience. Bathing isn't their favorite experience and I have a stress plucker too.

You know, when we got Java, she was really nippy, even to me. She is the one who inspired me to read all things about parrots. One of the things I read about that fit her to a tee is that they will "test" newcomers to see if they are worthy of being in the flock. They come from some barren terrain in Ethiopia to Tanzania and perhaps that is what made them evolve to be so careful about the fittest and fiercest flock members. The suggestion was to call the bluff and don't back down. It was hardest on our college age daughter. We moved from Texas to Georgia and got a "vicious" attack bird. LOL. She posted often on facebook about her nemesis. But when I trained my daughter to stand tall and not to back down, everything finally changed and now she kisses Java and calls her "baby bird". She is out on her own now, seven hours away and she asks for pictures of baby bird because she misses her now. Shelly, I am so glad for you to come in to this thread. You are the only other person I have know to have a red bellied parrot. That makes me so happy. We didn't have a breeder, we were new, we were green, we were gullible. Not only did I go against everything in my instincts saying not to buy this bird from a big box pet store.... but we paid more than it would have cost to buy an African grey baby! All I knew is, we were going to get the "Chatterbox" helmet system for our motorcycles that year as our Christmas present and I was happy to give that up to get this little girl out of that environment and I have never regretted it. It was actually my husband's idea to forego all our other Christmas presents to provide a home for Java. We gave up one chatterbox for a whole other sort of chatterbox. Now that I think of it, my husband must have really been desperate to find a way to wiggle out of the opportunity to talk with me while we are riding. LOL. And it only took me five years to figure that out.

Great story. I say you should sneak to your neighbor's home at 4000 and exchange your house numbers, mailbox etc. Would be cheaper and easier than moving and Brutus can keep all his zeroes. LOL.

I am very impressed at your progress and I believe it is your attitude to give Shadow her space and allow her to come to you. She will be wise to become your friend and she can still have her men too! Glad things are going well for you.

When I first saw this, I thought it was expensive. As I read the posts, I went back to take another look. At first glance it looks like a double flight cage, then I read the information and it is bigger than it appears in the photo. That thing is six feet tall, you could walk right inside of it. When I read that you were thinking of attaching it to your home so the birds could go out a window right into the cage, what an awesome idea! Now I want one! I can imagine you during good weather going outside to enjoy your deck and leaving access to your birds to come outside when you go outside. They would be right there beside you but safely enclosed. It would be freedom for all of you and I think it is a magnificent solution. There are times when I want to clean cages and to send the "kids" out to play and then having a few minutes peace would be an extra bonus. For them to get the sunshine and fresh air would be nice too. As far as worrying about someone stealing them, I expect if you were not going to be home, you would close the window and you would have the same security you enjoy today. If you think it will attract someone to notice you have birds, I am thinking you should post a sign on it saying you are not liable for injury from the wild hawk in the cage and you will not pay for stitches. LOL. Maybe that would be a deterrent.