katana600

I have mixed feelings living with a little creature after her life was mixed up and painful to her. With that said, she is still a lovely companion, making great strides and well loved and provided for. I really do not think its wrong to breed in captivity and commit to them the way most of our forum friends have done. When its done well, it benefits the parrot as much as his human companion. To know this kind of synergy is beyond description. Of course it's gut wrenching when it goes wrong but we also can only take responsibility for the ones in our care and keep their needs in perspective with our own. The education of others before they make an impulse decision is the key. When we can balance the expectations with reality I believe we will find a solution.

Welcome to the forum. If you think you are in heaven now with Cockey, wait a year, it gets better all the time. You will find why we are a forum dedicated to the African Greys and welcoming to parrot companions of any species. Whenever I see your posts, I am going to smile at your nickname, Grumpy. I don't know why but it just gives me a little chuckle, good one. Your pictures of Cockey are lovely and he has certainly been well cared for and prepared for a home with you.

It takes a strong constitution to follow your heart and know what is right for your own home. I have my limit and still keep thinking about Merlot being alone all the time. When I come back from the holidays I am hoping she is in her new home and if not I plan to work out arrangements to be a sitter for her during the day and on weekends until the family situation gets worked out. For my part, for now I can take two parrots with me and am still welcomed to stay with family for extended periods. I wouldn't want to push that any further. I do understand how it feels to live with such a creature as a parrot and want to do more to bring this kind of life to the ones stuck in limbo. I don't know how I lived my whole life with a love of parrots without bringing one home sooner. That said, if Gilda had been in my life twenty years ago, I could not have coped because it has taken all of my energy and time to learn how to be the best home she deserves.

Jovan, I also enjoy the home you created for Poly, it is very well done. As for the extra you paid to get Poly back, it was a wise choice considering that once you had your eyes on him, they could have moved him or hurt him before the police would come to prove he could come home with you. So much better that Poly could be back safely. Your negotiators were not very clever to take you to their house. It might occur to me to send them all my dirty cage liners every day. Better to smile and learn something and just live a happy life with your Poly. Thank you for joining us and letting us learn from one another.

Gilda and I had a "moment" last night. It was just the two of us and I walked over to talk to her and give her a pine nut. As soon as she saw me coming she scuttled across from the floor stand to her cage, across the top, where she would usually grab the top of the door and flip herself to her favored perch to accept her treat through the bars. This time though, she was too excited to get that pine nut in my fingers. She was so cute, taking the first one, the second one, the third one. Suddenly she froze as she realized my hand was RIGHT there with no bars between us. She just turned to a stone statue. Then I noticed her chest was trembling and I took a step back. She hurried right in to her regular spot and ate a couple more. I have to say when she leaned in to take that first bite, I was kind of thinking she might notice there were no bars and take a chomp out of me. But she didn't. I think we just made some progress! Tonight, when my husband came in, she was all happy and playful to see him again. She went to the top of her cage, hung upside down and flapped her wings so hard, I thought she might get lift. She continued with her antics and went topside and wreaked havoc with a hollow ball. She was a wild thing attacking it and screaming out. It was over so fast, I could barely believe I had seen it. She is letting her hair down and getting a feel for her wild side. That's my Gilda girl! I am loving this.

With Megan's fly-by ear chomp, I wasn't even smiling. You are in a transition and being given the what for. It did have to be a shocking moment to jolt you to attention. But Sterling, with your description, I was laughing until I snorted and then got to Dan with the memories of his neck pinch postings and I was a goner. I know it isn't funny but its like that instant when you are walking and hit an ice patch, just as your feet go up over your head, the horror of it gets me every time to laugh like a maniac, even when it is me. I am sure it won't be so dang funny when its my neck getting the big pinch sometime in the very near future.

My neighbor offered me her Goffin cockatoo a few years ago when I first lost my greys. She called me again and said she changed jobs, works nights and weekends and her husband travels so she asked again if I would take Merlot. Gilda is a little fragile and at a new crossroad with me and I am afraid we would backslide to bring in another parrot. So, I called my dentist's receptionist who wanted the little TAG on the forum recently and she is smitten. They are going to do a trial run during the holidays to see if it's a good fit. I am quickly going to get in my car and drive a thousand miles next week before I change my mind. I am staying away for a month and hoping it is settled before I return. Janet, I will help you with an intervention, I have lots of creative coping techniques.

Awww, poor Inara. She knew though that you fixed things for her with that toy and tended to her gently and diligently. Gilda isn't adventurous enough yet for boisterous play. As soon as I read about Greycie smashing dishes I thought of Rikki at Talon's house. I am so looking forward to when Gilda peels off a few more layers and finds her mischievious side. It would be kind of funny the first time with the plate flinging... more when its at your house than mine.

Scarlett is joyful and charming. Hearing you laugh with her, clearly her joy is contagious. What was really funny at my house was when I had your video on and heard my husband whistle back to her when he thought it was Gilda. LOL. I thought I heard her say "step up" and "come on". This match is clearly meant to be. Congratulations on finding your new love.

Soon you will be bringing Delilah home, it is going to change your life. I am glad you found her. The assisted living home will have an activities director, that might be a good place to start once you are home with Delilah. It's very considerate of you to want to let the family know she is in a good home and will hopefully give peace to them. Its going to be interesting to follow your thread on Delilah and how she responds to settling in with you. Thanks for joining us and bringing us along for the journey.

Tiny little baby steps. One thing that struck me was the remark that people have had parrot companions for thousands of years. When the laws changed for importing wild caught parrots, I think things must have improved significantly. As the hobby breeders have realized the work and the lifelong connection that gives you to a hand fed baby, countless people who so carefully vetted out new homes for those babies and then brought them back to care for them, that has changed in our country. There is a commonality to the rejected parrots who bonded in that first home with their special person and had a "blissful" few years until life changed and the relationship became troubled. It was sad to see the young Amazon in a small cage surrounded by her flock flying over, calling out and she couldn't join them. But, then I look at the situation many of us are in. We are committed, we have a second or third "game plan" for our companion. We joined this forum to learn to make the best life possible for the parrot in our lives. It is impossible to turn back the clock and open the cage and set them free. They are happy and healthy in our home with as much freedom and choice as any of our children would have as toddlers. As with heartbreaking news stories of human children born to parents incapable of the care and love they deserve, we have to do our very best with what we have today and be happy with our decision to share our life with the parrot who miraculously, against all odds found their way to our doorstep.

On the day my heart won the battle over my brain when I was hesitant to "take on a problem child", I made a choice and got right on the road the next day to go get her. From that time on it has been a total takeover by this little feathered genius with a heart of gold and reflexes of a lightning strike. She seems to reach pinnacle moments, then sit quietly to recover and analyze what is next. Next week we are making a road trip back to Pennsylvania to reunite with family and it is going to be very interesting to see how she reacts to seeing familiar faces. This is the return trip after spending months in my sister's home. It will be interesting to see if she feels settled and confident on the return. It seems that every time she has traveled with me and we return home, within days she will have a huge breakthrough moment. At the same time, I am getting closer and closer to having the braces removed from my teeth and that was the marker of the day she decided I was untrustworthy for a friendly step up. I can only imagine how it is going to be after she makes the decision to come down to sew with me and spend time in other rooms of my house. I think if I had to choose one thing that I am grateful for in our journey so far, it is how she has become relaxed and invites me to rub her head every night and every morning. She chooses the time and the setup of being on a specific perch at a specific time always with the bars between us because you know... I am still not quite trustworthy and might not do it "right". Considering how she is so afraid of hands, it is a gift to me when she requests a step forward from me. This week she has been tucking her head and closing her eyes and I almost feel a little sigh from her as she leans and presses herself further into my fingers and they are laced between the bars. She no longer nervously chews the feathers on her leg during our scritch moment. She no longer tucks.. looks.. tucks... looks as if she is uncertain whether this is going to turn out okay. She looks as if she may fall asleep and it makes me dream of the day I am not relegated to standing just right at the corner of her cage until my legs feel weak. Someday she is going to be curled up on my lap with a quilt and can sit with me for a spell. She calls out to Java while she is having her turn every night and I think Gilda really wants to join us as she is swaying and chatting. I make the offer to step up every night and she scurries instead to her happy place and that has to be good enough for now.

That first photo of her on the top of her cage door looks like she is smiling. Maybe that is the smile reflecting from Shane's face, I can feel it from Georgia. What a wonderful homecoming and beginning of your life together.

It's more specific than that Dan. He is very private about certain things. He closes the bedroom door, the master bathroom door and the commode privacy door and that's when she shouts out and heckles him. She seldom says that phrase to me but if he comes home from a trip she draws him right in with the devilish relish of knowing the two of them have an inside joke in which I don't participate. Who knows, when he comes in road weary from travel and when he comes back from a three mile run she may just be commenting on his looks. Hahahaha. I will save that one for the opportune time. Thankfully it's only an inside joke with him and not for company. Until she recognizes that it would get me good. Then it will be a free for all, I'm sure.

It goes something along the lines of him getting up about quarter of four in the morning, putting coffee on and she calls out "time to go night night?" and he laughs and tells her yes, its still time for her to go night night. Then he puts on his running shoes and she says "bye bye, see you later", he hushes her and tells her bye bye. When the lock turns on the front door she greets his huffing and puffing with "WHAT are you doing?" He responds, "crazy, I know". He heads past her cage to get a shower and she mocks him blowing his nose and sneezing a couple of times. He calls back, "ha ha, very funny". When she hears the door close to the inside door of the bathroom she will call out asking if he "sh** on the floor" and he ignores that one. He turns off all the lights and gets ready to leave and tells her its time to be quiet and go back to sleep and she tries a little extortion "ya got a cracker?" and he gives her a pistachio or pine nuts and rubs her head. He comes in to give me a kiss goodbye about five am and says "sorry I got Gilda all wound up" and I tell him, no you are not, you love it. He laughs and says I am right. Then I tell him that really I am learning to be a ventriloquist while he is out of town and he laughs again. Who says you can't train a parrot? He tells her "train LuLu not to spend all our money while I'm gone." And off he goes to the rat race with a happy smile.

Good to have you home again Ray. I think the oddballs are the ones who have not learned the exquisite wonder that is living with a parrot. They are the ones who might say... once... "It's just a bird." We get it, they are missing something epic.

Welcome to the forum, thanks for joining us. This sounds like a great fit for Sophie and for your family. Congratulations on your total immersion into everything grey. She is a precious little TAG and sounds like she has come to you at a perfect time. It is common for her to talk more when people leave the room. She is still very young and will practice new words and gain confidence with your household and you will hear more from her. She is a lovely little lady.

That sweet little voice and "What the quack" is great. How wonderful you could catch it for us to hear too. I have a feeling that's a good one to say, she will start a trend.

This is a happy turn of events for you Shane. Once you are home and settled, we are going to be waiting to hear how this is going. What a perfect age to adopt her and the perfect time for you to fill your life with the kind of companionship that is to her benefit as much as to you.

She is a lot closer to that neck pinch than I thought. I still have a tender spot on my scalp where she tried the neck pinch at the wrong end, LOL. I think I will stop putting my hair up to make it easy for her. Watching Gilda is my hobby but watching my husband be drawn in and for him to be just as enthralled as I am is a wonder in itself. When she launched off her cage, he was on his feet in an instant to rescue her and I convinced him to just wait and let her find her way back. The big smile on his face and the encouragement he was calling out to her was so endearing. At night and first thing in the morning now he is going to her cage and spending time with her as much as I do. They have a big time between 3:30 and 4:30 when he gets up to go running and she shouts orders at him and goes into hyperdrive. I don't particularly want her sleep interupted, but at this point in her development, it seems less of an issue a couple of days a week since they are improving their relationship. As seems to be her pattern, Gilda is taking a day of rest and has been real quiet. She really seems to be much more active to impress her daddy and he travels a lot, so maybe this week while he is gone, she will be quietly observing the best angle to get to that neck pinch.

Romeo is definitely enjoying the friendly rivalry between your favorite team and hubby's. I love how he laughs too. Surely the Jets team would love to see his video.

Often, the attempt is made to video a clip of Gilda as she accomplishes some "firsts" in our relationship. In less than two days she has totally destroyed a new toy. While I couldn't risk intruding and changing the dynamics by trying to get a video, I did get a picture of before and after. I put a new one in place of the one she already has accepted and it will be interesting to see if she goes back for seconds, or if its a been there, done that kind of thing. All I know is that looking at the picture doesn't convey the monumental stride this has meant for her development. As we watch her from a short distance, we are mesmerized by her every growing confidence. She has been hanging by one toe, gyrating wildly and boisterously for the first time in at least six years. She is just one step away from climbing on a swing attached to her floor stand and stabilized to keep from being "too much too soon". She also deliberately and with planning and forethought launched herself off her cage twice yesterday. She descended gradually at less than a 30 degree angle, sustained for over twenty feet. She wasn't distressed at all, just calmly turned around, climbed to the top of her cage and did it again. I think we are at the cusp of her gaining independence and courage. This one small toy doesn't look like a big deal, but it represents an amazing recovery of her finding her place in the world.

Thanks Dan, I watched the preview and read link after link of the articles suggested. I plan to watch the documentary with our other forum friends. One thing that struck me as I was reading is that our forum has addressed much of the information provided and we are not the "average" parrot home according to nationwide numbers provided. It is good that the word is getting out there and would be something wonderful if we get the opportunity to comment and direct more people who are considering an African Grey to join us for a real look into the commitment and dedication it takes to do our best for our companions.