katana600

Nice video Ray, Cricket is so affectionate and tuned in to you. Would you believe after I posted yesterday that I never see Miss Gilbert doing the head bob, today she got excited for the football game and my hubby's exuberance and she was head bobbing and swaying. Go figure. Never say never.

I believe you are right Jeff. I think Gracie knows exactly what she is doing and playfully giving the same category so you know she knows what you want but not quite rewarding you with her cleverness. There is so much more we are going to learn from our winged companions.

You are asking yourself some really good questions. I too saw a grey more than 35 years ago in a pet store and was captivated by her intelligence and interactions. Nothing ever came close for me, I did the same as you are thinking of doing. I got a little red bellied parrot thinking she would satisfy my longing for an African grey. Java is a wonderful little parrot. She has more in common with her behavior and companionship as a smaller version of a grey. Her previous generations were even from the same area of Africa. All it did was make me want for a grey that much more. You know your heart best. Think about the reasons you are deciding against a grey at this time. Are you going to change your life by going off to college or something that you couldn't take a grey with you? There are lots of people on the forum with several different parrot species and each one has its wonderful attributes.

Welcome to you and all your critters. It is heartbreaking to know how you lost two beloved family members in the fire even while celebrating that you were able to get out with your children. It had to have been devastating. We can relate to Carlos ceremoniously dropping her gender twister into your hubby's lap. We didn't have such a dramatic announcement but just the same discovered our little Timneh Gilbert is a Miss Gilbert through DNA recently. Thanks for joining us and for your years of Navy service.

Our red-bellied parrot will sway excitedly when she is happy and seeking attention. Our Timneh is still very conservative with movement still and I have never seen her sway or head bob but I expect it will come in good time.

Thanks for joining us. I was a lurker for six months reading everything before I got the nerve to create a login and start tentatively asking questions. Don't let anything stop you, we all asked questions and still do. Believe me, we will learn as much from your experience as we have from all our forum family. It really is a journey and its nice to have a place to sit and chat for a spell while we decide which direction we want to head into next. What is your grey's name? We would love to hear more about both of you. Welcome to the forum.

I think we all imagine it, that somewhere deep inside us is a primal instint that believes we can soar to great heights. When I was a child, I had vivid dreams of flight. As I grew older the dreams ebbed away but the memory of those dreams has remained as vivid as those mornings awakening with a conviction that I could fly. My children also would wake up to excitedly tell me they could fly. My daughter at four was convinced if she drank the hummmingbird elixir that she would be able to fly.

The last thing before heading to bed, I was checking our forum. Miss G is ready for lights out. First she said pretty girl a couple of times and she will say that to me or to our other parrot Java. Then she said her usual "time to go night night" but rather than the usual "Gilbert" again she said "Gil-gurrrl". She repeated it three more times. She is morphing her own name. It is just the most amazing thing ever. She really hasn't picked up many new phrases since she has been with us, so this is doubly fascinating to me. She also got into a big LuLu fest today. I was busy in the basement working on a big sewing project and she was whistling to me from the main floor. Then she started with "Hey LuLu" and a few "Hey LuLu little lady" to "LuLu's a good girl". Whatever changed to open her floodgates is escalating. Its a great time to live with a lovely little lady.

Must be a male dog, he is looking the same place you were!

I'm sure you were considering all your options prior to your surgery, it may have been a planned week in the hospital but no one has a crystal ball on the outcome and length of the recovery period. Greys are very astute when noticing a flock member is hurt or sick. Dayo could be reacting to that right now. You did what you thought was right at the time. Forgive and forget and make ways for Dayo to get up and down from his cage so he can still get where he is wanting to go. A ladder to the floor maybe? When he has more choices, he may not be out of sorts too long. Shake off your feelings of guilt because it will snowball into feeling worse and worse. You honestly did what you thought you had to do given the circumstances but its all going to be okay.

Kizzy hit the jackpot when she came into your life. Her environment is full of stimulation and she has a beautiful outdoor setting to enjoy with you. Happy Birthday to Kizzy and congratulations on your big win.

Thats good to know Ray. My only other experience with greys were my two babies and they hadn't grown up enough to get out of the affectionate baby stages, so my experience is limited. Miss Gil has changed from the fierce crushing clampdown to a nudge and swipe so it gets a little better all the time. This morning I noticed that her chest no longer trembles when I am near her cage, not the slightest tremor in her pretty new feathers. I have learned to approach her with my hands behind my back and that seemed to make a difference to her. The day I see her eyes pinpoint will be the day it becomes official that she is just a regular normal TAG in touch with her instincts again. I have been watching and her pupils barely constrict a millimeter or less and if you aren't real close and looking right at her you would miss it. But, that is still a positive change. She came into our life with two toys that were reportedly with her since her first home. One is leather and she will chew on that occasionally but seems more drawn to it now that she is getting more active. The other is a set of wooden disks on a skewer. She hadn't shown any interest in it one way or another but a few months ago when I moved every toy to the outside of her cage and lower than her floor stand top perches, she has been whacking it in passing. For two days now she has been focusing great effort on demolishing it. She picks it up and thrashes it against the wall and hoists it up over the perch to get a good grip on it and systematically one disk at a time she is whittling it down to nothing. She has not had much interest in any wood or chew type toys. She has a lot of variety to choose from and I am noticing that she stays active and examines things all day now. I imagine her in her little roost at night taking notes on my behavior and body language... "day 985, my captor has still not shown any measureable signs of intelligence, still feeds me rocks and gruel. I have nearly given up hope of training this one. Am looking for ways to harness her brain energy directly but alas I fear the brain suckers have beat me to it."

Ray, you might have to have a firehose for that cleanup effort.

We have a shadow of illness over our house so I wouldn't dare to bring in another. For now, I live vicariously through all of you with multiples and new babies. @lupine, I can't guess what color your baby's feathers will come in but that little bald head looks like it needs a little kiss on the forehead.

Oh dear, even watching the set up and knowing somewhat what going to happen, when she started screaming, I nearly came out of my chair and ran from my own house. The link wasn't working, but this might be a similar one

We still hover precariously on the cusp of recovery or evolution with Miss Gilbert and sometimes regression. It is the journal that helps jog my memory of blips and starts and the great joys of progress. Little Miss Gil-girl taught me the real meaning of grey time. She won my heart three years ago sight unseen and recent months has just reminded me that the leap of faith and words of seasoned veterans is paying off for the work and patience. It was six months ago when I was gone for a few days during a hospital crisis for a loved one that she sheared the feathers off her chest with anxiety. As I look at her lovely regrowth of feathers I wonder if she was thinking that the other shoe had dropped and my sister's refuge was going to be the place where she expected that I left and wasn't going to return. We are going to travel again for the holidays and hopefully this time she has the memory and confidence that we are in this together for the long term. To this day she will surrender her head for a night time scratch and be relaxed and warm in my hand and suddenly without warning she spins and tries to bite me but in a second she resumes her bowed head for another rub. Later when the light is turned off she now will always say "hey" as if it surprised her. Every night now after she says hey, she exclaims a low whoo. For about fifteen minutes in the pitch dark she will alternate between imitating the dog barking to a hey or a whoo. I thought a grey would be silent in the dark and that had been my experience until recent weeks. She learned to do this because while we stayed with my sister, her husband gave each of the dogs a half slice of cheese as a bedtime snack. I had never done that with my dogs but once we came home, one will go stand in the kitchen in the dark and bark at the refrigerator if I go to bed without remembering to give him a snack. My bright little friend capitalized on my willingness to climb out of bed and come back for round two or three of a head scratch session. I just can't resist. We fall off to sleep giggling because she would keep that game up all night. It the most amazing thing to hear her laughter echoed back at me in the dark and the last thing I hear at night.

Your son looks like he is in college and he certainly is a good sport to be doing hard homework work with the help of Nala. It really warms my heart that she chose him and she is equally willing to enjoy all your family. For some reason some of my photos from my phone seem to "flip" on the side. I email the picture to myself, then double click and open it with the windows media viewer. Then I use the little icon on the bottom to rotate it right or left to make it upright and when I close the email it will ask if want to keep changes and I say yes. Then it stays in the upright orientation. It must be the direction I had my phone in when I took the original photo. Your description of life being brighter with her in it speaks volumes. I feel the same way with the new laughter in our home because of the little companion who has decided to keep us.

Thanks Ray, I am having more sunshine moments on a daily basis. Miss Gilbert has had a way of saying "Gilbert's a good boy" since her first day with us. She sings it out in lilting female voice and emphasizes and draws out the boyeeee at the end. Since discovering her DNA gender, when she says what a good boy she is, I say "you ARE a good girl Gilbert". Today she said it and I repeated my reassurance that she is a good girl, Java is a good girl, Mick is a good boy, Baxter is a good boy. She will tell me the dog is a good boy but in a different voice and different tone when they come in from going outside. Then she said "Gilbert's a good"... silence, "Gilbert's a good"... silence then to my amazement she said "Good Gil Gurrrrrllll". She has not increased her vocublary greatly since coming to live with us but she is now changing it up a bit. My daughter who has not visited Gilbert since June said she has a whole new attitude know that she knows she is a girl. LOL. I just love how she is finding her moment in the sun.

Nicely done with your Flight Log and with Inara in general. I enjoyed your outlook tremendously. I have had my mind so focused on hoping and praying for Miss Gilbert to gain flight, I was naturally expecting to read about a fledgling, LOL. My kids have me well versed in the sci fi flight log too though. Clever and interesting report. I would love to read more in the rescue room about your experience with an older wild caught grey when you have time. So much has changed in our realm of experience and things are quite different in many ways and similar in others. I would love to read more from your perspective. My karma looked pretty much opposite of yours. I had the joy of a well socialized, well loved, hand fed baby Congo African grey and lost him to illness while he was still a baby. Then I took in a rehoming challenge and it has been a different but as you say equally rewarding experience. Actually, as much as my other experience will be forever young, never destroy my house, never bite me, was sweet and enthralling, this one is more rewarding because I have had to work a lot harder to get a positive response.

What the others are saying is what I experienced when we brought home a little character with a checkered past. Miss Gilbert had some unpleasant things in her vocabulary at first. I would ignore those things and as Dan says I would give her other things to replace those words. Just for instance, if she said "shut up you idiot", I would say "hush" or "quiet". When she said "idiot" with great emphasis, I would call out as if to a friend "Elliot". Slowly those things became less common. As time goes on, she has continued to say the sweet things that we reinforce and praise her for "night night, sweet dreams" "bye bye, see ya later" but we infrequently hear the other words. But, when she gets overwrought, she may come up with a word with great emotion behind it. One thing about soft tones, it is good while you are getting to know her and keeping her feel safe. Later when you are wanting her to pick up certain words as you snuff out the nasty language, a higher pitch and excited tone catches their attention and they will want to repeat those things said with emphasis and emotion. Good luck while you get to know her, you will make a difference in her life.

Well done, they look very well made and already being used. Babalu is an awesome sport for hoping right on for his glamour shot in the mirror.

This sounds like a wonderful opportunity for you. These babies are so young they still have silver irises. In the wild a Congo African grey fledgling doesn't leave the clutch until they are about twice the age of your prospects. Dave has good advice. Its a good plan to have separate cages because you can open them and allow them togetherness as much as they like and allow them to sleep in their own place. Another consideration is the expense of vet visits which will be double. Check with a local avian vet and ask for the cost estimates in your area to give you a better insight on that. Good luck to you as you make the decision to enrich your life with a grey and all the love and hard work that naturally come with it.

Its hard to decide what is more enthralling with Escher's exchange, that he enjoys your kisses or that he talked about it, but that sure is a great moment for us to share with you. One thing I believe to be coming is that he will have enjoyed so much your excitement over his talking is that he will be more eager to please you again. This is going to be such a fun time for all of us. Thanks for sharing with us so we can be there with you as you explore these wide horizons.

You are too kind VStar Mama, this saga of Miss Gilbert coming into her own has seemed like a long long time. Worries amplify time and make it seem endless yet when we are having fun it shortens time and it positively flies past. Dan, I didn't take it that you meant Miss G was not meant to continue in the rescue thead, just that her antics are becoming so normal that I wouldn't need to stay out of the grey lounge. I agree that we can do both. I was sooo close twice now to getting a video clip of her handling that door with authority. I was happy happy happy when this room was created just for the reasons birdhouse gives. Otherwise a lengthy explanation would be necessary to set the expectation. The seemingly normal things that Miss Gilbert is now doing sometimes without the history might lead someone new with a younger grey to think it was a long arduous process for something that would just come naturally to their own companion. The beauty part of the rescue room is for success stories of those well adjusted greys from their first loving family being integrated into a second loving family which encourage someone new to greys to consider a home to a wonderful companion. The running commentary of Miss Gilbert allows someone else to look thoughtfully into his or her heart to consider if they stick it out through thick and thin, in our time and in grey time, a parrot with human caused issues can come around and will be the most rewarding labor of love in our adult lives. I was inexperienced, uncertain and out of my league when Miss Gilbert's plight came to our forum. I put it off for five months while I grieved my losses and wondered if I could walk away from a problem knowing the situation Sarah found herself in and the need for Gilbert. It may not have been a snap decision but it was the right decision and we were made for each other.

What a cute little fellow he is, great job on getting those photos. It sounds as if Echo has personality plus. I can't look too closely lest I catch a stronger dose of that MBS. For now, I will live vicariously through your time with Echo.