katana600

You are off to a pretty good start even though you feel a little shaken in the confidence department. Take one day at a time and gradually you will get to know his body language and preferences. Depending on what his early years were like and his individual temperment, it will be a while before you really see trust and predictable results. You have something going for you in that he seems to have chosen you. He will have some nervousness and will be cautious in his new home. One thing I learned early on with our rehomed Timneh, Miss Gilbert is the grey is a very subtle companion. If they try to give us a warning, which may be as subtle as the position of his head or his eyes and we don't seem to take his advice, a bite will surely get our attention. He is still getting the lay of the land so the best way you can train him not to bite is to avoid giving him the opportunity. With some other species of animals, if you make friends with them early on, it goes well. With a grey, it is a process of gaining trust and a slow dance of give and take on grey time. You have lots of time, give him bribes. If he likes a snack through the bars, find something like pine nuts, almonds cut into small bites and other healthy things you can give to him often. He will associate you coming near his cage with good things. As the others have said, it is tough not to take it personally when he draws blood, but give him the grace to allow you to back away and he will get curious to come toward you.

Shortly after bringing Miss Gilbert home she did that a lot. I thought it was just how she showed me how grateful she was to have moved in and be given the royal treatment. She would regurgitate for me too and I took the general forum advice of thanking her and giving her something as a distraction. She will occasionally do this when we travel and she is in a new location and with certain new people.

Jill, I took a few minutes to go look at the photos of Harry Too and the others on that site. What struck me was the look of the parrots outside watching the photographer with interest and how it must have brightened their day to see a familiar friendly face. I liked the male red bellied parrot and I especially liked the black and white parrot with big green eyes at the bottom of the cage nesting in the adding machine tape. The phrase being in the cat bird seat now has a visual for me. Little Miss Gilbert is getting to be a normal grey minute by minute. Yesterday she climbed down from her cage and headed to the dining room as if this was just a daily routine forever. I quietly crept in my stocking feet to the opposite doorway to watch over my furniture legs after the wooden chest incident. She simply strolled from one place to the other under the table and around the room perusing her kingdom. After a bit, I offered her a step up and she waddled toward me and just as I expected her to lift her little foot for a step up, she surprised me with a lunge and a swipe at me. I was a little taken aback, that is usually only for inside the cage and when she already has had a snit on for one reason or another. I was completely surprised by the next move. She spread her wings, put her lower beak on the floor like a little steam shovel and she charged me. She tried to bite my feet and she jumped flapped and chased me like a mad goose, hissing even. I held my ground, sat in the doorway and watched to see what she was doing. She really WAS going to chew the feet of my dining room chairs. After a minute, she started her charge again but this time she spied a spider and before I could even think she ate it and looked me directly in the eye with what I can only describe as malice. Could be my imagination after witnessing her eat a spider. I had to remind myself that birds eat insects and just remained calm to watch her turn and slowly walk away around the corner, back to her cage and onto her floor stand. I had to laugh at myself thinking about all the times I have read others on this forum say "what can I do with my grey, it is attacking our feet" etc. I used to wistfully think that if Miss Gilbert would only interact with us, even if it meant being naughty, it would mean the world to me. Hahahahaha, as they say, be careful what you wish for. I just see a new day dawning in our household as she plots her takeover.

Unfortunately our little Miss Gilbert is unable to fly so we could let her out from the onset without any concerns and she wanted to stay cagebound for the first couple of years. She has a different history and had some issues but we are coming along fine now. Our other smaller parrot came with her wings brutally cut and when she grew them in she was a flighted demon for a little while getting adjusted. What I would recommend is to sit quietly near her and see how much closeness she will accept before opening her cage. It might break your trust if you have to chase her and towel her to get her back in. After a short time you will be able to know how much she can tolerate. What we have done in the past is to prepare for time out of the cage by doing it in the evening and turning off lights in all the house except the room we are in. That way if she gets panicked, you can turn the lights down dim or even off to get her back to safety if she isn't willing to step up to you and go back in on her own. If she is willing to come out, she may just stay on top of her cage and then go back in on her own if you approach her. If you are getting her original cage, if you could keep it set up the way she is used to seeing it, I think that would go a long way to helping her acclimate to new surroundings. Just take one day at a time and be open minded with her as well as gentle, quiet and calm. You will soon be able to read her signals and she will have you trained in no time.

Kudos to you for bringing an older parrot into your life. She is beautiful. We have a rehomed Timneh and had her for two and a half years. We thought she was a male and she already knew her name is Gilbert and we only last week discovered through DNA testing it is Miss Gilbert now. We are trying out new names and I have a feeling you can do the same for Rebel. It sounds like you are already off to a great start with her. Congratulations on her successful homecoming. Thanks for joining our forum. Welcome!

Open your heart and your home. Jump in with little expectations or thoughts of time frames for getting her acclimated and follow her lead. She will learn to trust you and she has probably been aching to hear her beloved companion's voice and have some attention. Take your time getting to know her and getting her settled in your home. I have a rehomed Timneh and her circumstances were similar except she had already been rehomed a couple of times so it took just a little longer. Now we are getting to the best part. It is well worth it.

What fun pictures, I loved the one of her flying. Great catch with the camera. Thanks for sharing those with us. It reminded me to start looking for a pumpkin too.

Welcome to the forum Glenn, thanks for being persistent and never giving up. Your description of Jacko and how he came to your family is like a story in a movie. You have been lucky to have such parents to stop and rescue a distressed African Grey and to put so much time into seeking his heartbroken former companions as well as for taking Jacko in and learning to provide for him. It is eerie that your mom had a life changing moment in the same area and I am happy to hear she has recovered fully. That location is surely your place of angels. Congratulations for working hard to become his trusted friend. He is beautiful and has a happy life with you. There doesn't seem to be a way to determine the African grey's age once they reach maturity. As babies their eyes are black and change to silver or grey after a few months, then to a yellow color and get a little lighter the color of golden straw at somewhere about three. I am only repeating what I have read, I have an older rehomed Timneh and don't know how old she is either.

Silly Daddy, Gracie knows she is going to get all those many cool new toys anyway, why bother with an over the top effort to do your bidding when you wish. LOL. The time will come when all your stars align and the camera is ready for another song from Gracie. Miss Gilbert is camera shy to an extreme. I have caught her talking on camera once in two and a half years. She was hanging upside down and playing and I was in amazement but every time I even leaned to one side in my chair ten feet away, she was like a little spider monkey scurrying up the side of the cage and into her hiding spot. My theory is they love to hear us tell our friends and family about their antics and refuse to allow it to be documented in order to leave everyone guessing as to whether we are outright lying or getting dotty and making up an imaginary friend.

Funny how I didn't remember being there, but I saw myself in there dancing too. Great smile for the morning, thanks Dave.

You all have me laughing out loud this morning at the vision of the Lilliputian Queen first using the royal testers to be certain her captor is not attempting to poison her. When we are on a roll, we are on a roll. As I was nearly empty handed with the boring plain mini cones, I was thinking of the time I made fortune cookies. We could make the round fortune cookies with the waffle cone recipe all changed up for the parrot and put a toy or surprise treat inside. You cut the cookie round, bake them flat and then shape them as they cool. Now I am thinking of making Wingy a stainless steel press to form them over tiny little cups. I went almost six months thinking I didn't have what it takes to understand a complex "used" parrot with issues and why it wasn't my problem anyway and how much pain I already endured to "fail" with the first two. Then my family spent another two years with a scary, unpredictable and breathtakingly ungrateful "captive". To watch in the short time since Miss Gillybert has decided to dazzle us with her cunning plan to win us over and then wait for the opportunity to make her "escape" I am in awe of the cleverness and emotional capacity of this little bundle of grey feathers. We will keep the book online for now as we let the plot develop. LOL. I have a feeling my husband is about to become smitten with his little girl. When she came under his chair and nibbled on his toes, he was delighted. Well first he was relieved that she only wanted a nibble because he witnessed my toe following an inadvertent chomp by Java and she is a fourth of Miss Gilbert's size. She and I have him right where we want him now. The first step is in getting him to name her. She isn't the only one with a cunning plan. LOL. Last night he laughed when I suggested "Sybil" and it wasn't entirely a nervous laugh either. He is 'different' now that he feels like a protector of a darling little girl who has been misunderstood. Of course, she is the only one up in the morning at 4:30 when he is getting prepared for the work commute and she sends him off with a cheery "bye bye, see ya later, back soon".

Thanks ladies. I guess what I mean with Miss Gilbert is that I had to take my can-do attitude and back it way down to stop "doing" things and give her the space to feel safe to come out from her state of lock down. No amount of coaxing or trickery was going to help. She has to be able to say stop and know that she isn't going to be overpowered, toweled or otherwise steered into what anyone else wants. Once trust is built, I think we can move mountains together and we are getting so close. David was remarking again today how much it startled him to feel her beaking his toes. It is interesting that she is more likely to come off her cage and roam on the floor when he is home. Finding out she is a girl has been sweet for him. He talks to her different, softer and more understanding. Usually his conversation with Gilbert has been "be nice to LuLu, she cooks your beans". I try a new name every day. Today she was Lilly. Silly Gilly Lilly. LOL. I think she will let me know when the right name sticks. I did get the mini ice cream cones. I have never seen such a thing, wouldn't have know to look for them, thanks. The introduction was textbook normal grey. She flung it to the bottom of her cage. Then with great effort she went down to get it, carry it to the play top, then flung it emphatically down for the dog. I didn't have nutriberries, so she might have been protesting the empty cone. Hahahaa... I will keep trying. When anyone suggests I "write a book", I think it is a kind way to say I talk a lot. LOL. It would take an audience of grey loving people to understand how much it takes to change the habits of a grey with "issues". Gilbert is so close now to being just another normal grey.

Thanks for the great idea Wingy. It seems we have been in a holding pattern for so long, I have forgotten all the lively play ideas for "normal" greys. I so appreciate all our forum friends applauding the strides our girl is taking. I have been willling to stand on my head and eat bugs to get her to try new things and gain confidence, but really all I had to do is reassure her, stay my distance and be quiet. She did most of the work on her own. It was the hardest thing in my life to not "help" her but it wasn't help she needed, it was time. She is amazing us with her normal grey behavior. It seems to have come out of left field all at once. She matter of factly came out of her cage this morning, played for a long time on her floor stand, then climbed to the floor exploring the living room. She came under David's chair, tested a toe or two and then went back to her "job". I wasn't thinking when I heard her chewing wood. I have heard that before, with her peeling the bark off her floor stand. It took a second before I understood she was still on the floor and she chewed the nice little wooden trunk the little dogs use to get up on the sofa. I have to up my game to keep up with Miss Gilbert. I will get ice cream cones today. Love all the new ideas.

I love Bailey's pictures, thanks so much for showing us. The bear to snuggle is just adorable. Glad your breeder was so diligent and thoughtful. What a beautiful start in life for Bailey. Great idea for starting the harness now too. Bailey has a charmed life ahead with you.

She is blossoming Howardine, it is a lovely way to put it, I will start auditioning flower names for her. After reading Talon's thread about picking feathers and all the great ideas for shredding materials and toys, I offered Miss Gilbert a nearly empty toilet tissue roll. She was not impressed. I showed it to her. I put it on the outside of her cage on a porch perch and she watched me put it there. A little while later she went out to inspect it and I don't know quite what happened. One minute she was sneaking up on it to take a look and the next she was growling and screaming I was sure I was going to look over and see her neck deep in the throat of a python. I took it away and she ran to me for solace and protection. I took her outside in the sunshine and she had her beak open as if she was amazed with her jaw agape. I have decided to mix things up a bit and rename David too. LOL. Since she calls me LuLu and has already made that decision and she has started calling me "Maaaaaa" as well, I figure we all can have alias names. So, I called David "Poppy" hoping she will pick up on that and it could transition to grandkids some day. When we came back inside and she was settled again. I tried a different approach with the toilet paper and ripped of a square and she snatched chunks out of it from my hand. This morning she played tug of war with a piece. Well, I say playing, but there is no doubt she was trying to pull my hand close enough to take a swipe at me. I put the little roll of tissue back on her porch perch outside the cage and maybe she will give it another try. I feel so happy for her. She really is blossoming. A few months ago, everything was still scary and she didn't venture far from the inside of her cage and comfort zone. Now she is on her floor stand, hanging upside down, swinging wildly from a boing and she keeps pushing the swing to and fro. I really think she is going to get on it one day soon. One tiny little petal at a time, her personality is unfurling like a delicate flower or fern turning toward the sun. As far as the bed time routine last night. At eight oclock she said "time to go night night". She ran right into her cage just as usual and took her bedtime almond snack and she put herself to bed. After a couple of night owl late nights, she was too tired to challenge me I guess.

Congratulations to Paco for a successful homecoming. We had some sadness related to the reason for Miss Gilbert's homecoming too. I was so touched by Sarah's loss and so eager to make a life for our little Timneh who had already been rehomed a time or two and had "issues". The happy part is knowing Paco is being cherished, stimulated and in good hands with someone with prior parrot experience. You are off to a wonderful start. After a few weeks of getting to know her, I would love for you to start a thread in the rescue room. It isn't just for the difficult cases, the happy ones like your rehoming isn't really a rescue, but you are her haven. Thanks for joining us, we will all learn together.

@Wingy, I think the most wonderful thing of all is how Miss Gilbert is now starting to have daily behaviors that are right in line with "normal" greys. I have been holding back with her and letting her have handicap points, not pushing her buttons, gently bringing her around to over come fear. Now she is becoming more interactive and challenging in a different way. Game on little grey bird, game on!

I have been just so tickled with her lately, for the most part. When David came home from his business trip, so much for the Cajun Lady, my Mississippi Queen, she was no lady with regaling him with her favorite cuss word. She refered to "it" on the floor, "it" on the dog, and "it" 'it" "it". Since I have not heard it in more than two weeks, David is the common denominator. She knows she is making him laugh even now that he realizes he has to walk away and not encourage it. Today this place is a zoo. I was just posting on jbsmomto1's thread about her bad boy. One of my little dogs chose today to try out the new howling skill his bigger cousins taught him while I was staying there last winter. Miss Gilbert was going from telling him "Quiet" to barking and then to howling with him. I had to quit what I was doing and come up here. Now she is on her floor stand, banging things running up and down her boing and creating mischief. Her late nights up are not slowing her down any today. I am going to get ahead of her this evening. As soon as it gets dark outside, I will tell her it is bedtime and then if she agrees to another step up we will get that out of the way and get to bed at a decent time. It will be my luck she won't be interested and then I will have to go to bed at 8:00. She may not be a cuddle bird (yet) but she has been taking some amazing steps with courage lately. This is what I had my heart set on all that time ago. I had read of others that said when their rescue came out of the shell, it was all at once and remarkable. She is on her floor stand raising unholy mayhem, wreaking havoc upon a bell, beating the stuffing out of a rope and leather lace toy, and is one heartbeat away from getting on a swing for the first time ever. Who is this little ragin' cajun queen anyway? The apple of my eye and the song in my heart, that's who. All these old classic rock songs are in my head because they were playing while I was on the great motorcycle break-in quest. Today it is Loverboy with "Lovin' Every Minute of It".

I didn't mean to laugh a little at your post jbsmomto1, I know when it is taken to the extreme this would be undesireable, but like Timbersmom, I have one that sat on a perch for two years and wouldn't even look at us. I am wondering if you were to have a table perch near you and give him things to keep busy and occasionally picking him up and reassuring him, then returning him to the perch where he can be with you, but not on you would be a good start. If you give him interesting things to destroy and figure out, maybe that would give you five minutes in the bathroom alone. LOL. Seriously, I get what you mean as you say in the most loveable way. Miss Gilbert has been yelling "Maaaaaaa" when I am out of her sight after my daughter thought Will Ferell was so funny on Wedding Crashers. Then, my sister thought it was funny when her big outdoor dogs taught my mini dachshund how to howl. This morning the dog was howling, the parrot was alternating between barking, howling and yelling Maaaaa while I was trying to draft a really difficult new quillt pattern. I had to laugh, but I also had to abandon my project.

Well isn't that an honor and privilege, well done to you and Smokey. Nice web site, I went on to read about some of the other celebrities. Smokey is looking relaxed and is settling in with you in a short time. Again, well done you.

Last night, once again Miss Gilbert opted not to go inside her cage at bedtime. The usual way of just asking and getting the desired response was not effective and I chose not to set up a battle that would have no winner. She goes to the top of her open door, as usual, but instead of swinging in to her favorite perch for a scratch and an almond treat, she stayed on the door, eye to eye with me, definitely setting up a "challenge". I told her good night, turned off the light and went to bed as she said "hey". After a few minutes, she was out there talking in the dark and I went back out to her and to my surprise, once again she offered me a step up. All my "common sense" says to be firm or bedtime is going to be a nightmare, but for the reward of allowing me to be close to her, the trust of being carried around and not having a panic attack from her is worth losing a little sleep. Once again she was fine with me carrying her to the sofa and this time she allowed me to put her down on a blanket on the back and she explored, came back to me for a scratch and when she was done, she waved her foot to step up and go back to bed. By the time she was out fifteen minutes she started trembling a little and her nervousness was taking over. In the past couple of months, it seems more like we just brought home a rehomed, cautious Timneh and I think we are at a breakthrough. It would seem to coincide somewhat to her gender reveal, but in reality, she was becoming more active which is what led us to the vet for an annual checkup without the trepidation of traumatizing her. Her first vet visit was when we brought her in and the vet suggested it would not be a good time to get baseline blood analysis because Gilbert was so obviously stressed and it would change the readings and not really provide us with solid information. So, we did the minimum until we had more cooperation. A year ago we had the best vet visit but something got lost in translation and the front desk got my message for DNA testing and the vet didn't. It wasn't worth going through the four hours of travel and distress to Gilbert so we waited. The difference one year has made in Gilbert's disposition has been remarkable. In most cases, with a new baby there is a common way of doing things to train them and keep them healthy. With an older, traumatized and upset grey, it is a learning experience and unique to the individual and daily situation. In our case, I have found that not pushing Gilbert has been the delicate pivot point of our success to this level of cooperation. For her to offer her foot to me and initiate the opportunity to be within her protected space is enough for me to be doing the happy dance.

Good things to consider. I don't think there was any physical violence or that kind of abuse in Gilbert's past. That is irrelevant though because she has been upset and angry and rehomed so she has suffered what she perceived as unfairness and a kind of abuse being away from her beloved and in new households that was not what she wanted. I do love the name Gilbert and the way she says it sounds very endearing and it is obvious she is speaking about herself. However, I am seeing an opportunity to try new things and she has been more responsive to me. It could be me. I could be considering her to be a delicate little girl and my joy of welcoming her to her new identity could be a trigger for her to respond to me. All I know is, even though I was absolutely sure it would make no difference to label her gender, it does. I am in awe of the complexity of the whole situation and interested in the response of family and friends. We are on the Gilbert 2.0 reboot and remarketing campaign. We are resetting all the defaults and learning to start at the beginning all over again. LOL.

Thanks Dan, you find the most interesting articles. I love the Pancho story. I have always had an affinity for any kind of animals, but it wasn't until we brought home the first parrot that I came to know how much "stuff" I have inside me to deal with anything. LOL. Who know how wonderful and challenging it would be to share our lives with birds? Now, a pelican may just be out of my league, but who knows where our life will take us, never say never.

Dot and Dotty were short lived, not nearly strong enough for her. My daughter suggested Kahvi, it is a Swedish translation variant of coffee from the arabic or turkish coffee. And whoa does turkish coffee pack a wallop. This seems like a strong name for her. We will keep Gilbert as her 'maiden' name and it gives her room still to reinvent herself. She really does seem to be coming into her own. Love the changes and the prospects and possibilites. It will still be a mystery for us to see what she likes and how she responds to all of our ideas. We have spent so long "waiting" for her, not pushing her and it is a delicate dance to let her take two steps forward and one back. We are having a ball trying out new things, maybe she is ready for her little world to get shaken up a bit and will shake off some of the fear based shackles and dance with me like nobody is looking.

Our parrot is a Timneh and she eats about six to eight pellets of Harrison's high potency coarse a day. I used to fill the small dish about a quarter of the way then realized how much we wasted because we do toss out the uneaten ones in the morning instead of topping off the dish. Now I just put in about ten pellets and seeing her dish close to empty seems to stimulate her to eat most of them every day. Eating four pellets this early in the conversion process is pretty good I think. If you just keep them in a dish and don't make a fuss over it, you may never see him eating them, but he will go snack on them if he gets hungry. We keep three dishes in the cage. One is for pellets, one for water and one for warm wet bean and grains with red palm oil in the morning, changed out with veggies later in the day, or maybe another helping of warm beans before bed time. When I had a sick parrot, I would toss a few pellets in the chopper and then make warm oatmeal and let them soften a little in the oatmeal and then feed them and they were well received first thing in the morning and right at bed time.