katana600

That is amazing, I couldn't believe how many things he was saying.

Piper doesn't know what he is missing by passing you over. Everyone in our family went through "trial by fire" with Java and over six years she has gotten to tolerate everyone but she still will give her stinkeye to my husband even as she sits on his shoulder. He is resigned to be guarded with her and she is resigned to permitting him to live in the same house. You have a great attitude towards the situation and keeping the little stinker supplied with treats and snacks and your love from a little bit of a distance. It is remarkable that Piper recognizes her car above the rest. It's also nice for you to smile as you watch your daughter being gifted with Piper's love and devotion even when he is being such a pip to you.

Gilbert and I are a little frayed right now, but inside our hearts we are both soaring. We take turns being the "wind beneath" the other's wings. Right now he is the one who is coming toward me and gracing me with his trust and confidence. It is good to read posts from all of you with lots more experience saying "just quietly build trust". Dave007 just reminded me of that in another post. There is no "training" necessary until the trust is earned. I am not sure if you have seen the commercial where the little girl says "we want more, we want more"? When Gilbert gets playful and interacts and comes to me, that is how I am feeling inside, but I give him praise and let him back away when he needs to and that seems to be what is giving him confidence. I expected it to be a slow process. If you look at it on a daily basis, or even a weekly basis progress is nearly imperceptible. But, when you look back where he was when he came in, or even a year ago, he is making great strides and becoming a happy healthy grey.

Good advice Ray. When I consider the reference point of how he was panting, frightened and bloody from pulling about twenty flight feathers, it is breathtaking. He was so traumatized that afternoon when I met him that I gave up on the idea of getting a motel room and drove eight or nine into the wee hours just to get him home without any more changes. I try not to think about he was feeling back then, but you are astute in taking me back there just to see how far he has already come. When I consider the state he was in and where we are now, I think we are soaring on tattered wings.

When Gilbert's plight was mentioned on the forum, I wondered long and hard if I was going to be ready to make such a commitment and if it was going to make a difference in the long term to put time and energy into a seemingly hopeless cause. Now, especially when we have had a good day like yesterday, I think where he will be five months from now... and that I wasted those months being indecisive. The bottom line with taking in any animal or human for that matter is to know you will stick with it for the long haul and love them even when they seem ungrateful and sometimes even when they are downright contrary. Yesterday he played in his travel cage, climbed on the floor and explored the house a little, played with toys and was active for hours. Again at bedtime, he went in sweetly and let me scratch his head like he always does. But, while I was on my computer in the kitchen, I came through to go to bed and he had opened the little door high in his cage, (maybe meant for the nesting box?) and he was out. I was gleeful, I think he was trying to be with me. To my surprise, he offered me a step up, but not too sure, so I offered him my forearm instead of making fingers too available since I couldn't read what he was doing. He stepped up. I gave him a little tour of the house, showed him where I was in the kitchen, showed him how to turn all the lights on and off again and took him back to bed. His eyes were ever so slightly pinning, he was on red alert to be taken away from his comfort zone, but he was calm and watching my face intently. It reminded me of when we had our first baby grey. Gilbert is beginning to get ready to learn more about his new home after 26 months.

Everything I learned about living with a grey and then about living with a "recovering" grey is from our forum members. I scarcely have the words to express my graditude to those who have gone before me and have shared their insights and suggestions to find ways to help Gilbert learn to cope. I had to google your "flying too close to the ground", I had never heard it. I think Gilbert is the one flying too close to the groung for now, he is my little angel. Angels come to us in all forms and the ones we are least likely to recognize have the most impact on our hearts. My book would have to be all the things not to do. I have learned that sometimes doing nothing, just living together and waiting, is the best thing. I never knew how hard it was to back off and not do anything and how what seems like going backward is really going forward with grey time.

Thanks Judy, I thought I had an idea what we were getting into with Gilbert but I had little insight into just how complex these intelligent creatures can be. To Haggy's thread title "Where do we go from here?" I say, to worlds unknown, to infinity and back. That is how many variations there are on the rehoming spectrum. Our parrots study us carefully and interpret the slightest motions and expressions based on what they have seen before. It takes a long time and consistent repetition before the wary grey begins to trust his prediction of a new companion. Gilbert has had me second guessing myself and wondering if I was the best person for him and now I know it just takes time to give him the space to slowly extricate himself from the place inside where he withdrew to cope with things he didn't understand.

Your baby is getting closer and closer to being ready to come home. What a little beauty. The color of your shirt is a perfect backdrop to make an adorable little grey look even more appealing and beautiful.

Yes, Karen, I have to go outside to talk on the phone between Gilbert chatting me up and hooting and whistling and exciting the dogs by asking if they want to go outside. Thanks Chelsea, I have been just smiling all day myself at Gilbert's new courage. As I have been working for a few days on a kitchen reorganization and deep clean, Gilbert can see me in the kitchen and he is relaxed and hanging out either on the floor near his cage or the very bottom of his floor stand. It is such a good feeling to know he is getting more comfortable. Where he used to tremble and hide and pull inside himself, he is now beginning to seek out little mini adventures. He is perching low and it is going to get just a little harder to keep an eye on him but its worth the progress.

I know we can't compare progress with a grey to progress with a dog. I was thinking on your dedication to be patient with Harry. If you think about six months in the life of a rescue dog, it is a significant period of time in proportion to its expected lifespan. For a grey, it may be a blink of an eye and just a tiny portion of its lifespan. Also with a rehomed grey there isn't a progressive path of positive growth and interaction. Its up one day, backward the next and it goes along without regularity if we look at it from a standpoint of human interactions. That's why we call it grey time and when I accepted that and celebrated our good days and kept my behavior predictable and consistent on his bad days, we are making some strides. If it helps any, the general consensus is when these guys start making progress, they have one insight after another and will cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time.

Hi, My name is Dee and I am addicted to parrot approval. I self medicate with a daily dose of Timneh African Grey and I have periods of total preoccupation for entire days at a time. When he is asleep, I get on the internet to seek out other users and together we plot greater levels of approval from these feathered overlords. Please oh please, don't cure me. LOL. Love your humor Ray.

Omigoodness. In the past few days Gilbert has been quiet for a full day, then has a flurry of new activity and trying new things... then withdrawn for a whole day. Recently he got on the floor, and when he was making his way back to his cage, he took a detour to where our small dogs were playing tug of war with a rope toy and climbed onto their bed within inches as though he might just join in. They generally ignore him, they never even looked up. Now today while I was just posting to the forum, he is on the move. He launched himself off the big cage and landed on the far side of the room. He was quick to want to climb back up the travel cage "bridge" or "basement apartment" in our Mouse Trap style living room playhouse. This time instead of going up, he went around the back and started to climb on a boing which I have attached on both ends to minimize the motion. For the first time, he was hanging upside down, gently swinging and I can just see how much his confidence is blossoming. One of the little dogs came to see if he was tossing them a treat when he was flinging wood bark from the floor stand. Gilbert stood his ground, gave him the "what for" and sent him back to his warm little doggy den in the corner. Gilbert then went on a reconnaissance mission. He made his way around the living room in a cautious but determined way and went under chairs, behind furniture and made a little mischief along the way. He found some boxes that I was gathering in different areas as I get things unpacked from our recent foray away from home. He chewed up the corners of boxes, he made messes on the floor and he is well on his way to becoming a "normal" parrot. LOL. I tried to get a couple of pictures, but the slightest change in what I was doing would interrupt his progress, so I am just being a quiet observer. This is one of the best days of my life. He IS finding his mojo. I can't stop smiling even though this new horizon means he is going to be more "high maintenance" from here on. I nearly forgot, last night I was on the phone with a friend until way past bed time. Gilbert started making siren sounds and telling me to go night night. Finally when I went to tuck him in, he unexpectedly stuck his little foot out and stepped up to me from inside his cage. I thought he was ducking his head to give me a bite and I nearly dropped him when I realized in the half darkness that he was jumping to get onto my hand. He is just full of surprises in recent days.

I really admire how you are seeking out others to find glean some insight into Harry. It really is an individual process and each of us bounce ideas around and sometimes they come at just the right moment that what didn't work for six months or two years in my case, will suddenly be magical. It is common early on for us to wonder if we did the right thing with getting a rehomed grey, but when they do start to open up, it is worth all the time we have given them. We are just now having some breakthroughs and success with Gilbert, more than two years in. He had a plucking frenzy about three weeks ago and he looks a lot like Harry. It comes and goes. Just don't set any "goals" for yourself or try to have a timeline of when you would like to see progress. That seems to lead to disappointment. When you just meet the little guy where he is, accept him and give him some space, he will start wanting to come toward you. It is a delicate dance of pursuit and withdrawal. When I would pursue Gilbert would withdraw, when I withdraw, he cautiously comes forward a bit. (P.S. Timber's Mom aka Karen, I saw that you were posting right at the same time and you have more experience than you realize, you are doing great with Timber)

Welcome to the forum and congratulaions on the progress you have had with Harry in the short six months he has been in your care. If he has stopped plucking, my instinct says he is feeling somewhat secure with you although his outward mannerisms may suggest he would rather bite you and not have any hands on interactions. We have Gilbert, a rehomed TAG, and we have passed the two year anniversary of his arrival and he is still not confidently "hands on". It has taken a long time with lots of ups and downs to get to the place where he is beginning to become adventurous enough to play with toys. You are doing a lot of things well, and changing his cage location was fruitful, so you are "reading" Harry pretty well so far. I find with Gilbert that giving him a choice works best. I may have to offer him the same thing a hundred times, in as many different ways before the time is right for him to try it. He may reject my hand for a step up a thousand times, but when he does offer his foot in trust, it is magical for both of us and marks a milestone in our relationship. If you approach changes as you did with the cage relocation, watchin his reaction, moving forward when you see him accept your offers and backing off when he gets upset, you will continue to help him unpack his baggage and become the little spirit he was meant to be. Six months is just a blink in "grey time", he may indeed be a talker. He is still getting the lay of the land and one day he may start saying all the things he heard before and the new things he has heard from you.

Welcome to the forum and congratulations for bringing Pearl into your life and getting him out of a bad situation. It is commendable that you have read about greys, contemplated getting one and waited for yourself to be ready for it to be a lifetime commitement. You have some good instincts and helping Pearl to be secure while he gets to know his new surroundings and the ebb anb flow of your lives together will have great rewards for each of you. When I embarked on this plan to bring home an older Timneh in need and "with issues" the first thing I needed to learn is "grey time". I had some parrot experience with babies and one red-bellied (Senegal relative) parrot with me for almost five years at the time. That is when I learned that every parrot of every species may have common traits and behaviors but especially with greys, every one of them is individual and unique and his past has shaped him, but it has not written his fate in stone. Grey time is what Pearl decides it will be. Some will respond in positive ways in a week, some will take longer, depending on the baggage they bring along to mix up with our own. LOL. With patience, kindness and respect that you seem to bring to the relationship, you will find great rewards.

I just love him! When he caught me taking the first picture, he spun right around and charged at me, then the next one, he was giving me an mmmmhmmm sound, like "wanna piece of this?" and then just warily watching me until I walked away. Then he went back to his toy and pulled and pushed the levers. It is just the greatest feeling in the world to find his confidence up enough to approach any toys, much less a new one. This one is a good size and being clear plastic, he can see the little treats inside which give him incentive to interact with it a little. I know he doesn't like the camera and generally resist the urge to get a photo, but this was one time I couldn't resist. It's hard to see his picture with the feathers chewed up again after so very carefully watching him as they grew in over a year or more. Oh well, he is still beautiful to me and I am grateful that it was a flurry of anxiety and then he calmed right down again when I came home to him. Also, even though he regressed a little when he was scared that I was gone from him and his routine was off a little, he gained a lot from seeing me come and go and was much better with me than he had been. He seems so aware that each time I do take him somewhere, I bring him back home and if I leave a little while, I come back. Over time, he has learned to weather the storm and settle down again more quickly.

Jake's sound effects and whistling is similar to Gilbert but not the voice he uses. Jake has a range of voices, male, female and some more childlike. Gilbert like Jake does have several voices but they sound different than Jake's. Gilbert's male voice is usually slow and he drawls and had a Mississippi accent. Gilbert talks a lot, he just clams up for the camera. Also, Jake is ten times more active than Gilbert. Gilbert barely came off one or two perches in his cage for the first eighteen months. He has only gotten the nerve to move around for a few months and he is really just now getting to explore or play. It is still very tentative and it takes very little to put him into a tailspin where he will go in his cage and not move for the whole day. We have many more good days and the withdrawals get shorter and spaced farther apart as we progress with him. I just loved Jake's carefree way. They both do like the human body sounds, Jake with his coughing and sneezing and Gilbert with the honking nose blowing when he hears David in the shower.

That was just precious, Jake has quite the stories to tell. I was enthralled and found myself leaning closer to hear him better. The timing of coming online to find this is quite appropriate since I had the notion I was going to take a rare nap and Gilbert was so chatty there was nothing doing but to come back out and see him. Of course, when I came into the room, now he is quiet again. Jake is so similar to Gilbert in his whistling and chatting. Gilbert doesn't do the coughing or sneezing but he can make a convincing baby crying sound. It was funny to hear Jake talking about a pork chop. He is very entertaining and dear.

We got a new puzzle/foraging toy for Gilbert and when I set it up this morning, he went right to it and pulled out some pistachios. When I tried to get a picture of him, he was not keen on being in a photograph in his little fuzzy underwear. What was really the best thing is how long he sat frightened of everything and now he went to a toy and successfully got a few treats out of it within an hour of it being set up on his cage. Then, instead of shaking and trembling when I approached to take his photo, he was "proactive" and afterward he even let me scratch his head... once he was back inside with bars protecting him from me, LOL. He's come a long way and he still has a lot of time to improve... or maybe I do.

Congratulations on finding Vasco and thanks for coming to join us. There is so much to learn about integrating a grey into a new household. It is uplifting to hear from some of our members who have a previously loved new companion. I look forward to hearing more about your life together. It sounds as if he is twice blessed and lives a charmed life.

Wishful thinking on my part. I just think Gilbert's confididence will soar when his gift of flight is returned to him. One day at a time, sigh, one day at a time. He will get there, I just know he will.

Today was my first time to look through all these posts and beautiful baby pictures. Congratulations on your new baby boy. I love the pale toenail and his little pink tongue. He is uniquely marked, you probably never had to check his band to be sure he was yours. I know it has been said before, but gosh I love these baby pictures.

Welcome back to the forum. When I first joined, I read and read before bringing home my first grey. I am glad you haven't given up on it and are willing to wait for the right time. Wise woman. We share the same name and it is good to have all the grey lovers together to share, thanks for checking in on us. You are no doubt busy, busy, busy gathering up the life experience it will take to keep up with your future grey.

I was hoping to follow you through the forum if you were able to have this done. We are not too sure how hold Gilbert is but he has not flown in his two years plus with me, nor reportedly in the two and a half years prior with his most recent caretaker. Its hard to know whether his flight is impaired due to prior plucking, or if he just doesn't know how to fly. I wish there was a magic wand to bring this gift to him. Our smaller parrot came to us at about four months of age with a brutal cut and it took almost a year and a half for her to be flighted. She doesn't seem to have any ill effects from what seemed like a long time in her formative months. If you give Ollie a lift to where you are going and give him lots of locations to perch around your home, he will be flying and getting into things on his own soon. It is very sweet for you to look into helping him have his flight, I dream of Gilbert being able to fly some day and I am not giving up on that.

And look at that, it was made to fit in your space exactly too. I hope you have many happy decades with your buddy sitting right next to you while you do his bidding.