greymullet

Hey, just wanted to thank everyone for here for the avalanche of suggestions that have been offered on this thread regarding Joe's behavior, what a great depository of advice we have here.

We have had Joe for almost two-years now and he has been fantastic. No behavior issues. I put him in his roost Saturday night, he was a tad flustered but nothing out of the ordinary. I got him out next AM and he was strange. Looks like he had maybe pulled a big feather out of his left wing as it was trembling a bit. He was obviously perturbed. I took him upstairs and placed him on his perch. His wng trembling went away and I watched for signs of a hurt wing, none appeared. But, through the course of the day Joe began to become more and more afraid/POed at me only. He would climb down his perch and avoid stepping up, would not come out of his cage t me after eating, and basically avoided me at all costs. My wife put hi to sleep no problem. This odd behavior continued this AM when I went to get him from his roost. He stepped out of his rrost but and scooted away. He did step up but his wings were in a flight position, which he never did before. Help?????

great thanks. what are chances that the introduction could make the grey not want to interact with me anymore? Should someone else brong the new bird into the home?

How do greys do with other birds? A friend's elderly parents need to rehome a sun conure. Both in same cage okay?

Well, he's back to normal. Out of all of us, he was the most affected. His cage was a shakin and a rollin before I was able to get to him. Our dog was clueless.

We just had our 6.9/7.3 earthquake here in so cal and Joe is freaking!!!!!!! His head is pointed towards the ground like he is just anticipating the next one. I feel bad for him!!

The ends appear to be untouched. The two times I have caught him with a feather, he's chomping on the middle of the feather like he does with any other toy he's chewing.

Have had Joe now since August, he hsa always been a bird that has lots of down feathers going by the way side, however, as of last week, I am noticing wing and now some tail feathers that he has plucked. The ones I am seeing are clipped wing and old tail. Total, I'd say six to eight of these large feathers. Also, he is shedding other sundry feathers just sitting around. Does this sound like a molt? He has no bare spots.

Thanks for reply!

As I mentioned in a prior post, at night he gets this intense desire to be with me and cuddle. Recently, this desire seems to be occuring sooner and sooner in the day, especially on days when I have been at work and I come home. He will fly to where I am and want to be held. I take him back to his perch, and then bam, he's flying to where I am. What I am afraid of is 1) the flying (he had his wings clipped last week and he is still able to bang the flight out) and 2) catering to a behavior that I sould not be catering to. I spend alot of one-on-one time with him so it is not like I am ignoring him, and I do try to keep him bust with toys when he does try to fly to me (that works about 15% of the time). Is this just normal baby hehavior? What about the flying...can a clipped bird still fly or was the clip insufficient. As an update, we already taught him a trick...to avert that beaking behavior...we don't scratch him until he puts his head down...we ask him, Joe, do you want a head scratch...it takes about three repeats of this until he puts his head down to get his scratch..pretty cool.

About 30-minutes before bed time we are noticing that Joe gets an intense desire to be held. He walks to the end of his perch, lowers his head, and puts his wings out as if to fly (jump in this case) to me. (He has "flown" across the room to get to me a couple times already). Last night when I took him from his perch and put him on my lap, he pushed his head and body hard into my hand and basically buried himself under my arm. He was content like this up until I put him to bed. We were all petting his back during this period. Is this just some hold over from what the breeder would do prior to sleep or is this a natural behavior? Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the advice...my wife and I have been right there with the kids and Joe but we will heed your cautions. Although I can tell Joe really loves having his beak scratched and squeezed, I think we'll just stop the beaking behavior all together at this point. In terms of the kids, he does not seem to get upset even when they get excited near him. I have been watching him carefully and he appears to be taking them in stride. He allowed each, at differnet times, to scratch the back of his head for several minutes last night as I was holding him on my hand. It was kinda cool to watch. The kids, especially my son, is already in tune with some of Joe's behaviors and currently loves to announce when Joe is going to poop, this then is followed by a high five. Thanks again for your help.

We picked up Joe from his breeder Thursday and the last four days have been great. He is eating up a storm, playing and chewing up balsa wood blocks, egg cartons, and a necklace my duaghter made for him, took a shower in the sink, and is socializing with us perfectly. So far so good in other words. I guess we got lucky. One question though, he is using his beak to explore, which includes our fingers. He is not biting, just exploring. He loves it when I pinch his beak between my fingers and tell him this means kisses. Problem is the kids want to do this to but my daughter is only four so she puts her finger near his beaks when she says kisses rather than putting his beak between her fingers. Joe nibbles her finger and my daughter loves it. Does this seem okay to allow or should I not let Joe "nibble." Both kids know not to pull their fingers away and that Joe is not biting.

I guess I was thinking about the night roost from what I read thus far vis-a-vis the need for a good 10 to 12 hours of sleep. His main cage will be in out in the main activity room...which means activity from about 5:30 AM to 9PM every day. I was concerned that commotion after he was readied for the night would disturb him.

Our CAG is due arrive in about two-weeks. We have it's day cage ready to go. In terms of a night roost, I was think about using a deep, rectangular, glass enclosure with a screen slide off front equipped with roosts and water. Any obvious pitfalls with this in terms of the bird that I am missing?