pugman

I knew the birds like to destroy things but I was surprised they played so violently. It's a little freaky.

My Sun Conjure plays so nicely with his toys but Sophie my Grey appears to be teaching the toy a lesson. She will grab it and shake it like as to warn me that this is what will happen to me if I come near her. It really appears violent. Am I wrong? Is this just how Grey's play?{Emotions-0002007D}

I guess this topic is not as conversational as I thought it might be. Pretty much everybody is a non-clipper. My Grey cant fly yet and she's four, but she drops like a rock. I don't think her wings have ever been clip.I like to take my bird to and from work. I would be so afraid of loosing her if she could fly. I guess it's not so much a problem if the consensus says to let them fly. Or do the clippers not speak up to avoid the flames?:evil:

Yeah I Googled euthanize parrots after I read your post and sure enough it's being done. WTF is wrong with people?

babygirl wrote: Really?? They euthanize parrots? I've never heard of such a thing.:unsure: Kcfoxie- As far as the size I can't really tell you if she big or small CAG. It looks to be the same size as every other one I've seen. Thanks to everyone's kind words. And the Karma thing as well. Just a quick update. As of today I can hold my finger up near here beak and she now leans into it. It's the cutest thing ever. Most of you are probably like what's the big deal but to me I have seen such huge progress in such a short time. Also I can now touch the top of her head. Sophie will be doing back flips before you know it!<br><br>Post edited by: pugman, at: 2009/08/12 22:06

I thought I'd start a thread to document the progress of my new four year old not so trusting Grey. For the people who have not read my introduction post I will briefly cover how I acquired this bird. I have an aquarium store which I bring my Sun Conjure to everyday. I purchased the Sun "Captain Jack" as a hand fed baby and besides his horrible screeching he's been pretty much a cake walk of a pet. A customer had come in several times and noticed how Captain Jack and I had interacted and offered one of his grey's to me. He had purchased one for his sister and she didn't care for it's sounds that they make so she gave it back to him. He has had her for four years. The gentleman was not really into handling his birds so here lie's my situation. I love to interact with my pets. I had stated in my introduction that Sophie was a fearful bird but in the three weeks that I've had her I don't believe she's all that fearful as she just doesn't quite trust me yet. When I first took her to my store she would make horible sounds when you put your hands in the cage. After a week I figured out she LOVES sunflower seeds. I eliminated the seed feed that had sunflower seeds in it and I now use them as a training tool. I report today that she will let me touch her beak for quite a while now and I'm starting to move to the top of her head. She doesn't care for that so much but time will tell. The reason for "The Sophie Project" post is I hope to encourage others to accept untamed birds. I will post Sophie's progress as time goes on. I believe most people here have hand feed babies and form my experience it's not quite the same thing. I do love challenges in life and this one's has me intrigued.

Just a quick update. Sophie now lets me touch her beak for like 2 seconds before she starts to freak out. Before it was a split second so it's a bit of an improvement. I was just curious is there a place that you are not supposed to touch a bird.

Okay step up is next. I guess I'll wait until Sophie stops trying to bite me first right? I can hand feed her and touch her beak for a split second but if I keep my finger there too long she slowly tries to take it off my hand. I'm not trying to rush anything but I just want to know what my next move should be. According to the "step up" sticky you are supposed to hold your finger/hand underneath there belly. Right now that might be a little painful for me:unsure:

For those of you that haven't read my intro thread I acquired a four year old neglected CAG. Her name is Sophie and she is a fearful bird. I have only owned her for two weeks now and I have gotten her to take sunflower seeds from my hand. I can touch her beak for a split second and then I reward her with a seed. She still shakes a lot so I think I will continue to do this until she is more relaxed. I of course would like to hold her but I'm not sure as what steps I should do to achieve this. Any suggestions would be helpful. I have read the "step up" sticky thread but removing the bird from it's cage before it can step up doesn't make sense to me. Also I might mention that she is unclipped but drops like a rock and is so scared when she is out of her cage.

Wow so many responses so quickly. I can already tell this is going to be a great resource. So I've already forgotten about Chet's website. I just got a weird feeling about it right from the getgo. I do own a couple of black pug's as well. One is 13 and the other is 3. I guess i should mention that I have a year and a half Sun Conure (Captian Jack) as well. That's how I acquired Sophie. One of my customers saw how Captian Jack and I interacted with each other and just gave her to me.

Hello I just acquired an CAG from a customer of mine. She is a four year old semi neglected bird. Her name is Sophie. I've had her for almost two weeks now and from what I can tell she has come a long way. She now will come up to me and eat sunflower seeds from my hand. She still shakes for the first few minutes. Before I give her a seed I ask her if I can touch her beak, I then do so and reward her with the seed. She loves sunflower seeds so I think using them might be a powerful tool to help train her. I would love to hear anyone's advice as to what they think I should try to accomplish next. Also I considered purchasing Chet Womach's DVD's for tips but I wanted to get real bird owners advive first if they thought it was worth it.