Gorndt

Hi everyone, I have had sort-of a sad week. I have worked from home for a long time (Probably almost a year now), and now my company is going to be moving into an office. As a result it seems like I will be out of the house probably 50-60 hours a week, and my girlfriend will be doing the same in about a months time. I'm worried about my 9 month old CAG, Leto. He's so used to having me at home with him I think it might be really hard for him that I'll be gone. I was wondering what you guys think would be more traumatic for him, being left alone for 10-12 hours a day or being rehomed? Do any of you have any experience with rehomed birds or is your bird left unattended for long periods during the day? This is a very difficult dilemma for me and I don't have any experience in either. I've tried very hard to keep Leto happy since I got him and I only want what's best for him.

My girlfriend is out of town so I made a little video of our baby for her. He's trying to do a little bit of talking you can see here. Pretty good for just a little 4 month old! Leto! Post edited by: Gorndt, at: 2009/08/24 22:12<br><br>Post edited by: Gorndt, at: 2009/08/24 22:12

My Leto was great for the first week or so when I brought him home. He's the same age and we visited him in the store and stuff too. It took about two weeks before he turned into a little grump, but in retrospect I think that was mostly an issue of us not understanding how to read him. Now (After about a month of being with us) he's back to wanting pets all the time and constantly climbing all over us. We understand each other a lot better.

Hi guys, searched all over and couldn't find anything on this. My 4 month old CAG, Leto, seems to have a n itchy spot around his right eye, accompanied with redness (Possibly from scratching). I notice he scratches a lot, not just n that spot, so I wonder if the rash may be under the feathers as well. The eye its self seems perfectly normal, he still uses it to check things out and there's no discharge or anything. So for now I just stop him whenever I see him scratching, and it looks to me like it's getting better now that he's leaving it alone. Any ideas what could be causing this and what we can do to fix it?

Yeah, my place is pretty small, and I work from home most days so I think it'd be nice for him to be able to get out and about. He's only tried to glide once. I'm definitely going to let his wings grow back, it seems so cruel and unnatural for him to have to walk everywhere.

Hi all, I'm thinking about making a ladder from the cage down to the floor for my little Leto, since he's not comfortable with me picking him up yet but he does seem to want to get down on the ground and wander around. Is this a bad idea?

Thanks! That'll all be very helpful!

Hi guys! You've all been so helpful so far for Leto and me. I was wondering if you can maybe answer some more questions! (Leto is 4 months old and I've had him for about a week) 1. Leto uses the cage a lot to scrape his beak against. I understand this is him cleaning his beak, but I'm worried he's gonna damage it. Is this a realistic worry? Are there any alternatives to avoid it? 2. Leto loves oatmeal but I'm having a hard time introducing new foods to him, even when mixed in with oatmeal. Are there any foods that greys love and are good for them that I can use to sorta balance out his diet? 3. What are realistic expectations for getting Leto to step up? I'd love to be able to spend more time with him but it's hard when I have to wrassle with him to get him off his cage. 4. Leto is super receptive to whistling and picks up tunes I whistle for him very quickly. I'm worried he'll think whistling is a replacement for speaking and never learn to speak. He already uses whistles to greet us and ask us to come back to him. Any thoughts on this? Sorry to be such a bug but I'm so interested in this little guy!

Hi! I'm a new grey owner and I was wondering if any of you have any theories why a parrot would or wouldn't talk. My bird is still only 4 months old so I want to start early with him and do my best to get him talking. I think it'd be nice for both of us if he could

How do you suggest teaching them where the food bowl is?

The oatmeal was the perfect suggestion! He loved it and he ate it all up. I mised the remainder with his regular food and we'll see what he does with it. Do you guys have suggestions for how to teach him where his food and water is? I finally got him to drink out of the bowl but I had to pretty much push his head into the bowl to show him it was there. After the first one he started doing it himself, but this was all outside of the cage.

Thank you very much! I'll definitely take all of your advice. Another thing I noticed is that he was super friendly the first day but today he's acting much more aloof and seems to want alone time. I assume this is probably normal.

Hi! My Grey, Leto, is 4 months old. He's a congo gray (I assume by his looks, the pet store never actually told me.) I've had him maybe 20 hours now . I created a thread on the general talk forum asking a few amateur questions. Maybe you guys can help me out! http://www.greyforums.net/forums/the-grey-lounge/151918-new-bird-owner-several-questions.html<br><br>Post edited by: Gorndt, at: 2009/08/04 17:25

Hey guys. I just got my first bird, a 4-month-old African Gray yesterday. I have a few questions to make sure I'm taking good care of him. I hope you can help me! 1. First and foremost, I'm not sure that he's eating unless I feed him. I have yet to see him eat out of his bowl, though he will eat on his own as long as he gets the food out of my hand. This also, disturbingly, goes for drinking. I haven't seen him drink out of the bowl yet, but he's happy as a clam to drink off my finger after I dip it in water. At the pet store they said he was weaned. Any advice on how to get him started on bowls? 2. Any tips on training him to step up? 3. How should I bathe him at first? My girlfriend works in a lab with birds and there they just use a spraybottle and spray them, but most parrot owners I know of just sorta put them in the bath with a half inch of water. 4. Some people have told me that birds like to stand up high to assert dominance over their owners. My bird is constantly trying to get to the top of the cage. Should I be worried? Should I try to stop him? I think that's all my questions for now. I hope you guys can help me (And Leto) out!

Hi all, My girlfriend and I just got our first bird, an African Gray (Mostly mine, of course ) Anyway, I signed up because I'm sure I'll have questions about this great little guy, and I want to take good care of him.