Greywings

I would also offer some unsweetened Coconut juice it works like gatorade for birds or even people, it is safe enough that live were saved using coconut juice for IV fluids. Here is some information about Coconut Water: 'It's a natural isotonic beverage, with the same level of electrolytic balance as we have in our blood. It's the fluid of life, so to speak.' During the Pacific War of 1941-45, both sides in the conflict regularly used coconut water - siphoned directly from the nut - to give emergency plasma transfusions to wounded soldiers.. Most coconut water is still consumed fresh in tropical coastal areas - once exposed to air, the liquid rapidly loses most of its organoleptic and nutritional characteristics, and begins to ferment.

From all I have read it is supposed to be safe, however I use stainless steel and cast iron myself. I do know first hand of a cockatoo that dies very quickly after exposure to a hot Teflon coated pan, he was playing in the kitchen when breakfast was being prepared. It was a sudden and irreversible ugly death.

Well phrased Ray, I posted this in confirmation of what we experience daily. (Our Too's can do this as well.)

Home-reared African Grey parrots vary 'speech,' nonword sounds, in a deliberate and socially relevant way April 13, 2011 By Philip Lee Williams [/url] Enlarge New research by scientists at the University of Georgia has shown, for the first time, that an African Grey parrot can develop a deeper understanding of the sounds—which we hear as words—than researchers previously thought. Although these parrots have been known for centuries to pet owners as gabby, long-lived companion animals with repertoires of dozens or even hundreds of “words,” this is the first demonstration that it is “…within the abilities of a nonhuman, nonprimate, nonmammal species that has been raised with a responsive human conversational partner in a home rather than a lab to use a variety of speech and nonword sounds in a deliberate, contextually relevant fashion.” The findings were recently published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology. “Most of the information we have had about speech in this species of parrot has been anecdotal,” said Erin Colbert-White, a doctoral student in psychology at UGA and lead author of the research. “What we found out in this work, though, is that the speech and nonwords of the bird we studied vary with social context, indicating a level of understanding that goes beyond vocal imitation and approaches functional use.” Other authors of the paper are Dorothy Fragaszy, professor of psychology, director of UGA’s primate behavior laboratory and chair of the university’s behavioral and brain sciences program; and Michael Covington, associate director of UGA’s Institute for Artificial Intelligence. The team studied a companion-animal African Grey parrot named Cosmo, which lives with Betty Jean Craige, University Professor of comparative literature and director of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at UGA. “To our knowledge, the current study is the first to investigate the effects of social context on parrots’ spontaneous vocalizations,” said Fragaszy. In order to study how this works, the team videotaped Cosmo, a female, in four distinct social contexts. In the first context, Craige began recording Cosmo and left her house for the duration of the session. In the second, Craige sat in the room with Cosmo and interacted with her as normal. The third saw Craige in an adjacent room interacting with Cosmo normally by voice. Finally, the fourth context saw Craige and Colbert-White in the same room with Cosmo but reading to each other from online blog entries to simulate dialog and ignoring Cosmo (not interacting with her, making eye contact or any gesturing toward her). “We split each transcription into separate text files according to the speaker,” said Colbert-White. “We then compiled the Cosmo text files to create one large ‘Cosmo corpus’ that could be divided according to the social context.” The results showed that Cosmo’s spontaneous vocal production changed significantly across the four social situations. They also indicated that Cosmo’s “vocal production is largely affected by the presence and responsiveness of the social partners in her environment.” Cosmo is already well-known among parrot-lovers, both for her often hilarious You Tube recordings and as the subject of Craige’s 2010 book "Conversations with Cosmo: At home with an African Grey Parrot." “Cosmo merits serious scientific study for having learned to communicate and think in English,” said Craige. “She obviously has high intelligence, and she has a wonderful sense of humor; however, among African Grey parrots kept as pets, Cosmo’s ability to speak meaningfully is not unusual. What is unusual is the scientific attention to it. Erin’s paper is important because it represents scientific examination of a parrot’s acquisition of human speech in a social setting.” While the new information about Cosmo’s abilities helps “stress the important role that socialization plays in learning to communicate,” much more study remains, Covington said. “We can’t presume the parrot’s words mean what they would mean in English,” he pointed out.“They sound like human words, and they’re produced in situations where humans would say similar things, but we have to experiment to find out what they actually mean to the parrot. “I really want to know whether Cosmo has sentence structure,” he added.“Are the words just piled together, or do they have relations like subject and object?We’ll have to do more experiments, probing deeper to find out.” While the new research suggests that a primate or even mammalian brain may not be necessary for an individual to develop aspects of vocal communication competence, Craige has known since she bought the domestically hatched and raised bird from a pet store in 2002 that Cosmo had her own special qualities. “Cosmo and I chat constantly,” Craige said. “She asks me, ‘Where Betty Jean gonna go?’ And she tells me what she wants to do: ‘Cosmo wanna go in a car, please?’ or ‘Cosmo wanna stay home.’ When I’m out of sight, I hear her mutter to herself, ‘Cosmo wanna a shower,’ as she heads toward the dogs’ water bowl for a bath.The other day when she accidentally dropped her cashew, she exclaimed, ‘No more!’ “I believe that she has learned to speak meaningfully because I speak directly to her—clearly, and in a simplified English—and she knows I expect her to respond. She knows she is an important member of the household.” Provided by University of Georgia (news : web)

Good for you and him, look forward to the stories ahead of life with Jasper.

I have a CAG and a TAG and both are quite smart, both have picked up some human language and at my house the CAG is the more laid back bird. I firmly believe that each bird is unquie and one of a kind.

White Vinegar in your carpet cleaner or mop bucket, your home will smell pickled for a bit but after the vinegar evaporates your home will smell fresh again.

Pookie CAG has several Red feathers on her neck and legs.

How old is this bird? Has he/she been in the Sun? Is it possible he/she got banged around a bit playing with toys or in transport from wherever he/she was to you? They can pink up like that when too warm or very excited also. How is the appetite and what is being fed? How do the droppings look? I know a great many questions but they might give some insight into what might be going on. If in doubt you can call an Avian Veterinarian.

Each home situation and bird is unique therefore you cannot predict how your boy will accept another Grey. We live with 2 CAG's and 1 Timneh, 2 Too's. Pookie 21 years, ignores the other Greys and shares cage top time well with Fred the Elanora Too kind of avoids Gunner the Timneh. Gunner is able to share with Fred but wants to chase Pookie sometimes. Whisper the big silvery CAG only like people very jealous of other birds. You know your bird best how do you think he will react? Try playing a video of other Greys being active and vocalizing to get a little glimpse of his interest levels.

I have a good friend who converted a foldaway full sized baby stroller to an enclosed wheeled transport that holds her bird with an adjustable roof for rain or Sun protection. She keeps wipes, water, treats and her birds leash underneath the seat where a built in basket is. This way her bird goes where she goes on the weekends to dog agility shows or picnics with the Grand kids. She just added a screen wired caging to the portion the baby would sit in, it lifts off and clips on securely. Her bird loves getting to go for walks safely ensconced in her chariot.

Those little Tiels are heart thieves, sorry for your loss.

A fren of mine has caique who love to shoot the poop out of the cage. So he squirt the bird whenever the bird about to poop out the cage. This would be a normal sanitary behavior in the wild to keep the area free of droppings avoiding any fecal contamination for the bird.

It really will heal but it hurts so much right now. Reading your words so heartfelt flowed through the web and into all of our hearts, sharing your tears from across the seas. Am sending you back an attempt at comfort and hugs for healing from Texas and our hearts here.

Her kindness shines in those wonderful photos, you will always have those sweet memories.

Beginning with Greys do often feed at ground level, they just have to be alert and often they take turns as a look out or sentential for the flock perching up high and watching for predators. Not the flock leader but the safety bird is the highest up. Punishment will destroy the trust you want to develop between you and the Grey causing more problems due to distrust. Distraction, ignoring the "bad" behavior, reinforcing the "good" behavior will bring you better results. Like a small child keeping an eye on what they are doing and removing your approval can often accomplish more than yelling or physical correction. Some behaviors can result in immediate cage time for just a short time out if needed. These birds are very smart, very sensitive and are interested in all things around them you can use that inquisitive but cautious nature to help guide them. They also have rather long memories when they have been frightened or harmed.

Please let us know what she is eating and what you are offering it may be that some of us may have some helpful ideas and suggestions to improve her diet.

I am so very sorry that she was not able to survive this devastating virus. Glad your wife could be with her at the end it will help with the healing process to know some one she knew and felt safe with was there for her.

Nice to see how well he is doing keep up the good work presenting new foods and having fun too.

She knows she is loved hope they allow you a visit so she know she is still loved no matter the outcome. Viruses ar such sneaky things, she was most likely infected before she came to you. Hugs and love we all share the love of these marvelous creatures and share some of your pain.

I think you should weigh her weekly at the same time of day. chart and compare weight to see if she is holding even or loosing. I would suggest a Vet. visit though if she is having that many droppings it is not normal to go so often. A nervous bird passes more droppings than a calm one so do check to see if there is something she is afraid of you can move away from her view. Please give us an idea of what she is eating as well, perhaps we might have some suggestions to improve her diet. Here are some weight guidelines to refer too not all birds fit these statistics though. Congo Grey Body Length: 12 to 14 inches Body weight: 375-600+ grams Timneh Grey Body Length 10 inches Body weight 300-375 grams Maximum Life Span: 40-60 years

That one uses what I think of as a negative approach, not a good idea.

I would begin with a serving of only the mash as the first meal of the day. Presenting a new food when hungriest makes the introduction as little faster. Another approach is to mix in with what he is used to eating.

It should be fine as long as he can extend his wings fully and you have plenty of toys and shredders for him to keep that sharp little mind occupied.

Don't rush the relationship the advice given above by Ray is so true. New house, new faces, new routines, new foods and sight s and smells and past baggage to overcome. Take it slow let her feel safe inside the cage first.