Elvenking

Again, I would ask what you could do in a situation like that? If you had to do it over again, how would have you handled a percievably overly energetic and mischevious bird?

Ohhh my goodness I LOVE the photos. They are so adoreable when they are that young. The pictures of him sleeping after food warm the heart. Adoreable baby.

I would say that if there is a scale for level of difficulty in owning a pet, an African Grey would be very high up on that scale. What you describe sounds quite chaotic and you must have been put through a lot in order to break down and clip your baby. I know there are times that i am feeling like I am getting taken advantage of when Issac has got a bug up his butt and he wants to fly all over the place making pterodactyl sounds. He has certainly done the land-poop and fly away act plenty of times. There are also times he will get into everything he shouldn't, and it's not always in my most patient moments. He will sometimes get all hyper and nip at my ears (fairly rare). Raising a Grey is seriously hard business and I learn a bit more every day. That said, I would love to hear what you should have done from experts who think they may have been able to make that manageable. Is there a way to show them that rambunctious behaviour is not tollerated? Because I was under the impression that I just have to deal with the occasional wild bird syndrome. And that I will probably never find a woman who will love both me and my bird. LOL.

This place has a lot of great hollow plastic parts that I could make toys with...they just might get an order from me this weekend. The hollow destructables are great for Issac.

Wow...thanks for all the replies, I could not get to the site all day as it was down or something. So I am going to follow up on some of these later. Thanks again and i will let you know what I find.

I am trying to find some place that either has parts like plastic milk caps, or any plastic item that a grey can pick at and destroy over time. These are the kinds of things that Issac likes, he has to feel like he is getting somewhere with the toy or he gets bored easily. So does anyone know a bird supply place online that sells parts to make toys that are plastic and destructable? Many of the plastic items I find will not surrender to Issac's beak.

LOL...I know what you mean about the carpet. If I had to take a guess as to how many times I have picked up stray poop from Issac, I would put it somewhere between 2000-3000 times in the 30 weeks I have had the little guy. The Bounty paper towel company should sponsor my bird, as he keeps me buying them in the 12 roll bundles quite often. This bird does not get the whole 'I-do-not-like-poop-on-me-or-my-carpets' thing. The only ones i can get control of are the big morning bomb, and the other one when I let him out of his cage when i get home from work. I have all but given up on trying to get him to understand where it is okay to poop. I feel bad for the times I have like a 5 second warning where I notice him assume the position and then go over to move him to a proper place to poop. He can sometimes be poop-shy after that and take a few seconds to get it going again. So I resign myself to spot cleaning and wiping up poop all the time.

You describe how Issac is. He does mumble and you can speculate on what he is trying to say...but it always leaves you with just enough doubt to question it. LOL. I always copy him, and he copies me and back and forth. Then I mix it up with the normal things I say to him, "Who's a good boy?", "Hello", "I love you", "Whatcha doin?". He seems like a little smartie, I have good hopes for him.

Most Greys begin to form words around a year or so...so if he is becoming clear at 33 that is pretty good of Syd. I can tell when Issac is trying to say 'hello' because it comes out in his bird voice. He picks up noises fast for sure and I do make sure I keep talking to him all the time. I get super excited when I hear even a new noise he has picked up, so if he says his first word...I will faint and then post here.

I put Issac to bed at around 11pm and he sleeps till about 8. Or at least I am pretty sure he sleeps. I always hear the beak nashing going on after I cover him and then no movement after that. Occasionally I hear him piddling around in the morning before I uncover him...but he is a good sleeper.

Well...I ahd a little time and thought I would share the most recent news on Issac's behavior. He is certainly developing his own attitude and it shows. I think he is rounding his 40th week maybe...I have lost track at the moment and don't want to calculate. I have been having my daughter over more as I bought a Wii and we have been playing. I was worried that he would be flying all over us while we played, but he prefers sitting on his atom and doing all of his bird noises while we play. This is good. He even will pick out some noises that he can make from the games and copy them. That is pretty funny to both my daughter and I. He still has a thing for my toes..and it tickles like crazy when he is trying to get at them while I am trying to do something else. One thing is for sure, I am sometimes amazed at how much these lil guys need your attention. I can't tell you how many times I have to move a remote or anything else that he wants to get at. I buy him plenty of toys but he still seems to want to get into my toys I guess. It can sometimes be trying, but when I look at his cute curious gaze, I can't help but fall in love with him all over again. Even a short time away from him has me wanting to see him again. Here is a question for the forum. Do you think that me copying his noises that he makes, makes him less likely to talk? I have often heard that if you whistle back at them and such, they may not be inspired to talk. Although I do hear him trying to talk. The things that I hear that are not identifiable as his 'regular noises' sound like attempts at words, and my daughter picked up on that as well. She was saying, 'Did you hear that, he is trying to say 'Hello''. So I really don't know. At any rate, I just love him...sometimes I have to control myself to not kiss him on the back so much...I don't want to annoy him or smother him. It's crazy how much I love this bird....and you'll only hear me admit that here...as others think I am nuts. By the way....the whole right side muscle structure of my back is throbbing with pain at the moment from bowling on the Wii. LOL...careful if you get one of those things.

This is the funniest thing i have read today. I love it! I would be on the floor laughing my head off if I ever saw this. As far as helping you out with that issue...I got nothing...but that is funny!!

Okay...Issac loving feet photots.

I noticed that as well, he doesn't seem to make the connection that these are attatched to me. With the way I yelp and laugh when he does it, you would think he would know.

So Issac continues to bring tons of joy to me. One thing that sticks out over the last week is his sudden affection for my toes. He will go down by my toes and rub his head on them and beak at them which makes me laugh because it tickles. I think he gets a kick out of it. He also wants me to scratch his neck with my toes as well. It's too cute and I have a picture I will have to post later. To add to it all, he has also regurgitated to my toes twice in the last week. This bird always has something he is focused on. He has also destroyed to fronts of my shoes. I was planning to get some new ones soon so i let him have at it. And you know how it is, sometimes you see them happy and busy doing something, and you are just thankful for the peace even if it means losing an item or two. One thing I always wonder about but never brought up, is why he gets so excited when I floss my teeth. He will fly to my shoulder and start panting and beaking at my ears. Puzzling little guy sometimes. He is making tons of sounds as usual. He learned a new one from me which I cannot really explain, but when he did it I was like, 'What the heck sound is tha......ohhh my goodness..that is me!". I started laughing out loud and he has been doing it on and off ever since. There is something wonderful about a bird trying to immitate you. Those are all the updates for now. I know I haven't been posting much lately but it's not for the lack of wanting too. I am just so busy trying to further my career lately that it is taking over. I'll keep popping in from time to time. Take care all for now, I will post pictures later.

Thanks for all the votes of confidence. I will just do my best to take care of him on moving day. He is pretty trusting so I think it should go well.

The cage is always going to be smack dab in the middle of the living room. He might be curious at first as to what is going on....but i think he will make it through alright. I will comfort him and reassure him constantly.

So, my current apartment managers want to raise my rent 120 dollars and I cannot have that...so I have to move. Anyone have experience with moving with their birds. Will Issac stress out when I have to move? He seemed to adjust well when I brought him home. I hope the lil guy will be okay.

One thing that does not suffer for Issac, is the attention I give him. He is very much so paid attention to. Thank you all for reading about my lil guy. He is more than I could have ever imagined.

My work weeks have been intense with my new responsabilities and such...so since I missed Issac's 31st week...lets just combine it into week 32. Ever since they began letting me do code development, all the time i used to spend refreshing this site and reading posts is kind of severely limited. In a way that is a good thing. The last two weeks, I have had the most compliant and cuddly bird that I can imagine. He has been giving it up for tons of head scratches and just being a really sweet bird for whatever reason. He is making me love him tons. He will sometimes tuck his head into my neck and make a little wimper sound like, "Please, yes, scratch". One new thing I learned is he loves to have the little area around his lower beak where it meets his neck massaged. Ohhh that gets his eyes rolling. LOL. It is tremendously cute to see him in these moods. That is not to say that I still don't get the occasional attitude from him, but the last two weeks have been the easiest yet. I get so happy just talking about him. Anyway, more crazy sounds and apparant attempts at talking. I enjoy just watching him do his sounds. Some are so pleasent. He continues to add to his list....and say 'Pedro' like my Conure, Pedro, does. He has a new location that he likes to sing from. The right-side edge of the back of my couch. He seems a bit more content to staying in certain areas lately. Although he still goes on his floor missions too. So I try to leave things for him to find down there. Last night I said to myself, "Man it has been a long time since I got sushi." After deciding to break that cycle by going to get some, I found out why I didn't take sushi home anymore. It's impossible to eat without Issac wanting in on the action, and I could not give it to him because there are avocados in it. A simple reminder that if I cannot share it with him it's better to eat it in a different room or just eat before I come home. He was going after the chopsticks so I gave him a pair to play with, didn't last long. He just wanted to get in on the sushi action. So I ended up retreating to a different area to finish up. So that is pretty much all for now. It seems that he has totally caught onto the little routine we have and nothing is a major event anymore. When I have to leave, he lets me put him in his cage without a struggle, He knows when it's time for eating and sleep. What can I say, enjoying a couple weeks with a very compliant birdie. Thanks for reading about my little bundle of joy.

While the shutter was open..he moved his cute lil talons in front of the towel..and the shutter closed. Same thing happens with my flight pics of Issac and his wings. Shutter time and light capture is the key...well now I feel i have ruined the magic of it. But I was wondering about this with my photos of Issac flying. I am most sure that you used a flash as well..because the time that the pickup starts capturing the image is slightly before the flash happens..and when the flash occured...his foot is where you see it...however..ther is part of the image capture just before the flash. So the general background gets burned in, then the flash happens when his foot is in that final position..and super imposes his foot over the rest. Okay..what did I just say??

I would have to say that among all the parrots I have experienced..a Cockatoo is the most gentle of the parrot class...but...the LOUDEST not doubt. A grey is certainly miles away from a 'too. Greys wear their emotions on their sleeves. It's all to amazing. Anyway, I am not suprised that you find your grey is more of a challenge. But you will learn to love this...because there are challenging moments..and real connection moments...Greys seem to connect so well.

Thanks all for reading about my adventures with Issac.