reggieroo

I do plan on trying to trying to post some more but life is just so busy at times & you get caught up doing other things. We also have a baby boy on the way, who is due in around 6 weeks. Missy is such a character & I often think I'll have to post that on grey forums, I try & get on a little more.

She had a nice bowl of fruit this morning, I gave her some strawberries, cherrys, melon & some banana & she ate the lot. She will be back on the veg the rest of the week, what I use is some frozen mixed veg & any fresh that we may have for dinner but where not to hot on eating our veg ourselves. :rolleyes:

Ever since we got missy late last year we were told that her only issue was that she was a seed junkie. I thought that I could get her to eat fruit & veg no problem, didnt happen. I would give her some fruit or whatever & she would just toss it on the floor, time & time again. I tried leaving it in the bowl & it was just stay there till it went sour & in the end I just got fed up & thought this isn't going to happen. Then last month in June we went on away for a week & missy went to stay with my parents. When I returned they said to me "I thought that she wouldn't eat anything other than seed?" they then told me that she was eating a wide variety of food inc fruit & veg & a bit of what ever they had for dinner. My dad told me all he did was to put whatever they wanted to give her into a bowl I had given them & if they left her she would eat it. Now the only thing different that I could think of was obviously the surroundings but also the bowl they had used. It was a screw on large bowl that I had never tried before & the only reason I gave It to them to use was because my dad told me that he couldn't find the bowls for the spare cage that they have. It turned out that my dad did find the bowls but still used the ones I gave him for snacks like toast, chips, fruit & veg etc. So when I got her back home I tried giving her fruit & veg using this bowl & to my surprise it worked. She will eat all different types of food as long as I put it is this one bowl. it seems she only likes her seed mix in the stainless bowl & all other foods in this screw on plastic type square bowl. Oh & another thing that helps is I try & give her the veg before I give her some fresh seed. Great because now she eats her greens.

OK well I have actually been giving her smaller bowls of food over the months trying to cut down on the waste we are getting but it doesn't seem to be working. Yesterday I said in my post that I gave her a fresh bowl & I made sure that had even less in it being less than half full & this afternoon she is chucking food everywhere again. I have removed the bowl & inspected the contents to see what is actually being eaten. Of the 26 ingredients (Tidymix) in the food she is eating at most three that I can see, one being the safflower seeds, the other the hulled sunflower seed & the odd garlic stick. The rest is either in the bowl still waiting to be chucked, on the floor or the floor of the cage. I can see what is going on, she eats the safflower seed & sunflower & doesn't want the rest. When Missy came to us they told us the only problem they found was she is a seed junkie, I thought with a better low sunflower mix like the Tidymix things would get better but doesn't seem to be the case. We also don't have any luck getting her to eat anything else, anything we offer is snatched & chucked across the cage in a mood & if you insist she beaks you to say "I don't want it" If we fill a bowl with veggies, it gets immediately lifted of the cage & thrown on the floor in disgust. If you fill her stainless bowl that can't be easily removed, the veggies just get removed & chucked down right away. She will then sit there cussing to herself & shouting Oi! at me. I have got her to eat the odd grape & maybe a bit of fresh banana but that is it in all the time I've had her here. Today after removing her bowl for inspection I tipped out the tidymix & filled it with veg. I thought if she is hungry she will eat the veg, seems she nibbled some peas but to be honest it looks as though it is all on the floor. Great to see you back on the forums again Jayd!

She is a little monkey, a fussy eater at the best of times. When we first got her we were told that she wouldn't eat nothing but seed & they were right, nothing but the seed. We give her tidymix which has fruit & lots of other stuff too not just some crappy seed mix but she has always chucked every good bit of food out of the bowl & only eaten the seed. I have just gave her a fresh bowl & so far she hasn't chucked much out, just munching on the seed right now. They are big stainless bowls so a full bowl will normally last more then one day but it seems as she has got even fussier & once her favorite seed has been eaten she is getting a paddy on about what is left.

For the last two days Missy has started chucking her food everywhere. Now I know they are messy by nature & it's normal to find seed etc on the floor but what Missy is doing seems to be a deliberate action of just chucking the food out of her dish. All I hear is the food landing all over the floor (hard floor) I look over & she is sat looking all innocent, as soon as I turn away she gets her beak in & chucks out as much as she can again. I thought right then you want to play silly buggers so I took her dish away & she sat there shouting Oi! I gave it 10 minutes & put it back, soon as I walk away she does it again. This has gone on for two days now & is driving me up the wall. :mad:

I haven't been on here much lately but haven't seen any posts from Jayd, I know the last post I seen he was saying he needs to rest a while back mid 2011. Wondering if he is ok?

Joe, I understand your defensive nature coming onto a new forum with a controversial issue such as a wild caught bird. Especially if you have had verbal grief on another forum in the past, I too have had this on another forum. I asked for some help on another forum when I first got my baby grey Murphy, I had never had a baby grey before, I was also was inexperienced with African Greys & was looking for help on some issues. I got abused & told I wasn't fit to own any bird because I didn't know what I was doing & was only fit to look after goldfish. The abuse went on for many pages as other forum members all jumped on the bandwagon to join in bashing me about my inexperience & lack off knowledge. Needless to say I quickly left that forum forever, only once going back there recently to post that I had lost Murphy. Looking for another forum I found this place, grey forums. I registered, started some posts & waited for the backlash...................it didn't happen. I quickly realized not all forums are the same & this place is greyt, I was welcomed with open arms & quickly made to feel like part of the family. On any forum you will always have some difference of opinion & many different views to things we all feel strongly about. I have had this & so have most other people but the important thing about grey forums is everybody tries to be respectful & keep a calm friendly attitude, that is why it is such a successful forum & a nice place to visit. So a big welcome from me & Missy.

I have also heard of this & believe it to be true. Missy's favorite words right now are "stop it!" said in a very stern way, taken from me when I see her ripping up her paper on the bottom of the cage. Her other favorite word is "shut up!" She almost shouts this at us, this is taken from Kate's Mum who isn't as tolerant of the noise Missy makes as I am. I work away a few days every couple of months & have grandma (Kate's mum) come over to baby sit, one time on my return Missy was shouting at me "shut up!" so I asked where did she get that from, grandma piped up, "me, I could stand the noise any longer so I shouted shut up".

Missy & Ella-Rose have been forming a bond over the months we have had Missy. I have let it happen naturally & over time with Ella-Rose becoming more curious about Missy. She has been going over to talk to Missy, standing by her cage & asking her questions, normally answered by Missy's bobbing head.....lol. Also Ella-Rose has been asking to give Missy tickles, something I haven't been so keen on with Ella-Rose only have two year old fingers. At the same time I need them to build trust in each other so they love & respect for each other growing up. So what I did was let Ella-Rose stroke her wings while I had my hand over Missy's head, just in case. I thought I had full control over this the other day while about to do this little exercise but Ella-Rose reached for Missy's neck before I could put my hand there, fortunately Missy seemed to trust her & ruffled her feathers for a tickle which she really enjoyed......phew!

My Avatar is actually Murphy my lost grey. I haven't had the heart to remove it as I feel Grey forums was always mine & Murphy's place & didn't want to take that away. Silly I know, reality is Murphy has gone & now Missy is my grey friend & should be her avatar.

One night last week my little two year old daughter Ella-Rose woke in the middle of the night asking for a drink so we took her into the kitchen to get one. While in the kitchen Ella-Rose asked a question about Missy our grey mentioning her name, upon hearing her name, Missy let out an "Oooooo" then a raspberry, then a kissing sound! I was amazed that she recognized her name enough to respond verbally. She often gives kisses if I'm naughty enough to disturb her while she's asleep, if say I come in late & I want to say "hi" by lifting her cover up but never if she just hears us around the house. Once her cover is on she stays quiet till morning unless like I said I lift the cover to say "hi".

Nothing yet, but you only have to leave them alone out of the cage unsupervised for a minute! Missy only has three places in our house we allow her to perch, one is her cage top where she can cause no trouble (so far), the other is her wooden perch/stand in the living room & the other is the shower screen in the bathroom. In the bathroom she does like to try & chew my shower gel bottles but as I'm there with her she doesn't get the chance. In the living room she stays on her perch unless you leave the room, then you hear the wings as she starts flying so I rush back in to see what she is up to. Most often she flys to the top of the door but she is so used to me shooing her off, that as soon as she sees me appear, she is back on her stand as if nothing has happened. :rolleyes: I'm sure that if I left her there for a couple of minutes there would be some destruction. The key to having them not destroy your house is constant supervision when out of the cage & give them plenty of toys to chew while in their cage & on there perches etc. when Missy is on her stand in the living room with us she has toys attached to it that keep her entertained for hours. Also just make sure there is nothing within reach of where they perch, for example if you had a picture frame above their cage/stand, that would be chewed for sure. Murphy my last grey did chew the edge of the leather sofa one day, sneaky little devil.

Well thank you everybody for the kind words.

Well I think it's safe to post that I have no more biting from Missy. As some of you may know I adopted Missy last year, around 5 months ago after losing my little mate Murphy to an escape. Apart from some biting she has been a joy to have around & nice to say I have no more bite marks. I have to say though in her defence she wasn't a bad biter, I just wasn't used to having any bites at all from my previous two parrots. She would bite you sometimes when she would put her head down for a tickle, you would be tickling her then she would grab your finger. Other times were when you would ask her to step up, she would bite you & some odd ones at random, but the worst bites were in the shower. If she was on the top of the shower screen & you ask her to step up, she didn't want to at all & you could get quite a hard bite.........ouch! Well after 5 months I can honestly say they are no more. Not quite sure exactly what I did but the few things I have done have worked. I think mostly it was just down to each of us gaining trust in each other & confidecne plays a huge part. Not knowing the inner workings of a parrot brain, it is sometimes quite hard to know what to do for the best & also you read all sorts & sometimes the info you read/get isn't always correct. I often find my own little techniques & along with the support of a place like grey forums you can over come most problems & so far for me all problems I have had. What I did when she bit me was a little risky to your finger but still it seemed to get the message across. When she would bite while in the cage, I would point my finger at her through the bars & in a very stern voice say "don't bite!" she would then most times put her head back down for a tickle. I would give her another tickle, if she bit again I would do the same but this time after telling her again not to bite & would turn my back on her for a minute. I would then give her a third opportunity, if she bit again I would say the same thing "don't bite!" but this time put the sheet over her for 5 minutes while staying silent & ignoring any attempts by her to communicate. I would then take off the cover & try again, at this point she seemed to understand that this biting thing wasn't going to fly with me & didn't give me any more. Also I'd like to point out that most of the time it didn't even get to the 2nd or 3rd stage, I would only have to say it once but she would look at me & my finger & could see her thinking "shall I bite him again or not?" The step up bites & shower bites were not so easy to deal with because she was out of the cage. What I would do if she was on her stand & bit me, I would have to brave the bite & take her back to her cage while telling her "naughty don't bite!" I would place her back in & walk away straight into another room. Often she wouldn't even call after me which made me think she was regretting or thinking about what she had done. After some time I would then go back & chat to her or get her back out. Now we get to the shower bites, the most difficult of all. I couldn't take her back to her cage as I was in the shower, I couldn't ignore her or turn my back on her as she was right there with me so what did I do? Grin & bear it & hope for the best........lol. No in truth there was a little pattern to her bites in the shower & I think they may have been a bit of fear & a bit of "I'm not going in there, so I'm going to bite you" So what I did was ask her to step up & again brave the bite, put her under the shower & ignore the fact that she bit me, it kind went against the other things I did for the other bites but didn't really know what else to do as I didn't want to make any dramas. I would shower her as if nothing had happened & then pop her back on the shower screen. What I would do next a few minutes later was asked her to step up again & this is when I got the most severe bites as she thought "Oh now, I'm going in the shower again" but what I would do is purposely not put her under the shower but keep her on my hand & talk to her & give some tickles. This way it showed her that not every time dad asks me to step up off the shower screen he puts me in the shower, sometimes it's just for some fuss & a chat. This worked & over a few months she trusted me enough to step her up from the shower screen with no bites ever again. Now by no means are these all the answers to stopping your parrot biting but these techniques have worked for me over the last 5 months. I thought I would share with all of you one if the things I've been working on since getting Missy back in October last year.