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.

My little two year old daughter Ella-Rose had a funny conversation the other day with Missy the grey. Ella-Rose was sat in the living room & Missy called out "Oi your trouble you are" Ella-Rose turned round & said "no your trouble Missy" followed by Missy saying "NO your trouble" I had to laugh, it had me in stitches & to hear them both actually saying something with meaning & intelligence was amazing. They are both two years old so hope this is the start of a beautiful friendship between them.

Here is Missy blowing rasberrys at me & my daughter, it's something I think she enjoys as it always gets a laugh from us.

Hi Guys, your right I haven't mentioned Kate or Ella-Rose in the update...........slap on the wrists for myself! Kate's is a bit nervous around Missy as she bit Kate a couple of times quite hard, so she has gave her plenty of space since. Kate isn't like me, if I get bit I tend to just take it in my stride & keep on going without fear but Kate gets scared by it which then affects their relationship, Kate will then be too afraid to handle her for fear of more bites. At the moment Kate is just sitting back letting me work with Missy on the biting issue & I must say I'm making good progress. I haven't had any bites in a few day but my mum got a bite earlier this evening, I think Missy prefers men to be fair. Ella-Rose on the other hand is without fear but as she is only just turned two years old I don't let her touch Missy as a rule, just in case! What I did do the other day, is while Missy was on my hand I held my hand over her Missy's head & let Ella-Rose stroke her back gently for a few seconds, that was the first time. I'm trying to teach Ella-rose about handling Missy for when she is older & also show Missy that little Ella-Rose isn't going to harm her. Trust between a human & a parrot is definitely a two way street & if I start the two of them early it can only be a good thing, especially as Ella-Rose will be the one who takes care of her in years to come when me & Kate have passed on to the place we call heaven. Missy also enjoys bobbing her head for Ella-Rose's amusement. What was real sweet the other day, Missy was sat on the edge of the seed catcher skirt that goes round the bottom of the cage & I heard Ella-Rose talking about picnics, looked over & she was asking Missy if she wanted to join her for a picnic, it was so funny. Ella-rose then went & got her tea set & layed all the cups, saucers & tea pot at the bottom of Missy's cage so they could enjoy a cup of tea together. Ella-Rose also joins me every morning in the morning wake up ritual, as I'm uncovering Missy's cage Ella-Rose say's "wakey wakey Missy" I then spend a few minutes giving Missy tickles & I have noticed that I never get any bites at that time.

Missy has settled in real well, like she as always known me. Anybody visiting would think she has always lived here. She is very well socialized & loves it when new men visit, she is straight over & on their shoulder........................although they are normally a little sacred at first. Funny as it's normally the other way round with a grey being scared but not Missy. She doesn't like boxes though scared to death of those, when I walk past her cage with one she looks like she has seen a ghost. The first time she went thrashing about her cage like she was being murdered. We have had very little issues with her being a rehome, after all we don't know her history & what baggage should had with her. I suspect she may have had only the one home not counting the last one as that was just where she ended up after being found. Her ring has 09 on it so unlikely she has been in more than one home at 2 years old, she likes men so that tells me her owner/handler was a man, she steps up takes tickles etc so a good sign she wasn't abused. The only two things I need to work on are some biting issues & her being a very fussy eater, she won't eat anything but her seed mix & even that she is fussy about. We give her tidymix but she chucks out anything that is remotely good for her like the fruit bits & only snacks on the seed. If I try & put another dish in there with anything else she trys to bite me & then grabs the dish & chucks it across the cage. If I do manage to get a dish in there she gets everything out instantly & takes it out of the dish & chucks it on the floor. The biting has got better over time as it's something I'm really working hard on but also something new to me, I've never had a biter before. I wouldn't say she is a bad biter at all, more that she is strong willed & if she doesn't want to do something like step up or take a piece of food from you she will bite if you persist. Murphy on the other hand would just fly off rather than bite, that's where they differ, her fight or flight is fight & Murphy's was flight. When I'm asking her to step up & she bites me I just ignore it & persist till she steps up, that seems to be working more often than not, she will just threaten a bite but won't & will step up most of the time. Again though it is when she doesn't want to do something, if I offer my hand in the cage for step ups to come out.....................no problem at all but if I do it when taking her off the stand at night for bed then that is when she will try it on, they never want to go to bed do they? There has also been some other instances of biting but more so when I first got her, I went to adjust the perch one day, put my hand in the cage & she savaged my hand pretty bad. Tried my best to ignore it but it was ****** painful I can tell you. I left her alone for 15min than went back & popped my hand in for step ups, she threatened to bite but stepped up instead. I'm guessing that time she just got a little uneasy with me putting my hand in her new home only knowing me for a few days so I put that down to her just needing to trust me. She also seems to go crazy for newspaper, when I first started to change her paper in the bottom of the cage, she would attack me by biting my arm with hard sharp nips..........ouch! I've cottoned on to this & work round it, but she seems to have got better over time. She does actually seem to enjoy attacking the paper & can see her getting pleasure bitting & ripping at it, so now I sometimes give her some to shred, if I don't she just goes down to the bottom of the cage & shreds that instead. The only other time she bites is when giving tickles through that bars of the cage, she will happily take a tickle but while doing so she nibbles gently on my finger, this is sweet but then she starts to exert more pressure till she is actually biting me hard & wont let go. I feel as if she is pushing the boundaries of what she can get away with. When she does this I tell her "naughty, no biting" while pointing my finger at her (risky I know in case she bites it!), it feels like a little stand off between us with her eyes slightly pinpointing & you can tell she is thinking about it. I then offer tickles again, if she doesn't it one more time I tell her "naughty" again & cover her up for 5 minutes. Only ever for 5 mins, I then remove the cover & offer tickles which she takes without biting. I don't usually think that covering a bird really works for most stuff but in this case it seems to be doing the trick as this little problem is slowly going away. Missy is also very vocal which is a good sign she is a happy birdie, I can't even remember some of the things that she come out with but I do remember the naughty one she came out with yesterday which was "oh sh*t!" She also says "alright" when you walk past, "kiss kiss" & " tickle", "good girl", "Oi" & lots of other stuff. You get the picture, if I was to type it all I'd be here all day, she also say lot's of stuff I can't quite work out yet. Well there you go guys a little update on how things have been going in our household since having Missy come live with us. Oh & Murphy I haven't forgot you my friend, hopefully your ok out there & somebody nice is looking after you. xx

It is quite normal for a baby grey not to be talking just yet, 18 months is more like the time you will start to hear the odd word being practised. I know how you feel, you just want that extra level of communication which is human speech but I'm pretty sure it will come just give it time. I have yet to hear of a grey that doesn't talk, some may talk more than others but that's just like people, some people can talk for England while others are the quiet type. As for the shower thing, again something that will take time. When I first got Murphy as a baby at 12 weeks I took him in the shower & although he didn't like it, he tolerated it enough for me to shower him properly, 6 months later he almost enjoyed it. Now take this new grey I have Missy, took her in the shower & she absolutely hated it. You get her anywhere near the running water & she takes off like her life depends on it but what I have found is she's ok with a spray bottle. Now Murphy was the opposite, get a bottle out & he was off, I could only shower him in the actual shower. So just keep at it in the shower & show Ajax what a wonderful experience it is in the shower, sing & whistle while your under the shower to show that you enjoy it & he will be taking it all in. His little mind will be thinking well mum/dad is loving that so can't be that bad & as you are flock leader he should eventually follow suit, but like I said it will take time, could even be months. You just can't rush things with greys, they have to do things at their own pace & when they feel happy/safe to do so. You need lots of patience with a grey or you won't get anywhere, have that patience & you will be rewarded richly.

My little daughter Ella-Rose is very intelligent for her age, she only turned two just over a week ago & she can talk brilliantly. I really thought we might have a problem explaining that Missy isn't Murphy but she still asks where Murphy, is even though Missy is in he cage so she obviously understands they are not the same bird. Sometime when driving along she asks for the window open to call Murphy then says "daddy Murphy in the trees" She seems to have taken to Missy ok & already they are interacting, every morning Ella-Rose will go to her cage & say "wakey wakey" & asks her "bob head" which Missy does sometimes. So I thought it only right to let her name Missy, also I want Ella-rose to have an active role in bringing up Missy just like I did wanted with Murphy. In fact one reason for buying Murphy as a baby was so he could grow up the same age as my little girl & throughout there whole lives they would be the same age & lifelong friends. When Ella-Rose in 35 so would Murphy be 35, even though Murphy is gone Missy is the same age also by a stroke of luck so that will still be my little plan. When me & Kate have passed on Ella-Rose will always have something that is a part of us & will be quite cool to be able to tell her friends "Missy is the same age as me".

Ok, well although I like some other names it's been decided by my two year old daughter that her name is going to be Missy. We had mentioned the name Missy in the beginning but hadn't decided then while we were bouncing names around in the kitchen we asked Ella-Rose our daughter what she would like to call the parrot & she came out with "Missy" Then after that she always referred to her as Missy, yesterday she said "daddy Missy messy" & then "Ella's pot in Missy's cage" (we used one of Ella-Rose's pots to give Missy some banana in).

Some of the names suggested have already popped up for example Dave007 suggested one which is sweet pea, well I call her that as a nickname sometimes as well as little miss. Also brianlinkles, Alice is a favorite with Kate at the moment & I kinda like Lulu. So far the list is: Blu Macy Marley Missy Alice Lulu Skyler Star Gracie Honey (Hunni) I'll keep adding as I go on.

As some of you know I adopted a grey last week after losing my grey friend Murphy in the summer. Now I'm pretty sure she is a she & so were her last carers who were vets. The only problem I'm having is deciding a name for her. So far my little 2 year old girl has called her blu from her favorite film Rio & I thought of Macy & Kate thought of Marley & then we thought maybe Missy? Any suggestions are welcome, don't take offense if I don't chose your suggestion though as I'm very picky & can't even decide on my own suggestions. :eek: So far we have: Blu Macy Marley Missy

Well said, don't forget Amazons, they can be noisy little buggers too! Of all the parrots greys seem to be the quietest, not so much screaming or shrieking but more talking & funny noises. There are exceptions though, my Murphy was a shrieker for about 7 months when I got him as a baby but he soon got over that.