reggieroo

Wanted to see a parrot show for ages, going to go watch this on my TV & have lunch.

Well just got time to sit down at the PC & have a cup of.........."DAM my pot of tea will be cold" Got about 10 mins before I have to get lunch ready.........where has the morning gone, I was up at 7.30am & feels like I haven't done hardly anything, I've only just had a shower :eek:

It's so funny to see a grey hanging upside down like a bat isn't it? Murphy has just started to explore the roof of his cage so only a matter of time before the comedy starts. The lying on the back thing is something I've been having some success with, I have been able to put Murphy in the palm of my hand & gradually get him to let go of my fingers. I then talk softly to him while massaging the back if his head & give him a tickle, that way he associates it with something nice like a tickle. I can get him to lie in the palm of my hand for about 15 seconds before he grabs my fingers, over time this will get longer. I think it shows ultimate trust from them to let you do this is they are very vulnerable in this position. I try & have practise holds in all sorts of different ways so that I can pretty much do anything with him without getting bitten (I'm still getting bitten a little, especially with every new hold). It will help in the future if I ever have to hold him a certain way for say a vet visit or nail trimming etc.

They sometimes call it soft beaking where they are just testing everything. Human babies will grab everything & stick it in their mouths & as baby parrots don't have hands they use their beak instead. As others have said all parrots bite so you have to expect the odd bite here & there, you also get used to it & after a while it's not that bad. I know their beaks can look a little scary & My Fiancee Kate is still a little scared of Murphy's beak when he has a nibble but it doesn't bother me at all as I know he isn't being mean, just soft beaking.

Well I ordered the extra set of eyes & another pair of hands from ebay & they arrived this morning so it's all good So far I have managed to feed Ella-Rose, Murphy & myself with breakfast, change a nappy, process my orders on my website, answer some emails, make a pot of tea & get bitten by Murphy..........these extra pair of hands have came in handy :rolleyes: Oh I've just realised that is only about 5% of what I have to do today:eek: Have a shower, walk the dog, clean the cage, dress my Daughter, change another nappy etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc...........................Oh & have some fun! I'm sure I'll be fine, after all I'm a 21st century man.

Kate has finished her maternity leave & is back at work tomorrow My new job starts tomorrow as stay at home Dad & house husband :eek: I've been getting off lightly up until now. It will be a big change for all of us tomorrow. I'll be looking after Murphy, my daughter Ella-Rose & running the house..........help, us men can't multitask :rolleyes:

Sounds like he's been training you....lol, well done Issac!

I used to have some friends who had greys & at one friends house in particular I would spend hours just interacting with her. He would then moan at me next time I seen him that I had taught her stupid stuff......lol. It was after that, that I fell in love with them & knew one day I had to have my own grey.

I think once you have met one somewhere & spent some time with an African grey they leave a lasting impression that you don't forget. For some people like all of us on here we just had to have our very own grey friend & that's what we did ...................Lucky us!!!

It wasn't really the speaking I was thinking about, well I don't know what I was thinking about exactly! When they can understand things in an intelligent way I suppose. I just imagine him at the moment to understand things in a baby way kinda like my 6 month old daughter does & was wondering when he will really start to develop mentally.

Great video, don't suppose you have a video of the contact calls that make you have to wear earmuffs do you? I'm wondering what they sound like to see if that's what Murphy is doing, they have resulted in me listening to my ipod a lot more......lol

I hear the same thing in the morning as I live in the country, in Summer when the windows are open it can be quite early in the morning. I had a friend stay once & he complained that he couldn't sleep because of the noise but could sleep with the sound of cars & trucks in the city :confused: I know which I prefer by a long shot! It's nice to sit in the garden & just listen to the birds sometimes, gives my ipod a break........lol

At what age does the grey really start to shine with the amazing level of intelligence that I read & heard about & also seen in the famous Alex the grey. I've read that they have the intelligence of a 5 year old & the emotional intelligence of two year old. At what age will Murphy (19 weeks old at present) reach these levels of intelligence?

Well so far I haven't really had any accidents, Murphy spends most of his time either on his stand or in or on his cage. He also hasn't pooped on me yet but I think that just good luck & timing as after 20-30 mins I put him back for a short while until he poops then bring him back for cuddles etc. As for flying round the house he hasn't yet pooped while flying, not sure if they do or not but thankfully it hasn't happened. I'm hoping with a bit of positive reinforcement & good timing he will learn not to poop on me or the furniture etc.

We got this Camcorder for Xmas as a present & it's great, HD resoultion, easy to use, small & compact & so easy to use & get your files on the PC for you tube etc. Not to expensive either from what I have seen. http://sanyo.com/xacti/english/products/vpc_cg10/index.html

Murphy has just done the same flight again, his confidence is growing. I could tell he wanted to fly into me but was running across the top of his cage back & forwards pondering if to take the leap of faith or not.........then it was like here he comes I will try to get it on Video, I tried today but only got half the flight.

I'm now imagining an African Grey climbing down his perch & waddling along the floor to his destination........lol

If you don't want him perching & flying about everywhere you have to teach him what's an ok perch & whats not. I have been doing it with Murphy all through his flight training with some success. He has now stopped landing on my expensive flat screen TV, house plants, tops of doors etc. They are naturally curious mischievous little creatures & that's one aspect that we all love about them but they do need to respect your house as well. When Murphy lands somewhere I don't want like the TV, I shoo him off with the "Off there" command & then praise when he lands on an acceptable perch like his play stand. It's took about four weeks but now when he goes for a fly he returns to his stand every time You have to be persistent & do it every time he lands on the fridge door for example, it won't take Issac long to learn. I still have lots more training to be done but overtime I'm sure I will get there, you will too.

Murphy does the exact same thing with me, I have tried making soft contact calls back to try & get him to do those instead of the scream. He has started making the softer calls mixed in with the screaming type calls. He also seems to do it a lot more if I walk off from his cage & go spend time with my baby daughter. If I'm sat in the study like now where he is close to me, I hardly ever get it just low noise, mumbling, practising speech & playing on top of his cage etc.

Well since putting this post on he has been eating like no tomorrow, he went through around 5 days of very fussy eating where he just picked at everything I gave him with most of it ending up on the floor of his cage. That seems to have passed now & his weight has been steadily going up since I started weighing him on Jayd's advise, he is now 522 grams. He definitely gets lots of the above, patience, care, attention and love & lots of out of cage time inc flight time.

So whats this F.A.R.T Group & how do I become a member?

I have been helping Murphy with his flying skills since we brought him home 7 weeks ago, back then he couldn't even fly to his cage properly. I have been helping him practise his turns, landings etc. Also training him where he can & can't perch. Over this last few days he has realised tops of doors & flat screen TVs are not his perches :rolleyes: I have shown him flight paths that he can take to & from rooms & today he did his first proper flight all on his own. We were doing the house work & I just seen him fly past the kitchen into the living room & land on his stand. My baby daughter was in there watching baby TV so he must have thought I'll go give her some company if this lot are too busy doing house work. Then about 20 Min's later I heard the flapping of wings & seen Kate duck as he came flying out of the living room & back to his cage What a clever boy!

Murphy has a bowl of Tidymix seed & a bowl of fresh fruit/veg in the morning, come the evening he gets a bowl of Rob Harvey tropical soak mix. Throughout the day he gets various snacks of what we may be eating like cheese, a piece of toast or pasta. Sometimes I will give him cooked pulses instead of the soak mix & also a standard parrot seed mix instead of the Tidymix to stop him getting bored of the same food.

Where did you get that from Jill? Might be worth getting some for Murphy at some point in the future, bet he would love it.

I've been trying the mini flights too to use up some of that pent up baby energy.