reggieroo

We have two cats & a large German Shepherd dog, none of them bother Murphy our grey in the slightest. I would even go as far to say that the cats are scared of Murphy, sometimes if he goes on a mad one flying about, they cower down & run like hell to the safety of their cat basket. I used to have an Amazon & he was a brave little sod, he would go down on the floor & run after the cats to play. He would even go over to their food bowl & nudge them out of the way to have a nibble on the cat biscuits & the cats would just step back out of the way as if to say "I'm not messing with him!" One golden rule with cats is just don't leave them together unsupervised & also don't let your grey annoy the cat as that can lead to slap from the cat which can cause injury if the claws are out. Generally though cats, dogs & parrots can live together in harmony & often they learn to respect one another as all of ours do. One of our cats is also a keen hunter too, brings mice & pigeons back to the doorstep but strangely enough he stays well clear of Murphy even though he looks like a pidgen.....lol. I have a feeling that the cats & dogs leave parrots alone because they sense the intelligence of them & know they will get their own back, just like Tweety does to Sylvester.

Murphy goes to bed in his cage at around 8-9pm every night & gets covered up with a fleece throw that helps keep any light out of his cage. His cage is in the hallway, light off & not much activity there as we spend our evenings in the living room. 99.9% of the time he goes quiet once the cover is on him, every now & then I hear him moving around his cage mostly at his food dish stuffing his face but generally he just goes to sleep. Sometimes I peek in & he's asleep with his head all tucked up standing on one foot, so I know he gets his rest. Morning comes & Kate is up at 6.30 to get ready for work, she keeps noise down to a minimum as not to wake me, my daughter or Murphy. We all stay in bed till 9am, well I do & they wake me up. I either hear Murphy whistling & playing with his birdy babble ball or my daughter Ella-Rose playing in her cot, which wakes me if I over sleep. They both make great alarm clocks........lol. Once I'm up I go get Ella-Rose, change her nappy & put the kettle on to make her bottle & then uncover Murphy for a fresh new day. It seems to work just fine for us all.

We have an open fire in our living room that uses wood & coal on it & it's on every night during the winter months. I don't see a problem with it as the smoke goes up the chimney anyway & not in the room. The odd time the smoke comes in a little is when Murphy goes on a mad one flying around the room & his wings wafted a little smoke in. Most often though we light the fire around 7pm & he's off to bed at 8pm.

Looks brill, can't wait.

The sweetest grey ever!

Unfortunately some of us that don't live in the US. won't be able to watch the programme with Dr Pepperberg on PBS that Talon posted, but I did find this video of her having an interview & it's over an hour long so go get a cup of tea, sit back & enjoy. http://forum-network.org/lecture/contemplating-creatures-irene-pepperberg-and-hidden-world-animal-intelligence

Unfortunately I'm in the UK, would be good to find a way to watch it, I'd like to see that.

He does, he normally is sat right beside us on his stand which is right next to where I put her high chair.

Mr Murphy's sat on my shoulder right now watching me type, wondering what I'm writing about him. now....lol "Don't worry Murphy, it's all good!" He has been brilliant this last couple of weeks & it's times like this that it's all worth it & it has been said before "Time + Patience = SUCCESS!!!" Not to mention this forum has been invaluable in what I feel has been a challenging time raising a baby grey, you people have been greyt & so supportive. I couldn't have done it without you all! Thank you!

Kate called me last week to say that Murphy picked up a new sound while I was out, now this may not seem a big deal but Murphy has never copied anything other than a whistle & attempts at speech. The sound he got from me while feeding my 15 month old daughter Ella-Rose. She is teething & goes off her food every now & then so I try & trick her into eating a spoonful by holding the spoon high, bringing it down towards her mouth while making a descending whistle followed by an explosion upon impact (when the food goes in her mouth) & this is what Murphy picked up. Kate called me in stitches laughing her head off, saying he has been doing it all day for her amusement. I said to Kate "told you they are little comedians"

Just a little update on Murphy. A few days after the last post here, Murphy seemed to have turnaround in his behaviour. No longer does he seem intent on getting out of the cage, he actually now plays with his toys & seems to enjoy destroying them at last while spending time in his cage. He has cut down on the repetitive noise & constant repetition of pacing back & forth & has now started to talk away while in his cage. He has always made small attempts at human speech but now he is really going for it, constantly practising our language with what sounds like full sentences. I still can't work out what he is saying to me but given time I'm sure we will be having full blown conversations. What gets me is every time I put a post on here about Murphy & an issue I'm having with him, all of a sudden it goes away shorty after posting. Now guys, what do you think it is, a super intelligent Murphy messing with my head for a laugh or just the sheer power of grey forums? :confused:

Well we've had Murphy now for nearly a year & he's now nearly 14 months old. He made sounds that sounded like he was trying to talk at 12 weeks old & that continued on & off up till a few weeks ago when he really got into the human speech thing. Now he sits in the cage yapping away, clearly trying his hardest to practise our language. I wondered when he would start talking to us, I wonder no more, just need to wait for him to master it now so I can understand what he's saying.

What a little monkey, that's all I can say!

I'm so happy you found a new home for Yoshi with someone from grey forums. It is the best that you could have hoped for & now you can get updates on Yoshi. You will feel a lot more at ease knowing that Yoshi is in a good home with someone you know will take care of her.

Well we have had Murphy our 1 year old CAG along with our 1 year old daughter & they get on just fine. They seem to respect one another & leave each other alone. Murphy doesn't bother Ella-rose & Ella-Rose doesn't bother Murphy. We also have two cats & a German shepherd dog & we have taught Ella-Rose to respect the animals & she understands they are not toys, she strokes the cats very gently & the same with the dog. The other day she was crawling around & went up to Murphy's cage who at the time was sat at the bottom outside the cage on the seed catcher tray, she wanted to tickle him as she has seen me do it. She reached out cautiously to give tickles & he put his head down for one but I didn't trust him enough to let her. Her little fingers are just to small & easy to damage. That was the first time they have ever had any proper interaction & Ella-Rose seemed to understand not to just lunge at him which is good. As long as your little ones respect the animals around them then & you supervise at all times, you shouldn't have too many problems.

I agree with what has been said 100% leave the bird with the breeder till they are ready & fully weaned. I had Murphy at 12 weeks old & wish I had left him there a few weeks longer. I was told by the breeder that he was fully weaned at 11 weeks & I'm not saying she lied to me but I think a few more weeks would of been better for him. As soon as I got him home he was crying like a baby for a feed, I had no idea what to do or that was even what he wanted until I called the breeder panicking about what was wrong with him. She then told me that he must have regressed, his sister had also been taken the same day so she thought that may have had an impact on him. Regardless of what caused it, it did happen to a fully weaned baby grey. I honestly believe if I had left him there for just few weeks longer it would have been better for him mentally. I then had to go through the process of weaning him again with no experience of what I was doing, I had to give him spoon feeds three times a day for weeks. Something I was not prepared for & didn't really want to have to do. I'm sure it has had an impact on him as he seems a little too depended on me still & he can't bear to be in his cage without me standing right next to him. Something I'm currently working on right now, is trying to help him be a little more independent & enjoy some cage time. Bonding with them is not something to worry about as they will bond with you as long as you show them lot's of love, care & attention. So a little patience at this stage will go a long way & it is something you need to learn with owning a grey, as I have learnt along the way.

Well I think I can finally join the parrot bite me club. I was in the shower with Murphy & I flipped him on his back to shower his breast & wings etc, something I've been getting him used to for a few weeks or so now but this time he wasn't so sure. I persisted even though I had a feeling he was going to bite me but I carried on & got what I deserved, a very hard bite, not once but twice. It was on the part of skin between the finger & thumb, he pierced the skin & made it bleed.......och! I totally ignored it though & carried on with the showering assuring him he was safe in that position, he then lay on his back while I finished showering him no problem. After we had done I inspected the wound, very red, swollen & sore. To be fair Murphy never bites me under normal circumstances but if you try & force any parrot to do something they don't want to do or not sure of, they will naturally bite. I accept that & do still push the boundaries of how I handle him, I try & get him used to all manner of positions & holds with a near 100% success rate. As a result I can now hold him in any position, touch his wings, lift them up, touch his tail, flip him on his back, tickle his breast etc. Poor Kate on the other hand can't even get him to step up without fear of a bite. I think he does it to Kate purely for the reaction, which she gives him every time, with drama. :rolleyes:

We all feel for you Jess & pray it all works out.

Me too,they are supposed to have a nice new bright red tail after the first molt.

Well Murphy has developed a new life skill essential for a parrots survival even though he doesn't need it in my house. :rolleyes: He has learnt to forage by going down onto the seed catcher round the bottom of his cage & poking his head through the gap to grab some dropped food. For a while, I was noticing little piles of eaten food accumulating in a certain spot on the floor just outside the cage & then I spotted this little grey & red butt sticking out. Mystery solved, check out the pics. "Waste not want not!"

That's a heart warming story birdhouse, sad start but a nice ending.....well done for all the hard work it must have took. Very touching when a human goes out of their way to look after a sick & very unhappy creature to make their life whole again.

It's so sweet seeing his little bobbing head, I love it! I thought it was a happy sign, it always feels like he a happy moment when he does it. Sometimes I'll just be sitting watching TV & I look up at Murphy on his stand, the second he see's me look at him the head starts bobbing. I also say it to him to dance when there is music playing but so far he hasnt responded to that so it must just be when he is a happy chappy & wants to let me know.

What's the bobbing head all about? Murphy has been doing the bobbing head thing for a while now & it cracks me up every time, the more I laugh the more he does it. He just started doing it one day out of the blue, I've seen other greys do it but never knew what it meant. He only seems to do it when he's happy so I'm guessing he's showing off for a laugh.

I didn't get the chance to meet Murphy while he was being weaned but chose him over the phone because I wanted a boy & the breeder had one boy & one girl. She kept me up to date with pics every week & an update on his progress week by week. On the day he was ready for collection, I was so happy I couldn't get there quick enough & it was round trip of over 400 miles so took a while. When I arrived Murphy was 12 weeks old & sat on a table top stand waiting to meet me, I approached him slowly talking nice & soft to be greeted with a very slight African grey growl. I gave him a few minutes to get used to my presence & walked over to him again, asked him to step up & he amazed me by doing it straight away. He then stayed on my hand for the whole duration I was there, showing no signs he wanted to get off, he even let me put a harness on him. The rest as they say is history!

I'll start. Well Murphy is just over 1 years old now & lots of things to look forward to in the coming year with many accomplishments on the horizon. One thing he has accomplished this year is to eat something other than his seed mix. I have battled to get him to eat his greens over the time I have had him which is now around 8 months. He has a little stainless pot that we put his fruit & veg in, 99% of the time it just sits there uneaten & then has to be removed but today he ate some fresh chillies taken from our chili plant, I popped them in his dish & the whole lot has been eaten.