reggieroo

Thought I would start this thread as a kind of online diary for all the members of grey forums to add the accomplishments of their avian companions in 2011. I was going to call it The year of the grey but I thought to myself that here on grey forums we have grey owners that also have other species of parrot in their flock so I called it Year of the Parrot to make sure everybody & their parrots can be part of it, from Conures to Macaws. We also have lots of new owners on here with baby greys & thought it would be a good way to keep a log of all the new things they have learnt or accomplished this year. May it be a new word, step up, first flight etc, it doesn't matter what it is as long as you see it as an accomplishment feel free to add it. That also goes to new & old, if you feel you have something to add whether your birdie is 1 or 31 years old feel free to add to this thread & keep it alive, it might even get made a sticky.

They all seem to have this little dark side every now & then. Murphy never bites me but is always dive bombing Kate's head & biting her, sure he does it for a reaction.

Well Guys, thanks everyone for the help & support, I feel a lot better now about things now I have been able to vent & talk to people who understand. As you say Birdhouse, everyone hits the wall & I think I did. I forgot I was human for a time & guess the stresses of daily life were building up & there was Murphy "nag, nag, nag" not helping things. I have to say though, raising Murphy has been a lot tougher than I anticipated & has made raising my baby Daughter Ella-Rose seem easy, roll on baby number 2.............lol

Thanks Dan, It's actually strangely reassuring to know that other people have the a similar issue with their grey & not just me. Maybe because Murphy is more normal than I thought.

Thanks to you Stephen & Marguerite for the encouraging words & support, it means a lot to know that I can come on here when I'm having one of those bad days to vent or ask for help. I think my post was a bit of both, I pretty much know what I've got to do by now, like you say I know the drill. I've just been feeling a little lost & frustrated. I always feel better after I've been on here for a chat about any issues I may be facing. You can't really talk too or moan to anybody else as they just don't understand & it is more frustrating when their only bit of advise is "get rid of him then!". That's the last thing you want for your little grey friend, all you want is some help & support to get through the tough times. Everybody is different in that respect, some get through better than others, some have more patience or higher tolerance levels, that's what make us individuals just like our greys. Mr Murphy, well he's knows that I love him & he is part of our family forever. He is growing up with my little daughter who is now 14 months old with him being 12 months, hopefully they will be friends when they are old enough to understand friendship a little better. I think what also keeps me going is I see light at the end of the tunnel, I know that we will work through these issues just like I worked through the screaming I had for 7 months & by the way that has now completely stopped. This issue I'm having now is nowhere near as bad as that but it is something I have struggled with since bringing him home. He just hates being in his cage period, I even bought him a new cage with more room inside & a play top but still he rarely plays on it. I think it's down to the freedom he feels while sat on his stand, that's why he is content there because he knows that if he wants he can fly somewhere else like my shoulder, the cage top or even inside to get some food which he does do. Then when I put him in the cage & close the door I have taken that freedom & choice away from him. Also he can't fly to me when he feels he needs me. Sometimes he is like that, one afternoon he will sit there content & other days he is constantly flying around chasing me. I think you may have hit the nail on the head Marguerite with that sound that he makes & yes he does ramp it up in volume and intensity when you don't attend to his majesty immediately. For me I believe it's more the meaning behind the noise than the actual noise that bugs me. It's hard to understand what they are tyring to tell you but you get an idea of what it is & the noise give me the impression of a wanting/needy type of noise, almost like "dad let me out" over & over & over for hours. You can look at it as kinda nice that he wants me but some days that doesn't help if you Having a bad day. Also the fact that he only does it when I'm in the house indicates that he know full well I'm there & wants me & only me. I guess when I'm not in he knows this & doesn't bother, Kate tells me that when I walk through the door after being out he starts it immediately but previously he has just been whistling & chatting away with Kate while in his cage. It's all these different elements to the situation that gets me confused, to know if I'm doing the right thing or not. I worry that by ignoring him I'm going to give him feelings of abandonment & on the other hand I worry that if I respond I'm going to make him more needy & dependent on me & also reinforce the noise he is making. For me helping Murphy grow up into a happy well adjusted parrot is paramount, I don't want to get it wrong & have a bird that is unhappy & plucking himself because Dad has gone out shopping for a couple of hours. Or a bird that is biting everybody but me because he can't handle other people being around him. The first 5 years of your baby greys life is the most important as that is when they become the parrot they are going to be for the rest of their life, get it wrong & it's not going to be nice for anyone including your bird. This is the reason you see so may re-homes & so many people telling you " you'll get rid of him after a few years" & I'm not talking about people on here just people you meet out & about who have seen it all before in the parrot world. I tend to talk the the hind legs of a Donkey to anyone that is interested in parrots, as you can probably tell.

Patience is what has kept me going all this time, he has been extremely tough to raise & Lot's of people would have given up by now & re-homed him, not me I see things through & of course I know he's not a toy. I think most people, would be lying if they didn't want good interactions with their grey I'm just being honest & saying it how it is.

We picked up Murphy as a 12 weeks old grey when our daughter was only 5 months old. My thinking was more along the lines of if we have them both around the same age they will grow together & learn to respect one another & this does seem to be the case. Now Murphy is just over 12 months old & my daughter is just over 14 months old & they don't bother one another in any way. My daughter is crawling all over the place & Murphy is fully flighted & no poop accidents yet. I recently bought a cage with a seed catcher skirt round the outside to catch any poops just in case my Daughter thought Mmmmm what's that on the floor, it looks tasty. It all seems to be working out ok, my daughter doesn't bat an eyelid when Murphy swoops past with his pterodactyl cry & vice versa when she starts crying, he doesn't seem to notice or bother.

What I mean when I say "intelligent communication lacking a little" is I'm expecting a little more than a squeak. He was communicating a lot better not so long ago, he would whistle, make funny noises & attempt some human speech & I would always respond with something back & some praise. I guess it's just a little disappointing when your grey sounds like a canary all day when you know he is capable of more than that. You want that level of interaction with your grey to make it fun for you both. The pooping in the dishes never used to happen, only because he spends so long now pacing back & forth on them & then needs to poop. I will have to buy some dishes that can be fitted anywhere in the cage as the ones I have are specifically for that cage & can't be moved as they are on the swing out doors. He was just in his cage a minute ago & Kate wanted to go outside so she shut his door, now he's all anxious & pacing back & forth because the door is shut. As soon as we open it again he will be fine. As for what makes him happy on his stand, I would say the fact that he is 100% free to come & go as he pleases. He does like to chew the hell out of it & it looks a little worse for wear right now, so I thought maybe he needs more wood to chew so a while back I gave him some new natural perches from my apple tree. These he tucked into right away but now doesn't bother. I've tried changing toys around in his cage but still rarely see him playing with them, I don't think there is much more I can do on that side of things. It feels like the only thing that makes him feel happy & at ease is if he is free to come & go when he wants & also my undivided attention all the time. In this situation he seems like a happy go lucky grey, chatting away & making us laugh with his silly mannerisms. You put him back in his cage & he appears anxious & stressed that he can't get out to me. Maybe it's making me feel the same without me knowing it & he is picking up on it, I don't know. He does seem very dependent on me, I'm the one he always wants to be with & the only one who can handle him without fear of any bites.

Murphy has plenty of toys in his cage, this was something I made sure of within weeks of getting him home. We always buy him something new if we see something when out & about but most often he is scared of it for few days as with most greys. He's not long started playing with his birdie babble ball that he has had for ages but only in the mornings before we wake. I hardly ever seeing him playing with his toys though & when he does he gets lot's of praise to encourage him to play more. Praise & positive reinforcement is something I use all the time but it just seems that he can't settle in his cage & his sole mission in life is to escape to be with me 100% of the time. If he thinks he is to be put back in, he will give you one hell of a runaround & just as your about to put him through the door he takes off.

I still seem to be having some issues with Murphy while in his cage. While I try to give Murphy as much out of cage time as I can he never seems to be happy in his own cage when I have to put him back in. Most days he is out pretty much all day as I work from home, coming & going as he pleases from his stand in the living room to his cage just outside my study door. There comes days that I get busy doing jobs etc & Murphy has to go into the cage for a few hours & this is where the issues start. All he does is walk back & forth across his food dishes for hours on end making this rather repetitive squeaky type sound with the odd whistle thrown in for good measure & this has been going on for months now. It's becoming a little annoying to say the least as one of the problems is he poops in his food & water dishes which then needs to be changed resulting in wasted food over & over. Also the squeaky noise is getting irritating as it's just the same noise over & over for hours on end until he eventually gives up. At this point I'll go let him out as I'm trying to teach him that the silly little noise won't get you what you want. The odd time he will try & talk & again I will answer this straight away to try & teach him a better way of communicating with me. If he does decide to go sit on his perch he will just hop from one foot to the other or keep turning round & round, over & over. The only time he seems truly happy is while sat on his stand in the living room, even if I'm not in there with him & he's on his own. A choice he has made by flying in there even though I may not be in there, if he wants me he will fly back to his cage top or my shoulder as more often than not I'm sat here on the PC in the study working. While sat on his stand he will sit & chat away in his attempts at human speech & all the other funny noises he makes but very rarely does he do this in his cage. If he does then I will of course answer him & give him lots of encouragement. I want him to be just as happy in his cage than while on his stand for all those time when he can't be out, like if I'm busy or not in. I wonder is it my fault for giving him so much freedom in the first place? All I want for him is to be happy while in his cage & to be able to communicate with me on a more intelligent level so I can chat with him more & that way he gets more attention. I have yet to see the so called grey intelligence that I have read & heard all about with other peoples greys. When he sits there squeaking he gets ignored so as not to reinforce it but when he makes a more intelligent attempt at communication he gets attention to give him positive reinforcement. Right now he is sitting in his cage right opposite me squeaking away but getting ignored, why doesn't he get it? Is it still an age issue as he is only just over 12 months old? Is it that he has not got the Independence of an older grey to entertain himself while in his cage? Lot's of people greys live mainly in their cage with only a couple hours outime a day & they seem to have no problem, like people that go to work all day. He has me here all day, nearly everyday, you would think he would be happy as Larry wouldn't you? Oh one thing I nearly forgot to add is if only seem to behave in this way if I'm in the house. Say for instance I nip out to the shops for an hour & Kate is at home, he is fine. If anybody can give me some useful advise to try help with this issue that will be much appreciated.

Again Stephen, Murphy seems to be on the same path as Issac. I've been hearing the attempts at speech for months now with nothing being very clear at all but you can definitely tell it's an attempt at human speech. I even posted a while back as I thought any day now he will be talking proper words.............but not so & still not. The funny thing is even when we brought him home at 12 weeks old he was making what sounded like attempts at human speech & I thought wow this bird will be talking before long but now he is just over 12 months old & still trying to say a clear word. Lately though it has been very few & far between as he seems to spend more time trying to get my attention with a kinda squeaky baby sound constantly, more on that in another post.

Stephen I've been wondering the same thing about Murphy as I keep finding feathers here & there but no other visible signs. He does have lots of pin feather round his neck, a little more then usual. He doesn't look like he has lost any feathers though.

So funny!

I got him these vitakraft bars for African greys today & he's scared stiff of them the silly sod.:rolleyes:

He's going to get spoiled today instead as it has been chaos round by me with all the snow & yesterday we were held up at the supermarket for four hours then I had to travel 40 miles to go pick up my Turkey & presents from my parents house. It was a long old day yesterday. Going out now & I'm going to get him something nice, not sure what though, that's if I can find anything he will enjoy.

Can you not report them?

My little mate Murphy was one yesterday.

Emma is so sweet, don't ever stop showing us her videos.

We have a far bit of snow here & looks to be here for Christmas, at present about 1 foot.

Haven't been on here for a while & only the odd post here & there. I was just wondering where you were Jay as I hadn't seen any posts, so I did a quick look around the forum for some posts from you hoping nothing bad had happened & then I stumbled on this. I do hope you are feeling better, all the best wishes & prayers from Murphy & me, get well soon.

Only just read this, I do hope you pop in every now & then.......Emma is the sweetest little grey I have ever seen, no word of a lie! I understand that time can be hard to come by in life, I too don't find the time to come on here as often as I'd like but still pop back here & there.

I was just excited about getting my grey, like a kid at Christmas. I kept emailing the breeder for pics every week & updates. When I got him things weren't quite how I expected them to be as he still needed some hand feeding even though I had bought a fully weaned 12 week old baby so then I started to get worried I might do the wrong thing. It all turned out ok in the end though.

We're always here to help when we can. To be honest with you our little one year old daughter Ella-Rose doesn't cry very often at all & our house isn't really that loud considering I have quite a large flock, two cats, one German shepherd, me, Kate, Ella-Rose & Murphy. He's pretty quiet for a parrot (at the moment), I had a screaming problem for around 7 months but that is now history & he doesn't mimic any household noises at all. All the noises he makes are an attempt at human speech which he is working on daily & some sweet little whistles & a few oddities that I can't work out what they are but they do make me laugh. The only time he gets quite loud is when I'm trying to watch TV & he wants to be heard. :rolleyes: So true!

It's a decision I think a lot of parrot owners have to think about at some point & not a very nice one. Also like other people have said it is down to your own personal situation in the household etc. Before getting my grey Murphy I had an Amazon who was clipped so when getting Murphy I had to make the same decision over again & decided not to clip this time. The main reason I decided not to, was he was only a 12 week old baby & fortunately I had educated myself on greys a little before hand & read on here that you shouldn't clip a growing baby as Dave007 has said until at least 8 months old. I had also read that clipping greys can cause some of the behavioural problems associated with greys like feather plucking so again I didn't want to take that risk. I have now got used to having a flighted bird around the house & it's quite nice knowing he has the freedom to come & go as he pleases, if I'm in one room he flies in to see me & then follows me out. If he's hungry he flies back to his cage for some food on his own accord. Now I'm not saying it's great all the time, there has been one occasion when I felt like clipping him. One time my little one year was having her lunch in her high chair & Murphy decided to try & land on her head but fortunately I was sat right there & managed to deflect him away before he caused any damage. He just missed her face by a nats whisper with his talon nearly catching her little eye. I'm not sure if he was trying to get to her food or what but at the time the thought crossed my mind that I may have to clip, I thought if he's going to start doing that all the time, I can't be having that! I thought about it long & hard & decided against it, thinking I'll just keep him in his cage while feeding my Daughter but he hasn't done it since. He can also get very annoying at times when he wants to be everywhere you are. There are time when I'm just trying to watch TV in the evening & he's a persistent little fella & keeps on flying down to me over & over & sometimes your not in the mood for it. I have to remind myself that he is still just a baby & wants tickles off his Dad (me).

Well Murphy got me with the dreaded morning poop the other day, he was sat on my shoulder & I heard an almighty splat! I looked down to see the biggest poop ever all over the floor & the rest running down the arm of my dressing gown.........thanks Murf! That's actually the first time he pooped on me in 7 months since we got him, except for the first day he came home. I honestly thought he had more respect for me............