Cheshire Cat

JillyBeanz, I actually thought that. While at first I felt bad for him, I then thought, "Why would he go back to Italy without his bird?" Okay, quarantine laws are tight, but I'd do everything in my power to make sure Tui went with me if I upped and left to another country. I wouldn't leave her behind and especially with an ex partner! You don't know what they'd do out of malice. If I HAD to leave Tui anywhere, it'd be with my parents. I feel for him but at the same time I don't. If he loved Coco so much, he'd have taken him with him.

I do agree with you, Ray. The version I read in the newspaper was a lot more in depth and said that Coco was donated to the park. The Internet versions of this story don't go into as much depth. I'll have a look around and see if I can find any more information. A lot of the timeframes seem to be skimmed over. This article is from the actual paper I read and does inform the reader a little more. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1322851/Parrot-thinks-hes-Pavarotti-Tug-love-African-Grey-sing-Italian.html

I actually read this article yesterday in the newspaper and I feel for this man. Due to being Italian and going back to Italy, he left his bird in the UK because of strict quarantine. Now that he's back, he's found his bird in a park and is going through custody proceedings to get him back. http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/207071/Custody-fight-over-Coco-the-parrot -- Direct article. A PARROT which speaks Italian and can whistle O Sole Mio is at the centre of a bitter custody row. The African Grey, called Coco, is a children’s favourite at a park in Harlow, Essex. But Angelo Ferlazzo, 50, claims the bird belongs to him. He says he bought Coco from a local pet shop in 1984, and spent months training him. He even taught the parrot to chatter in Italian and whistle the classic song. But when his marriage broke down a few years later, he moved back to his native Italy, leaving Coco with his ex-wife. Four years ago, back in Britain, he visited Pets’ Corner in Harlow Town Park and found Coco was the main attraction. Mr Ferlazzo said the parrot’s rendition of O Sole Mio shed any doubts and brought tears to his eyes. “We want to be reunited – that bird should be with a family,” he added. But his pleas to Harlow Council to hand over the bird, even offering to replace him with another African Grey, have failed. The RSPCA has told council officials that after nine years at Pets’ Corner, any move would distress the parrot. Mr Ferlazzo’s new partner, Karen Wright, said: “We don’t understand how Coco would be better off in a cage at Pets’ Corner. He’s got to be better off in a warm, loving family home.” Harlow councillor Joel Charles said: “Coco was donated in good faith to Pets’ Corner about nine years ago. He is much-loved, and imitates both staff and animals. The council has seen no facts to question its rightful ownership of the parrot. We sympathise with Mr Ferlazzo but have to put the animal’s welfare first.”

What irks me in the most is when you're shopping and people stop suddenly right in front of you and start up a conversation with someone who they've just seen.

Reading this legend reminded me so much of when I had Tui. I said to my mom that African Greys may not be the most outstanding parrots to look at, but I think they have a natural beauty all of their own. They are so intelligent and every bird has his/her own personality.

I've still been around posting and reading. I just haven't really had much to say about Tui. Lol. But I thought I'd send everyone an update to let you know how her feather plucking is and how much of a good girl she's become. At the moment as I type this, she's sat on my desk; I move some of my things aside and she sits with me while I'm on the computer.

I'm not sure if this is already here on the site, but I thought I'd share it as I thought it was very beautiful! According to a legend from my ancestral culture the Yoruba people of South Western Nigeria, the Republic of Benin, the Republic of Togo and Ghana, the African grey parrot which is known as Odide was not always grey, nor did it always have red tail feathers. God decided to have a contest to see which bird had the most beautiful feathers so all the birds in the world began preparing themselves. They sought to improve their beauty by adding things to themselves or trying to enhance their colors. At that time the Odide, which was white in color, made no preparations at all. This caused the other birds to wonder, why were they working so hard and why Odide was doing nothing at all. All of the other birds began to worry. They were afraid that if Odide entered the contest they would all lose. So, all the other birds got together and decided to spoil Odide's natural beauty. They first tried to spoil Odide's beauty by dumping ashes on it as it flew through the trees. This did not seem to have any effect. Next the other birds went to the Sorcerer to get an evil charm which would turn the Odide's tail feathers red. The other birds were quite sure that the Odide would not enter the contest now, since they had spoiled its natural beauty. On the day of the beauty contest the Odide entered any way in spite of all that had been done to it. Much to the surprise of the other birds, God awarded the prize to the Odide because it came to the contest even though so much harm had been done to it. God said that the Odide was indeed the most beautiful bird, because true beauty is on the inside. In many west and west central African cultures the African grey parrot is considered sacred and its tail feathers are a symbol of or an emblem of royalty. When Kings and Queens are crowned and members of the priesthood ordained at least one tail feather from the African grey must either be in the crown or some where on the person being crowned or ordained. This is done to remind them that true beauty comes from within.

I think importing of parrots should be stopped over here in England, too. I've read up about the importing process of Greys and watched a video of how they're caught in the wild and it made me cry. I've also read that African Greys are becoming endangered in the wild because so many keep being caught for the pet trade. It's disgraceful! More countries (including mine) should think about it. Animals ought to be respected as we were put here to guard and look after them.

I haven't posted any new threads in a while, but I thought I'd start this considering that I went through a bad patch a couple of months ago with Tui plucking. My fiancee thinks that her plucking was down to the fact that I was going through a very emotional and stressing time at work...later on I left, so Tui may have picked up on my emotion change. Thankfully, she's stopping it. I do see her plucking now and again, but it's very rare. However, at the moment she's going through her first molt so there are always feathers and fluff about the place. Lol! The feathers on her back and under her wings have grown back completely now and her chest looks fluffy. The down has come back, but I'm still waiting for the top layer of feathers to emerge. I'm just happy that she's stopped and is healthy in herself. She's become a lot more vocal lately. Whenever I leave the room she begins whistling and clicking a storm, but will also do it when I'm watching TV. She's terrible for attention seeking and also drags her food and water pots out of the holders on the side of the cage. As for baths...well, she hates them. I've tried different ways to bath her. I've taken her in the shower with me so she can see the water won't hurt her and has she's wound up clawing up my chest and neck. Ouch! I even let her sit on the shower curtain rail when I'm in so she can see the water won't harm her and I throw little droplets at her, but she doesn't like that either. Anything with water and she hates it. I've misted her and made her a bath to sit in....nothing works. She just growls and calls out, sometimes so much that I dread the neighbours calling the RSPCA. LOL! Her behaviour in the last four months though has come in leaps and bounds. At one point she kept flying into the curtains and wouldn't come down. Now she'll fly to the curtains, although not as much, but steps right onto my hand when I reach out for her. The only behaviour which I'm trying to stop her doing is biting other people. She very, very rarely bites me but will sometimes go for my mom and dad which I've got to stop her doing. Anyway, enough of the essay. I just thought I'd update everyone.

$950 is a fair price considering that I'm from England and we paid £825 for Tui which, I think, equates out to about $1,400. I do think on the whole though that Greys are more expensive over here.

As said before, a lot of Greys as we know bond to particular people in the household. Tui has bonded more with my fiancee as he was around a lot when I first had her. I was working and my fiancee was off work ill, so he'd sit with Tui. She's well behaved with me, but she loves to be with my fiancee when he's in the room. I do agree that Yoshi may have just chosen you and wants your attention. Some Greys seem to only want the attention of that one person they've bonded with, while others will take attention from anyone like my Tui does. She'll begin whistling as soon as I leave the room and whenever I'm watching TV because she wants attention, even though she's bonded more with my fiancee than me.

When I first got Tui, I was at work and I'd get her out for a while before I went to work. And then when I got home, I'd have her out for a few hours until her bed time. Basically, Tui is out her cage whenever I'm in the room. I'm out of work at the moment, so she has plenty of play time out her cage. As for children, I can't really comment much. There are no children who live in my household, although I do have nieces (aged 5, 9 and 10). My one niece is now scared of Tui because she flew and landed on her head. Haha! Bless her. My youngest niece likes to touch Tui, but Tui does tend to snap at people she doesn't know very well. So I have to be very careful around them when they're together; I even told my sister when my niece asked if Tui bites, that I can't guarantee she won't bite. I wasn't going to lie. But I'm sure if you have children and the bird gets used to them, they should all be alright.

I've had Tui four months now so she's around ten months of age and she can sometimes really go mad with whistling, clicking and making random noises. This is usually when I'm watching the TV or talking to someone else in the room; she's after my attention which she knows is not fixed on her. A few times I'm sure she's said 'Hello' and tried to experiment with vocalisation but it comes out as more of a gurgle. If you want your bird to talk, all you can do is keep talking to him (talking about random things or what things you're doing/need to do throughout the day) and hopefully he should pick up the words. As a lot of people here have said, Greys will say what they want to say. If you keep saying the same word over and over again, I'm sure the bird will get bored of it and not say that word you want them to. LOL. It's just luck! Keep talking to him and I'm sure he'll begin chatting away to you soon.... The worst thing Tui ever does is make a high pitch shriek and she's done that when I've been holding her and she's been right by my ear. Seriously, the other day, my ear was ringing for a while afterwards with the sheer pitch of her shriek. Other times she'll do the typical wolf whistle or just do a one note whistle....she just seems to come out with whatever she feels like at that particular moment in time.

I think since our cockatiels died about 7 years ago, I'd always wanted a bird. Deep down I wanted one again and I'd always liked the look of Greys when I saw them. Something about their look appealed to me. Then, I began watching videos on YouTube and came across Tui (her owner was Andrew) and I became enthralled with these beautiful and clever birds. I read more and more about them and watched more videos, becoming obsessed and then finally I spoke to my mom about getting one as I still live at home. After much debate and discussion, my mom finally gave me her blessing to get one and I did....that is how my Tui came into my life and how I chose her, and her name is also from the first Grey which inspired me to buy her. If it wasn't for me seeing the original Tui, I seriously don't know if I'd have followed the path I did and become so fascinated by them.

I love to sniff Tui. It's a very slight dusty-type smell and her chest smells quite sweet.

I'd love to see that, too. My fiancee showed me the trailer as he knows I love animals in general, and now I have Tui, anything to do with birds and people immediately turn to me. LOL.

I've just set up a Facebook page in dedication to Tui who flew away on May 12th 2008. She has made a huge impact on me (hence my own bird's name) in my decision to finally have a Grey. I do have Andrew on my YouTube friends list so I have messaged him and let him know of the page and asked if he approves of it. This is the page if people would like to join: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tui-the-African-Grey-who-flew-away-on-May-12th-2008/101128769951399?ref=mf#!/pages/Tui-the-African-Grey-who-flew-away-on-May-12th-2008/101128769951399?ref=mf If people would rather join once I've heard back from Andrew then that is fine with me. As I said to Dan, I can't see why he wouldn't approve of the page, but it's only polite I ask.

I've had my Grey now for three months (she's about 7-8 months of age) and she doesn't usually try to copy what I've said as soon as I say it. But then sometimes she'll sit on her cage and gurgle as though she's trying to sound out words. A lot of the time I think the Grey just needs to get the sound and find that they can make a sound in their throat before they can properly imitate people's words. I think they need to get their voice first before the words come. Hope that helps.

I watched a video on YouTube about how the men out there trap Greys and then they're transported to other countries and most of them don't make it. I cried at it! Greys are amazingly beautiful birds and it hurts me so much when I see things like that. Every form of animal cruelty, in my opinion, is just absolutely disgusting and unforgivable. I look at those poor birds and I see my Tui staring back at me....I can't even describe how I feel when I see this; it's literally heartwrenching.

Cathy, I brought some aloe vera for my bird and you have to make sure it's 100% juice. I saw in the shop (which was actually a herb and well being shop for humans) two versions; one was 97% and the other 100% but a little more expensive. Only get 100%. I tend to use 50% water and 50% juice, but I think it's up to the owner's discretion.

I can't believe a vet said that!! Ridiculous. Greys can live anywhere between 50-70 years from what I've read. Some sources say 50 and others have said up to 70 and even 80 on one website. I think it depends on their lifestyle. 5-6 years. How stupid. I can't get over that!!! It's right what someone said in an earlier post, they don't even reach sexual maturity until they're about 5! Where did this person get their veterinary certificate from? eBay? Lol!

I had my bird and she was already about 6 months of age so I'm sorry that I can't be of much help here. My bird has just developed her personality so it's hard for me to say it's a personality change. I'm still learning a lot both from my own bird and from visiting this forum; I really wish I could be of more help. Sometimes Tui will fall asleep on her perch during the day but I think it's because she's just tired herself out. As everyone has rightly said, take Rambo to see an Avian vet. I'm sure they'll know a little more on this.

She's probably typing about how weird her mother is. LOL.