Christopher Tequila

We adopted Zoe, a CAG, in June. She is 6 years old and has been in 5 homes already. After a few days she was already stepping up and letting my wife pet her. She is still afraid of me, we think because of abuse from a male in her past, but we are working on that patiently. Last Saturday we started fostering a TAG named Sydney, who is somewhere between 35 and 40 and has had only one owner who passed away. She has indicated she wants to step up, but an attempt to let her step up onto my hand resulted in a fairly painful bite! She seemed very surprised and happy that we did not yell or get mad or anything. She also seems to want to get on my shoulder, which may have been how her old owner handled her, but we do not allow that with our birds. This morning Sydney was whistling so much and even saying a few very quiet words, that Zoe could not get a whistle in! It seems that when Zoe started to whistle, Sydney decided to whistle even louder than her! I feed the birds and let them out of their cages in the morning and my wife comes down to say hi to Zoe and give her a few head scratches before she leaves for work. Today Zoe decided to give Maria a nice bite, something that she has not done before. She left her in her cage and tried right before she left and got another bite. It's only days yet, so we are not freaking out completely, but my wife is afraid that Sydney being here is making Zoe jealous and biting out of frustration. We had an Umbrella Cockatoo living with us before Zoe arrived and who left after Zoe was here for a few weeks. She did not seem to care then but with another grey here we are concerned that Zoe may be resentful for her being here. We just wondered if anyone has gone through this when bringing home another grey? We realize that both birds were probably the only bird in each of their homes and both have to get used to each other, but we hoped maybe someone here has some experience and can put our minds at ease. Thanks, Christopher, Maria, Zoe and Sydney

I introduced myself a while ago when we adopted Zoe, a CAG from the Sanctuary my wife and I volunteer at. We saw another grey named Ruby who we were considering adopting. Ruby is 16 and a plucker. She came in to the sanctuary in a cage with two old toys that she didn't even touch. The owner had just married and his new wife said he had to give up the bird. We wanted to foster her and see if we could get her feathered again. We had already bought her some chewable toys, like the pinatas and those strips you tie through the cage bars, and she just devoured them. The owner came back and is thinking about taking her back. Evidently he was crying his eyes out because he missed her so much. While I feel really bad for him, I just hope if he takes her back he tries to provide her with appropriate toys and showers and everything she needs to help her. Sometimes people can love something so much yet still not take care of it the way they should. She very well may have become a plucker due to boredom. But who is this Sydney you ask? While volunteering yesterday, we were told that they needed to hold onto Ruby so the owner could decide what he was going to do. I guess his decision would be either the bird or his new wife! They said that they had a TAG coming in later that day. After cleaning and scrubbing and socializing for a few hours, a man came in with Sydney, the TAG, and Jasper, a cockatiel. Sydney is around 35 to 40 years old and was wild caught. They do not know if it is a male or female but we are call Sydney a girl. Her owner passed away about 16 months ago and the wife was holding onto him for sentimental reasons. She finally decided that she could not care for any more and drove all the way from Kalamazoo Michigan to Wisconsin to bring her to the Sanctuary. She was kept in a very small cage and as far as we know has been eating a seed diet for most of her life. Since we unfortunately could not keep the Umbrella Cockatoo we were fostering, Zoe is now living in the Macaw cage that the Umbrella was in, I call it the castle! That left Zoe's old cage available. Before we even had much time to say hello to Sydney, she was already at home with us in the cage with new toys and good food. She has not been handled for the 16 months or more since her owner passed away, so we will need to be very patient with her. She is very small and looks a bit too thin at the moment. She did start eating the good food right away, and even tried some of the vegetables we gave her. Are there any suggestions anyone with a TAG has that might be different from a CAG, or any suggestions for an older bird? I will try and post some pictures soon. Thanks, Christopher and Sydney

We currently have a Grey and are thinking of getting another bird. We love Amazons, my wife grew up with them in Mexico, but we also know that they can be very loud. Does anyone have an Amazon and live in an apartment? Is it unreasonable to even consider it? I have lived with a cockatoo in an apartment, but he was with us from a baby and was very good about screaming, only doing the usual morning and night time screaming. The Amazon we would be getting would be from a bird sanctuary that we volunteer at. We may also consider another grey, there are so many birds in need at the sanctuary.

My wife Maria and I have adopted a CAG who is 6 years old and has already been through 5 homes. We found her at the bird sanctuary we volunteer for. Her name is Zoe, although I do not think she has ever been sexed. She has only been with us for about 11 days. She already will step up on my wifes hand and loves her to pet her head. She also lets my oldest daughter hold and pet her and my youngest daughter can pet her. She lets me give her food and even clean and change things around in her cage, but she is terrified of my hands if I get close to her or try and get her to step up for me. We are going to try having my wife and I go into a small room with her and just sit until she gets more comfortable with me. We would be patient and not rush her, but hopefully get to trust me. We do not know enough about her past to know if she was abused by a male, or what might be causing this. We are looking for other suggestions. I should also mention that we have an Umbrella Cockatoo named Casper which we recently adopted as well. He is 20 years old and a real nutter. We are having to work on some screaming issues due to the improper socialization he received in his previous home. We make sure that Zoe can see me interacting with Casper. I never thought I could have another Umbrella since we lost our previous one to PDD about 3 years ago, but Casper has been a blessing for all of us. Again, hello and we hope someone has some suggestions to help us get Zoe to trust me. Thanks Christopher