Chris and Matt

There's a little place here in Huntsville called the Harmony Park Safari. It's a cool little place, you can drive through and feed a bunch of animals that are living together on this little animal preserve place. Well, in the front area where you can walk around they have a beautiful umbrella cockatoo in a cage. As soon as I saw "him" my heart broke. He was hunched over in the heat, his wings held away from his body and his mouth open slightly while he was panting. He's in a rusted cage that's too small. He's got one perch and a chewed up piece of wood, no toys or anything to play with. His water dish, which was sitting on the floor of his cage, was scummy and empty. He sits outside in the ungodly heat all day. It was 97 degrees today and that was without the heat index! I stood in front of his cage and talked to him and he slowly came down off of his perch to greet me. He pushed against his cage so I could give him a neck scratch and I happily (and cautiously) obliged. He put his foot through the cage bars and held my finger like he didn't want me to leave. When I did finally have to go he started screeching and hollering and running circles around his cage. Obviously this really bothered me, but what do I do? Is there even anything I can do? I just wanted to open his cage and take him away from there but obviously that was out of the question. I wish I'd thought to take pictures of his water bowl. My little buddy, I didn't want to leave the poor guy.

I placed a small order with CA Bird Nerds and my box got here yesterday. I was having an awful day so I only threw together one toy. It doesn't look pretty but Maggie doesn't seem to mind.

Thanks for all of the suggestions! I picked up three of the books mentioned, I can't wait to get them

I'm not sure if it's because Maggie is still young but about 7:30 she gets tired and cranky and she wants nothing more than to go back to her cage and go to sleep. Even if she's out on her play perch she'll be very quiet and mellow. If we're lucky enough to catch her before she gets grumpy she'll snuggle up and fall asleep. If you get her after she's hit her grumpy stage she'll complain and sometimes get a little nippy to get her point across. Bed time is bed time!

Maggie is about 12 weeks old and she's clipped. We have 3 kids and 2 dogs already so neither of us feel safe keeping her flighted. I'm pretty sure she only does this when she knows someone is home and she wants out of her cage, but she goes to the bottom of her cage, right to the corner, and digs. She'll just stand in one spot and scrape her feet over and over like she's trying to dig out of her cage. If we're home we usually have Maggie out with us but sometimes we just need her to be in her cage, for her safety or our sanity (she goes back in her cage when she's being especially screechy). When she scratches should we take her out? I seem to read different opinions as far as the reinforcement of negative behavior. Should we leave her in her cage until she stops scratching and then take her out? Any suggestions or opinions are appreciated.

Between the two of us we have 3 kids. They're 5, 6, and 10. They've all been told how to behave with Maggie, if they don't listen they're sent out of the room to play somewhere else and they get the idea. We also have rats though and they're pretty used to the "slow and gentle" idea behind small animals. The 5 year old is the only one who lives with us full-time, unfortunately, but I think as long as we continue to remind her of proper interaction with Maggie we'll all be alright. This is Maggie with the 10 year old

Miss Maggie May. She's still a little uneasy of cameras and phones so she gets a little puffy when I try to take pictures. (I hope this picture works, I'm linking it from my Facebook, hopefully the link doesn't break)

Oh my goodness, I'm jealous! In fact, I think I'm going to place a sizeable order with that site as soon as I can figure out what to buy. We just brought our girl home yesterday but I've been wanting to make toys for her since we first met Maggie. I just need to figure out what to buy and go from there I suppose. Good luck and post some pictures of the toys you make!

Hello all! Chris here (and I imagine I'll always be the one here). I found your forums last night when googling around for some more information on greys. My boyfriend (Matt) and I just brought our first grey home yesterday. Her name is Maggie and we're absolutely in love. She's about 10 weeks old (I'll have to find out how old exactly). Maggie makes lots of noise already, chirps, clucks, and everything else, it seems she has a lot to say. She's still trying to get used to her new cage and just loves to be held when one of us is awake and around. My boyfriend found her at a breeder here in Huntsville, AL. He went to find a baby when they were first pulled from their nest box. Maggie picked Matt though, all of the other babies were in the corner and she kind of came to him. We've been visiting her every week since then and we adore her. Ok, I guess this got a little long. Glad to meet you all and look forward to learning a lot from you.