Ray P

Welcome and it`s sounds like you have a great start with your tag Ruffles. Enjoy the forum.

I have been checking their profile about 2 or 3 times a week to see if missed any of their post.

How about some indoor plumbing for the cage. If I could make it work I can make millions.

I have a congo african grey and a blue fronted amazon that get along like sisters (most of the time or at least some of the time) untill one or the other thinks the other has something that they think they should have like me. It`s fun to watch them compete for your attention by doing something they think you think is cute to make you look at them or get the attention off of the other. They will say or do something that you thought was funny when they did it in the past. You kind of expect this from kids and not from birds but they are family. They can be very jealous of each other and will compete with each other for anything and every thing that each think they should have. It makes life around here very interesting. What will your birds do for your attention.

That sounds like my birds. They think they are human. Breakfest vacation trips to relitives house

We have a congo grey and a blue front zon and we live in a log cabin so you think you have fun come and join me Corky and Cricket in a whole house play ground. What we do is have time out supervision and they do very well with that. They are in and out of their cage through out the day.

I don`t have a TAG but I do have a fearless CAG named Corky and one of the things that Corky likes to do is land on a strangers shoulder and scare the living hell out of them and than laugh at them when they try to hide. She is fearless and will go to anybody. That is not what a normal grey should do.

Cricket is my rehomed Blue Fronted Amazon and has been with us over two years now and yes she does talk, but this is not about words. If Cricket could talk would she tell me about her past and about her joy and fears, the good times and her heartbrake ? If Cricket could talk would she tell me how she felt when we picked her up and brought back to Ohio with us ? If Cricket could talk would she tell me how she felt about the larger cage she got and than second cage up date to a larger one ? If Cricket could talk would she tell us how she feels about living with us ? If Cricket could talk would she say what we wanted to hear ? If Cricket could talk would she want to stay with us ? If Cricket could talk would we be in her future ? They say that eyes are the windows to our soul and some times when I look into Crickets eyes I think I am looking deep into her inner soul only to realise she is looking back. As a human I should be smart enought to adjust my life to take care of her but so often when I look into her eyes I feel like I just came in secound place.

I did my part and voted

Eshana is wright the male pearl after the first molt will loke like a normal grey tiel

Outstanding looking B&G what a looker

Along with Corky our cag and Cricket our bfa we have two cockatiels if fact we have had tiels for 39 years and Willie our normal grey tiel has been with us for over 21 years old and Little One a pied female has been with us for over 6 years. They have big parrot attitude in a tiel body but we love them to death. Size is the only thing defferant between our tiels and the grey and zon.

There is one thing about a grey(TAG OR CAG) when their good their good when their bad their evean better.

I don`t think any one here wants to argue a point that you have strong feelings about. If you feel guilty about takeing your bird out side than keep them in and get some uv lighting for your birds for in the house. If they can see out a window than they can see trees sky and all the same stuff that they can see when they are outside. It`s up to you to decide. We don`t want to make you feel guilty. My birds enjoy being outside for fresh air and they also like to travle with us and have been all over the country with us.

The bond that you share with your bird is the same inside or outside your home and the cage is there to protecting them from predators. We have a lot of hawks flying around. That`s what you get when you live in the country.

When Cricket came to us she was well let say not pet quality and we will leave it at that. She came in a cage that was 16"w x 16"d x 24"h and she lived in that for years. It had a swing for a perch and a old brass bucket for a toy. She was on a all seed diet over weight and could not fly. That is how we started out and at first when asked to take her I said no so we will start from there. To start out with we put her in a larger cage took away the seed and went with a better diet. I put a stool by her cage and would sit there and talk to her every time I came by her cage and offer a treat and some times she would come over and take the treat. After 2 or 3 days when ever she saw me come in to the room she would go to the side of the cage wear the stool was and wait for me to give her a treat. I started to leave the door open so she could come out and go to the top of the cage and she would sit near me and take treats. One day I walked away to do something a cross the room and she took off after me in flight. She was still over weight and went about 10 feet and hit the floor. At this point I had never picked her up and I though this could be trouble. I put my hand down to pick her up thinking this is going to be a bad bite. I said step up and to my suprise she did. I made over her and told her what a good girl she and than I took my other hand and said step and she slowly picked up her foot and steped up on to my other hand and I told her she was a good girl again and made over her again. I did not give her a treat for stepping up I gave her attention made over her told her she wes a good girl. Giving her treats was an ice breaker to help build trust and a relationship to start with but I do not use treats to reward good behavior I use affection and interaction when they do something good that way they want to be with us and not just for the food because you know a zon likes to eat. We always have a treat in thair cage so when it`s time to go back they have something to look foward to and it`s not a punishment to go back to the cage. A treat is a treat and I do not use it to bribe them (I know at first it was a bribe) But that can be an easy change. Replacing treats with with attention interaction and affection builds the bond that is strong and last a lifetime and as far as treats go some times I give then a treat just to give them a treat. Just a note Cricket does not expect a treat to be around me she just wants to be around me and that is good(That`s my treat)

When I started this thread it was because of my zon Cricket and how we (Cricket and I) built our relationship and was not ment to put training aside. When the relationship is strong training is not training it`s doing something together and having fun doing it and that`s why I say relationship first and than training is something you and your bird both can enjoy. Having a bird should be fun for the both of you. Thanks. the members of this forum have made my day.

As I read through posts from new parrot owner members and hear how they research greys or any other type of parrots that they plan to have I noticed that from the start they are looking into training programs, training vidios, clicker training and it seams that they are bypassing the foundation of being parrot parent. (Please don`t misunderstand me as I think training is important) I have 4 parrots a CAG a BFA and 2 cockatiels and I know some people don`t beleave a cockatiel is a parrot But the only thing I have trained my birds to do is step up. They also understand the word no not that it makes any differance. A relationship is a understanding between two life forms that can make them one in the presents of the other and there are a number of members on this forum that have that kind of relationship with their fids. Just the other day Elvenking had a post (Nice weekend with Issac) that was about just hanging out with each other with no one around taking the time to savor the moment and each other nothing special going on but it will be a weekend to be rememberd. That is a relationship. Anouther member luvparrots has three parrots each a differant species and each a differant personality Ana Grey (TAG) Sully (EKKIE) Louie (BFA) and now a forth demension Isabella (CAG). A place for all of them. And there are many more that have birds that are not trained to impress thier friends they can do it on their own It`s the relationships that this borad has built with their birds and with each other that makes this a great place to be not so much the training. Relationship first than training.

Yah They can come up with some strange things and places to do things. We or my wife has a tall close basket that she has for laundry and when the wife is done with it Corky and Cricket will spend hours going up and down the inside of the basket just having a great time and it`s fun to watch.

It`s great to have one of those weekends to enjoy each other and just hang out together(smell the rosses kind of thing). After 10 years Corky still likes to cuddle and lay back and get her head rubs. As far as the bathroom goes he may like the echoing that a small room withn tile makes to try new words. My amazon has a large brass bucket that she puts her head in and makes noises and she realy enjoys doing that and it`s fun to watch.

There is no proof that a male bird loves a female human or vise versa. There are to many exceptions to support that theory.

That bird took to him like bees to hony. Thanks for sharing.

The way to Go mom, thats a great story and a grey can adjust to new and differat things a lot better than people think. My grey is very out going and she is always around new things and people amd that keeps her that way. Corky (CAG) and Cricket (BFA) go with us on vacation, short trips long trips when we go they go and they travel well.

We have a Shark vac & steam and it works good on our floors. Our floors are not the new type of prefinish as we have a log cabin with 1 in thick plank flooring that is stain and sealed

Welcome to the world of greys. It`s some times hard to remember that your dealing with a grey and not a person. It`s a fine line.