Barbara2

I am so excited for you! And what a great name. I'm sure she will live up to it!

I really appreciate the updates. My heart aches for you and Mino. I'm hoping and praying for a happy reunion.

I know that I'm very fortunate. So far I have not had a true "NO" sound even though I have done things (bath time) that were in the "NO" category. He is a sweet boy and has been very cooperative to date. But he is only 7 months old.

I'm not sure who was worse, me or him. I was shaking like a leaf well after he was free. Of course he was still shaking too. I was just relieved to find that he had "forgiven" me within a short period of time. This is the first time he has had occassion to run from me and it really freaked me out!

Tonight Neo's "NO" sound was a definite frightened scream (that I have never heard before!) after he got his beak stuck in the toy ring. I NEVER want to hear THAT again!!!!

We got our TAG as a baby. Our 2 year old granddaughter was over the next day and they interacted just fine. He let her pet him and she was very gentle. That didn't last long. She didn't do anything at all to change things but he became upset at the loud and "lighting up" toys that the little ones have and preferred to fly to the "safety" of the two big dogs. He doesn't like the little ones but they are not here every day. I'm sure you can make it work with children living in the home but I don't think that TAG or CAG is going to matter in that department.

Welcome from another Ohioan! I know what you mean about them being bigger! We have a senegal and a mini macaw. We got our Timneh (who isn't as big as a CAG) and he was flown to us from Northern Ohio. My husband picked him up at the airport and called to let me know he had him. In our short conversation, I think he said, "He's BIG!" at least three times. LOL! These greys are wonderful creatures! I look forward to more stories and DEFINITELY more pictures!!

The oval ones are fine. The pear shaped (at least the ones that I had) are not meant for larger parrots but you might not realize that if you are buying a toy at Petsmart. I am buying a stash of the oval ones tomorrow so that I can use them to create toys out of other parts or replace the smaller pear shaped links. One of his very favorite toys had a pear shaped link similar to the one I posted so I had to get creative and put one of the oval links in from another toy. (The oval would not fit through the top link of the toy so I had to connect it another way.)

I know we all make mistakes but some are out of plain ignorance. I have lots of toys for Neo because I like to spoil him. Some I have ordered online and some I have picked up at Petsmart. I had (notice past tense) several that had rings like this one: http://www.busybird.com/pearlinks.html Earlier this evening, Neo got his beak caught in one of these. The top part of the pear shape was big enough for him to get his lower beak through. He slid his beak down and the bottom of the ring got caught underneath the lower edge of his beak (the part right next to the neck). He was stuck good and the more he struggled to get free, the worse it became. I was sitting very close and reacted immediately. I had to grab him to relieve the weight of his body and between the two of us, he got free. It was very, VERY traumatic for both of us and immediately after, he wanted NOTHING to do with me. I wanted to check him but he ran from me in fear screaming the whole time. I left him alone and he just sat very quietly. I had to leave for awhile (bowling night) and when I came home he was eating and was back to being my friend. I HOPE this is the worst thing that happens for us but still, it was very scary. I wanted to pass this along for others who may have made this same mistake and put unsafe toy rings in their greys cage. P.S. This is no reflection on the store listed. I only wanted to show an example of what I was talking about.

Rocky was our first bird and he is a rehome so he came to us with his name. His first owner named him that because he rocks back and forth on his swing so much. Paco is actually short for Pablo Picasso. I was in art all my life (taught it for 23 years) so I wanted a spanish name and I like Picasso. Neo had many names before I settled on Neo. I wanted an African name with meaning. Neo means "gift" in an african language.

I did the RPO with scrambled eggs today. The mini macaw ate all of it. The Senegal ate all of it. Neo, my grey, decorated the bottom of the cage with it. So far I have only had success with corn and RPO with Neo.

I looked up seizures in african greys and they did say that this is something related to low calcium. I hope you can get an answer and get this under control soon.

Sorry about his broken feather and glad he doctored it himself, but GREAT PICTURES!!

Thank you for that information. I have purchased from her and the service has been outstanding!

There are many different carriers for parrots with a price range to match. I would invest in a carrier if you are definitely getting a grey. You will need it anytime you want to take him to the vet or anywhere else. Some of the carriers are referred to as travel cages in case you want to do an internet search to get an idea of types and prices.

Where he has been kept will pale in comparison to where he will be. There have been some stories here on this forum from people who have rehomed greys and taken them out of horrible and in some cases physically abusive homes and the bird has responded with love with being taken in. The personality of the bird has more to do with it than where they are now. That's just my opinion. If you can meet him and get a sense of your connection, that will mean more than anything.

Do you have an opportunity to meet him before you decide? That might be a deciding factor. Even with a breeder sale, their are no real health guarantees.

Our 19 year old Senegal started plucking a year or so ago and we were very worried because he had NEVER done that before. We had moved his cage so we moved it back to it's original place. He stopped plucking and all of his feathers came back beautifully. About two months ago he started doing it again. I noticed today that he was almost attacking himself when I had Neo out on the playstand. I moved the playstand to a spot where Rocky can't see it so I'll be curious to see if this fixes it. The other part of the formula is that hubby needs to give Rocky lots of attention because hubby is the favored one. We'll see how this goes.

I had a pet sitter come in twice a day while we were gone. (This was for the dogs as well as the birds.) We are going to be on a longer vacation coming soon and will be gone for two weeks. I am paying somene to come and live in my house during that time.

Neo talks the most when we are in another room and he can't see us. I swear he was making the noise of our back door opening yesterday evening. I was in the living room with my granddaughters and I was expecting my daughter to come pick them up. Three times I thought I heard the back door opening only to find no one there. Just a bit a go I was in the kitchen putting a dinner in the crock pot. I clearly heard him say "good boy". He also says "Hi Paco". I think he's repeating that because the macaw (Paco) says that most often. Neo has yet to say his own name.

I tried the palm oil on toast this morning. (Thanks NikB!) I have one of those medicine droppers like you use for babies. This one has a cap over the end of the "syringe" so I put the palm oil in the cylinder and heated it in the microwave. Very easy to drizzle on toast (or anything else)! My Senegal and little macaw ate it easily. Neo my TAG, dropped it to the bottom of the cage. So I put some corn in a bowl, heated that in the microwave and then put some palm oil on the hot corn and let it melt. (Thanks Dan!) Neo is eating the corn. The moral to this story is, if at first you don't succeed, try something else. )

It also depends on where you are in PA. I'm in the Cincinnati area of Ohio so there are some breeders in Indiana or Kentucky who might be closer than some breeders in Ohio.

This is one place to start: http://www.birdbreeders.com/birds.aspx You can narrow down the list of birds for sale by the breed of bird and also by state. Good luck to you!

LOL! That's hilarious!

Happy New Year to you and Lucy too! Welcome to the new year and to the forum!