jwl

I hope so also. Its difficult to loose a friend. Especaly when you want that freindship back and she is terrified of me.

Hello all I posted a while back about Gracie. To recap, the real short version. A vet did a real poor wing clip that made is so she could not fly at all. Several times she fell and in doing so she hurt her wing. I would run over pick her up and make sure she was ok. She eventually associated the pain with me and would not have anything to do with me. She became afraid of me. I then posted and got some good ideas on how to deal with the problem. I kept away from her and let my wife take care of her and just waited. Well it worked she once again became my best buddy at least in part. One day she would be crawling all over me, giving me kisses and begging to touched, handled, the next day she would fly to the back of her cage whenever I came near. During those times I would just leave her alone. Then one day in the morning I brought her from her night cage to her big day cage. She was fine when I picked her up but then she freaked out. Off she flew. Much to our surprise she could fly again. She never before showed any sign she could fly anyway but down before. We were lucky. We found her several hours later and not too far away. She was shaken from the experience. Now once again most of the time she flies’s to the back of the cage when I approach. There are times when I can pick her up but not so often. When she became afraid of me the first time I could see some progress in her return to being friendly. This time I do not see any progress and that worries me. So once again I ask for help from your collective experience and any help will be so much appreciated.

trying to find another Vet has been a problem. I want to take her to a Bird Vet but hoping to find another one than the one that did the clipping. Anyway I do agree that is something I need to do. Thank you.

We have restricted her to her cage most of the time now. That also is difficult for her but I think she is getting use to it. I was wondering how long does it take for the wing feathers to grow back.

That is some good ideas thank you. My wife has been taking the lead anyway. For the first time today she took food from me. So there is some progress. Little by little.

Thank you all for your support. It is difficult to loose a such a close friend. The way she move around and plays I have ruled out underlying pain. It seems only when she does something silly and hits that wing. I agree going back to square one. This is the only option that I can think of.

It is not just the night cage. She goes away from me no matter where. With the exception of last night when it was dark. Once she figured out it was me then she acted afraid.

Thank you for the thought and that might be that she has chosen my wife. However she is truly scared of me. She seems to only put up with my wife to get what she wants. I was hoping someone might have in site to advise me on what to do. I have decided to start over and try to gain her trust. It looks like it might be a long road ahead and I am fear one that ends without her trusting me again.

Thank you for the thought. It has been a while now that she was clipped so I don't think that is it. I thought that maybe if new feathers are starting to grow back out that her wing is sensitive. Still I do not know why she thinks it is me.

Hello all! I hope I can get some advice. I am loosing or lost my friend. It is quite a long story and I apologize for that but I really need help. We live in the tropics. Our house is open and Gracie cage is also open. She had the run of the place for the most part. When we got her she was 8 months old and had her wings clipped. She found that she still could fly quite well though. After she flew away from the house we decided to take her to a Vet and have her wings clipped again. This vet I think did a terrible job of clipping. Gracie is not the most grace full parrot for sure. She would on occasion while playing she would break a feather. It was no long and she had broken all the long feathers that she had on one side. That is when the trouble started. She fell off her cage and hurt her wing on that side. She squawked for a while and you could see she had hurt her self. She would not let me pick her up or have anything to do with me for a while. She is very active so it was not too long and it happened again (about a week). Again she would run away from me and would not let me come close to her. Each time this happened, when she would calm down and given a little time I would check her wing carefully. She never showed any problem and acted normal. The next day she was fine. We played like we always do first thing in the morning. She would give kisses and hang upside down on my finger. Play dead bird in my hand. Give and get attention. Once again things were fine for a week or two and it happened for the third time. Now she will not have anything to do with me at all. I cannot get close to her without her squawking and running away. When I do get close to her she shakes. My wife who she only kind of likes now is who can pick her up and handle her. When I was first making friends with her I would be able to pet her and handle her easier after dark with the light turned down low. So I tried that tonight. I waited until it was dark. I went to her day cage and she responded nice and went to my hand. I was so happy. We sat in the dim light for a couple of hours. I gave her attention and talked to her. Wow my baby is back. That lasted until I took her into the house to put her in her night cage. She started to freak out again. It was like she just realized who had her. She stayed on my arm and was not very happy about it. She would not let me touch her without showing me that she would be more that happy to bite if I pushed too far. My theory is that somehow she has associated the pain when she hurts her wing with me. Probably because I go to her to pick her up and see if she is ok. Does anyone have ideas how to handle this?

My Gracie loves the toy I made for her. Its simple and costs pennys. All it is, is a used washed plastic soda bottle with the cap. I drilled a hole in the cap and using a piece of leather I hung it frome the top of the cage. Gracie will hang upside down from the top of her cage squaking while she attacks the bottle. I made another one where I cut some holes and put treats inside.

Thank you all for the information. I feel a lot better now that I understand. I am letting her feathers grow out. That offers a problem that I do not know what I will do. We live in Panama where the weather is always nice. Gracie lives outside on the covered terrace during the day and sleeps indide at night in her sleep cage. We let her have the run of her big cage with the door open. She get her excercise by climbing around on the terrace railing. Our house is open and we only close the doors and widows at nigh. So what to do when she starts to fly again. I hate the idea of keeping her in the cage all the time. She loves being outside and we want her to have as mcuh freedom as we can.

My Gracie had her wings clipped when we got her at eight months old. I have read where not having the ability to fly affects learning, and self confidence etc. She is now one and a half years old. It seems that she might be slow at learning new words. Could clipping the wings be a problem here? At one and a half years old I do not know what to expect her progress to be. Do Grays continue to learn new words and training all through there life at the same rate?

Thank you everyone for you comments. This already helped me by just understanding for sure what is going on and a plan to deal with it.

So it sounds like the best way to handle this is like was posted above to not encourage her to get too excited. No play like usual. I know this sounds funny but she is he one that starts it. She shows me she wants to play. She will stand on my hand then flip upside down. Then when we play she wants more and more and the more agressive she gets the more we play until someone gets bit. Oh by the way that would be me.

Hello all My name is John. I grew up with a parot that was my best friend for many years. Unforutnatly the people that gave us our friend one day decided they wanted her back. I was heart broken. Later our family did get another parot but the bonding was never as quite what we had hoped it would be. I missed that old friend and after a lot of reading and contemplating I started looking for a Grey. Now I am retired and living in Panama. A wonderful place to live with a parot. I am what at times feel much like Gracie's human pet. Yes she is spoiled a little. We got Gracie when she was eight months old. I like to think she picked me. When I went to the store and asked about her. The clerk using a stick took her out of the cage. Gracie jumped from the stick to my shoulder and that is where she wanted to say. She is now one and a half years old. Starting to talk a little and jabbers and plays a lot. We are still bonding going through what I understand as the usual ups and downs. I hope I can through this forum learn how to be the best human pet my little gray buddy could have.

Thank you I will

You guys are great thank you. That is what I thought was happening. However did not think they became sexualy active at a year and a half. It will be difficult because she love to play. How long will this go on and how often does it happen?

Hello All I am hoping to get some questions answered I have floating around in my head. This is in regards to my rather onery friend Gracie. She is one and a half years old now. We got her when she was 8 months. After the inital get to know each other with few nips and misunderstandings we became good friends. No so much for my wife but that has come along also. We play together a lot. She hangs upside down on my finger and make all kinds of noises. She will lay on her back in my hand feet up in the air and say dead bird. In the evenings she will sleep on my shoulder with her beak in my ear. All was going well until about two months ago. One day when we were having our morning breakfast together with the usual play time afterwords she started to act diffrent. She crouches down low and droop her wings down and out a little. She would make these funny kind of grunting sounds. This has continued to this day. Alough I get a little tired of this actions I understand that something is going on. The part that bothers me is that she is getting more agressive as time goes on. She is biting me each day. Sometimes not so hard but sometimes just before the point of blood. I can see she is frustrated but what do I do. When she bites me I give her a dirty face and say now then she gets a time out in her cage. My sweet loving friend is getting to where I do not want to handle her because she is getting so onery. She eats a good diet. She has a large cage and gets plenty of excercise. Any sugestions how to handle this would be greatly appreciated.