MarcusCAG

I'm sorry, I don't have anything constructive or particularly helpful to say about Gracie freaking out, but I just wanted to say that I'm glad you were able to find her when she first flew off like that... I hope someone else can add something that may be of assistance, though.

It all started tonight when I was getting the boys ready for bed at 9:30, their normal bedtime (Beaker gets cranky otherwise). I had just put Marcus' refilled water bowl back in his cage and was securing his door when he threw out the garbled, "mumble-mumble STAY HERE?" It took me a moment to figure out exactly what he said, so I told him I was just putting his water back, and Mommy couldn't stay because it was his bedtime, and Marcus had to stay in his cage (as you see, I covered all of my bases in my reply!). At that moment my hubby called in from the other room something about, "Oh, but he wants to stay up!" So guess who got a postponed bedtime? My husband jumped in the shower around that point, too, which made Marcus very excited. I had closed the door of the boys' bedroom, and Marcus--on top of his cage by then--was going on and on about the water, how my husband was "over there" (presumably referring to the bathroom), things like that. At one point Marcus got so excited that he climbed down to the floor and ran over to the door and essentially 'stood on his head' to try and see under the door, in the direction of the bathroom! So I told him, "Daddy will come here AFTER his shower is over. He'll come in here and play the flapping game with you." Marcus said, "OoooOOOoooh!" (The flapping game is when a bath towel becomes wings for a human. 'Nuff said!) Marcus was playing around the bottom of the door again so I told him in my best 'be careful' tone, "Mischa can bite you [i meant 'swipe at you'] if you're too close to the door!" And Marcus immediately jumped backward away from the door; I was pleased to see his reaction. Then there was the sound of the water shutting off, and Marcus said some more mumbly stuff that seemed to pertain to my husband coming in the room, and he ran back to the closed door when he heard my husband's footsteps. As Marcus tries to run out into the rest of the house so often (and it's not always bird-proofed in terms of the cats), I said to Marcus, "Daddy won't open the door unless you're on top of your cage, Marcus. Right, Daddy?" My husband promptly reiterated what I said, and Marcus raced up to the cage top--it was really cute! The flapping game came next, and Marcus had a ball stretching out his wings w-i-i-i-i-d-e while my husband flapped the towel all around. He (Marcus) was in rare form! Sometime later, after I excused myself from the room so Marcus and Beaker and their daddy could all have 'guy time' together, I realized it was quite after the boys' normal bedtime, so my husband left the room again and I started putting the boys 'back to bed'. Marcus looked at me through the cage bars. "Stay here?" "I can't stay here, it's your bedtime." "You'll like it!" I just looked at him. How could I say no? My husband said he has me wrapped around his 'little finger' as I announced that "Daddy is setting the timer for ten minutes" and after that--bedtime FOR REAL. But Marcus kept his word. I did like it; he was in uber-love mode, and he requested two or three songs (by humming) and let me pet him and tickle him and kiss him and touch his feet and everything except have him step-up. So we had a full night together, and it was wonderful, and I just wanted to share! <3

Morana: It's tucked away in this thread someone started when they were inquiring after adopting an older Grey. I can't tell you how many people I've told about that "I'm Joey, NOT Jim!" comment of Joey's, after I blather on to them about our Marcus for a while! http://www.greyforums.net/forums/showthread.php?192543-adopting-an-elder-w-attitude (Jayd, I hope it's okay for me to tack this link on in your new thread here! Sorry if I'm "hijacking" somehow!)

I'm so glad you were able to help this little one! I'm sure he appreciates all of your kindness!

I read to Marcus and Beaker. Sometimes, like if it's a long passage, Beaker will yell at me as if he wants me to stop but lately I've been trying to show them both (but especially Marcus) those few children's picture books I own. The print is larger and I try to run my fingers along the words as I read them, and Marcus will usually pay attention for at least a few pages.

Hee-hee! You're so sweet. But yes, actually, I am quite convinced he can recognize the alphabet letters as being different from one another. Marcus understands that I want him to respond when I hold up a letter, and that seems to be 'the important thing' to him--so much so that sometimes he won't even wait for me to hold one up for him to see completely, like I'll still be pulling it out of the box and flipping it around in my hand, and he'll make his hissing little "Sssss!" sound. (Obviously his favorite, for whatever reason!) It's kind of like with food with him: everything's a "french fry" (ugh! evil former owners!) but if I start listing familiar food and treats to him, apple, birdie cookie, almond, cranberry... he'll get all excited, he knows what I'm talking about. But if I hand him a piece of banana, it's a french fry; if I give him a carrot, it's a french fry. I don't think he sees the necessity to differentiate vocally between these various things. I get that feeling from him at this point, too, with the alphabet letters. Which is why, again, I think some real M/R training would work very well in helping him understand why he might bother to separate these concepts, vocally. So I just have to grab my hubby in a rare free moment or two for some M/R and we'll see what happens, in time...

Your Joey sounds like a doll. I'm glad to hear he's come so far with you... my head is still reeling from the "I'm Joey, NOT Jim," that you shared in your other post about him. He sounds like an amazing little boy who's literally spreading his wings now and leaving so much of the sadness of his past behind him.

Nothing groundbreaking, sorry. Most letters seem to be either the sound "Ssssss!" or "Shhhh!" to Marcus, regardless of how I enunciate puh or guh or whatever the letter of the moment is. I will say that we have not done any M/R with Marcus in terms of the alphabet letters and their corresponding sounds, I have yet to snag my husband and coerce him into being the much-needed model/rival for such an endeavor. I'm thinking that might make a difference in helping pinpoint Marcus' accuracy (and helping motivate him to pronounce other sounds). One nice thing, though, was the other afternoon when I took them out, I pretended to ask Beaker first, ignoring Marcus, so almost automatically I had Marcus' full attention. I also kept the session very short, maybe two or three minutes long, and as I announced that I was "putting the letters away in their box now", Marcus made his little sigh of regret with an accompanying lowering of his head. I asked him something to the effect of, "What, do you want to keep reading words?" And Marcus said, "I like it." So, there you have it, folks! At least he's enjoying this little 'game' of ours and hopefully with time I will be able to fine-tune our interactions regarding the alphabet letters a bit better.

I'm so glad you were able to adopt Harley, from what little I know of your beautifully cared-for flock so far I can tell her world will never be the same again.

I'd seen that on YouTube before... it's horrifying to think how she was so bent-over for so many years. And you can tell Betty's still a bit 'off' but obviously so much better than in her former circumstances, the poor thing. At least her story has a relatively happy ending; there are so many animals (and children, even!) out there who you can't even say that much for.

Yay! It's great to hear that Timmy let you scritch him a bit! Hopefully in time he will become relaxed enough so that it will become a regular and enjoyable thing for the two of you.

In your one post you mentioned vitamins in Sydney's diet. I want to say I read somewhere that added vitamins to a parrot's diet can agitate their internal systems. Maybe she's getting an excess of something she doesn't need that's stressing her out? It's just a thought. Perhaps someone else is more knowledgeable about everything though and can give a better reply, I'm just sorry she's freaking you out so much right now with her feather-pulling.

My. Well, I'd say it took at least a couple of months to see anything truly significant. We gave Marcus a long perch (a young striped maple my hubby chopped down and de-barked... I looked online and they're all right for parrots) that I zip tied to his cage bars in place of his cement perch. The cement perch actually seemed to scare him once we moved him into our house, so I got rid of it: at his former owner's home he was just hanging upside-down from the top of his cage like a bat. Anyway, that maple perch is rather slender too. Once Marcus got up the nerve to climb on it though he seemed to enjoy it pretty quickly. The other perches took some time for him to get used to, too, but after a day or so it was like he got the idea, Oh, I don't need to hang upside-down all the time anymore. Over the following months (we've had him about half a year now) we started introducing foot toys, and it is very obvious his grip is much better now, he can hold the toys and chew on them when the mood strikes him (which is not often, actually, but sometimes he likes them). He still seems wary of new surfaces sometimes, and with his aversion to stepping-up (long story!) besides other traumas from his past, we've wondered if maybe he hurt his foot once while trying to step up on someone. Marcus just treats his feet in kind of a 'funny' way compared to our Quaker parrot, Beaker, and I don't know if it's just a difference between species. I rarely see him sleep though, so I don't know if he'd be more likely to enjoy laying on his belly like Dan says the younger birds do (Marcus is eight) but we are making progress in terms of his grip, it's a lot better than it was, but still not the healthy vice that Beaker's seems to be.

I couldn't agree more. My parents and other extended family were over once and I was fussing around in the kitchen, and after an hour or so my mom was like, "You know you've had that feather on your skirt all evening." I looked down and shrugged, it was perfectly normal to me, but apparently it needed to be removed in everyone elses' eyes!

Thanks for the tip, Dan--it's something to be mulled over. Wow, okay. You learn something new every day. Thanks for sharing this... I'll have to go Google 'tree duck' now or something, I'm sure they're a sight!

Oh, that was cute! Do you think Isaac was actually watching the screen so much as he was listening to her drink? The few times I've put on SpongeBob for our boys, I can't tell if they're really watching the screen or if they just like his crazy laughter.

Your interesting comment, Dan, apparently returns us to munch's original thought: should there be places supplied for our Greys to lay on their bellies, then? If they do it in the wild, should we try to simulate that for them in their home environments? It makes sense, now that I think about it, I saw a video online once of Black Palm Cockatoos and their tree-hole nest, there truly would be no place to perch inside! So would a cubby-hole or something be good for a solitary Grey in a cage, or might that irritate a natural desire to nest and mate??

Thank you for the link, I found the article quite interesting!

I know this isn't really answering your question, but when I read your post what popped to mind is this: the big Muscovy ducks that live around our house waddle around, and they fly, and they swim, and they nest. I've never seen them perch--I have no idea if ducks ever perch or not (or even can, physically, with those webbed feet of theirs), I know chickens do. Anyway, when the ducks rest they kind of pull their legs up under them and squat down on the ground so all you see is their bodies, and their feet are covered. I would say that's a duck that's "sitting" if it can be said they sit. But Greys have those zygodactyl (sp?) toes of theirs and I for one have never seen Marcus crouch on the ground like I've seen ducks do, so do Greys sit? It doesn't seem like they were designed to rest that way. It's usually with the one foot brought up close to their bodies, from as far as I can tell. And in terms of resting their feet, I suppose a number of different types of perches (sizes, textures) will give their feet 'rest' from one preferred surface to another. When we adopted Marcus his feet were horrible, they only had one huge cement perch in his cage "because he chewed up all the rest". He could barely grip things when we first got him. But now he has a number of perches to choose from and his feet are much better and I assume if he gets tired of standing on one and wants to 'rest' his feet, he just moves to another.

I just find myself thinking of your Rocco at strange, sudden times during the day, and I'll get all upset again. I can only imagine how your family is feeling. Again, I'm just so sorry.

Wow. It would be nice if Marcus had some way of expressing "good night" too, but he seems to hate the idea of 'going to bed' at all and half the time I have to kind of corral (sp?) him back into his cage. ::mad::

Perhaps as they grow in they'll get a bit bigger?...

How did I not find this thread sooner? Reading over your posts, it sounds like Gilbert has found a wonderful home with you, congratulations to you both!

That's an awesome way to express it! Kazoo was adorable in the video, I made my hubby watch it with me when he got in from work and we both loved it--thanks for sharing the fun!!

This was SO hard. But I'll have to go with Nilah and her "Hey, what are YOU looking at?!" shot. I just love the 'spikes' and that crazy look in her eyes! But all of the honorable mentions: Salsa: I love her beautiful pear-shaped body and the sweet expression on her face! Louie: Such a handsome boy and obviously best friends with the camera--what striking wings!! Cricket: So contemplative after a soaking, yet so refined and handsome with those bits of blue and red showing through! Sullivan: Regal. That's the word for him. He's gorgeous, one of the best-looking 46-year-olds I've met in a long time! And I'm sorry I didn't get around to posting Cato's picture in time for the contest, my weekend got away from me, but it was so lovely reviewing all of the Amazon contestants--please give all of your exotic babies kisses from me and Marcus!