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Despite the opposition from those who know best, I remain steadfast that the decision we made for Took was the correct one. Your grey is still very young and just starting, he/she may be testing you. Absolutely try everything else before clipping. We did. But sometimes it doesn't work. And you have to ask yourself if you will allow your grey to continue to chase after other to bite or not. We said that was unacceptable. Its not so we cna leave her alone while she's out and we can do whatever-- in fact, we never leave her alone. If we go to another floor, she comes with and when we leave, she goes back into her cage. The advice here is helpful but soemtimes it doesn't work. I've felt pressured to make certain choices but in the end, we did what is best for our flock.

I use Harrison's, I drank the Kool-Aid, but I do believe its mostly PR and hype because the ingredients are not that impressive. We have one bowl with pellets and one with fresh food. Took eats High Potency Fine; she hated the Coarse and refused to eat it. I know Judygram also uses Fine for her darling because I swtiched on her advice! And it works for Took.

We had this problem. Took was attacking our dog, Mr G. Took loved the dog but would land on his face, on his eyes, and would then bite him even though it was all out of love (Mr G was the first thing she learned to say and since then she says "I love G and Took loves G, too") Anyway, the dog was terrified. And this one of the many problems we were having her at age 1 and half. Since then we clipped her wings and things have been amazing. The first 3 days she was depressed, and yes, i was so upset over what we did, but then she started singing again and now is back to her old self. She chats, sings, laughs, is lovable, and is so enjoyable to have around again without attacking the dog or people, without ripping up the couch and armchairs. She can fly enough when she must but otehrwise she plays on her cage and gym, she'll call us and flap her wings when she wants to sit on the computer monitor or go soemwhere else. She'll say "come here" or "step up" when she wants to sit on us. She hardly ever bites anymore. Its wonderful.

Everyone already said it-- don;t worry about it! Took is the same. She'll be 2 in July. She never makes noises if certain people are around. She's friendly and loves people but is shy and won;t speak in front of them (but if you try to take her away from everyone, she runs away from the "step up;" her way of saying "I'm staying! Don;t take me away!"). She makes her noise in front of me and my husband or when she's alone but that's all. And that took a couple months. Our Took overall isn't a big talker, she has a very sparse English vocab. And she doesn't make any of the electronic noises either. (she will say "hello" when the phone rings, "gimmie a kiss," "go poopie" which she even stopped annoucing, and "kaka" that my father taught her (but it's so cute, she knows its a bad word so she says it and then laughs afterwards, its her favorite joke). She's fully fluent in parrotese and whistling. We love it. And we help her develop that vocab by showing her youtube videos of parrots whistling pretty songs because holy crap, in the begininng, her singing sounded like a frogs mating!! Not a good singing voice!!!

As everyoen said time and perhaps using an unscented formula.... Could be also that your son reminds him of his previous owner in some way and is taking it out on him.... My mother is the hated person and it was very bad-- Took would attack her. It's been a bit over a year now and finally within the past few weeks, Took has finally learned to tolerate and even like my mother. Not so much that we trust Took around mom, but she doesn't attack anymore. I hope your son, the rest of your family, and you are willing to put that much time and effort into this bird. His you rehomed him as the 3rd owner, I guess you figured you'd have baggage to deal with so you're ready!

Took isnt a big talker and she has been getting into a lot of trouble lately. Well, the other day she was perfect and we gushed all over her for finally not terrorizing us by giving her love and she responded by giving herself a huge compliment-- "Took good, good, good, good, good good, good girl!" I love that she knew which word was the praising adjective to repeat for greater affect!

Looks like Took will be spending a lot of time in her cage. My mom honestly doesn't do anything. She has been the best at not reacting (until lately bc she had enough). She would take it and say don;t bite and move away. Took will simply charge at her. It has gotten better between my mom and Took but still there--I think Took loves my mom bc Took calls her and when its time for me to take Took away from her, she actually tries to stay with my mom and runs away from me! But then- wham!- a hard bite. As for wearing something on our heads-- Took loves chewingour hats, especially when they are on our heads. And landing on a towel that's on my head after a shower. Maybe I should find those headbands with the antennas. But then, my mom loves Took (such a strange relationship) and loves when Took comes to her and calls her...until that big bite. So here's another problem we have recently. Took realizes that when she bites (or we have to leave), its cage time for her. And she flies all around the house avoiding us so we can't get her to put her back in. This is actually the main reason my husband wants to clip her wings, so when its disipline time- we don;t look like fools chasing her around the house. She flies from the very top of her cage to the top of the fridge, two places I can;t easily reach her and then does the same thing back again. this drives me nuts. especially if I have to leave the house in a rush and can't get her. If I have time, after she tries that once, i stop and let her think its over- then i get her. Oh, please let this just be the terrible twos!

I order the Parrot Problem Solver from Heindenriech. And I got through just a little bit to my husband about how his negative attention towards is actually giving her the attention she is seeking and he needs to give her more positive attention. He doesn't give her enough so she is seeking out his attention. He understands this but gets so involved in whatever he is doing, he forgets about Took and then she comes over and demands his attention with a bite. I don't the situation to come down to "It's me or the bird." Thank you everyone for your advice, patience with me, and non-judgement.

Big problems at home. Took has always been a bit of a biter. She always bit my mom. For some reason, Took hates her. But now she flies on my mom and "chases" her around the house. Her bites often draw blood. She bites me and my husband. The other night she gave my husband a real bite- a thick, blue welt over an inch in size and that was through a thick sweater. That was the last draw for my husband. Until now we tried doing reducing this behavior with firm "Don't bite" and time in her cage. Obviously it hasn;t helped. Since that significant bite, my husband is starting to deal with her like our dog by yelling and physical dominance/threats. Everywhere I read about it this is the wrong way to deal with a CAG but that final bite was the last draw. I agree with him that her biting can't continue but don't know what else to offer as an alternative to his dog training since the parrot way hasn;t done squat. My husband also wants to cut her wings. She has been flying for about a year. But he thinks that if we cut her wings at least she can't chase people around, we can easily lock her up, and simply being less mobile will reduce her opportunities to bite. Honestly, i don't know what to do. i KNOW all of those ideas are WRONG and BAD for Took. But I don't have an alternative method of teaching her not to bite. This is becoming a major problem for Took and for my family life. I defend Took and its pissing off my mom and husband who have had enough.

We have a pit also (pit-german shepard, the big puppy). Took (the CAG)'s first word was his name and she still calls him all the time (and tells him he'sa good boy. Then she calls herself a good boy, too). And no, we don't leave them alone together ever but well, here's our situation. Took loves him and we used hold her up to G's back and she will kiss him nicely...then suddenly bite. Our poor Big G will yelp and run away. We don't do that anymore. Poor G But Took still loves him and she chases him around the house. Poor G. He runs away and she runs after him. We're giving her consequences now for chasing G and she doesn't do it as often. But she does like to stand next him when he's around (He sits on the floor, she sits on couch right above him staring at him with affection.).

Sounds like things are going very well! Sounds like you're establishing a partnership with her, which is great! I'm a believeer that even in a partnership, each one needs to know the other limits. In this case, she can't chew on prints and other such objects-- maybe remove them for a little while? Then again, I may be waaaay off.

Her ways of finding her position in the flock currently include: --Chasing the dog around (she's a bully) --Chasing my dad (who also runs away) --Flying upstairs (we live in a downstairs apt. under my parents, there is a connecting door through two hallwayswhich is left open so the dog has a safe haven to go...she now flies upstairs if the door isn;t closed) --Sneaking into the kitchen and opening containers/boxes...successful twice until we caught her eating our food! --and diving off our shoulders to hang off our sleeves or back of our shirts upside down

Our bird is a bit of a biter. We knew it when we bought her, she's a tough little monster. But very loving as well. We do the all the things said above (put her on her cage, perch, away from us, give her disappointed looks, etc). She has good days and bad days. Despite that there may be a reason your bird bit you out of nowhere, it isn't the easiest thing to figure out! I've been there many times, you and your little bird are chilling either playin or getting rubs and suddenly the grey chomps at your hand. Yes, been there. I've found that either it was because i touched a spot she didn;t want and i say sorry, i wont touch yu there- That's when now she'll look at me and say "Dont bite" to me (she just started being an English speaker) ...Or sometimes i simply have no clue and she just snapped at me so taht's my turn to tell her "Don't bite" and i put her away from me. She knows when she's wrong because she'll come over with her head down for nice scratches after a random bite. Good luck!

I thought there was an older thread all about theTerrible Twos but nothing came up on the search. Well, she's a bit more than 1.5 but it seemed to have started this week. Its Mr Hyde, a completely different bird. She is NUTS!! All I can say is... AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

How do greys learn how to use a slide? Or was that a joke and I'm pathetically gullable? Sounds like I'd have a good time.... As for giving her zippers and fleece of her own to play with; I've considered that idea and previously rejected it because I thought it would encourage these behaviors and Took then wouldn;t be able to differentiate between chewing up her toy zippers and cloth versus my clothes and jackets. Is that incorrect? Is it better to give her some to play with or discourage her completely from those items? I

Thanks all! Coins and money in general are disgusting with all those germs...we thought about it and once we realized that she wants to hold every single coin, we stopped letting her. Birdhouse nailed it-- the items that interest her are metal (zippers, snaps, coins, etc). I'm going to try to be creative with stainless steel! Like that coffee cup thing (I am not handy! but i'll try). Nickel plated is also ok? Not that I know where to find that yet... I love that she loves us so much- but she chews up our clothes when she sits on us. We have holes in our shirts, pants, socks. If we are wearing a sweatshirt, she goes straight for the zipper. She has even attacked jacket zippers while on the coat rack (we changed location for coat rack). It's also really hard taking care of chores like cooking and cleaning with her on me-- especially now that her favorite thing to do is cimb down my arm and hang upside down on my sleeve to get to whatever I'm doing (which is so cute). Completely off topic- I love that is always wrestling and swing upside down everywhere. I was told when we bought her and through books that greys were not the wrestling parrot or the one to get if you want a silly playful bird (opposed to caiques or macaws). How wrong!! I loved everything else we read about greys except that they weren;t the silly type- So glad we didn;t base our decision on that! What a silly goofball! She is always grabbing our fingers and tumbling over, hanging upside on our sleeves, flipping herself on our laps, hanging upside on her one toy that she loves (the ball with bell inside). She'll head butt us and grab our fingers when she wants to wrestle. Don't listen to the stereotypes! Back on topic- she has a bucket of foot toys. I'm going to head on down to Bird Paradise ala Talon's recommendation for most awesome selection of toys ever.

Biggest problem: DUST. Even with weeky showers that she still hates. (can't do more than that bc we work and only shower her when in the morning and she is not locked up after) Food doesn't go everywhere, that isn't bad. Yes, loves to destroy whatever she can. Hates popping in her cage but training her to poop on her perch instead everywhere else.

Hi! Need some advice and help here. Took is one and half and for several months now seems to have lost interest in toys. And yes, we tried every single type of toy out! Paper, wood, plastic, coconuts, beads, bells, ladders, foraging, shredding, etc. The only ones she will play with for about 5-10 a day are a ball with a bell inside and the straws tied with a zip-tie (thanks for the idea, grey forums!!). We have tried EVERY toy in the stores, online, and on this site. We have also tried playing with the toy ourselves first. And then playing and not sharing. And making a toy in front of her....oh yes, she watches and she's interested in making it but doens't want it after! She is a happy grey but all she wants to do is wrestle, hang upside on my hand, or chew up our clothes (she loves destroying clothes but that isn;t a toy or habit we want to encourage!). Please help! I am starting to hide from her because i can't do anything when she is around- she constantly wants to wrestle, eat our clothes...I can't cook, clean, read, or do anything becuase the second she sees me she wants to play. And if i stick around-- this will go on for hours until its time for bed. When we are not around, she looks out the window and sings/talks. Still doesn;t play with her toys. I guess its not help with only getting her to play with toys but just finding her own hobbies! (lol- my husband collects coins, Took loves coin collecting as well. As soon as gets it ready, she runs over. She loves the sound. Unfortunately, she wants to put every coin in her mouth. At least then she is not eating his shirt.) BTW by eating i mean chewing, she doesn;t ingest anything other than food.

The past few days Took had enormous poops that she released in inappropriate places. We yelled "Took!" out of shock of size and place of the poop. Then we toss her bag to her cage (which is more like an encouraging "fly in that direction." This morning she had on of these infamous ginormous poops and she yelled "Toooooook!" in a most battle cry tone or game cheer. Oh boy, what did we do! We've been so good to never yell and make it a game when she does soehting wrong!

I know everyone says to use 100% aloe vera juice, but like you we did not have a good experience. Took, our CAG, plucked at her feathers for two days after using it. I then showered her off with regular water and although she hates it and gets mad at me right afterwards, she doesn't pluck or pull off her feathers with water. We tried twice with aloe and had the same reaction both times so now we just do a regular shower. She hates it, she screams, she "bites," she tries to fly away....but she gets over it (eventually)

Not going to Parrot Palooza but will be by ComicCon! Never miss it!

If they can come up with a tech solution to combat Bird-Attacking-Keyboard, then my technologoical issues would be resolved- especially when I'm out and about (ie- walk into the kitchen).

These are all great stories!

Well in that case whether your her favorite or not, she will still love you very much. Like I said, i am the primary caretaker but not my grey's favorite- it's not something that we get to choose!

You don't own your TAG yet so simply wait. You have too many variables at this point from household, bonding concerns, construction, moving, etc. Wait until you have less demands from your grey- you don't own yet anyway, what's another 6 months or even a year until you have a your enviroment settled first.