Our 1st grey, Jewel, quickly became called Sweetie Pie for her loving disposition & habit of blowing kisses to express pleasure. We were asked to foster her by a wonderful Foundation. She was such a neurotic little fluffy 2.5-yr old bundle who plucked for 1.5 yrs in her former home before she joined our flock in Dec '09. We formally adopted her last June. Now going on 4 yrs old, she is doing better regarding allowing feathers to grow in ... and my baby has finally started to speak! That's new in just the past 2 wks or so. We have loved her since we met & neither feathers nor a large vocabulary were required.
Toby was rescued just last Sept from a home where the new husband didn't like him ... and it showed. He had been shoved off into a far corner & ignored "to fix his mating behavior with my wife" as the reason. Sigh. The husband was not interested in educating himself on grey behaviors of an adolescent male bird. Happily, he thrives in our home & any sexual posturing is ignored for the 2-3 seconds it takes for him to realize it's unrequited so he stops. He is quite talkative now & loves being in the middle of where we hang out. A Catalog to shred is a favored activity.
Another request from the Foundation to foster was waiting in my e-mail on the same evening we brought Toby home. Dorian was cast aside by his former owner as he was "certainly less than perfect" when he began to pluck his chest. Deemed now unacceptable & disposable, he was relinquished. From some of the comments Dorian makes, he was also verbally abused. He hears no such hateful words from us! While still cage-bound after 3+ months, we continue to work with him at his pace. His door is left open while we are in the room & he now eagerly allows me to enter into his space for head scritches & offering treats. Trust is so hard to regain when it has been betrayed.
In addition to our Greys, our flock also includes a rescued 46-yr old Amazon (hubby is definitely his favored parront) + a rescued Quaker + a rescued pair of Lovebirds & their 4 offspring from 2 clutches since they joined us. I look forward to sharing & learning from here!