GandalfGreybird

Hey all, I recently moved into Chicago from a medium sized city. I'm settling in nicely, though still getting used to some of the differences. Hopefully at long last I'll finally be bringing my grey baby home in (early) October. I was just wondering how many of you live in larger similar cities with public transit and how or if you acclimate your birds to it. I'm planning on waiting a while until I'm at the leve that he trusts me and I can be a source of comfort, as opposed to added stress. Even so what methods do you use? What do you avoid? Does anyone take their birds on bike rides with them? There are several parks nearby I'm planning on visiting with him weather permitting, I know Greys can be skittish and their youth is important for desensitization to noises etc. Any advice from fellow city dwellers is more than welcome! ps. i have this travel cage already, and a friend is making some cloth covers for visual and/or wind obstruction:

No glue here. kinda the same thing but in the opposite direction. i'll do it at least twice, maybe three times and make sure all your wrapping and loops (at the end) are super tight. so far it hasn't come undone.

Ill do another quick demo and post some photos. Basically the first wrap is a basic loop with the tail running along the pipe. As you wrap it holds down the tail. Like I said I'll post photos.

Awesome! That was the point of the post. Love to see your variations.

bah. they're out of stock

JudyGram among others have recommended "For the Love of Greys" as a great resource. The only place i've seen it is on amazon. Currently it is selling for $160 used, and over $200 new. Is this book out of print or just that extensive? I don't know that i'm about to drop another $150-200 on a book when I just spent $1K+ on bird and equipment. I'd love to get a digital copy (kindle) unfortunately it's not available there either. Any info or suggestions would be great. Do any of you have it? How extensive is it? Is it truly "the one book to get" for greys? Is it worth that much?

thanks Talon

I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this thread. Hawkheaded's are beautiful and intriguing. I'm only allotted two parrots at a time by the Mrs., but i'll eventually be looking at a second bird after my tiel is gone. Hawkheads are top on the prospective list.

That's what the colored stuff is. It does indeed

Thanks all. Really not hard to do. The rope is a little time consuming, but very cathartic. Just make sure you keep it very taught as you wrap it.

I considered that, but the mirror is only a recent addition. He's been "afraid of everything" all 3 years i've had him. The mirror is the only toy he's ever played with. he sings to it in the morning. Freakin adorable. I'm almost positive he wasn't hand fed. Take for example the perch i just made for teh top of his cage (second one). Granted its new, but he's ok with it existing, and will even let me put him on it. But once he's on it he won't move other than turning around. Even with his treat bowl and sprig of millet on the other end.

I just realized how many stickers are on that. Should probably peel some off. Glue isn't good.

Went back to the store and got 1/2" PVC to top off Marble's cage today. Spent more time wrapping the jute than I did on the entire floor stand! Looks good though. Now all he has to do is learn that its not about to eat him. Made intermediary rungs out of just the jute. Little Tiel legs don't reach quite that far.

In prep to bring home my baby CAG, I've been researching training etc. I've seen many trainers, such as Barbara Heidenreich, use perches specific for training. Obviously you could use most any perch, but I would imagine having a clean distraction-free workspace would be a little nicer than the play gym. It also gives the bird a different frame of mind for hard work sessions. Not to mention my current perch is tying up my only stool as its just a table top perch I made from PVC. video here. Yes I'm a dork. I'm also running out today to pick up some more PVC to make a cage top play gym as Marble's cage is missing his. In any case, here's a shot of the finished product as well as an illustrated break down of the parts and assembly. If you use the measurements I did you -should- end up using almost exactly 20' of PVC. Which is handy because they're typically sold in 10' sections. It also gives you lengths you can use if you need to trim the PVC to fit it in your car, and not worry about messing yourself up later. I went out to my local hardware store and made the following perch for just $11, including the athletic wrap. I used 3/4" PVC, 1" will me a little more stable, I'll probably use that in the future at least for the frame, if not for the perch section itself (depending on the size of your bird). The athletic wrap I had to get from a farm supply store (Farm & Fleet) because I wanted colored wrap. You can find it in the equine section. I chose colored wrap to help the humans in the house keep the perches straight, but the more I thought about it I realized the birds might benefit too if I train them to fly to different colored perches. That way if I move the perch above the window to above the bookshelf, etc. they won't be confused as I've trained them by perch not by location. We'll see how well that works. Alternatively you can use natural rope like Jute, but that does take much longer to apply. And it's not as pretty.

so cute! congratulations. Names are a hard thing to nail down.

Hey crew. Any chance there would be interest in adding support for this mobiel app? seems to be one of the most popular mobiel apps for forum interface. Has support for vBulletin. Of course they promise easy implementation. Works on both iOS and Android. Just thought it'd be fun to have the forum a little easier on the go. http://tapatalk.com/ Thanks!

goofy out-take from before a photo shoot. I often end up volunteered for mock ups when we're setting up lights.

Not sure that I want to leave it on -all- day as I want him to be ok being quiet etc. I'm also a "cable cutter." well just never bought it. I do everything online

Hey all, A friend of mine used the Baby Einstein videos series for his infants/toddlers. If you're not familiar with them, think of sesame street for infants and young toddlers. Lots of sock puppets, colorful toys, etc play out on screen to demonstrate concepts like colors etc. Just depends on which DVD you're watching. I was thinking they might be a great choice for videos to play when I'm gone throughout the day. Now I wouldn't just leave them playing all day, that might drive anyone nuts. I'll most likely play them off of my computer and activate it remotely. (maybe someday teach the grey to voice activate it himself?) Just wondering if anyone has ever tried these.

Thanks for the input all. You echo pretty much what I've ready throughout my research. It's nice to have some input from other owners. When given the choice, I usually go for male pets. And considering that I'll have a second bird in the future, sexually differentiated breeds I tend towards the malesfor vocal ability and color etc. Sounds just like any other animal, socialization is key!

Hey all. I'm still waiting on the sexing results from the two baby greys at my breeder. I really want a boy for several reasons. Now I've of course heard the theory that opposite genders tend to bond more easily with their owners in certain types if birds. However, in all my research I've only heard that in anecdotal evidence from other owners in my area, and only one of them had Greys. On the other hand any of the behaviorists and trainers I've read/watched tend to say that it's mre to do with the individual bird and upbringing/ebvironment than gender. I am interested in hearing from any forum members that have strong bonds with their same gender Greys. Its not that I don't wish to hear from people with string bonds of opposite genders, but I hear that often. I'm looking for positive proof of same gender bonds as negative proof is so much harder to define. Lots of people can say there's no gold in China, but if someone finds gold there, the theory is false.

Thanks Ray! Yeah, if I start making extended road trips I might strap down something like this in my car. I just don't want to lug something that heavy/bulky around on foot for an afternoon trip.

update on the travel cage. I'm a doofus and didn't realize the latch slid up and down. No worries on it flying open now!

Here's my cage for my eagerly awaited CAG. Obviously it's sparse and needs some toys yet. Has a few perches, opening perch top, front "porch" over the door, and 3 bowl locations. Here's his Travel cage: I'm replacing the white plastic perch with a nicer, hopefully more robust, wooden one.

While visiting the fledgling CAGs a set of three birds came in for re-homing. One Yellow Nape, one CAG, and one Jardine. My cousin actually ended up taking the Yellow Nape home. Here's my problem: I've completely fallen in love with the Jardine "Cricket!" I sat with him again today for about an hour just petting, scratching, chatting etc. He'll even let me flip him over in my hand baby bird style, and started giving kisses today. He gives me a raspberry noise when i try to put him back. Then begs me to pick him back up. I can't really afford another $900 bird at the same time as bringing my grey home, not to mention finding another cage. Though the cage my grey will be going into is plenty large for them to share. I know I would be tight on time for all three birds (currently have a cockatiel), and I really want to focus on the grey when he/she comes home. I don't suppose I have any question, just wanted to vent my slight heartbreak at falling in love with a bird that needs a home and I can't afford. Here's a photo of him on my shoulder about half way through our playtime today. Really wish i could justify him!