Sarconastic

I actually found some supplies at hobby lobby over the weekend. Gonna try coloring a few pieces this weekend, and making some new toys.

I had a really good laugh the other day. I came home from work and my 15 year old daughter asked me why i trained our bird to make her look stupid. It seems she put a pizza in the oven, and went back into the living room and was playing a game on the tv. the oven timer went off, and she went in to remove her pizza but there were still 12 minutes on the timer. She went back and sat on the couch, played her game for a little bit and the timer went off again. She goes back into the kitchen and there is still 5 minutes left on the timer. That's when it dawned on her that Seuss was the oven timer. I felt bad for her, but it didn't stop the laughing one bit. :-) Kevin

I am new to Greys, but raised a lot of other birds in the past, and one thing an old bird lover told me that makes sense, is to think of the birds cage as their bedroom, not just thier home. When someone comes to your house, you don't want them to come barging into your bedroom and dragging you out of it, and neither do they. I have always let my birds come out of their cage at their own will. Open the door and wait, if they aren't in the mood, maybe they will be later. Once you have a birds confidence they will almost always come out, notice I said ALMOST. I have a had a few days with Seuss that she just didn't wanna come out right now. then a half hour later she was hanging on the door begging to come out. This rule I have applied to many of the rescued animals we have raised, with due diligence. If you stick your hand in the cage of A Ferret, or a squirrel or a Raccoon, expect to bring back a bloody digit. It has to be their choice :-) Kevin

Darn, I thought I had a unique grey ;-). The other day I had Seuss on my shoulder, and I growled at her and she growled back right away. and I busted out laughing. She started laughing just like me, and I laughed harder and so did she. everyone got a kick out of it. These birds are so wonderful, every time you get a new word or sound or phrase, it's like Christmas. Kevin

It's been a couple of weeks now so I thought I would drop in with an update. Seuss is doing great. we are noticing a lot less feather picking except when things change around her. Like new toys, or people. her chest feathers have started to fill in a little bit and appears to be doing more actual preening than picking. We have been doing the aloe spray baths every other day till she gets more used to them. She gets a little miffed at me when we do them, but comes around pretty fast. Her skin seems less flaky too. We have been finding her favorite fruits and veggies, which has been a challenge. She loves grapes, oranges and apples pretty good. She will et carrots if shes bored, lettuce of any kind is a no go, Broccoli she eats the stems off and the rest goes to the floor. Banana chips are a big favorite and will tear down walls for a good peanut. The first toy we got her was a coconut shredding toy. It made it 3 days until she decided she would play with it, then it survived mere hours. I came home and found a pink pile of coconut fluff in the bottom of the cage. Today we made a trip to Petsmart, then Petco, then to another Petsmarts, none of them had any selection to speak of, but i still managed to spend $150+ on Food, toys, bedding and perches. I brought the new toys home, and played with them ont he couch till she showed interest and no fear of them, she is now in her cage checking them out slowly. We also got her the Polly concrete perch, and within a couple of times on it, I no longer have to bleed when she sets on my hand. We have also been learning since she is getting more comfortable that she is really a ham. She will set on my shoulder when company come in a her and I just chat back and forth and make noise, like she wants the attention....go figure with a grey LOL. Well that's all for now. Kevin

I didn't seem to find anything inthe forum about where to buy the beads and blocks to make the toys for our birds. Or where to get the safe color dye for the birds. I have a complete wood shop, but want them to be bright and inviting for Seuss. thanks Kevin

Sherrie, no problem with the ramblins, we do it all the time too. In our house if someone catches you wandering off on your train of thought we yell "SQUIRREL", from the movie UP. It's Hilarious. I don't really think that Seuss has ever been mistreated in an intentional sort of way, I feel it more uneducated neglect more than anything. Though I sometimes wonder. I have noticed when I leave for the day to work. even if someone else in here all day she is rather standoffish for a little while and won';t come out of her cage for me after I get home. I leave the door open for a while and she will wander out in her time. Then she wants me the rest of the night. Funny critter. Val - I read about the red feathers too, and was sort of wondering about them as well. I also have read about birds that have them like that from birth. So I don't know which it is. I am working on her nutrition first, to help eliminate that. She doesn't show any signs of illness at all. and she is better everyday on her interaction level with me and the family. We live 80 miles from the nearest avian vet, si it will be difficult to get her to one of them, unless absolutely necessary. Then I have to find out if they take our PET Medical Credit card. You know its bad when you have a credit card specifically for your animal vet bills. Our Personal vet for our other animals doesn't handle what "they" call pocket pets. Birds, hamster etc. When they told me that, I said, I'll bring Seuss in, and watch you put her in your pocket.That would be fun :-) whoops SQUIRREL!!!!!!! But they are AMAZING with all our other animals.T Ali, i will look into the scale. I had a digital one down stairs I use for weighing my freight shipments, but it won't read low enough. Barbara I think where she is at in our house she will receive plenty of sunlight, and our windows right now are old enough that they weren't built with UV glass. BTW: fro thaose that don't know. you can look down in the corner of most glass windows and see if they have a UV coating. On some new ones it is stamped on the separator piece between the panes of glass, if they use a gas UV inhibitor. But there is light morning and night in the room. The lady we got her from said she put her out on their closed in porch during the summer months to get some fresh air and sunshine. I was planning on selling the cage she is in now once we get her new bigger one, but I think I will keep it and use it as an outdoor cage for her to be outside with us in the summer. We practically live on our deck in good weather. Kevin

I have been experimenting with different fruit and veggies that Seuss will eat, and in general except for cranberries, she has been very receptive. But this morning I found the one thing she will come running for, Orange slices. Heres a pic. These birds are so much fun :-) Kevin

bull butter.....ROFLMAO. I about fell off my chair at that. I love it. I was stationed in Virginia for a while and can just hear your accent and emphasis on that Judy. Very well put. Kudos.

I picked up the Aloe Juice tonight and just got done misting her down. She's mad at me now, but I am hoping it helps. I would guess baths haven't been a part of her life before. so there another thing I will have to introduce her to it. I am int he process of changing her diet from the all seed that she was eating. i have been slowly substituting pellets for the seed. and giving fruits and veggies too. I need to look up the portions that I should give her. Like the amount of fresh food to seed/pellet mix and qtys. Do I leave pellets in the dish at all times and just supplement in the morning and evening with fresh? It all takes time. so i am doing this in moderation right now. THanks everyone for your great comments btw, it is very much appreciated. Kevin

I just got Seuss a few days ago, and everything is great, She's my best friend already. and her mood has been improving everyday. What concerns me is her feathers on her chest, legs and under her wings are all pretty much gone. When i went to pick her up she looked pretty rough. She had not been out of her cage for 5 years, had no toys to speak of, so i assumed boredom was a big cause of her plucking her feathers. I figured she would stop once she was here and receiving more attention etc. I have read all the threads about the Aloe Juice and will be getting that really soon. Most of her areas seem to already have other feathers coming in, but a few it looks like she may have gotten the whole follicle out, and left a tiny scab in its place. Under her wings, along the front edge seems to be the most picked at, though not bloody. She also scratches behind her head a lot and so has those feathers roughed up pretty good. I have read about poor nutrition being another cause of this and the random orange feathers on her neck. They had her on a seed/pellet mix they got from wally world. and black sunflower seeds in the treat dish. and some veggies occasionally. Any advice here would be appreciated, like how long till maybe she stops, if at all, or if this is just a molt? not really sure when those happen. Thanks Kevin

I just joined the other day and perused the site. I found a ton of great ideas for a play gym I wanted to make. Some of them are amazing, in scope and size. I stayed small for my first gym, first of all for cost, and second of all that my CAG is very skittish with anything new right now. We are working on that though. SO I just dug around my wood shop and found some dowels, a white board and some chunks of wood and made a small play gym for the top of the cage. After a little coaxing she went right to it.

Hi, I am Kevin, I live in Sw Iowa and was recently taken over by a rescue/rehome Congo African Grey. An Elderly couple that has had her for 10 years is moving to an apartment, and both have COPD and needed to find a good home for her. My wife manages the apartments that they are interested in and they got to visiting and hit it off. My wife thought I was ready for a bird again, after a big loss many years ago due to a house fire. We went to visit them, me and the bird hit it off great, so we brought her home. She a beautiful girl and her and I have bonded way faster than I ever thought possible. The reason i say rescue/rehome is that even though the previous owners did talk to her and such, and genuinely loved her, they had not taken her out of the cage for 5 years, she had no toys, and was severely lonely. Which is why I think she bonded with me so fast. Within hours of getting her home she was climbing on my shoulder and giving me kisses, whistling and looking much happier. The previous owners have had her for 10 years, but the owner before that I have no idea, all I know is it was a man. I already love her to death and look forward to a lifetime of friendship with her. I will ask some question i have about her in the Rehome forum, after I peruse it a bit more. My wife and I aren't new to birds, we used to raise cockatiels, Parrotlets, and some love birds as a hobby in our home about 15 years ago. Nothing big, just a few mating pairs, all rescues btw. When we got into it we thought it would be for extra money. But it was hard to make money when you fall in love with every bird you raise, and can't sell it. tragically we had a house fire and lost all of our beautiful babies. So it has taken me this long to agree to another rescue, and it turned out to be our beautiful grey named Seuss. I look forward to meeting you all in here, and making sure I Learn how to correctly work with her. I can already see a huge difference in personality and cuddliness of our previous birds. Thanks Kevin EDIT: I added a couple of pictures i had on this pc, will add more later.