Butttaxi

Hi-ya Kim, My CAG Rorschach was re-homed 3 times in his short life, but I think him still being so young the transition wasn't so horrifying for him and judging by his personality I think he had some great handlers prior to coming home to us so I feel super lucky we have the honor that he accepted us. The girl we got Rorschach from brought him to our house for a visits before deciding that she would sell to us. I would think if you have the option, go over and visit him and let him get to know you. It ma make the transition a bit easier. If he isn't getting the attention where he is now then he may be exited to see you when you come to hang out. Peace offerings like a treat would probably be a great idea. We choose not to clip, we disagree with taking his natural instinct to fly away and since we have encouraged him to fly more his confidence has been so much greater. Also we have 2 cats and I watch like a hawk when he is not on his perch because he likes to mosey on over to one of the cats and tries to take a bite. I don't want him or the cats hurt so I try to keep the separated. Luckily my cats are afraid of him and will just look at him from a distance. Good luck and I hope Russell brings as much joy to your home as our little guy does for us.

I read somewhere about night frights (I think thats what it was called) a bird would get startled in the middle of the night and fall off his perch and also panic. It said that some birds have this often and was recommended to use a night light. I don't know if this was what happened your Jax since it was in the afternoon... I am definitely no expert but since they do process what they learn during their sleeps then I would think they dream, even bad dreams.

I think it is so cute when our CAG Rorschach wipes his beak, he is pretty ocd with having a clean face too. He is pretty good with eating most things I give him and when I know he doesn't like something I eat it first, make a fuss and pretend he can't have any. This usually works and makes him want it more. I still haven't been able to get him to eat bananas and he isn't a big fan of carrots either (cooked or raw) He will pick them out of his dish and throw them.

hey i know this is an old thread but I was searching for experiences with the mating dance. My CAG Rorschach does his mating dance for me even if I don't touch him, all i have to do is go up with him and talk and he starts regurgitating and then his wings drop and the panting begins. I was all over the internet looking for an answer to what i should do about this sort of behavior... So far the only information I get is to turn my back and ignore it which is what I do, he starts, I walk away and he usually stops instantly. It has been getting more frequent, I guess it is coming on spring and it is time for him to mate... even though he may be too young for that yet, he will be 2 in the summer. I do feel your pain with the "NEED TO BE WITH YOU", Rorschach is stuck to me a lot and since he is a flight birdie he can fly to me whenever he wants. Luckily I don't think he is as bad as you have it, Rorschach will play independently on his perch and thank heavens for foot toys it keeps him entertained while he is on my shoulder. I am pretty new to this since we just adopted Rorschach last summer but my trick to get him into something he doesn't care for is to make it seem like the greatest thing on the planet. I basically get SUPER excited about whatever it is making him think it's awesome too. This is how I got him into loving being sprayed for his showers and how i teach him new tricks (treats don't always work, he needs to be told his the best bird ever) I have also used this trick for toweling, he had a phobia of towels so I made a game. I would perk up my voice and make a fun game out of it. Now I can wrap him in the towel and hold him like a baby. Just the other day I had taught him to wave his foot and his treat was me getting excited about it

Hey I am new to parrots let alone Greys, I didn't even know anything about issues with difficult names. I think we probably gave ours a very difficult name because I had a time saying it to be honest. It wasn't until he started saying his name that I actually started calling him by name. His name is Rorschach (rawr-shack) it didn't roll off the tongue if ya know what I mean. David (bf) would repeat his name and call him by name all day while I was at work and he eventually picked it up and he says it very clearly and he seems to LOVE it! He is always saying " Hey RAAWWR SHACK!" or my personal favorite "Do the Rawrrrshack" (quot my bf and I love from the new shriek movie "Do the rawr!" ) I like Simon, thats stuck out to me as well.

here are 2 pictures of Rorschach, the one he is upside down you can see red feathers through his wings. I have read about the Red Factor mutation and it seems Rorschach has it. The spot on his back is also where his spine bump is. I will need to resize some other pics before uploading. Hope you like

Thanks Judygram, I have been doing a lot of researching and I am glad for the information provided by other owners on this site. You can read your fill online but I don't think you will truly get all the answers, I think it is best to hear and share with others. I was going to join this forum months ago but I wasn't able to find it again until now. I am seriously surprised at how well adjusted and easy to handle. We were of course patient to let him get comfortable with us and the new home. we didn't push him into loving us. He didn't seem very confident in flying for the first few months, he would the odd time if startled by something but would never fly to get to some other location in the house. He then started flying to get to me when I would leave the room, we took advantage of this and used it as a way to encourage him to fly to us and land on our hand. Now he never stops lol if he is out on is perch and I make eye contact he is on his way over. As for body language, it didn't take very long to read his body language. He isn't as moody as some birds which I am over the moon about but he does have his moments. He usually only bites when he is doing something he knows he is not allowed to do. Like he will be sitting on my knee and then tries to chew the desk, when I ask him to step up on my hand he then makes his click noise and then attacks. He knows my goal is to move him and he wants nothing to do with moving from there. I will get pics soon

thank you all for the warm welcome we will get pics as soon as we can or rather as soon as we figure out how and where to upload.

Hey All, I just joined the forum and I wanted introduce ourselves. My name is Theresa and I live in Nova Scotia Canada. Me and the boyfriend have purchased our CAG in August and I have to admit we had only the smallest information regarding parrots. The story of how we got him is kinda awesome and has fate written all over it. I have met an CAG once before and fell in love. Now that guy wasn't ever out of his cage when I would visit but I ALWAYS went over to his cage and offered a peanut in which he replied with "here". Ever since I met him I wanted to own a CAG but never thought I would be lucky enough since I didn't have the money at the time and I didn't have a clue of where I would get one. Last Summer me and the boyfriend were thinking about adding a new addition to the family, we were thinking budgies. We went to the pet shop and went online for pets for sale and cages. We found a big cage online from someone in town so we called and went to get it. The lady we got the cage from had said she had an AFrican Grey that was willed to her, this is when I started talking about how much I would love to own one. The lady told me about a breeder here in Nova Scotia. Well I got a little excited that some day I may actually be able to own a grey... of course I figured it would be a long time from now. After we picked up the cage we went home and I was rambling about how awesome greys were(this is before I actually bonded with one) The boyfriend went online again to see what birds people were selling locally. As he was browsing he stumbled apon an add and yelled to me to come see... there he was, someone in our home town selling their young Grey. I wasn't going to pursue because I wasn't comfortable with spending that kind of money but the bf said he was just going to email them to get some details. It turned out that the young girl had just got him a month prior and she had to go off to collage and wasn't able to take him so she was looking for a new home asap. She wasn't just going to give him to anyone, so I guess she did what I said to be an interview. SHe brought the bird to our place ( I was at work) so David (bf) was able to meet the bird and I guess the girl wanted to scope out the place and us to make sure we would make a good home. We were set, we were definitely going to get him but the girl stopped emailing. I was convinced the girl had found another home even though she told David we would probably be great parronts. She emailed a few days later asking if we were still interested she will bring him, his cage and toys. We accepted. The day she brought him she told us that she had another offer and was thinking of going with them because they had parrots already and was thinking it would be best to go with a more experienced person. Luckily we prevailed and she chose us. I got to met him for the first time I have to admit I was very nervous not because he bites hard (he did bite my ear the first day, VERY hard) but I was nervous that I was not going to be a great parront. I was concerned that I may not do a great job or do something wrong that would affect his health. I am no longer nervous because we have built a bond and I can see how happy he is here and he warms my heart every day... even when he is being a brat. We did change his name, the girl had him for only a month and he is under 2 years so I didn't see a harm in it. We named him Rorschach, David is a comic book fan and the birds colouring reminded us of the Ink Blot tests. We knew we made the right choice on day 3, David put on a youtube video of a scene from the Watchmen movie of the character Rorschach talking and this was the first time our Rorschach made a noise since he came home. The information we have about him is that he was hatched in 09 and we would be the third people to own him. This concerned me because I had read about the stress this could cause a bird. Being rehomed is stressful but being rehomed so many times in such a short time must not be fun at all. He adapted better then I expected, he was warming up to us very rapidly. Another fact about our new member, he has a problem with his spine, there is a lump on his back and the vet said he will probably not be able to fly up. This was proven wrong the day he flew away... this was the worst day of my life. I was at a funeral when I got a call that Rorschach flew away. We searched for him for hours... We were very lucky, he landed in somebodies back yard and he caught him. The man had no intentions of giving him back but once he realized who our parents were he came to us and told us he our parrot. Of course this started the debate with our parents to clip Rorschach's wings but me and David do not agree with clipping we think it is not natural a bird should fly despite the dangers in loosing him. He has since become a better flyer in the apartment and we have been recall training. I don't want to clip him and when the weather warms up I want him to be able to go outside but I also want him to come back to me if he does get away. I am also going to look for a harness before I take him out but with his spine problem i am not sure how that is going to go over. We seriously have lucked out, not only about him getting away and we got him back but the fact that he is such a great bird. I have read so many stories with parrots and grays being nasty biters or stressed out and plucked. Ours have bonded with us so well... he of course picked me as his favorite and flies to me whenever he is out of the cage which is most of the day. We love him so much! We feel like it was fate that we came together like he was meant to be ours and us his. He was with me during the entire writing of this entry and of course took forever because I had to stop to pick up his toy that he would fling every few minutes. I will need to end this now... it's already long but more because he is on my knee destroying my pants Cheers Theresa and Rorschach

Hey I am new to this site and a new parront, we rehomed our little guy Rorschach in August and I have to say he is the baby who rules our home. Rorschach pretty much wants to have whatever I have, I am with Shanlung that it may not be life or death to have something in moderation. Rorschach has never had coffee or alcohol but has had a sip of my tea once, which he loved and I had to put a stop to it. I have been doing nothing but reading and researching since we adopted Rorschach and I have come to see that there are some contradictions in what is safe for our feathered family members. The diet I have Rorschach on is daily helpings of fresh veggies and fruit, pellets and seed. I have read that seed is very fatty for our birds but the way I figure it is if he has a balance of all he will be fine. I do avoid foods that I am not sure or I have read to be "No-NO's" which brings me to the question of mushrooms. I have read somewhere that mushrooms are not good for your bird, but I have also read that cheese and dairy is bad too but later learned that it may be ok to offer your bird a small amount once in a while (not every day) for calcium, so I wanted to ask if anyone knows for sure if mushrooms are dangerous... reason why I ask is I love mushrooms and add them in a lot of my own food, I am afraid to share with Rorschach which means I have to cage him if I am eating anything he is not allowed to have. I don't like to cage him much while we are home, like I have previously said, Rorschach rules our home and flies around wherever and whenever. I don't agree with clipping feathers mainly because it isn't natural. If he cannot live in the wild freely because I am selfish and wanted a pet bird then I will do whatever I can to make him happy. (Me saying this does not mean I am judging others for clipping, I just don't want to clip mine)