kofola

Oh, thank you, now I see. I know these birds, they are very popular also in Slovakia. We call them "korela", my grand parents had these birds when I was a child.

That´s great to hear that it is possible to have rats and Grey together. I was affraid that it would be dangerous for my rats to have a Grey. I have to think about it. You know, I don´t want my rats to be hurted anyway. I´m sorry for the lost of your girl. It is always very sad when they die. We were on the ratshow in Czech republic last weekend and now I´m affraid of strange illness which is spreading among the breeders there (it might to be corynebacterium or something like this). And I hope my Boys will be OK. They all have cold, it´s not for anthibiotic treatment, we are giving Plerasan for imunity and herbal tea with honey and coryzalia (homeopathicum). We have to wait. I think Boys have very good imunity system. But I know that in Czech republic there are dying rats with no clinical signs in few days. PS: I´m sorry but what does it means "tiel". My vocabulary can´t find this word.

I just saw really funny video

It is so nice to read all your experiences with these clever birds. I have no Grey yet, but want one. So, as I´m trying to be prepare as much as possible I visited one friend here in Bratislava. She has one Grey at home. Every evening when they go to sleep they use to tell to Harry "Good night" and he replies "Good night". We were playing with him yesterday for cca one hour. He was really happy that he see new person and he longed for show me what he knows . It was so funny! Then, after one hour, he told us "Good night" and went to the cage! It was so cute. He was tired and he wanted to be alone and take a rest. ))) Viera told me that Harry uses to do this everytime when he wants to have a rest )))))). I think he doesn´t know how to tell "Let me be" or something like that. But he knows that after saying "good night" everyone is quiet and he stays alone.

Judy thank you a lot. So tired today...I was driving whole day, to the Eas Slovakia back to Bratislava (850km). Today no study, I´ll go sleep in few minutes.

You know - I see these inconsiderate decisions in rat´s owners. It is so sad that people buy an animal and they know nothing about its behavior, food and environment demands and they buy it only because at this time owning the rat is "in". Almost daily I have to help the rats which are finally unwanted, casted off, hagridden . I decided that I do not want to be a member of these people. I want to be as responsible as I can and I really want to give the best to my own grey. And it is impossible with no knowledge. I hope you and other grey´s owners will help me.

Oh yes, they make me really happy Marcus. Rats are great animals, so smart and so inteligent. Aaaaand so cunning (I´m not sure if this is the right word I mean smart as paint). You can see there also blue - russian blue rat named Aragorn. It is my favourite colour in rats. I don´t know why, just like it. Other are wheaten burmese (Habacuc), russian blue agouti (Cucak alias Lancelot), mink (Richard) and black eyed siam (Jonasek). I have only males and only standart when we are talking about their coat. And Lancelot is dumbo. Jan likes dumbo rats, so that´s why we have also one dumbo male. They all use to kiss me and clean me when I´m playing with them (and at this moment Jonasek tryes to stole my computer mouse ). This weekend we are going to the ratshow in Czech republic so cross fingers

Well, I´m really surprised with Jan. It is very important to be on the same page about getting the grey, also with his parents (we will live with them and the grey will live with them too). Rats are mine at whole, the water turtle too. When we were talking about the grey for the first time he said "yes, but it will be yours and you have to save up all the money for bird, cage and accessoriess". Now, after few weeks of daily watching the videos and reading and talking about the greys I see that he changed his mind. . And I´m happy for that. Thanks to grey Einstein from Texas I found this forum. I can read about the experiences and about living with the greys from the first hand and it is much better then read some anonymous manuals and books. We have also Slovak and Czech forums, but these forums are not as full of information as this forum. Also Slovak and Czech books are not as good as I want them to be. Fortunatelly, reading books, forums, manuals etc in English is not a problem for me. And finally I know some people here in Bratislava who have Greys. I can go and visit them and see the life with the greys.

Thank you Luv. It will takes a lot of time until I will have my own Grey. But then I will have this parrot to the rest of my life and that´s amazing I hope it will be a lucky bird in our house. Today we were talking about the cages, because I found out that the stainless steel is the best solution.I´m happy that Jan have agreed with stainless steel cage even it is very very expensive for us. But we have a few years I hope we are able to save up as much as money as needed to buy stainless steel cage. And Jan have already the place for summer volary and the place for the indoor cage. As he told me today - he can´t wait to have the Grey at home. He uses to ignore a lot of think I´m saying (like a typical man ) and he says "yes" to everythign I want. But now I see that he is really interested in having the Grey.

Hi, time to introduce myself. My name is Tina, Kofola is my nickname (Kofola is very famous drink in Slovakia and Czech republic, it´s something like CocaCola, but not as sweet as CocaCola - I love this drink and that´s why I got this nick a lot of years ago). I´m 31 and at this time I live in the capital of Slovakia - Bratislava. After few weeks of decision making, me and my partner Jan decided to have a Grey in the future. At first we have to move from Bratislava to the small village in the central part of Slovakia to the house with big garden. (I think it will be better for the Grey to live in big house and have the chance to be in the volary during the summers.)It´s the house of Jan´s parents and now we are preparing everything for living there in the future (2-5 years). Owning the Grey in the future is also the matter of other animals which we have now. I think that the Grey would be really dangerous for my fancy rats. I love rats, but they live for short time and most of them use to die because of cancer or other bad illnesses. It´s really sad and I can´t stand this sadness anymore. Always when I have to go to the veterinary doctor to euthanasis my little sweeties it breaks my heart. I will love rats to the rest of my life, but I need someone who lives longer. And I think that the Grey is best choice for me and Jan. And that´s why I´m here. I want to know everything about Greys and this forum seems to be a very good source of information and experiences. I know that it will be difficult and that the Grey needs attention and most of my free time. My rats take 90% of my free time, so this is not a problem for me. I can´t wait for having my own Grey, to teach him, play with him, train him - and spend the rest of my life with him. I know this is Grey forum, so I hope it will be OK if I share some links of my Boys. Who want to see them, just go here http://www.squeek-rat.info/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=37448 (my current Boys) or here http://www.squeek-rat.info/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=37431 (In memoriam albums). Also you can see my Boys together here http://www.squeek-rat.info/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1558 .

Dave thanks for your post. I appreciate it. I think I know what´s on your mind. My answer will be looooong  Of course, I know that rats are not parrots. The only reason why I´m comparing these animals is that I have rats and I know what does it mean – to have a rat. It is not as easy as someone might thinks. It´s not only the matter of cleaning the cage, giving food and giving fresh wather. Rats need human´s attention. If you leave the rat alone and you take care only about food and wather - your rat will be unhappy and it will develops sick behavior (bitting, aggresion, monotonous movements etc). My rats are out of the cage throught whole day – I´m working from home. 90% of my free time take my rats. 50% of my working time take rats.  (Don´t tell it to my boss :D ) So from my point of view – I see many commons in having the rat and having the grey. But I know that if you never had rats – you probably wouldn´t see these common things. I´m not a teenage girl who decided to have a parrot and will buy it disregarding everything. My decisions are made with clear mind. For example - my mother is affraid of rats. I bought my first rat when I was 25 and I definitely moved from mother´s house (after university studies). Now, after six years I´m well known rat owner in Slovakia and Czech republic. I use to help other breeders and rat owners with health problems or behavior of the rats (I use to help even unknown people who write me about their problems with rats,not only to my friends). I cooperate with veterinary doctors when I´m writting special articles on my web interested in health, medications, anathomy etc. I know that you don´t understand Slovak language but believe me - my web potkan.net is the only one website where people from Slovakia and Czech republic (sometimes even people from Poland) can find broadspectrum informations about rats in the language they can easy understand (many people in Slovakia and Czech republic don´t understand English or German). It´s all my work and I´m proud of it. Many articles arised thanks to my rats and my experiences with rats. Last year I published also the manual for rat owners. So, now we decided to have a grey. Not immediately. As I wrote – we want to wait. Not only because of rats, but in the future we will move from the flat in Bratislava to big house with big garden in the central part of Slovakia. It´s the matter of 2-5 years. It depends on us and Jan´s parents (it is their house and we are preparing our part of the house for living there). Jan´s parents also agreed to have a grey. Before we bring our grey to our house, we want to know everything about these beautiful animals. We want to have as much information as possible. And that´s why I´m here – writting and reading. That´s why I have joined few parrot forums in Czech republic and Slovakia. It´s better then anonymous manuals and researches. Because on the forums I can meet people who have greys and who know what does it mean – to have a grey. These people can help me better understand to these amazing animals before I will buy my own one. And these people (include you) can learn me and prepare me for my life with the grey. Fortunatelly I know some people here in Bratislava who have greys – they invited me to their homes so I can see what´s the life with grey like. My questions might to seem silly or crazy, I know. I want to be prepare – that´s why I´m asking and comparing.  And there is one thing in your post which I need to correct. You wrote that if the rat run away from the owner´s house it will survive, because it will find other source of food and wather. This is not true. If the rat runs away -it will die. It doesn´t know where it can find food, it doesn´t know that some food might be poisoned because people don´t like wild rats. It doesn´t know that wild cats are dangerous....The life of my rats is in my hands and I´m responsible to make their lifes comfortable, happy and full of love, patient and accpetance.

Thank you for reply. Yes, I know that I have to read a lot of information here in this forum. Probably I will find all answers for my questions. Thank for alignment to some topics. Why I compared Grey to rats? Because I think that in some ways they are really similar. They depend on you - whole their life is in your hands. Rats need people atention, they want to play with their Humans, they want to observe them and they want to reply to all your activities. As Greys. If you are ignoring rat - you would have problems. Their behavior is the mirror to your behavior. As Greys. You have to love them - without exceptions. You have to accept their own personalities. It is not a toy, each animal has its own nature and moods and sometimes it makes trubles. I know that to have a Grey is big duty and it will last for the rest of my life. I think that a few years with rats prepared me for my own Grey. But at first I have to wait. I don´t want to have the rats and the Gray too. I think it would me dangerous for rats. Marcus if you want, you can take a look to my photogallery. Here you can find the photos of my actual Boys http://www.squeek-rat.info/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=37448 and here are the photos of all my rats (death or alive) together http://www.squeek-rat.info/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1558

Hi, I´m the new one. At first sorry for my english and mistakes in text. I´m from Slovakia, central Europe. At this time I have pet rats and in the future I want grey parrot (two or three years). I read a lot of articles and forum topics, but I want to be prepared for this longlife duty as perfect as possible. Rats have teached me to be patient, understanding and that I have to accept my animals as they are. I´m not able to change their natural behavior and relationships among the group. And one important thing - I know that when rat bites me - it´s my fault. I did something wrong or I did not accept his actually feelings about my person. Or I did not accept his warnings. No screaming, no punishing. Just tell him that he is not allowed to bite me and give him back to the cage. I think I have a great relationship with all my rats. Rats are amazing animals. But they use to live for very short time - two or three years. And almost in all cases the cause of death is tumor or another bad illness. It´s very sad. I love rats, but I need the animal which will live for longer time. Grey parrot seems to me to be the best choice. I know that it wouldn´t be easy and maybe we would have problems. But I know that I´m as responsible and understanding as needed and that the parrot will be happy with my and my partner Jan. Why I´m so sure? Because having rats is like having two years old children. They are big destroyers, they love to gnaw and destroy furniture, PCs, notebooks, cables, books - everything they can reach ))). If they find something new - they use to run away with the new thing and hide it in some safe place (best - in the cage). And then - the thing is theirs. The parrots are the same, aren´t they? So, please, can you help me with my first steps? My questions might seem to be stupid, be patient please. I´m the whole beginer. I know that parrots need daily shower. I´m not sure why. If it is only because of their fluff and the humans or because they like wather and taking bath. Many people use to bath the rats - because they think that rat stinks - but the rat don´t like wather and it stinks only when it hasn´t clean environment. Is it the same? Or parrots really like bath? what about their cage? We want to buy this one http://www.rajprepapagaje.sk/rajprepapagaje/eshop/1-1-Klietky-pre-papagaje/68-2-Klietky-GALLIZZI/5/977-Bakersfield - is it good? I don´t know if they like high and narrow cage or maybe little lower but wide. At first days - what´s the best for them? Leave them to adapt without trying to take them from the cage and make contact? Do they need the box to hide in the cage? Do they need the external perchre or the perche on the top of the cage would be enought? I think this is enought for this message. Thanks for you time and answers.