Chipper

Thanks, that's very comforting. I don't know all the nuamces of grey's yet, or natural behaviour patterns. I was curious. He does it especially when we are playing.

Paige here, My CAG Chipper is 10 yrs old, I've had him for 5 weeks. And I have no access to his former owner, I just have a curious question, every time Chipper is playing and he'll be hanging upside down from the top of the cage, he'll dive like he's trying to feed me, and every time he tries to feed me he makes this click sound. Just one click. He'll swing at my finger, try to feed me and click. Is this normal behaviour? I ask because I saw videos of a guy using a pet training clicker to train his birds, and it is a similar sound. Any insight would be great!!! Thanks.

Thanks for your encouragement and for sharing some of your personal experience! Great advice.

Hello everyone, my name is Paige though my login name is Chipper, obviously because that is the name of my CAG. I just got him 5 weeks ago and rescued him from an alcoholic binge drinker. He's 10 years old, and he's starting to show his personality, but he only says a few words, though he is beginning to occassionally use some of our frequently used words, like Hello, Bye Bye, Good Boy, etc. The other day I was cleaning his cage and as I got close to the end he blurted out, "Whew!" I've never said that so, he obviously already knew it. He knows a million sounds, but very few words. You can tell how he was treated because he uses "Shut Up" a lot. He's beginning to use it less than he did when he first got here. Thank God! But I'm beginning to wonder if they ever really talked "to" him, or maybe they just talked at or around him. All in all I'd say he maybe knows 7-10 words. Shouldn't he know more? Anyway, I'm glad to be here among fellow lovers and look forward to meeting you. Have a blessed day! Paige Ps... I also have a 10 yr old Scottish Terrier named Becca and he's already mimmicking her sounds, and whenever I say Becca, he makes a run of her sounds. They seem to have made peace with each other.

Thank you for your encouraing and enlightening advice I will check out the foods list, I really needed to know that about grapes, mushrooms and onions. I was wondering about onions just yeterday. I do know he was previously allowed out of his cage as he took showers in the beginning with his previous owner, that's really all I know. When I got him all I knew was that, and I got his cage and a container half full of bird seed. I have so many questions about his past, but his previous owner is unavailable to me, so I'm having to wing it, so to speak. I just joined this forum yesterday and desperately need all the advice I can get. I can't seem to get him to take a bath, so I'm misting him once a day. Any advice in this area? Thanks so much for your help and encouragement.

Actually, I have a question. I got my little Chipper... CAG... who is 10 yrs old, 4 wks ago. I'm still trying to figure out how much to feed him and what to feed him. There are so many varying answers out ther. I'm used to training dogs, done it for yrs, but this little guy got abandoned, and I adopted him, and I have no access to his previous owner. I'm still trying to get him to get on my hind, even though he lets me hand feed him. I can't take him out of the cage because of this. I can't even get hold of him to take him out of the cage. So, actually I have 2 conerns, how do I get him out of the cage when his wings aren't clipped, and two, how much food should he be eating? I feed him 2X a day with corn, brocolli, brussel sprouts, radishes, cucumbers, mushrooms, grapes, apples, and there's always seed in his bowl. Interesting that he'll take food from my hand and let me scratch his head, and he even cleans his beak on my fingers, but he will not step up. I made some progress today using Millet as a reward/entice system moving him closer to my finger as we wnt, and I got him to touch my finger but not step up. Guess I'll try it again tomorrow. Any advice would be helpful, he was abandoned with an abusive drunk, but by all appearance physically he's in good shape. He's happy, but is he traumatised?:confused: