Joe Bachi

I am more than certain that this website contains more information on greys than all of the books in the world, however, it is scattered here and there and it would take a lot of time to find a specific subject :confused: If only one of the admins or mods would gather this info and make an e-book out of it...that would be the greatest grey book ever; made by grey enthusiasts, who ask about things that are very likely to happen, and answered by experts Regards Joe

Hey guys, Now call me old fashioned but I prefer to flip through the solid pages of a book than stare at a screen trying to read something. I believe that manuals and helpful texts should be printed in order to have easy access to them at all times, which is why I've been looking through Amazon lately trying to find a good book on African Greys, but the more books I found the more confused I got :confused: I tried to make things easier by reading the reviews (especially the negative ones) but it lead to nowhere. And after much research and consideration I decided to buy the following: *The African Grey Parrot Handbook (also recommended on this site) Do you have another possible choice? Which book did you find exceptionally enlightening? I already have "The click that does the trick" (by Robin Deutsch) which was helpful to some extent but neglected to mention the most basic and important steps such as target training and the step up technique(I had to buy the Bird tricks DVD set to figure that one out). So what do you think?

LOL when I first tried to touch Mikko, he gave me one nasty bite But for now everything is great

I think it's great that you got your grey so young carlsjr. I bought Mikko from a pet shop and he was already about a year and a half old Good luck to everyone

hey guys, I've been meaning to teach Mikko how to step up ever since I got him and I've tried many many methods but none of them got me the results I wanted. That is until I got the Bird Tricks DVD set, I seriously can't believe this work; in a matter of a week I was able to get Mikko to start stepping up onto my hand (of course more practice is needed to perfect the trick but so far it's great progress!) He first did it on Saturday and we've been trying to perfect it ever since I feel a lot closer to him and he is really starting to bond with me. I can now tell when he is happy, bored, sleepy, or even when he hears something suspicious (and I don't; like someone coming into the house) LOL Right now he is sleeping in his cage (poor guy looks really tired) Anw I just wanted to share Regards Joe PS: if anyone is interested in learning the technique used in the bird tricks DVD, plz PM me and I will reply to you ASAP

Sorry if one of my posts was unclear but I never said that YOU were trying to "give me a hard" Anyway, thank you for the useful info but what were the other suggestions u had?

Alright, so thanks to BirdHouse's help and advice I was able to come up with a new arrangement: When I'm away at school or somewhere else and during the night, Mikko will stay in the big cage outside. When I'm home and on cold days, Mikko will stay in the smaller cage in my room with the cage door open so that he can get out if he wants to. However this arrangement will pose the problem of transferring Mikko from cage to cage especially since one of the cages is on the balcony and cannot be brought inside unless I remove the door So any advice on that? Regards Joe

That's where I would like to bring up the point that Mikko is very happy at the moment as he "purrs" all day and loves to spend time with me while we train I'm just concerned that I might be unconsciously endangering his life that's why I joined this forum in the first place

NO that's not what you should conclude, if you read well enough you'd find that what I'm really trying to say is:"This whole thing is new and odd to me and I'm trying to do my best but change doesn't come overnight so please help me make the best of a bad situation by giving me useful advice" Sorry to whoever gets offended by this post.

And BTW, when I say "outside", this is what I mean: As you can see the cage is surrounded by the grey closet's back, the wall, my glass door (I took the pics from this side) and finally the opened side of the balcony which has a curtain that can be closed during the winter (I'm going to buy a transparent one so that sunlight would penetrate but not wind and rain). Hope that clears things a bit

I'm 17 so naturally I live with my parents , and no there is no spare room Yes they are, it's not something I came up with (I had to order a harness from America cz they don't even know what a bird harness is here) And yes I did realize that a parrot cage should be wider than it's height but these are the only ones on the market here, I had to wait a month for this one to come in. Everyone here should understand that bird and pet care here is way different than yours and I know that what I am doing may be considered as cruelty to you but it's actually luxury here! So before you start making outrageous statements why not bother and ask what the standards for pet care are where I live !!! (Not you Dave, or any of the others who tried to ask Qs and give advice)

Hi guys, Since I bought Mikko he's been staying in a small cage: ________________ |Height: 54.5 cm | |Width: 42 cm | |Depth: 31.5 cm | |________________| So I decided to buy him a big one with the money I got from my summer job: _________________ |Height: 164 cm | |Width: 58 cm | |Depth: 58 cm | |________________| Unfortunately this new cage won't fit in my room so I had to put it on my room's balcony. It's covered from 3 sides basically (wall, door, closet) so I don't think cold will be much of a problem. However I do worry that it will be a problem when it comes to training and bonding so I'm thinking of putting a T-stand in my room and a leg chain on it so that he can be with me when I'm home (Though I'm still unsure of the leg chain thing ) Any advice? Regards Joe

LOL I'm so glad that he's finally coming out of his cage and exploring his surroundings

Hey guys, Ever since I got Mikko, our phone bill has been growing and growing and I could never figure out why. Today I was home and I left the room for a few minutes and came back only to find Mikko out of his cage and on the phone!!! Guess he's been catching up on all the latest gossip with his old friends back in Nigeria;) LOL :p

THank you for all of your replies and PMs

hi all, Ever since I got Mikko, he's been on a sunflower only diet which I know is very bad for him but I was having a hard time getting him to even taste other stuff Yesterday I noticed that he was getting a bit fatter so I decided that it was time to act. I chopped some Kiwi, Pear, and Watermelon for him and mixed them all with millet seeds. I also removed all of the sunflower seeds from his cage. Is this a recipe for disaster? Should I give him back his sunflower seeds? I need advice please reply ASAP... Thx BTW I'm gonna leave the fruits in his cage for tonight and if I don't get any replies on what to do by tomorrow morning I will just go with my instincts and put both fruit and seeds in his cage cz I am usually gone all day (from 7 to 7) and I wouldn't want him to starve to death (though I have tried this before but instead of fruits I used cucumber and lettuce but he just ate the seeds)

Oh, okay...Thanks for the info guys

Not sure about that cz when I try to feed him a treat when he's like this, he either ignores me or take it from me and throw it away Thanks for the reply

Hey guys, This week I had a three day weekend (Sat-Sun-Mon) and I had to go to my parent's. Naturally I wasn't going to leave Mikko all alone for three days, so I decided to take him along. First we had a 40 min drive that Mikko hated (next time I'm definitely covering his cage) When we got there, I left Mikko's cage on the front porch while we all had lunch(inside). I tried to spend as much time as possible with him to comfort him, and it didn't take him long to get used to the new placement and he was most happy when we all sat there next to him after lunch and I gave him treats. At night, I took him up to my room and settled in rather quickly as well. He spent Sunday in my room and I did my best to be with him and I even trained him. I also replaced his big plastic perch with a wooden one that I made with my dad. The next morning I took him to the garden where we were all sitting but he didn't quite like it there,so I took him back to my room after a while. I also made him a toy (a scoobydoo of two colors made out of wool; he likes to rip off the strings) In the afternoon it was time to go back home, so I put him in the car and this time he was a bit more acceptive of the trip. Once we got home, he was thrilled to be back in my room I have a few Qs though: *When he grinds the two parts of his beack against each other it's a sign that he's happy right? *When climbs on the sides of the cage nonstop, it means that he's still nervous, right? Thank you all Tips for the next trip are welcomed Regards Joe

LoL, I live in Lebanon guys, the trip I'm talking about would last a maximum of 45 mins (only when the traffic is terrible ). So I guess it's settled, I will be taking him with me to our country house from now on BTW, he has no toys in his cage because it's a very small one and I don't want to overcrowd it, but no worries as I'm saving for a new, bigger cage and some toys Thank you More advice is still very welcomed guys Joe

I work at a school in the exam management department, during my work hours Mikko is usually home all by himself. I was thinking of taking him with me on the weekends when I go visit my parents, there he will have more human interaction and he won't be so lonely. As for the week days, there's nothing I can do for him

Hi guys, I've had my grey Mikko for 42 days now and he is starting to trust me; he eats treats from me, he is responding to target training, he lets me stroke his beak... however sometimes he tries to bite me when we're training for the hand-foot shake (and usually draws blood) so I stopped this exercise. The problem is that due to an unexpected turn of events, I am now out of the house from 8 to 7 every Mon-Wed-Fri , and from 8 to 5 every Tue-Thu, and I have to leave the house every Sat @ 3 pm till 4 pm (the next day) Sun. This is obviously no living situation for a grey and I was wondering if taking him(in his cage) with me would be a better option. Where he is now, he sees no people except me and my sister(rarely), and I'm certain that if I don't change things ASAP, he won't bond with me or learn to talk . Anyone has any ideas?Opinions? Regards Joe

Thank you all so much for your advice, things are actually starting to get better, and I'm happy to know that he is not attacking me However, my CAG is definitely NOT a baby, I will post a pic of him so that you guys can help me guess how old he is: (sry for the bad pic quality; he actually has more yellow than the pic shows) According to the guy at the pet shop he's 1.5-2 years old, what do you think? Regards Joe

Hi everyone, I've had Miko for 12 days now, and up till day 9, everything was fine, he would eat out of the palm of my hand and out of anyone's hand and never bit me. However, on day 10, I decided it was time to move on with the training and in hope of getting him used to my hand and fingers(so that the step up would be easier) I started training him to shake my hand,and that's where the problems began: Sometimes he does the shake perfectly, and other times he attacks my finger and bites me. If I take out my hand, he gets mad and scared, but if I let him bite me, he will do the trick :confused: He starts out by biting gently (nibbling if you will) and then he starts to put more power into it until finally stopping at some given point and laying his foot on my finger. He has also started to refuse taking treats from me: he takes the seed then throws it away What should I do? And does anyone have tips for training? Regards Joe

Hi everyone, I've had Miko for 9 days now, and he's already showing great progress: *He doesn't growl at anyone anymore *He will eat seeds from anyone's hand through the cage bars (they hold it between their index and thumb) *He eats seeds from the palm of my hand *Today we started something new: I let him eat the seed off of my palm and then ask him to "shake"(as in shake my hand) and he lifts his leg and puts it on my hand then removes it. I am using the clicker training method, and it's amazing how smart he is and how fast he learns things. I keep his "treat seeds" in a little bag next to his cage, and now whenever someone opens the bag his knows that he's going to get a treat and gets closer to that side of the cage while extending his neck:p Since I've bought him he's only bitten me three or four times (not very powerful ones) and I always stay cool and don't react, then I tell him firmly:"NO BITING"....................Is that a good way to deal with biting? Lastly, I was wondering, should I give him a water dispenser(like the one used for smaller birds) ?or should I leave it in the water dish? And how can I get him to eat his fruits and veggies?(He refuses to eat anything that is not sunflower seeds:confused:) Thank you all for your help Regards Joe