Doug

Well, of course he is a boy. Shyloh is traditionally a boy's name! I love the playstand. Gotta start improving on the lame playtop on my cage...

I understand the need for a variety of perches. I have the dowel that came with the cage, a coiled rope perch, a natural wood perch (with various diameter branches) made from my hibiscus bush, and 1/2" & 3/4" PVC (wrapped in vet wrap and jute). (She sleeps on the rope perch.)

Judy, The ones that are smooth on the top won't help with the beak, though, right? Ellie wipes her beak on the top of the perch when eating...

It seems that concrete perches are recommended for keeping beaks and claws trimmed. (For the beak, I would assume that it would be the perch nearest the food bowl, for wiping...) It looks like there was big hatred towards the dowel perches with sand-paper tubes. I can see that... But what about the various perches that vary in shape and diameter and are dipped in sand (and some sort of glue, of course)? What about the so-called pumice perches (I assume it is the same thing - dipped in a ground pumice with some sort of glue)? What products are recommended? I am concerned because I am hesitant about trimming Ellie's claws but her toe-tips are held up from the surface when she is flat-footed (which the grey books that I have say is a no-no...)

As to birds eating birds, we're mammals and we (most of us, at least) eat other mammals. Oh, delicious pig, is there nothing you don't provide?? I haven't tried giving Elegua any meat yet. She's still barely poking through her bean/rice/veggie/nut mix. She'll eat the heck out of the pellets and happily take a bit of fruit or a nut, but not so interested in anything else. We'll get there, though...

FYI, your link is missing a letter: http://www.avianweb.com/legbands.html

Hah! Elegua is fascinated with 13-year-old daughter's nails. Hopefully she (Ellie) will be learning the "no bite" command...

I am only a new grey owner, so I can't offer any personal experience. That said, I will still chirp in with my opinion... I am very sure that Janet's (luvparrots) situation is dramatically different from Jodi's. For Janet, Ana Grey was well established in the house (and in Janet's attention) when the new baby showed up to steal away some of Janet's precious attention. With Jodi, both birds would be new to the house. Of course, as everyone mentions, these little guys have wildly different personalities and reactions to various situations that predictions are hard to make... On a tangentially related subject, my nine-year-old son just told me, "It's a 100% chance that you will get another parrot." I will do my best to resist this infectious syndrome...

I've read that, in the wild, greys eat dirt to supplement their diet with minerals, so the scratching/digging is likely an instinctual behavior.

I just can't imagine what is going through someone's head when they hoard pets like that. <shudder> I hope that Zazu can recover emotionally from that trauma and become a loving (and loved) member of your household!

Welcome! In regard to the sideways pictures, I would guess that in your file manager on your computer, you've got it displaying in the rotated way, but when you uploaded it to the backyard chicken forum, it uploaded in its original orientation. I would suggest going into an image manipulation program and rotating (and saving) it there, before uploading. Don't listen to that breeder. Jeez! What a bizarre thing to say!

Unrelated to the topic (sorry - hi Carol!), is there a registry for the bands? I assumed that there was but we all know about assumptions... I DO intend to implant an ID chip in Ellie as that will be required to take her with us to the Dominican Republic in the distant future when we move there for retirement...

Welcome, Susannah! My baby girl, Ellie (16 weeks old), was raised with dogs around, so she has no fear. My dogs, on the other hand, have never seen a bird up close. Between the jealousy (they are HUGELY jealous of each other - not in an aggressive way, but in an overly demanding way) and the excitment of having a bird in the house (IN THE HOUSE! OMG!!), I'm extremely cautious about leaving Ellie outside of her cage without very close supervision. My small dog, Nala (a shih-poo), seems the most anxious around Ellie. I wish that I could read her furry mind so I could know HOW worried I should be...

I wrapped an almond up with plain paper and twisted the ends. She just bites through the paper in a single bite, so it isn't so challenging, but she seems to enjoy it...

I put a king-sized pillow case in the corner where her sleep perch is. That way she won't be startled as much by people walking from around the corner. Hopefully the attached sketch makes some sense. It goes down about 20" (50 cm) from the top of the cage, lower than her perch.

Ellie doesn't mind so much once it is in her mouth, but she doesn't want to open her beak. (Or she wants to nip at the syringe tip.) I have to hold her head with one hand just to keep her still. She screams a bit but it isn't too bad and she doesn't seem to hold a grudge. <grin> I should try toweling her and putting her on her back.

She is SO affectionate! I took her to the vet two days after I got her (Monday, the 19th) and he noticed her sneeze a couple of times. He found some bacteria in her mucus so he gave me antibiotics and an anti-yeast medicine. I've got to give her one twice a day and the other once a day. Poor little girl does NOT enjoy it. Luckily she is so loving because otherwise she might develop trust issues. To make things more complicated, I have to leave the country for business on Sunday, so my wife will have to take over the medicine regime. (I'm trying to minimize the impact on Kel because she already does everything around the house and she wasn't too thrilled about getting Ellie in the first place...)

It'll be fun to see what she likes to play with the most and make new toys with that knowledge...

Chilling on the playstand...

The connectors need to be roughed up, especially the ones in the octogonal loop at the top. Too slippery... I wonder if I could tumble them with some gravel...

I introduced Elegua to her playstand today. She seems to enjoy it! She likes the baby toys, but she doesn't like to hang out on this perch because it is the lowest one... The knots are fascinating... Her favorite toy:

Last night was Ellie's first night with us. My son had his birthday party & sleep-over last night as well, so it was a lot crazier than usual. Elegua got pretty worked up around 10 or 10:30, so we to shut off most of the lights to get her to calm down. We'll see how she does during a more typical evening.

Like I mentioned in the previous post, Ellie's tail is dark gray, the same color as her wings.

After Eshana used the words "red factor", I was able to do some internet searching (including a thread on this site). It is very interesting to see some of the "red greys"... I hope that Elegua keeps her "dotted lines". This picture isn't great, but it shows the legs a bit. The main red part is just above her tail (on her lower back). I'll have to get someone to help me take the picture since I'll have to move her wings out of the way. Also, her tail is dark grey, not maroon. Is that typical?

A couple more pictures...