Susannah

that's great - thanks to each of you for the aloe ideas. i'm a bit traumatized by this and will probably stick to water. i'm hoping he'll eventually bathe himself if i leave out a dish of water. he seems better in terms of his feathers... but he still hates me.

thanks for that... i sprayed it on myself afterward and tasted it - it was almost numbing, as if it had benzocaine in it! today i sprayed him with plain water to dilute the aloe from yesterday, which seemed to have stained his feathers. i hated doing this to him again since he hates it - but i did it anyway and then to really upset him, covered him with a towel and got him out of the cage to let the towel dry him. he screamed a lot (so awful) but eventually i got him on my lap, all bundled up in the towel and we just sat there. then he was on my arm (a first) and we sat there like that for a while. then SLOWLY i got him back into his cage and he seems okay. i hope that dark staining goes away. he already looks pretty bad with all the plucking. i guess he'll survive. but this was nerve wracking for me!!! g-dm that aloe spray!!!

thanks to both of you... the thing is, we're not at the point where he comes out of the cage to be with me - no stepping up or any of that. i'm just at the point where i can pet him while he's in the cage. i guess i could wet him somehow when he's in there, but he will hate me for it.

i am a fairly new owner of a rescued african grey. i have had him for about a month and slowly we've built trust and affection between us. i have been waiting for the right time to give him his first bath with a spray bottle, which is what the last owners used. i bought an aloe vera formula to help with his feather plucking. last night i sprayed him and this morning he is still wet!! his feather plucking is worse than ever (now it's little black feathers from his wings, not just the white downy stuff) and he is still pissed off at me. i am terrified that i've set our relationship back and, worse, that he will never dry!! he looks horrible and he wouldn't eat his favorite food this morning. i'm keeping the room warm for him - i don't know what else to do. i feel terrible about this and need your advice. please! thank you.

I'm grateful for everyone's response and kind welcome. I'll be a regular, for sure. Thanks again.

Hello all. I'm brand new --so new that I don't have my Grey yet, but I will in about two weeks. I posted on Yahoo answers for advice about transitions and one of the respondents offered several helpful links, this forum among them. You can find my question here if you're interested: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuDaQC1tTRiF4yEznNwMOTHsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20110916075247AAUxSVB I've been reading through some posts and am delighted to see what a friendly group this is. Can't wait to participate! Have a lovely day, everyone!