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I've never heard about the " iron fist". What that about? nancy

JeffNOK... you are actually doing EVERYTHING right, but don't know what you are doing right! LOL! I was in the same boat as you. You are following your intuition, and are making excellent choices! You are establishing parenthood. Your baby is respecting you, and learning you are the parent. Yes.... always let Gracie know, " I don't appreciate the bite!" They will have temper tantrums, and attacking toys, is a great vent for them. It actually doesn't take as long as you think for a grey to understand your expectations. They are very smart. It took Sophie an additional year after being adopted at age two. Every bite was discussed! She got away with NOTHING! I never felt sorry for her and we were always consistent as a family, to let her know her " bites", weeren't appreciated. Fast forward ten years later... I haven't been bitten in a decade. Nor have kids. The moment I walk in the door, Sophie is waiting for me. She is very important to me and kids, and is treated as such. Nancy

DawnMM.. Greys will pick a favorite! Its normal for them! Ignore the behavior, continue to provide the diet and trust. Don't EVER accept their choice. Sophie 12 years later, Loves me as her mom. Ryan, her first favorite, off to college. Sean, her third favorite, LOVES his feet and wrestling friends. Sophie loves us all, for different reasons. When push comes to shove... Sophie knows I am the " constant" in her life. Now... when Ryan comes home, she is thrilled... but always will seek me out! Nancy

In our home, there IS a flock leader. Sophie! Its been that way, for past decade. She rules, over the entire bird kingdom! What she says goes! What I LOVE about Sophie, she is fair, and makes excellent choices. She makes sure, all birds have a " choice" of toys, always depriving herself.( i always hold back a surprise for her!). Sophie has given up so much, that she could have been selfish about, but she didn't. Nancy

When playing with your bird, ( whether they like toys, or not), you are teaching them " acceptable behavior". During a game, ( such as TROUBLE), Sophie's favorite game, if she wanted to pop the bubble, she had to stepup to next person. She did! If she " bit", we all gently grabbed her beak, said NO! Once the trust was established, and she wanted to be with us all the time, she went into " timeout", for five minutes for any bite. Repition! She stepsup to the entire family, but learned early, she couldn't manipulate any family member, as we stook together. This was twelve years ago. Sophie is awesome, goes to entire family, and her timeout cage is long gone! We LOVE Sophie. Nancy

I DO believe in timeout! ( NOT their cage!) I had a timeout cage that Sophie went into! Lasted around six months when adopted at age two. Timeout for biting was five minutes. After the age of almost three, there is no timeout cage, but if she goes crazy, I will ask her if she needs to go into timeout? She has a certain squak! ( no timeout!) She is the most spoiled bird, and rules the animal kingdom. BUT... she is not above the law. I am the law, and she knows that.( honestly, there is no serious law!) Don't need one! She is my child, bestfriend. Of course, if there is any confusion, I make the decisions and she respects my choices. I am always fair, and make decisions that works for everyone. Nancy

judygram... Shame on you for wishing their bird to bite them in the A__! LOL! Nancy

Read this post! My gut instinct was to tell them they were crazy! ( BUT.... didn't want to get into trouble!) Last thing I would ever do, is throw Sophie on the floor. I DO enjoy playing with her on the floor in a different room, but throw her down there? CRAZY! Nancy

This would be an awesome cage for a grey! Nancy

kimijean... sounds pretty normal to me. High Uric acid, needs to drink a little more, you don't want kidney stones, so push the fluids! No big deal! Nancy

Doug... she is soooo trusting you! Nancy

When he bites... the answer is NO! Gently grab the beak, say No! Distract, move onto something fun! Make life fun! If you want to play games... which they love... they have to follow the rules! If they want to play the game with the family, they have to be on the best behavior. Sophie is not big on toys, but LOVES games. Thats where she learned to socialize, learned to stepup, and learned, noone wants her on their team, if she bites. She learned quickly! Nancy

Again... excellent advice from everyone. I always believe, most birds learn from the rest of the flock. Sunny, our rescue sunconure, was a real challenge. He was out of forever homes, noone wanted him. He would attack everyone's jugular, but my son. I did separate him... open cage in the family room. Was reading to him, singing... ignored his lack of interest. After two weeks, I got sick. Got pneumonia. Slept better on the couch. He got use to me. He eventually came out to check on me, as I was always there. I think he knew I didn't feel well. We bonded thru my illness. I didn't have alot of energy. When I finally felt better, and went to bed... that damn bird flew upstairs, around the corner, and found me! He slept on my pillow that nite, and pups made room for him. He never again flew out to attack anyone's jugular. He still has issues, lets us know. He has since, fallen in love with our Amazon, and they are bonded. He doesn't say much, but when he complains, I know what he is saying! I am sooo happy he has found " love" with Kiki our Amazon. Nancy

Archie belongs with you! We all know that! What can we do to help? Nancy

All birds I've had, have gotten their wings caught in their cage. They have great cages... its just part of babyhood. As far as rope toys she gets caught in, I agree with Judy, would remove them, when not home. We've all gone thru dangerous situations! I found Sophie wrapped in my " designer blinds". Totally freaked me out! My 400 dollar blinds... went in the garbage. OUCH! Next... went my curtains! OUCH again! Babies are clumsy. We provide them with the safest enviroment we can. Stiff round rope is great. Look at your toy situation... what can they hang or get caught in, need to go. Electrical outlets, need plugs. Able to open cabinets, need safety locks.I thought once kids became teenagers, I was home free! I was wrong! Safety issues are the same, as when kids were babies. Nancy

pria... everyone has excellent advice. When a bird plucks, it usually starts out as stress, but can elevate to just a habit. Your bird may not be stressed at all and quite happy with you. Its a habit that needs to be broken. Be patient, and understand you are doing nothing wrong. Be patient, try whatever works to break the habit. We are all here to help you and will be by your side during this difficult time. P.S.... I have seen rehomed birds that had no feathers... and eventually had the most BEAUTIFUL feathers, and no longer plucked. It is possible! Nancy

Doug... so sorry! It is hard, for any parent to give a syringe full of medication. As I work with both adults and pediatric patients, I am lucky to never being concerned to give them meds. I will be glad to help you. Nancy

It really doesn't matter, what they throw away... they are 100& normal. I don't weigh my birds, but I can understand, how many owners would like too. Nancy

Beans are great! Do they fart? No!!!! BUT.... they imitate the family, with farting! Of course, it is important to remind them, to say " excuse me!" Nancy

Whatever works for your bird, is what you should do! None of my birds chew, I don't give them anything or spray, outside of a typical shower. Sophie doesn't shower, or get sprayed. Her trimmer cares for her. Kiki and Sunny, LOVE their showers. It all works out for us. I believe what has worked for us, is open cage. In our experience, it has worked. Nancy

monax, you made the right decision! From my experience, a regurg is only done when they are not stressed, and want to offer you a present. Always solid. You made an excellent choice to see the vet. Its never a loose present, they work hard on creating it. Sophie spent 20 minutes today, offering me the perfect regurg. Sean got grossed out! I am glad Ryan will be coming home from college in two weeks. He understands. Sean doesn't get it, and gets grossed out. Nancy

I decided I needed a " lazy" weekend. Time to spend with my birds, and doing, whatever I wanted to... or not! Sean my 17 year old, had a sleepover here with three other friends. He closed the hallway door, so Sophie knew, she wasn't invited. ( poor Sophie!) When I came down this morning, I left the doorway open, so she could come out. She walked into family room. " I'm here!" She sat smack in the middle of all the kids in their sleeping bags. They were talking and laughing. She started laughing at everything they laughed at! They talked so fast, she couldn't keepup, so she broke into baby talk, laughing. She sooo wanted to be part of the gang! They started to pay her so much attention, she was pleased! They kept asking me to decipher her baby talk. I knew she was p[leased with her status, I told kids.... " She said...if you don't share your pancakes with me, I'm going to nibble on toes!"( they believed me!) Needless to say, Sophie had alot of teenagers more than happy to share their pancakes! Nancy

So sorry for your loss. Send me an e-mail how I can help. Nancy

DEFINITELY learning! Enjoy! Nancy

Sophie is 12 now. We all know she feels she should be the " mother of Ryan's children!". We've known for years! We understand, and take it serious. Her sexual needs, has never changed our expectations of her behavior. Nancy