Fratyr

Hey, Thanks a lot guys. I'm honestly will take all this tips to heart and do what it takes to fix the problems. I feel like my breeder, pardon, wants me to kill the bird as fast as possible so I come to buy another one... Or I'm just to paranoid about it now. Anyway, great tips, i'll start rebuilding cag's environment slowly, not to scare her of the new changes to come and will visit a vet. Thanks again!

Hi DawL, Thanks for the reply. A lot of information and things to go through. I would like to clarify you some things so you may localize the problem if you want and can. What do you think? I would like, as well, to hear other opinions if some of you guys willing to answer. First, I will comment your answer. 1. I can afford taking a bird to vet, I said that I don't want to do that, because my breeder said the avian vets will just get my bird killed and that normally, CAG doesn't need a vet if you take care of him. Well, as I'm of being stupid and newbie I trusted him, but I see on this forum a lot of you people take the birds to vet. 2. Yes, bathing schedule is once-twice a week and she's not fully soaked, I will try harder and get the Aloe Vera juice for spraying. Should I mix water with the juice or pure juice to spray over the bird? 3. Can you show me any pictures of water bottle you talk about? I just don't get the idea. And yes, now I'm almost sure our water bowl might be infected, as we gave her the water directly from the water tap, without filtering it first or something. Water in Israel is not always the best this way. As well. we don't wash the bowl too good, we just wash out with our hands what's inside and put a new water. 4. Toys.. as you'll see in my pictures now, there's only few huge toys, but she's not playing with them at all. I seem to have a hard time finding a toys for her. There's not that much in Israel, there's not that much abroad to buy online and ship here and I don't know what she'll like. I see a lot of CAGs hanging around the cage, playing with the toys, but mine is just sitting on the perch and sings... 5. Humidity - We always have around 45-50% in the room, as this is a winter, in the summer which will begin in a few months and stay for like 8 months in Israel, the humidity will be 70-90%... Can't think why she needs more? But I have a "cool" air humidifier, not warm tho. 6. No idea which light to put, in the winter is kinda dark here... Any suggestions? "Full spectrum" doesn't tell me much, but a link can fix the problem. 7. The place is okay, she's near the window, but It's always closed and we don't have any other animals outside, It's city... she look very calm in the corner and she can see EVERYTHING from there and who's approaching. Now.. I did some pictures right now, they can show bird's conditions... The diet The diet I use is what my breeder uses for his CAGs, and he has plenty of them. The dry food: The dry mix I put into water for 12 hours before serving and give it her everyday: Fruits and vegs - Well, only apples and bananas, she doesn't like any thing else. I use roaster sun flower seeds for training, as this is the only thing she reacts to when she sees it. The cage and toys This is her cage: As you can see, I might picked up a wrong cage, it's big, but luck of places to put toys on. I can't think of any places where to put the toys and which ones... Any suggestions how to tweak the cage? Top of the cage Inside of the cage The cag This is how she looks right now. She's pretty happy, singing and likes this new natural perch. This is our problem: I hope it helps to score the living conditions of the bird, localize the problem, swear on me and give me the right direction. Thanks a lot!

Hey Hayley, Any news so far? I've got my almost 1 year CAG doing the same. Though I see that I have a few things better in terms of - diet is okay, she's not sitting all the time in the cage, my wife gets back from work for 3 hours every lunch and she's out the cage for that time. Anyway, I would like to know if the tips helped you so far? Thanks

Hello, Brief: My CAG is 10 months old. We've pretty good relationship with her. We do bath once a week, sometimes twice, not as good as It should happen, but we work on getting loved to be sprayed. In any case, I do my best to wet her feathers without too much hurting her. The problem: I've recently discovered, that she started to gnaw/eat her feathers. First, 3 damn big feathers in the back (left wing I suppose) and some on the neck. She's no plucking, I didn't saw plucked feathers around or empty space in her back/neck, but the feathers are look eaten.. only "stem" is left, but the fluff is almost all gone on this areas. 1. What's happening? How to prevent it? I prefer not to go to vet, I just can give a call to my breeder, but your opinion is great too. Maybe there's a strategy to let her understand that this feather eating is bad and she might do something else instead? Like the "Positive reinforcement" in Good Bird videos. 2. Will this feather grow back? (the stem(If I can said that..) as I said is okay, I thought the fluff grows back same as clipped wings. Uhm... Thanks a lot and Happy New Year everyone!

Thanks a lot ;-)

Thanks to everyone for support. Morana, THANKS A MILLION for this information and words of support. It really helped me to understand things, now I'll be more careful!

Hmm.. same here. 9 months CAG, shaking after the bath (our winter is +13-19c) and making noises only on the shoulder, mostly, and chews my ears.. :-/ It hurts..

Well, we have the trust in some what form.. There's no problem in starting doing the things I described above, I just don't want to do It without any experience.

Hello, I've seen a lot of videos on YouTube when a young Grey (6-12 months) is not afraid of nail trimming, when covering him with a towel (for future vet exams or nail trims), touching him in a sensitive places. Mine is 9 months old and I haven't done such training to her. Do you have any tips or advises how I can make her: 1) Not to afraid of towel and cover her with a towel 2) Trim nails 3) Touching under wings, tail (When I touch the tail, she moves like a hit aircraft that's falling, like losing the concentration) Thanks a lot :-)

Spring Chicken I remember that Grey's were forbidden in Soviet Union. >:E

Do you ship abroad?

Do you have a link to the store? :-) I've tried to Google, but there's too much results and I afraid I can pick up a wrong DVD set. Thank you!

Hello, Anybody can suggest me a good store that selling bird toys, perches and gym stuff? Preferably with international shipping. Our country has a terribly low amount of toys to pick up and they're all ugly. :-( Thanks a lot!

Me and my wife Our CAG

Very cute one How old is he?

Thanks a lot! Very helpful and positive. Will do!

Hello, I'm new to this forum, and to Grey's world as well. Introduction thread. As I said in the introduction, my grey is around 9 months old, I've brought her home 6 months ago, she was barely feathered and very silly and scared. I would like first, to share our story of 6 months being together, show some pics and then ask for help, as I feel that I've FAILED in raising my baby grey. :-( Or maybe not? So here It starts... June 2011, we brought her home in a closed box so she won't get stressed during the long driving trip. We live in a warm country, Israel, so It's kinda very similar to where she comes from, Congo. Hot and high humidity. Lots of fruits always even at the winter. Unboxing Jaco!.. Her name is Coco. First contact After getting used to the main room, she could go asleep on the couch without any problem :-) A few more pictures can be found here: http://imageshack.us/g/208/feeding01.jpg/ First two months were very good and full of hapiness. Hand feeding, kissing, playing, learning new sounds. After that, I had a lot of personal and professional problems, and I couldn't dedicate too much time to my Grey. I know It's not an excuse, but that's the reality. Tho my wife were helping me to feed her, play etc.. Still, I feel I've failed in getting to close with her in this critical period. There were days when we wasn't playing or seeing each other at all, I wasn't paying attention to her. Not taking bath for about 4 months!!! :-( No new toys, no yummy fruits, etc... What is good - she always was out of the cage during this period, sometimes playing with my wife, sometimes with the kids coming to visit us (brother's son etc..). Currently, she's pretty playful with me, she's not biting at all, not screaming, she always comes to me when I take her, she kisses, hand feeding, sitting on my shoulders and cleaning my hair, chewing my ears or cleaning her self What's bad now - She don't let me touch her (under the wings, belly, tail, head, fingers), well, she is when I force her, but she tries to run away or step away. She hates bath, she won't let me spray water over her, she tries to fly and I just can't understand how to bath her :-) She's not really a person of hugs, I can touch her back, but not too much Well, in my opinion It's still a fail and now I have a lot of questions and I want to revive the situation. I saw the same age grey at my friends and their grey is much more friendly to them. I hope this bird can forgive me, so... If anyone is willing to help a bird, please answer a few questions of mine so I can make her life much happier. 1. First of all, what I did, is It something recoverable in terms of a baby grey to start trusting me and letting me interact with her? Or It's too late? 2. How to make her take a bath? 3. When she's cleaning her self, there's a lot of dust. What is this and what to do? Bath? ;-) 4. Any good threads/docs explaining how to properly play with greys without making them scared or anger / and how to teach them speak, that you can suggest? 5. I hear a lot about plucking feathers, my grey is not doing it yet, but what are the steps to lower the risk of that? Don't want her to look like a thanksgiving day turkey. :-/ 6. I saw here a lot of thread about their health and care, but everything is seriously spread around, is there any good place with health/care tips in one? 7. ??? Whatever you want to say, tip, or tell me that I'm a jerk. Thanks a lot to anyone who will decide to help or spend some minutes on reading our story. Hope everything will be good.

Oh my god, I'm so stupid... I saw a lot of dust from my grey, and preening, as well, I did a bath once in a month or even less, she's very young, less than a year, but still, I've failed seriously on her care without having enough experience. :-( Thank you for this great thread, I've already bought Humidifier and humidistat, and will start to bath her once a week as soon as I get home. Thanks a lot!

Hello. My name is Boris, from Israel. I'm a friend of Coco, an 9 months old African Grey, she's a girl. (At least that's what breeder says) We like to play Diablo 3 together and all the other Blizzard's fun stuff. We came here for an advise and to make a new friends! Cheers