Ronald Byrd

I agree with Ray "A lot of flight time and exercise builds muscles and stamina." But I want to add to it. A lot of flight time also builds experience and allows them to be more efficient with each wing flap therefor using less energy. This is apparent in the wild flapping from an inexperienced bird while trying to land.

Your concerns are dander and mess correct? I'm sure everyone here will agree with these solutions. Dander - Humidifier and Purifier. Your bird evolved in a climate with around 75% humidity. That is like your bathroom after an hour long shower. Your house is probably around 15% humidity and this is why your bird produces so much dander. A humidifier next to his cage will reduce the amount of dander produced and cause some of the dander that is produced to clump and be too heavy to go airborne. The dander that does make it airborne will be caught in the purifier. This will work just a well as your death trap idea. Mess - Build a skirt that extends 6-8" from the sides of his cage. Make it 12" if you have to. Or you can put newspaper down and change it everyday. P.S. tell your mom that this means she will have a humidifier and purifier in the living room. I noticed my house smells clean and I don't need air fresheners anymore. Look up on the internet all the benefits of a humidifier and purifier and present that information to your mother.

luvparrots.... Don't expect any heat, I'm sure everyone else was thinking the same thing.

I'm not sure how happy your grey would be in a plexiglass cage. He/She probably won't feel to secure being that exposed. Not to mention introducing a new cage is hard enough. Also, six air vents on top won't be enough if you put filters on them. I would suggest making a skirt out of plexiglass to catch the seeds and buy an air purifier. If you absolutely must do it then at least enclose his current cage with plexiglass and put a lot more filters on all sides. Then YOU get in the cage and spend a hour inside it to make sure you have plenty of ventilation and that there is no sunlight to turn his cage into a greenhouse, sunlight that your bird needs by the way. Find a different solution IMO.

I don't feed Papito anything red or purple because I end up in the same position as you are right now. Someone else said in another post that the kids called freaking out after their grey was eating raspberries. Avoid the hassle IMO.

Throw modesty out the window. Stop closing the door. The bathroom is probably the only room you go into and close the door, am I right? Or, he may not like the toilet noise, or shower.

Our CAG (Papito) is doing great! He will come out of his cage to the couch and have his head scratched and eat off of our plate. He will let us hold him on our arm but doesn’t seem comfortable with standing on our chest. He still seems to be nervous like something is going to get him unless he is in his cage, on our arm, or on the perch in the kitchen. Last weekend We took in a Quaker parrot. Her name is Puffers. Her and I had almost an instant bond which in my opinion is because she was kept in a very small cage with one perch inside and one perch on the top. She had 2 toys… EVER! Well the day after we got her I cleaned all of the pin feathers off of her neck for her, this was an hour or so of neck rubbing and she enjoyed every minute. Monday Puffers spent an hour getting her pin feathers cleaned. Tuesday she sat on my chest while I watched TV. Wednesday same thing she sat and talked to me for about an hour. Thursday she actually went through the motions of regurgitating. Mouth open and head bobbing while on my shoulder. This whole week I have been spending time with Papito as well but he usually prefers my girlfriend Lisa’s attention over mine. Here’s the shocking moment. Later Thurday evening she was sitting on my chest again while watching TV, I notice Papito fluttering his wings at me from his cage, looked like he was thinking about flying to me. I said “what cha doin papito?” he stood up and started chewing his nails. Hmmm, so I put Puffers on her cage and walked over to Papito, his foot was in the air pointing at me before I got to the cage. He stepped up and said “thank you” as he always does, then gave me a kiss which means he wants something. He took a sunflower seed (treat) from me and threw it. I sat on the couch and put my arm with him on it on my belly and started talking to him. He stepped off of my arm on my chest and laid his head down for scratches. He has NEVER been comfortable with this before, he has always stayed on my arm or on the arm of the couch. So, what I can’t figure out is, is this jealousy of Puffers, or is this him thinking “it must be safe if Puffers is doing it”. I always greet Papito first when I come in the room because I’m afraid of him getting jealous, as well as I offer him to step up more often than puffers. The other thing I noticed is Papito will only step up if he wants to, if he doesn’t then he will push my hand away and I don’t try again for a little bit. Puffers will step up almost every time I ask her to. In the last couple days I’ve noticed Papito stepping up more often. So, the same question applies here. Is he competing for attention or just seeing another bird do it and be rewarded teaching him that it’s ok? I only reason I don’t think it’s jealousy or competing for attention is because I have put the two just out of beak range and talked in a soothing voice to them. Papito slowly tries to move away after a minute or two of just looking at her. Puffers seems curious but doesn’t try to get closer or farther away.

So I have a few of these in storage from the ferrets' cage. They don't use them. I mounted it in the corner about the same height as Papito's favorite perch. He hasn't used it yet but I'm hoping he will because it must be frustrating for him to try to fit his big behind in his water dish. My thinking is that the bowl on the bottom of his cage doesn't work because he doesn't like going to the bottom of his cage. This litter box is shallow, has one low side, and can be mounted higher up in his cage. Worth a shot. http://www.petco.com/product/5300/Petco-Small-Animal-High-Corner-Litter-Pans.aspx?CoreCat=MM_Ferret_BeddingLitter

Try eating with him. I'm going through the same thing now with my 9 year old. Snap peas, I had to open one and show him the peas inside, then cut a few for him, now he get whole ones. I tried romaine as well but he would only try it after eating it myself in front of him. Cooked carrots instead of raw. Papito picked them out of my chicken and rice soup a couple nights ago, I wanted to stop him but hey he was eating veggies.

Find a vet and an emergency vet. Put the numbers where you won't loose them. If something happens at night or on a Sunday you don't want to waste time finding an emergency vet. Get some clotting powder or gel, use it next time your 15 year old has a small cut and tell him to thrash around like a two year old while you do it, practice makes perfect. Start saving newspapers.

I tried your toilet paper roll wrapped in paper idea last night except I put two peanuts in it as a treat. Papito threw the peanuts to the side and kept going on the paper and paper roll. Thank you for the idea. He seamed to really enjoy it.

I adopted a 9 year old last month. He hasn't plucked or chewed his feathers but... When he starts to act nervous or aggravated we give him a new toy, which for our grey is anything he can destroy including paper and tongue depressors. Remember when you was a kid and you made the snowflakes by folding a piece of paper in half twice and then cut the edges? Our grey loves it. We hold it for him and turn it as he bites chunks off, when he's torn up the edges we unfold it and show it to him, he almost looks amazed by what he's created, then he wants it back to finish the job.

Since Papito came to live with Lisa and I its been difficult to get him to eat veggies. His previous parronts fed him a seed mix of 90% sunflower seeds for the last 9 years, as well as fruit that he didn't eat much of because of the bowl full of seeds. Anyways.... He wanted nothing to do with snap peas last week. last night I tried again but this time I took the peas out of the pods and he loved them. The next one i just split the pod to show him that the peas are inside. Then I gave him a whole pod which he opens and eats the peas out of. Twenty or so snap pea pods later I figured he had enough. So I found a veggie that he likes. The only other veggie he cared for is celery and carrots but he just tears those apart and doesn't really eats them. So my question here is What is your grey's favorite veggie and favorite fruit? Papito Veggie: Snap Peas Fruit: Kiwi

IMO, once your vet is sure and you have proof.... Report the breeder.... then post about it on your local craigslist or petfinder. However they are advertising their birds is how you should be advertising the disregard for the health of their birds. Does this breeder have a website?

I figured that's what it was, I've read so much in the last month about greys but somethings you can't learn from reading. I'm glad I found this forum, thank you all.

I'm not sure if he's happy or cold. The beak chattering that he's doing seams to be when he is puffed up and getting tired.

[ATTACH]21675[/ATTACH] Hello everyone, I joined a couple weeks ago and started with a post in the training section. I just wanted to officially introduce myself here. We got a 9 year old CAG from an older couple who wasn't able to care for him anymore. His name is Papito. He has done so well in the past couple of weeks that I'm quite shocked. I did tons of reading about caring for a CAG and expected weeks or months but I was so lucky to have Papito on my arm within 2 days! He sits between us on a perch I made on the couch. He leans over and kisses us for treats by putting the front of his beak on our arm or cheek and makes a kissing sound. He whistles and talks to us when we leave him in the living room alone. But the most shocking behavior I've seen is when we took him to the vet for a checkup... I expected to have a real angry bird in the car, at the vet, after the vet, and for the rest of the day.... While we were sitting in the waiting room he was greeting the staff "hello" and posing for them. He grabs the cage with his beak and one foot, then lifts his wings an inch or two and shakes them all while he is making a noise or whistle to get your attention. When you say "pretty bird" he will change positions and do it again. We went into an exam room, he greeted the vet as she got close "hello" got out of his cage and got his nails clipped and a few flight feathers clipped. He growled a little bit but no squawking or loud growls. When he was done I offered my arm and he stepped up. I put him in his cage and while we were checking out at the front desk with a clean bill of health he started posing again. For the rest of the day he was happy, playing, interacting with us when I expected him to be angry for the rest of the day. Remember this happen only a week after we got him. To put the cherry on top of the ice cream..... He says "Thank you" after he steps up on my arm. It's the only time he says it but it's so freaking cute.

My Papito seams to prefer the toys that he can destroy. The ones he can't are of no interest to him. Make your own toys that are cheap so it doesn't matter if he destroys them. There's a whole section here for homemade toys. Also making the toys with your grey is a good way to spend time with them and make introducing the new toy easier because they watch you "play with it" so it must be ok to touch.

She might do a lot better if you put on music or the tv when you leave. Her crying out might not be because she wants to go with you but because she doesn't want to be in a quiet house alone. This will at least give you more time to try birdhouse's suggestions.

I use a ferret nation 142 cage. http://www.ferretnation.net/ferret-nation-cages/ I just leave out the two half shelves and the divider in the center. You can actually put the divider about 6 inches off of the bottom of the cage to keep the bird out of his poo. It's also kinda nice because I mounted pirches on the doors so when I open the doors there are pirches outside the cage. You can find these on craigslist for around $100, I got one of my ferrets with one of these cages from craigslist for $50

They do sell wood dowels at home depot. They are made out of Poplar which is safe. Pirches: Cut them about 1/2" too long then put a 1/4" slot on each side so that they go all the way across the cage and the bars fit in the slots. Toys: Get a smaller dowels and cut it to make short sections and dye them with food coloring. Drill holes and string them together on a cotton shoe lace. You can get round and square.

Straws.... Just tie them together randomly, or you can take like 20 straws and tie them together in the center with a cotton shoe lace. Kinda like a napkin holder, The tighter you tie the more they will fan out. Then cut the ends at different lengths.

One more important question. I made a vet appointment for this Saturday to get a wellness check. I have concerns about his diet because he was fed a seed mix which was 90% sunflower seeds in one bowl, and fresh fruits in another bowl by his previous owners. Is the vet visit too soon? I'm worried this might stress him too much. Clip wings or no? He has flown around the house once or twice when he got too nervous, I'm worried he might get hurt, and I've read that it will help in building trust. Clip nails and beak? The vet asked about this, They are long but he doesn't bite hard or scratch my arm.

I'm pretty sure the only reason he is letting me hold him and spend time with him is because he didn't get very much attention at all. His only interaction with his owners was them opening the cage door and letting him climb to the pirch on top of the cage and then at night they tapped the cage and told him to go inside. I guess I should have mentioned that the hour spent wasn't all at one time, it was three or four sessions over a four hour time period between dinner and bed. I thought doing this was a part of bonding and learning trust, should I slow down? I tried once to block him with my hand and once with the pirch and haven't tried again because of the screaming. I guess I should just give him time, I was just worried about him thinking that it's ok to be on my arm and never changing because that's how I started with him.

On Sunday 02/12/2012, I added a new member to our family. A 9 year old African Grey who seams to have been neglected and fed a poor diet. I have been working with him for hours everyday but there's one thing he absolutely fights me about. I understand that it can take weeks or months to build a relationship but because he wasn't given enough attention by his previous owner I think it's making the process easier for me. I can hold him and last night I started clicker training by putting him on my knee and giving him sunflower seeds after each click. He responds to "can I pet you" by lowering his head and responds to "step up" by raising one foot. both of which the previous owner had never seen before. The previous owner also told me that he gets sprayed once a week by a spray bottle for cleaning and hates it. Last night I sat with him on my arm in the bathroom while my girlfriend took a steamy shower. I'm not going to actually put him in it yet, just wanted him to get the steam and see her enjoying the shower. So here's the two things that I am having trouble with. 1. The previous owner was afraid of his bite so they only picked him up with a pirch. I can pick him up by hand and he doesn't bite, but only if he is already out of the cage. Last night I removed him from the cage with a pirch and put him on the back of a dinning room chair. For an hour straight I asked him to step up on my hand which he did, then asked him to step down beck to the chair which he did, then clicker and seed. We did this at least 30 times. Is this going to help with picking him up out of the cage? 2. Right now I am ignoring this behavior because of number one above but I don't know if I should try to work on both at the same time. When I picking him up one foot goes on my fingers the other stretches to my wrist then he walks to my arm. He doesn't trust my hand for some reason and would rather be on my arm where he is unstable. I've tried blocking him from my arm with my other hand and with a pirch both caused screaming. So should I try to talk him through the screaming, try to coerce him with treats to my hand, or wait until number one is solved?