DawnMM

I blame the military for my potty mouth too! LOL

I like this book a lot. I'll have to re-read it and highlight stuff. LOL Can't wait to get my grey!

Doug, from the book I read, they will mimic their "rival's" voice to get the attention of the one they love. That's what the book said.

That's adorable. I'm afraid that my grey would fart, and burp. It would also probably sing the bean/farting song. "Beans, beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot. The more you toot, the better you feel, so eat some beans at every meal." My hubby's dad taught it to him, and he taught it to our kids. I must say the family I married into are very proud and open aired about their farts! LOL I will have to curb my cursing even more. No need to add that to the list.

Thank you Twix and AiSell. I come to the forum everyday. I love reading about everyone's fids. I show my hubby all the pics and videos. This forum and group of people are just amazing. I cannot wait to get my grey and share our stories with everyone.

Thank you so much! I'm still trying to figure out how I can do a grey in glass. I have a feeling there will be a lot of trial and error! LOL

I fuse glass. I make jewelry right now. Practice...I am hoping to move up to plates, vases, bowls, etc. I'm also getting into flameworked beads. Making glass beads over a torch flame. Hoping to eventually be able to sell some of my stuff eventually. An example of something I've done...

We've gotten several books from Half-Price Books. I don't go there much anymore as it's more than an hour away now. I just order online, or get Kindle books now. Too bad the Parrot books aren't on Kindle!

DJ is beautiful and looks very happy!

Thank you Jayd. I have this website bookmarked! I've got lots of websites bookmarked. Some of Sally's stuff is on my list! LOL Woohoo, at least I'm finding the right places! Dawn

Yeah, I've taken over one of the kid's bedrooms for the moment. So it's time to move out and get my own space. I just have to find the right spot for it. No trees close to the house and lots of Texas sun, which means I'll need air conditioning for sure! My husband has taken over the carport and garage for his furniture making, so now he will just have to build me a studio. I can't wait until I have a Grey. I can't wait to start sketching pics and figuring out how to add them to my glass!

Jayd, that's why I'm here! Research! Lots and lots of research before we commit. I want to make sure I'm ready definitely as I'll be the main caretaker being home all day, and my family is ready. I've loved Grey's since the first time I saw one. Of course my kids were very young then, so we've been putting it off. I got a great book that is giving me lots of information on Grey's...The African Grey Parrot handbook by Mattie Sue Athan and Dianalee Deter. I have a list of books that I'm in the process of getting, aside from the research I'm doing online. Lots of differing opinions online. I'm very glad that I've found this place where everyone is very respectful and knowledgeable without the I'm right you're wrong attitude. I've learned quite a bit in just the few days I've been here...I'm pretty sure I've read all the stickies already and printed most of it! LOL I honestly don't know enough to stereotype. I've not been around many birds except my stepmom's and my friend's mom's, I think they had tiels and parakeets. They did not like me. My stepmom's birds were all wild. She didn't interact with them very much and they were loud and nippy. And my friend's mom's all loved her and no one else. I have a distant memory of a Too, think a friend of a friend had one when I was in the army. So no bird experience...must learn lots. JeffNOK, it was a great outing for me definitely! When I asked the lady there if this was normal behavior for the Grey she said yes and that he was fine when I told the kids let's leave him alone cause he didn't look happy. I don't know. He just really didn't look happy, felt bad having all of us staring at him. But he was beautiful. I think he was a pet that they brought. Small cage. I have looked at Old World Aviary. I haven't contacted any Aviaries as of yet. I need to make sure our financial situation is secure enough and ensure that I'm prepared first. Of course none of this stops me from finding aviaries close by and seeing what's available and finding a cage and looking at all the toys and seeing if I can make them myself! LOL Take care! Dawn

Yay! Congrats! She is beautiful.

Ellie is just too adorable for words! You have captured great moments. I cannot wait to see more. I think my fav is her sleeping in your hand. That's just heart melting. Dawn

That is so cool! I wish we had something like that close by. I would be there all the time, I think. Dawn

I visited the only bird shop we have in Austin apparently...at least the only one I could find. Just to check out cages and toys and try to get my hubby more involved. OMG! They had the sweetest Too there named Peanut. He or she was...geez, now I can't remember what kind...the eye rings were large and bluish gray and about 1 year old. At any rate, this Too was a ham. Came straight up to us in it's cage. My hubby got it dancing and laughing. It said hi to us, and begged for scratches. I was allowed to pet. When we left it screamed, and when I turned and said bye bye, it said bye bye back. Gah, I would have taken peanut home today if I could have. Yup, if I had the $1700 they were asking, plus cage and toys. I'd have a Too! LOL The Grey I met was named Ray and was a biter. He seemed not so happy, but let us talk to him for a bit. He seemed to be breathing very fast and his neck feathers were fluffed. I'm not well versed in Parrot body language so not sure if this was normal or not. He didn't move, didn't talk. They also had a blue gold Macaw. Beautiful. It was in the back office though, but the door was open and it said hello to us. They also had finches, tiels, and green cheek conures. Those were cute too. Those finches...wow those birds looked like they were on a caffeine high. I got to buy two books one The African Grey Parrot Handbook and one about the Conures as my hubby was interested in those. I think it's a good thing I'm not rich right now. My kids were enthralled by the Conures especially, but my daughter loved the Too. Good sign I think. I haven't really told them we are getting a Grey eventually, or else I'd hear about it every day, and I'm impatient enough about it as it is. I just had to share. Thanks for listening! Dawn

Thanks, it's pretty much what I figured. My hubby is not going to be thrilled with building me another something! LOL We just got done building a coop, and are working on tractor coop. Oh well, time to draw up some plans and figure out where we are going to do this.

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place for this thread, if not, sorry. It can be moved if necessary. Anyhoo, I am a glass artist...ok, trying to be a glass artist and I work with fusing glass in a kiln. I'm also going to start flameworking glass beads in the near future hopefully. I know that you need ventilation for your own health while using a kiln and using a torch. What I was wondering was, can I still do this in my house...with my Grey in another room, or if I should move my studio out of the house completely. Better to get the answer before I have a permanent studio. Thanks!!!

LOL I know the grey will pick who it wants most. And we have 6 peeps to choose from in this house. Have you ever noticed that the animal will always love, love, love the person that pays it the least amount of attention? All of my dogs have always loved my dad, just loved him, but he was so not an animal lover, and was always shooing them away. It annoyed him coming to my house. LOL Oh well, with 6 peeps, I might just have the excuse to get more than one Grey, or maybe can add a different type of parrot to the home...hmmm. LOL I think Black-headed Caiques are beautiful. hehe

Oh, I just love listening to all these stories. I look forward to hearing more and cannot wait until I am able to add to it. Y'all make me impatient to add a CAG to our household! LOL Hubby may be surprised. I'm just very impressed with how smart they are. Many of you have made me laugh so hard I snorted.

Thanks Doug. I think he will definitely change his "evil" ways. He's done it before. He just can't resist a cutie. He plays tough, but he's a big ole softie inside. Just ask my chihuahua, Gizzy. He knows first hand. LOL

Murfchk, I probably sound a little bit like that! LOL Probably worse when I'm riled up. Thank you for the welcome. I'm such a doof. There is actually one pet store in Austin that actually sells birds. I'm going to torture myself on Saturday when we go into town to visit family. At least I know that we do not have the money, the cage or anything else that is needed to take a bird home, so I won't be able to take one home...darn it. I must say, my hubby thinks I'm a little nuts about this. It would really kind of stink if when I finally bring a new baby home, he or she bonds with my hubby instead of me. I think it would just make me cry. LOL Sadly, he's not as enthusiastic about this as I am, but I'm bringing him around with all that I learn here and showing him all the lovely pics of everyone's babies.

Thank you all for sharing! You've given me so much insight, and I hope that I will be as good a paront as all of you! Geez, I can't wait!

Well one of these days we are converting our huge barn/garage into his trophy room. Since his dad passed away we will be inheriting his dad's collection of trophies. Which happens to include full-size mounts. Our house is so not big enough and we really don't want to see them go someplace else at the moment. That will help too. But probably won't happen before we get our Grey.

That is good to hear! As I said most of the African mounts were a once in a lifetime thing for my hubby and his dad, and I would just hate for them to be a problem. As it is we've already had an issue with my Schnauzer Buddy chewing on bobcats' tails and ears when we were repainting the living room...oops! I'd rather not have something like that happen again! LOL Nor of course would I want something bad to happen to our Grey. I really want to make sure our house is safe. Luckily we don't have many breakables at this point. Having four rambunctious kids have taught us that our nice things are better put away for the moment. I guess my hubby will have to make me a nice cabinet with glass doors to put our breakables in. Luckily he likes building me furniture! LOL Thanks!