turzzock

So after reading another thread about plucking on here, I read that someone else was having good results with twice-a-day baths. He absurdly acts like he is dying... and the rest of the flock seem to think sympathy squawking is necessary. But we are seeing results already. New feathers covering his neck and new down on his chest and shoulders. This forum is great. Thank you all for your advice and support.

I look on Craig's List too. I wish I wouldn't... it breaks my heart to see them. We have 4 birds already..well, my daughter has 2 and my wife and I have 2. Whenever my daughter and her hubby get ready (just married in May) they'll take 2 with them....but 2 is enough....for now... OKAY, where was that thread for MBS?!?!?

I love my little doll Ruby. She is a doll. She follows me around the house like a dog. I'm sure I could flight train her and then she would just fly from perch to perch wherever I go!

So, after Harley's bath, we've been misting him with the 100% aloe juice. He doesn't like it at all, but he seems to have stopped picking. :crosses fingers: And he seems very interested in our new girl Cheyenne. We introduced them and now they have their homes side by side. Maybe he'll be more interested in her and stop the destructive behavior.

I'm with you! Cheyenne, Harley, Ruby and Sunny all want to come over and play!

Okay ajlinva...where is your store! I want to come! Anyone up for a road trip? Take your birds and let's make it a party ... if only ...

No blood work, but I'm taking him back to the vet next week, so I will ask for blood work as well. Thanks.

LOL! I just adopted 7 year-old CAG from a pet store where she had been for 10+ weeks. I tried calling her Greycie a few times, even though they said her name was Cheyenne. Twice in the first 2 days she responded when I called her Greycie with "Cheyenne". So now she is Cheyenne. Not my favorite name or even on a list of names I would pick, but she knows it and corrected me twice.

I love the word mumbling. With my cousin's Cockatoo Anabelle, she calls it her "crazy old lady grumbling". Our peach-winged Amazon does it as well, but it's the 'demonic grumbling'. I'd hate to be a burglar in our house and have Sunny do the 'demonic voice'... "Aw heck, we're trying to rob the house from Amityville Horror".

Now Harley on the other hand is a big talker. He knows the dogs names and even says their names with other phrases like "off the couch" or "outside". He'll say, "Zoe outside!" and my chocolate lab will look at me with a pained expression as if to ask "do I have to listen to him as well?" So much fun!

Love all the ideas. My mom used to do this for us, but with sesame seeds. 1qt canning jar, canning lid with either screen or muslin covering the hole. Rinse, soak for 10 minutes, drain and let them spread all around the inside of the jar. Rinse every day until they sprout. She would put them in the kitchen window to get the sunlight. It was a great treat for us, but I never thought of it for my flock. I know what I'm doing when I get home now! Thanks!

He has been to the vet, and they did not notice anything medically wrong with him. He hates baths but we're going to try the aloe misting with him. Unlike Ruby the Eclectus, who jumps in the sink and flaps her wings until I turn on the sprayer for her to bathe.

She's not talking much yet, but I'm sure she'll get over the shyness and start. When I got her the store said her name was Cheyenne, but I wanted to rename her Greycie. I started calling her Greycie and she said back in a deep voice "Cheyenne". I kept up the Greycie and she said "Cheyenne" again. Those were the only words she's said to me, except one other time. Anabelle, my wife's cousin's Umbrella Cockatoo is very vocal and says "Hi Anabell" over and over and over again. Cheyenne looked at her one time and said "Shut up". That was it. My wife and her cousin said you can't change her name if she already knows it. So, she's Cheyenne

So Harley was a hand-fed baby when we got him (I was in Afghanistan at the time and my wife and daughter surprised me with him). A couple weeks after they brought him home, he got croup burn. They rushed him to the bird vet in Tucson and two surgeries later he seemed okay. He was happy and healthy and would go to anyone to be held and fussed over. My wife and daughter went to visit my son in Alaska when Harley was about 6 months old (I had left previously on a business trip and would return after they got back). They left him in the care of my daughter's boyfriend who seemed good with Harley. After they got home he wouldn't go to anyone but my daughter and started plucking and plucking. He'll screech if anyone goes near his cage except my daughter. He's plucked out all his chest feathers (starting at the croup), then worked his way to his neck and almost all of one wing. I've looked and looked on this forum, and I don't know if it's emotional plucking, an addiction from initially trying to pick at his stiches or if the boyfriend (ex) and his friends did something to upset him. Stress? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much for the welcome. We're excited to have them all together. Ruby really loves me, but will tolerate and go to my wife. Lately she has developed a very loud tone. It's like the tone from the microwave but it's 3 seconds long and 200 decibels! She only does it when she thinks she's being ignored. Now that Cheyenne is here, she responds with a star-wars-laser-type sound, like she is shooting Ruby. I think the former owners really like Star Wars, because she does lots and lots of special effect sounds from Star Wars movies...even R2D2. One of the recent things she started doing is a whistle like a bomb is dropping. At the end we say "boom" to which she will cluck, as if to say, "Good job human". Lots of fun. '

Great story! I love a happy ending! Beautiful Greys!

Hi. I'm a new poster, but I've been a 'lurker' for almost 2 years. When I came home from Afghanistan in 2011, my wife and daughter surprised me with a CAG. Harley was a very sweet hand-raised baby who loved to be loved and snuggled. I left shortly thereafter on a business trip and my wife and daughter went to Alaska to see my son. Harley stayed with my daughter's boyfriend for the 3 weeks they were gone. When they returned, he would only allow my daughter to hold him and tried to bite everyone else, including me, after I returned. Before that he was sweet and would let almost anyone hold him and pet him. Having an African Grey had been dream of mine for years. It saddened me to see him trying to attack me after I had helped feed and care for him all that time. In between that time and now, we have added Ruby, my female Eclectus and my daughter rescued Sunny, a peach-winged Amazon who is around 10. My wife and I went to visit family in northern Arizona over the 4th and took us into their pet store. Cheyenne is a 7 year old CAG who had been at the pet store for about 10 weeks. I came in the store and she immediately started flirting with me, flapping her wings and clucking at me every time I turned away. No one else had seen her act like that or had been able to handle her. My wife said, "Now you have to buy her." "We already have 3 birds." "Yes, but YOUR CAG adopted your daughter and you've always wanted one." So, as my title states, Cheyenne is home, happy and has already started to try to feed me! Pictures are Ruby helping with the dishes, new girl Cheyenne really interested in my phone and my daughter with Ruby, Harley and Sunny.