neoow

Really good advice for anyone considering bringing a bird home.

Anything new in a grey's world is out to kill them (in their minds, anyway). You may notice that they are incredibly observant. Sometimes they will sit and observe for a while before being brave enough to edge towards the new thing and give it a prod. Sometimes they may need to observe 'the thing' for a few days before they finally realise it's not actually going to kill them. In regards to the hair... Is she attacking your hair (e.g lunging at it and acting aggressively) or is she just having a gentle poke at you to see what that fluffy stuff on top of your head is? Alfie likes to play with my hair on occasion. They will 'beak' things when checking them out. I'm just curious if it's aggressive or curious behaviour. Sounds like it's aggressive from your post though.

Alfie doesn't swear. I'm amazed he hasn't picked up the odd word or two as people do swear in front of him (myself included, though I try not to). I'm not really keen on him learning to swear as I know he'll most likely use it at the most undesirable times. Then again, Alfie isn't really a big talker. He prefers noises and sounds over words.

Yes he was doing a lot of exploring yesterday and so lots of climbing. I got him in and he went straight back into his cage, had a bit of a preen and then it was feet (or rather, foot!) up and rest for the remainder of the evening! 😂

Alfie got to go out to the aviary again today. It was his second outing. There was a lot less faffing around today - he went into his travel cage quickly and spent most of the day outside. I set things up the same as I did last time so everything was roughly in the same place. He was happy to explore within minutes of getting out of the travel cage and was moving around a lot more this time.

@ILeo / @KevinD might be able to help with this. An alternate option would be to upload to youtube and then post the link here.

Too right. Alfie does a real good evil eye!

Hello and welcome to the forums! We'd love to hear more about you and your grey. I'm afraid I can't offer much advice on the egg laying front as it's not something I have any experience with.

I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope it all works out for you (and of course the parrot too)

I'm sure everyone can relate to these images: Oh the Shame Bird Edition https://imgur.com/gallery/0c8X4Mh I especially liked the parrot rules one!

Hello Roy and Smokey- welcome to the forums! Congratulations for bringing Smokey home! They are amazing birds. It sounds like everything is going well so far. One of the things you've probably seen mentioned on the forums is something called 'grey time'. This is the time it takes for a grey to accept new things or to cope with a change in their environment. 'Grey time' is different for every grey and it's important to understand that early on. An example would be if you were to introduce a new toy to the cage. Some greys can be very change adverse and will see the new toy as a threat/predator. Therefore you may need to leave the toy at a safe distance outside the cage so the grey can observe it before moving it closer and eventually putting it in the cage. The time it takes to get this toy from outside the cage to inside the cage is "grey time". So for example my grey, Alfie, would typically take a day or two before I could put a brand new toy in his cage without him getting scared or anxious. Other greys may take a couple of hours. Some may take a few extra days or a week.... etc. Either way, it's important to move at the pace that's comfortable for the bird. If a change or an action is clearly upsetting them... take a few steps back and try again a bit slower, to give the bird time to adjust, observe and learn. At this point, Smokey has been removed from everything he knows, is in a totally new environment surrounded by totally different people. He'll need a bit of 'grey time' to adjust to all of that. It sounds like he's doing well so far. Just keep talking to him, getting him used to your routines and socialising with him as much as possible. He'll eventually learn how good he's got it and start bonding with you and your family.

Oh wow. Such beautiful birds. Not sure I have the space to accommodate one in my home. Do keep us posted.

So do you think the branches and leaves would be ok if the cats got at them? One of my cats will eat any plant (I can't have them in the house because they would systematically destroy them!).

Thanks Jayd, that's really useful. I found and checked the aspca one whilst I was looking at the various fruit trees but I cannot find things like blueberry trees in the list- either toxic or non-toxic. I will continue searching as I know my two cats will have a go at anything I put in the aviary, so I need to be careful.

Yay! Welcome home Bella! And welcome to Scooter as well! Blimey, you don't do things by half... Taking two parrots in at once?! Haha. Great idea though. If she already knows Scooter as least they can go through all the changes together. They look like they are settling in just fine! Before you know it, you'll never remember life without them! 😂 Also... Wow... I'm not personally a massive fan of snakes so I think I would be a little wary of meeting one that big! Fascinating creatures but I would have to stand a very respectful distance away from him/her!! You know... Close to the nearest exit...! 😁

I haven't seen this and I'm not sure it airs in the UK. Might see if I can find some clips online.

Your aviary is amazing! So happy that you managed to get it built despite all the hiccups along the way. I would have loved to build mine off the back of the house but unfortunately the layout of the house and garden didn't suit. So I am going to have fun and games convincing Alfie to get in his travel cage each time I was to get him out there. He likes to give me the run around before eventually relenting and getting in it. 🙄 I'm not sure what to suggest about the neighbours. I wonder if you could invite both neighbours over to discuss the issues and work out a plan with them? Like you say, perhaps work on a timetable when the birds can be outside of that's at all possible? Depends how unreasonable they are I guess. I would hope they would come round to the idea if they know you are willing to work round them at much as is reasonably possible (obviously without too many restrictions on your birds playtime!) Ironically enough Alfie is pretty quiet compared to most birds so I haven't had complaints. I reckon I'd get a complaint about my two Bengal cats before I got a complaint about Alfie. They are extremely vocal cats and also very loud!

I would like to put some (small) trees or plants into the aviary I have in my garden. I saw some fruit trees/bushes at a local garden centre recently but wasn't sure if the branches and leaves were safe. They had a selection of blueberry, gooseberry, redcurrant and blackberry. Are any of these toxic to birds? (Branches leaves and/or fruit?) The other thing I need to bear in mind is that the cats will be using the aviary too. And they will also happily chew/play with plants and trees. So I have to be careful that the plants aren't toxic to cats. Similarly, I want to put some tree logs/branches I there for the cats. But need to find something that's suitable for both the cats and Alfie. I have done a few searches but it's difficult to narrow down what might be safe for both..and of course I find different information wherever I look. Is anyone able to make some recommendations about what is bird AND cat safe please?

Also... the cats definitely love going out there, even though we haven't finished sorting toys/enrichment for them yet. They were very jealous of Alfie being out there and were very vocal about it!! 😂 I might have to set up a rota for who goes out when at this rate!

He seemed to be enjoying himself today. I'm hoping that will continue the more he gets to go out there. He was out there for nearly 7 hours in the end. I made sure to provide plenty of shade as it was a particularly hot day (for us, anyway) and he doesn't spend much time outside. He investigated three toys- the bridge, one of the boings and a swing. He also discovered the bark edging on the front of one of the shelves and started shredding that. All in all, I think it has been a success and I think he liked it.

Well today has been an adventure for Alfie! We have had some glorious weather this weekend so I decided to get Alfie out into the aviary for the first time. (The cats have had their fun earlier this weekend) It might have taken me two and half hours to coax him into the travel cage.... (he was being a stubborn thing today and didn't want to play ball!) but it was totally worth it. After two hours of sitting on top of the travel cage inside the aviary and taking everything in, Alfie is now happily exploring the aviary and his new toys. He is now even making the odd vocalisation - mostly directed at the neighbours' noisy dog. He barked back at it and then whistled to it. 😂 I am so grateful that Alfie takes to changes so well. I'm sure other birds would have taken ages to come out and explore. I think 2 hours is pretty damn good.

Yeah no doubt Alfie will find his way up there too. I'll probably position food/water up there so it's easy for him to get too. We deliberately bought the wood with the bark on the edges so he has something to destroy too, so again it's multipurpose for Alfie and the cats.

Both cats went out in the aviary for a few minutes when I got home from work as it was sunny and warm enough for them. Unfortunately it started to rain soon after so I had to bring them back inside again as they didn't appreciate getting wet and I didn't want to rock the boat too much as they were obviously a little on edge. Although they are getting along fine in the house now they were a bit creeped out by being in there together and didn't get much chance to settle before I had to bring them back inside. Wish the weather would make it's mind up! It's been sunny all day but as soon as I got them out there a big grey cloud formed and it keeps raining on and off. It's a bit too cold to let Alfie out at the moment but the weather forecast looks good for this weekend. Fingers crossed that I can finally get him out there to see what he thinks! I missed a golden opportunity last week because I was ill when we had some really warm weather so I hope I get the chance to let him try it out this weekend.

Really sorry to hear about this. Thank goodness everyone came out of it ok. A house fire is one of my worst nightmares so I can only imagine what you must have been through. I hope Sterling Gris comes round in his own time. It was one heck of an ordeal so it's no surprise that it has rocked the boat and caused some distress. Hopefully he will get back to his old self eventually though.

Thank you for your continued efforts