neoow

Oh wow, that's amazing. I think Alfie would probably just throw the spoon at my head. Or maybe throw it across the room and expect me to fetch it for him so he can do it again.

Timbersmom summed it up perfectly- a lot of greys do not like change and it can take them some time to adapt. Each grey is different. I've heard stories of grey's who wouldn't accept their owners because they were wearing glasses, or changed their hair... though those are probably more extreme cases. In regards to toys, I always show Alfie any new toys from a distance. I normally buy a few toys at a time so I take each one out of the box and hold it up for him to see (from a distance). I then see how he reacts before moving a bit closer with it. If he's feeling brave then he may 'beak' it to check it out(touch the toy with his beak). Or if he's unsure he will back off. I always try and sound excited when showing him new things, especially if he is unsure. This has resulted in Alfie learning to go 'OoooOooo!'. Now when he's unsure of something and checking it out he says 'OoooOoo!' because thats the noise I make when trying to get him to look at something new. You have to do things at a pace your parrot is comfortable with. I am lucky because Alfie will accept things reasonably quickly. I normally leave new toys laying around the room for a few days and move them closer and closer until he's ready for them to go in his cage. Sometimes I have to hang them outside the cage for a day or two before he's happy it's not going to kill him!

More snow incoming this evening and tomorrow. Hmpff!

I've been planning to have some kind of outside enclosure for Alfie for a long time. My dad helped me all summer sorting out my garden and redesigning it and we created an area where an aviary could fit. I had to wait until now before I could actually order the aviary as there was no point buying it right before winter as it would sit there unused for most of it. I knew I had a week off work this week so I ordered it in time to be delivered on Monday. Then the snow hit... This was the snow from yesterday. It's deeper today. So now I have a stack of panels in the middle of the garden waiting to be built. The weather forecast looks pretty rotten for the rest of the week with more snow yet to come. I will post photos once we are able to actually get out there a build it. Then the fun part comes... finding toys and perches to fill it with! It's going to be dual use- for Alfie and the cats (not at the same time for obvious reasons...!) so I'll need to find some things for the cats to climb on and play with as well. It will be located at the back of the garden, behind the garage on the right. It will then overlook the whole garden and the back of the house but will get some shade in the afternoons.

I'm glad you found it helpful! Keep asking questions and keep reading the forums. Everyone here will be happy to help. Answers might be slow as we are a little quiet around here at times but there are many knowledgeable members here who WILL help when they see your posts.

The last vet's comments weren't very helpful because, as you mentioned, sunlight through a window won't do much good at all. Avian sun lights are a good investment if your bird is not going to be able to go outside much/at all.

Hi again Erfan I already mentioned 'grey time' in my previous response to one of your threads. There is a really good thread on these forums which is worth a read: It is a long thread (70+ pages!) but goes into a lot of detail about Katana's experiences with bringing an African grey parrot home and learning all about what 'grey time' is and means. This thread is well worth a read and may help you with your bird. Everyone here is extremely helpful and supportive and there is a wealth of information on these forums about how to look after and care for your new addition. As I mentioned before the best thing to do is to step back a bit and give your grey some time to adjust to the new surrounding and environment. Keep calm and be patient. It will be a learning process for you both!

Alfie learned how to yell my name in my dad's voice recently because my dad was helping out in the garden and kept calling me when he needed a hand or wanted something. It caught me out the first time as I thought my dad was back in my house calling me!

Alfie doesn't want to know me until he has demolished all of his boxes Perhaps I should start getting creative and make something like this as well to give him a bit of variety in what he has to shred!

I've just responded to your other thread which looks like a copy of this one, but I'll paste my response here in case the other gets removed for any reason: Hello and welcome to the forums! There is a lot of information already available that may help you out with this. First off, you have a wild animal. More so, your bird was taken from the wild, away from other birds and stuffed in amongst humans. This is a MAJOR change for any animal to adapt to. I'm not sure of the history of the bird but you have only known him/her for 14 days. That's nothing at all. Your bird is not like a dog or a cat. Parrots are not domesticated animals and therefore they will not readily accept humans like a dog or a cat might. The process of getting your bird to trust you enough to accept you will be a long and winding road with lots of ups and downs along the way. What you'll quickly learn along the way is that African grey's operate in their own time. Around here, we call it "grey time". 14 days in "grey time" is nothing. It could take weeks and months for your grey to adapt the changes that have happened recently. You cannot force a grey to do anything it doesn't want to do. You have to let the grey work in it's own "grey time" as every bird is unique and will adapt and learn in it's own unique way. At the moment, you need to take a step back and view things from the parrots perspective. Slow it right down. Don't try and force the parrot to do anything that's out of his/her comfort zone. Obviously you need to feed and water the parrot but other than that all interactions should be done from a distant where you parrot does not scream and growl. Talk to the parrot, read books out loud in ear shot of the parrot. Let them get used to your voice and slowly get used to your physical presence. Everything should be kept calm and controlled. No sudden noises or movements where possible. Always work at the birds pace and watch and learn to know when the bird is comfortable or scared/angry. For example, my grey has known my current housemate since 2011. It has taken them that long to bond to a point where they can interact with each other. To be fair, my housemate also needed his own "grey time" to adapt to living with a parrot, but it took months of interactions between them before my grey trusted my housemate enough to sit on his knee and accept fuss from my housemate like he does with me. There will be other members who can add a lot more than I can about this and will be able to advise better than I ever could. However, in the meantime I would recommend you take a look around the forums and threads that already exist to learn more about your bird. They are truly remarkable animals and the smallest breakthrough will seem like you've just won the lottery. It is worth the patience and perseverance!

Alfie is not much of a talker. He prefers sounds (and the more obnoxious, the better as far as he is concerned!!). But he will fixate on certain noises for a while, so I don't think it's unusual. At the moment he does a whistle which sounds a little like R2D2 from star wars. He loves that one right now. But next week it might be a squeak or some other noise.

Sorry to hear you are in pain again. Sending best wishes for a speedy recovery!

I don't have a dining table and it's just myself and my housemate so we typically eat on the sofa/armchair. Alfie isn't really interested in our food. If he's out he's normally too busy playing or shredding boxes. Occasionally he will join us on the sofa or sit on our knees. He rarely shows as interest in whats on the plate or anything that's offered to him off the plate though. If I did have a dining table then I'd probably have to be wary of glasses being knocked/pushed over or off the table I think. Alfie likes to throw things about so I could see him getting into mischief on a dinner table!

Haha aw bless him. Looks like he's having so much fun! Alfie loves cardboard too. I let him out of his cage the other day and he looked like he was going to fly to me. So I put my arm out and he flew straight at me... only to curve off at the last second to land on his shelf instead... where his cardboard box was....

I'm not sure if I have much useful advice to offer. I just wanted to say I'm sorry about the situation you're in as I can appreciate it's tough to know what to do for the best. Alfie is 14 years old and he will still give me a nip/bite if he's not happy about something. Over the years, I started to become scared of being bitten and worried about handling him. I think he picked up on this and it made the situation worse. It has taken us both a long time (years) to work through this together. He will still give me a nip if he's grumpy about something but I have worked on learning when and why I might receive a bite. I have also learned to approach Alfie with more confidence and this generally gets better results. That's not to say I am boisterous or try and pick him up when he doesn't want it. But I try and remain confident in my body language and my voice when handling him. It sounds stupid but it has helped. I find if I am nervous and Alfie picks up on it, he is more likely to bite because either he is nervous as well or he is pushing the boundaries (e.g trying to stay out past bed time!) Typically I know when I'm likely to receive a bite and I ride it out and talk through it. Nowadays they're not even that painful (except for the odd one) because I think he's realised he's not getting as much of a reaction. Alfie is also a 'no shoulder' bird. I do not trust him on my shoulder because he will not sit there for long before pulling at my hair or trying to get to my ears. That makes me uncomfortable because I cannot see what he is doing and I am worried that he may manage to catch my eye one day. So I persevere with the 'no shoulder' rule. When he lands to my arm he will try and make his way up it because he wants to sit on my shoulder so I put my other arm in the way. He will either step up onto that arm or he will move back to my forearm/wrist. Typically when I am sitting down he prefers to sit on my knee/leg anyway, which suits me just fine. Poppy is still very young and has a lot to learn. I'm afraid I don't have any useful suggestions for you but I hope you, the family and Poppy manage to find a way forward that works for you all.

This is a great idea but my kitchen is so small I don't have any room for any more gadgets.

Welcome back! I don't know how you multiple bird families cope. Alfie keeps me on my toes enough on his own!

Snapped a few photos of Alfie today. He looks like he is posing for them!

Haha you definitely caught her having a moment!

Looks good! I think I'm going to investigate this for Alfie. Judygram- do you cook/boil the veggies you buy before serving them to the birds?

Oh wow! Lucky Huey!

Hi all, I've seen a couple of mentions from different sources about dehydrated food for parrots. I read that someone was making their own dehydrated food so they knew where everything had come from and someone else had ordered some in. I've never really heard of this before (or paid it much attention) so I'm just curious about it. If you make or buy dehydrated food, how do you feed it to your birds? Do you feed it as is or do you have to soak it or cook it in some way before it's edible?

They look like they're having a blast together! Is Huey still a temporary resident or is he now there to stay?

I absolutely adore the relationship you have with Greycie. She certainly has you wrapped around her little talons!

It all looks so amazing. I'm so excited that I'm going to be putting an aviary out in my garden this year (when the weather gets a little warmer, that is!) I already have a cargo net and a rather large hanging bridge to put in there. I need to build up more supplies to put in there when it's done. It's going to be 12ft long by 6ft wide by 6ft tall. Have always wanted something like that for Alfie and now I'm finally going to be able to do it!