neoow

I got Alfie when I was 17 (20 years ago!) and I still worry that he could potentially outlive me. I don't currently have anyone that would willingly take him on. My sister has always been terrified of him. I hoped my nephew might take an interest and therefore be a candidate when he's older (and no longer living at home!) but I'm not sure he's particularly interested in animals. He's only 9 atm so that may change I guess. I'd much prefer to know where Alfie was going to end up- e.g with someone I know and trust. But I may have to rely on a sanctuary or a rescue and trust that they can do right by him instead. Euthanasia isn't on my radar as an option for Alfie. I understand why others may consider it so there's no judgement there.

Oh gosh, I'm so sorry to read this. 😕 I hope the police are involved and I really hope you get him back home as soon as possible.

Haha oh Greycie, you do make me chuckle!

Inara did check in a while back

As Greytness already mentioned- it is molting season! The white dander/floofy feahers are normal, especially after a big preening session. Alfie often sits on my knee and covers me in dust and floofs as he preens himself. Feather barbering or plucking would result in broken or damaged feathers and in the worst cases sometimes a bit of blood if they pluck a feather that's still growing in. You would start to notice bald patches appearing over time too.

Hello and a belated welcome to the forums! There are still a small handful of us around who check in regularly. It's great that you managed to find some previous posts/information about Timmy here! This place is such a great place for information and help but like you say, forums in general are all a bit slow these days. I personally much prefer this format than the likes of facebook groups that I lurk in. However life does often take over and I find it difficult to be as active as I used to be.

I'm pretty sure that's his go to response for everything I do!! 😂

20230101_204231.mp4 Alfie showing off his wave. Excuse the pine nut crumbs on the blanket- we'd been practicing colours shortly before this!

All looks good to me!

Have just donated via paypal. Thanks for all that you do, Kevin.

Ooo that looks amazing! Bet your birds love it!

Tyrion is a lovely looking grey! Welcome back to the forums! Do you have multiple birds? (Just spotted the two cages in the background)

Happiest hatchday to GreycieMae! Love the photos

Great work Huey! You keep that human workerbee in check!

I only started training a couple of years back. Alfie wasn't my biggest fan at the time so it helped us work together and regain some trust from each other. I must admit I've slacked off recently and we haven't done much training at all, but he still remembers everything he learned previously.

Haha sounds like she might have trained you instead of the other way round!! 😂

20221023_205345.mp4 Did a bit of training with Alfie this evening as admittedly I've been slacking on that side of things recently. We worked on "touch", "wave" and "spin". For the touch command, he just needs to touch the chopstick with his beak. He tends to grab it- but so long as it's gentle then I'll accept it. For wave he just needs to lift his foot up. I would normally cue this with a hand gesture as well but I had my hands full with the clicker and the phone, so I think that's why he was more hesitant on this occasion. And for the spin I just want him to rotate round on the spot. I'd normally do this one on a perch, but he seemed to get the hang of it just fine on the flat surface. I need to start adding recall training back into the mix as I haven't been doing this in a structured way recently. Alfie tends to pick and choose when he's going to recall and when he's going to stay put. Sometimes he opts to fly to me then go over my head or round me at the last minute. I'm hoping I'll get better results if I start doing more structured training sessions with him again.

What's yours is hers 😄

Happiest hatchday to you, Talon! 17 years young!

Yep, that's it exactly! Oof, sorry to hear about the holiday/hurricane. I saw a few videos and read some stories about it. Having never experienced a hurricane myself, it looked absolutely terrifying.

Yeah absolutely! 😂 Normally if I offer an arm and he doesn't want to step up he'll turn his head or walk away. This time he just sat still and stared at it. I should have known better and fetched the dowel at that point instead of asking a second time. I won't make that mistake again! Yes indeed- I was obviously getting too comfortable around him to anticipate the bite. We've been getting on so well recently and I honestly can't remember the last time he bit me like that. So it caught me by surprise! He didn't break the skin thankfully but I've got a lovely big bruise appearing. I tried to remain quiet but did let out an 'ouch!' when he grabbed the second time, as he got me in the same place twice and put so much pressure on. After that I said absolutely nothing to him until he was back in his cage and I'd tidied up the lounge. Then I wandered over and had a chat with him about my 'mistake' of daring to ask him to step up on my arm when he wanted to step up on the perch and how he didn't need to bite- could have just turned away instead like normal. If any non-bird owners ever heard me I'm sure they'd think I'd lost the plot! 😂

Things have been going really well with Alfie for months. We went through a spell where Alfie didn't really tolerate me much any more and my confidence was knocked so I was super wary of him for a time. We have worked on that through lots of training and times spent together and I feel we now have a much better understanding and mutual respect of each other. On top of this- Alfie now flies to me to sit with me for loooaaads of head scritches - just like his does with my mum when we go visit my parents. Plus I can scritch his head through the cage bars again without worrying about him lunging at me. Buuut every so often I have to be reminded of who exactly is boss round here! 😂 Yesterday it was getting late so I wanted to put Alfie back in his cage so I could go to bed. He was sitting on a basket which is part of the cats' scratching tree (I should note: the cats are kept out of the way in the upper half of the house when Alfie is out of his cage). I offered my arm and asked Alfie to step up. He didn't move- but he didn't turn away or walk away from my arm. So I left it there, waited a moment and asked him to step up again. He doesn't always step up on my arm/hand but will usually always step up on a spare dowel perch I have kicking around. So I was debating about grabbing that instead of using my arm as that's usually more successful. Before I could move, Alfie decided I'd obviously pushed my luck, put one foot on my arm then grabbed my wrist as hard as get could. As he was half on/half off I just had to ride it out. He loosened off then grabbed again even harder. It hurt like heck but again I just had to ride it out cos he wasn't fully on my arm. He then let go and put the second foot on my arm. So I didn't say anything, moved over to his cage, waited for him to step up on to the perch in his cage then closed the door. Didn't say a word, just went about tidying up the lounge area. The little bugger sat there waiting patiently for his pine nuts that he normally gets for a good step up and for going back into his cage 😂 Needless to say, he did not get rewarded for that behaviour! Amazingly he didn't break the skin but I have quite a big welt on my wrist and it's very sore to touch. I haven't received a bite like that for a long time, so I almost forgot how painful it can be... to both the bite location and my ego!! 😂 It was my own fault- I should have removed the arm sooner and offered the perch instead. Apparently his lord highness Alfie prefers the perch! That's me told! 😁

Wooo, Huey's got some mooooves! 💃

Good grief. I got Alfie at 11/12 weeks old and I paid around £800 but that included his cage, toys, food and everything I needed for him. I think he was probably about £400-450. I think last time I asked about the price for a grey over this side of the pond it was about £2000 but I suspect that might be more now.

Oh he was definitely hamming it up! 😂