neoow

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! 😂

I took Alfie to a professional photographer a few weeks back. I wasn't really sure how Alfie would react so I took a portable perch that he's familiar with. He settled in really quickly and was soon posing away for the camera! He was even happy to step on the arm of a stool that the photographer had. I'm really happy with the results and am trying to pick which one to have printed to go on the wall.

I'm afraid I don't have any experience with a plucker either. Alfie over-preens himself sometimes so the paler feathers underneath his wings usually look a little tatty. But thankfully he's never developed into a plucker. I only know what I've read and learned from others. It can be a hard thing to break and can start/be caused by a number of things. Illness, boredom, stress, nutrition. You might find that with the new home and good food/lots of attention etc that she starts to improve and lets her feathers grow back in. But it can also take a minor event to send her right back to the plucking habit. A night fright, something spooking her during the day, changes in the household etc. I know it can be really frustrating to watch them start plucking again- especially after a period of improvement. It's important not to let your bird pick up on your disappointment or frustration if they pluck, as this can easily exacerbate the situation. Greys are very empathetic and can pick up on how you're feeling. Preening and shredding toys may help. And foraging toys too. Keeping her mind busy might help if the plucking isn't illness related. Greys in the wild spend hours foraging for food whereas when they live with us they get it served up on a silver platter (well... near enough!). So if you know what some of her favourite treats are, you could hide some in pieces of paper so she has to work for them. You can get foraging toys too which she has to work out how to open to get the treat. I have a wooden box filled with crinkly paper and lots of different foots toys that Alfie likes to dig around in. I sometimes put a piece of walnut in there for him to find when he's throwing all the toys around.

Yeah both wings dropped with a clucking kind of noise is normally when they're getting a little over excited and lovey dovey- usually followed up by regurgitation as I see you've found out! Oof yeah, sounds like she came from a rough situation. Glad she's settling in well with you though. It won't take long before you can't remember life without her!

Interesting, I've not seen that before. When Alfie droops his wings he does both at the same time- and it's usually when he's feeling particularly amorous and is going to regurgitate. I've never seen him drop one wing at a time like that. Does she always do it when she's on one foot? Or does she do it at other times too? Is it only on a specific perch/place? I'm wondering if greytness is right and it's a way of balancing herself. Does she make any noise when she holds her wing like that? Or does her breathing change/become more noticeable?

Hello Jeremy and welcome to the forums! Thank you for taking on a rescue grey. Looks like she's settling in nicely already! There is a wealth of information already on these forums so have a dig around to see what you can find. But feel free to ask questions too. It's a little quieter around here than it used to be but there are still a few of us kicking around that will help as best as we can. 🙂