neoow

Congrats!! He is bound to be really scared. That's perfectly normal. He's just been uprooted from everything he knows by a strange person and has been put into a new environment. Give him some time, let him settle in. Let him get used to you and anyone else being in the household. Talk to him as much as possible so he gets used to your voice. Try not to force him to do anything until he's ready to do it. He will soon come round and realise you're not a threat. Have your thought of any names?

I do love your videos

Good luck bringing your new grey home! We'd love to see some photos once she's all settled

Lovely new photos! May 23rd- 2 weeks!!

Hahahaha oh dear- that second photo does look pretty serious!

I have to do similar with Alfie. He sometimes decides that he doesn't want to step up (particularly if it's to be put back into his cage) and I have to grab a perch to get him to step up on. Otherwise, I get several beak shaped marks on my hands and arms! With the perch, he will give it a few bites and will either give up and step up or will run around the top of his cage to do his best to get away from me/the perch. Eventually he'll give up and either step up or will fly on to me. If it works, it works. I think they sometimes just want to test the boundaries... or that they just wake up on the wrong side of the perch!!

Nothing wrong with a rehome at all- I was just curious. Though getting a baby grey would be a bit different from an older/rehome bird because an older bird would already have a lot of routines and learned behaviours and it may be a little trickier to get them to adapt to a new home/people/routines etc because of that. There is a whole heap of information available on these forums. I still find out useful information here and I've had Alfie for 12 years!

Hello Trevor, welcome to the forums! Have you met your little girl yet? Do you know how old she is? Is she a baby or a rehome? I'd recommend finding out as much about her as possible- particularly if she's a rehome- before you bring her home.

I often get a morning chorus from Alfie. He runs through a lot of his favourite sounds and words for about half an hour or so. Sometimes it goes on for longer. This is the best time for me to listen out for new sounds/words as he tends to practice them a lot during this time. He doesn't scream though. He's never really screamed...thankfully!

Welcome, Zoe's mum! Not long to go now!!

Haha that's hilarious! They do try it on, don't they!

That's awesome! You don't need to apologise for being excited and posted about it. I love reading posts like this! This kind of excitement will go on for years and years. Alfie never ceases to amaze me with the new things he picks up or does. And I've had him for 12 years!

Awesome, thanks everyone! From the little I've read recently, I believe females can be a bit more of a handful and are prone to being a bit hormonal- much like how birdhouse described Kura. I believe they can be prone to displaying nesting behaviours- so might try and hole up somewhere in the house if the mood strikes them. I remember Reggie's feathers being totally different than Alfies. He was a bit of a mess when the store took him in- very messy feathers. But once he had settled, had his diet sorted and was getting socialized they neatened back up again and he was a gorgeous looking bird as well as super soft to touch. He was always really friendly (even though he hadn't spent much time with humans) and VERY curious. Always wanted to take a look (and a nibble) of whatever we had for lunch! I just hope he has a happy, healthy life with the family that took him. The information from greywings was really interesting. Their colours makes a lot of sense when you talk about their roles. I'll look out for the posts about Sully too.

Afternoon all, I just wondered if anyone here owned an Eclectus as well as their grey? Or had experience with them? I was curious to know a bit more about them, is all. I've read a bit about them but just wanted to hear some stories from someone who had experience with them or owned one. I used to work in a pet store (which is where I met my first African Grey and what set me on the path to owning one) and we took on an Eclectus for a while because another store wasn't looking after him properly. He was in a right state, poor thing. His feathers were all tatty and messed up and he wasn't really used to people. A few of us (including me) spent a lot of time working with him on our breaks. We'd take him out of his cage on our lunch breaks and socialise with him and give him fresh fruits and veg etc. He was a fantastic little guy and if I didn't already have Alfie, I would have taken him home with me! His name was Reggie and I sometimes wonder how he's doing all these years later. Once he was used to people and was looking much healthier and happier the store sold him to a family. We actually refused to sell him to a few different people because they didn't know what they were doing and we didn't trust them to look after him. (The last thing we wanted was for him to come back to us). I'm not planning on getting a second bird. (I don't have the space for another cage!!) I was just interested to know a bit more about a different breed.

Aw man we have nothing like that over here (that I'm aware of). I've found an awesome online store where I get all of Alfie's stuff from but that's about the only place I've found that stocks anything useful!

No worries! I didn't take offence or anything at all! Was just trying to explain what I meant a little more clearly.

Wow, look how big she's getting! It's amazing how quickly they develop! Any idea when you might be bringing her home? I'm so excited for you!

He can make a chicken noise- I didn't pick it up in the latest video but I believe he has made it in one of the previous ones on this thread. It's normally a "bok bok bok bok" kind of noise. My housemate taught him to make duck and chicken noises and I've started trying to teach him "what noise does a duck make" and "what noise does a chicken make" to try and associate the noise with the question. We're getting there! I think it's brilliant that he's trying to learn the question as well as the noise! I LOVE Sully's beatboxing noises! Especially the 'wakka wakka' bits! They get me every time!

It's going to be above but slightly to the left of it. Don't want him to bop his head on it whilst he's on the tree! I also need to be able to reach it and there's a gap between the desk and his cage which I can use to get to it from, without having to pull things off the desk. Alfie has never had an orbit before but he didn't seem phased when I showed it to him. I even held it up where I was planning on putting it and he wasn't bothered at all. So hopefully he'll take to it. It might be that he'll be able to use the orbit to climb from his cage to his tree as well- I'm not sure if the gap will be too big or not.

Ah yeah, he's had it for quite a few years now. I have to take him to the vet to keep it maintained. Unfortunately the first time I noticed that it needed doing I took him to a more local avian vet who gassed him to do it. He also didn't do a particularly good job of it and it seemed to grow out worse after that. Since then I've taken him to a vet that's in the next town (only about half an hours drive away if the traffic is good) who is much better at handling Alfie and he doesn't gas him. I think he said they use some kind of water drill for it? Alfie gets a bit damp from it but generally he's not too bothered by it and will be whistling and chirping on the way home. I don't know if it's particularly common for parrots to have wonky beaks like Alfie's or if Alfie was just unlucky that his grew out like that. I'm not sure there's much else I can do other than keep taking him to the vets to keep it in check. It doesn't seem to bother Alfie at all though. He can eat, drink and chew just fine and still uses it to get around ok. He has lots of different perches made from various materials which he can rub it on and that mostly keeps it in check- but I still have to take him to the vet every so often.

It's ok, they have a lot better play stands on your side of the pond. I've only managed to find a couple of different types here (which are quite pricey!) but you guys seem to have all sorts of cool stuff for birds!

Thanks! It's the Liberta Enterprise if I remember correctly. I got it a few years back when I had a bit more space to play with. It now sits in the centre of my lounge/dining room (which actually houses my computer and piano rather than a dining table) so he's in the middle of everything.

Looks fantastic!

Beautiful video. I love watching free flighted birds. It's not something I'd be able to try myself as there are no big open safe spaces nearby and Alfie hasn't been free-flight trained. But I still love watching other people's videos. There's a channel I subscribed to on Youtube recently called birdtricks. They own an assortment of parrots (including a Grey) and create lots of informative videos on parrot ownership. They also go across the country finding awesome places to fly their birds and take professional videos of them. Their videos are amazing. I believe they also do shows with some of their parrots.

I bought Alfie a java tree a while back. It was a desk based one (rather than one of the massive floor standing ones) so I could move it around. Most of the time it ended up on the coffee table- but Alfie much prefers to sit on my knee when I'm on the sofa rather than his tree so he can get some fuss and explore. So I decided that if I got a bigger computer desk I might be able to fit the java tree on it and give Alfie a place to play which was close to me whilst I was on the PC. I finally had the spare money to get one and managed to find one at IKEA which was reasonably priced and the perfect size for my computer bits PLUS Alfie's Java tree. So now when I'm on my computer, he can some and sit with me and and keep an eye on what I'm doing. So far, so good. Alfie will happily sit and watch what I'm doing (and offer the odd "hello!") whilst I'm at my PC. He still has his previous "perch" which is actually the back of my computer chair and so he's been alternating between the two. But the tree in it's new position is his favourite place to be when I'm at my PC. I also purchased a wall bracket and a orbit rope toy and these are going to go up this week hopefully (waiting on my housemate as I don't trust myself with power tools!). I'm going to hang it near to his java tree so he can reach it and hang out up there too.