neoow

I much prefer this place to facebook groups or whatever else. I do have a twitter account for Alfie but it's more just for fun and showing his antics rather than seeking serious help/advice. Facebook groups are hard to keep up with and generally there are always some grumpy/mean people who judge quickly and are less than helpful. I don't post in the groups I'm a member of, I just keep half an eye out in case I see something useful or interesting. This forum holds a wealth of knowledge from many people who have dedicated to posting time throughout the years. I have learned so much from this place and I am forever grateful for it's existence and for those who keep it running. I check in regularly but unfortunately don't always have much to say!

I feel if I touched Alfie's toes or beak I might lose a finger. 😄 He is very much his own bird and I can only scratch his head when he lets me or wants me to. I managed to get a good few head scritches in earlier this week but then yesterday he was back to rotating his head out of the way and looking at me as if to ask what the heck I thought I was doing. Yet when he sees my mum he just melts. I love that they have a relationship but I am also fairly envious at the same time! 😂

Yeah I can imagine losing all the feathers at once would be pretty shocking! I panicked with just these four! Thankfully though, all is good is Alfie's world and I was being paranoid. 😄

How is Muńeca settling in, @SRSeedBurners?

Welcome back! So good to hear from you! Sorry you have had a bad run of it with the illness but glad you're feeling better now! I love hearing what HRH Inara gets up to. Her speech and use of language always amazes me. Alfie is mostly a non-talker apart from a few odd words and phrases. He much prefers sounds and noises, especially whistling. I think he also prefers male voices as he seems to pick up words from male voices much easier than female ones... but unfortunately there are no males in the house! I know what you mean when you talk about worrying what will happen to our birds if anything should happen to us. At the moment I don't have a solid plan for Alfie. None of my family or friends are interested enough to take him on. Some are petrified of him. I was hoping maybe my nephew would take a liking to animals and particularly Alfie but unfortunately he's not interested at all. Although my sister is really scared of him so she definitely wouldn't appreciate my nephew bringing him home!! 😂 At the moment I think the only option would be to pass him to a sanctuary if anything happened to me. It's that or a rescue organisation who could rehome him.

Alfie is one of those birds who rarely, if ever, draws blood. The only time he has ever drawn blood is when he got my mum in the ear and on the nose when he was a baby. I'm thankful for that, because even with no blood he can hurt and leave a mark when he wants to! The only time I've been bitten recently is when he was playing on his shelf trying to push his big wooden crate off the shelf (on to my head) so I sat on the sofa with a hand on the box to keep it on the shelf. Alfie figured out that I was the reason why his box wasn't moving, climbed on to the box, shuffled round the edge then leant down and bit me on the finger. It didn't hurt as it wasn't a proper bite- just a 'hey, get off my box'. But it caught me by surprise as I wasn't paying attention! 😁

They do like to keep us on our toes, don't they?! I'm so glad Dorian is fine- I would have been the same and would have panicked too. Alfie also gave me a scare recently- he loves shredding up cardboard boxes. I put a box on his shelf to destroy when he was out of the cage and he was busy working away on it. I didn't realise but he had climbed inside the box and was chewing it from the inside. He then managed to tip the box off the shelf... with him still inside it. The box landed next to me on the arm of the sofa - it had probably fallen a couple of feet with him flapping inside it. I paused for a split second as I wasn't sure if he'd injured himself or how best to get him out then very carefully lifted the box and put it on the sofa so he could climb out of the hole he had made. He was fine, thankfully. I checked him over and watched him like a hawk for a while to make sure there were no signs of injury. Thankfully he landed on the soft sofa instead of the hardwood floor! I now leave boxes in his cage where he can't fall anywhere and put old magazines/catalogues on his shelves to shred. At least he can't climb inside those!

Their favourite person can change over time. I have always been Alfie's main/sole caregiver but I'm not always his favourite person. He took a shine to one of my previous housemates and he absolutely loves my mum, despite the fact we don't live with her. He is fine with me because I'm the only person he lives with now, so I think he just puts up with and tolerates me. I can't give him head scritches like my mum does. He absolutely melts when we go and visit her. It's sickening. 😂 We went through a period of time when Alfie wouldn't step up for me and would bite instead. There had been a lot of changes and upheaval in the house around that time and I'd also decided to cut my hair short around the same time, so I think that irked him somewhat. A couple of times he flew to the back of my head just to bite me too. It put a real dent in our trust of each other so I had to take a big step back and go back to basics with him. I started target training and if I needed him to step up I'd use a perch, as I didn't have the confidence to present my hand/arm to him in case I got a bite. I found he has a love of pine nuts so they are reserved for training only- he doesn't get them in his food. We're doing so much better now. I can't remember the last time I got bitten because we have learned to trust each other again. If I ask him to step up he will now turn or step away if he's not ready instead of biting me. He knows I will respect his space and I will give him an option to say no to my request. I still can't give him head scritches very often... but I'll take it over being bitten any day! If your family are still keen to work with Lulu then they probably need to take a step back and stop putting themselves in a position where a bite may occur. If you know which treats she will do anything for then get your family to offer those instead of you- so that they become a bit more desirable. Lulu will probably always have a favourite person but with patience, training and tasty treats, she might come to realise that the rest of your family are ok too and stop biting. It might be best to get Lulu stepping up on a perch for family instead of hands/arms for a while. And they can use target training so they can interact with her and reward her- but from a safer distance where a bite is less likely to occur. It's really important that each of your family members are confident and calm when interacting with Lulu. If they are nervous or scared then she'll pick up on that. So like others have said, they might just need to take a bit more of a hands off approach for now and slowly start to work with Lulu to regain trust and build a relationship with her.

Yes they do seem to form their own opinions about different people. My biggest problem is finding people who are willing to put the effort in with him. He isn't overly socialised because most people I know are either scared of him or aren't interested!

That's why I gave it to him early, before Christmas. I was sure he would take a while to warm up to it. He gave it a bit of side eye on the first day then hopped right up the second day! Now whenever he plays on his shelves he'll have a little rummage around, climb in and start digging toys out.

Alfie still loves his granny. He will waddle over to her and sit and preen himself for ages (hence all the fluff and dander!) then will gently grab my mum's fingers and ask for scritches. If mum gets distracted by the TV and stops scratching his head he'll remind her that he's still there and that she has a job to do! 😂

I'm sure I have a defective grey, because he is not interested in almonds at all 😂 Most grey owners tell me that almonds are their grey's favourite treat but Alfie just flings them! He does seem to be enjoying it- especially the flinging toys at my head part- that's always his favourite game! Good idea though- I'll chuck some walnuts in there to encourage him to rummage around a bit more.

I did something a little different for Alfie's Christmas present this year. I normally get him a couple of new toys to hang in his cage. This year I decided to add a new toy to his shelves that he likes to play on in the living room... mainly to try and stop him chewing on the wall! I found an untreated wooden box and stuffed it full of crinkly paper, wood chips and foot toys. It's been a big hit and after a bit of side-eye Alfie hopped up and started exploring. He has great fun rustling through the box and finding toys to fling out of it... most of them usually land on the sofa below... or on my head if I'm sitting there. 😂

I'm late to the party but I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I know plans might have been changed last minute (mine certainly were!) but I hope you still got to celebrate and enjoy Christmas as best as possible. Hope all your birds were all spoiled rotten, as they should be! 😄 I got an untreated wooden box for Alfie and filled it with crinkly paper, wood chips and lots and lots of foot toys. I gave it to Alfie before Christmas to give him chance to get used to it. He seems to like it and will hop in and start digging around. He'll then start launching toys out of the box with gusto!

Here it is... photographic proof of Alfie willingly eating a piece of carrot. It might have been the smallest beak sized piece in the world... but he actually willingly bit into a piece of carrot that I offered him and ate it, instead of immediately flinging it back at me. He then went on to eat a few more teeny tiny pieces. AND he was willing to try and pea and a couple of pieces of broccoli too... although he wasn't so keen on either of those. It is a constant battle to try and get this guy to eat healthier foods. I'll hold my hands up and admit that I wasn't very good at trying him with different foods when he was young so that's probably why he's so picky. There was a lot less information around on keeping parrots back then and not as much information available online as there is now, so he is a bit of a seed junkie. I make sure he doesn't get sunflower seeds or peanuts and I mix dried fruit and veggies and occasionally some nuts into his main food mix. Then I offer up fresh veggies cooked or prepared in various ways. He liked mashed potato and I managed to get him on mashed sweet potato with some veggies finely chopped and mixed in for a while but then he started rejecting that too. I've tried every pellet available over the years too... although he has just started to try his tops and roudy bush pellets recently... after having them served up for months on end. 😂 One thing that's helped is that he's recently become interested in what I do in the kitchen when I'm preparing dinner. So I set a chair nearby so he can perch on the back of it and see what I'm up to. Then I offer him what I'm preparing- anything that's safe for him to have I'll offer to him. He mostly ignored me for the longest time but I noticed he's getting more and more curious. Sometimes he would poke what was offered and sometimes he'd pick it up and immediately drop it. More recently he has taken a couple of bites... he ate a bit of chilli pepper the other month and seemed to like it. Most veggies were pretty much immediately rejected though- especially things like carrot and broccoli. Yesterday though he was in his cage and so I offered him some carrot, a pea and some broccoli and to my surprise he took all three, gave them a good poking with his tongue and then actually ate some. He seemed to like the carrot and although the pieces he bit off were very small, he did eat them and come back for more. He did chew up some broccoli but I'm not convinced he ate any and he dropped the next piece I offered. And he ate a bit of the pea but rejected the next one offered. I praised him loads for just trying the foods though, as this is a big step forward. So... for anyone with a picky eater... keep trying! I'm fairly certain that if I offer him carrot again today it'll probably get flung straight back at me again... but I shall persevere as always!

Aw that's great news! Thanks for the update.

Alfie has a second cage in my office so he can come and hang out with me whilst I work from home. He also has a java tree on my desk and a shelf he likes to play on so I sometimes let him out if I don't have too many calls. He's not normally that noisy. Sometimes he'll beat the snot out of his toys which clang against the side of the cage but that's probably as bad as it gets. I might get the odd whistle or noise from him but he's mostly quiet. He's noisier if he's downstairs and I'm upstairs in the office. I have noise cancelling headphones and they are wonderful. I used them a lot at my previous job to help block out the sound of a colleague who was very noisy!

Happy hatch day, Corky!

Happy hatch day!

Alfie rarely steps up to come out of his main/big cage. I open the door and let him come out on his own. Some days he immediately climbs out, other times he'll eye me up suspiciously before climbing out. I think he probably tries to work out whether it's play time or whether I'm going to take him upstairs because I'm either working from home or want to put him in his travel cage. (If his travel cage is in the same room he definitely won't come out!) He has a second cage upstairs so he can come and join me when I work from home, just so we can keep each other company. He will always step up to come out of that cage. He's still a little wary of the play top so on the odd occasion that I do let him climb out he'll generally try and get to me anyway as he doesn't want to climb to the top of his cage. If I do ask him to step up from his main cage then he'll either do the same thing as Vim where he asks for head scratches, he'll gently push my hand or the wooden dowel I'm using away or he'll lean back on his perch to indicate there's no way he's stepping up for anything. It's really rare for him to step up to come out of that cage- but it does happy once in a blue moon!

Greys can be pretty change adverse, so the fact Vim has just been lifted from an environment she knows, put in a new strange house with new people- it's a LOT to take in for a grey. She needs to get used to her new surroundings, her new home, her new flock, her new routine etc etc. So she might be a little wary and frightened to begin with. But once she settles and gets used to everything she'll come round. The most important thing you can do is respect her space and her feelings. Take things at her pace and if she seems uncomfortable or scared, just take a step back, tell her it's ok and let her calm down and adjust. If you try and force a grey to do something they're not comfortable with then they'll either try and move away or if they feel they don't have a choice they'll bite to try and make you go away. It sounds like you're doing all the right things so far. It may take a little while to win her round but it'll be so worth it when you do. 🙂

I wouldn't recommend the fluffy huts- too many stories of birds picking at the hems/fabric and ingesting it. I wouldn't want to risk it personally.

I can't give much advice about potty training as I've never tried it. I have read that some people have had difficulties where their bird will try and hold it in until given the command to go though, which can be bad for them. However it's easy enough to clean up. You can put paper under playstands etc to catch most of it. They do tend to have their favourites and will interact with people in different ways. If she is biting your daughter then I would get her to take a step back for a while. Get her to read stories to him and interact from a distance for a short while. You could also try introducing some training and get your daughter to provide the best/favourite rewards. Target training is probably the easiest one to start with- where the bird touches the end of a stick on command and gets a reward for it. (It has to be a gentle touch, not a bite).

Hello Muńeca! She's a pretty little thing! I barely know anything at all about her species. Hopefully she comes round soon and settles in nicely with the rest of your flock! Good to hear about Murfchk as well!

Hopefully it's a phase and will pass. Alfie goes through stages of regurgitating for me and sometimes he'll start as soon as I walk in and say good morning. I usually tend to tell him he's being silly and that I'll leave him to cool off for a few minutes and leave the room. I'm glad it's never got to the stage that Dorian has. I have noticed that Alfie is now chewing a box then going inside it, which is new. Usually he just destroys the box and turns it into confetti from the outside. But the last few boxes he's been chewing holes then standing inside them. He doesn't seem to do anything inside, other than maybe chew them a bit more. And as soon as he catches me looking at him he runs back out.