neoow

Alfie has all sorts of different perches in and out of his cage. Java, manzanita, rope, 'calcium'/cuttlebone/mineral, 'bee pollen'. I make sure they are varied in shapes and sizes so his feet get a good workout 😄 Weirdly, Alfie has never chewed his perches- even the edible calcium/cuttlebone ones.

Alfie would literally starve himself to death rather than eat something he didn't like. I've never had much luck with veggies or pellets. He is getting a bit better at trying new foods these days, but they often get dropped or flung within seconds.

Welcome to the forums!

Alfie sleeps in his regular cage in the living room. He doesn't have a cover because he always used to pull them off the cage overnight so I stopped using one as he clearly preferred not having one on! He'll pick a perch in his cage and sleep on that. I agree with Timbersmom and don't think a nesting box would be a good idea as it could potentially encourage hormonal/nesting behaviours.

I love that Corey is able to request this and guide you around the house. I'm struggling to think of things me and Alfie do as he's normally pretty independent and happy to amuse himself. He has shelves that he plays on above the sofa and will quite regularly throw toys at me from there. Sometimes we play a game where I throw a foot toy back on his shelf, he rushes after it and flings it straight back at me. He's a pretty good shot, too! I've been trying to teach him to respond to "what noise does a duck make?" and "what noise does a chicken make?". He knows how to quack and how to cluck but every time I ask him the question he gives me the wrong answer. I'm pretty sure he does this on purpose just to get my reaction as I'll say "nooo! A duck doesn't squeak, a duck goes quack quack!" He can say "what noise" (but not the rest of the sentence) too, which is cute. Last night I heard him practicing various words and noises and he sat there rehearsing the following: "What noise..." *quack quack* "What noise...." *cluck cluck* I KNEW he was deliberately giving me the wrong answers when I ask the question!! 😂

Sounds like nesting behaviour unfortunately.

Without seeing the behaviour it's hard to advise/judge what it might be. However it's possibly a hormonal behaviour- she might have been a bit over stimulated. Alfie drops his wings and makes some baby bird clucking noises when he gets a bit hormonal/randy. He keeps all his feathers down and his wings quiver and he steps from side to side whilst clucking. He usually ends up regurgitating. At the moment it usually happens in the morning whilst I'm getting ready for work. If he doesn't settle down I have to leave the room because I'm the trigger for it.

Ahh, no, definitely not crazy. You know your bird better than anyone. I guess I'm lucky in that Alfie doesn't mind hanging out in his cage so it works for the both of us. But I can now see why you'd be concerned with that approach for Corey!

Alfie loves boxes and will spend hours shredding them. He pays absolutely no attention to me if he has a good box to shred. Some people advise against giving boxes in case it promotes nesting behaviours but thankfully I've never had this issue with Alfie. You can mix it up as well, add some shredded paper or foot toys or trees to the box so she finds them as she shreds the box. Or like timersmom says, a box within a box within a box. The best box Alfie had was from a friend who had ordered some beers for his brother online. He donated the box they came in for Alfie to shred and it had cardboard partitions in to stop the beer bottles from clashing together during transit. Alfie thought all his Christmases and birthdays had come at once with that one. Decent crunchy cardboard with 12 small sections to get through- it kept him going for weeks! 🤣

Would they need to live at your house for the duration? Could your friend just pop in a few times a day instead? (distances allowing of course) When I had a lodger in my house and went on holiday my lodger would look after Alfie for me- however he would just change out the food and water, put the radio on and interact with Alfie through the cage bars. He wouldn't let him out of the cage because he wouldn't have been able to convince him to go back in and was too wary of being bitten to do so. However it meant Alfie stayed in familiar surroundings in his own cage and still had some social interaction with someone he knew during the week. Then once I got back he was allowed out of his cage again. I no longer have a lodger so Alfie would either have to go and stay with my parents house or I'd need friends/family to come and visit him if I was going away with my parents. Either way, he would stay in his cage and they would just do food/water/radio and interactions through the cage bars. Nobody I know would be willing to let him out. He is familiar with my parents house (grew up there and also visits with me regularly) so I'm personally happier with him being in familiar surroundings but not being allowed out of his cage than I would be with moving him to a new/strange location with new people and potentially being let out whilst there.

I live even further away- over the pond in the UK- so I'm useless to you! Are there any friends or family members that you could potentially train to care for Corey? If you're not going away until August then perhaps you could use this time to introduce them to Corey and get them used to his routine?

I've been battling with Alfie for 18 years to get him to eat healthier foods. I've offered him veggies in every which way you can think of and he turns his beak up every time. Or he'll look like he's starting to come round to the idea... then will refuse it completely a few days later. He loves mashed potatoes, so I tried him on sweet potato mash, which he ate, so I tried sneaking some chopped veggies in there... which he ate.... then a few days later he stopped eating it all together. Won't touch sweet potato mash any more. He'll eat regular mashed potatoes when he visits my parents with me... but there's not a whole heap of goodness in there. He ate a sugar snap pea that my mum gave him once so I got excited and bought him a bag... chucked every single last one. 🤣 Perhaps I should get my mum to come round and offer him the healthy stuff... he seems to eat what she gives him! (Favouritism!!)

If you have space, you could get a play stand or a tree for her to play on. Or if you're handy at DIY you could build one. Or if floor space is limited you can use walls and ceilings to hang toys/perches from (so long as drilling holes into walls and ceilings is ok, of course!) Or you might be able to jazz up the play area on top of her cage by putting some extra perches on the outside of the cage (space allowing) and hanging some toys on/around it. If she likes shredding you could maybe leave a couple of small boxes up there filled with treats and toys for her to shred and play with. It's a good foraging activity for her and if she's interested, it might keep her busy for a little while! You can try rewarding her when she hangs out and plays in the 'acceptable' areas. Make a big deal of how great it is to be there and maybe give her some tasty treats. When she starts doing something she's not supposed to, quietly ask her to step up and remove her from that area. No fuss, no treats. Move her to an acceptable area. If she then stays there for a few mins make a big fuss about how great it is and reward her for staying there. (I wouldn't reward her straight away for being moved to the 'acceptable' play area, because otherwise she may start deliberately going for the bad areas just to be rewarded when moved... they're crafty like that!!) Or if moving her back to her cage works then carry on with that. Either way, you're trying to make the doors/cupboards that she's chewing as boring and dull as possible, and any acceptable areas as fun and entertaining as possible, so they're more attractive to her and she prefers hanging out there. She will always still want to explore and get up to no good, you'll never fully prevent that. But hopefully she'll get to the point where she's happy to go for a wander to explore, but will return to the 'fun' places you've created for her. That's the idea, anyway! In reality, they'll do what they want, when they want!! 🤣 Unfortunately, having a bird is like having a toddler. They will always try and push boundaries and get into things they're not supposed to! And they are pretty stubborn with it, too! 🤣 I've included some photos of the things I've done for Alfie to give him different places to play out of his cage. Java perch on the side of his cage with a couple of toys plus a rope hoop hanging from the ceiling. He can also get to the top of the mantle piece and roam around there. Rope perch on the other side of his cage, with a couple of toys. I put a hanging basket hook/bracket on the wall and hung the 'orbit' toy from it, which he likes to climb and swing on. Plus an extra toy hanging from that which he likes to beat the snot out of. This is his favourite place to hang out- the shelves above my sofa. I used to have ornaments and nice things on there but he kept flying over there and knocking everything off. I got tired of removing ornaments when I let him out and putting them back when he was in his cage so I just gave up and let him have the shelves. He has a few toys up there, a box for shredding, I hung his boing from the ceiling (he LOVES that thing) and I hung a toy from the ceiling too. You can see he has peeled the shelves because they were some cheap veneer covered ones that came with the house, so I'm looking to pull everything out and redesign this area for him. This java tree is on the corner of my desk in my home office. He also has a second cage in here so he can join me when I'm working from home. I can then let him out and he has a place to hang out. He likes watching out of the window from up there. There are also some shelves the opposite side of the room that he usually flies to and shoves everything off... I haven't given him those shelves... yet... so have to pick up everything he's chucked off each time! There's a couple of toys and a bell hanging from this tree but he mostly uses it to snooze on... and neighbour watch out of the window. I thought this was a good idea at the time- a hanging perch with a couple of food bowls. It's next to the dining table. However, he obviously finds it boring because he never hangs out there. He'll sit there for a while if I ask him to step up there, and might have a snack whilst he's there... but I obviously need to do a bit more work on this space to make it more interesting for him. It's going to have to move anyway as I'm knocking the wall out behind it soon... but I may get rid of it entirely as it takes a fair amount of space and has barely been used.

Welcome to the forums! Sounds like Corey landed on her feet when she chose to move in with you! 😊

They can be persistent little buggers, can't they?! Firstly, welcome to the forums! Looking forward to learning more about you and your grey. I have a cat tree in my living room which has some wicker baskets. Alfie loves to fly over to it and start shredding it, which obviously I don't want him to do because it wouldn't leave much left for the cats. Unfortunately Alfie is just exhibiting a natural behaviour with his shredding. So I distract him. I have some shelves which he hangs out on and I leave toys, treats and boxes for him up there. It works... mostly, but he'll always try and land on the cat tree at least once. When he is out I put some cushions on the beds so it's a little trickier for him to reach the wicker parts... he sees that as a challenge and hangs upside down on the cushions to reach the next wicker bed 🤣 So I say 'no' and ask him to step up on a perch and move him somewhere else where I want him to play instead. I don't tend to use his cage as a punishment or time out area, because I want him to readily go back in there when it's bed time. He can stay out of his cage and he can go on the cat tree, but as soon as he tries to shred it, he gets moved somewhere else. He knows this... but it doesn't stop him trying!! 😆 Has your grey got a play area? I think it's mainly just a case of diverting them to another area where you WANT them to play, chew, shred and continue with all those natural behaviours. The only problem is trying to find a way to make that place much more desirable than the door frames etc they are currently chewing. You could also try moving them to the play area and then rewarding them with treats for staying there/playing with toys instead of chewing the doors.

I'm afraid I don't have any experience with plucking so can't advise there. However, if your bird is spending long periods of time in his cage or alone then I would invest in some foraging toys for him if you haven't already. This can help keep him busy as he'll need to work for his food. You may need to rotate these round periodically so he doesn't find them too easy. If your bird is not used to foraging then you may need to introduce the idea slowly- for example: putting some scraps of paper on top of his food bowls so he has to move the paper around to get to the food or loosely wrapping some treats in paper so he has to work a bit harder to get at it. There are all sorts of foraging toys available these days with varying degrees of difficulty.

Alfie has a similar behaviour when he gets hormonal/excited. He makes some clucking noises, puts his wings out in a similar way and will pace on the spot. He will then sometimes regurgitate for me, which I try not to encourage. However he doesn't make the breathy sounds. If your bird is only doing it every so often in certain circumstances (e.g only when she's interacting with you) and she seems excitable then I'd put it down to hormonal/seasonable/love bug behaviour. If she's still eating ok, playing as normal, pooping ok etc etc and doesn't exhibit this behaviour at any other time then again, I'd probably say hormonal/seasonable behaviours. However, it's important to note that none of us here are vets or experts, I'm just going by my own experience with my own bird and the video you shared.

What a lovely read. Welcome to the forums! I'm glad you got to take Auri home! Sounds like you were made for each other! Funnily enough, I first discovered parrots whilst working in a pet store as well. We had a grey and an eclectus in during my time there. I fell in love with Reggie, the electus but wasn't able to take him at that point because I already had Alfie. He had come from another store that hadn't cared for him properly so we got him eating better food, got his feathers back to good condition and socialised him before selling him to a family. I was fascinated by the grey we had in too. So I did loads of research, read every book I could find, talked it through with my family and eventually spent all my savings on getting Alfie from another local pet shop.

I think you've done your homework. It's not a project I've ever undertaken myself so I can't really comment I'm afraid! But it looks good and I'm sure Auri will love it. It's always good to have a second cage kicking around if you have the space to store it- useful if you ever need a holiday cage for your bird. Alfie's cage won't fit out of my doors so I have a smaller cage upstairs which he goes in when I work from home (so we can keep each other company instead of being in separate parts of the house) and that one will also be used if he ever has to stay at my parents house or elsewhere for any reason. Also if a fault ever develops with his current cage I have a backup too!

Happy to say Alfie's foot is now fine. I was obviously worrying about nothing! There's no mark on it anymore. Yes I've been quite lucky so far as his previous vet was about 45-60 mins drive away (traffic depending!). Most of the vets I'm looking at currently are at least an hour away- probably 1.5-2 hours away, depending who I end up choosing. One of them use to (pre-covid) have a slot at another vet surgery which was a lot closer to home (30 mins) than their main base. But unfortunately I'll have to go to the one that's further away (if I choose them) for now. But I am lucky to have a few options which are reasonably close by!

YeahI'm hoping he was just playing too rough and grazed it as opposed to chewing it himself or having something more sinister going on. I will keep an eye on it. I'm in the process of locating a new vet for him because his previous one retired earlier in the year. I need to make an appointment to get his beak filed anywayas its growing out wonky again so if its still there when I get him booked in I'll get it checked out at the same time. Have received a few recommendations from vets in the local (and not so local) area so just need to contact them and find one i like the sound of. They will have very big shoes to fill because Alfie's pervious vet was very good!!

I noticed Alfie had a strange marking on his foot which seemingly came out of nowhere. I don't think it's dye from food or toys. Looks line some kind of graze? Anyone seen anything like this before? Should I be worried? It just seems to be in that one spot. Underneath all looks ok from what I can see. Unfortunately I can't touch his feet unless I want to lose a finger! He's acting normally, eating, drinking, playing with toys and being vocal. He doesn't seem to mind using the foot so doesn't seem to be in pain.

I was right about Alfie's mumbling... he was relarning a phrase my dad taught him when he was young- "Oi! Put the kettle on!" I came home from work on Thursday evening and he suddenly started saying it. Whenever Alfie starts mumbling a lot I know he's trying to learn something new. Or in this case, re-learn something from many years ago. My dad has been complaining that Alfie no longer says anything that he taught him so we have been encouraging him to start saying it again. And it worked!

I regularly spend loads of money on toys and Alfie still prefers a carboard box. 🤣

Perfect, thank you. Have just sent a small donation across. It's not much as things are a little tight this month but hopefully it helps with the costs a little. That or you could use it to buy Sukei a toy! Your choice!🤣