MiracleAces

Hehe. I had two females to choose from. One CAG stepped up and wanted to be a part of everything happening in the aviary. The second sat in the basket, growled the entire time while the other one kept pooping on her from above. I took the happier, cleaner one.

"What do I want?" - great question. Honestly, when I got my Grey I wanted lots of interaction, but soon realized I am happy seeing her happy. I feel I am very in tune with Luna. Some days she absolutely will not leave me and just 'purrs' while I pet her until she falls asleep. Other days she wants to play all over the place by herself and makes some of the funniest noises when she decides one of her toys just attacked her. Whatever her choice is - I am happy just seeing her happy. I know the major aspects of the DYH Amazon - good and bad and I'm more than willing to accept both. I believe the amount of interaction and toys and the freedom that I give my bird now to make their own decisions will attribute to a happy and well adjusted Amazon. By adopting the 2 1/2 year old Amazon I know what I am walking into. there are obvious advantages and disadvantages to getting the younger 7 month old Amazon from the aviary. I was just looking for some opinions.

I'll visit back here after the 12th of January

Hello and welcome. Your new buddy definitely needs a lot of new toys inside and outside that cage so he wont get bored and possibly continue plucking that area.

Great video! I smiled the entire time I was watching.

Just curious what you mean when you say to let the Amazon 'win'. I know what that means with my dogs. Letting them when a tug o war - etc...

I've been reading the possible dangers and regression an Amazon might have if they are clipped in this thread. The owner if the Amazon I am considering adopting wants to clip his wings before I bring him home for his safety. If she is doing the clipping before I get him and not me (after bringing him home) doing it - doing you think the bird would still resent ME? I agreed with her points about his safety in a new enviroment, but I dont want to stunt his progress by making a mistake with the clipping.

How long does this generally last?

hhhmmm... Never heard of an Avian light. Sounds like a great idea. Are they safe to leave on while not home? I have a light that I use for my sculpting that is very warm/ hot that Luna loves to have on, but I wont leave it on when I'm not home. If the Avian light is safe, I will definitely look into it.

I found the following comical (knowing there is a serious tone to the matter of course). I was actually more surprised that I didnt realize Luna would react this way. Luna has been outside and to my work a few times, but in her traveling cage and I always have a blanket over the cage because its been very cold. Once in the car, the blanket comes off. Anyway, her cage is in front of a bay window. I (shamefully) did not realize that Greys need a lot of natural light. I've just had the lights on in the living room for her this whole time. Yesterday I pulled the curtains back on the window closest to her cage. She was outside the cage on her playtop. She immediately stood straight up with her feathers tight against her body. I tried soothing her with quiet talk and being positive. Her 'fight or flight' kicked in (even with her splint on) and she flew all the way into the kitchen back wall. It's about 40 feet away. Here I was thinking she would love seeing the outside and it freightened her. I put her back on the playtop. She made a few noises. I talked to her some more and then closed the curtain which made her calm again after a few minutes. I'd really like her to have the advantage of seeing outside. Should I not attempt this again? I dont want her to see her cage as a place to be scared of.

Glad Storm is OK. I think we would all take the pain and loss of blood to be sure our Grey was safe and unharmed. I hope your finger heals soon.

I understand. I cant generalize this subject. With that being said, should I spend the extra (lots of extra!) money on getting a younger DYH? I found an aviary that has a few born back in April so they are relatively young. I feel (again, possibly incorrectly) that having a younger DYH that things may go a little more smoothly and give me a better chance of correcting or simply not responding to possible bad habits that normally develop such as biting and screeching.

Care to elobarate? I'm trying to make the best informed decision I can.

As some of you may know I was (still am sort of) trying to adopt a 2 1/2 year old DYH. I have some concerns though. I have read the male can be extremely aggressive towards the female durig the bluffing period. My Grey is a female and while I dont expect them to become friends I also dont want the DYH flying over to my Luna and attacking her because he is hormonal. Would going with a female DYH be a better idea or am I just blowing things out of proportion in my imagination? Also is there really any difference between a Panama and DYH besides markings?

Being a beginning Grey owner myself I can tell you I read up on a lot of these type of issues. I was told (others may have very different advice of course) is that it's almost impossible to clean everything that would have ever gotten into contact with your poor Charlie. I was even told that it's dangerous to buy a used cage because of this - even it it is disinfected very well. Time may be the safest bet for you and your next bird. I have read stories about owners have keep an infected bird at another level of the home and are successful in not spreading the disease to other birds by completely changing and showering before going to the other areas of the home. Sounds a little too much for me though.

Congrats and welcome to you and DJ. He has already been camping with you? What a lucky guy. I bet he enjoyed being outdoors.

Jayd - what a great post! Thanks to Talon and Luvparrots as well for responding. I especially like the section about Luna being the flock leader. I dont think I would have thought twice about who got their food and treats first and I certainly dont want to upset Luna further by not giving her everything first. I'm at a bit of an empasse at this point. I visited Kiwi (the Amazon) yesterday and the visit was great. The cage was definitely small, but I can still use it after I replace it with a bigger cage. I was thinking of putting it in the kitchen or the excercise room downstairs as a playstand. It's definitely a nice cage, just small. So here is where the empasse started. The visit was great. Kiwi stepped up to me twice and actually spent a majority of the time on my arm and even moved closer to me. He wasnt scared and played with his current owner in front of me. He was hanging upside down from her hand and he flipped over on his back and was practically giggling (I know - but I swear he was) when she tickled him. He was completely at ease around the rescue cat and dog the owner had as well. When I left we were discussing the home inspection on my end at some point this weekend. The owner was asking $800 for Kiwi, his toys, food, cage and two play stands. I was fine with that. In the text the owner asked for another $200 coming to $1000. In the grand scheme of things with everything I would be getting including a new companion for who knows how many decades, the extra $200 is nothing. However it gave me an uneasy feeling. I am not sure how to answer the text. I told her I would get back to her in the morning. Any thoughts on this?

Welcome and congrats. Very happy for you, your family and Crush Great name if you decide to stay with it!

Hi all - My Grey has a cage that is 36inches wide which I was told was big enough for her. I sometimes feel it is, sometime not. That being said, I am very near to adopting a 2 1/2 year old Double Yellow Head Amazon. His cage is so small (to me) - 26 x 22. I cant imagine him being happy in there. I want to get him a bigger cage - maybe the exact same one Luna my Grey has. Would it be just far too stressful to rehome him directly into a new cage? He will come with a lot of his own toys so I could make sure those were in the new cage.

Miranda that's ironic because I was the EXACT same way. I read up on everything I could and I was so nervous about the feather plucking and all the other issues we read about. Just an FYI - I am not much further along than you. We brought Luna home last month at 4 months old. I thought I had to be with Luna 100% of the time, but soon learned from this forum and research that I was just making too much of the situation. I think Dave007 said it best in his posting about bathing birds - I am paraphrasing (a lot) - He said that our problems and situations are not as complex as we think and it's about not putting time limits on what we want to accomplish. I truly believe this is the one the single best piece of advice I've taken away from this forum so far.

Luna is the same. Everytime I pull out the camera she stops what she was doing. I hear this happens a lot.

My Luna does the same thing. This usually comes about after playing on her own for a bit. This tells me that she is now ready for some one on one time with me. I agree with everyone else. You have a baby Grey that trust and LOVES you. Yay for both of you

Miranda, I hope everything works out. I truly believe it will. I think your decision to start over and take everything slowly will work out. From this point on any small positive step will be a big deal for both of you. Just remember that Grey's have their good and bad days as well as days where they just want to chill on there own (which is a great day in itself). So dont take anything personally if one day you feel you took a step forward and the next seems to be a reversal of that. My Luna is absolutely a cuddler and will rub her head under my chin and sleep on my chest. But the very next day she will just want to play on her cage top alone and wont need my company (well not right there in her face anyway). She'll even let me know verbally that she wants to be on her own. I just let her play and I know when she is ready she will tell me. I remember when I first got Luna after about two weeks she started showing her indepedence and I thought "Uh oh. This is the part they are talking about when they say the honeymooon is over.". I even took it personally. She reverted from stepping up to my hand to alway using a hand perch. Again I used baby steps and each day offered my hand to step up, but never forced it on her. She would gradually put one foot on my hand then step back, but I praised her then because it made me happy that she was even considering it. Eventually she started stepping up to my hand again. Before she broke her leg two weeks ago she was easily stepping up from hand to hand. Everything took baby steps. To answer your question. I could tell Luna's leg was broken/ hurt immediately. She wasnt using her leg and her toes were curled up. I posted the story in the Grey Lounge. It's on the first page. It's titled "Luna's broken leg." It's got a lot of replies, but you'll see even within the post that Luna has taken many small baby steps in the last two weeks. The positive is that this experience has brought Luna and I much closer. Again, I am sure once she has her independence that many things will change, but I will be so happy for her.

Hi Miranda. My situation is a different from yours but the experience may give you some positive thoughts on the matter. While Luna was meant for me and I am truly her favorite, my wife and I would like her to bond with my wife as well. My wife couldnt let her out of her cage because she could never get her back in. Luna's character was more alert and not relaxed when my wife was in the room even I was there as well. So what she started doing was spending time with her while Luna was in her cage. She just watched TV, cross stitched or read a book. Eventually she started letting Luna out of her cage about 30 minutes before I got home from work (I would text her to let her know I was leaving). Luna would just climb her way out on her own. Now Luna well be relaxed while my wife is in the room. We took our next step which was for me to unshell a peanut. Luna has a healing broken leg so she cannot unshell any nuts on her own right now. I would then hand the peanut to my wife and Luna takes it from her. We are taking baby steps and definitely waiting for Luna to show us she is ready before attempting the next step. Our next step is for my wife to use a handheld perch to get her from her table top perch back to the top of her cage. Luna is very good at letting us know she wants to go back to her cage. So that's our next step (once her leg has healed in about three more weeks). My wife's crafting desk is right in front of Luna's cage so for Christmas my wife created an extremely simple toy for her our of an empty soda can box. Luna watched her intently not knowing what she was doing. Then my wife hung the toy and Luna played with it quite a bit yesterday. Again... just a simple act of kindness, but and important step for both my wife and Luna.

Agreed! We need pics How did you ever guess Timber would enjoy a Talk & Play?