Pixburgh29

Have been silently keeping up with the forum since we got our CAG. Thankfully all of my questions i've been able to look up in the archives thus far! However, I need some clarity on this one. Feather chewing. Not sure if our little guy is chewing/plucking or not. I haven't been stressing about it, advice i've seen you all give, but i'd like to catch it early enough to perhaps help him if that's whats going on. Firstly, he's just over a year old (turned a year Nov 2013) if thats of any importance. I've found a few feathers on the bottom of his cage, 1 or 2 flight feathers and 1 red tail feather. He still startles in his cage every once in a while (when a loud noise randomly occurs etc) so i'm not sure if thats why he appears a bit rough looking or if it's something else. I've checked the feathers and none appear as if they were broken, they look like they just kind of fell out (minus a bit of chewed look to the ends). The short grey feathers on his body though are a different story, they look a bit frayed on the ends, similiar to what split ends look like? I'll see if i can get a good enough picture to help with describing them. This is my first grey so i'm not really sure what's normal and what's not at this age, appearance wise. I also have one other question, beak trimming. Is it necessary and how can I tell if it's needed? His nails trim themselves on the one perch he has so i've never had to take him to get those done. His beak does have a point but I just assumed that was normal and okay? Thanks for the time

As long as it doesn't mean that he's unhappy with something, i'm fine with that . Thanks!

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for sharing! As new parronts, it was very amusing and something to look forward to with our little guy

Uploaded a video of Sterling's new noise. Anyone know what this "means"? I'm used to his other baby noises but this just developed today. I'm curious as to what this may mean or what he's conveying to us. I'm still learning about his body language and trying to match that with sounds he makes . He was very sleepy in this video by the way, taken right after a play session and snack.

Day 2 and everything is still golden. He's very active and ate better today, much to our relief. We're so in love. Watching him play just warms my heart! His schedule basically seems to be eat, play hard, nap, repeat. He really seems to enjoy playing with us but is totally content amusing himself when we give him "his time". This afternoon, he conducted his own flight session and it was amazing to watch. He practiced his turns, hoovering, and landing in different areas of the house. Today he ate a good bit of his seed mix (no sunflower seeds or shelled peanuts), a bite of roudybush pellet, and some fresh mixed veggies with RPO (mostly just the carrots & bok choy). Thanks for the advice Jayd, we'll be leaving seed, pellet, and water tonight in his sleep cage. Going to try misting him with the aloe juice tomorrow, will report on how that goes. Fingers crossed.

Sterling came home today. All is well and we are enjoying him so much. He took to meeting our Dalmatians and our cats wonderfully. He ate a bit of pellet, a small piece of mango, and half a peanut, hopefully he will have a better appetite in the AM. We will be leaving his pellet mix in his sleep cage just incase. He is navigating his cage pretty well but definitely needs more practice. We started streaming him live a few hours after he came home and he is not the least bit phased (thank goodness). Overall it was a great homecoming. All we hope to improve on is the appetite and some more practice with the new perches. It's going to be so hard leaving him tomorrow morning but at least I'll be able to watch the cam while at work!

Link is below to his live stream channel. We still need to work on the lighting issue we are having with it being a bit too dark but it works for now . http://Http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sterling-african-grey

Thanks birdhouse! Checked the foraging treat we bought for Sterling for when he came home and its under that recall.

Sterling comes home this weekend so want to clean and disinfect his cage. After reading some posts, we went out and got some hydrogen peroxide, white vinegar, and 2 spray bottles. Now from what I understand, the order each is used isn't important, correct? My other question is do we let this air dry on the cage at the end or do we dry with a towel? Am I diluting any of these with water or is it full strength? Thanks as always everyone!

paleale, definitely know the feeling. Hang in there!

Our breeder just informed us that our baby will be able to come home this Sunday. My husband named him just in time it seems. He has stared at his long list of names for over a month now and when we learned we were expecting a male, it wasn't any easier. We only ever had one female name on our list. He chose the name Sterling, inspired by a grey he saw with that name on this forum. He said he was going to try and find a name unheard of in the grey community but that name just kept making its way to the top of his list since the day he saw it. When he looked up the meaning (high quality; genuine; pure) it sealed the deal. Our order of red palm oil and aloe vera juice is due on Friday..again, just in time. Anyway, we're very excited to hear that Sterling will finally be coming home with us. I can't help but feel nervous though. Can you ever be 100% ready? Doubt it. We went out after our visit last weekend and bought some equipment in order to live stream him on the internet. This will put my mind at ease when i'm at work so that I can check on him when I want and since we already stream our Dalmatian litters, it's second nature to have cameras around. When we set up the channel, i'll put a thread up with the link in case anyone would like to view it as well.

I really think it depends on your particular bird. Some seem to adjust better than others to new changes. Especially babies. Ours readily accepts new toys and has never showed any type of stress, just confusion as to how to play with some of them. His sister however is much more cautious and needs to stare at it for a few hours before she will allow it near her let alone begin to play with it. That being said, our baby doesn't come home until this weekend so I have no clue how he will deal with the toys all at once, we've always introduced one or two during our weekly visits. The females family only have 1 toy (that she's played with since 5 weeks ago) in her cage to start off, being that she's clearly anxious of new items.

That would be fun for you both! We have a lot of regulars here, lots of bird people in our area I suppose.

Yes! Circleville VFD is right down the street from our house, such a great expo. We have been vendors in it for quite a few years now. Love seeing all the stuff & birds people bring! Our CAG breeder is going to vendor in this one too.

Our vet also recommended a concrete perch, we have one in his sleep cage. But without our grey home to see, not sure how effective it is.

As a side note, I love that we have babies just a few days apart and ended up with the same cage! That being said, I was really worried about what to put in the cage and vice versa. I've caught myself just staring at the cage wondering whether it was too bare or too cluttered. I moved things around so many times. I ended up just going with variety. Pictures are up in the "show us your cage" sticky. As you know, the cage came with those 2 perches and i'm not really a big fan of them but i kept them anyway because they reach across the whole cage. I added 2 half perches for my natural wood selection of different diameters (grape wood & fir). Then put in a flavored calcium/cuttlebone perch and of course, the rope perch. For toys.. there are a few wood ones w/ bells, one for shredding, one for preening/cuddling, a rubber ball/bell, and just some misc ones that i hung on some of the perches. I also bought 2 more bowls and put them in very low at the bottom of the cage incase he doesn't navigate his new home well for the first few days. Also thinking about putting a blanket on the bottom (or maybe just 1/2 of it) to cushion any falls etc. It may still be too much, will have to see what he thinks when he's home. I didn't realize that decorating a cage could be so stressful and fun at the same time. The best part, they probably won't use half of the stuff in there

Can't offer any advice but welcome to the forum! The experts will be able to make some suggestions i'm sure. Make a thread in the introduction room to introduce yourself and your grey . Everyone seems to really love pictures here also so if you have some, post it with your introduction. There are a lot of people that have re-homed greys so i'm sure someone else has had this problem before also.

Cage #1 - Whole cage Cage #1 - Front view of toys/perches etc Cage #1 - Side view Cage #1 - Inside, left. Cage #1 - Inside, right. Cage #2 - Closed Cage #2 - Open

Hubby came up with a new question for the sleep cage. This cage will be in our den. When he's doing some work in the den and would like to have the baby with him during the day, would it be ok for him to be in that cage or will it really confuse the baby about whether its time for bed? Should we just say 'time for bed" when it is indeed that time to make it distinctive..? Thanks!

Added new pictures and videos from our 11 week visit with our little boy. Lots of new stuff happened during this visit. We introduced his travel carrier for the first time, he took to it wonderfully and ventured inside very quickly. Our next big surprise came when he took his very first flight! The breeder said that he had been stretching his wings a lot and flapping but never lifted off up until that point. It was amazing to see, although his landing was much to be desired. We decided to once again express to our breeder that we wanted him fully flighted, she was happy to accommodate our request. Due to him being so open to the new changes and now starting to fledge, we tried to push our luck a bit with introducing his harness and leash as well this week. We weren't disappointed, he was highly interested and we even got it on him while he sat there so patiently, allowing us to manipulate his wings (we were pretty clumsy, being new to the aviator as well so his patience was very much appreciated!).

Added the photo from the ad as well. She's a beautiful zon.

Saw this ad and felt this forum would be the perfect place. Posted on a Pittsburgh, PA bird classifieds site. "BLUE FRONTED AMAZON She's a cutie--name is Sapphire. 10 years old. Paid $900 for bird and cage. She's really cute; needs attention; just downsizing (too many birds) due to new job. Only to a good home; experience with parrots suggested. Contact - Brenda Etzler Email bleetzler2@gmail.com Phone Number 724 - 396 - 8511 Posted 01/31/13" UPDATE: ADDED PHOTO SHE POSTED FOR THE AD!