Pixburgh29

Good point!

Thanks, put my mind at rest. Sad to know it'll disappear along with the other baby noises. They're just too cute!

At our visit today, our baby was very vocal. Baby noises, and mimicking our breeders other birds galore. He also made this noise that really sounded like a dog panting. At the time I wrote it off as something he picked up from our breeders dogs (she has 4 and they are constantly around him). But now I'm wondering if that's what it is or could it be something I should be concerned about or even if it's something that every baby CAG does as in just another baby noise. This is the first week he's made this noise while playing with us, he's now 11 weeks old. I have a short clip of our visit and he makes the panting noise twice during it. He does it first right at the very beginning of the video and once after he gets back down from the bowl and comes to the camera. Thanks!

Welcome nancy! I'm new to CAG care myself, ours is still currently being hand fed at our breeders nursery. So unfortunately I can't offer much advice. We have two adult Dalmatians but no children. We chose a breeder that had dogs so our baby would be used to the chaos they can create. We also take a blanket that our baby spends his time on when we visit and one we practice "toweling" with. We then let the dogs smell it when we get home so that they will be accustomed to the baby a bit more for when he does come home with us.

Thanks all! Timbersmom, you're so right. It wouldn't have mattered at all. The only thing it changes is how we address them (he, she) and when everyone asks, we have an answer to give . I can't wait for our little boy to come home. With no human babies yet, he'll be filling a huge void for us. I can only hope that we'll be just as special to him! paleale, did you name your little girl yet?

Ive sexed quite a few birds over the years but for the really difficult ones, my vet is always more than willing. I've never sexed them by pulling a feather though. The vet and I have always done it by a blood sample. It's still not fun for them by any means. It consists of clipping a toe nail little by little until you get a few drops (usually 2 drops is enough). being that a Greys trust is so important, I didn't even do my own baby's DNA. I let the breeder do it. Point is, there are many many options for you and alfie. Either way, your vet shouldn't have an issue doing it and has probably done it before. I use avian biotech for sexing, their website is http://www.avianbiotech.com/. They have a ton of info for all options that they offer. Good luck and can't wait to hear what alfie is!

Boy!! Couldn't be happier, we got exactly what we wanted. Now to narrow down our list of names!

Photos are up of our visit from last sunday. I also added 2 short videos that we took while we were there. DNA was mailed over night yesterday morning so we should know within days what our baby is! Can't wait. Update: DNA is back and it's a boy!!

Thanks for all the input. I really appreciate it. Going to go decorate it right now

We bought this cage also. Our baby doesn't come home for another couple of weeks but so far we're very pleased with this cage. However, the box came MANGLED. I even took pictures of it so that if we needed to send it back, we could back up our claim that it arrived damaged. Thankfully, the cage inside wasn't damaged. One bar was slightly bent ( & I mean slightly) & was easily fixed back into place. Love the color too. I was originally worried about the play top design arch but the picture on their site is very deceiving. The space isn't tight at all. Hope our baby will be just as pleased with it as we are!

Congrats on your little girl & greetings from Pittsburgh

It was making a noise but I don't know if it was a growl, never heard one growl before. It was bobbing its head up and down at my finger while making the noise. I don't think I could describe the sound in words though. I uploaded a video to YouTube that we took during our visit. It makes the same noise right at 14-15 seconds in. Let me know if that's a growl. I hope not, it seemed very willing and curious to play... paleale, no not yet unfortunately. The breeder took the DNA but we got hit with some real bad weather and delayed it getting mailed out. Hopefully we'll know THIS week. I'm so impatient for something that won't matter to us either way lol. The breeder and hubby are betting its a boy due to size but who knows.

We set it up today and it looks really bare...we dont NEED toys in there but would it be a bad thing to have?

Week 9 visit photos are up

So we bought the cage that we will be using for our baby CAG that comes home next month which I've redecorated a billion times with different toys, perches, etc. (I'm not completely excited for this baby btw). Anyway, today when I got home from work I found that hubby bought a sleep cage for the baby as well. We had been discussing it the past few weeks due to the fact that the baby's cage is going in our family room/game room. Every other weekend we host a party with our friends & family in that room to entertain. Since this would throw off the baby's sleep pattern, we thought about just having a sleep cage in a different room of the house. Now my questions.. do you think a sleep cage is a good idea? If so, is this something we should make routine (every night) even when we aren't hosting the party? What about toys in the sleep cage? The sleep cage would be on a completely different floor than our family room and the other cage. If a sleep cage isn't a good idea, it'll just end up being a back up cage anyway (it's slightly smaller than our original cage).

Added pictures from our visit this sunday. Baby is now 8 weeks old & growing like a weed. We visited right before lunch time so everything looked like the syringe . We find out the sex this week, can't wait!

Added two week 7 photos, it's amazing the change one week can bring.

Zilla also makes a veggie only mix - ingredients are as follows.. Sun Dried Bok Choy, Sun Dried Carrots, Freeze Dried Zucchini, Freeze Dried Green Beans, Freeze Dried Peas. Do you think this one would be ok since it doesn't have all the fruit in it that the veggie/fruit mix does? Primarily I would be giving the baby fresh cut veggies but I was thinking more emergency situation (no power, fridge goes out, etc). This way I wouldn't have to panic if the power is out for days (which frequently occurs out here). The baby wouldn't only have to rely on a pellet/seed mixture. (S)he isn't home yet so I don't even know if it'll be accepting of pellet at all and I wouldn't want to feed a seed only diet for days while waiting on the power to come back on.

Thanks everyone for the replies, they were all very helpful! I'm sure i'll have plenty more questions until our baby comes home in March and even after..so in advance, thank you also for your patience and understanding.

When we visited our baby yesterday, the breeder recommended a product that she puts in her breeders water. She suggested that we add it to our baby's water around 3x a week. She also gave us the paper that comes with the bottle. It is called Nekton-S and it's a vitamin supplement. Does anyone have any experience with it? Not that I don't trust the breeder but I second guess everything.. I don't want to do anything wrong that I can help and the more opinions I can get the better i'll feel. Also, as far as food goes.. I went toy shopping for our baby today and stopped in the bird food section. Some of the pellets that were suggested were Zupreem (natural, nut blend, or fruit blend), Roudy bush maintenance, &/or Kaytee parrot woodland foraging diet. I've heard all the others mentioned in the bird community except the woodland foraging one. I added the site link below for those that are more experienced with the ingredients aspect to give me an opinion. It looked really good variety wise, there were dried leaves, nuts, seeds, pellets, etc all mixed. However, I raise Dalmatians and have quickly found out not to be fooled by pretty packaging on dog food brands so I assume bird food is no exception. I also went over to the millet spray and saw what was called chili pepper spray and it had a CAG on the front of it, opinions on that as well? As I was standing there staring at all the foods, an employee came up and asked what type of bird I had. After bragging about our little baby and showing off with pictures, the guy asked if i'd heard of Zilla veggie & fruit mix. Of course I hadn't, and he then explained that a lot of bird owners came in and bought it for their birds to give more variety. I put this site link as well. Anyone use this at all? http://www.kaytee.com/products/kaytee-foraging-woodland-parrot.php http://www.zilla-rules.com/products/food/small-animal-munchies-vegetable-fruit-mix.htm Thank you in advance!

Yes they are! Their personalities are really showing now. When was yours hatched?

Baby Congo African Grey - Sterling Clutch @ 3 weeks old. Clutch @ 4 weeks old. Clutch @ 5 weeks old. Our baby begging @ 5 weeks. Pink toes! Clutch @ 6 weeks old. (Our baby on far left) Clutch @ 6 weeks. Favorite group picture. (Our baby far left) Our baby @ 6 weeks old, size comparison. Congo tail @ 6 weeks. Favorite picture of our baby (6 weeks old). Our baby @ 7 weeks old. Our baby again @ 7 weeks old. There's that red bum Our baby @ 8 weeks old. (On right) 8 weeks old & showing off that pink tongue! Baby @ 8 weeks, size comparison <3 Baby @ 9 weeks old. Pink toes @ 9 weeks! 9 weeks old & loving the camera Showing off the pink tongue <3 Our baby at 9 weeks old. 9 weeks old size comparison. Our baby sitting on my leg at our 10 week visit "Get my good side, Mom" (10 weeks old) "Don't forget this side" (10 weeks old) Getting much better at balancing<3 *10 weeks* Wing stretch - 10 weeks old & Another. - 10 weeks old His cute little feet @ 10 weeks Perching on my husbands finger - step up practice (10 weeks old) Step up practice with mom *10 weeks* Such a cutie! Already so in love. 10 weeks old. Scratch time! - 10 weeks old You brought the bands back for me?! 10 week visit. See you next week! (Step down practice) End of 10 week visit. It's yinz again? - 11 week visit Back to step up practice - 11 weeks old Holding "hands" - 11 weeks old Introducing his travel carrier to him @ 11 weeks old Got in his carrier all by himself, proud parronts. - 11 week visit You guys don't know it yet but i'm about to take my first flight @ 11 weeks old Getting his Aviator harness on for the first time! 11 weeks old He looks so handsome:) 11 week visit End of our 11 week visit. 12 week visit, checking out the new foot toys. Ran right over to the carrier, barely got it open in time! 12 weeks. So happy he liked them. 12 weeks. Big sister joined in on the action too! *12 weeks* My youngest brother meets Sterling for the first time. Playing on our 12 week visit. Always so into the camera. 12 weeks. You hold, i'll chew. 12 weeks old. End of visit. VIDEOS OF THE BABY - 9 week visit - 10 week visit part 1 - 10 week visit part 2 - 11 week visit part 1 - 11 week visit part 2TO BE CONTINUED!

Thank you all for the help, makes my decision a lot easier.

I've recently read the sticky "socializing your baby grey" which was wonderfully informative. My question is about the way to socialize. I'm interning to be an avian specialist so that has me going around to various pet stores & other like places all the time. Do you think it would be a good idea (on my days off of course) to take our baby -when he/she's home- up there to be around people? If so, should I be allowing people to hold/touch her or should it just be from a distance type of deal. I've read various posts on the forum discussing greys that weren't socialized properly so I want to make sure I take all of the precautions to give him/her the best start in life with us. My second question is about harness training. Is this something I should ask the breeder to get our baby used to (as in the harness itself and perhaps even putting it on a few times)? We plan to keep our baby fully flighted for the entirety of it's life so a harness would be necessary as I plan to take him/her outside.

Thank you all! We chose this baby based on personality. We haven't been able to visit yet because our household has come down with this cold/flu going around and we both haven't been 100% better until this week. We didn't want to expose the babies to anything of course. However, because we couldn't visit.. the breeder set up a web cam a couple days a week so that we could watch the babies interact and show their little personalities. They are all so different it's amazing! As for the pink toes being attributed to a red factor, i've heard that as well. This is the first "uniquely-toed" baby for this breeder in her 30+ years of breeding as well. She actually held that information from all of us (the 3 families that are taking babies) because she didn't want that to be a factor in choosing (who would ever choose a baby based on appearance anyway is beyond me). We will definitely be taking many pictures during our visit, I could never have enough pictures of him/her to look at. The breeder sends us photos once a week so that we can watch the growth but it'll be nice to have many of my own as well. I'm more excited that since we're all healthy again, we can visit the babies all the time.