SRSeedBurners

GreycieMae is around 480. She watches her 'figger' by eating salad (and anything else she gets her beak on).

Those timnehs are super cute. I've never seen one in real life.

Could possibly have something to do with the spring rut (assuming you live in the northern hemisphere). Our Huey is a different bird right now although I haven't noticed a smell difference. I can't get my nose close enough to him if I want to keep my face arranged in it's current state.

Spring time? Huey just started his ritual of biting his feet and acting like a crazed bat.

He has that 'what the hecks' look. 🤣

So cute when they sleep like that. Hard working tired Alfie.

Wow, dredging up old dead threads. I don't even really recall writing the replies I left here!

I get to hear how I talk to my wife. Huey talks to her the exact same way I do including the stern "BELLE!" that I use. He also grumbles with her name mixed in. She's always telling me "you see how you talk to me?"

Dorian - you ungrateful sod you. 🤣

Sukei sounds like our Huey. Loves Mommy, hates me: Mommy: And here's the super-annoyed look I get whenever I go near the Huey.

Oh wow....be sure to post pics and the back story! I never thought I'd get another Grey but the stars aligned differently and Huey needed a new home. Best thing ever for my first Grey. She now has a bird room buddy.

I think they are served best with Sweet & Sour sauce, just like their moods.

Gosh he looks so much like our Huey.

He is such a cutie. I love the Grey boys crew cut look that they do.

Ha...a beginner pet is something that could care less if you mess with it and requires little to no maintenance besides an occasionaly cleaning and feeding. Maybe a snake? Who knows. Budgies can be pretty cool little pets but require a lot of hands on just like other birds. Some people keep them in flocks in flight cages, not much hands on with those. Experienced owner is someone who has had lots of experience! Can't get there without putting in the time. I don't subscribe to working your way up to a Grey. You just really need to know and commit to what you are getting into. Like have a kid.

The Grey I lost in a divorce was re-homed to my Aunt. I have no idea why ex-wife didn't give Odie back to me, we were getting along - who knows. I've been back to vist Odie three times in those 30 years, the first time was 20 something years in and Odie remembered me. There is a thread with pics here. I got three more birds: GracieMae (Grey), Toby (Caique) and Rio (Jardines). THen people started asking me to take birds so add to those three: Huey (Grey), Tinkerbell and Connor (Conures), Nikki (Hawkshead).

I got my first Grey at 19. Also an amazon and a conure during that same period. Lost them in a divorce. The Grey is now with my mid-80s aunt and she has willed 'Odie' back to me! So far it's been 30 years. My life was way to unstable at 19 to be getting birds but young people don't have the reasoning power or wisdom that age brings to know any better. Another reason people re-home birds: I'm having a baby blah blah blah. That one really pisses me off but it happens.

The majority of birds get rehomed due to people not realizing what they were getting into and tiring of their 'nuisance pet' that requires a lot of work to take care of. My opinion only, but I think you have to be wired right to think of these birds as more than pets. Around our house my human girls (wife and daughter) were in for a little shock when I got GreycieMae and they saw how I interacted with her. I treat her like she's my feathered daughter - she gets spoiled completely rotten. Created a little jealousy with my wife but she finally wrapped her head around it and now has bonded with our Grey Huey in the same way. Birds definitely do have their preferences about who they like and don't like, part of their higher intelligence baggage, just like us. A lot of people recommend letting a bird pick you, I don't think that's really possible with a baby bird. An adult for sure.

With a weaned baby you have no idea what you are getting as they are not developed yet may or may not be important to you. A rehomed older bird is already set in their ways and you can actually see if the bird even likes you, if so it will probably stay that way. Babies can switch, some do, some don't. My girl has always been my baby once she got over her stand-offish ways a few months down the road. Huey our male is a rehome and he doesn't much care for me, even on day one, and will attack me on occasion. I believe he sees me as competition for the love of his life, my wife and I'm fairly certain he was abused by a male early in his life as he will flinch when I make certain moves - sad. Huey has pretty much stolen my wife with all his affections towards her. Also, we have seven birds currently and have had 2-3 others that have passed on. In every case, the males are attracted to my wife and and vice-versa with our female birds. Our female hawkshead will go after my wife if given any little chance or will go around and around in her cage making threats non-stop. Goofy girl. This is a non-scientific, N=1 sample here but it's very peculiar that they have lined up like this.

I'm having a bout of stupid and cant seem to edit my previous post but since I'm not from Ohio I'll just throw my $.06 in (inflation, sorry) about their pros/cons. I consider Greys at or near the top of the heap when it comes to intelligence levels of animals. That comes with a lot of possible baggage. If they are mistreated, abused etc they will remember and may suffer consequences. Lots of FB posts about 'why is my bird plucking'. No one really knows why, some find solutions, many never do. My first Grey lives the over-pampered, meticulously cared for life and one day I went into their bird room only to see a pile of feathers on the ground and my precious Grey girl sitting there looking ragged as hell. It broke my heart as I thought, here we go, never thought it would happen to me. Thankfully she stopped after a few months and the only thing we can attribute it to was a hawk encounter. She is prone to freaking out when she is not with me. Yes they can become very co-dependent. It worries me when I see someone with only one Grey. I feel like they do need a companion for when you are not there. That's sort of how we got Huey, our #2. I think a good Grey parront is - patient (you'll need a lot of this) - hard-working (they need good servants to clean up after themselves) - a great cook (a varied diet is best) - moderately wealthy (hey, they need toys and stuffs, vet care, cages, foods etc) - always there (whatever plans you had, cancel them, Greybie wants you, Greybie needs you) They are a HUGE commitment if you treat them as they should be treated. Lots of people lock them up and throw away the key because they had absolutely no idea what they are getting into. I see tons of rescue stories where I'd like to find the culprits and beat them. When I was younger I wanted a monkey. I thank God that I was too poor to ever go through on that stupid impulse. I see videos of pet monkeys occasionally and can't fathom what it requires to care for one of those. Greys aren't anywhere near that commitment but they are a time-sink. This says it all so beautifully....

Oh wow, I completely forgot about AA. I may have to go back for a visit...or maybe I got the boot from there and can't go back 🤣

ahh, you laugh now, but when they're done and nothing is built correctly, they're going to blame it on Alfie and his mis-measurements 🤣

GreycieMae is an excellent whistler. She gave up on any kind of talking very early. Her greatest talent is rattling off a very nice tune with her whistling and then finishing it with a fat juicy fart noise. She does it because she always gets an absolute riot out of it. She sleeps in our bedroom on the handle of a ladder because she used to get terrible night frights when I had them in a bird room. I was sure I was going to wake up to find her dead some morning because she was trapped in there freaking out slamming herself into the side of the cage. It happened way too often so she got moved into our bedroom and now hasn't had one single episode. Anyway she also makes the cutest coo'ing noises in the middle of the night when she hears me moving around. It's such a sweet little sound I have a hard time not reaching over and giving her a cuddle and a kiss.

Our household is polyandrous: my wife has two husbands. Her main man, Huey and then her servant husband - me. Huey has lived here going on four years. In that time, he has learned to talk like me, act like me and basically does everything I do centered on Marietta. He wants her sole attention and has learned to basically take on my persona in order to get her attention. He tells her to 'calm down' in my voice. When she calls out 'Babe' he ALWAYS answers her with a 'Yeah'. If she asks me from another room if I want this or that....Huey will generally answer with an "ok", "no", "what?" or something appropriate for the question, always in my voice. What's really cute is that I have convinced him that Mommy loves big muscles. I have taught him to 'workout' in front of mommy. He will raise his wings and bring them down and do a 'whoosh' sound. He'll generally do this 4-5 times while Marietta oohsss and awwwess over him. Huey also constantly asks for a 'shower'. A shower is basically, Marietta gets in her tub, and I bring Huey to just outside the entrance of the bathroom and put him on the floor. He will then puff up and strut into the bathroom where he gets lots of ewwws and awwwwss. He then proceeds to hang out next to her inside the cubby hole under the sink and bangs around like a construction worker. It really sounds like he's busy building something in there. One day I made the mistake of getting in the tub and quickly found out that was off limits. It's one of the few times that Huey has launched an attack across a room and nailed me. I'm not allowed in mommies love tub as we call it. Huey does get me into trouble a lot because he will get short with her and smart off in the exact same way I do. He's always telling her "oh Marietta...." or grumbling in a low voice like I do when I've had about enough talking for the day. Marietta LOVES to tell me, "you see how you talk to me sometimes" Ok, thanks Huey, I don't really need help getting myself in trouble.

Tinkerbell is doing fine now. She's back to biting me and giving me strong corrections. Conures do tend to have big-billy-bad-a** syndrome. Gram-for-gram though, the scrappiest fighter of all my birds is Toby my Caique. He will take on GreycieMae and has won that battle a couple times. I don't let them all have fight-nights but sometimes the idiots will find an opportunity to get it on.