SRSeedBurners

We fight over cheddar cheese. GreycieMae tells me, back in the wild they would milk cows and make cheddar cheese for all the Greys to eat. I don't believe it.

That's super special you now have Marden's parents. Hopefully one day they'll get to fly around in an aviary and return to a semi-normal life. Love seeing the videos of them.

Well, they are HER magnets. You obviously need a refresher on the rules of parrot ownership. You should have seen the battle we had the other night over some eggnog. Toby the Caique decided mama was drinking his eggnog and pitched a half hour fit picking fights with everyone in the house because she wouldn't give it to him.

Ok, I remember speaking about the Caique. Yeah, Caiques need to come with a little hoodie that says "Step aside punks - Caique is here" printed on it. I didn't mean convert your whole house, I meant one room if you can spare a room. Makes a world of difference.

You mentioned you have a Caique? Any other birds? We started out with the birds in the central living area like you. It got to be too much for my wife to handle - nonstop pulling Greycie off ever damn thing in the living room and kitchen. She would even hang off the wall trim in our living room and chew the corners. That kind of stuff just pisses me off to no end because like my wife mentioned - you can't have anything nice. Anyway, we ended up moving our three birds into a bedroom that I had setup as my office. That worked for about 5 minutes. I ended up covering my desk and chair and everything with blankets to keep them from destroying it. Finally we decided to hell with it, we're going full on bird room. Ripped out carpet, painted the concrete slab, painted walls, faced all the door jambs with plain pine boards on entry door and the double closet door. I also attached pine boards to the ceiling and installed eye bolts. It's now a birdy jungle gym and they're free to tear up anything and everything in there. It took A LOT of stress off my wife as she is the one home with them all day. I also installed a camera so we can watch them. The reason I ask if you do have other birds is your Grey will use them as company when they are alone if you were to setup a similar type of bird room. I brings back some sanity in trying to deal with these monsters and still give them some freedom rather than being locked away all the time. Oh and I think it's funny you said your Caique is an easy bird to deal with. The only benefit to our Toby is his beak is not as destructive. His problem is he NEVER stops and once he wraps his little head around doing something you're in for a non-stop fight trying to get him to stop. He spends so much time in time-out it's ridiculous. He thinks everything is his and no one is allowed to touch and he's constantly picking fights. When it's bird room time and we're away from the house where we can't quickly shut down any issues he has to stay locked up for the sake of every other birdy in there.

Haa..you mentioned chewing on your stuff as misbehaving, that's just a happy content Grey. They can't decipher between good and bad things to chew on. As my wife just said the other day: "I'll never have anything nice in this house again".

Great advice from someone who's been there done that!

Same situation here: our Caique and our Jardines ride in their pak-o-bird like kids strapped in a child seat. Our CAG however is a nightmare. I fight to get her in there. Then I fight to get her to stop tearing up the inside. I guess that's why they say Greys are not a beginner bird - so many thing you can do with others that Greys are persnickety about. When we go for a ride or I have to take Greycie anywhere it turns into one of those "take your Grey with you they said...it will be fun they said..." kind of deals. I get back wondering why the hell I didn't just leave her ass home and locked up all day instead of taking her. But on the other talon, I'd go through all that in a heartbeat on a daily basis before I'd ever re-home her. Is it possible you can find some help looking after the Grey? Don't know where you live but I've mentioned to others on other sites in my area that I'd foster someones bird while they get through their rough patch before I'd want to see them re-home.

First thought that comes to my mind is - I'd be packing the birdy around in a pak-o-bird, with the rest of the kids! Them human kids will grow up and be gone taking care of themselves. Your TAG however is 100% dependent on us humans forever. I'm afraid you'll regret letting the TAG go. If you're like me you'll always wonder about them and regret, just like I miss my first CAG that I lost to a divorce 20+ years ago. I've started taking my Greycie everywhere with me in her new Pak-o-bird. I don't get much time at home so I try to maximize my time with her.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! And remember to return the parrot to the perch - haahaaahaaa!!!

The funny thing about telling them 'no': I swear they believe it's optional, like merely just a suggestion. I got struck in the side of the head yesterday after the 5th time of scolding GreycieMae with a stern 'NO' trying to get the zipper teeth off my jacket. She got tired of my 'suggestion' and decided to reprimand me for suggesting 'NO' too many times. I must be very dense from her perception.

They do grow up quick! GreycieMae just had her third birthday on Halloween. Couldn't imagine life without them.

Yeah, we never got around to it either. All my free time is getting sucked up taking care of a #!* horse.

Trying to figure out what he's sitting on? Where's the keyboard? He looks awfully close. Mine has taken to sitting behind the laptop and playing peek-a-boo or just plain preening. She loves it.

Center of attention! He's a cutie.

I'm starting to think I need to put GreycieMae on the diet plan. She's about to hit the big 500.

You and me both. This thread was here two years before I joined. I've almost asked for cliff notes before but I think I got the jist from scanning a few pages.

Does it count if the contact call is a fart sound? It's gotten so bad around here that our Jardines now does the fart sound contact call.

If you are her favored one I don't believe the transition to a new living space is much of an issue at all if you are around. I think it's more important to them that their flock is wherever they are. So many people travel with Greys and have no issues. I would be more concerned if the husband was taking her as she won't interact physically with him.

Super hard to resist giving that a "tickle-tickle-tickle"...

She's so chill because she's probably logged over a hundred hours on that fan. It's one of those monster 72inch bladed fans that use the shape of the blade to move air rather than sheer force by speed. On the lowest setting I can put her on it and she can ride it with one foot up - that's how slow it will spin and that's speed we use so it won't harm anybirdy. Our biggest problem is she LOVES to reach down and grab a nice chunk of the wood to chew on while she spins. That's what has gotten her banned from it for several months.

I've come across that motor a couple of times and have decided it probably isn't heavy duty enough. The one perch that Greycie LOVES to go round and round on weighs about 30 pounds. Then put her little fatty on it and it weight 31.5 pounds! I need something that is heavy duty and spins about 10-15rpm.

Yeah, we have to be careful or somebirdy around here tries to pull out the plates and smash them on the counter below.

Oh wow, your original post said around Feb. Sooner the better! (as long as they're properly weaned). Sweet picture of the baby!

When GreycieMae was that age, we went to see her at the breeders home and she was flying around like a full grown Grey. She *may* have been 14 or 15 weeks old at that point but you could tell she was a pro flyer at that point and had been for a while. Do you plan to keep baby flighted? Can you let her out with you and see how she does. I hope you've gone through all the safety measuers: ceiling fans, cooktops, open doors etc. It takes a while to train YOUR brain to the fact you have a bird free flying in your home. One of the breeders here will know more than me about a 12 week olds flying ability but I believe it should be more controlled by now.