KevinD

Everything happens for a reason, though you may not see it at the time. Down the road you will.

Sorry for your disappointment.

Had the same problem. I broke apart one of the Parrot chew toys with the wooden dowels and just handed them to her one by one. She was content to perch in the cage chewing on the dowels.

Do not know if that would help you or not, but it is something to try

Not sure what to make of this... After several nights of playing the music softly, today my wife calls me and said she turned on her regular daytime music. Heard a lot of vocal stuff coming from Sukie and she went out to the living room and she is dancing, not just a little head bob, but getting down on it LOL.

She doesn't speak yet (Just the regular sound effects stuff)

Do not know where she got it from, besides the TV maybe.... lol

Thanks for the words of encouragement.

Like I said, Im in it for the long haul.

Judy,

Are you a Clint Eastwood fan? You say "this practice will not stop until people quit buying these animals and you have only contributed to the problem"

Id like to quote from a movie of his. Paraphrase "When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butcher knife and a "explitive", I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross. I am going to shoot him and ask questions later.

I walked in to a bird sweat shop if you will, and took one of these poor tortured birds out of there. I do not see how I contributed to the problem.

I knew nothing about this wild capture thing before last month.

If you saw what they were doing to these birds, you would want to get them all out of there.

Off my soap box.

Still reading.

I almost hesitate to offer any advise, but for what it is worth, I think, Sukie made great progress for the first few weeks and she kinda went into no more progress mode.

Tried all kinds of new toys, and really letting her/him have his own way.

Ah im just going to say she, I think she is from what I can read....the grey outline on the red thing, whatever it does not matter it is just hard to type without he/she.

I think after talking to the Arab hacks down at the market she is wild caught, they admit it. Get a boatload in from Africa on ships carting arms and what ever will make a buck, which explains why she makes monkey noises.

She has been very skittish after the great progress she made in the first three weeks

Any how now to the advise, I found she likes David Foster the Symphony sessions CD.

She calms down and purrs and falls to sleep quickly.

I am in it for the long run, all we have is time.

Please forgive me for giving advise as a newbie, but it isnt anything that can hurt your loved one, so what the heck LOL.

Take it for what it is worth.

Just hoping to get to the point where I can give some insight to others, everything I have read says Sukei is adjusting a little fast..... maybe I am pushing too fast, but Sukei just does it when I put up new challenges....

It is still very scary at some levels, she balks a little, but she quit doing the nervous stuff, ie feather yanking, and toe chewing......

Im no authority on the matter but she seems to like tree plants around.... Maybe because it is some what native...... I dunno.

Thanks for the replies, Ill keep updating

Well, it has been three weeks, and Sukei is making progress.

Now in and out of the cage and on a perch.

Still can not handle yet, but getting close

lovely pics, what a view! thats one lucky bird

I think it is I who am lucky, Sukei is really settling in.

Thanks all for the information I have found here.

Will try to contribute when I get a little more experience

Well it has been one week, and Sukei is settling in, still a little skittish.

Thought I would share these photos of Sukei taking in the beach front view of the Persian Gulf.

Truley a "Bird's Eye View"

Finally got a good look at Sukei's leg band. It simply says 1014.

As it came from a parrot mill in the Middle East I am going to assume I got lied to....hate being that way... Anyways they say she/he is less then a year old, but everything I see says she is older...bright red tail, light yellow eyes...

Could the band mean 1/4/2010? They read everything backwards here lol.

It does not make any difference to me, I fell in love at first sight, but I am curious what you all might think.

It is a split band.

Welcome, we newbies Should be an interesting ride.

I looked over several websites, and these forums seemed to be the most helpful, friendly and informative that I found. Very community like.

Hope you enjoy the reading and learning as much as I have so far.

Thanks everyone. Not knowing if it is male or female yet, we named her.him Sukei (Dont ask lol) To get Sukei back to the states I have to get him/her micro chipped and vaccinated with travel papers. Thought I would give it 30 days before I move Sukei again.

It is banded (Broken Ring) but as of yet can not get close enough to read the band. Sukei may or may not be smuggled, hard to tell, guess Ill get a better idea when I look at the band.

Sukei comes straight up out of the cage and perches all day, likes the shower (Spray Bottle) but will not get in hand yet.

I did find something curious though, I'm sitting in the chair next to Sukie and every time I raise my hand she raises her right talon. At first I thought it coincidence, not thinking there would be any kind of showing off before getting comfortable enough to ride the hand, but it happens every time LOL.

Again thanks for the welcome.

After much research and soul searching we decided to include a an African Grey into our family.

I found a lot of useful and informative information here.

I am currently in the Middle East and found a breeder. They didn't seem to treat the birds to well at all.

Birds were yanked out of cages and tossed from customer to customer with most of the birds clearly voicing their displeasure.

I saw one small little guy hunkered down in the back of a cage just shaking so badly.

I looked him in the eye, and it was almost a cry for rescue.

So we paid the man his money, and got him out of there.

He seems to have started settling down and will climb to the top of his cage, but I am taking my time with it, and letting him do his thing and get adjusted.

I am sure I will gleen more wisdom from here and thank you again.