Mater's Mom

[freedaw]

Hi everyone,

New to the forum and I have found it to be very helpful already. I've had birds for most my life but my 6 month old CAG named Mater is my first Grey and my heart has been stolen! "He's" not sexed yet but next month he will be. Extremely lovable and just wants to be skritched. Not a big toy enthusiast yet but we're working on that thanks to some tips on this board. Gurgles but no speech. I'm hoping he will though. One thing I would like to ask...Last night, it was almost like he had night frights. He thrashed in his cage for about an hour. Lost 3 tailfeathers. When I opened the cage, he flew out. It was almost like he didn't want back in. I held him for a bit and finally got him calm. I haven't found any threads yet on this. Is it a common thing for them to do? Looking forward to talking with you all. Pics of Mater and the crew soon.

Thanks for any help! Terri

[she]

Hi and welcome .I am glad you are finding the forum helpful.The gurgles will turn into words I am sure.With regards to night frights,they are far more common in cockatiels,especially the lutino tiels for some reason. It sounds like Mater got spooked by something,have you introduced anything new to his care or suroundings.Sometimes car headlights shining in the window at night can spook them.Do you cover him at night?It will most likely be a one off.

[Eckobird]

Hi Terri, welcome to the forum! Have long have you had Mater? I also have a 6 month old CAG named Ecko, his hatch date is 2-2-09, whats Maters HD?.

 

About the night frights, was this the first time he did this? Did you add something new to Maters cage that caused him to get scared? After you calmed him down was he ok to go back in?

 

Anyways, I hope to hear more from you and Mater. Can't wait to see some pics of him and the crew soon, we love pics around here.

[judygram]

Hello Terri and welcome to our family, we are so glad you could join us and we look forward to hearing more about you and Mater.

 

That is an interesting name for a grey, how did you come to name him/her that?

 

Night frights do happen to some greys and you did all you could do to help him get over it, he needs reassurance that all is well then back into the cage. You might have to leave a night light on if it is pitch black in the room or vice versa, sometimes some light can cause shadows that may frighten them also.

 

He has plenty of time to talk as he is only 6 months old, my Josey didn't talk until she was a year old and some others may be even longer so just be patient.

 

As you are already finding out we do have a wealth of useful information in our many threads so do read thru them and ask questions you may have and we will help you in any way we can.

 

We love pictures here so if you have some of Mater you would share with us we would appreciate it very much.

[freedaw]

Oh my,

Thanks to you all for answering so quickly! Mater's hatch date was 2/6/09. So, Caitb, ours are very close in age. After reading and thinking about it a little more, it is possible that headlights could have caused a shadow against the blinds. Their room is in the front of the house. The room has a huge window with an arch. We are one of the entrance homes in our subdivision and anyone that turns in will definately shine their lights towards our home. This happened around 1:30 am. Mater's cage is not normally covered but thinking about it now, it would probably be a good idea. We have had him for 1 month. His name comes from the movie "Cars". The tow truck in the movie was named "tow-mater":..."mater" for short. Cute, cute movie. Also, one of the first veggies he ate was a tomato. Seemed like a good fit.

Thanks to you all so much! Will definately do the photobucket thing and post a few pics.

[Luvparrots]

Hi Terri, I'm looking forward to hearing more about Mater. Can't wait to see some pictures. Welcome to the grey family!

[danmcq]

Welcome freedaw and Mater!!

 

It's GreYt having you here.

 

The fright could have been caused by many things, as others commented on. If it's not a normal occurrence, I would chalk it up to something you could not sense, but your Grey did.

 

Looking forward to hearing more. :-)

[Tycos_mom]

Your bird is 1 day older than my Baby Grey Adaya was hatched on 2/7/09 Its grey't that you have joined our family I'll look forward to getting to know Mater and yourself you will love this forum lots of friendly very Knowledgeable people that are very willing to share.

[lovethatgrey]

Emma had a night fright once. It was really frightening for all of us. Now I keep her cage partially covered at night so she doesn't get startled by any moving shadows or street lights.

 

This is a bit off topic but here's a video of her where she is frighted of the shadows on the ceiling in broad daylight and I add insult to injury by zooming in. My poor Cookie.

 

She's 11 months old in this video

 

edited by: lovethatgrey, at: 2009/08/03 01:53

[freedaw]

Emma is adorable! Great video of the fright. I checked out some of your others while I was there. The I love you one is precious! Since I posted this the other day, I started half covering Mater's cage. It hasn't happened anymore so I guess it will be a nightly ritual. When we're home, he's on his grapevine tree in the living room or usually on me. I'm taking an online course in the evenings after work and he sure does make it hard to get anything accomplished. Thanks for sharing the videos!

 

Terri

[freedaw]

That's so neat that ours are only one day apart. It's going to be interesting to see how each of them progress. Mater is at the point where he just gurgles a bit but he's started playing with toys a little more now since last week. I changed the type of toy I had in his cage from a hard plastic to something shredable. It seems to have made a big difference. He's still more of a lover than anything else. Does Adaya like a bath yet?

[Tycos_mom]

I've had Adaya since she was 5weeks old so I think I had an advantage when it came to bathing because we started so early she loves to bath and doesn't much care how she gets wet as long as she does. she is so funny She loves every single toy she has in her cage and attacks them Growling and hanging upside down and swinging She has an enormous cage so there is tons of room in there for lots of toys and perches she has a grand time. I think that having other birds around has really helped her to learn thing quicker and when she was younger I took her with me everywhere I went I started harness training at 10 weeks old. She is still a big mush and when she's out in the morning before the other birds get up that's our time and she just will not leave me for anything she wants to be with me checking out everything she can be so silly she loves to play on her back and she will actually climb up onto my head and the fling herself upside down off my head so I will have to catch her while she upside down so silly she sure trust me though she also loves to wrestle with me she rolls over and boxes with her feet and I will gently shake her beak and poke her all over. so much fun I hope she never loses her playfulness but she probably will as she gets older.