Tucker5590 Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 HI! My husband Butch has wanted a grey for as long as I've known him. We finally have one. He is an 18 year old, who is still getting used to us. We are excited about having Grumpy as part of our family, but are aware we have a lot of work ahead of us. I am sure we will learn a lot from some of you! ~Ashley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JillyBeanz Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 Hi Ashley, welcome to you, Butch and Grumpy (what a fab name)! Karma to you for taking on an older grey - it's a great thing you have done. There is tons of information available, and lots of members have adopted older greys and are on hand to give advice. Looking forward to hearing more about you all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvparrots Posted January 6, 2010 Share Posted January 6, 2010 Hi Ashley, karma to you for taking in an older grey. Grumpy sounds like wonderful grey. Can't wait to see some pictures and hear more about him. Welcome to the Grey Family! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tucker5590 Posted January 7, 2010 Author Share Posted January 7, 2010 Thanks for the welcome. I will get some pics posted later. I love photography about as much as we love our pets so there is never a shortage of pics of our babies. Grumpy's first owner handled him, but the guy we got him from, who only had him for 3 months, was not able to handle him. Also, the guy we got him from is single and lived alone, so Grumpy was alone a lot during that time. Fortunatly, he realized the need for attention. He will never be alone at our house. Most of the time some of the humans are here, but when we are gone - we have a cockatiel, 2 parakeets and a long hair chihuahua to keep him company. I believe we will be able to bond with Grumpy in time. We spend a lot of time sitting close to the cage, talking to him. He is not ready for us to hold him yet, but we do open the cage and he comes and explores. Hopefully I will have time this weekend to read some of the threads and learn some do's and don'ts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katana600 Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 Welcome to the forum. You are so wise to realize that it will take some time for Grumpy to get acclimated to your home and family. Every moment of patience that you give him will pay handsome dividends when you gain his trust. I love his name because it reminds me of a favorite movie, Grumpy Old Men. I am sure it will bring many laughs in time when you get past the introduction phase and learn more about his scintillating personality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danmcq Posted January 7, 2010 Share Posted January 7, 2010 Welcome Ashley and Grumpy! It's GreYt having you here. It is always good to hear of someone willing to take in a fully mature Grey in need of a good loving ome. :-) Looking forward to hearing more and seeing some photos when you get a chance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tucker5590 Posted January 9, 2010 Author Share Posted January 9, 2010 Thanks for all the encouragement! We do realize this is goign to take time, and we have a lifetime...but the being patient and waiting is tough. We know it will be worth it though! Butch has been bitten several times. I have not been yet. He takes food from our hand. We open his cage door every day and he goes in and out as he pleases. The 1st time I let him out was early in the morning, before anyone else got up. He got down and walked around the house checking things out. I just followed him telling him what everything was. He and Rascal(the dog) checked each other out closer than before without any problem. Instead of chasing him an putting him back in the cage, we took it off the stand and sat it in the floor until he got back on it. He hasn't gotten off the cage again. Today I finally took the Christmas tree down and he was very interested- I thought he was going to help. I was very close to him back and forth and he never offerd to bite me. Someday he will be relaxed enough to let me hold him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tucker5590 Posted January 9, 2010 Author Share Posted January 9, 2010 I believe Grumpy talks, but he hasn't spoken for us yet. He has whistled a few different things, wolf whistle, bob-white, and Butch said today he whistled Red River Valley. He also has quacked like a duck, and growled like a dog. He waves at us when we say hi. He is quite skiddish of new things, but I know that is normal. I got him a new toy and it scared him, so I took it out of his cage and hung it on the outside with little bits of it sticking in through the bars. I will move it inside when he starts to pick at it. We have a 7 year old cockatiel, Sunshine, who we got when she was still being hand-fed. Grumpy watches as she comes out to play. I think this will also help him. We also are keeping my parents parakeets, Pete and Gracie indefinatly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luvparrots Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 You have the right attitude Ashley. It all takes time and lots of patience. That Grumpy is whistling and making sounds is encouraging. Can't wait to hear what Grumpy has to say, thanks for the update. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tucker5590 Posted January 10, 2010 Author Share Posted January 10, 2010 I thought it was a good sign that Grumpy is verbal with us. I just know that in time he will talk to us and let us hold him. He seems quite content most of the time. His cage has been sitting in front of the Christmas tree since Micah brought him to us just before Christmas. Today I re-arranged a few things in the den and sat his cage beside the couch. He seems to like being right here beside me. he has been in and out of his cage all evening. He even took a bite of carrot from my soup off my spoon as I ate supper tonight. I sound like I did when my babies were little! Every little thing excited me. LOL! He did fly off the cage this afternoon and sat on top of the aquairum for a long time. (it has a grate on top so he can not fall in) I think he was visiting with the other birds- their cage is beside the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summerc25 Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 Karma to you for taking in a grey who needed a new forever home! I am so pleased for Grumpy that he has found a good loving home that will keep him forever. That is good news that he is coming around One thing I wanted to point out is to make sure grumpy has a bite of your food before you do or put some to the side for him because greys really should not eat after humans at all. You may already know that and have done that, just wanted to make sure I have to be careful about kisses because shaka zulu always tries to grab my lip with his beak when he kisses me and I try to only kiss the top of his beak because our saliva is not good for them. Can't wait to see pics of Grumpy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tucker5590 Posted January 10, 2010 Author Share Posted January 10, 2010 Thanks Summer! I actually did feed him from a separate piece of food, because I have a cold, but I didn't think about sharing with him in general being a problem. I posted one pic of Grumpy here...but I am not sure if I can figure out how to get to it again. LOL. I am still learning my way around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tucker5590 Posted January 10, 2010 Author Share Posted January 10, 2010 I found it! It is under my info on my profile page. There are also other pics of him and my dog, and my kids and grandkids, and wild birds, and flower and well... anything else that I can get to sit still for a photo session at www.flickr.com/Tucker5590 Does anyone else here flickr? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Summerc25 Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 Grumpy is a gorgeous grey! Ugh I have a cold too hehe I think with the weather lately we probably all do!lol Yes I always have to be very careful of that because Shaka zulu's natural reaction is to want what I have. Like if I try to give him something from a separate plate, he wants it from my plate. So I try to just keep it to the side away from my food. Tonight we had salad and I put lettuce, tomato, etc on a separate plate for him. He crunched on a bite for a minute then threw the lettuce in the floor lol I don't think he was a fan of lettuce lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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