Advice on buying CAG from petstore

[mrmontana]

Hello all,

 

Need some advice. First off just a little background.. My wife and I have owned a beautiful TAG for the past 3 years. She is a wonderful bird that we bought from a Breeder and had her flown to our place here in Washington State. She is extremely attached to me the male and does enjoy the company of my wife but whenever I enter the picture she will quickly fly to me and stay with me no matter what! The funny thing is I bought her for my wife but she "chose" me and is now my bird and I love her to death. We have dedicated a nice room for her with tons of toys and gyms hanging from the ceiling complete with UV lighting etc.. Her cage is always open and she is never locked inside. We do however close her in her room when we leave the house for work etc.. I would say she gets 6-8 hours a day of human interaction.. Now this is where I am in need of advice..

 

We often frequent pet stores just to see other birds and whatnot. Recently my wife has fallen in love with a new resident of the local pet store here in town.. a Congo African Gray.. this poor guy has been in the store for 1 month or so and has had he tip of his left toe bitten off by a rather rude Scarlet Macaw. At any rate me and my wife have returned to visit multiple times and have now thought about buying him.. He seems to love my wife but does not like me which is fine since I have my Andi (female TAG I mentioned earlier). When we started asking about the history of this CAG we got 2 different stories from the pet store workers and the owner did not have papers on him/her and the poor CAG has no band?!! So I asked what age and have heard anywhere from 2-5 years old.. They want a pretty penny 1400.00 for him.. I am willing to pay but just want to get some outside heads in on this idea of ours.. In a perfect world we would like to put him/her in the bird room with our TAG and hope they get along.. we would ofcourse introduce him/her slowly to our Andi and supervise interacions. Is this a good idea? or should we put in separate rooms? Also.. if this Congo turns out to be a male, would he breed with our TAG? Just not sure if we are being wreckless here, please advise. Thank you so much.

[judygram]

It is typical of greys to favor one person over another and even though you bought Andi for your wife she prefers you and there is not much you can do about it but accept it.

If you want to get this Cag then by all means do so but he will require his own cage and the two of them may or may not get along but do introduce them slowly to one another after a quarantine period for this one from the pet store could have been exposed to all kinds of diseases from other birds and a vet visit would be in order also.

I don't think you will have any problems with them ever breeding as Cags and Tags do not interbreed and besides pet greys usually won't anyways. We have other members here who have more than one grey and they usually share a bird room where they have their own separate cages but interact with one another during the day when they are out.

Be sure to let us know what you are going to do.

[danmcq]

Welcome mrmontana. Judy pretty much covered it all, in regards your questions.

 

It sounds like your home would be a wonderful place for this CAG to find love and great treatment in.

 

I look forward to hearing what you decide to do.

Edited December 29, 2010 by danmcq

[Greywings]

I think the price is too high for a bird with a toe missing and a confused background. The bird deserves a good safe home of his own for sure. Maybe the employees have confused his story with that of another bird perhaps the owner or manager of the store could straighten out the confusion and may come down on the price if you discuss the variables with him and insure an excellent home situation. We have one Timneh and 2 CAG's at the house along with an Umbie Too and an Elanora Too. None of our Greys get along very well, The Timneh is a male and chases the girls or gets territorial about his area. Whisper the largest most silver of the three loves me best and stays on her cage unless frightened, Pookie the older woman Congo came with nervous plucking issues which have improved but not completely stopped and she does best by herself but goes off on jaunts about the house frequently so can not be loose unless supervised. Gunner the TAG came to us with no feathers at all except on his head, now he has feathers and he shares space nicely with our Elanora they ignore each other. Each bird is unique and has it's own preferences and quirks.

[birdhouse]

A number of owners will remove bands because they believe that they're potentially dangerous. A micro chipped is theoretically for ever, though. You might check to see if this bird's chipped.

 

Once a grey is grown there isn't any way to determine its age if it's separated from it's history which it seems pretty likely this bird has been. But the shop needs to keep records of where they acquired their stock. You can only ask for whatever they'll tell you & judge the situation accordingly.

 

It's always going to depend on the personalities of the individuals involved when it comes to socializing multiple critters of the same or different type. That includes both the fids & parronts.

 

However, as Judy said, a new bird should be quarantined for 30 days before introduction. No bird should come in contact with anything that the other does.

 

A vet exam should be made as soon as possible even if there wasn't already other bird in residence. Birds hide symptoms extremely well. A grey in a new environment rarely acts normally for quite a while. Also, most reputable pet stores only offer warranties on livestock with a vet exam in a limited period of time.

 

Adopting a parrot is always a risk. Theoretically, there should be some less risks thru a pet shop because of the legalities. But this bird sounds like it should be treated as a totally unknown commodity. Which realistically is always true, anyway. If both your heart & your head say you can work with that, then it sounds like you've found each other & we'll be looking forward to all your pictures, stories & questions.

 

In other words, welcome to the family

[Luvparrots]

Hey MrMontana welcome to you and your wife and grey, Andi! I am a fan of TAGs as my Ana Grey is a petite little jewel that I love to death! I too am from Washington State, small town by the Columbia River the otherside of Oregon State. $1,400 is a little spendy, really a lot spendy in this economy so I would try a little "talking down" of price if you can. But the heart wants what the hearts wants so if Mrs.Montana has fallen for this grey and you believe he/she will fit into your family, I say Valentine's Day is coming up!!!! Welcome to the Grey family!!!

[mrmontana]

Thank you all so much for the advice. I spent hours on this site last night and had no idea how much we bird people are so much alike. I was starting to think I was going crazy, and I know my friends are already thinking that. People just dont understand birds and how much they can get into our hearts. I will definately keep you posted on the CAG situation. I plan on visiting the store this evening (if the snow lightens up) and will have a talk with the manager as a couple of you have suggested. Here is a picture I was able to snap of him hanging out with my wife last night at the store. Thanks again!

[Acappella]

Yeah, we're a little nuts, but in the same way, so it's all good. If you bring this guy home make sure you are totally prepared for the quarantine process. It's time consuming and a pain in the tail feathers, but sooooo important. I'd also book an appointment with your avian vet so you can take him straight from the store to a check-up, considering how imcomplete the background information on him is. I'm with you though, I'd just want to scoop him up and smuggle him out of the store, poor little guy. Let us know what happens.

[mrmontana]

Again thanks for all the help from everyone, this site is really amazing. We braved the snow tonight and went out into Spokane to have another look at our potential flock mate. He seemed to get along extremely well with my wife but would back away if I tried to touch him or get him to step up. Something interesting that I wanted to bring up to you all is happening. We noticed he has all his flight feathers and seems to want to fly. He would sometimes lift his wings while looking at something and start to quiver them?? I asked the store owner if they have ever seen him fly and they said he has not flown since they aquired him a month ago. He is out of his cage about an hour or so a day and infact when we walked into the store this evening he was out and on top of a giant net they have hanging from thier cieling. Any ideas why a seemingly mature fully flighted CAG wont fly? Our TAG flies everywhere and is an expert navigator in our 4 level house.. She will fly down to the basement and back up to the top floor on the same wind! The petstore CAG I have mentioned almost seems afraid to fly?

[Acappella]

My Dorian was clipped before he was allowed to fledge, then totally cage bound for the first 4 years of his life. Since I got him a little over four years ago he has had his full flight feathers but only flys 'accidentally', when something scares him. He has finally seemed to realize what his wings are for, and once in a while when I'm not coming fast enough when calls me he has started to take off from his cage, but it's blind flight. He doesn't have any control over where he ends up, and his landings are awful (but getting better). If I hear wings, I have to go searching for him because he will not call out to me from where he's landed. This is why I feel so strongly about letting our birds keep their full wings. It's so sad to me to see Dorian on his cage looking like he wants to take off and fly, much like you described the pet store bird doing, but then settling back on his cage and calling for me to come to him. I've often thought if I had another bird in the house that was an accomplished flyer maybe Dorian could learn from a flock mate, but I don't have the resources to take on another bird. Maybe your TAG could be a flight instructor for this guy!

[Ray P]

First things first. Welcome to the grey forum. If this grey is ment to be with you than things will work out and I wish you luck.

Sounds like each of you will could have their own spec. (bird or person)(lookind at it both ways)

We are lucky that Corky our CAG is a people bird and seams to take to almost every one

What ever you do let us know as we love to share storys.

[chezron]

Good luck with your search. I think if it were me in your situation, I would require a visit to the vet before buying the bird, or make the sale contingent on a clean bill of health. It is peculiar that the bird won't fly. Will he allow you to touch his wings? I would seriously find out about his background from the pet store. I mean, they obtained the bird from somewhere or someone, and must have SOME idea about the bird's history. If not, could it be stolen? Just a thought.

[Luvparrots]

I have an older re-homed male ekkie. He was found in a car wash so must have been flighted about 10 years ago. He was turned over to the local pet store and clipped so when I got him 1 1/2 years ago he hadn't flown for at least 7 1/2 years. Sully has all his flights now and if I launch him off he can fly from here to there. He really doesn't try on his own perhaps it is because my home is small and he has a large wingspan as he is a large male eclectus. He is a rather laid-back guy so perhaps he just loves to walk around instead. I do launch him off now and then because I would love to see him fly as my grey and my zon so enjoy the gift of flight. If your wife really wants to re-home this pet store grey she should and perhaps flight will follow.