New Grey and Family

[Samy]

I posted this in the training room as well, didn't realize I was supposed to put it in the introduction room first.

 

Our son has a disability and refuses to talk. Nothing physical nor mentally wrong just refuses. We spend almost every weekend at the zoo as he adores animals (more then people most times). With him going on 13 we started years ago trying things non-conventional. Our first attempt was our husky Singer, now 7 yrs old, she was supposed to encourage our son to talk by him helping us train her. Instead he taught her sign language. She sits on command by mouth as well as sign and about half a dozen others. So recently a speech therapist suggested we get a parrot as they would encourage our son to speak and would not be swayed by the sign language. He suggested a Grey going on about intelligence and claimed to know a place to get one. That was our first crazy mistake. We went through everything read up did everything else and got things together. Got told there was the perfect bird for us got Ziggy were told she would be perfect for what our family needed. Right off the bat she was quiet and seemed docile my son sat next to the cage and said HI to her and she said hello. He was even able to give her an almond through the cage and she took it very nicely. We got home got her all set up near a window so she would have decent light and be able to have fresh air on the nice days.

Things went decent that first day we tried to give her space so I didn't take her out of the cage as I wanted to let her get used to us and the other animals in the house as we have 2 cats and 2 dogs. Also wanted the other animals to get used to her. Our older cat ignored her and wants nothing to do with her when she is out of her cage he goes into my room and goes to sleep and Singer just goes about her business unless she flys over her then she wants to chase which I see as normal as Singer is a husky. The younger cat wants to catch Ziggy but they are on equal ground as they are the same size and Ziggy has already nipped her tail so Boots knows better then to get too close. Our other dog is too old to chase but is kind of jealous as Ziggy has seemed to take to my husband.

Which now leads to where our problem has set in. Ziggy has "chosen" my husband so to speak she won't bite him will step up on his arm and coo's to him whines when he leaves the room and will cuddle with him when she is out. The problem is when anyone else tries to go over to the cage to even speak to her she attacks the cage and makes a clicking noise at them. Unless someone has food then she will take the food nicely put it in her foot and then attack. If she is sitting with my husband on his chair and anyone or any animal goes near the chair or even walks by the chair she will puff up and lunge. Just recently she was flying around, which she can only do when the kids are not in the living room which in terms means not home, and she didn't want to go back in her cage I made the mistake of walking into the room to close to my husband to give him something he had asked for and she landed on my head and bit me above my eyebrow came very close to taking out my eye. My husband is torn obviously the guy who sold us Ziggy was way less then honest and she has already attached herself to him and he adores her. He just doesn't know what to do with her to make her safe to stay in our home.

I have dealt with Loris, Parakeets, Conures, and Lovebirds all during my younger years as my Dad loved birds and although I know that Conures are much different in all my years I have never dealt with a bird with behavior and jealousy issues of this magnitude. Her cage is chock full of toys, we talk to her regularly but keep our distance. I feed her every morning, never showing fear. I monitor the kids with her but continue a daily routine of them communicating with her. I can't let her join us at meal time without her cage. I refuse to allow her to do to any of my children what she did to me. Does anyone have any ideas?

Also I can't get her to eat any veggies she won't touch them, she will only eat fruit if it is put through the blender and warm it alittle and even then only 2 or 3 baby spoons of it a day. Most mornings I can slip a baby spoon of blendered veggies and a baby spoon of fruit into a teaspoon of oatmeal and get her to eat a couple of spoonfuls. I'm very worried about her health as far as nourishment. She will eat nuts like they are going out of style but I won't let her have too many of those and I keep her food dish full of the zupreem food, water is changed 4 or 5 times a day as she loves throwing everything in it. Any extra advice is appreciated.

[MarcusCAG]

Hello Samy,

 

Welcome to Greyforums... I just read over your thread in the training room and skimmed over your post here when I saw there were two. First off, I'm sorry about that nasty bite. Ziggy obviously has some issues that she's dealing with right now, and that your family is consequently dealing with now, too. My question though, is how long have you had Ziggy? If you mentioned that already and I just missed it, I'm sorry. But sometimes these issues these intelligent Greys have can take a LONG while to get worked out of them, until a decent level of trust is built and they understand everyone's various places in their new household. If Ziggy is still new to your family, this might be 'growing pains', but of course you will need to take precautions to protect everyone involved in the meanwhile--including Ziggy.

 

In terms of Ziggy's diet though, I would say at this point, don't sweat it too much. It took our Marcus quite some time to accept solid vegetables and eat them with enjoyment on his own. We've had him about nine months now, he's close to nine years old and didn't have the best situation(s) before we adopted him. He took to the organic pellets we switched him to almost immediately, and he enjoyed fruits and then almonds in the shell, but for a while he would just pick out his veggies from the grains/beans mix I would make him, and he'd just toss raw veggies on the floor of his cage. For a little while I would nearly puree the greens and such and he'd eat a bit of that on and off, apparently according to his own whims. Now, finally, I found that he likes the full-sized big leafy greens and will eat those... don't know if it's just the timing, or if he hated the 'baby greens' so much, but the stores nearest us only carry the baby stuff so it took me a while to find him anything other than that to try and give him. So perhaps my point is, if she's still VERY new to your household, as long as she's eating regularly and your vet isn't worried, just let her relax into things on her own and keep offering the various foods--I had stopped for a while with Marcus, but a friendly reminder here prompted me to try again. And it paid off! Hopefully your Ziggy will come around in time, too.

 

And as regards your other questions: I know that someone else will post after me who will be able to help you better than I could, I just am sorry you're dealing with these 'bumps' together right now, but with time and patience more than likely these things will all get worked out for all of you; and hopefully Ziggy will end up being that good influence on your son that you had hoped she would be.

Edited July 18, 2011 by MarcusCAG

[Samy]

We have only had Ziggy shy of a month. So it is defiantly Growing Pains. She's not a young bird as she already had the pale yellow eyes with what looks to be the darker ring on the outside. I would guess the situation for her had not been great before now I had never before her seen a bird cuddle the way she does. It's almost like she is burrowing and hiding her head into my husband and she flinches even if he moves too quickly for her. I just worried we weren't doing things right as I have only my conure experience to work with.

[danmcq]

Hi Samy, please see my response to your post in the training room.

 

Welcome to the forum!

[Malikah]

Welcome Samy, I'm sure you will get good advice here. Best wishes for your son speaking and Ziggy becoming a good citizen.

[Samy]

Added some pictures of Ziggy

[judygram]

Hello Samy and welcome to our family, you are getting some good advice here and we look forward to hearing lots more.