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My new adventure...


Guest Eilidh

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Hello, two months ago I rescued a 2 year old, hand reared but aviary kept African Grey called Chippy.

I am a vet student in my first year and have extensively done research on Grey husbandry and their behaviour both in domestication and in their natural enviroment.

It has been a slow process to gain the trust of Chippy, but we are getting there.

He is currently sitting saying "hello" at me as he isnt keen on all this attention the laptop is getting haha.:D

His enviroment is huge, I have spent about £3000 on his massive cage and enrichment, I will post a video sometime.

His favorite things are sunflower seeds and my boyfriend, hes nippy but learning that it doesnt get him anything nice. He has a shower perch which he enjoys once a week, and we're currently getting him used to the look of the aviator harness hahaa. Hopefully we will be able to harness him by summer!

He understands the word "no!" means "stop doing that or you'll have no treats today!" but sometimes he doesnt pay heed. He has a life sized macaw plushie which he for some reasons sees as the dominant one, although he is not afraid of it and will cuddle it, if mr.macaw teddy says no! chippy stops what hes doing haha.

 

He is fed a staple complete pellet food with fresh fruit, greens and cooked parsnips and every now and then he gets a nibble of my bran flakes.

 

 

So yeah, Hello! :)

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Hi Eilidh & Welcome to the flock! You are definitely in for an adventure; adopting a two year old who hasn't apparently had much socializing w/humans. It's encouraging to hear that he seems to be coming along so well in this short time. Greys take a long time to trust as it is. So it may be many months before Chippy is actually convinced that he's safe & truly part of your flock. But all the effort now will be very well worth it in the long run.

 

Always good to hear that new parronts have done their homework before they bring their babies home. I'm particularly interested in your reference to your research into grey behavior in their natural environment. Many of us have complained that we can't ever find enough information about wild greys. So it might be very interesting & informative if you'd like to share any good source material on the subject.

 

Congratulations on your new fid! Love your avatar btw. :)

Edited by birdhouse
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Hello Eilidh and welcome to our family and congrats on giving Chippy a new forever home.

I hope you are going to make avian your speciality as we can always use more qualified avian vets, many members here have difficulty finding ones that specialize in birds and they need people who know more about them than just an animal vet. There is only one in my area or I would have to drive for several hours to reach the next closest qualified avian vet.

You already know what you should be doing so keep up the good work and in time Chippy will come to trust you, patience is key.

He can have lots more vegetables than just some greens and parsnips, there is a thread in the bird food room that list many of the ones he can have and I would go lightly on the fruits as they contain more sugar, don't feed fruit every day but its good he is eating a good pellet. He can also have some grains, legumes, rice, pasta, a little chicken now and then and some egg.

I look forward to seeing some pics of him and that video you spoke about.

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