Socializing question

[jla]

I plan on socializing my bird so he won't be fearful of new people for the rest of his life. My question, how long should I wait to bring people over? A month. . .longer? Or do I wait for signs from him, such as a strong bond between us?

[Ray P]

One of the most important things to do is let your grey settle in to his new home. Remember you, your house, his cage and all the people that are around are new to him.

Its like taking a child from their home and putting them into foster care, They do not know whats comming next.

To start I would always stop at and sit next to their cage and just talk to them, sit there and read, offer them a treat, tell them how great they are. When new people come orver they can stop at the cage and say hi, but do not let them poke their fingers at them through the bars or talk to loud, just say hi.

If you offer them a treat when you go by their cage they will look foward to you comming around because something good happens when they see you and thats what you want.

You have to earn their trust and they have to earn yours. It just takes time. Good luck with your new fid.

[Dave007]

You're worried about socializing your bird so that people can come over and the bird won't be afraid of them if they get too close or try to give treats. This type of question has been asked many times and the only way to answer that is by understanding the grey species as well as others. You shouldn't put importance on your bird socializing with people who don't live there. The most important thing to achieveis is socializing with the family or others who are around the bird all the time. A grey won't take to strangers or once in a while visitors because that particular species is naturally cautious. When you have people over, the proper place to keep a bird is in it's cage in an area where it can see everything going on. The cage is it's home and provides security. Another reason to do this is because personalities are different and what happens could be very harsh to the bird. With other birds the person or even the owner may get bitten because the bird thinks that the owner has put it in a very uncomfortable situation. This can happen to young and older birds. I'll give you an example-----One day many years ago I had one of my greys on my arm and relatives came by. He was staring at them intently. They weren't close by--maybe 12/13 ft away. My bird started shivering and tucked himself close to my arm pit. I looked at him, saw that he was startled and decided to pet him on the head to relax him. BOOM, he bit me hard. Why did he do that? Well, it's because I had blocked his view of potential danger and he let me know it. I took my hand away and he relaxed.

Many people here will tell you that they simply put their bird in the cage when people came over.

[Mickeys Mom]

Dave I have made that same mistake, innocently thinking I am going to put my CAG at ease when I noticed he was staring at a visitor intently and looking fearfull. I also brought my hand up in front of him trying to scratch and softly talk to him and he let me have a GOOD one. He was so fixated on that person that even after he bit me he did not stop the intent staring and shivering. I would not do this again and now know to put him in his cage instead if I know a stranger is coming over and also tell them not to make sudden movements or noises while he is busy watching them.