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Some Questions as a Newbie!


VoHooman

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Okay It's officially 3 days that Tooka is with us and he showed great improvement. He isn't scared of me anymore when I get to him most of the time or even if he is he don't jump on the floor of his cage like our first day.

 

But I have questions:

 

1-Tooka is really noisy and active in morning, then about 2 he went so lazy and he start yawning and he closes his eyes till around 3 and then he become active again (not active as morning though). Is this normal?

 

2-He only eats sunflower seeds. I've tried carrot, tomato, and strawberries and he rarely eats them except for strawberries, he eats them every time but I don't give him much. I read somewhere that till the time he accepts food from my hand I cannot change this bad habit of his so my question is if the process of accepting food from my hand took too long isn't this gonna be dangerous for him?

 

3- One of my relatives with experience with greys said to don't give him food for a while for him to be hungry and then give him food only with my hand, is this a right method? I don't want him to eat food from my hand only because he is hungry.

 

Thanks for reading and replying before hand and sorry for my bad english. It's not my mother language.

 

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Birds have periods of time they are very vocal, usually in the morning and in the evening but yes it is normal for him to take a nap in the afternoon, he sounds like a normal grey to me.

The thing about offering different vegetables is that they may not eat them at first but keep offering them, try them different ways, cooked, raw, chopped, mashed and so forth to see if one way is preferable to another, lots of dark green and dark yellow vegetables are best. It makes no difference if offered by hand, food is provided in bowls but treats are usually offered by hand. I would stay away from strawberries unless they are organic for they are the one fruit that has been heavily treated with pesticides, be sure to wash any and all fresh produce beforehand.

Never withhold food to make them eat what is offered, transitioning them from only sunflower seeds will be a long process but you don't want to deny your grey food and they need food available at all times since they tend to snack all day long.

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1- Our Greycie does the exact same. Sleepy in the afternoons, very active mornings and late afternoon/evening.

 

2 & 3 - Keep offering a variety of foods. I've noticed with ours, it looks like they waste a lot but somehow she's still gaining weight. She goes after the sunflower seeds first so we only give those as treats or sparingly with her normal food. I use a mash to get her to eat stuff she won't eat normally. Fortunately for me, mine is young so she still wants warm comfort food and I can get stuff in her that won't normally go down in its native form.

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Thanks judygram and Streling. I just offered him raw and cooked spinach and a joy, he eat the raw one! :) He seems to love red foods, as a lunch I gave him a salad of tomato, carrot and cucumber (funny I never make salad for myself). He only tried tomato but didn't eat them actually.

Thanks again!

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Try chopping the colorful veggies very fine and mixing into her seed feed a smaller amount and give fresh again later in the day. They will taste some of the veggies that stick to the seen and that will help get them interested in new foods. They are sight eaters and only recognize familiar foods as eatable. It will also help if you eat some of the good foods in front of her so she can see it is safe and yummy.

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you should get a list of all the acceptable fruit and veges for your baby to eat :) I thought I was told not to many tomatos but I could be wrong. I know tho, lot of the green veges and not so much on the fruit! and definately offer them fresh every day!!! Marco gets fresh morning and night, and shes SUPER vocal in the am, when I get home from work and right before bed rest time shes snoozing on her perch!

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Thanks for the list. I have another question why the beak of many of greys is solid black but mine have white lines in it? I know the difference of CAG and TAG beaks, I mean the white lines like in your avatar.

 

When a grey is very young their beak is solid shiny black. As thet older, they constantly rub the upper and lower mandibles against rough, scratchy things to either clean the beak or file the beak down. The white lines you see are simply a load of scratch marks all over the beak which will stay that way for good.

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My Alfie has pellets in his cage 24 hours a day, he has cereal for breakfast and tea time I do different kinds of mixed veg I find cooking it for a short time and then blending it into small bits helps i also then mix spoon full of his seed mix into it he trys to pick seed out but as veg is so small it sticks to seed so he has to eat both, he also likes corn on the cob hung in his cage, very messy!, he has very little fruit but i do offer apple, pear and grapes but dont think he eats it just plays with it but veg is important, the odd scrambled egg is also very much enjoyed by Alfie and I mix some veg into this, but only now and again, you will waist some food but just keep trying and he may start trying it when your not around.

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My Alfie has pellets in his cage 24 hours a day, he has cereal for breakfast and tea time I do different kinds of mixed veg I find cooking it for a short time and then blending it into small bits helps i also then mix spoon full of his seed mix into it he trys to pick seed out but as veg is so small it sticks to seed so he has to eat both, he also likes corn on the cob hung in his cage, very messy!, he has very little fruit but i do offer apple, pear and grapes but dont think he eats it just plays with it but veg is important, the odd scrambled egg is also very much enjoyed by Alfie and I mix some veg into this, but only now and again, you will waist some food but just keep trying and he may start trying it when your not around.

 

Thanks, I will also try to use scrambled eggs too. I tried mixing food today but I think what I mixed was not good so zi try with different veggies tomorrow. Thanks again!

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To many sunflower seeds are not good for a Grey. Offer nuts like cashews shelled peanuts and walnuts. all unsalted and all human grade. When Tooka is more bonded to you he may well pick up eating cues from you so he will want to try what ever you are having. Greys are social eaters so if possible give him food when you have your meal so he can see you eating. I know this may not be practical but that is what I do with Misty. He always has a variety of food available but he has his main meal when I have mine. He seems to prefer that.

 

Steve n Misty

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Hey Guyssss Great improvement today!

Okay so this morning I gave him some carrot and I started eating another carrot in front of him. He was standing there without fear and he was just looking at me and pinning so I knew he is learning. As soon as I left him he started eating his carrot and actually eat most of it. After 4 hours I gave him a little sunflower seeds and then I gave him some cucumber and again eat the cucumber in front of him, again his body language was like morning and he eat the cucumbers. So I was over clouds! :D

 

One other great improvement was about half an hour ago, by chance I told let's see if he get food from my hand so I grabbed some sunflower seeds and offered him, he was standing again with a little fear and his eyes pinning, as always I told him don't be scared and kept offering after 2-3 minutes he got the seeds from my hand but didn't eat it. I tried several times after that and he actually grab them more easily now but he still don't eat them, I donno if he wants to beat me now or he wants to get the seeds. (?)

 

Anyway he is really more active today, he started climbing his cage for the first time and he is more noisy. I'm actually in joy I never thought my grey will be trying to eat from my hand after just 4 days!

 

Thanks guys for the help!

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Good progress! It's possible that he just wasn't hungry so he didn't eat the sunflower seed. Timber will drop stuff then go foraging for it later when he wants it. Or, he could just still be scared. It takes a lot of time to develop trust :)

 

I think he is still scared but that's not a problem, I don't wanna push him, I have to earn his trust and love and he is wild cought, I don't expect him to trust me soon.

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Update on Tooka's progress:

 

I worked on him and he actually takes seeds from my hands and eats them now, but he is sooo lazy I should get my hand near him, he won't move at all! He also ate a lot of new veggies to him, the only thing he needs is to see me eat it too!

The other day I was washing his cage and I saw he wasn't scared so I also gave him his first bath, my brave son was not scared at all! He actually enjoyed it!

So as an update here his new pic just before the bath, he was playing and absorbing some vitamin D!

 

IMG_5410-crppped.jpg

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