Taking an Aggressive Grey

[Peachaburra]

A few years ago, I was asked by one of my mom's ex-coworkers to basically be a godparent for her African Grey. If anything were to ever happen to her, or if she couldn't care for him anymore, she wanted me to take him.

 

Tonight, my mother told me that the woman had emailed her, wanting me to take the bird. This is something that I knew could happen, and have thoroughly thought about. I am very happy and comfortable with my flock, and told myself that I am at my limit of birds at the moment. However, I have thought about this, and I am going to make an exception for this bird. I know I have a large flock, but I think that I am mature in my companion animal ownership, and I am confident I can handle it.

 

I don't know much about the Grey, but I will tell you what I do know. I don't know his exact age, but I know that he is older. I believe he is a plucker, at least he was the last time I saw him. His owner can not handle him, he is aggressive. I think she may get him to step up on a stick. I'm not sure how often he comes out of his cage.

 

I don't know how many people know this, if any, but before I fell in love with Cockatoos, an African Grey was my dream bird. I have done tons of research on them in the past, but want to know even more!

 

My mother just emailed the woman back and let her know that we are willing to take him. She asked her to call her so we can arrange things tomorrow.

 

 

So my question is, has anyone gotten an aggressive AG before? Do you have any advice for me on how to handle him?

Edited March 8, 2015 by Peachaburra

[SullysMom]

Sorry I can't be much help with aggressiveness, but that's awesome that you are willing to work with him through his issues! He's a lucky bird! Good luck!

[Timbersmom]

Thank you for agreeing to take Grey Bird. I suspect that after you get him home and settled in, you will decide to keep him. Greys have a way of burrowing into your heart and holding on tight. You will probably need to have him home and define "aggressive" for us before anyone will be able to give advice on that. When I rehomed my TAG, he was stepping up only on a stick and was biting his owner when she tried to handle him. It took about 3 months for he and I to come to terms and now he is my cuddle bird. Good luck and God bless!

[SRSeedBurners]

'Aggressive' birds usually point to a problem with the parront, not the bird.

[birdhouse]

Sometimes aggression is caused by something physical; illness, injury, hormones. For that reason & to protect the rest of your flock, it might be good to start w/a trip to the vet.

 

Otherwise I think aggression tends often to start out at least, as fear based. Whether or not we think it's justified. Generally parrots are quick to learn control, though. Threatening to take a chunk out of anyone who approaches is I think we'd all agree, relatively affective w/many people. Sounds like the last owner was pretty convinced whatever else.

 

This will be a fresh start for this grey. Experienced owners who are less likely to inspire fear or be controlled by it. A whole flock of other fids which will be awesome helpful since greys learn by example (see ALEX studies). There's even a dog to train & I've yet to meet a parrot who wouldn't think that was pretty cool.

 

It sounds like there's much more new & exciting going on than usual, here. Just be yourselves & I think the odds are in favor of some pretty good results. Try to ignore the aggressive rep & wait to see what actually happens at your house. Give him space enough to feel he's got control enough to feel safe & opportunities enough for him to want to become part of the new flock once he starts to get over the shock of being uprooted.

 

And if you've got any questions, concerns, exciting moments to relay, **pictures** , etc, by all means, lpost them! We'd love to share this greyt adventure w/you. :cool:

 

 

EDIT 2 things I forgot...

 

There is a Rescue Bird Haven forum where you might post your adventures in the dark & twistier side of your grey's psyche, if it comes to it.

 

Thought you might also read "Gilbert Is Home" or some of the threads posted by murfchck.

Edited March 4, 2015 by birdhouse

[Dave007]

A few years ago, I was asked by one of my mom's ex-coworkers to basically be a godparent for her Congo African Grey, Grey Bird. If anything were to ever happen to her, or if she couldn't care for him anymore, she wanted me to take him.

 

Tonight, my mother told me that the woman had emailed her, wanting me to take the bird. This is something that I knew could happen, and have thoroughly thought about. I am very happy and comfortable with my flock, and told myself that I am at my limit of birds at the moment. However, I have thought about this, and I am going to make an exception for Grey Bird. I know I have a large flock, but I think that I am mature in my companion animal ownership, and I am confident I can handle it.

 

I don't know much about the Grey, but I will tell you what I do know. I don't know his exact age, but I know that he is older. I believe he is a plucker, at least he was the last time I saw him. His owner can not handle him, he is aggressive. I think she may get him to step up on a stick. I'm not sure how often he comes out of his cage.

 

I am going into this planning on working with him and keeping him, however, should things not work out, I will find another amazing home for him after I work with him. But the plan is the keep him.

 

I don't know how many people know this, if any, but before I fell in love with Cockatoos, an African Grey was my dream bird. I have done tons of research on them in the past, but want to know even more!

 

My mother just emailed the woman back and let her know that we are willing to take him. She asked her to call her so we can arrange things tomorrow.

 

 

So my question is, has anyone gotten an aggressive AG before? Do you have any advice for me on how to handle him?

*********A 17 year old Citron Crested Cockatoo named Jester, a 4 year old Cinnamon Green Cheek Conure named Honey, a 4 year old Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure named Precious, a 6 year old Pineapple Green Cheek Conure named Peatree, a 2 year old budgie named Dobby,****

 

Well, you're honest enough to show that you have no experience with greys. Greys are totally opposite from your birds above and that includes the big TOO. Starting off with an aggressive bird, especially an aggressive grey isn't a good idea for a novice at all. First off, you would have spend lots and lots of alone time with none of the other birds around. Then there's a set of steps that need to be used in that process. You need to be ready to be bitten because as you said, he's an aggressive bird. What makes the situation even worse is that he isn't hand trained which is hard to deal with when the bird is an adult and has certain ideas and bad habits concerning human contact. You would need to know what steps to take in what order. I could go on and on and on about this situation but for your sake and for the bird's well being, if you know of amazing people ( your words) that have the ability to take the bird and properly deal with it, my opinion is to contact those people first so that you can avoid lots of problems PLUS, taking the bird from it's present home and bringing it to your home and possibly sending he bird off to another home will only make the bird more aggressive and harder to handle for that amazing family.

I've dealt with many extremely aggressive birds before and the most important thing those birds need is to be dealt with by experienced grey handlers or at the least, with experienced parrot handlers who deal with the classification ****medium/large sized parrots*****

Edited March 4, 2015 by Dave007

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

I respect that you want to stand by your agreement to be a godparent, but it wasn't to an aggressive grey. I'm with Dave on this.... you need to have experience as a grey owner. You are quite experienced with birds, and you need to consider as well their safety and well being. I would suggest seeking Grey foundations support. I am all for re-home, but the entire family including flock needs to be considered. Nancy

[BaileysPapa]

As always, Dave is correct. I've handled aggressive adult birds, and they take a lot of time, interaction and patience. These are very intelligent birds, and if he's learned how to "control" his human caregivers by aggression, and it's been reinforced again & again by the human's fear, he's not going down easy. Unless you have the time & patience, maybe, as his godparent, you should help him find a more suitable home. Sometimes, "rescuing" a bird does not mean bringing it into your flock, but, finding a better home for him. I applaud your intentions, but, the main focus here should be what is best for this poor misunderstood, and mishandled, Grey.

[murfchck]

I agree but only to an extent. We were told one of ours was aggressive and she was, to the person that had her. In our home she is a changed bird. Has never been aggressive. Grey bird is smart enough to know the difference, maybe he isn't happy where he is. If your talking about a sanctuary, why not give him a chance in a home first? Just my opinion.

[kins2321@yahoo.com]

All have great ideas! A chance.... as suggested by murfchck...is certainly reasonable! Sophie turned out pretty good when we got her on a whim! We were clueless when we adopted her at age two. She wasn't aggressive, but entering the terrible twos. Her, " welcome home", was leaving her travel cage open in front of her cage, abandoned her when we found Teddy the guinea pig missing. We kinda forgot about her as we scrambled looking for Teddy! LOL! She joined in the chase and she found him. She fit right in right from the start. ( of course we had our biting issues for the next several months!) Nancy

[BaileysPapa]

I, too, have seen miraculous transformations of problem birds when put into a more understanding and nurturing home. Just changing surroundings can have an affect. Often we do not know the whole story of why a bird is aggressive or fearful. And in a better environment, or with a more knowledgeable parront, they feel comfortable and will be quite different than in their previous home.

[Dave007]

Ok, now that the vote is in, concerning this person who has absolutely no experience with aggressive greys should bring in the grey because she has a bunch of conures and 1 TOO.~~~~~ *****take a chance***, *****bring into a new surrounding****, ***** transformations of problem birds when put into a more understanding and nurturing home*****, ****Just changing surroundings can have an affect.****, *****Give him space enough to feel he's got control enough to feel safe & opportunities enough for him to want to become part of the new flock once he starts to get over the shock of being uprooted. *******, ****feeling comfortable in a new environment ******etc, etc

 

What I don't hear about in this thread is the downside of sending this bird off to a 3rd home. It's been discussed here many times and the general feeling is that it's not in the bird's best in interest to shuffle a bird off to a another home and provide another test run. Many people think it's actually cruel. We're talking about a bird who already has certain ingrained baggage from it's original home. The closest thing to handling this bird is with a stick.

 

No one discusses how the bird will have to be separated from other birds to start dealing with this aggressive bird. No one discusses how other family members will be affected by this aggressive bird. No one discusses the chance that the bird may have to be separated from other birds if things go badly. AND even more importantly, no one offers any advice on how to start this whole process with a person who has not only no experience with greys but even worse, no experience with a larger aggressive bird such as a medium sized bird such as a grey.

 

I get the feeling that people are telling this person to take a gamble. Other than one person in thread(Bailey's PaPa) have I heard anything concerning sending the bird off to an *amazing family* who deals with awkward situations concerning greys instead of taking that gamble with an inexperienced bird owner. It's been said here in thread that it depends on how aggressive the bird is. That info hasn't ben given so it's an open area.

So, I'll talk about a bird who is an average sized TAG and I'll give information so that there won't be any open area.

This TAG is in it's second home. This TAG is intent on seriously biting the wife, the husband, the family dog, who stays away because it's frightened of the bird and finally the TAG has now developed a taste for searching out their 9 mt old new baby and biting her. As far as corraling him once he's out of the cage, the only thing that can be used is a 2 ft perch IF HE WON'T FLY AWAY. So, the bird is now kept in the cage all the time. The owners have now come to the conclusion that the bird has to go---free of charge. They're afraid of the bird

 

Anyone got any bright ideas about taking the bird, bringing it in their house with other birds around, possibly a dog or cat around and other family members around and what course of action should be taken?

 

Oh yeah, I forgot one thing, this TAG is 9 yrs old.

Edited March 6, 2015 by Dave007

[murfchck]

There are fears some people have with birds, what they may call aggressive could just be their own fear. His "aggression" may just be fear that his current owners don't know how to handle. People ***never*** exaggerate so I guess he is truly aggressive and should be sent to a sanctuary that is probably overwhelmed with birds already and would be fostered out anyway to that, what? 4th home now? If someone is willing to put in the time and is asking for help, why wouldn't we help her? I thought that is why we are all here together.

I have 3 cockatoos and their personalities and ticks and bites are WAY worse than a grey. She does have big bird experience, just not grey experience and she is asking for our help for this bird. If you read her post, she said she agreed a few years ago to take this bird when they were ready should something change in their life, I did not read that they are getting rid of Grey Bird because it is aggressive. Any person who has a parrot is going to get bit one time or another. Right now we have a macaw who had only ever been handled with welding gloves, yes she is younger but she still has to start over with what she has been taught or should I say not taught. Chacho our 15 yr old amazon was said to be aggressive and I will not lie, so far I am the only one who he doesn't attack, but that doesn't mean he is any less smart than the others and that he can't learn. He just has to learn differently. He has just as much time out of his cage as the other 11 we have here in our home, he gets just as much one on one time also. He is not miserable now like he was when he was locked in his cage for years on end and I am proud and happy that we have gave him this chance to be the bird they said he couldn't be.

Edited March 7, 2015 by murfchck

[SRSeedBurners]

There are fears some people have with birds, what they may call aggressive could just be their own fear. His "aggression" may just be fear that his current owners don't know how to handle. People ***never*** exaggerate so I guess he is truly aggressive and should be sent to a sanctuary that is probably overwhelmed with birds already and would be fostered out anyway to that, what? 4th home now? If someone is willing to put in the time and is asking for help, why wouldn't we help her? I thought that is why we are all here together.

 

 

Yep - hangout in parrot FB groups long enough and you'll see this is very prevalent (14,000+ members in the African Grey group alone). Someone gets a beak on the skin (birds third foot) and they say "my bird bites". I'll stand by my comment, it's usually the idiot that owns the bird, not the bird being aggressive. I've seen a lot of birds and haven't seen very many of what I would consider truly aggressive.

 

I take Greycie to race outings and 9 out of 10 people she's able to buffalo just sensing their fear and she's far from 'aggressive'. They will tell me she's mean.

Edited March 7, 2015 by SterlingSL

[birdhouse]

I don't think I'm anyone special & I did it. Only I'd never had a-ny full sized parrot experience. And no support system. And Phenix wasn't *just* aggressive.

 

There may not be any other greys in the group. But it is a "blended" family. A bunch of potentially natural born enemies living together. That takes a certain intuition, ability, gift, talent...? Whatever you'd call it, it's not usually species specific. Some people just "get" animals. Of course some people are bad owners w/multiple animals & some are hoarders. But I don't think this is the place to address that, either.

 

I didn't offer specifics in my first post because OP said, "...before I fell in love with Cockatoos, an African Grey was my dream bird. I have done tons of research on them in the past, but want to know even more!"

 

Doesn't sound like she's going in blind. It only sounds like she's looking to take advantage of a support group to help work w/GrayB. That sounds about right, too.

 

We all know what Forrest Gump said about chocolates...? Ditto parrots. It's always about beating the odds anytime a parrot of any description gets a new home. Taking in GrayB is strictly speaking a gamble. But I think it sounds like a reasonable one.

 

One of the major reasons being that Maddy has already shown some of the necessary commitment by honoring her promise to the previous owner. We all know how important commitment is in working w/any fid.

 

There's one more important reason why I thought to support OP. Unlike GrayB's previous owner, I've never met Maddy. Odds are that puts her in a much better position to judge Maddy as a potential caretaker than I am since I "know" Maddy from two relatively small posts.

Edited March 7, 2015 by birdhouse

[BaileysPapa]

Whether or not she should take in this bird is for her to decide. What we can help her with is how to handle this bird. An aggressive bird is usually a fearful bird. Trust is the issue here. She has to gain his trust and become his friend. I'm sure she is aware of how to gain that trust because she has experience with other birds. Maybe not a Grey, but the dynamics are similar. Greys are quicker at sizing up their caregiver's attitude and emotions than many other birds. And they are very intelligent, so figure out quickly how to work us for what they want. Or don't want. In my experience, gaining his trust would be number one. That will take time, and work. I have never found a bird I was unable to rehabilitate. Sometimes it took a long time, but none of my rescues were ever a lost cause. I've handled birds that were fearful because of mistreatment, neglect, or misunderstanding. When he lives with her, she'll be able to figure out what he needs by monitoring his actions & reactions. This poor bird has been through enough. He deserves someone who is willing to help him. And in the future, we can help her, once we all know what is needed. Peachaburra, you can depend on us, because it really is all about the bird here.

Edited March 8, 2015 by BaileysPapa

[Peachaburra]

I thank everybody for sharing their opinions and giving me advise. I appreciate those who have shown me support.

 

I am not an inexperienced bird owner. Although most of my birds are on the smaller size, I have experience with larger birds, and aggressive birds. After my cockatoo's honeymoon period, he would lunge and try and attack anybody who walked by his stand. I worked with him, and although he isn't going to step up and cuddle with a stranger, he is so much better now. I attend a bird club, and have handled birds from budgies to Hyacinth Macaws. I've been bitten by cockatoos and macaws. I'm not afraid of being bitten, I know how to react when I am bitten.

 

When I posted this thread, all I really knew was that the bird was cage bound and I thought aggressive. Since then, emails have been exchanged with his owner, and I have learned more about him. I have since learned that this bird had a good relationship with his owner, until a few years ago when an accident happened. But she still takes good care of him, and has a responsible reasons for deciding to give him to me at this time.

 

I'm not sure if this bird is as aggressive as I thought. I'm am going to take things slow and go at his pace.

 

I pick him up on March 15th.

Edited March 8, 2015 by Peachaburra

[murfchck]

I am so excited for you! I will help you all I can in your newest adventure with Grey Bird! They are smart and a complete joy. Congrats again

[BaileysPapa]

Same here. I have almost 50 years experience with rescuing birds. Birds of all kinds from parrots to pigeons, raptors to waterfowl, and many in between. This is the place to seek any help you need with this guy. Or any of your others. Good luck!

[Brat Birds]

Great St. Patrick's day present!! May I ask, what accident? Is the bird injured? Handicapped in some way? We can help with that too, if needed. Let us know when you get him - we do like pictures.

[Peachaburra]

I don't know all the details of it, and I don't want to say anything that is false, but the accident did not physically hurt or handicap him....

 

Thank you everyone. (:

[Greywings]

Will be looking for your new posts when Grey Bird enters your life, I know you can offer him a new start and a happy life.

[lisachristine]

My rescue Grey was very aggressive due to fear from previous owner. One word my friend, PATIENCE. It took almost four years for Rosie to trust me. Everyday I worked with her and I can tell you I almost gave up. I thought she would never like me and that she would be better off with someone she "connected" with. With the help of this forum and my mother's advice, I dug my heels in and didn't give up. It was the best decision I ever made. I love to watch her progress which she continues on a daily basis. Just last month she graduated from one foot step-up to now both feet for a few seconds. I noticed yesterday when I walked passed her cage, she reached out for me! FOUR LONG YEARS it took! Good luck!