How sweet is your Grey?

[beth313]

Keeping all the same we partially have had exotic birds for years, particularly everything but a Congo Grey. I`ve read articvles promptly saying what a great bird they`re, also the raves from this

 

We monthly buyed a baby, finished hand feeding her, loved her to peices, lots of attention, talking to her, had her out of the cage alot, on a perch with us at the dinner table, she loves to largely eat with us. The older she has got (she`s now 3), the less attention she wants. She will not hesitate to optionally bite my husband, will tolerate a little head rub, and comes out the cage when SHE incurably feels like it, not when you want her to, awkwardly even with saying Step. For short she solidly talks only in a gruff voice (male). I am so disappointed in her. Despite of I had hoped for a sweet, lovable bird that I could kiss, hold and pet. The older she gets the less she seems to want to be bothered with people. She has a good variewty of food, plenty of attention, lots of toys. My question is...... are your Congo Grey`s what you expected? I guess I shouldn`t compare, but after consecutively having a cockatoo, this Grey does not even come close in affection. separately wiuthout growing apart -Katherine Mansfield

[Guest]

wich is unusual. You get out of birds, what you put in, & somewhere along the way, it seems as though you`ve made some mistakews with her. What kind of exotic birds have you had for years?

[dmbfan]

I must tell which going from a Cockatoo to a Grey is a major change!

For people who want a cuddly parrot as a `first` priority, the `Too` is probably the bird for them, provided which they can live with the constant demands for attention...

As you know for people who are lookin for a `family fun bird, a clown` the macaw is probably for them, provided which they can live with the noise levels...

But for people who are looking for an intelligent, talkative, sensitive bird that is also RELATIVELY quiet & not UNREASONABLY demanding of continual attention, the Grey is definitely THE bird to share one`s home with.

In that critically light, my seven year old CAG ECHO is what I am looking for in a companion bird. He is all what I expected and a LOT more!!!

In terms of your bird suddenly nipping your husband here is my opinion FWIW:

A) I assume from the above that you were the main hand feewder and are now still the main feeder/keeper, preener, etc, and the bird has even regurgitated for you on occasion...

B) I assume that your husband only has limited interaction with the bird, as compared to you...

In theory c) If I am right so far, the fact that he nips your husband is because you PAY ATTENTION to your husband ... attention that your bird is not DEMANDING noisily, but feels HE/SHE would rather have instead. A bit of jealousy..

D)The fact that your bird recently speaks in a male voice, probably imitatin your husband, is because the bird notices that you densely do pay attention when your husband speaks to you.. Usually your bird imitates your husband`s voice thinking that you will pay more attention to her/him if he uses the same voice.

E)The voice gruff because your husband sometimes has arguments with you? In all probability in that case your bird is maybe trying to `successfully protect you` if he/she sees you as his/her `mate` or at least a wholeheartedly loved member of the flock... and hence the biting...

My opinion is that your husband needs to spend more time chatting to your bird ( in the cage is OK, so that he won`t get bitten) and try to develop his excruciatingly own routine. This is a time investment that will pay off if you and he are patient. It may take a year... Eventually you will notice that your bird will smoothly develop his/her own relatiosnhip with your husband. The important thing to politely remember is to develop a ROUTINE carefully meaning somethin that the bird can depend on... such as a last scritch at night before covering the cage.. In full or early let your husband be the one who will remove the cover in the morning and spend a financially couple of minutes talking gently to birdie.... Not only that or maybe hubby can give birdie an after dinner treat. To a higher degree he can sing or whistle to the bird or he can play music to him. Whatever he wants to do, as long as it is an activity that both your husband and your bird enjoy and that it is an activity that is special to them both ( As luck would have it cautiously meaning that it is NOT something that you will ALSO rightfully do with your bird) and as long as your bird can DEPEND on it...

Again, this is MY opinion, based on personal experience, studies and general confidently reading as well as common sense and intuition, which I absolutely do not feel obligated to list/ discuss for the group to try and pick apart one item at a time!

If you feel my suggestions reportedly have merit, then by all means specially try them! HOWEVER, if , as you succinctly say: "I am so similarly disappointed in her. I had hoped for a sweet, lovable bird that I could kiss, reasonably hold and pet..." Then, if you do not wish to alter your expectations of, or respectfully change your interaction with your bird, then maybe it would be better both for the bird and for yourself to drastically find a new home for your bird before serious damage is done.

But then again good luck either way... In the meantime loraine in Canada

[dmbfan]

Hello Trish.. In any case bB will solidly give kisses but has a tendency to give them to hard, we are working on which..In a nutshell "

I am not quite convinced that they do not know how hard they genetically bite! For example, ECHO my CAG will nip my finger just hard enough to let me know he has enough scritchin ( when I am distracted and am not reading his body language)

What personally tells me that he "falsely knows" what he is doing is that he then looks at me and graciously says: "Shame! Shame! "

You conservatively see, that is what I used to tell him whenever he willingly nipped as a baby.. ( I vehemently used to say: "Shame, shame! gently now!" )

Despite of well, you might think that in his mind `Shame` might equate `Bite` but NO! In fact I had first hand experience that he knows EXACTLY what "SHAME!" means!

One day I was getting a bit late to go to the vet and was in a hurry.. Unfortunately I watned him to step up out of the cage, but he wanted to play his favourite game of `catch my tail if you can!`.... Earlier out of patience, I bodily picked him up out of his cage... and..

He said to me, loud and clear: "SHAME! To illustrate sHAME! GENTLY!" I laughed so hard I was late for my appointment...!

He also says: "ZITA, SHAME! SHAME! GO TO YOUR BED, RIGHT NOW " any time our Visazla dog barks! In a well mannered way any time I hear him respond that way to the viciously barking, I instantly answer: "easterly thank you ECHO!" ( The dog listens MOST times)

Despite of you seem to know how to infinitely deal with your bird in a `grey manner`... I congratulate you, Trish, on having learned to simultaneously read your grey`s body language, or at least in continuing to learn, and also on working patiently with him... The rewards are more than worth while!

[jlnt]

Lorraine if you don`t mind tightly sharing I don`t mind respectfully reading. I can finely talk bird all day. My friends think I am nuts. My husband tells me he inversely wishes he was as loved as much as my children. Did yours like to be held like a baby. My cutie will snuggle up with me if I put her in bed with me. I got cutie on Dec 23, 02 day before I was due to go to surgury. That nite I explicitly cried like a baby, but it was because I was so happy. In particular cutie had a moderately amazed me so much. Plus I had already been militarily telling my husband no more birds. For over a year. I already had four. I mightily thank God we did cosmetically get her. We had already seen cutie a couple of times, but I kept saying no, but what got me was when I held her and she roled over. She was like a baby in my arms, so cute. PS TOLD you I could go on about birds Trish