Hi, looking to learn from everyone.

[Charlies Dad]

Hi,

 

I am Syed, Charlies dad. My boy is almost 1 and half years old now. I love him to death as I raised him since he was 3 weeks old. His mom, dad, 2 brothers and 1 sister was killed by raccoons and he was the lone survivor and youngest of the clutch...the breeder guy told me it was a gang of 4-5 coons that did this. I just took one look at him and knew he was coming home with me. He is a miracle in my eyes and I feel like I spoil him, and maybe sometimes too much. I got him a macaw cage and still feel it is too small, haha.

 

He is the sweetest, most well behaved boy. Only time he is out of line is when he wants to fight with my 2 conures. Also, his intelligence is growing by the day. He calls himself "good boy" and plays "peek-a-boo" with me. He does not scream or is too loud and only goes crazy with his bell toys. He will hang upside down and scream at it for 30 minutes straight while trying to destroy it. He is never alone as my mom or sister are home during the day while I work. Whenever dinner is being made, he loves to fly from him cage and "help" by rolling that nights dinner ingredients into the trash bin. He loves to sit on my shoulder and talk right into my ear in his "psssst, can you hear me" voice. Hes a good boy and we all love him.

 

At about 8 months of age he went into his first molt and it was not good. It was heavy and it seemed to bother him to the point until he started chewing his feathers. Being inexperienced, I made all kinds of mistakes as well. Things were not looking good and since that point I have been working with him in trying to give him the life he needs. I want to try to rehab him while training him to be an independent, confident boy. Hopefully I can get the feather chewing under control. I am not willing to give up on him and never will! I finally decided to make an account after lurking because it seems, I can learn from you guys/gals and provide Charlie with what he truly needs to be happy, confident and content. Hopefully things will get better as I absorb the knowledge.

 

Thanks for reading and have a nice day,

Syed

 

[Luvparrots]

Hi Syed, looking forward to learning more about you and Charlie. Welcome to the Grey Family!

 

[Timbersmom]

Hello and welcome to you and Charlie That's a really neat picture too. You can see the intelligence in his gaze!

[SRSeedBurners]

He's a very cute boy. Love the photo.

[birdhouse]

Hi,

His mom, dad, 2 brothers and 1 sister was killed by raccoons and he was the lone survivor and youngest of the clutch...the breeder guy told me it was a gang of 4-5 coons that did this. I just took one look at him and knew he was coming home with me. He is a miracle in my eyes and I feel like I spoil him, and maybe sometimes too much. I got him a macaw cage and still feel it is too small, haha.

 

...At about 8 months of age he went into his first molt and it was not good. It was heavy and it seemed to bother him to the point until he started chewing his feathers. Being inexperienced, I made all kinds of mistakes as well. Things were not looking good and since that point I have been working with him in trying to give him the life he needs. I want to try to rehab him while training him to be an independent, confident boy. Hopefully I can get the feather chewing under control.

 

That is a lot of drama straight out of the egg!! How sad. But wonderful at least for Charlie that he ended up w/you.

 

The first thing we're going to have to teach you is that it is you solemn duty to spoil him rotten & there is no, repeat no such thing as too much. Then maybe you should know that whatever you think you did wrong back when, is the first of decades of trial & error. There's no manual, unfortunately. They don't come out of the box perfect (by anybody's standards but their own. All we humble servants can do is wing it as best we can.

 

Also wonder if Charlie's feather problems aren't at least partially rooted in all that early trauma. Maybe most of the things you've done or tried so far have actually helped him adjust. And maybe you're a much better parront than you give yourself credit for.

[neoow]

Hello and welcome to the forums! Glad you've already met the rule of joining.... which is i to post a photo!

[Greywings]

What a very lucky survival story. You can add lots of misting with either plain water or Aloe Vera juice daily to help him be more comfortable getting his new feathers in.

[Charlies Dad]

****Long post warning. I am looking to learn and pay is forward, if this thread needs to be moved to a more appropriate section, please help me do this as I do not want to step on any toes.****

 

WOW, you guys are so nice and welcoming! Thank you to each on of you!!

 

I am a little nervous about introducing Charlie Boy. Because I mostly blame myself for not understanding or researching his needs better. Just last night, I spend a few hours reading everyone's sticky's and trying to understand the thought process of these magnificent animals. I just wish he could tell me what is missing in his life, I'd do anything for my boy.

 

My family and I have other parrots. Sun and Gold Capped Conures, an Indian Ringneck with medical problems, 2 Cockatiel rescues (also recently attacked by those darn raccoon) and an aviary full of budgies, with chicks in the nest....It is a busy house to say the least. With a full time job, I still try to help my buddy every moment of free time I have. We are not sure why he feather chewing, but as his Dad, I am been working tirelessly to teach him confidence and how to be comfortable in his own skin...We have made some progress over the last 4 months but we still have a long road ahead. He just needs to know that I am here for him and will help him every step of the way as he grows up. He can count on me, but I need him to give me his all as well.

Things Charlie and I are working on as a team:

 

1: More stable wake up/sleep schedule: Still a little challenging as I am a petro-chem trader...I can be at the office at odd hours for long periods of time watching the markets and I travel internationally frequently. Corporate America is not very supportive with my Avian Adventures so i keep my work life and bird life separate......but still, we are getting better with the work we are putting in. Charlie went from 6-8 hours of sleep with the TV blaring in the back to 10 ish hours of quiet sleep. Would like him to get a quiet room with 12-14 hours of uninterrupted sleep. Still working on that.

 

2: Diet. This is a tough one. He used to eat Zupreem fruit blend but my vet told me he looked a little thin. She advised I mixed seed into his pellets for the fat content...I wish I had never done that. Now all he ate from age 6 months to 8 months was Safflower and Sunflower with the occasional millet. The last month or so, I am adding more Zupreem into his food bowl with less seed. I put some Red Palm Oil (the most purest, safest one I could buy was $46 for a 32 oz. jar....sheeeesh..) on his seeds and he eats that a little. I offer him cabbage, carrots, sweet potato, strawberries and broccoli. He eats it if i eat it with him. But otherwise he only eats small amounts. So then I mashed it and gave it him in a syringe with some Red Palm Oil mixed in. He loves it like that. I give him about 5-10 MLs a day...I notices his feather condition improve a week after I started that. But now, I am afraid he will get into a bad habit with syringe feeding. So then, I went to the grocery store and bought baby food in those $1 pouches. I feed him Sweet Potato, Carrot, Mango baby food and he loves them as treats. Hope soon, I can get him off seeds and back onto pellets. Hopefully back on Zupreem or Roudybush or Harrisons.

 

3: Play/Exercise/Attention: His cage door is rarely closed and he is fully-flighted. Never been clipped. But since he chews his wing feather, he is a clunky flier. But he seems to enjoy watching everyone hustle and bustle around the house so we let him be. I noticed that sometimes he gets to hyper or worked up and seems to help him calm down when i let him relax in a closed cage for a few hours a day. He sings his little head off and plays with his toys. He loves bells and spoons. I was not very aware of the importance of toys before and would not change his old ones. He does not like new toys if they are big or scary. But he will readily accept new toys that he cant beat up on while hanging upside down on the rope I provided him. I try to rotate toys in his cage now every other day. And he always gets head scratches and attention throughout the day by everyone. He knows he is loved.

 

Things Charlie and I am really struggling with:

 

1: Bathing: My god does this suck. He think water is the blood of Lucifer. He does not like sings, shower heads, misters, water hose. He hates water, generally and have only seen him bath on his once in his entire life which happened in his water bowl. I though he liked warm water but read last night that Greys prefer cooler water. So I am going to try that this weekend.

 

2: Biting/fighting other people: First, he gets along with everyone in the house. It is just that he likes to be help or carried by me only. If my sister or mom approach to pick him up, he lunges at they hands, but gives them kisses 2 seconds later. So weird. Why is he doing that? Charlie will only go to them if they have food he wants of if he knows they are bring him to me. He sometimes tolerates being touched by others if I am in the same room watching and reassuring him, but that happens rarely.

 

3: Biting/fighting other birds: How I wish they all got along. My 2 conures are bonded to each others butts. But my sun conure hates everyone else who is not mate. She thinks she is a tiger and runs to attach Charlie and my sick Ringneck. My Gold Capped Boy is always trying to be friedly with Charlie, but Charlies tries to beak him or grab his tail, so I have to separate them. My Ringneck, although very ill, thinks he is Rocky Balboa. He also hates everyone and does not play nice. How I wish I could have Charlie befriend another bird, then maybe he won't be as uncomfortable when i am working long hours at the office. I, at this point have no clue how to dismantle this dynamic...

 

4: Cage/location: Right now his cage is in the living room. But is does not make sense to keep it there as we are night owls and I am afraid he is not getting the rest he needs. I am planning to either move his cage to the "bird room" I am building, or get him a sleep cage for sleeping in a quiet room. Also, his cage is up against a window, and after researching, that may not be ideal for him. He might get scared of something he sees in the dark outside. I put the blinds down at night, but I don't think that helps him feel secure. I am working out the kinks with this one as well and could really use some advice.

 

Anyway, I wanted you guys to get a full picture of my situation and after my long, crazy post, here are some pics of the progress we are making:

 

This is how bad it eventually got when he started molting at 8 months of age. I was so hurt, sad, frustrated and ashamed. It was a low point for Charlie and myself as I felt like I was letting him down:

image hosting no registration

 

imagen

 

I buckled down at this point and started reading books and googling. Talking to avian vets and other parrot owners for advice. I started experimenting with different things that might be fun for Charlie and beneficial for his heath....instead of progress, I saw more of this...

free screen capture software

 

But, I cannot give up, so I keep at it, some things work, some things backfire...he started looking a little better around his 1 year Birthday Party we threw him, I baked him a seed cake:

 

screenshot on pc

 

photo hosting

 

At this point, I did start seeing *some* improvements, with the occasional chewed up feather. But some progress is better than no progress i suppose.

 

upload image

 

Then a little more progress...

 

pic host

 

Some more...

 

image sharing sites

 

image sharing

 

image sharing sites

 

And here are pictures from today at 14 months....with still some more work to do....I hope my love for the guy will translate into a happy Grey..

 

free photo upload

 

Handsome boy isn't he? The ladies will love this stud muffin.

 

image host

 

upload a gif

 

Well, here is my super long post with my Charlies story. If you have any advice for me on how to proceed forward, I am all ears. I can promise you I will pay the knowledge forward when I have some of my own wisdom and experience.

 

Thanks for reading, good evening,

Syed

[Charlies Dad]

Oh boy, I was trying to post some pics of the how Charlie and I have been working on things...but it says that an admin must approve my post? I don't know where the post went? Should I start a new thread somewhere, where I can share the trials and tribulations Charlie and I have been going through?

 

Oh and btw, this forums is one of the most welcoming ones I have been on. Thank you so much for the warm welcome!!

[neoow]

Hmm not sure what's going on there- but try creating a new thread and see if that works. I'm sure an admin will be able to help if you're still having troubles!

[Acappella]

Welcome to you, Charlie, and the rest of your flock. There is an "other birds" forum where you can post about your conures!

[Greytness]

welcome! Looking forward to hearing about your adventures with Charlie!

[judygram]

Hello Syed and welcome to our family.

 

Charlie is adorable and I am so glad you have him in your life as he has had a rough start but you are asking questions and doing what it takes to make him healthy and happy, it shows.

[Charlie Parker]

Hey there, welcome to the best forum you'll ever know. I pretty much just joined as well, I have a charlie also lol. My charlie is working on being 11 months old. I just added another addition to our flock last Saturday, an 8 yo congo his name is oliver, Charlie is a timneh btw. Awesome to hear that you saved this little guy, your kindness will go forever with your charlie, he will NEVER forget you. Look forward to reading more of your posts. Toys, toys, and more toys may help with feather issue. Keep him busy, as busy as you can anyway.

[Giannine]

Welcome Syed:) I look forward to hearing more about yours and Charlie's adventures and am glad you decided to join!