New African Grey - Mocha

[Drekkyk]

Hello everyone! 

 

We decided to join the ranks of those that are owned by parrots.  We brought home Mocha last Monday, and he appears to be doing ok.  We do have one issue to work through, but first let me give a little history.

 

Mocha is 15 years old.  From what we have been told is that he was kept in a cage for the first 10 years of his life.  Then an older woman picked him up, and worked tirelessly with him for the next 4 years.  Her health deteriorated and the parrot ended up with the previous owner.  The previous owner had Mocha for about 6 months, but her McCaw picked on him and she decided to get rid of him.

 

Mocha is missing his toes on his right foot, and all but one or two on his left foot.  Mocha does not step-up, and whenever he was held by the previous owners, it was against their breast under their neck.

Our household includes me, my wife, 11-year-old daughter, and a Yorkie and Akita.

 

Since we picked up Mocha on Monday, we have noticed he started chewing his feathers.  This is where I would like advice, but here is how we are currently addressing it:

·         His diet was mostly all seed.  We have introduced pellets, fruit, and are working on the veggies (which he doesn’t seem to want.)

·         The cage we purchased is rather large, and tall, with a play area on top.  I think this may have been stressing him out a bit, especially since he doesn’t have the ability to hang on to the dowel tightly.  We moved the playset to a lower location, and are replacing all the dowels with smaller diameter to try and improve his grip and confidence.

·         We have been keeping him up too late.  We are going to get him to bed earlier.

·         We haven’t misted him yet, we are going to try that today.

·         We are going to be more conscious of washing our hands before handling him.

·         He was at the vet last June and we have the results, so I don’t think a vet visit is in order yet.

 

I’m hopeful his chewing is a result of the stress of moving, and that with time, along with the above-mentioned steps, it will subside.  Please let me know if you have any other suggestions!

 

We really do not handle him much yet.  We only move him when we have to until we build more trust with him.  For now, we hand him toys which he takes, feed him grapes and blueberries, etc.  He likes to look at our rings on our fingers and we let him touch our hands, but he does like to bait us into petting him.  If we try he nips lightly, which we just ignore and redirect with our rings.  Basically, just trying to get him used to our presence. 

 

My wife is home all day for the next 6 months, so she has plenty of time to invest in training.  We want to get him to step-up first. 

 

I’m sure more questions will pop-up, but we read a lot and are committed to becoming good flock mates!

 

Thanks everyone!

 

[Luvparrots]

Welcome Drekkyek and Mocha.  Great photo.  Looking forward to learning more about y'all.

[neoow]

Thank you for taking in a rescue bird and welcome to the forums! Poor little guy seems to have been through a lot!

Grey's are particularly sensitive animals and can be a bit change adverse. He has been through a number of major changes over the last few years and it's probably taking him a little while to get used to this. This latest change is a total change in environment and humans so there is a lot for him to get used to.

It sounds to me like you're doing all the right things. The important thing is patience. It might take days, weeks or months before your new addition trusts you enough to step up. He might not find this the easiest thing to accomplish due to the damage on his toes so he's probably happiest with a nice stable perch rather than a hand right now. But patience is key. Don't give up on the little guy and you will be amazed how much he can offer as time goes on. He will start to come out of his shell and show you more and more of his personality and traits- but it will just take time for him to have the confidence to do this.

[Drekkyk]

Thank you for the feedback!

We really get mixed messages from him.  He talks alot and sways, and interacts with us alot, giving us a sense that he is fairly comfortable.  But, his demeanor can change quickly when we are close.

I think the biggest challenge is that we doubt he has ever been taught to step up.  So we are trying to find the best way to move him from his cage to his playstand.  (Previous owner left him out of cage all day on stand, Mocha never left it while unattended). We are not comfortable with that, but we also do not want to keep him in cage all day due to his history.

 

Long story short, it has only been a week, so we will keep encouraging him to interact with us at a distance he feels comfortable.  We can work on step up in a couple of weeks when he is more used to us.  Hopefully the feather chewing subsides as well.

 

Thanks!

[Timbersmom]

Hello and welcome to the forum!

[neoow]

15 hours ago, Drekkyk said:

Thank you for the feedback!

We really get mixed messages from him.  He talks alot and sways, and interacts with us alot, giving us a sense that he is fairly comfortable.  But, his demeanor can change quickly when we are close.

I think the biggest challenge is that we doubt he has ever been taught to step up.  So we are trying to find the best way to move him from his cage to his playstand.  (Previous owner left him out of cage all day on stand, Mocha never left it while unattended). We are not comfortable with that, but we also do not want to keep him in cage all day due to his history.

 

Long story short, it has only been a week, so we will keep encouraging him to interact with us at a distance he feels comfortable.  We can work on step up in a couple of weeks when he is more used to us.  Hopefully the feather chewing subsides as well.

 

Thanks!

Exactly the right attitude- work at his pace. If he's showing signs of fear or aggression when you're up close then take a few steps back until he relaxes and is comfortable.
Get him used to you and your family being in the room with him and moving around him. Get him used to your voices as well- so just have a chat with him and let him know what you're up to and why. If he's not used to being handled much then this is going to be quite new and probably scary for him - so always watch closely to see how he's reacting and back off if needs be. Slowly build on it bit by bit, getting closer- hands closer etc. Maybe offer him a tasty treat and see if he comes towards you to take it/investigate.

The feather chewing can be caused by a number of reasons - it may well be a habit that is going to be difficult to break or he may settle in with you and stop doing it as it may just be a stress response. Others here may have some extra advice on this. There are lots of threads about plucking/feather chewing available on this site so it might be worth searching through those to see what others have suggested previously.

Don't forget- he's probably trying to figure you out as much as you're trying to figure him out!

[Acappella]

Welcome to you and Mocha.  If he's having trouble gripping his perches try wrapping some vet wrap around them, it may help.  Just do it with smaller diameter perches like you said you were going to get.  On the step up thing, I read once that it's easier to train if you do it in neutral territory away from his cage, like maybe in a bedroom or a bathroom.  Have you found a treat that he'll do anything for yet?  Some like pieces of walnut or almond, some like pine nuts.  Odds are you'll find something he loves.  My Dorian is in the minority.  There's nothing that will make him step up consistently, but for his first 2 years here he wouldn't step up at all, so we've made some progress.  Have fun getting to know your new addition, and if you can't find an answer to a question in the archives ask, and someone will respond.