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What have I done?!


nickraph

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Alright ladies and gents - I am not sure what has gotten into me but I adopted another grey. Pray for me 😂    Anyone have 3 or more grays?  Please drop your most valuable tip or piece of advice below!  So now we have Maxi, 43; Jojo, 21; and the newest addition as of today, Morgan, 12.  Morgan is the first male parrot I've had.  While I feel I am fairly experienced and knowledgeable on greys, I ALWAYS welcome tips, tricks, and advice from others.    

While I said this before, this will certainly be the last parrot entering my home as they now outnumber me and my partner.  

 

 

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I have 3 greys! Two get along as long as there are bars between them. If they're together outside their cages one will taunt the other while the other one tells him 'NO!'

The third grey is a rescue that doesn't directly interact with any of our greys. All 3 teach each other sayings and actual behaviors. For example, Maalik knows how to swing himself on one of his perches. Fynn has been watching him do it for quite some time before he learned how to swing himself. Now they enjoy swinging together while simultaneously ringing the three hanging stainless steel bells. It's super cute to watch!

Edited by Greytness
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1st JoJo and Maxi preening next to each other.  This is the closest they have ever gotten and it has not happened since. 

2nd is Morgan playing with a toy 

3rd is Maxi with her daily Messy Beak 

4th is JoJo

 

1033812353_JoJoandMaxi.GIF.69595f2c16bbd9a5fbaa532dd8ceb65d.GIFMorgan.thumb.jpg.87be34994b609a6664982276eed85819.jpgMaxi.thumb.JPG.e70a4c60bcca4eb3f594ea3c6d1d1c94.JPGJoJo.thumb.JPG.394b53b29383a26846ec83e483b3483a.JPG

Edited by nickraph
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What beautiful birds! I often get the itch for another, but manage to talk myself out of it. Timber has seizures and has to be medicated twice a day, as well as being confined to a hospital type cage for his own protection in case of a fall. He takes up a lot of my time, and I can never quite convince myself that I would have the time needed for another bird. I'd love to though...

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Well... I made a total rookie mistake. I was operating on autopilot clearly.  JoJo has a habit of asking for kisses in many different way while I am holding her, and she typically gets them from me.  Well, I was carrying Morgan from one place to the other and he said "Kiss" and without thinking I went in for the kiss. Well, that was definitely a shock and got a nice bite to the upper lip that led to some slight bleeding and a fat lip.  That'll teach me to be more attentive.  I've not been bitten like that by either of my girls before so it was a shock.  I just have to remind myself how slow I went with them in the beginning.  I think I just feel so much more comfortable now with handling them and understanding how to read them I just welcomed Morgan right into the family and started including him in the routine, which clearly was clearly too fast.  Oh well, live, learn, laugh?

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We live with a flock of Greys decorated by one Pionus, one Eleanora Cockatoo and one kind of crusty old Amazon, recently joined by two little budgies. Sweeping the floor is a full time job all on it's own. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes, strong personalities and shy ones. Pookie is a demanding Diva she was our first Grey bird and expects to be treated as the empress. Seems like feeding time is is interrupted by veggie and fruit breaks. Somewhere in all that I managed to make dinner for the family and of course change out water bowls as they get converted to yukky soupy stuff. Congrats on the new guy he shares a name with our second born child who is now married and a great person. Hope for more tales of your Grey household interactions.

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Hey all - everything is settling down nicely.  I’m still a bit concerned my girls are so okay with it tbh.  They literally do not even acknowledge his presence.  It’s nuts.  I thought they’d be riled up and loud but nothing. I’m talking, it almost looks like they are ignoring him deliberately.  It’s odd but no displays of aggression so I’m fine with it. I’d love to tell you guys more about my flock.  I’ll post about them as I have time.  
 

I can tell you about Maxi first, since she was my first grey.  When I adopted her from a private household, I was told she was 21 and that she was purchased at a petco. The previous owner was bitten early on in maxi’s life and it got her locked up for the next 20 years.  The owner was terrified of her, so she never let her out again. She escaped from her cage one time over the years during a cage cleaning at which point I was told she lived under the couch for a week before finally coming out to be caught and put back in her cage.  During my first visit to meet Maxi it took the owner 15 mins to find the keys to open her cage.  Maxi was terrified, feathers ruffled, loud growling, she was not friendly or happy whatsoever, but can ya blame her?  I didn’t and when I saw her in this state I told the lady I’d be taking her, paid her 700 bucks for a “rehoming fee” and brought her home.  It was a very very rough few months.  She screeched nonstop with shrill high pitched alarm sounds for most of the day for weeks on end.  She started plucking her ankles and underwings.  It honestly creates a tremendous amount of tension in my marriage.  But in the end we came out on her good terms. Maxi gets better and better each day.  It took almost a year to get her to step up.  She does now regularly and eagerly. She’s also teaching herself how to fly.  She will literally spend time during the day to work on flying and when she nails a spot she meant to get you can see the excitement in her face and body language.  When she fails, she honestly still looks kinda happy lol.  But she gets better and better ever day.  She’s not a talker at all and prefers whistles and coos.  When she does talk it’s in a whisper voice.  Think someone saying “whatcha doin?” In a whisper.  That’s about all she says.  She’s my girl, I love her bunches and feel so happy to be able to give her such a good home and happy life.  OH!! I forgot to mention the biggest shock of owning Maxi. She’s actually 43! Not 21 as I was told.  The vet was able to teach her band back to a specific breeder and time.  So there’s a whole 22 years not accounted for.  Who knows what this girl has in store for me in the coming years.   Can’t wait to find out.  
 

I’ll tell you guys about JoJo sometime soon. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update:  Morgan is doing great.  We did discover that he is very much aggressive towards people wearing hats for some reason.  My two girls do not care at all but Morgan's whole demeanor changes.  It is so bad that he actually flew at me and bit my face/lip pretty badly.  He actually punctured it.  However, once the hat is gone he goes back to being just as sweet as you could ever hope for.  We now have a sign on the room warning about wearing hats into there or around him.  I also learned that he is a skilled and consistent flyer.  He is not one to wait for you to come to him, he flies right to wherever he is wanting to go.  This has presented some challenges as he is also a very destructive grey (at least compared to my girls). He is always looking to get into something and loves the top of the fridge for some reason.  Primarily I think Sio he can try to get at the woodwork and chew on plastic parts of the fridge.  That had to stop immediately, a cute stuffed owl curtailed it.  So, we have had some bumps so far but nothing detrimental.  He is definitely a boy, when comparing him to my two girls,  He is big, clumsy, and always in trouble.  Hahaha.  Here is a fun pic I got of him. 

54258B05-4573-44BA-B2A5-2AB2A0393D33.jpeg

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Sounds like our boy Huey.  Always has to be in a drawer, cupboard, bookcase - anywhere getting into anything/everything.   I set up his own dresser with drawers full of wooden spoons, boxes and lots of stuff for him to get his 'constructionings' on.  He even does the "whew" sound when he's working.  I always compliment him on what a hard worker he is and then more "whew".

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6 minutes ago, SRSeedBurners said:

Sounds like our boy Huey.  Always has to be in a drawer, cupboard, bookcase - anywhere getting into anything/everything.   I set up his own dresser with drawers full of wooden spoons, boxes and lots of stuff for him to get his 'constructionings' on.  He even does the "whew" sound when he's working.  I always compliment him on what a hard worker he is and then more "whew".

I never use boxes or anything they can crawl into to avoid hormonal responses.  Is this only for the girls?  Is it safe to give to males? 

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I assume it depends on the bird. Alfie loves to to shred boxes and magazines and will spend many happy hours doing so. And whilst he's shredding boxes, he's not shredding my furniture, so it works for me.

I have never seen any mating/nesting behaviours triggered by him shredding magazines and boxes. The only thing that had triggered a response are some foot toys- usually small ball shaped toys will set him off as he seems to think of them as eggs. Needless to say, he doesn't get those if he's feeling hormonal!

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Boxes, cupboards etc are the only thing we have found that will keep Huey busy enough so he doesn't butcher his feet.   Otherwise he has to stay on Haliperidol 24/7 and it keeps him knocked out and droopy all the time - hate that.  Huey goes hormonal in the spring regardless of there being boxes around or not - we found that out the first year we had him.  So does our male Caique - loses his mind and rips his belly feathers out, has no boxes etc.  Not sure I buy into the boxes cause nesting theory, I'm more of the inclination that it's their normal seasonal hormonal fluctuations.

 

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Edited by SRSeedBurners
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