Well hello

[Goliath]

I have an 8 mo. old TAG DNA sexed as male named Echo. He is my first bird and for that I certainly did some things wrong out of the box but I am reformed and now things are going pretty good. I brought him home a couple days after he was weaned and he was probably about 3 months old at the time. No words yet, but he will riff where he tries to talk when he thinks he's alone and that's pretty comical. I think I nearly have his trust, he will step up on command at any time in his cage whether he wants to or not if he's on one of his lower perches, but if he's on the ceiling or wall, he won't. When he wants to come out, he'll step up anywhere.

 

His "trick" is if I lean in and say "give me a kiss" he will put his beak out for me to kiss or if I just lean in he will touch his beak to my nose.

 

I have a couple questions, I've been misting him about twice a month (I try to do it more but he's not a huge fan), so I want to get him to bathe, after seeing the water bowl deal, I might give that a shot. Any other bathing suggestions would be great.

 

Also, I almost want to find a play group to take him to so he can learn desirable behaviors (hopefully) from other birds, is this advisable? How do you track down one of these?

 

And last but not least. He hates being petted, hates it. At first I figured it was my technique but just about any exotic I've come across and handled I've been able to almost paralyze with petting (macaws, cockatoos (that's an easy one), larger conures). Is there any strategy for warming him up to touch?

 

Thanks!

[judygram]

Hello Goliath and welcome to the family, glad you could join us and we look forward to hearing more about you and Echo, what a nice name for a grey.

 

Echo still has plenty of time to learn to talk and it sounds like he might be a closet talker, doesn't want to talk if you are in the room, some are like that. Now my Josey will talk with us in the room and even answer you when you talk to her.

 

Most of us usually try to bathe or mist our greys about twice a week, some like the shower and some will tolerate a misting and a lot of us use the aloe vera juice when misting them, it makes the feathers softer and is soothing for the skin.

 

I don't know about a play group for birds, if you want another bird for him to interact with then get another one yourself, but as far as being with other parrots there is always the chance of transmitting a disease among other birds in close proximity.

 

Your technique may be just fine, he may just not like being handled and petted, some allow a lot and some are kind of hands off so respect his wishes and maybe in time he will allow more touching.

 

Please read thru the many threads on various topics for lots of useful information and ask questions if you have any, we do our best to get some answers and help you in any way we can.

 

If you have any pictures of Echo you would like to share with us we would love to see him.

[Guest]

Goliath, I hope you will like it here and:

 

{Communicate-00020121}

[Goliath]

This is a picture of Echo the day I brought him home, before his upper mandible turned horn colored. I've never had a camera that wasn't a phone so the quality is lacking.

 

Behold!

 

 

 

I also just picked him up a hanging play gym off of ebay. I imagine that's going to be lots of fun.

 

EDIT:

 

And here he is the day I put a deposit on him. <br><br>Post edited by: Goliath, at: 2008/02/14 16:38

[Lyric]

Welcome Goliath!

Echo was one of the names I was considering for my TAG but I ended up naming him Lyric. I like that name though!

Lyric doesn't really enjoy a lot of petting either, even though when he was small I cuddled him a lot. He has his moments when he likes his head rubbed, especially his cheeks and the area around his beak. Try waiting until Echo appears to want interaction- sometimes this is right after his belly is full and he's getting sleepy. Rub the cheek area in small circles and see if he likes this. If he tries to bite or pull away then he's just not in the mood, so give it a try later. I never push Lyric for affection if he isn't willing- I don't think they like it unless it's their idea. Good luck and welcome to the forum.

[Tari]

[judygram]

Echo sure is a cute little baby, thanks for sharing a pic with us:)

[perfectparrots]

Firstly welcome to the forum. How cute. What a little sweetie. Echo is a lovely name.

[danmcq]

Welcome Goliath!!

 

Echo is a great looking TAG and it sounds like you are off to a good start and come to the right place for answers from the existing wealth of topics here and of course all our members that love to help out with answers also.

 

Looking forward to hearing more and seeing more photos when you get a chance. :-)