Hello all

[artoaky]

i just got back home from being away from my grey for about a month in a half. and cookie won't let me pick him up sometimes. biting away at my fingers. what should i do? also when he's on top of his cage he rips apart his newspaper and i think eats it lol. Anyone know a good way to potty train? Tank you

[lovemyGreys]

Hi artoaky

 

 

Give cookie time to adjust to having you back home,ripping newspaper comes natural to greys there's not a lot you can do about it ! Have a look around the froum or search at the top of the page there are topics regarding potty training.

[danmcq]

Tracy is right on. Time and patience is needed to allow Cokie time to adjust to your presence again. Right now, you are an outsider unfortunately.

[judygram]

You will have to work on the trust again, but lots of time and patience will get you there, just don't rush it.

 

They all love tearing up newspaper and I don't think he is ingesting any of it, there should be little bits and pieces laying around underneath where he is doing it.

 

For the potty training, just do a search using those words and you will find some threads that deal with that very thing.

[LisaM]

What I found to help with the tearing up the newspaper on the floor of the playtop that was supposed to be catching droppings is to tear chunks of newspaper and crumple it into several balls and put them on the cage where they're doing the shredding. They went for the balls and left the "floor" pretty much intact. This worked for one of my birds.

 

On the other hand, another one just chucked all the little balls of newspaper off the cage and then still proceeded to shred the "floor". :-) It's all good birdie fun. I think they need things to shred to be happy so maybe if you provide alternatives they may go for those also.

 

Another idea is to not put newspaper on the top and just clean it periodically through the day. Or try paper towels instead (may be less likely to shred?). I would only do these options if indeed they have other things to shred though.

 

Time will get your grey back trusting you. You might want to spend time just sitting and reading or something nearby the cage, keeping the door open and letting him come to you instead of you going to get him.

 

Patience definitely pays off with these guys! Pushing things faster than they're ready can have longer-lasting detrimental effects.

 

Good luck! Keep us posted on your progress.