New African Grey and LOTS of Questions

[MARIR]

Well, I went to see our new baby, she is huge! She's at least 3 times bigger than my sun conure! Wow, now I am SO excited.... April can't come soon enough!

She was making these little noises, and then when I held her, she just sat in my arms and stared at me...until she started to fall asleep. The breeder gave lots of advice, but I was wondering....how hard has anyone been bitten? do you ever let your african on your shoulder? any advice? Thanks.

[Errols_Mom]

I've been bitten pretty hard. They can break skin if they want to, but mostly your hand-fed fids dont bite as hard as the wild-caughts (now my info is DEF. Not black & white, there are ALWAYS exceptions) I actually feel my parakeet's bites are worse...only because they have that little pointy beak, like a needle it is! My grey's have all kept their beaks well trimmed.

 

As for the shoulder thing...I don't let my grey sit on my shoulder, That close to my eye, and cheek, and ear. I'm not scared my CAG is going to bite me out of sheer spite, My fear is always, what if she slips, and graps onto my cheek to stableize herself, (Or my ear!) There are a million reasons I don't let my CAG on my shoulder, but looking into those eyes..its' hard not to let them get away with anything!

[MARIR]

Thanks for the advice...I'm alittle nervous about getting a bigger bird, I know when our conure had to have a broken blood feather pulled he bit me hard,(it bruised) but I can't blame him, if somebody just plucked my feather out of my butt I'd be grumpy too!

[Sticks_n_stones]

Watson, our CAG, usually rides around on my husband's shoulder. He's never slipped. (He's 9 years old.) I don't let him get on my shoulder, although he will climb up my arm and get there. I always make him get down. I'm afraid he'll go after my ear because of my diamond stud earrings, which I almost always wear. He likes sparkly objects.

 

And yes, he will bite, and for no apparent reason. He has seldom bitten me, but my husband has had some bad bites. Breaks the skin. It happens less and less often, but I'm very wary of his tendency to do that. Nonetheless, we both still handle him a lot. I guess that compared with the times we hold him, the number of bites is not that significant. Still ...

 

BTW, good luck with your new bird. Nothing, except my children, has ever given me so much pleasure (or frustration .<br><br>Post edited by: Sticks_n_stones, at: 2007/03/05 20:29

[MARIR]

Thank you..

[Jon94]

An alternative to letting your grey on your shoulder would to just let it sit on your stomach, or knee.

[Luvparrots]

I don't let my grey on my shoulder for many of the same reasons Errol's Mom posted, but Ana Grey is happy sitting on my arm, on the back of my desk chair, chair arm, or on a playstand near by.

[Azzie]

Sometimes Cleo will sit on my shoulder, but most often she will wander off and sit on my knee or the back of a chair. I've read that greys don't have the same height dominance issues like some other birds do, and that they will naturally perch on the highest point available.

 

Bites, yep a few, but those were my own fault. Cleo gave me plenty of warning not to persist, but I did, so I got bitten. Nothing too serious really when you bear in mind a grey can apply 200lbs per square inch of pressure!

 

Good luck with your baby

[Char]

Whisper sits and rides around on my shoulder all the time. Sometimes she slips and when she does she says "Oops!" but no bite so far. I am lucky. 17 months old and no bite yet. She has not given me any reason yet to not trust her so I do.

 

If I am doing something she does not like she will take her beak and gently move my finger. I respect her wishes and stop. It is mutual respect and trust. There have been a few times when we are playing that she has accidentally taken hold of my hand with her beak. She will say "Oops" and let go.<br><br>Post edited by: Char, at: 2009/04/25 04:10

[SamsDad]

I can only imagine your excitement. I only had to wait a couple days before picking up Sam my 14 month old hand fed Congo.

 

I've only had Sam 2 weeks and I'm still getting to know him but so far he's quite a gentle bird. He will grab my finger and squeeze when he's excited or nervous but he hasn't even tried to bite me and there's a few times I've pushed him a bit to see how'd he react. I know some day I'll probably get bit but I expect it will be because I'm not paying attention to the warning signs.

 

I've been trying him on my shoulder and he's been well behaved. A few times he's gotten excited and beaked my ear but they've been light pinches that don't hurt. He's fine if I'm moving around and doing things but if I let him just sit there he'll start demanding that I scratch. The worst thing he does is to bend down grab a fold of shirt and punch a hole in it, then when I bring my hand up to stop him he puts his head down for a scratch. I'm working on breaking him of that by watching for him starting to grab the shirt. I'll quickly reach up and lift his beak up and say "no, don't bite" and ignore the request for a scratch. He'll look at me again then bend his head down again and THAT'S when he gets a scratch - whenhe asks nicely. He's smart and is learning - besides I taken to wearing an old shirt while we explore this whole shoulder thing.

 

Now Nelson, my last Grey was a imported bird who with a lot of work because a great cuddly bird. He could be moody though and when he was being bratty, he could bite. For quite a while he took to biting me when it was time to go back into his cage for bedtime. These could be anything from a pinch to a skin-breaking BITE. It was a long, tough, time until this became less of a problem. Out of his cage he was sweet as could be.

 

Sometimes greys can get nippy when they reach sexual maturity. When the hormones are peaking they can get easily frustrated and can bite. Nelson never seemed to go through that phase in the 20 years I had him. Time will tell with Sam.

 

One important thing to remember about Greys is that they are SMART! They try to manipulate you, and you in turn must learn to manipulate them! I think even a well adjusted bird might a nip or a pinch just to see if it works. If it does they'll use it more. :evil: That's why I'm trying to "nip" Sam's shirt chewing in the bud.

 

Tom

[Kaedyn]

I have two greys. One of them I trust entirely and she sits on my shoulder all the time. Just like a puppy I can press my face right up to her. She's about 13 months old now and she's never bitten anyone. She actually goes out of her way to be very gentile, even when I play rough with her and roll her upside down. It's as if she just "gets it". You can see the empathy in her eyes.

 

My other grey is not shoulder approved. He thinks ears are the greatest toy ever invented and if he is annoyed with something you've done, he'll be happy to send a message. I play just as rough with him and he tries to be gentle, but eventually gets carried away and you have to remind him to "be nice". He's not a habitual biter and my fingers spend a great deal of time in his beak, but I do receive the occasional hard bite. It's rare that he draws blood, but I also know how to read his body language and how to sacrifice a more durable finger for the greater good of the rest of the hand. It's an acquired skill.

 

So my point is that it's really going to depend on the personality of your grey. If you find early on that they aren't absolutely trustworthy, then I'd break them of the shoulder habit before it forms.

 

As far as a bite is concerned, I have to agree with Erolls_Mom. I'd much rather a bite from a grey than many of the smaller birds. As for the larger birds I'd take a bite from any grey long before I'd take one from a Cockatoo. Unlike some parrots, I've found that greys just bite and release. The last time I played with a Cockatoo, it was bite, squeeze harder, then harder, then harder.