OllieBird Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Hi, My name is Sam, and my african grey - Congo - is Oliver. We call him Ollie, Ollie-bird, Oliver, etc. I recieved Oliver when he was around 2 months old, or less. Oliver was locally bred, and was being hand fed by the breeder, who got sick and couldn't handle her baby birds any longer. She sold Oliver to a local guy, who was more than equipped to handle the task. 3 days later, i was offered a chance to have Oliver, cheap, but the guy stipulated I had to be willing to hand feed him, as he was very young, and had down feathers, and a few regular feathers. I'm not sure how he was treated before I got him, but he was up and walking in 2-3 days, after being hand fed and loved with lots of attention. I was told, before our local guy recieved him, he had spent his first weeks of life in a small plastic box, with barely any space to move, let alone stretch his wings or walk, which might explain why he started to walk within days of arriving here. Oliver is now 7 months old, and does many different whistle sounds, as well as attempts to say hello. Oliver flies to me to retrieve a snack, and flies back to his cage when prompted, or lighty tossed in that direction. Oliver enjoys a wide variety of human and bird foods, and loves to play with his toys. I joined this forum hoping to find info to get me more on the way of disciplining and training Oliver. I guess, to start, I am looking to understand Oliver more than just holding and feeding him, and watching him play with people and bite hard on occasion. beyond understanding Oliver, and starting to discipline and train, I want to make Oliver's life as exciting and full as I am able to. I don't have a great deal of money, so training schools or the like, wouldn't be an option for me. I accepted Oliver for 2 reasons: First, I can't watch an animal go from place to place, and "hope" he does ok, so i wanted to "save" him, and secondly, although I have had love birds and a few cockatiels, i have wanted an african grey as long as I can remember. This just seemed like it was time to get one, and Oliver was the one for me. I should mention, although I would have been in the market for a young grey that was weened already, I was more than delighted to have one that still needed special attention. In respect to that, it is my belief that most "hand-fed" birds are hand fed, and not much more. Oliver seems very advanced compared to grey his age, in stores in my local area, leading me to think most aren't given that one on one attention for more than a few minutes a day. My problem with Oliver, in a nutshell, is that I don't like him to be locked in a cage for long periods of time, but lately, since he flies so well, he constantly flies to me, and to the couch, as well as flies to members of my family, but, he likes to poop on me, and my surroundings as much as he can. Oliver flies to me, and shows lots of love, and seems to be less testy with me, as I was the hand-feeder he remembers since he was very young, but he poops on me within a minute of sitting on me. He has started to land on my chair, or couch, and poop. I want to break him of this, so i can handle him much more, and so I don't have to keep him in his cage. For now, since his cage was usually open most of the time, I put him in for an hour, and let him back out. He used to come out and climb to his play area, and play, but now he plays for a minute, then flies to me..... and poops. To handle Oliver as much as I'd like, and as much as he'd like, I'd go through several shirts a day. Please help me, and/or direct me to the right place for info. I can also use some info on what books would be best for caring for greys. Meanwhile, I'm going to browse the forums for more info. Thank you all for being here, and for having a forum dedicated to our greys. Sam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slmclean Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 hi sam and welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Hello Sam and welcome to the family, so glad you decided to join us and we look forward to hearing more about you and Ollie. Isn't it funny how things work out sometimes, you have wanted a grey for a long time and then this chance to get one and hand feed it comes along, this was meant to be, fate if you want to call it that. Ollie sounds like a well adjusted grey who is blossoming with your love and attention and yes if he is fully flighted he is going to follow you everywhere to be with you. You are his flock member now but unfortunately the poops come along with it. We do have a few threads that deal with potty training greys and if you are diligent with it you can train them very easily. Just do a search for potty training and see what comes up but I would imagine they are in the training room. Take some time and read thru the many threads for lots of useful information and do not hesitate to ask any and all questions you may have and we will do our best to get some answers and help you in any way we can. If you have some pictures of Ollie you would like to share with us we would love to see him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Sam & Ollie welcome here I hope (and know) you will get out of this forum what you are looking for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danmcq Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Welcome Sam and Ollie!!! It sounds you have done a wonderful job of hand feeding and raising Ollie. The only way to try and stop the pooping on you or the furniture, is to train him to poop in a specific place, like his Cage, the trash can a playstand etc. It will take patience and time to accomplish this. You will need to pay careful attention to his body language to detect when you know he is about to poop and quickly have him step-up, carry him to where you wish him to do so and either keep him perched on your hand or perch him where you want him to go poop and say "Go Poop" or "Bombs Away".. what ever you wish. But , just make sure your actions, the place and your words are always consistent. he will learn this over time and some have even picked it up in just a few days. As noted by Judy, there are also threads that cover poop-training. You can find them by doing a search on this forum. It's good having you here and looking forward to hearing more from you. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovemyGreys Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Hi Sam & Ollie,Welcome to the forum We look forward to hearing more from you . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tarnold Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Hi Sam and Ollie welcome to the forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siobha9 Posted August 7, 2008 Share Posted August 7, 2008 Welcome to the forum. What a great introduction to you and Ollie;) . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OllieBird Posted August 8, 2008 Author Share Posted August 8, 2008 Thank you all for the warm welcome. I am happy to receive so many nice replies. I appreciate the info and encouragement I have received already. I really like the positive atmosphere on this forum. This is my first time on a forum relating to Oliver. I didn't know where to start, but it seems like a great place to get started. I am browsing pictures of Oliver to share with all of you. Here is one of Oliver a few weeks after he arrived. This was a ferret cage I borrowed from a friend. I found a nice cage, luckily, at our local pet supplies store, which was marked down due to a couple missing knobs and door latches, and a dent in the seed guard. I tried to post an image, but it's not showing. i'll have to read to find out how to add an image properly. I appologize Sam. Post edited by: OllieBird, at: 2008/08/07 21:41<br><br>Post edited by: OllieBird, at: 2008/08/07 21:42 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kittykittykitty Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 Hi Sam an Ollie and welcome. I believe you will find the help you want at this forum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lyric Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 Hi Sam: As soon as you let Ollie out you should hold him over a trashcan or the sink and tell him, go potty, or whatever your command is. Especially if it is first thing in the morning or you've been gone a while. You may have to hold him there a few minutes, but wait until he does it. Then tell him what a good bird he is and praise him highly. He will soon learn what the command is. You just have to remember he may still have accidents, and you have to take him back quite frequently to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 8, 2008 Share Posted August 8, 2008 OllieBird wrote: ........ I tried to post an image, but it's not showing. i'll have to read to find out how to add an image properly. I appologize Sam. P........ it probably is because it is too large. on here photos of up to 500 pixels can be placed only. you could, for example, make use of an online photo resize site like http://www.shrinkpictures.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OllieBird Posted August 9, 2008 Author Share Posted August 9, 2008 FairY , As a former computer junkie, I should have guessed the poster-size image I tried to post, was my issue.he he he... Thanks for the tip. That did the trick. Here's Oliver showing us some sexy moves. This was April 9,'08. Since I do not know his date of birth, or age, I'd appreciate if anyone could "speculate" or "guestimate" an approximate age, so I have some reference to work with, when determining what to answer, when people ask, how old is he? and, when to have a mini b-day session for him. Sam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danmcq Posted August 9, 2008 Share Posted August 9, 2008 Great photo of Ollie Sam. In this photo, he appears to me, to be around 8 weeks old. He's climbing around putting good at that age from appearances here. :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 9, 2008 Share Posted August 9, 2008 Sam, he's cuuuute Looks like he is playing for macho there I have no idea about what age he could be, but hopefully other members here can help out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 9, 2008 Share Posted August 9, 2008 right Dan, you sneaked in before me so I wouldn't have written that about the 'other members' :laugh: (since you already reacted to that) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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