karena899 Posted May 10, 2007 Share Posted May 10, 2007 Hi my name is Karen and I am new to the forums here as well as to African Greys. My husband and I are going to look at a 7 year old female Timneh African Grey Parrot tomorrow after we saw it advertised in our local newspaper. It is 600 dollars and comes with its own very large cage plus accessories. We spoke to the lady who owns it tonight and apparently the bird is in very good health (she sent us pics as well to confirm this) and has a good vocabulary. She is selling it because her family is to busy to spend time with it. The only real drawback is that she said that the bird is very protective of its cage especially when it is sitting outside on top of it. Once the bird gets away from the cage she is fine and loving. Is it possible at the age the bird is to break this protective behaviour? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Monique Posted May 10, 2007 Share Posted May 10, 2007 There are ways to try to break the protective behavior and there are also ways to very easily live with it. To live with it you simply teach your Grey to step onto a perch and take them out that way. Get her a playgym to play on instead of the top of her cage so she's not protective when she is out. This is worst case scenario. To try & break it you work with the stepping onto a perch when taking out of the cage and then also get her a sleeping cage (this can just be a cheap $20 dog crate from Walmart and you screw a perch in the side). This is only used for sleeping time and is sometimes successful in breaking or reducing cage territorialness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TinyTimneh Posted October 19, 2007 Share Posted October 19, 2007 you could try to teach the timneh to step onto a perch i guess but lemme say that that never worked for Jacko my TAG and it might scare her and make your bird associate you with bad stuff (i.e the perch) also, you have no way of knowing what yuor bird has experienced before concerning this problem, mebbe they too tried this and got fed up and harassed her with the perch. the protective nature could also possibly be fear that was misread, in either case i had the same problems with my TAG as far as him biting me whenever i went to touch him when he was on top of his cage in the beginning. i would recoomend wearing a thick sweater (cover your hand!!) and being taller than she is when she's on top of the cage and just keep at it, pushing your hand into her belly till she steps up then praise her lavishly. then, repeat good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest briansmum Posted October 19, 2007 Share Posted October 19, 2007 this is an old post, i wonder if karena is still about to update us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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