Kids and African Greys?

[CarolandFamily]

Hi everyone I know that African Greys can be at times one person birds, well we have a dog , cat, hamster and Guiena pig. My cat Milo tolerates everyone BUT loves me the most lol. So me and my family are used to having animals who tolerate us but chooses the person who they love the most. Yes we are getting twins from the same clutch (we'll there a day apart) so I am grateful for that.

 

 

Ok I had to remove that paragraph after Dan told me more indepth about it lol, it was a breeder that I had saw and it said they were good ONLY with single people *ok im rambling* lol.

 

Those who have kids how is there relationship with the African Greys? My baby is 14 and my oldest is 25 I have 4 kids but my two youngest live here in MA with me.

 

Thanks Everyone!

 

Post edited by: CarolandFamily, at: 2009/04/24 15:21<br><br>Post edited by: CarolandFamily, at: 2009/04/24 15:28

[danmcq]

CarolandFamily wrote:

I was on birdbreeders.com and saw a breeder who said that "African Greys are ONLY good with SINGLE people and empty nesters" :pinch:

 

Jesus, what some people say is scary at times, this surprizingly from a breeder. Whom I would avoid like the plague. Good breeders that socialize their birds know better than this.

 

That's the downfall of the internet. There is a ton of false and misguided information.

 

In regards your children, Carol. As long as they are around your Greys and interact with them respectfuly and love them as much as you do, your Greys will be just fine with them at whatever level of interaction is deemed or bestowed upon them. If your 25yr old is only in and out over days or weeks, then the odds are high that a distance will be kept unless your Greys just are atrracted by whatever gauge they use to determine they want some attention from the outsider.

 

Grey's do not understandbly trust very young children that run around screaming, flapping arms and go from zero to 100 in 1 second. So they will keep their distance from them and if one happens to approach and stick a finger out, it will most likely get bit to let the child know they need to stay away.

 

With the dynamics of having 2 Greys, each will select whom they decide is there #1 and lower ranking most liked according to their individual preferences. The important thing is to ensure high socialization, boudaries set fro whats "nice" play and whats "unacceptable" play, which I am positive your "Teens" will know anyway, unlike very young toddlers.

 

Boy are you going to have a ton of excitement in your home soon!!! :-)

[Marauder]

It's hard to tell who a Grey will like and dislike. I live by myself but have company over regularly. Of course she is an absolute doll with me (she was a re-home through Phoenix Landing as she wanted nothing to do with her caretaker and wanted to bond with the husband who wasn't really a bird person. We started bonding the first day). My brother and a buddy of mine, who are over every weekend, have become afraid of her as they have the bruises and bleeding fingers to show that she does not particularly like them. On the flip side, another good friend from out of town was visiting for a week and she pretty much took right to him.

 

So, it's hard to say. They defiantly will choose favored and less favored/unfavored people, and there will be different levels. But to say that Greys are only good for single person homes is ridiculous. As had been said, you'd need to be careful with small children as both children and Greys can be unpredictable in those circumstances, but they are really great birds.

 

Since your youngest is 14, I wouldn't worry at all. With smaller children, supervise, supervise, supervise.

[CarolandFamily]

Dan- Thank you! I was tottaly dumbfounded when I saw that :huh: I sent you the link I was like single people and empty nesters ONLY. I tell you it pays to do your homework.

 

Marauder- You sound like a great mommy Thank You also

[Char]

I am single and an empty nester. My baby is not exposed to too many people so probably not what you would call well socialized. I can say that she is definately afraid of and will try to bite my 4 and 6 year old grand children. They stay away from ther.

 

As for other adults it is hard to say. She will step up for others such as my grown son and the vet and her assistants and will even say a word or two in front of them but she will not allow them to try to pet or scratch her. She kind of tolerates them but looks for the first opportunity to come back to mama.

[LindaMary]

I planned right from the outset to have my 13-year-old daughter Mary share the care of Maxi (whom we got at age 6 months). It turns out I spend a lot more time with her (and do 90% of the work), and before long Maxi clearly preferred me, although she would always go to Mary if I passed her to her. But once we got Tanner, and I had to share my time between the birds, Mary's stock rose with Max again, and now it's sometimes clear that Max would really rather hang out with Mary than with me. Mary's friend Brianna (14 y.o.), who is a frequent presence in our house and loves all animals, is almost as apt to be holding Maxi as Mary is. Maxi is a Timneh, and pretty mellow, but won't let just anyone hold her - it's always interesting to see who she picks.

 

Tanner on the other hand is working on living up to the severe macaw rep of being a real one-person bird. I'm working on training him out of that, but it's definitely an uphill battle!

[Tycos_mom]

I have no problems Tyco is a rescue and when I got her I had my 19 yr and my 11 yr old at home. Tyco loves my now 21 year old daughter and she taught Tyco many fun games. as for my now 13 year old. Tyco has learned how to mimic her voice perfectly and many times I have heard MOM MOM COME HERE and went to see what my daughter wanted only to have her look at me like I had totaly lost my mind and it was Tyco calling me. they don't interact much except for Tyco putting her 2 cents worth in when Andraya asks my for something Tycos answer is usually NO!! LOL Andraya is kinda afraid of Tyco but she gets a kick out of her because she talks so well and just like her but there isn't a problem with biting or attacking or anything like that. Tyco was a rescue also and that make a big difference she was re homed 3 times before me and the last home was with a crack head that hated her she was locked in a cockateil size cage in a back room with a horse blanket over her cage. her cage was never cleaned and she had nothing. So you can't expect her to behave like a baby that has never known anything except love. Adaya is totaly different than Tyco Adaya steps up for my daughter and she can pet her and thats the way your baby's will be also. later They may decide that they like one person more than the rest but that doesn't mean they won't except any others.