New baby grey, some questions!
Badass Scotsman
Just brought home my hand reared baby grey, purchased from a 'local
breeder'. A few questions, hope some of you pro's would be kind enough to
help out!
First of all, Mario (My name for him), is only 10 weeks old.
Is this old enough for him to "leave the flock"?
He looks fully feathered, and can fly towards the ground (not quite falling,
he lands but clearly can't keep height for long).
Is this normal at 10 weeks old?
He is extremely tame, and very excitable when I approach the cage. He is
very keen to jump onto my hand. He seems to enjoy very gentle toy fighting
with his beak, however he has bitten me only once and it was excruciatingly
sore relative to the size of the wee thing. Is this excitement due perhaps
him looking to be hand fed? See next question....
They told me he was on solids for a about 10 days. The coloured biscuit
variety. Whilst I was in their house buying the bird, overheard a phonecall
, it was clear that someone had bought one of the other's the day before,
and he seemed to be complaining that the parrot wasn't eating....he said the
parrot just needed some settling in time. Now when I took Mario home, he
clearly struggled to eat these biscuits, he was trying but he appeared to
have some trouble cracking them. I left him for the rest of the day, with
them, however I occasionally hand fed him some soft apple which he enjoyed.
I decided best to use a food processor to break the coloured biscuits into
much smaller crumbs, and he is eating a lot more of them. This is why I
wondered if he was ready to be brought home yet...
When I got Mario home, I put him into a small cage, just as he is still
trying to find his feet - he's not confident enough to quickly move around
the cage and it takes him several attempts to move from one perch to
another. A big shiny cage is assembled and waiting on his footwork to
improve.
Lastly and probably most importantly, I have a five year old Umbrella
Cockatoo who is absolutely nuts over me. I love him to bits, spend lot of
time with him, and he enjoys coming everywhere with me in the house, sitting
perched on my shoulder. Harry has his own bedroom upstairs with a giant
aviary, and whilst I would love for Harry and Mario to share, I am guessing
the Umbrella is simply to great a threat to Mario....anyone got any
experience of these birds living together?
Thanks for any help and sorry for the long post. If any of you are
interested in how I got to this point, have a look at my birdie timeline
below!
Regards,
Gary.
-----------------------------------------------
A wee bit of my birdie history:
1997:
17 years old, first house (A top floor 1 bedroom flat). I buy a budgie.
2 weeks later:
I buy three more budgies.
5 or 6 weeks later:
I rip the doors of my bedroom wardrobe, stick chicken mesh over it, and put
my 4 budgies in it, with loads of perches and swings.
About a month later:
I buy 3 budgies and 4 cockatiels, they get on fine with the existing stock.
Later that day:
I permanently attach perches and swings to my window area in the room, and
hand swings from the ceiling. I have officially lost the plot, the birds
now own my livingroom. Girlfriend not amused.
That evening:
Girlfriend tells me she's pregnant, I drink whisky. Lots of it.
9 months later:
All birds are shipped off to an aviary in a nursing home. Oh yea, and son
is born.
And.....9 years later:
Girlfriend is now my ex, been with current new girlfriend for 7 years. Get
my son every weekend, and have gone from one bedroom top floor flat to 4
bedroom detached.
9 years and 1 week later:
I buy an Umbrella Cockatoo, 4 years old, called Harry. He hates me.
9 years, 1 month and 1 week later:
Harry loves me, I love Harry. We are inseparable when at home.
9 years, 1 month, 1 week and a day later:
I buy a second cage for Harry, and attach it to the identical cage I already
have in essence doubling it in size.
9 years, 1 month, 1 week, 1 day and 8 hours later:
Girlfriend gets annoyed about the cage size taking over livingroom, and cage
gets put in back garden for "sunny days".
9 years, 6 months later:
I buy, have delivered, and install an 8 ft x 7 ft x 6 ft aviary in the spare
room, Harry loves it, Girlfriend hates it, im happy.
9 months, 7 months later (present dayish?):
I buy and bring home, Mario, a 10 week old Congo African Grey.
xpen...@earthlink.net
<badass-...@aye.net> wrote:
>Hya,
>
>Just brought home my hand reared baby grey, purchased from a 'local
>breeder'. A few questions, hope some of you pro's would be kind enough to
>help out!
>
>First of all, Mario (My name for him), is only 10 weeks old.
>Is this old enough for him to "leave the flock"?
I bought my AG at 9 weeks.
>
>He looks fully feathered, and can fly towards the ground (not quite falling,
>he lands but clearly can't keep height for long).
>Is this normal at 10 weeks old?
At this age they are just starting to fledge. I didn't clip me AG's
wings till several weeks later when I found her perched atop the
curtain rod.
>
>He is extremely tame, and very excitable when I approach the cage. He is
>very keen to jump onto my hand. He seems to enjoy very gentle toy fighting
>with his beak, however he has bitten me only once and it was excruciatingly
>sore relative to the size of the wee thing. Is this excitement due perhaps
>him looking to be hand fed? See next question....
I continued to handfed my AG for about another two weeks after I got
her.
>
>They told me he was on solids for a about 10 days. The coloured biscuit
>variety. Whilst I was in their house buying the bird, overheard a phonecall
>, it was clear that someone had bought one of the other's the day before,
>and he seemed to be complaining that the parrot wasn't eating....he said the
>parrot just needed some settling in time. Now when I took Mario home, he
>clearly struggled to eat these biscuits, he was trying but he appeared to
>have some trouble cracking them. I left him for the rest of the day, with
>them, however I occasionally hand fed him some soft apple which he enjoyed.
>I decided best to use a food processor to break the coloured biscuits into
>much smaller crumbs, and he is eating a lot more of them. This is why I
>wondered if he was ready to be brought home yet...
If your are able to handfeed and continue the weaning no it isn't. If
you aren't it is.
>
>When I got Mario home, I put him into a small cage, just as he is still
>trying to find his feet - he's not confident enough to quickly move around
>the cage and it takes him several attempts to move from one perch to
>another. A big shiny cage is assembled and waiting on his footwork to
>improve.
At that age they are just starting to perch. Initially I had my AG's
perch only four or five inches above the cage floor.
>
>Lastly and probably most importantly, I have a five year old Umbrella
>Cockatoo who is absolutely nuts over me. I love him to bits, spend lot of
>time with him, and he enjoys coming everywhere with me in the house, sitting
>perched on my shoulder. Harry has his own bedroom upstairs with a giant
>aviary, and whilst I would love for Harry and Mario to share, I am guessing
>the Umbrella is simply to great a threat to Mario....anyone got any
>experience of these birds living together?
Had a U2. The AG was more interested in the U2 than the U2 was her.
After an incident I decided it wasn't going to work so I sold the U2.
9 1/2 years later I still have the Grey. Occasionally I consider
getting another bird ( female Eclectus) but ultimately decide not to.
Badass Scotsman
> Had a U2. The AG was more interested in the U2 than the U2 was her.
> After an incident <SNIP>
<Nosy Bugger>
What happened?
</Nosy Bugger>
Gary.
xpen...@earthlink.net
<badass-...@aye.net> wrote:
>Thanks for the tips...
>
>> Had a U2. The AG was more interested in the U2 than the U2 was her.
>> After an incident <SNIP>
>
><Nosy Bugger>
>
>What happened?
Had to step out for awhile one afternoon. The AG was on the top of her
cage and the U2 on his stand. They were both good about staying put.
The AG only occasionally flying to the couches and back to her cage.
Anyways, when I got back the U2's perch had fallen over and the AG
was sitting at the top of the stairs leading down to the basement.
IIRC the U2 was on the couch, I grabbed him and put him in his cage.
It was when I got the AG I notice that the U2 nipped him on the head.
At that time I decided it would be best to be a one bird person. I
eventually sold him (U2) to a former Amazon owner. As I remember the
guy was on disability so I'm sure Joey gets plenty of attention.
>
></Nosy Bugger>
>
>Gary.
>
Peter Hucker
> Hya,
>
> Just brought home my hand reared baby grey, purchased from a 'local
> breeder'. A few questions, hope some of you pro's would be kind enough to
> help out!
[interrupts conversation to annoy you and make things generally irritating]
Yer in Scotland right? Want any blue crowned conures? I got babies, and selling birds in Scotland is next to impossible. I usually end up taking them down to England. Or do you have any ideas where I could sell them?
--
http://www.petersparrots.com http://www.insanevideoclips.com http://www.petersphotos.com
What is the difference between a female jogger and a sewing machine?
A sewing machine only has one bobbin.
Badass Scotsman
>selling birds in Scotland is next to impossible. I usually end up taking
>them down to England. Or do you have any ideas where I >could sell them?
Edinburgh :)
Let me do some reading up on them!!
Gary.
Peter Hucker
I work there, but fortunately live further north! I hate cities.
I just sent my lawyer something for his birthday. Unfortunately, he wasn't home when it went off.
Badass Scotsman
I don't mind it here, but I would like my next house to be in the
semi-country with massive gardens and my closest neighbour at least quarter
of a mile away.
Gary.
Peter Hucker
You sound exactly like me. There don't appear to be many houses like that about though (unless you're a millionaire). I want all the birds to be able to fly around in the aviary, wiuthout making a mess in the house, and without neighbours moaning!
How do you play Iraqi bingo?
B-52...F-16...B-2
xpen...@earthlink.net
Just curious, but what do you two do for transportation? Gas is high
here ($3 per gallon) and I know it is much higher on your side of the
pond.
>
>Gary.
>
Badass
girlfriend drives 20 miles to and 20 miles from work each day. We also
travel a lot in the car at weekends, we spend roughly £50 GBP on diesel each
week.
I can't drive, and I get a bus or Taxi to work each day. I have a bus pass
which costs £32 GBP per month, which allows me to jump on 90% of Edinbusgh
Buses at no extra charge. I get an Airport express bus which takes me from
my house on the outskirts to the city centre in around 12 minutes.
A taxi from my house to work costs around £12. I get maybe 1 or 2 a week.
Gary.
<xpen...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
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