my journey with 2 CAG

[incognito]

dear all

i am new here and was trying to learn a lot from past few day for my newly congo african greys.first of all let me introduce you about my greys and them forum is open for your wise suggestions.

About three weeks ago i bought them from a shop and was told that one of them is male age 9 months and other one female age around 7 months. i brought them home and one of them was screaming almost all the way back home.

i put them in different cages and even at different place as they were not from same cage even in that shop. the younger one (female as far i know DNA test report still pending) found the love at first sight from my son who is 3 year old because she was not screaming like the older one. we named her momo and from now onwards she will be referred as momo. other one i took it in my office because he was screaming a lot even when i was 4 feet away from him. i named him Jackie.

in first week momo showed a great improvement over screaming and now very much comfortable in our room all the time. she takes food from hand and even love to play with anything which is available in her cage. few days earlier i read a lot about CAG and tried to change the diet of the bird by offering different fruits and vegetables on serious notes. so far momo loves to eat apple (without seeds) and ladyfinger in vegetable. she likes peaches (without skin and pit) sometimes and even few other vegetables. she love to play with corn on the cob but to my notice she dont eat corn just love to make mess of corn.


on the other hand jackie is a different story. still terrified when somebody is near to him. i took his cage into elevated position so that he feels more secure at higher place. jackie don't eat apple or any fruit not even any vegetables. just love to make mess of corn on the cob. that one thing they share both.

i called that birdshop and asked him about the origin of these birds as i read a lot about wild caught CAG , screaming and frightened bird. To my knowledge jackie is wild caught as he has shown only 10 percent change in the behavior and momo has shown 70 percent change in behavior.

that shopkeeper is still saying "give him two months he will be okie with ya all". i dont want to return these birds to him over unfair deal done by him as deal clearly said i need locally breed ed birds. i fear they if returned them will be again in that unwanted environment.

they are now my birds and i want them to have best of what i can do. i ordered Harrison food (fine food and treats) over the net from UK and had it delivered here in Pakistan. i was hard getting rather next to impossible getting food for adult birds, all they had in market was hand feeding formula. now i have ordered few forging toys and regular toys from USA and expect them to arrive ASAP. (talking about parrot toys to any bird shop is a joke to them so i ordered them online at mybirdsafestore)


i have lot to say about my birds, i even want to share each and every bit of it. but right now my concern is their health for which i am worried.

almost every thread with new parrot or frightened parrot is attached with sunflower seeds. from going through most of the threads i understood that they are not good source so i want to share my routine from past few days and please advice me where i am wrong or where there is a space for more change.


with momo.....

9 am in the morning i take out seed contained which is almost eaten night earlier. only few seed are found to be intact or not eaten by momo. change water after cleaning the water bowl(i am using water with vitamins and electrolytes as outside temp here rise up to 48 Celsius )

10 am my wife offer momo with some fresh fruit(mostly apple chunk) and mostly momo take it from her hand and eats if she dont eat or drop it to the base of her cage my wife checks after half n hour about the status of it.

11 am if its uneaten then my wife take that fruit out of the cage and offer her with some vegetables. again if not liking to eat then she offers a mix of sunflower seeds, safflower seeds, brown rice and quantity is about 3 table spoon.

here she has taken notice that when she had eaten seeds even half of what she had offered to momo. momo will try to eat vegetable or fruit left over in her cage or from her hand.


12pm or 1 pm she offers her corn on the cob or any vegetable of the day and it keeps going after every two hour that either she had eaten anything or not


around 7 or 8 pm we offer her some fruit or vegetable if she refuses then we offer her 3 table spoon of seed mix i mentioned earlier and change the water after cleaning the bowl.

she sleeps in our room . our room is not fully darked at night as a night light is always on. and temp in my room is kept well under 35 C at day time and around 24 C at night time.

now Harrison food has arrived please advice how i can make her switch to more nutritious food over seeds.

momo sometimes pricks her feathers and that is one reason i ordered forging toys to keep her busy and i am showering her feathers with water twice a day because less humidity in air now a days in this hot weather

with jackie

around 9 am my office boy do the same by getting seed bowl out of the cage and change the water


offer him with plenty of options with fruits or vegetables one my one after regular interval of time until he agrees to take a bite from them. he dont get food from our hand so we have to offer him on his cage floor and then observe from time to time as i dont have my jackie to starve a lot. corn on the cob is offered around 2 pm and he shreds all corn of it and then chew the cob and then make chunks of cob. until evening we try any fruit or vegetable which is in the safe list for CAG.

around 8 pm i put seeds (3 spoons) back in the cage for him so that if he is starving, he should have it instead not having anything. during a day time if he is not eating anything or have not shown any interest in any fruit or vegetable. we offer him a small portion of seed mix around 2 table spoons.

today when Harrison arrived i delayed the seed bowl and instead of seed i offered him that pellet mix and couple of treats on it.

i watched it from a distance that he had shown interest in it and he is busy with it. my all tension for his poor diet plan were disappearing when i came to my notice after half an hour that he is just crushing it pellets into fine powder with his beak and not eating it at all or very little portion you can say


this my story with my two grey till today and its 2 20 am ... will love to see your comments and suggestions in the morning as i want do best for them


one more thing dose anybody know how to import bird food or toys cheap (not cheap quality but less expensive shipping)... because these orders i placed online were almost 100 percent shipping charges or even more.

 

[cdog]

Sounds like you are trying to do what's best for them.
Just curious, because you said you moved one of the cages to an elevated position, what are the dimensions of the cages you have for them?
I'm glad you are switching them to Harrison's. To do so just offer their current food for one hour in the morning then replace it with the Harrison's. Then at night offer the current food again for one hour. Once you see them eating the pellets you can slowly reduce the amount of time that they get seeds until they are only eating pellets.

 

[incognito]

the dimensions of the cage are 2.5 feet x 2.5 feet x 3.5 feet for each cage. new cage has been ordered which is due in sept new cage dimensions will be 5 x 5 x 5 feet

after reading your post i have taken out the leftover seed from last night and offered an apple and pellets in the bowl for momo

 

[cdog]

Ok just making sure the cages are the right size, which it seems like they are.
Good luck with converting them to pellets! If you need any more help feel free to pm me.

 

[incognito]

today jackie was on pelleted food and just crushed it into mesh and i dont think he has eaten any ... i am about to put some seeds back on

any suggestions

 

[cdog]

Why did you crush the pellets, just put them in the bowl the way they are.

 

[incognito]

sorry my mistake in writing. i didn't crushed the pellets ... crushing was done with jackie with his beak

 

[cdog]

Oh ok, we'll does the area right above his chest and right under his neck look fuller, as in does his crop look full after he crushes the pellets? If so he is actually eating the pellets.

 

[incognito]

i will try to check tomorrow morning and i am thinking of doing one more check. first i will weight the pellets and then after serving jackie, i will weight it again and also have a look on floor of his cage

 

[Spiritbird]

You have two lovely birds I am sure and the desire to keep them happy and healthy. That is half the battle so to speak. Be very patient with the birds. Greys are often very sensitive and suspicious of anything new or strange in their home. I know you must be able to get them some melons, mango's, papayas and pomegranates to eat. My grey only eats cook veggies for some reason. The grains are good too such as brown rice, quinoa and other grains. Nuts are also good, pre craked but not peanuts. Almonds have a high calcium content. Unhulled sesame seeds are also high in calcium. One of the best greens you can feed them is kale. For protein feed hard cooked eggs, yogurt, cottage cheese, and chicken.

Keep the harrisons pellets in the frig. as they do not have any preservatives and you will find it says this on the back of the bag. Best to keep greys on Harrisons High Potency for their lifetime. I take all food out of the cage at night. Birds do not eat at night naturally. Here is a link where you can read more about their care. Bird toys are easily made. We have several old threads about this here on the forum. Also on youbube.
Suggest you only feel seeds as a treat. They are like french fries and if a bird is on a seed diet for a long time they get serious liver problems. Most of all enjoy the birds. Don't forget to give them lots of water for bathing or spritz them. Go slowly as this could scare them at first. They need natural sunshine but not the heat so much. There is also full spec. lighting for them. This is important for the absorption of calcium.

http://www.africangreys.com/

http://www.landofvos.com/articles/kitchen.html#foods

http://suite101.com/article/making-your-own-homemade-bird-toys-a178017
.
One more issues is to make your home bird safe. No teflon in the home, no paraffin candles burning, no plug ins or spray bottles. No avocados, no apple seeds, no caffine, choc., alcohol drinks, onions and the list goes on. http://www.boaf.com/article_3.htm

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=15+1912&aid=3110

I know I have given you several links but they are all good for your education. Here is one more:

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww26e.htm

 

[incognito]

doing a late reply /// today i lost one of my ostrich chick (55 days old)... it was a sad moment and moreover bad news is that another one is sick

so please pray for him

 

[wolf0994]

I am sorry to hear that. I hope the other recovers fully!

I will tell you that my CAG when I adopted him had been fed human food all of his life. He was 16 years old and we have had him for a few months now. I just started him on Harrisons and he too crushes the pellets down but he eats them and the same time. I still offer him fruits and vegetables (he loves steamed asparagus). But I also will give him some human food as well such as spaghetti. I had tried 2 other brands of pellets before the harrisons and he would not touch them. The harrison's he eats rather well and took to it after only a couple days of offering it to him. He now eats probably 50% -70% pellets and the rest is human food for treats. I wish you luck and I am sure your birds will come around in time. CAG's can be very slow to adjust some times.