A tale of two Greys.

This week, I went to two different pet stores to look for an CAG.

The first store had a CAG that was probably about 2-5 years old (so said one of the store workers) and was stuck in a cage with no toys. This CAG whistled at me and came close to the bars letting me pet him/her. Definitely wanted to get out of there. I felt sorry for this bird and wanted to take it home get to give it a better life.

The second store was a parrot specialty shop and probably the best I've seen. Store was clean and neat and the parrots were out of cages on their own play stand. I guess you can say this parrots had a good life and are emotionally well developed and the one I was looking at was about 10 months old. But, I noticed they were a little more assertive of their area and this particular CAG gave me a little nip on the finger when I tried to get it to step up. Definitely did not want to be bothered by me.

Between the two, I'm more attracted to the first bird because it's seemed to want to have more human contact than the second bird -which probably had enough of people. But if the first bird is about 3-5 years old and lived a sorry life in a cage, do you think it would have behavioral problems if it had a better life? At this point, would it never talk? It did make some whistling noises so I think there's a possibility.

Incidentally, I rescued my Sun Conures from a similar existence (different store though) and I have to say, their personalities are great. They and still very people friendly and will not bite and at the same time are extremely quiet. Maybe one or two squawks a day - if that!

Really tough decision for you to make here. Why not take both?
I do not like getting birds from a pet store though. Depending upon where you live have you checked adoption at Phoenix Landing or Garbial foundation?

http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/19023/2631/2

Thanks for the link. I'm looking it over now. I think I'll pass on the second CAG. We just didn't click.

Does that mean you are going for the one that had no toys in the first store? They are such wonderful birds.

I'm not sure. I'm going to stop by tomorrow and take a closer look because I didn't have much time the last time I was there.

I guess the impression I have of both CAGs is that the "unfortunate one" at the first pet store just wants to get out of there and receive some love which it's not getting. The second one at the specialty parrot store seemed more of a primadonna. It would own the human and not vice versa. I guess it would be like the inner city kid trying to get into Harvard vs. a Fortune 500 CEO's son complaining he has to go to Harvard when he really wanted to go to Yale.

The one concern I have is just the health of the unfortunate one. I've been reading up on signs of a sick bird and this one doesn't have most of the signs like nasal discharge, or usual feathering or poop. I didn't see any signs of that. But I did notice this CAG was shivering. I noticed there was an A/C vent a few feet away overhead but I don't think it was on at the time. I did read birds do shiver when scared, so I think it may not be an issue. So, we'll see tomorrow.