Hello all!
My husband and I have had an African Grey named Marley for 5 years but he is about 20. He's an incredible bird. Loves to chat. He came from a home that had teenage boys so he has a wide variety of burps .
Recently, we are facing three problems.
One being that my husband has always had asthma but it seems to be getting more aggressive. Actually spent 5 nights in the hospital due to his asthma and came home better but not 100%. He is still on antibiotics and prednisone. This is the longest he has been on treatments without getting better. African Grey's produce a lot of dust and my husband tested positive for bird dander allergies in the past but hasn't been tested recently. He has just lived with the symptoms because we love our bird. He is going to see a pulmonologist later this month due to his increasing asthma and we are a bit concerned what the pulmonologist will say about our pet bird.
We are also proud new parents of a beautiful baby girl who is now 8 months old!! The problem here is she is showing signs of asthma. She is too young to be diagnosed but the doctor said we need to watch it. There is a chance she will not fully develop it but there is a chance she will considering daddy has it so bad.
Lastly, our bird, Marley, has been gradually showing different behaviors since we brought home our little girl. He screams terribly when she cries. Before her he would make one certain noise when he was upset and we knew what it meant. Now it is nearly all the time and several different screams. He is also plucking worse than we've ever seen. We've been trying some of his old favorite toys and some new toys to distract from the plucking. We feed him all kinds of different foods and give him foraging opportunities. I have lost my patience occasionally but I really try to ignore his screaming. Lately with the stress of the health issues and the increase in screaming it is harder to stay patient. So we made a room he can go to with toys, food, and water so mom doesn't lose patience. I know birds are flock animals so we strive for that but sometimes its best for me to remove the stressful screaming. The other odd thing is, he will usually just eat and play with his toys in his room as if that's where he wants to be, AWAY from us.
We love this bird but for the first time ever we are regrettably thinking about re-homing him for daddy's asthma, baby's potential asthma, Marley's stress level, and the culmination of all three of those things elevating my stress level.
Anyone have any suggestions that we can try before making this difficult decision?
Thanks to all!!!
My husband and I have had an African Grey named Marley for 5 years but he is about 20. He's an incredible bird. Loves to chat. He came from a home that had teenage boys so he has a wide variety of burps .
Recently, we are facing three problems.
One being that my husband has always had asthma but it seems to be getting more aggressive. Actually spent 5 nights in the hospital due to his asthma and came home better but not 100%. He is still on antibiotics and prednisone. This is the longest he has been on treatments without getting better. African Grey's produce a lot of dust and my husband tested positive for bird dander allergies in the past but hasn't been tested recently. He has just lived with the symptoms because we love our bird. He is going to see a pulmonologist later this month due to his increasing asthma and we are a bit concerned what the pulmonologist will say about our pet bird.
We are also proud new parents of a beautiful baby girl who is now 8 months old!! The problem here is she is showing signs of asthma. She is too young to be diagnosed but the doctor said we need to watch it. There is a chance she will not fully develop it but there is a chance she will considering daddy has it so bad.
Lastly, our bird, Marley, has been gradually showing different behaviors since we brought home our little girl. He screams terribly when she cries. Before her he would make one certain noise when he was upset and we knew what it meant. Now it is nearly all the time and several different screams. He is also plucking worse than we've ever seen. We've been trying some of his old favorite toys and some new toys to distract from the plucking. We feed him all kinds of different foods and give him foraging opportunities. I have lost my patience occasionally but I really try to ignore his screaming. Lately with the stress of the health issues and the increase in screaming it is harder to stay patient. So we made a room he can go to with toys, food, and water so mom doesn't lose patience. I know birds are flock animals so we strive for that but sometimes its best for me to remove the stressful screaming. The other odd thing is, he will usually just eat and play with his toys in his room as if that's where he wants to be, AWAY from us.
We love this bird but for the first time ever we are regrettably thinking about re-homing him for daddy's asthma, baby's potential asthma, Marley's stress level, and the culmination of all three of those things elevating my stress level.
Anyone have any suggestions that we can try before making this difficult decision?
Thanks to all!!!