Greetings. Yesterday I brought my new timneh African grey home and I need a bit of help and guidance. A bit of history to put things in context:
He is a bit less than 2 years old. He was gotten as an 8 month old (high probability he was wild caught) by his previous owner about 9 months ago. He became very tame and would step up and play with his owner and talked a lot (many phrases in context). I saw videos demonstrating this by owner. His owner had to rehome him due to traveling.
I visited his previous home to pick him up yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised he went from his hand to mine (did it once then decided he didn't want to do it again. I brought him home in his old cage (a very small cage with only food, water and a wooden perch).
I had prepared a very large cage with several toys before bringing him home. His old cage had a broken bar that was sharp and dangerous so I decided to immediately transfer him to his new cage. I threw the old one away because it was in very bad shape. He went onto my hand and I got him to his new cage.
Unfortunately he was terrified of his new cage and spent all day and all night (for all I know) hanging on the side (the exact same place) and would not budge. No attempts to go to food or water dishes and no attempts to go to toys or perches. I felt very bad for him so I tried feeding him seeds and a peanut from my fingers while calmly talking to him and he ate most of them. Also I tried to talk to him a lot calmly to help him calm down. Twice I opened the cage and he came out but was very nervous. I tried letting him step up. He refused and flew off cage to floor. He did step up off the floor and hurried up my arm and sat on my shoulder then I successfully transferred back to cage. The second time out he refused to step up and seemed nervous of my hand. So I decided to take it slower. I guess even though I had read the first few days should be 'interaction free' to let him adjust, but I guess I just got encouraged by the initial step up. And drawing from my experience with many cats and dogs, the more I interacted with them the first days, the easier it was for them to adjust to new home. But I realize an African grey is NOT a cat or dog. Sorry for the long description but I wanted my questions to be in context.
Question 1:
I moved to quickly, right? What would you suggest as the best approach for the next coming days? Totally backing off for the first few days (as some online sources suggest)? Talking to him during these days or not? Feeding from fingers through cage bars or not? Letting out of cage or not? Letting out but staying away or trying to pet or step up? If you suggest a more reserved approach, when do you suggest I start each of the above things?
Btw, this morning when I uncovered his cage, thank God he was off the side of the cage and down on the wooden perch, but no attempts to go to food or water.
Question 2:
His previous owner spoke to him in Arabic so all interaction and verbal commands were in Arabic. It just happens that I grew up in an Arabic speaking country and therefore I am fluent in Arabic too. However, English is the language I feel MUCH more comfortable using. Should I stick to the same Arabic commands (for stepping up...etc...) that he used to use? Or should I start out from the beginning in English and 'reteach' him the association between the English command and the action? Since I plan on this being his forever home and since that hopefully means many years to go, I would much prefer starting and continuing in English.
Question 3:
Similar to question 2, the parrot had the name Coocoo. I really don't like it at all. Can I rename it and use that name from now on? Or will this be to confusing for the parrot? For those curious, I want to make him Timmy
Thank you very much in advance for any advise and help you can give me. I really want to start out the 'right way'.
He is a bit less than 2 years old. He was gotten as an 8 month old (high probability he was wild caught) by his previous owner about 9 months ago. He became very tame and would step up and play with his owner and talked a lot (many phrases in context). I saw videos demonstrating this by owner. His owner had to rehome him due to traveling.
I visited his previous home to pick him up yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised he went from his hand to mine (did it once then decided he didn't want to do it again. I brought him home in his old cage (a very small cage with only food, water and a wooden perch).
I had prepared a very large cage with several toys before bringing him home. His old cage had a broken bar that was sharp and dangerous so I decided to immediately transfer him to his new cage. I threw the old one away because it was in very bad shape. He went onto my hand and I got him to his new cage.
Unfortunately he was terrified of his new cage and spent all day and all night (for all I know) hanging on the side (the exact same place) and would not budge. No attempts to go to food or water dishes and no attempts to go to toys or perches. I felt very bad for him so I tried feeding him seeds and a peanut from my fingers while calmly talking to him and he ate most of them. Also I tried to talk to him a lot calmly to help him calm down. Twice I opened the cage and he came out but was very nervous. I tried letting him step up. He refused and flew off cage to floor. He did step up off the floor and hurried up my arm and sat on my shoulder then I successfully transferred back to cage. The second time out he refused to step up and seemed nervous of my hand. So I decided to take it slower. I guess even though I had read the first few days should be 'interaction free' to let him adjust, but I guess I just got encouraged by the initial step up. And drawing from my experience with many cats and dogs, the more I interacted with them the first days, the easier it was for them to adjust to new home. But I realize an African grey is NOT a cat or dog. Sorry for the long description but I wanted my questions to be in context.
Question 1:
I moved to quickly, right? What would you suggest as the best approach for the next coming days? Totally backing off for the first few days (as some online sources suggest)? Talking to him during these days or not? Feeding from fingers through cage bars or not? Letting out of cage or not? Letting out but staying away or trying to pet or step up? If you suggest a more reserved approach, when do you suggest I start each of the above things?
Btw, this morning when I uncovered his cage, thank God he was off the side of the cage and down on the wooden perch, but no attempts to go to food or water.
Question 2:
His previous owner spoke to him in Arabic so all interaction and verbal commands were in Arabic. It just happens that I grew up in an Arabic speaking country and therefore I am fluent in Arabic too. However, English is the language I feel MUCH more comfortable using. Should I stick to the same Arabic commands (for stepping up...etc...) that he used to use? Or should I start out from the beginning in English and 'reteach' him the association between the English command and the action? Since I plan on this being his forever home and since that hopefully means many years to go, I would much prefer starting and continuing in English.
Question 3:
Similar to question 2, the parrot had the name Coocoo. I really don't like it at all. Can I rename it and use that name from now on? Or will this be to confusing for the parrot? For those curious, I want to make him Timmy
Thank you very much in advance for any advise and help you can give me. I really want to start out the 'right way'.
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