Help!

[EmilyJ1991]

My boyfriends brother recently bought a 3 month old African grey parrot. She's now 4 months old and he recently passed away, leaving us to look after her. The thing is, none of us have a clue what we're doing! We know what she should be eating, but that's about it! I've read a few online articles that say African Greys are prone to stress, which has caused me to worry! She's very chatty and can say a few words, she enjoys coming out of her cage and pooing everywhere. My main question is - how do we train her to do simple things like go back in her cage when she's told to? (She was out for 7 hours yesterday) and how can we stop her getting stressed and being unhappy. She also bites quite a lot, but will happily fly on to your arm if she wants to, and loves being stroked on her head. Any helpful advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you

 

[Jayyj]

If you're coming to it without any background there's a lot to take in! The Parrots For Dummies book is a very good starting point to get a feel for parrot ownership - it's a big book with a lot of information and doesn't try to force a specific approach onto you, so I'd strongly recommend it.

In the meantime, if you go onto Youtube and look for videos relating to target, touch and step up / step down training, those are good places to start. This chap has a lot of very good videos up which are a big help in starting off with training excercises:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqtptXFyb2c]How to Target Train Your Parrot | Parrot Training - YouTube[/ame]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58wQjv3qWs8]How to Take a Parrot In and Out of Cage | Parrot Training - YouTube[/ame]

Good luck!

 

[thekarens]

I'd recommend this book, Good Bird, Inc. http://www.goodbirdinc.com/parrot-store-books.html

Greys are great birds and she's quite young, so with time and research I think you'll do fine.

Good luck and please share pics when you can.

 

[Terry57]

I am so sorry for the loss of your boyfriend's brother. This must be such a hard time for you all and to have a bird you need to learn everything about must be very stressful.
I would also recommend you tube videos and the books listed above. There is also a wealth of information here on the forum that I think would be very helpful.
Wishing you all the best.

 

[Anansi]

Hello, Emily, and welcome to the forum.

My condolences to you, your boyfriend, and his family on the loss of his brother. While I have not read those particular books that were mentioned, I am very familiar with the videos that Jayyj suggested. And I highly recommend them as well. That guy has a ton of videos on YouTube that I have personally found extremely helpful.

And always feel free to post any particular questions you might have. The combined experience of people on this forum with knowledge of parrots in general, as well as greys in particular, is extensive. So ask away.