My aviary sent me new pictures of my baby!

[Lullx]

The other week, I asked the aviary if I could get slightly more frequent photos of my little one growing up, since I can't visit terrible often. They said they would, and finally they emailed me with a small backlog of pictures!

I do have a quick question, though... About how old are CAGs when they start to perch, on average?
The aviary waits until the babies learn to perch before clipping their nails for the first time and collecting blood to get them DNA tested. I'm incredibly antsy to find out what gender my little one is, and have no idea when to expect to find out.

And now... The reason you're here.
My little one is the smaller one, usually on the right side (I think they pose them like that to more readily tell the difference; the siblings are only one day apart!)

And the most recent two, taken tonight!
These are also my favorite two of the bunch.
My baby is on top here, because of course!

And in back!

They're about 7 weeks old now. Can it be June already? Please?

 

[RavensGryf]

Oh so adorable!!

 

[Allee]

Awww Britt! What beautiful babies! Those sweet little beaks just melt my heart. Your little one has an adorable photo album already. I know it must be so hard to wait.

 

[Ann333]

Aww so cute! Waiting sucks! The pictures my breeder sent me never seemed to come frequent enough! Hha it all happens sooner than you think though.

 

[Lullx]

Thank you all! I'm so proud of how beautiful they both are. They look so incredibly happy and cuddly, which I guess is typical of babies coming from these breeders.

I talked to my partner about going back out to see them at the end of this month, but I showed him the pictures and we both excitedly decided that we should try to go next weekend instead haha Of course I'll be taking more pictures and sharing with you all, whenever I happen to get up there!

And the babies no longer need a heat pad, so they'll be able to stay out longer with me than last time! I was so scared to touch them last time we went up because they were still so small and didn't move a whole lot. They were just cold and confused as to why I wasn't trying to feed them haha

I can't wait to see them playing around and making noises with each other!
...And perching. I need them to perch! I need to know if Little One is a boy or a girl already!!! That'll help ease some of the anxiety around waiting so long for June to get here.

 

[Doublete]

Drink some tea and relax.
They're beautiful!

I suffer from anxiety too... So I know it's easier said than done to relax!

 

[Lullx]

So much anxiety. My flock helps with it, which is why I started raising parrots.

But the excitement and uncertainty of bringing home a baby grey is a little much right now. It's mostly excitement and anticipation, but of course I'm worrying about making sure I have everything perfect for my little one, which I know is ridiculous.

Looking at pictures of my little one sets my mind at ease, and I know everything will be okay once I have my grey home with me.

 

[Puck]

Ditto with the anxiety! I have serious problems with it, too, and I understand how you're feeling because I'm feeling the same way about the baby I'm waiting for.

Your little one is sooooo adorable!!! Look at that wittle red tail a peekin' out and those big old beaks on that wittle head... And when he's getting scritches! I just wanna lean over and give him kisses! What a baby!

 

[Lullx]

Puck, I am so incredibly in love with this little creature.
I'm growing comfortably sleepy, so I'm very calm and relaxed, and re-reading an article about helping your baby grey adjust to their new home. I've read it twice before, and will keep reading it until everything is solid in my mind. Most of the things I remember

I keep drifting off to daydream about what it's going to be like when my little one is finally here with me. I know exactly where everything is going to go when LO first comes home, and where things will be moved to once they're ready to meet and stay around the rest of the flock.

The main cage is going to be set up in my "office" room when LO comes home. It's where I used to do homework for college and do my art. I'm renaming it the Grey Room Little One will be kept there for a while, then the big cage will be moved into the living room, where the rest of the flock is, and a sleeping/roost cage will be used in the Grey Room. I plan to have the roost cage set up right next to the big cage in the Grey Room, so LO gets used to both of them.
The Grey Room will be where I take LO to train, and be a hideaway in case they absolutely cannot be civil with the rest of the monsters. And then of course it'll be their bedroom and roost location.
New York will have tolerable weather for a few months after LO comes home, so we should have plenty of time to get comfortable and bonded enough to be able to leave the house and go on small adventures together without having to bundle up.

..I even bought a day bag to use specifically for outings with my grey an the other birds
Making a list of supplies that'll go in it! I already have a list of places that I can bring LO to, and I can't wait. All of my friends and my partner's friends are excited to meet my grey, so when we're ready, LO will have plenty of socialization.

I'm tearing up a little thinking about the opportunities and adventures we're going to have together.
It's going to be a beautiful life.

 

[MikeyTN]

Such adorable babies!!!! Your little one is looking quite cute!

 

[JerseyWendy]

You sound just a tad bit excited, Britt, yes? (You know I'm kidding!!)

How super exciting that you get to see your wee one again so soon!!! And he/she is not all that 'wee' any more. I'd say he/she should start perching within the next 2-3 weeks (usually around 8-9 weeks)

What precious photos! I know your face was glued to the monitor when you received that email update. :smile015:

 

[4dugnlee]

How beautiful! I bet this will seem like forever to have to wait, but soon the wait will be over and your baby will be home with you! Can't wait to see more updates!

 

[Sheeji]

that's got to be the cutest thing I've seen today!! Feeling excited and anxious with you!! Got names?

 

[Puck]

Sounds like you have amazing plans, Britt! What an awesome adventure you're going to have with this little guy/girl.

 

[Lullx]

I don't care if my grey turns out to be the biggest grey on record, it'll always be my Little One
I'm very fond of ironic nick names like that.

I have my email linked to my phone, and had left the room for a minute. I come back to see my phone lit up, and saw the notification for the email, with the title displayed. I was honestly shocked and it took me a moment to process exactly what I was about to see. I'm not too proud to admit that I screamed a little with joy when I saw the first picture load in the email. My monsters thought it was funny and joined in with me.
The pictures were so large that they had to send me four separate emails! But my phone handled them all like a champ, and I have them all safely stored away. There were 17 in total, but many were very similar and a few were kind of blurry (as is expected).

Thank you for the info, Wendy! I assumed it would be kind of soon since they grow and develop so quickly (and since LO was sitting on his sibling). They're starting to look like noble little dinosaurs.

And I do have names!
If he's a boy, he'll be my Versailles. I'm very fond of naming after locations. Brittany (my name) is a region in France, so Versailles feels incredibly fitting to be the name of my trusty sidekick.

If she's a girl, I'll be naming her the ineffable Nephele (neff-eh-lee). Nephele is a figure in Greek mythology. Zeus created her from a cloud as a sort of doppleganger to his wife Hera in order to trick Ixion, so she was very beautiful. Nephele loosely translates to "cloud". I thought that imagery was pretty whimsical for a big grey bird. And I think the name is very pretty. I used to be very into ancient Greek and Egyptian mythology when I was a little girl.
I also use an alias online, Nephilim as my "surname", which is considered a fallen angel in some sources. So Nephele Nephilim is a really amusing name to me. I'm a big fan of alliteration.

 

[Bandespresso]

Ooh my goodness he is absolutely precious!! You get to take him gone so soon yay!

If he's a boy, he'll be my Versailles. I'm very fond of naming after locations. Brittany (my name) is a region in France, so Versailles feels incredibly fitting to be the name of my trusty sidekick.

Brittany is tge best name ever. And i love Versailles! Super cute and fitting

 

[Lullx]

This is exciting! We're both Brittany's owned by african greys!

And thank you! When I was 16 I created this little organic robot character who I named Versailles. He was mostly grey, but had a red heart on his chest, and gold coloured eyes. He liked to sing.
When I decided that a grey was the perfect bird for me, I realized that my robot Versailles was similar in many ways to the species, and I still loved the name 6 years later.

 

[Bandespresso]

If we ever come to new York, we can have a Brittany/grey play date!

That makes the name even better! Too perfect. I hope your little one's a boy now just because of how adorable that is

 

[Lullx]

I'm really hoping for a boy as well, mostly for the name haha
I do love Nephele too, but I don't think I could ever give the name Versailles to a creature other than an African Grey.

At first I wanted a boy so that he would be outgoing and not super shy, but the more I researched, the more I realized that was bunk.
The way you raise them has way more impact on their behavior than their gender.

 

[Lullx]

AAAAAHHHHH The aviary contacted me and we can totally go see my Little One again this Sunday!!!

I'm so excited!!!

I'm actually buying food online for everyone because Drs Foster & Smith are having a sale on all pet foods. I'm going to eventually bring up a few bags of the pellets I feed at home so Little One can get used to eating them before coming home.

They feed them one of the pellets I mix together here, but not the other two. I just want to make LO's transition here as easy as possible.
They also feed them fresh fruits and veggies, so that part'll be fun