Hello everyone.
This is my first post here, so please excuse me if I ask stupid questions, I got my African Grey 3 days ago and I am overly excited
.
There are some things that got me worried already.
So some introduction. I am a software engineer from Bulgaria and I was dreaming of having an African Grey for the last 3 years. I did a lot of researched and visited a lot of birds on display in pet shops. My girlfriend and I took our time to research as much as we possibly could. Our highest priority was to find the bird that we "click" and 3 days ago we did "click" with a bird. A Congo African Grey in a pet shop, 1 year and 5 days old with a closed ring (at least it looks like its closed). The staff told us to be careful as he doesn't usually allow strangers to touch him/her. However, he really liked us and came on his own free will to us and allowed us to touch him by bowing to us. A bit later we realized we spend 3 hours in the shop making silly sounds and playing with him and we realized this is our bird, we couldn't resist and arranged him to be moved to our apartment on the next day.
Now to my questions.
Feathers. His feathers seemed a bit less colorful compared to other birds and he plucked nearly half of his tail feathers, but the staff explained that however hard they tried to keep him out of stress there are occasions where children or other people would scare him or be too direct which caused him some stress and that caused a bit of plucking. Also, his tail feathers look a bit damaged and "dirty" as he hit them in the cage walls when flapping his wings. They assured me that with the right diet and stress-free environment he will restore the feathers and he will be ok. Everything else with the bird seems fine. He eats, drinks and is very playful, often dancing on his own in the cage and occasionally being a bit too loud. I have read a lot of posts people using Nekton Bio and recommend it for feather damage repair. What do you guys think?
Behavior. He is really moody, but I guess that's normal. With every day he becomes more sociable and likes dancing to music. On the second day, he was really craving attention even though we were giving him plenty, we spent the whole weekend with him but didn't let him out of the cage as the staff from the pet shop recommended for the first week or two. However on the second day became very excited and clearly wanted out of the cage as he was trying to open the doors. I decided to cross the recommendation and opened the cage. Gently slided my hand inside and he was totally OK with that. He came to me and allowed me to touch him and give him a neck scratch. I tried to offer my hand to step up but he put only one leg and started gently biting my finger, but later on, he bit me a bit harder and decided to give him his space. I left the cage open and allowed him to get out on his own pace, not rushing anything. And he did. He went out in the next couple of minutes and tried to climb down on the other walls of the cage, but the cage is built in a way preventing anything to climb up or down from the outside and he had a very hard time. So I decided to help him. As he was sitting on the cage door, I gently detached it and slowly lower it to the ground. He stepped on the floor and that's when everything went wrong. He suddenly became worried as if he was walking on ice, really slowly and fearfully, he made a few steps and then he went crazy and panicked. He tried to fly and started flapping his wings and then I realised he cant fly.... He was more like gliding on the floor and started hitting chair legs, furniture and doors. He tried to climb to his cage but he couldn't as I mentioned the cage prevents it. I helped him out and he went back in, but he was shaking, clearly breathing quickly and stepping on 1 leg, he refused to communicate or come to me any more. Now it seems our great connection is broken... He doesn't come to me as he did before...
Talking. The staff at the store said he knew a few words, but I never heard them at home. He mumbles, but I am just throwing a wild guess what and if he is really talking or its just my imagination. Not sure if the mumbling means that he will ever talk or he could just leave his talking there. Any ideas?
It became a bit longer post than expected, but I guess I am overly excited and at the same time worried because of these things. Any ideas? How should I approach him? How much time should I leave the cage closed with no attempts of bringing him out? Or should I leave it open and not touch no matter what? What should I do about his feathers?
Thanks for reading, any comments and advice will be highly appreciated.
This is my first post here, so please excuse me if I ask stupid questions, I got my African Grey 3 days ago and I am overly excited
.There are some things that got me worried already.
So some introduction. I am a software engineer from Bulgaria and I was dreaming of having an African Grey for the last 3 years. I did a lot of researched and visited a lot of birds on display in pet shops. My girlfriend and I took our time to research as much as we possibly could. Our highest priority was to find the bird that we "click" and 3 days ago we did "click" with a bird. A Congo African Grey in a pet shop, 1 year and 5 days old with a closed ring (at least it looks like its closed). The staff told us to be careful as he doesn't usually allow strangers to touch him/her. However, he really liked us and came on his own free will to us and allowed us to touch him by bowing to us. A bit later we realized we spend 3 hours in the shop making silly sounds and playing with him and we realized this is our bird, we couldn't resist and arranged him to be moved to our apartment on the next day.
Now to my questions.
Feathers. His feathers seemed a bit less colorful compared to other birds and he plucked nearly half of his tail feathers, but the staff explained that however hard they tried to keep him out of stress there are occasions where children or other people would scare him or be too direct which caused him some stress and that caused a bit of plucking. Also, his tail feathers look a bit damaged and "dirty" as he hit them in the cage walls when flapping his wings. They assured me that with the right diet and stress-free environment he will restore the feathers and he will be ok. Everything else with the bird seems fine. He eats, drinks and is very playful, often dancing on his own in the cage and occasionally being a bit too loud
. I have read a lot of posts people using Nekton Bio and recommend it for feather damage repair. What do you guys think?Behavior. He is really moody, but I guess that's normal. With every day he becomes more sociable and likes dancing to music. On the second day, he was really craving attention even though we were giving him plenty, we spent the whole weekend with him but didn't let him out of the cage as the staff from the pet shop recommended for the first week or two. However on the second day became very excited and clearly wanted out of the cage as he was trying to open the doors. I decided to cross the recommendation and opened the cage. Gently slided my hand inside and he was totally OK with that. He came to me and allowed me to touch him and give him a neck scratch. I tried to offer my hand to step up but he put only one leg and started gently biting my finger, but later on, he bit me a bit harder and decided to give him his space. I left the cage open and allowed him to get out on his own pace, not rushing anything. And he did. He went out in the next couple of minutes and tried to climb down on the other walls of the cage, but the cage is built in a way preventing anything to climb up or down from the outside and he had a very hard time. So I decided to help him. As he was sitting on the cage door, I gently detached it and slowly lower it to the ground. He stepped on the floor and that's when everything went wrong. He suddenly became worried as if he was walking on ice, really slowly and fearfully, he made a few steps and then he went crazy and panicked. He tried to fly and started flapping his wings and then I realised he cant fly.... He was more like gliding on the floor and started hitting chair legs, furniture and doors. He tried to climb to his cage but he couldn't as I mentioned the cage prevents it. I helped him out and he went back in, but he was shaking, clearly breathing quickly and stepping on 1 leg, he refused to communicate or come to me any more. Now it seems our great connection is broken... He doesn't come to me as he did before...
Talking. The staff at the store said he knew a few words, but I never heard them at home. He mumbles, but I am just throwing a wild guess what and if he is really talking or its just my imagination. Not sure if the mumbling means that he will ever talk or he could just leave his talking there. Any ideas?
It became a bit longer post than expected, but I guess I am overly excited and at the same time worried because of these things. Any ideas? How should I approach him? How much time should I leave the cage closed with no attempts of bringing him out? Or should I leave it open and not touch no matter what? What should I do about his feathers?
Thanks for reading, any comments and advice will be highly appreciated.
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. At the end he went in, but was a bit disappointed and started whistling a bit louder as he wants out again.
