Hi all,
Iāve had Bobby the Congo African grey for about 10 days now so thought Iād update on how heās doing.
All in all, heās actually been doing wonders. He seems happy to see and interact with me, and every morning he joins me for some breakfast fruit. Heās very gentle about accepting treats from my fingers and ive only had one warning bite from him in the earlier days because he was a bit too heightened when I tried offering a treat. Heās really mellowed since then.
He is deathly afraid of everything outside of his cage though. Heās scared of the floor and often sits stranded on the top of his cage. He chews his feet a lot so I tried installing perches on top of the cage and along the floor so that he could climb to the bed without touching the floor, but heās scared of those too and refuses to go near them.
Heās figured out that he can fly from his cage onto my bed but only from a downwards descent. He doesnāt have the strength to take off upwards - I imagine he has a lot of muscle atrophy from being stuck in a cage for the last 11 years. So whenever heās on my bed he becomes stranded and has to wait for me to collect him. He has only ever flown out of fear - once being I was trying to lower him to his cage and I got too close to the perches on top of his cage and he flew straight out of the room into the hallway. Once he realised he had no idea where he was he accepted a step up without complaint to go back to his safe zone. But no attempt of a tiny flight for a step up gap has been successful. I would like to eventually introduce him to flying by his own volition but he has no faith in himself to make the plunge.
He recently learned that I am climbable and has gone from originally biting at my sleeve whenever offered to eagerly stepping up onto my arm whenever able. Unfortunately he is a shoulder rusher and will immediately scale onto my shoulder to attempt to serenade my ears.
Hereās him having a tantrum because I wonāt take a step forward so he can reach me to climb up onto:
Heās still hormonal. Which isnāt fun. Which is also extra irritating because he converted relatively easily to his pellet diet, has a UVB light for a solid 12 hour day cycle, has no hides or dark spots, and Iāve yet to pet him once anywhere, but he spends a lot of time whimpering on my shoulder regurgitating for me. Itās not pretty and heās a nightmare to get off of my shoulder once on there.
Hereās the gasping whiny behaviour he keeps doing:
Heās not hand friendly despite taking well to the sleeve. He still attempts to bite fingers at any given opportunity. Heās very nice about it - theyāre not lunging bites, but heās persistent at trying to pick my fingertips and I donāt want to risk seeing how far heād take it. He chewed the skin of my thigh the other day which hurt a lot that he did just to clean his beak - no Iāll intention, so I donāt want to humour that sort of testing.
Other than that heās doing pretty well. I still find it miraculous after all those years he never resorted to plucking - he spends most of his time chewing cardboard and paper when heās not out with me, he definitely seems happy compared to the day I collected him.
Hereās some pics of him:
Iāve had Bobby the Congo African grey for about 10 days now so thought Iād update on how heās doing.
All in all, heās actually been doing wonders. He seems happy to see and interact with me, and every morning he joins me for some breakfast fruit. Heās very gentle about accepting treats from my fingers and ive only had one warning bite from him in the earlier days because he was a bit too heightened when I tried offering a treat. Heās really mellowed since then.
He is deathly afraid of everything outside of his cage though. Heās scared of the floor and often sits stranded on the top of his cage. He chews his feet a lot so I tried installing perches on top of the cage and along the floor so that he could climb to the bed without touching the floor, but heās scared of those too and refuses to go near them.
Heās figured out that he can fly from his cage onto my bed but only from a downwards descent. He doesnāt have the strength to take off upwards - I imagine he has a lot of muscle atrophy from being stuck in a cage for the last 11 years. So whenever heās on my bed he becomes stranded and has to wait for me to collect him. He has only ever flown out of fear - once being I was trying to lower him to his cage and I got too close to the perches on top of his cage and he flew straight out of the room into the hallway. Once he realised he had no idea where he was he accepted a step up without complaint to go back to his safe zone. But no attempt of a tiny flight for a step up gap has been successful. I would like to eventually introduce him to flying by his own volition but he has no faith in himself to make the plunge.
He recently learned that I am climbable and has gone from originally biting at my sleeve whenever offered to eagerly stepping up onto my arm whenever able. Unfortunately he is a shoulder rusher and will immediately scale onto my shoulder to attempt to serenade my ears.
Hereās him having a tantrum because I wonāt take a step forward so he can reach me to climb up onto:
Heās still hormonal. Which isnāt fun. Which is also extra irritating because he converted relatively easily to his pellet diet, has a UVB light for a solid 12 hour day cycle, has no hides or dark spots, and Iāve yet to pet him once anywhere, but he spends a lot of time whimpering on my shoulder regurgitating for me. Itās not pretty and heās a nightmare to get off of my shoulder once on there.
Hereās the gasping whiny behaviour he keeps doing:
Heās not hand friendly despite taking well to the sleeve. He still attempts to bite fingers at any given opportunity. Heās very nice about it - theyāre not lunging bites, but heās persistent at trying to pick my fingertips and I donāt want to risk seeing how far heād take it. He chewed the skin of my thigh the other day which hurt a lot that he did just to clean his beak - no Iāll intention, so I donāt want to humour that sort of testing.
Other than that heās doing pretty well. I still find it miraculous after all those years he never resorted to plucking - he spends most of his time chewing cardboard and paper when heās not out with me, he definitely seems happy compared to the day I collected him.
Hereās some pics of him:
