Step up African Grey Parrot

[blackscell]

Thank you for the detailed answer. The tv is not actually on ''24/7'', it is probably 6 hours a day.

Like I said earlier I do have a sleeping cage, but for now I don't feel comfortable enough to relocate her at night. And we are willing to spend time and adjust our schedule just for her.

We sleep around 1 am and the house will stay quiet until around 11 am.

The 4 hour minimum out of the cage is no problem, but she is unclipped and for now cause she is still not ready to step up I feel it is kinda unsafe for her to be out of the cage since she is also unclipped.

I have a UVB lighting specially made for birds which I do put on during the day.

[blackscell]

Today when I checked up on him I noticed he had a small wound right above his beak, he broke a rope he is used to standing up too and I think he fell, that's what my dad said.

As you can see on the photo, should I let it rest or take him to the vet?

[Wolf]

One I can't see the wound clearly enough to say much about it as the photo needs to be taken from above the bird, you may have to try distracting him so that he is not looking at the camera. It may just be a little thing that you need to keep an eye on to keep it from getting an infection. it could be that you should let a vet look at it just to be sure it is not more severe than it looks. A good rule to have is when there is any doubt take the bird to the vet.

That is great that you are willing and able to change your lifestyle for your birds well being, some people are either unwilling or unable to do this and is the reason that I explained why the bird can't adjust to a human lifestyle. I really hate it when thing are such that I need to say some of the things that I said, because I do not want to be harsh or to offend anyone, but my entire reason for being here on the forum is to try to help people improve the lives of these wonderful birds. It sounds as if you understood my reasons, thank you.

It is good to learn that your bird is not clipped, she will be much better off unclipped and actually much safer as well. This is a good thing. Birds are flying sex machines so to speak and some of them also have a compact bolt cutter or wood shredder on the front of their face and they tend to be a bit destructive as well as messey, but they are one of my greatest sources of love and friendship. They are extremely intelligent, some say about the level of a 5 or 6 year old human child. Some of their intelligence is due to their ability to fly as when you are in the air you do not have a lot of time to decide how best to avoid crashing into things or deciding when you need to put on the brakes, air brakes at that, or in deciding how tightly to turn. There is a lot of problem solving going on while you are flying. In comparison to their flying ability, once they do it enough to learn how to do it, they are relatively clumsy and slow on the ground and flight is their primary means of escaping from a bad and or dangerous situation. In time and with some research you will learn that with a parrot, and most other birds, that this capacity to fly is connected to nearly every part of their body and has a major impact on how well everything about them functions from their attitude, to problem solving to their breathing and digestion to name a few things. For that reason clipping any bird without a valid medical reason is not good for the bird and in my opinion should not be done.

Lighting, full spectrum UVA/B : This is both simple and not so simple the specifications for a full spectrum light for your bird are a K Temp of 5000 to 5500 degrees, the CRI needs to be 94+ with a UVA/B output of 2 or less. This should be found printed somewhere on the bulb or tube depending on which you have. Do not trust the packaging as many of the companies just repackage reptile lights for use with birds which has resulted in some major horror stories for the birds exposed to them. The UV output of these lights is of little benefit for the production of vitamin D-3 and if the output is strong enough to allow the bird to manufacture vitamin D-3 then it is also strong enough to permanently blind the bird and to cause severe life threatening burns to its body in a very short time. For this reason my birds can not get any closer to my full spectrum lighting than 3 feet. Here is a ling from a different parrot forum that I am a member of that you really need to see and read. it is one of the horror stories that I spoke of, but I will say that eventually the bird did survive. Here is the link:

http://forums.avianavenue.com/index.php ... mp.149742/

We will be happy to help you with any and all aspects of caring for your Grey be it the cage size or anything else that has anything to do with the bird Diet is usually a big one.

[blackscell]

Thanks for your reply!

Prior to buying my African Grey, I have read for about 3 months. I have gained a lot of information in this time, but the most basic information ( what to do the first few days you bring him home ) was not really there.

I have just opened the top of his cage and boy did he love it, he was flapping his wings for a whole minute or so. My dad and I had some spare time left and some parrot safe branches, so we made a quick tree for him to climb on.

He actually stepped up on my hand multiple times, we are making great progress so far. The UVB article I had read already before, mine are at a distance of ~ 70 cm.

Thanks so far for all the help I am receiving, me and my Grey are really appreciating it.

For the wound, I think it is not a problem, he has been eating and drinking well, and there has not been flowing anything out of it. It looks rather small.

[blackscell]

Here a picture of my beauty, it took around a half hour to make the tree and she is loving it so far.

[Pajarita]

You do realize that your entire family's schedule will need to be drastically changed, right? Because the bird will need complete darkness and quiet when the sun goes down (and, this time of the year, this happens at 4:15 pm because you need to give the bird time with a 'lower quality' light before dusk actually deepens -this is the time when you feed it dinner, too) and throughout the night (so the 1am bedtime is out for good, I am afraid) and then she will need somebody up when the sun starts to come out (this time of the year, around 6:30 am) because that's when you need to clean her cage and put out her breakfast. Birds are not like dogs or cats that can adjust to our human light schedules and lifestyles... it's the other way around with them, we need to adjust to their schedules and lifestyles and that means living like chickens My husband is not a happy puppy when it comes to not turning on lights or talking loud in the evenings and nights (he complains ALL THE TIME that this is not 'his' house, that this is 'the birds' house) so I would imagine that your father is not going to be very happy about this, either. Can you keep your bird at a chicken schedule even though the entire family is used to keeping an owl schedule?

[blackscell]

I think that won't be a problem at all. Note that prior to having the bird I went to bed at 6 am and woke up at 11 every day, so me going to bed 11 pm is already a whole step forward.

And I also have a separate unused room, when I feel comfortable enough with him I can surely guarantee he can sleep well enough in a dark unused room. I usually wake up in the morning for a jog, hence the staying up till 6 am.

So changing her dinner by that time won't be a problem, we are taking little steps to change our schedule. I am sure we won't change it by overnight, but today we ruled out that 11pm the livingroom should be clear.

Still late I know, but we'll get there.

[Pajarita]

The problem is not so much the number of hours a bird needs to sleep, it's that they need to be exposed to twilight without artificial lights on to set the 'internal clock' that governs their endocrine system (circadian and circannual cycles) so what I suggest you do is make the spare room into his/her (has the bird been DNA'd?) sleeping room (all you need is a window without coverings -unless there is a street lamp that shines right into the room- and a smaller cage). When you see the sun halfway down the horizon (like I said, around 4:15pm this time of the year), you take it to the sleeping cage, put its dinner in it and leave it alone so it can eat and fall asleep naturally when night falls. You should also try to keep it quiet - it doesn't have to be completely silent because they do get used to the normal household noises (just like babies do) but you can't have music, videos or the TV blasting. Then, in the morning, when you come back from your run (6:30 am or so?), you take him/her to the 'day' cage and feed it breakfast. This needs to be done without artificial lights on - you turn them on when the sun is already out (around 8:15 am this time of the year). The overhead lights in the room where the bird has the 'day' cage should be a good quality full spectrum (CRI 94+ and Ktemp between 5000 and 5500).

[blackscell]

Thanks for your input, I will certainly take that in mind when putting him in a sleeping cage.

I think he is more bonding to females, I stood half an hour with my hand in the cage trying to get him to step up but he did not. I could even pet him while he was preening his feathers he loved it. But when my mother put her arm in the cage he immediately stepped up, while he was out of the cage he would fly to my mother when startled.

He does not mind me petting him, outside his cage he will sometimes step up but I guess hes more attached to females.

[Wolf]

Was the primary caregiver, for this bird, where you got him, a female? This may have something to do with his current preferences. Don't let it bother you at this time. He is a baby and it really doesn't matter to whom he bonds with at this time as it will most likely change in a couple of years when he goes through puberty. It might be better, actually, for you to sort of encourage him to bond with someone other than you at this point. This would be done by simply allowing more access to the other person. This first bonding is a dependency type of bond, kind of like that between parent and child and is not the most important one as it is subject to change, in just a few years. The bond that you want comes when he goes through puberty and begins to look for a mate. This is the bond that you want him to make with you as it is the one that will last most if not all of his life, and it is also the deeper bond and also the one that carries the most responsibilities with it in his thinking.