Got new African Grey Approx 1 year old

[mustafarangoon]

Yesterday Night when i was at home i fed him hand feed for atleast half an hour. many a times i have seen him standing on one foot? I think the sunflower seed which i have is small (he was afraid that i will hit him) that may be the reason he is not picking from my fingers still After some time i tried to give him and he took it and also pomegranate. He was eating calmly. when i tried to introduce toys he started growling then i kept that toy aside and again offered food and he took it without any fear.

I am seeing slight improvement in him and his aggression is also decreased compare to 2nd day. I have to look for Vet in mumbai if available. He does make sound like click and all other sound which is i think soothing, Its not like anger or something.

[Wolf]

When you see that your bird is standing on one foot, then you know that he is relaxed. Greys talk to each other , it appears , through a series of clicks, beeps and similar sounds. If you hear him making what sounds like he is grinding his beak together, this is a happy sound and once again the bird is relaxed. My grey makes a very loud single scream if she is mad or alarmed and if she is mildly nervous she does not talk at all either in bird or in human speech, she remains very quiet.

Earlier in one of your posts you mentioned looking for information on what to feed your Grey, did you find a listing of safe and toxic foods? If you did not then please check out this link viewtopic.php?f=8&t=12521 The list starts on the second page of the post and it not only covers foods but plants and trees and some household items that you should know about. This list has helped me a lot over the past few years with keeping my birds safe and happy.

Parrots love to share our food and as a general rule they want their share of anything they see us eating. Not only is eating a social event for a parrot it is also a bonding activity. Because of this and the way that parent birds teach their young what foods to eat in the wild, you can use this as a means of teaching your bird to eat a much wider variety of foods. While pomegranates are good for your parrot, he need many more types of fruits and vegetables in his diet or he is going to get sick. Try such foods as raw broccoli, carrots, green beans, apples, mangos, cantelope, squash corn on the cob to name just a few things that you can feed to your parrot.

Try cutting some of these foods up into small pieces and then sit down with your bird and talk to him while you nibble on one or two of these foods. Make happy and yummy type of noises while you nibble on these foods, but do not offer any of them to your bird. You want him to see you eating them and you want him to hear how great and wonderful tasting these foods are and then you want him to think that they are so very special that you intend to eat them all by yourself. He will watch you eating them and then he will begin to ask you to give him some of these foods. Do not offer him any of these new foods. Keep talking to him and making happy noises while you keep nibbling on them. He will get louder and more insistent that you share this food with him, he will begin to demand that you share this wonderful food with him, but do not offer him these foods. What you want to do is to have the dish that you are eating from placed so that you can make it easy for him to steal a piece of the food. Protect the food from him just a little as you want him to work a little bit to steal some of it. Don't be too protective of it as you really want him to try it but you want him to work at it just a little. This is what the parent parrots do to get their young to eat the right foods, and it can work for you as well.

It is very likely that when he steals a piece of this food that he will spit it out instead of eating it right at first, this is normal, parrots are messy eaters at best and waste a lot of food that they could eat. When he has stolen a piece or two of the new food, leave the rest of it in his normal eating place for him to try later on. There is no way of knowing how long it will take for them to eat this food but be patient and keep trying this with a variety of different foods and he will start eating them. some faster than others but eventually he will begin to eat many of them.

[Pajarita]

I am a bit confused as to what and how you feed him. Do you leave food in his cage or do you make him wait for you to come home and feed him from your fingers in an attempt to make him trust you? Also, it seems to me that you are feeding what we call 'high oil' sunflower seeds. They are all black and the smallest of the sunflower seeds, is this what you are giving him?

Now as to your questions:

1) How much food we should give him ?
You should give him plenty of food in the morning and leave it there all day long (I give mine about 1/3 cup of gloop, one veggies -like half a carrot, for example, one fruit -like 3 or 4 grapes, and the bottom part of a romaine leaf so there is more stalk than leaf) but, at night, he should get enough seeds/nuts to fill his crop and have a bit leftover (I give mine about 1/4 cup of mostly nuts with some seeds).

2) What is the maximum age of Child and Minimum age of Adult in Grey?
Grays are juveniles until they become sexually mature at two years of age but they don't become full adults until they about 4. Yours is not a year old, he is older because his eyes are already yellow and, once they turn yellow, there is no way to determine how old they actually are so he could be 2 years old or he could be 10 for all you know.

3) I feel like my Grey is burp'ing ( Kind of air sound from mouth), what is it ?
I don't know but none of the greys I've had (six of them) ever made that noise so it could be something wrong with him or it could be that you are not explaning the noise correctly.

4) Food we provide should be RAW or it should be proper peeled of? This question is hard to answer because raw food can be either peeled or not but, in any case, he is supposed to get raw produce -different ones every day- daily. This produce can be peeled or not, it depends on the actual fruit or veggie you are giving. I am trying to think of what fruits I peel and the one ones that come to mind are melons (watermelon, cantaloupe, etc), pumpkin-type squashes, sweet potatoes (but not white, yellow or purple potatoes) and coconut... there might be more but I can't think of any more right now.

5) Will LED Bulb is good for Grey? Syska LED Bulb White ?
I went to the Syska site but could not find any full spectrum light there... What you need is a full spectrum light with a CRI of 94 or more and a Ktemp between 5000 and 5500 for during the day.

6) My bird waste alot is it ok? I am giving sunflower seeds and Pomegranate at the same time but he only eats half and throws half. Should i give pomegranate without Peeled?
All parrots throw most of their food to the floor, it's one of their functions in their ecological niche. I give my birds just the pomegranate seeds, I don't give them a piece of the fruit,

7)There were 4 to 5 small white feathers on cage which i think he has plugged off, Is it ok?
It's OK if he is molting, it's not OK if he is plucking them but, short of been there and watching your bird, I cannot tell which it is.

8) I am out from morning 8.30am to 6.30Pm for work, then i come home and stay with my Parrot and because its just been 4 to 5 days with me he is not taking Toys to play so i am worried.
Your parrot is a wild caught and he won't play with toys any time soon if he ever does...

9) My Grey's Cage is of 51cm Approx and when i asked store people to Provide me big cage he said "you will not need now and in big cage he will roam around all sides, This cage in 1 year of age is Ideal".
Well, a one year old needs as much room as a ten year old so the information they gave you is incorrect - but then, they lied to you about the age of the bird so, in my personal opinion, they are not the best people to be asking questions to...

10) Please suggest me Pellets or food available online on amazon, Flipkart, Ebay etc etc. Which companies provide good food and from where to buy it if not available online.
I don't feed pellets or buy food online - I used to but I can now find all the ingredients of gloop in local supermarkets so I no longer do. I actually make their morning food myself and go directly to the manufacturer for their seeds and nuts so I can't help you with that. But, if I had to recommend a pellet, it would be Tops and no other.

[mustafarangoon]

He has become quite but is active. today i bought apple and carrots for him. Burping sound does happen but only when he eats and only for 2 to 3 times in whole. i am thinking to buy new cage as soon as possible.
Can we give Chilly ? red or green?

[Wolf]

You can feed your parrot peppers. You can feed hot chili peppers, red and green, banana peppers, red, green or yellow. You can also feed bell peppers, again the color makes no difference.

[mustafarangoon]

Someone Suggested me to hire "African Grey Tamer" for my bird...Do i Really need it? at the same time there are people who are telling me that dont do that as your parrot can be more aggressive and can lead to bad behavior.

I need your suggestion on this. how much time a trained takes to tame? is there any more difference or its just our bird get fast trained?

[Wolf]

Under no circumstances would I hire someone to tame any of my birds, especially not for a Grey. I really do not understand why you are so concerned about how long it will take to teach your bird anything, do you have some sort of time constraints that the bird must be tamed and trained by?

My very first bird was a Senegal parrot that escaped from a bad living situation and flew to my home seeking a place to live. My Second bird was my Grey who came from the same place. That was about 5 years ago for the Senegal and 4 years ago for the Grey. I had never once considered having even one bird living in my home much less the seven that I currently have. All of my birds came to me because they needed a better life, not because I really wanted to have birds.

I wanted you to have a little background about myself and my birds as it might help you to understand my point of view. Like yourself when my first bird came to live with me I did not know anything at all about them or how to care for them. The main difference between us is that you bought your bird, because you wanted it. my birds were all given to me so that they could have a better life.

Having a bird is all about the relationship between you and your bird. This is possible because of their intelligence. Contrary to what most people will tell you Taming a bird such as our parrots is not really taming them, they are wild creatures and they will remain a wild creature. Taming your bird is really a matter of gaining its trust and no one can do that for you. You are the one that must win your birds trust, someone else may be able to "tame" your bird but when the bird comes back, it still does not trust you.

Please take the time to learn about your Grey, they are very special birds and they bond to their human very deeply and it is an experience that you don't want to miss. My Grey is very protective of me and will not allow anyone or any animal to touch me when she is out of her cage with me. Granted, she is not a touchy feely bird, but she would gladly die to protect me. She is active and funny and intelligent. She talks to me, but only when no one else is around, but she sings and dances with other people around. She plays ball with me and she is the one who started that. She is a great friend and companion and wants nothing more than to be with me all of the time.

[mustafarangoon]

Thanks alot....Your explanation cleared my mind.

[mustafarangoon]

Afican grey can eat this red Pepper or different chilly they need?

[Pajarita]

Yes, it can eat that pepper.