African Grey parrot HELP plz

[GemmaRochewood]

hi everyone,
so ive done alot of research on african grey parrots before homing my 2 little bundles of joy lol,
Alfie and Annie are both african greys They are sister and brother and have been together since day dot, they are now 16 years old (thats what the previous owner said). Alfie had an accident 7 years ago which resulted in him having to have one of his feet removed.
Alfie is alot more outgoing than Annie. he'll quite happily come and sit by me and he has also taken a nut out of my lips gently once. he also has landed on my shoulders when he was flying around the room a couple of times.

i know it takes a while to build trust and that bond up with them and we have on had them just shy of 2 months but ...

Annie is a completely different story, if i go near her cage she will move abruptly towards me. she mutters under her breath at me (stupid fu*king sl*g and stop it) we have never used these phrases around them so she must of heard them at previous owners. also if i try and put my hand in the cage she will lunge at me. she chases my husband round the room and bites his feet but doesnt do this to me. we let them out daily for anywhere from 1hr to 3hrs+. it takes me and my husband to distract her so that i can fill their food bowls up and water bowl. also when cleaning them out she will try and get me through the bars, or if she is out she will come towards me and try and bite me whilst im dealing with her cage.

i also question whether to get them a seperate cage each but next to each other, because at times they will bite each other (which then makes me question whether annie caused the 'accident' to alfie which resulted in his foot being removed) and alfie has stopped her getting to her food, but then other times they will feed each other and groom each other.


the other major problem we are having is my husband is blind and we are trying to find ways of him to build the trust up with them both and also interact more with them but in a safe way.

any advice would be amazing as we dont know how to approach these problems with her.

[Wolf]

Well I guess that the first thing is for me to thank you for sharing this with us and to welcome you to the forum.

Wow, I definitely have it much easier than you do . I only have one Grey parrot she is about 15 or 16 years old, came to me from an abusive home plucking and self mutilating, but with her it was love at first sight. By that I mean that she started screaming for me as soon as she saw me coming up the road to pick her up and I have been her one and only every since that moment.

More information about them would be helpful in working out what is happening in Annie's mind. You can never discount either the intelligence or the emotional state of these birds and in some cases I would have to say especially with Greys'. I do have some thoughts that may or may not help you as I don't know enough about them to be sure.
I wonder at least as pertains to Annie's and Alfie's relationship goes, if the cage size might be their problem. All animals human and otherwise react poorly towards each other if the are confined in too small of a space for any period of time. Parrots and Grey's are no exception to this. So the first thing is for you to know how much space they require. The minimum recommended size for a birds cage must of course be based on the size of the bird or birds that will be kept in it. A Congo African Grey parrot is about 12.8 inches in length or 33 CM. for ease of figuring lets use 13 inches ( I love good solid round numbers). Since their wingspan is approximately double their length this gives us a wingspan of 26 inches. Then the height of the cage should be such that when you stand next to the cage the uppermost perch should be about shoulder level we are speaking of a cage of about 26 inches square and about 5 feet in height that includes the stand the cage is on, and that is for one bird. And for two birds you need to double the width and length of the cage. That is the bare minimum size of cage that you need. I would really recommend a small walk in indoor aviary of about 4 feet square for two birds of this size if the birds are going to have any room to do more than just be in the middle of the cage. or to use two cages that you might be able to connect together. That should take care of any problems that they have with being together in the same cage, and since they are ( despite being sibling) a mated pair, I do not recommend separating them.
Another problem that you are having from your description is cage related territorialness. This is due simply because Annie sees the cage as het nesting area and she will defend it and protect it from anyone that she considers to be an intruder. this is normal behavior designed to protect her eggs and/ or offspring. This is not the type of problem that you can generally fix, it is something that you need to learn to work around as much as possible if the bird is going to have a cage. This means that you try to respect that this is her space and to stay out of it other than to clean it or to change out the food and water. This is normally not too difficult if you open the cage door and allow them to come out on their own and perhaps even wait until they move to a play area that is set up for them. but there are also some other trust and relationship issues going on that is also affecting this.
I am hopeing that this will help to some degree and at the very least make some of this understandable. I don't have any more for you right now. I need to reread what you have written and any more information that you can provide on their background as well as current living conditions would be helpful. Also information on lighting and diet would help as these may also be a factor. What have you done or are you doing to win her trust. The more information we have the better help we may be.

[Wolf]

After reading and thinking about what you are telling us and then with re reading and giving your situation some more thought and consideration, think that this link will help you as much as anything that I would say myself as it puts thing out for you to consider in a better way than I could have.

http://www.birdsnways.com/wisdom/ww31eiii.htm I hope that it is helpful to you.