Navre and Friends in Boston

[Wolf]

Did you put any peanut butter on the release plate of the live traps? I have never found a mouse yet that could resist peanut butter.

Any way I am glad to hear that you are getting them.

[Navre]

I use peanut butter with seed sprinkled on it.

I only caught 2 last night, so the herd has been thinned significantly.

[Pajarita]

Well, as long as they don't suffer for days or even hours, it's OK. I am not against killing them if that is the ONLY way, it's only that I can't stand the thought of an animal suffering...

[Navre]

Well, as long as they don't suffer for days or even hours, it's OK. I am not against killing them if that is the ONLY way, it's only that I can't stand the thought of an animal suffering...

They squeak when they get caught, and I take care of them right away

[Navre]

So if importation of greys into the US stopped in 1992, Nicholas must be at least 24 years old.

[Pajarita]

Yep, at least 24 but he could be older because although he could not have come as an adult, he could have come earlier than 1992. The wild-caught adults came here to be sold to breeders who would prefer having a pair of wild-caught breeding than 10 pairs of captive-bred (MUCH MUCH healthier birds who knew EXACTLY what to do). The ones to be sold as pets came as babies so they could imprint to humans.

[Navre]

Yep, at least 24 but he could be older because although he could not have come as an adult, he could have come earlier than 1992. The wild-caught adults came here to be sold to breeders who would prefer having a pair of wild-caught breeding than 10 pairs of captive-bred (MUCH MUCH healthier birds who knew EXACTLY what to do). The ones to be sold as pets came as babies so they could imprint to humans.

I think Tanya was a breeder, resold as a pet. She had been surgically sexed and tattooed on the wing with an F. I don't know why one would do that if he was not at least attempting to breed. The tattoo would seem to indicate a larger breeding operation.

Since I don't know where the previous owner got the birds, or if they came together. Nick Could have been in a similar situation.

[Pajarita]

Well, it could very well be. In my personal experience, when parrots are sick, they are the sweetest things, not aggressive at all (feral cats are the same) and poor Tanya was so very sick that I would not be surprised if that was her case. But not necessarily. I read on a book about the plight of pet parrots which had quite a lot of the history of them in USA that there was this avian vet (board certified, mind you!) that went around all the breeding establishments and import facilities and did endoscopies (without anesthesia, without sterilization of instruments, etc) on the babies to sex them and charged only $5 a piece -by the way, this guy was banned from providing services as a vet in a number of states but the breeders and importers still used him. She could have been one of those, poor things!

[Navre]

Nick still seems sad about the move. He is still sitting and sulking. He only talks if he is scared (he said everything he knows how to say at the vet), but other than that he's not making any noise, at all. He will take a shredding toy if you hand it to him, and seems to enjoy shredding it up, and he will take a treat most of the time, but he is not active, at all.

[Wolf]

Nick still seems sad about the move. He is still sitting and sulking. He only talks if he is scared (he said everything he knows how to say at the vet), but other than that he's not making any noise, at all. He will take a shredding toy if you hand it to him, and seems to enjoy shredding it up, and he will take a treat most of the time, but he is not active, at all.

I don't know if you are reading him right or not, you are there with him and have much more experience with him, but I know that Kookooloo reacts exactly opposite of what you are saying. If she is unhappy or scared she does not move around as much and she definitely does not talk or whistle or even beep or click. Her behavior becomes like she is trying to hide even though she is in plain sight, she does not draw any attention to herself.

I know that they are all very unique birds and that perhaps the difference is due to their personalities and their past experiences. But with this amount of a difference I thought that knowing how other Greys react to these things might be useful for all of us through comparing their behaviors.

On the other hand Mimi, my Amazon reacts more like you are describing. She responds to this type of stimuli by getting extremely loud and verbal. But she is not a Grey and they do act quite differently.