Out of cage time and general advice needed

[angela]

Hello I'm new to the forum and a new parrot owner.
I have lots of things I need answers to!
My parrot-an African Grey male, Romeo is approximately 3-4' years old. I have acquired him a month ago as an unwanted pet from my previous employers, who also acquired him from someone else who couldn't handle him. I don't know a lot about parrots, and when I first started trying to make friends with Romeo-over 2 years ago; I knew absolutely nothing. It took me 6 months to let him have my fingers in his beak, as i was terrified of being bitten. I was the only person that could do anything with him without being bitten. I often took him out of the cage and played with him- on the days I worked.
Anyway, to fast forward to the present, he became unmanageable for the family as they had never bothered to do anything for him. It sounds awful,I know. So he came to me in my little 2nd floor 50m square flat with a reasonable -sized cage 85cm highx85cmwide and 65cm deep- not massive I know! He remembered me and straight away came out of the cage and soon after started flying around the flat.He attacks my boyfriend when he is about, and has bitten me a couple of times in his presence.
Basically- I'm sure I've got it all wrong, but I put him to bed in his cage at around 6.30- 7.30, if I am out and get back later, as soon as I get in. A couple of times I couldn't get him to go in the cage so I left him on top and he just slept there. Once he even slept on my printer! Now I am confident enough with him to pick him up, undo the string that holds the door in place and pop him in. I cover the cage and that's him for the night . He gets uncovered as soon as I get up and out of the cage pretty soon after- for the day. If I go out(I am virtually unemployed), I leave bird music for him and things to destroy- boxes, biros, and little snacks such as lychees, apple, clementine, tomato etc .I know that I haven't got the toys worked out yet.I have collected loads of things but not made anything yet!. I tried rigging things up inthe cage, but he's never in it( apart from when he goes to sleep! He is very affectionate and wants to be on my arm, shoulder , head, back all the time( I exagerate a bit) -but often. The other Sunday there was me, my boyfriend, his son, the dog and 2 cats with the parrot, all (humans) calmly sat reading or on the pc . The cats just ignore him and the dog ( who is about the size of a cat) desperatly wants to be his friend, but for the best part of the time , he also ignores him.Romeo flies all over the room and lands on me all the time.He eats with me - tucking into things like cooked carrot , potato, ham, pizza, orange juice and perrier. He hates being in the cage,The other morning when i was expecting a heating engineer to call I wouldn't let him out, as I didn't want to grab him in a panic when the doorbell rang. Poor parrot went nuts! He first of all serenaded me with his full repetoire of words and sounds , then whistled shrilly, then when that didn't work he sat in his water bowl and kicked water everywhere, then started wildly flapping his wings. I couldn't stand it any longer and let him out.
I am going away for a week, next week, which was planned before I got him. My boyfriend will stay in the flat and look after him, but as he has just started a training course the bird will have to be left for about 8-9 hours alone most days. Should I let him have the run of the flat(I'm scared that he will wreck it from boredom) or should I he leave him caged up- which doubless he will hate after me allowing him all this freedom? Yesterday he chomped on a houseplant and today did the same plus tucking into the upholstery of my dining room chairs, whilst I was away for 4 hours. As I said at the beginning, I've got it all wrong. Help!!

[Weka]

Welcome Angela,

I'm fairly new here myself, but you've come to a great resource for information. Seriously. There's better info to be had by searching through past posts than I have found almost anywhere else. Most forums tend to just have people trading cute photos of their birds and such, but this place has some seriously experienced experts that "tell it like it is". No candy-coating whatsoever. Their advice does take a bit of a thick skin to take, but if you really want to help Romeo (and it sounds like you do) listen to what these folks have to say. They know their stuff.


Warmest regards to you both,

Weka

[Pajarita]

Hmmm, what a quandary! On the one hand, I applaud you for allowing him freedom from a cage (who would want to be jailed most of the day?) but now that you are going on a trip and your boyfriend won't be there to monitor him during the day, it's a problem. Mind you (and I know that, in saying this, I will sound absolutely ridiculous to most people but my primary concern are always the birds and not the humans), not because he will, most likely, destroy your apartment but because it would be dangerous to him (humans homes always are). Now, if it was me and I had a bedroom in the apartment (you don't say), I would take out the furniture and bird proof it and, if I didn't (like if I lived in a studio), I would close off a large portion of the room with chain link (use a wall with a window and put two posts to make three walls, put linoleum on the floor and his cage inside) making it into a big aviary so he could stay outside his cage and keep safe even without supervision but this requires not only money for the materials but also a handyman to do it plus, if your apartment is small, it would take a lot of room away from your own living area and then, if the apartment is not yours, you will have to repair all the holes made in the walls before your leave.

PS Please no ham or any other kind of meat, parrots are herbivores and the same way that you would not feed a hamburger to a horse, you should not feed meat to a parrot.

[Graeme]

I too am new to parrot ownership, so take from this what you will.

I have a Sun Conure (Bailey) and he is 14wks old, I care for my adult son full time so am home all day. Even though we are home, Bailey still gets time outs in his cage throughout the day. The reason for this is... He eats his meals in the cage and not with us, if he miss behaves, he gets some time out in the cage (15mins), He gets to play with his best toys in his cage and spends some time in there throughout the day, he also sleeps in his cage. This gets him used to being in there, in the event we need to go out or away for a length of time, he is used to it. Although for holidays he will come with us.
For the most part he is allowed to fly around the house, he spends a lot of time with us either playing or just sitting, he also spends some time on his play gym with toys or just chilling out on top of the cage.

I would start to lay down the ground rules, teach the bird what is acceptable and what is not. they are smart and learn quickly, just be consistent and don't give in. Also be sure not to accidentally teach it bad habits.

Lots of very good info here http://trainedparrot.com/

It doesn't have to be in the cage all the time when you are HOME, but when you are not, I feel it should be put in the cage until you return home.
The reason being, the cage is much safer than your apartment when the bird is left unattended. If he squawks,etc and is just being annoying because he cannot come out, IGNORE it, by giving in you are just teaching him to act up when he wants his way.

Make sure you have lots of toys to keep him happy and occupied, they don't have to be store bought, look up what materials are safe for parrots and make some, they are just like us, they like excitement, stimulation and lots of things to do.

I would be VERY careful about the things you allow your bird to eat and play with, some things are not safe and you may end up with a sick or dead bird.

All the best and good luck