Hello from Turkey!

[tumaykilinc]

Hi everyone from Turkey!

I have recently been married to the love of my life, we both love animals so much. I grew up with owning 3 German Shepherd dogs, and she grew up in a farm. So we both decided to own an intelligent and yet so lovely pet, which was an African Grey or an Amazon. We didn't want to buy it from a petshop so we decided to adopt one, and we finally found a Congo African Grey, with a ring on her and a DNA test that confirms she is a female. We introduced us to her in her pre-owner's house and she looked so lovely and calm. She even let us touch her beak and feathers. So we decided to pick her!

She is not so happy that she changed her house and owner, but she is not screaming or giving us a nightmare yet! However we are struggling with her training as we never owned a parrot before. That is how we found this board and why we decided to join the community! Hope i can get more information from you all. I have been reading blogs and books about parrot training and behaviours but this place is better for Questioning and Answering.

Here is our girl's photo:

[Wolf]

Welcome, glad to have you here. The perch that your Grey lady is on is too round, it will always put pressure on they same spot on her feet and so either needs to be scalloped all over it so as to provide a varied surface. I would love to see more pictures of both her and her accomodations, and to hear all about her. How long have you had her? What do you feed her and when? What is her name?

[tumaykilinc]

Hey Wolf! Thanks for your suggestion on the perch, they came with the cage we bought, i am not sure if we can change it with less round one but will look onto it!

She is used to be fed with the seeds which i know not good. I am trying to find Vegetables and Fruits that she likes, she likes the Apple so far and Banana a little. But she won't eat them much, yet. Just a few bites. I am giving her time for switching the foods from seeds to fruits/veggies. I noticed she is wanting to eat at the time we are having our meals.

She is 2.5 Year old, i have her for only 5 days(Since monday evening). She was not feeling much comfortable for the first two days, she would scream when we get close. But now we can even touch her beak and breast area. But i am sure She doesn't love it *yet*. She still lets us though (with occasional bites). But her bites don't quite hurt.

Oh by the way her name is Şeker, you can call her Sugar. Şeker means sugar in English.

Our biggest problem is now that we can't move her anywhere because she won't step up on another perch and i have not tried doing it with hand thinking she will bite(she bites the perch).

[Pajarita]

Welcome to the forum! You are rushing things way too much. You shouldn't be training, asking her to step up or even touching her right now. You are a stranger and by pushing your touch, your will and your presence on her you are risking your entire future relationship with her. Please back off or you will end up with a stressed out bird which doesn't trust you (and that means biting! She is in her honeymoon period now and that's why she has not bit you when you intrude and impose on her but it doesn't last forever). Parrots are not domesticated animals and they are highly intelligent so, although they might be imprinted to humans, that doesn't mean that they will accept ANY human under ANY conditions. You need to win them over and you do that by showing them you can be trusted and you can only do that by respecting her wishes and allowing her to set the pace of your relationship. Open the door to her cage to invite her out but don't put your hand in it or ask her to step up, just keep her company, talk to her (praise in a soft, high voice -as you would talk to a baby helps a lot), sing, offer her a treat, show her a new toy, etc. but don't ask for more than you would from a scared child who doesn't know you and has no reason to trust you. Establish routines and schedules (light, feedings, out of cage time, one on one time, etc), keep her at a solar schedule, switch her to a better diet (cooked whole grains, pulses and chopped vegetables with fresh produce for breakfast and a measured portion (about 1/4 measuring cup) of a good quality lower protein seed mix (and that means little sunflower seeds and only the grey striped kind) for dinner.

If you do things right, she will start making the first steps towards a good bond with you in a couple of weeks - but even then you should still wait another few weeks to start training or all you will have is a bird that only does what you want occasionally and just for the treat. First comes bonding and only when this happens comes the training.

[tumaykilinc]

Heya, Thanks for your suggestions! I know it's too soon to start any kind of training, i am aware of that and i am trying to win her trust first, which i think i am gaining her trust day by day. She even started making nice sounds when i am sitting next to her. However she is always on top of her cage, she won't get in because she is used to be free. And i am not pushing her to go inside. But it makes it hard to move her cage when we need to. That's why i tried her to step up on another perch, but i think this will wait a little.

[Pajarita]

When the sun starts to set (halfway down to the horizon), turn off the artificial lights and put her dinner inside her cage and step away. Don't look at her directly (do it out of the corner of your eye) and pretend to be doing something (or don't pretend and actually do something -like work on your computer, read, whatever) and she will, most likely, go back inside to eat her dinner.

[tumaykilinc]

Thank you, i will try that again and let you all know
Good night for now!