Hello from Canada

[Vieve]

Hi! I recently adopted a 20-year-old Timneh African Grey from a family that could no longer care for her. I have wanted one for a really long time and it took forever before I was finally able to convince my husband. Funny thing is, now that we have her, he is her "chosen one". She has never really been around men before, and she is just smitten with him. I am not able to handle her as easily as he is. If I pick her up with a perch and take her away from her cage she will then step up on my hand and seems quite happy with me, but if I try to handle her close to the cage, she is territorial and bites. I am ok with it and will patiently wait to see if she comes around over time, but even if not, I still love having her around. She is very entertaining with her different sound effects and couple of phrases she says. She has a couple different laughs, and I swear she actually gets jokes sometimes and laughs at the perfect moment.

I am glad to find a place to ask questions to other parrot owners and share stories!

[liz]

Rambo and Myrtle laugh when I laugh. I tested them by laughing for no reason and they laughed with me.

My Aunt and I are both critter people. Since they want the food we have they have place settings at the table. (We are 2 old women and never get company so it doesn't bother us having birds on the table.) I shared my spaghetti. When Myrtle ran out she came after mine. I asked her "do you want more" and she answered "more". They learn their words like children and at that time she thought the word "more" was what she had to say to get what she wanted.

Do you know any history on your new baby? If not you are doing very well adjusting to her.
At 20 years old she must have come with baggage. Rambo was 15 when I got him and a pure delight in a household of women. He did not like men and would flog every one including my son. He would even say "c'mere Chuck c'mere" and then attack. I do not know why he needed to attack men. I just warned men when they came to the house if they were not wearing long pants and regular shoes. [i]An old veteran slow moving friend of mine got him out of that. Since he did not react to Rambo's attack Rambo gave up and accepted him to the point that he learned his name and would announce when "Harolds here".[/i]

The human who accepts there bird as a child and take time to learn from them are really blessed with an entertaining and interacting kid. I love watching them when they are given something new. Myrtle is like a 2 year old and excited about the new toy or thing. Rambo is like a 5 year old who wants to figure out why something is what it is then plays with it.

[Wolf]

At this point I just want to welcome you to the forum. Please feel free to ask all of the questions that you want to and we will try to answer them.
How long have you had her? What is her name? Do you have any pictures of her that you could share with us? What does she eat and do you know what her favorite food is yet?

[Pajarita]

Welcome, Vieve and new friend! Do you know for a fact that it's a female? Also, are you thinking of taking her to an avian vet for a comprehensive physical? The reason I ask this is that grays are notorious picky eaters and, at her age, if she was one, she might have a couple of deficiencies or diet-related problems you will need to address asap.

[Vieve]

Welcome, Vieve and new friend! Do you know for a fact that it's a female? Also, are you thinking of taking her to an avian vet for a comprehensive physical? The reason I ask this is that grays are notorious picky eaters and, at her age, if she was one, she might have a couple of deficiencies or diet-related problems you will need to address asap.

Hi Pajarita! No, we were told she is a female, but I was wondering if she actually is or not. I know that they need to be DNA tested to know for sure. She has been to the avian vet for an initial check up. Everything looked good, but it was just a brief visit and I was asked to come back once she is more settled. She is quite a picky eater. She immediately tosses any vegetables I try to give her down to the floor, and only eats a little bit of the fruit I offer her. I have been adding Harrison's into her food and she mostly avoids it. I can get her to eat a bit of it if I pour a bit of fruit juice over it. Her previous owner told me she ate quite a bit of junk food, so I think that is what she is used to. I'm hoping we can successfully get her off of that.

[Vieve]

Rambo and Myrtle laugh when I laugh. I tested them by laughing for no reason and they laughed with me.


Do you know any history on your new baby? If not you are doing very well adjusting to her.
At 20 years old she must have come with baggage. Rambo was 15 when I got him and a pure delight in a household of women. He did not like men and would flog every one including my son. He would even say "c'mere Chuck c'mere" and then attack. I do not know why he needed to attack men. I just warned men when they came to the house if they were not wearing long pants and regular shoes. [i]An old veteran slow moving friend of mine got him out of that. Since he did not react to Rambo's attack Rambo gave up and accepted him to the point that he learned his name and would announce when "Harolds here".[/i]

The human who accepts there bird as a child and take time to learn from them are really blessed with an entertaining and interacting kid. I love watching them when they are given something new. Myrtle is like a 2 year old and excited about the new toy or thing. Rambo is like a 5 year old who wants to figure out why something is what it is then plays with it.

Hi Liz,
Your birds sound very entertaining! As I am learning more and more about them, I am blown away by what characters they can be. So funny! I do know a bit about my Grey's history. She had one owner most of her life, and when that owner passed away, she was given to her best friend who is the lady that I got her from. That lady then decided it was too much for her. I was given an album with baby pictures of when she first hatched and some information from the breeder from 1996.

[Vieve]

At this point I just want to welcome you to the forum. Please feel free to ask all of the questions that you want to and we will try to answer them.
How long have you had her? What is her name? Do you have any pictures of her that you could share with us? What does she eat and do you know what her favorite food is yet?

Hi! Her name is Melilah and we have had her for about 6 weeks now. I am still giving her the food that was given to us when we got her which is a mix of seeds and pellets, and am gradually adding in Harrison's pellets and some Nutriberries. She also gets some extra stuff, like a bit of toast each morning with some peanut butter, chicken bones, trail mix, sweet potato, eggs, rice and whatever fruit I can get her to actually eat (she seems to like blueberries and oranges the most).

I'd love to share some pictures, but when I try to post them, it says the dimensions are too large (they are just standards pictures taken from my ipad). Any advice on how to upload them? Thanks!

[liz]

With an album the original owner loved her. She could have some stress from being moved twice while she was still mourning. They do mourn.

[Wolf]

Since I have a pc running windows, I download all of my photos to my computer and us windows live photo gallery to resize them. I check the proportional box and resize so that the longest side is 640 pixels. The windows live photo gallery came with windows. They will then load without any problem. If you can't get them to load PM me and I will give you me e mail address and post them for you. or you could use one of those photo services like dropbox and then just post the link on the forum.

[Vieve]

Since I have a pc running windows, I download all of my photos to my computer and us windows live photo gallery to resize them. I check the proportional box and resize so that the longest side is 640 pixels. The windows live photo gallery came with windows. They will then load without any problem. If you can't get them to load PM me and I will give you me e mail address and post them for you. or you could use one of those photo services like dropbox and then just post the link on the forum.

Thanks! I will try that on my laptop later and see if I can change the dimensions.