New Forum Member

[Mkeharley1]

Hello! My name is Kathy and I live in West Bend,WI. I own the cutest White Bellied Caique named Dobi. He is 2yrs old. I will be adding a Congo African Grey (2yrs) named Winston on April 10th. I am excited and nervous. Trying to learn as much as I can about Greys. I know they are very smart. Happy to be here to learn!! I also own, 2 Miniature Therapy Horses, a bigger riding horse, three dogs and 2 cats!!!

[Michael]

Hi Kathy, welcome. My advice is not to get too hung up on learning "about Greys" and instead just focus on learning about parrots and caring for them in general. Sure, there may be some generalizations or nuances of particular species, but the overall care of "parrots" already encompasses so much more than we are accustomed to with mammals that this will dominate the bulk of your learning and experience.

I saw that in your profile it says that your birds don't fly. This is quite unusual in the wild, though unfortunately it is all too usual in the pet parrot community. I would highly recommend learning how to make your home safe for birds to fly, as they are your chosen pet, and learn how to train/manage them so that this could be accommodated. Without knowing much more, that's just one example of advice related to parrots in general that I could give you that is so much more important than things specific to African Greys. Best of luck to you and enjoy the forum!

[liz]

Welcome to the forum.

I did not get sucked into the world of birds until about 2000. It is amazing. I have always had animals , of all kinds and believe that they are beings with personalities. That is magnified in birds. Even in the same species you can find two that are nothing alike. It is good to learn about the species in general but learning the personality is the in.

The largest critter I cared for was a horse. The smallest was a scorpion. I loved them all. I was surprised when I learned the scorpion's personality. She was a really gentle thing and was concerned how I felt about her.

[Pajarita]

Hi, Kathy, Dobi and (future) Wilson! Welcome to the forum and we hope to be of service to you and your birds!

[Bird woman]

Hi Kathy and welcome to the forum, I have greys and they are wonderful , independent and oh sooooo smart. Not really my drug of choice I'm into my cockatoos the greys are my husbands but I love them just as much but my too's are cuddly and playful and fill the empty nest syndrome BW

[liz]

Quite a few of us did not choose the species but rescued the ones needing us. You really need to learn the personality of the individual you are going to get. A bird over two is usually already showing it's personality and already gone through puberty.