changing food

[roy]

Hi ya still having problems with my african grey (reggie) ive been advisied to change her food to a organic pellet food could someone please tell what it is & whats in it please & how would i punish her to show her whats right & wrong help needed???? thankyou for any information.

[HungryBird]

For pellets I would suggest either Harrison's or Totally Organic Pellets. Try buying the small bags at first. I know it is possible to get samples of Harrison's pellets because I've seen them in stores but I'm not sure about Totally Organic Pellets. A small bag of Totally Organic Pellets is something like $5 though so it is easy to buy one to try out.

I think it would be best to offer both brands and rotate them but it is not necessary. I found three of my birds like both brands and the other two prefer one brand but will eat the other as well. Harrison's makes a variety of different pellets and the kinds my birds like are Harrison's Lifetime Fine (these may be too small for Reggie) and Harrison's Pepper Coarse. Reggie would probably like the Pepper ones.

What are the other problems? Punishing? Doesn't work too well. Birds are different from dogs and humans. Well, it has to be done differently. My idea of "punishment" is to put the birds back in the cage. If they are being very bad and not listening then they go right back in. This only happens with Malachite! The others are so well=behaved but he can be a little monster. I try to give him options though. First I tell him to stop doing whatever he is doing that drives me nuts, then he ignores me and keeps doing it, then I tell him if he doesn't stop he's going right back in the cage, then he pauses and looks at me to see if I am serious, and then he usually stops.

That's about it though, I don't really think it makes sense to be negative to birds when they are doing bird things like ripping everything apart and pooping all over the place. That's what they are naturally inclined to do. If I don't want them to rip something up I don't put it in any of "their" areas. They don't intrude into my space, except Iggy. She has an obsession with books and she knows she is not suppose to chew on them so she sometimes secretly hides and tries to chew silently.

What is she doing that is driving you nuts? If it is biting I may not be a huge help. My birds have never really bitten me. Iggy bites gently for fun but never breaks skin or really hurts you. Squeaky once tried to eat my hand accidentally while eating some pellets off of it but it didn't hurt too much. The one time I was bitten by Malachite hurt quite a bit. He was just learning to fly and had overestimated his abilities (men!) and was going to fall to the floor so I put my hand underneath him to stop him and he hung on. To my finger. With his beak. He was scared because he was falling so it hurt. Didn't break the skin though and it was definitely not on purpose. Romeo and Juliet have never bitten me. They've bitten my boyfriend though, especially Romeo. Romeo once latched onto the finger of his leather glove and refused to let go. He was just dangling there like a pit on a tire hung over a tree limb.

I do not care to be bitten at all. I'd rather take on an angry dog than an angry Amazon. I was bitten by an Amazon and that one really, really hurt. My hand was numb for a while after. I don't ever want to experience that again. If she is biting you should probably use a stick to move her around instead of your hand. Here is a post a birdie friend made about these cool things you can buy to help you move a biting parrot around safely.

http://www.emmalogue.com/2011/04/hand-saver-perch-from-exotic-wood.html

Hopefully you will be able to figure everything out with Reggie. It's sometimes difficult to understand what motivates parrots. Other than food of course. But, to be honest, I'd probably prove to be very food motivated!

[roy]

thankyou very much for your reply what she is doing. she just wont obey me i feed her treats with the clicker so she knows when i want her to do something if i put my arm up to her she will get on to it but if i try to put my hand up for her to come on to it she trys to bit me,she is pulling feathers out aswel i spoke to the 2 brothers from birdtricks and the gave me a bite cheat sheet and it all points to changing her food.

but on the other hand i dont think she is doing to bad as ive only had her for 7 days and ive never owned a african grey before i just want her to do a few tricks in time to come and be loving like they can the other thing the other people that owned her i think they miss treated her when my grand daughter went by the cage she flap her wings and went for her so it might be that the kids have done somethink to reggie my son spoke to the parents and as far as he was told they used to open the cage and let her out all day they never said if they picked her up or spent anytime with her

[Cage Cleaner]

Actually Harrison's recommends the high potency for African Greys.

[Michael]

What are you feeding the parrot now?

And completely forget about punishment. You are in absolutely no position to even think about using it. The bird is already new, scared, biting, etc. And any kind of punishment is likely to increase those issues.

Reasons Why Punishment Should Be Avoided With Parrots

And HungryBird, I wouldn't do that "back into cage for being bad" thing if I were you, especially with a flighted parrot. It doesn't work and it can lead to the parrot not trusting you and fleeing you to avoid being put away. Read this.