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Hi everyone, we just adopted an African Gray

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Hi everyone, we just adopted an African Gray

Postby svkost » Mon Jul 02, 2018 11:36 pm

Hi,

me, my wife and our three small children (8, 5, and 3) just adopted an African Gray. She is two years old and listens to the name "Guta". She is a very nice bird that speaks to get attention and loves to play with all things she can break. She eats pellets, but next to that she is very picky. She does not like anything dried (fruits, vegetables), bell pepper, cucumber, and all sorts of nuts. She likes to get sunflower or pumpkin seeds and grapes. We just have her 3 weeks, and for what we understand is she already rehomed 2 or 3 times. She is not afraid of us or our other pets (2 cats and 2 chihuahua dogs). She can be out of her cage when we are at home. When we go away, we put her in her cage as we don't want 'accidents' between pets, or with cables that I'm attached to ;-). She is clipped, but as you can see on the picture, she has the first (darkest) feathers on her wingtips.

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svkost
Parakeet
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 2
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Types of Birds Owned: African Gray Parrot
Flight: No

Re: Hi everyone, we just adopted an African Gray

Postby liz » Tue Jul 03, 2018 6:57 am

Welcome. It is great that you are letting her feathers grow. You will see a bigger personality when she is able to fly.

You need to read up on "Health".

I give my Amazons a pistachio before breakfast every morning then cut up fruit and veg for breakfast. They get carrots, celery, banana and any other that I happen to have. They like their grapes and apple the best. Others give a kind of chop but mine would just pick through it. They get "legal" handouts at my meal time. I give them seed in the evening and they get to choose their own almond from the jar. They like to pick their own.
At 3:00 I give my dogs an oatmeal cookie. My little one only gets a half so I break the
other half for my Amazons. I have to constantly change their water because Rainbow dunks everything in his water before he eats it.

That is about all I have for you but others will come on and give you info on food and lighting.
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liz
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 7234
Location: Hernando FL
Number of Birds Owned: 12
Types of Birds Owned: DYH Amazon Rambo
BF Amazon Myrtle
Cockatiels: Shadow Tammy Flutter Phoenix Jackie
Andy Impy Louise Twila Leroy
Flight: Yes

Re: Hi everyone, we just adopted an African Gray

Postby Pajarita » Tue Jul 03, 2018 9:00 am

Welcome to the forum and congrats on your new family member. Now, please don't take this the wrong way because I am not trying to pop your balloon, I am merely trying to prevent a potential problem. I don't know if you are aware of this but Grays don't do well with busy households... you could say that children and chihuahuas are, most definitely, not their cup of tea. They are very high-strung birds by nature, they hate changes and they hate conmotion and the fact that she has changed homes three times before she even became an adult is something that will affect her for the rest of her life [we have studies that say that birds that grow up with stress remain high-strung for the rest of their lives] so, please, please, please, make a HUGE effort to keep noise and movement to a minimum around her. Another thing you need to know about them is that they are not good family pets. No parrot really is although there are some species that do better than others - grays don't. They choose one single person and that person becomes 'their' human with whom they need to spend, at least, 4 or 5 hours of one-on-one every day. They are highly intelligent birds but they are also a very difficult species to keep happy and that's why they are so prone to plucking and even self-mutilation so I suggest you take this time, the very foundation of your relationship to her, to put together a routine and a plan to make her environment one conducive to her happiness.

As to her diet... yes, grays are picky eaters. In my personal experience [I've had six under my care], they are the most difficult species to 'convince' to eat a good, healthy diet [and that does not mean free-feeding pellets which are nothing but way too dry -parrots evolve to eat a diet that is 85 to 95% water- and 'dead' -it has no phytonutrients whatsoever]. It can be done but it needs planning [because it needs to be done at exactly the right time of the day and exactly as your bird likes it -and this is an individual preference so anything anybody can tell you about what their gray likes might not work for yours] but, generally speaking, persistence and patience do, after a long time, win the day. In my personal experience, they tend to like juicy things [so I am not surprised at all that she doesn't like dry things -which, by the way, are not really good for parrots]. Mine eats a large variety of produce and adores her breakfast gloop but she favors super juicy things like oranges, grapes, cantaloupe, pommegranate seeds, blueberries, blackberries, etc. - she also likes apples, pears, bananas, carrots, peppers, etc. and she adores fresh corn on the cob lightly steamed so it's still juicy and crunchy.

Please let us know if we can be of any service to you.
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Hi everyone, we just adopted an African Gray

Postby Zorro_the_bhc_2015 » Wed Jul 25, 2018 11:56 am

Very cute try some forage toys in cage for when your not home so she has to work 4 treats.
Zorro_the_bhc_2015
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 48
Number of Birds Owned: 1
Flight: Yes


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