It's October 17th and it's African Grey day!

This is my boy Joey, he's 13 and he's been a part of the family for 11 years now. I appreciate him with all my heart

Junie-badoonie, my sweet, loving, bite queen 👑

Hi everyone,

We have Tiko now for around 2 months and we have focused on reading her body language, gaining trust, settling into a routine, providing foraging opportunities, getting to know preferences.... (she's 22, a rescue, never left the cage, now has a big cage with lots of toys and perches and destroying opportunities)

Question 1:
We now have come to the point where we think she's up for an extra impulse in her days, so we want to start with target training.
The issue is however, everything she eats, is on her terms. She loves nuts, but she won't go for them all the time, sunflower seeds are just ignored, apples are nice but not always, ...

Millet is also a favorite (and is always accepted!), but it would be hard to gain momentum since it takes a while to eat one of those small bunches...

So we don't know how to get started because we can't figure out what reward to give since everything is on her terms or inconvenient for training.

So, how did you guys figure this out?

Question 2:

Lately, she's fallen into a maybe bad routine? My husband (her preferred person) and her settled into an evening routine of giving headscratches and talking in soft voices before going to bed. But lately when he starts this routine, she goes to the bottom of her cage and starts knocking on the bars, peering at the catching tray bellow. My husband then talks to her to try to figure out what she wants, and recently he started putting his hands on the grate to get her used to hands and maybe start an interaction? But now she starts displaying hormonal behavior so my husband steps away.

Will this stepping away be enough to stop the hormonal behavior? Or is our foraging bowl the culprit (see pictures), since it casts some shadows/offers a little shelf to crawl under? Or is the new UV lamp (12h cycle) the issue?

any advise is greatly appreciated!!

I am rescuing an African Grey from a rescue. They have two at the moment needing homes. One is very lively, and talks a lot but is a feather plucker. The other doesn't pluck but is very quiet. Which one should I go for as a first time owner? We are a lively household. Opinions please?

So proud!

Hello! My partner's parents have an African Grey Parrot, not sure exactly how old he is but around 10-20 years old. He is bonded with my partner's dad and they have a really great relationship. The bird absolutely hates my partner! My partner's parents are away for work and we are birdsitting. I am taking him fresh water and food everyday and trying to hang out with him for some time everyday so he doesn't get bored/lonely. I was wondering if anyone could advise me on reading his body language? I don't want to stress him out!! He is SO CUTE!!! I have searched on the internet and found out about pupil pinning and puffing his feathers up, but I couldn't find out anything about the following:

1. Sometimes his head bobs up and down really fast, like it retracts into his neck and out a lot.
2. Sometimes he stretches his tail and his wings out, idk how best to describe but he looks like a magician bowing with a cloak.
3. Sometimes he hangs upside down and flaps his wings like he's pretending to fly.
4. Sometimes he wags his foot up and down in a fist like he's waving to me.
5. He always takes food from my hand whenever I offer it, but he mostly throws it on the floor (then eats it after I leave lol)

I know basically nothing about birds, I've only had dogs and they have completely different body language when they're angry lol.

I'm pretty sure he likes me, but I'd like to know if there are any behaviours etc that I should look out for! For example, how to know if he's done hanging out. I usually sit outside his room with the door open and some calm music on while I work on my laptop.

Been working on a series of three different sized perches for my boy Wolfy who has been absent from this reddit for a long time, here's the first and smallest of the three the table top perch, next up will be the T-training perch at medium size and then much later will be the full sized play perch and his main time spender to replace his old somewhat decrepit perch he uses now!

Looking for an African grey to adopt at a young age anywhere near Little Rock?

I’m having trouble finding perches of an appropriate size for my African grey. The rescue I’m getting her from said they have to be a minimum of 12 in long and .75 in diameter. Where can I find some good ones?

Noticed a new red tail feather on Junie. She’s 11 months and molting rn. (We are working on the primary feathers issue)

i don’t know if that normal behavior but mine really really aggressive with his toys like he won’t shut an eye until it’s destroyed in one day and shredded to pieces. and sometime hit it too hard he gets angry and i’m just kind of scared that he may get hurt by it /:

My mother has a 27 year old female Congo African Grey that suddenly attacked her male Grand Eclectus while my mother was in another room. The Eclectus was standing on top of his cage, and the Grey climbed into his cage and started biting his feet. He had gotten his foot stuck in the mayhem, and before my mother could separate them she had heavily damaged the foot, nearly severing a toe. They're separated now and my mom is looking for an emergency vet. According to my mother, she was almost treating it like a game, not seeming to understand he was in pain.

The African Grey has never done anything like this before. She was adopted as a baby so she never came from a neglectful home or anything; never abused. She had also had experience living with another Eclectus who had passed away about 10 years ago, so she's been socialized with other birds before. I guess I'm trying to look some more perspectives to try and see what could have led to this. I know parrots are extremely complex and can be unpredictable, but has anyone had something like this happen before? Just looking for other perspectives. Thank you all for your time.

Hello!!

Im still quite new to bird ownership and my boy Loki just got a cage upgrade and is in need of new perches.

The cage itself is 33" × 33" + 72"

The bars spacing is 1" and some of the perches from his smaller cage dont fit or just are not efficiant to help him get around the cage, im unfortunately having a bit of trouble finding him perches that arent too small or not the exact same perches I already have.

I want him to have variety in terms of (safe) textures and lengths of perches!

Does anyone have any good recommendations or suggestions??

How does your bird bathe? Ours only likes to bathe in his much too small for bathing water bowls in his cage. We have tried introducing the sink, shower, etc. He is not interested, he will only bathe on his own terms & when he wants to. The top of his cage can accommodate something as well. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips on what works for them?

I am new to raising African greys is this a problem?

My African Grey has hated me since we brought him home at 6 months old. He’s 8 now and still wants nothing to do with me ☹️
Is there any miracle that could change his feelings toward me? Cuz one sided love is brutal guys 💔