New Baby Parrot

[kathyth]

after waiting for her to hatch, fledge and wean ( 5 months) , we have our African Grey.
She's a perfect baby. She came via United " pet safe" one week ago. Did very well on the plane.
Her name is Grace.

 

[wellington]

So cute, congrats.

 

[Blakem]

Beautiful bird!

 

[Tom]

Nice. Have you raised parrots before?

Are the wings clipped already?

 

[Yvonne G]

My daughter has an African Grey. They make the most human-sounding and realistic noises (especially electronic sounds)! And they really do seem to understand what's going on.

Gracie is very pretty. I wouldn't mind having one like her.

 

[kathyth]

Nice. Have you raised parrots before?

Are the wings clipped already?

Hi Tom,

I had an African Grey for 18 years. She was absolutely the best! She died of kidney disease in 2008. In her last few years I was encouraged to allow her to become flighted. Thoughts were changing on clipping wings.
This baby had her wings slightly trimmed before being shipped. She had been flying in the nursery, in Texas.
Im already starting her target training and introducing her to the Aviator Harness. She will be flighted. I would personally, never free flight her outside.

 

[kathyth]

My daughter has an African Grey. They make the most human-sounding and realistic noises (especially electronic sounds)! And they really do seem to understand what's going on.

Gracie is very pretty. I wouldn't mind having one like her.

They are amazing parrots, Yvonne. This is the bird I told you about, when we met. Seems like forever ago. I have heard her make a couple of electronic sounds and mumble. She should start talking at approx 6 months.

My grey in the past verbalized many, many things and was extremely accurate.
The moment I would touch my car keys, she would say " bye" and do the sound of the car alarm.

Theyre pretty cool to own.

 

[Yvonne G]

Yes. The way they associate your actions and then make a sound just makes you gotta wonder if they're actually THINKING, because the sounds/words are so in tuned with what's going on or what's about to happen.

My daughter's grey will say, "Hello!" when my daughter answers the phone, then the whole time she's talking on the phone, the bird is jabbering incomprehensible stuff and occasionally inserting, "ok, goodbye" into its conversation.

 

[Tom]

Hi Tom,

I had an African Grey for 18 years. She was absolutely the best! She died of kidney disease in 2008. In her last few years I was encouraged to allow her to become flighted. Thoughts were changing on clipping wings.
This baby had her wings slightly trimmed before being shipped. She had been flying in the nursery, in Texas.
Im already starting her target training and introducing her to the Aviator Harness. She will be flighted. I would personally, never free flight her outside.

I ask because I always free fly my weanlings for several months before clipping, if I clip at all. All mine are trained to fly on cue. I use them for work sometimes. I've seen anecdotal evidence that allowing them to free fly as babies, learning stopping and starting, turning in the air, etc…, makes neural connections in the brain that for some reason or other tend to prevent feather plucking and neurosis later in life. I've yet to see a case of a free flying baby that plucked later in life. And every plucked parrot I come across was clipped as soon as it started trying to fly. I'm sure exceptions exist, but it does seem to be a trend in my limited experience.

Anyway, congrats on your new birdie. I love the grays and I look forward to hearing your fun bird stories for years to come.

 

[kathyth]

I ask because I always free fly my weanlings for several months before clipping, if I clip at all. All mine are trained to fly on cue. I use them for work sometimes. I've seen anecdotal evidence that allowing them to free fly as babies, learning stopping and starting, turning in the air, etc…, makes neural connections in the brain that for some reason or other tend to prevent feather plucking and neurosis later in life. I've yet to see a case of a free flying baby that plucked later in life. And every plucked parrot I come across was clipped as soon as it started trying to fly. I'm sure exceptions exist, but it does seem to be a trend in my limited experience.

Anyway, congrats on your new birdie. I love the grays and I look forward to hearing your fun bird stories for years to come.

Thank you, Tom! I figured your birds would be trained. . I do believe that allowing babies to fledge, abundantly weaning, etc. greatly benefits the bird in the short and long run.
Allowing them to fly, with training, seems to be the hot ticket. Agree that there would be exceptions.
In the past, I thought I would lose a flighted parrot. Did not realize that most that get away, were clipped and due to lack of flying lessons and recall training, can't or won't fly down, come when called, etc
In looking back on my experiences with plucked and neurotic parrots, those that were flying, did not exhibit these issues.

 

[kathyth]

Yes. The way they associate your actions and then make a sound just makes you gotta wonder if they're actually THINKING, because the sounds/words are so in tuned with what's going on or what's about to happen.

My daughter's grey will say, "Hello!" when my daughter answers the phone, then the whole time she's talking on the phone, the bird is jabbering incomprehensible stuff and occasionally inserting, "ok, goodbye" into its conversation.

Studies over long periods of time have shown that African Greys have the intelligence of a 5 year old and the emotional state of a 2 year old. With that said, there is a good deal of care, as your daughter would know, in taking care of these and all parrots/ birds.
Putting a 5/2 year old in a cage without mental and emotional stimuli, is a recipe for disaster. Screaming, feather plucking and various neurosis can and might develop.
My Grey used to ask for specific foods, like broccoli, carrots, etc. there was no chance that I could give her the wrong thing and pacify her. She knew!

 

[4jean]

Gracie is adorable! Keep posting, I will really enjoy hearing about her as she grows.

 

[Tom]

Did not realize that most that get away, were clipped and due to lack of flying lessons and recall training, can't or won't fly down, come when called, etc

Interesting you say that. A couple of months ago, I had a conversation with a very experienced bird trainer. He was talking about how difficult it is for trained birds to figure out how to fly down. Doesn't seem like a tough thing to figure out, but it can be a big problem if you don't teach your bird to fly down to you. If they land somewhere high and you are calling them from the ground, many of them want to come, but they are afraid since they don't know how. Most of our training is fairly level flight. I'm talking about birds that have been flying hand to hand, perch to hand or hand to perch their whole lives.

I trained my little Mexican Red Head to drop almost straight down to me from my upstairs bannister. Its really cool watching her hop off the ledge and drop before putting the air brakes on.