Nice. Have you raised parrots before?
Are the wings clipped already?
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.
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.
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.
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