New baby African Grey!?

Question

I brought home a 3 1/2 month old African Grey yesterday. . . .he is doing very well; was fully weaned before coming home, and is amazingly happy to try any food I give him and to play with toys he hasn't seen before, etc. He is sweet and gentle for the most part, although when he did nip me HARD and I tried a slight "earthquake" I think he actually liked this, however, lol, and began nipping harder in hopes, I believe, for another earthquake "ride" : ) Everything other than this is going quite well, although he is only eating human food so far (eggs, peas, tomato, etc) and wont touch the food in his cage, either the seed/pellet mix the breeder had him on or the pellets I mixed in with her mix in hopes of eventually converting him to those. He also is not drinking much water.

Just looking for tips on the nipping and on getting him to eat, and wondering of any other ideas people out there have through trial and error after bringing their own birds home.

Thanks!!

Answer 1

Stop giving him the human food.  You need to give him a pelleted diet.  He needs to start eating this before you give him human food again.  Human food is fine for treats and small snacks but should never be used in place of his "bird" diet.  Pellets will give him all the nutrition he needs without having to give him vitamin supplements like you would if he were on a seed diet.  Pellets are much better for him than seed.  Don't mix seed and pellets.  Just put pellets in his bowl and he will eat when he gets hungry.  He will stop nipping in time.  When he does it, put him back in his cage and tell him NO.  Greys are very smart, he will get the drift soon.  It is very important that you change his diet now.  Too much human food, especially at this age, is not healthy.  I have studied birds and their diets for many years.  Please read my profile.

Answer 2

He's eating regular food and not seed?  YAY!  That's fantastic news.  People usually have the opposite problem.  Their bird is a seed junkie, which isn't good for them, and they won't try healthy natural food.  Good for you.  You want your bird to get most of its nutrition from pellets, with some occasional real food for variety.  The pellets, by the way, are an excellent source of balanced nutrition.  Keep seeds for a rare special treat.

Work with him every day.  Don't spend tons of time on Saturday, and then not again for two weeks.  If you play with him regularly, he should be a good pet. The more socialization, the better the bird.

Once he's super tame, don't assume he will never bite you.  Even extremely tame birds will nip and bite when they are frightened.  And they can be frightened by simple things like ear rings, etc.

Be sure he's got a good wing clip.  He should be able to glide down to the ground without injuring himself. (He's a heavy bird.)  But he shouldn't be able to gain altitude even a little.  We always been very careful, but we've had two escapees Both were later found, but you may not be so lucky.  Again, just because he hasn't flown away before doesn't mean that something won't frighten him and poof, he's gone.

One last thing.  Find a good avian vet, and get to know her.  You will be spending a good sum of money with her, so you will want to be able to trust her.  You will eventually gain a feel for when something is urgent and when you can "wait and see".  But if your bird has a serious problem, plunk down the money.  Keep your investment healthy.

Enjoy your new pet.  Take very good care of him, and he will be a rewarding pet for the rest of your life.

Answer 3

Congratulations on your new baby!  

When your bird bites (nips) he may be trying his beak strength.  My AG used to do this and I thought she was biting me at first until the day she actually did bite me and then I realized she was just testing.  So it seems that you know not to pull away or make a big deal out of it.  If aggression is not a factor, just make it unpleasant for the bird to do it.  By that I mean, let him put his beak on you and even play gently with his beak (never, ever shake it - if you are doing it gently now and then shake it when you are hurt, like after a bite, you may shake harder than you want and hurt your bird).  I take Dixie's beak betweenn my thumb and forefinger and make a kissing noise.  If he squishes, or even bites, allow that too, and then push into him slowly until it is difficult for him to bite, so that the connection with your finger will make him turn his head.  Even if it hurts, try your very hardest not to react with an "ow!" or scold him.  I can't help but say, "uh, oh, too hard.  That hurts."  It makes me feel a little better and once, Dixie even stopped squishing and said, "uh, oh.  Too hard."  If you have been taking his beak in your fingers, you can do that for a distraction at that time.  Whatever you do, allow him to put his beak on your hand.  It is a tool and he will use it to trust you with it.  If you do not trust him, he will not trust you.  

The earthquake is a very good distraction, but your little dude is very smart and you're probably right in that he was trying to get another ride out of you by teaching you to do that whenever he nipped you.  So ask him "How 'bout an earthquake?" and then doing it for him as a treat, maybe when he is on your knee.  If you are trying to stop a hard pressure, roll your arm toward your body so he has to step backward or he will fall.  This why it's a good idea to have your thumb or even a little bit of your palm topmost on your hand when he is sitting on your arm.  Then your inclination to roll toward you is first.  

African greys are notorious for being clumsy as babies, so you want to be careful neverr to break his confidence.  

Parrots learn, but you cannot train them.  They are not dogs.  They learn to manipulate their environment and they learn what suits them.  You have to give them the opportunity to learn what you want them to learn.

As for the food, give him his brreeder mix available all the time.  Give him his fruit and vegetables in a seperate dish in the morning or when you ear your dinner.  And that's it.  Don't produce an overdependant bird.  As hard as it is, don't handle him all the time.  Give him toys and leave him alone while you are in the room.  He will have to learn to be alone and entertain himself, so you might as well help him NOW.  Once the novelty wears off, of if you go back to work, if left alone and unable to entertain himself, he will start to pluck (AGs are notorious for this).

He is not drrinking much because he is getting enough moisture from the foods you are giving him.  Just keep an eye on his poops and look for them to look like you would expect them to look.

By the way, an actual bite is usually associated with a striking gesture on the part of the bird and prefaced with some sort of warrning in the bird's body language (Dixie usually stands very tall and opens her mouth)  If it's not imperative that I handle her at that time, I respect her and leave her alone.  If I have to handle her, I acknowledge her warning then handle her as little as I need to (if a wood perch is the way to go, I use that) and then leave her alone.  I don't want her to think that I will not repect her OR that she will need to resort to biting to get her message across to me.

Answer 4

The link below offers care, forums, tips and much more useful info.

Too much for me to write.

Good luck to you and pet Grey.