ADVICE - Baby African Grey

[Marcella]

Oh my goodness.... "Joey" is positively a doll! He has the sweetest expression and is so cute, I have a very positive feeling that you two are going to be incredibly happy with one another

My grey is a cock and he is beyond great. I might be biased but I don't think so, even non-bird people tell me he is a good boy. My pionus hen that I had was much more so hormonal, protective, and aggressive if somebody came too close at times. Toby is beyond sweet, he literally melts me. He rarely flies but he does sometimes, and after I pick him up he will tell me "hi sweetheart" and kiss me. Kills me every time.

Toby sounds like my kind of bird! Could you please have Toby e-mail Joey (when I get him) and instruct him on how useful it is to be sweet

 

[jmfleish]

This little dude is going to have more aunties than I have - how sweet is that

:sunflower:

 

[Chopper]

Do you have to have a grey in order to be an auntie?

 

[Marcella]

A possible wrench in the works

A little medical lesson follows, if it's boring, sorry! Kiki (RIP) had his autopsy performed at the University of Georgia. When my vet called me to advise me what the cause of death was, she said "you were right, it was Herpes virus, the papilloma"
I had posited to her (during his illness) that maybe he had papillomavirus. So, now I'm not sure exactly what virus he had.
Here is the problem: if he had the Herpes virus which causes Papilloma Disease (not the same as papillomavirus) this would be the best scenario. The Herpes virus in an enveloped virus, and is not stable outside of the body and therefore easier to destroy.

If, on the other hand, his cause of death was Papillomavirus, this poses an enormous problem in bringing Joey home. The Papillomavirus is a non-enveloped virus and persists in the environment for a long time and is much harder to eradicate. This means that everything in my house poses a potential danger. The sofa his climbed all over, the kitchen counters, shelves - the bookcase beside his cage, where his dander would fly off to. After researching, I found that the only way to have this virus killed is to hire a commercial steam cleaning service and basically steam clean the entire house

Fact of the matter is, I will be moving in July. Without my daughter this place is just too big for one person (and 4 cats).

I will be chatting with my vet on Saturday (she won't be in till then), and determine beyond any shadow of a doubt what the actual virus was that lead to Kiki's death. I am also going to get a copy of the post-mortem report.

- why do things have to be soo complicated!! I really want to make a wonderful home for little Joey. Guess I will have to be patient and wait until Saturday. There is no way, on God's green earth, that I would consider bringing home ANY bird, unless I know my house is 110% safe!

 

[Marcella]

Do you have to have a grey in order to be an auntie?

Absolutely not - I am an equal opportunity auntie welcomer!

 

[Marcella]

:sunflower:

The more the merrier!!!!

 

[atomicfriday]

I try to be sweet and thoughtful to him as well, you get what you give right? Ideally anywho! He gets choice cuts of most of my meals (I pick out the "healthy" parts for him to choose from) I respect him when he doesn't want to step up or be petted, and when he does I take him close to my chest and he just leans in and gets all puffy, relaxed, closes his eyes while I scratch him . I talk and whistle with him. He gets to go outside on the porch and receive regular baths. Basically I just love him, which I'm positive from your posts you know very well how to do!!

 

[Marcella]

I try to be sweet and thoughtful to him as well, you get what you give right? Ideally anywho! He gets choice cuts of most of my meals (I pick out the "healthy" parts for him to choose from) I respect him when he doesn't want to step up or be petted, and when he does I take him close to my chest and he just leans in and gets all puffy, relaxed, closes his eyes while I scratch him . I talk and whistle with him. He gets to go outside on the porch and receive regular baths. Basically I just love him, which I'm positive from your posts you know very well how to do!!

I can give him all of the above, with the exception of porch time. Wish I lived in Florida!!! Here up in the frozen north tundra of Quebec we have approximately 90 or so days of "take your birdie outside days" per year. Hmmm, maybe I will be a lottery ticket. If I win big I will build a gigantic indoor aviary with a misting system, lighting and loads of enrichment activities. Of course, I will be eating macncheese for the rest of my life, while Joey eats organic produce and loads of other healthy stuff.
- Ha!, that's Joey giving me the okay on the aviary - dream on Joey...all I can promise is tons of love, loads of respect, infinite patience, piles of understanding and loads of opportunities for you to live a top-notch life.

 

[jmfleish]

A possible wrench in the works

A little medical lesson follows, if it's boring, sorry! Kiki (RIP) had his autopsy performed at the University of Georgia. When my vet called me to advise me what the cause of death was, she said "you were right, it was Herpes virus, the papilloma"
I had posited to her (during his illness) that maybe he had papillomavirus. So, now I'm not sure exactly what virus he had.
Here is the problem: if he had the Herpes virus which causes Papilloma Disease (not the same as papillomavirus) this would be the best scenario. The Herpes virus in an enveloped virus, and is not stable outside of the body and therefore easier to destroy.

If, on the other hand, his cause of death was Papillomavirus, this poses an enormous problem in bringing Joey home. The Papillomavirus is a non-enveloped virus and persists in the environment for a long time and is much harder to eradicate. This means that everything in my house poses a potential danger. The sofa his climbed all over, the kitchen counters, shelves - the bookcase beside his cage, where his dander would fly off to. After researching, I found that the only way to have this virus killed is to hire a commercial steam cleaning service and basically steam clean the entire house

Fact of the matter is, I will be moving in July. Without my daughter this place is just too big for one person (and 4 cats).

I will be chatting with my vet on Saturday (she won't be in till then), and determine beyond any shadow of a doubt what the actual virus was that lead to Kiki's death. I am also going to get a copy of the post-mortem report.

- why do things have to be soo complicated!! I really want to make a wonderful home for little Joey. Guess I will have to be patient and wait until Saturday. There is no way, on God's green earth, that I would consider bringing home ANY bird, unless I know my house is 110% safe!

Yikes! When you first mentioned this, I kept thinking that it was psittacosis, probably because they are both herpes diseases. Now I think I'm getting it confused with PBFD which is also very hard to kill outside of the host. Definitely talk to your vet and see what she says. Fingers crossed.

 

[jmfleish]

I can give him all of the above, with the exception of porch time. Wish I lived in Florida!!! Here up in the frozen north tundra of Quebec we have approximately 90 or so days of "take your birdie outside days" per year. Hmmm, maybe I will be a lottery ticket. If I win big I will build a gigantic indoor aviary with a misting system, lighting and loads of enrichment activities. Of course, I will be eating macncheese for the rest of my life, while Joey eats organic produce and loads of other healthy stuff.
- Ha!, that's Joey giving me the okay on the aviary - dream on Joey...all I can promise is tons of love, loads of respect, infinite patience, piles of understanding and loads of opportunities for you to live a top-notch life.

There are people in Canada who do have aviaries for their birds! Stefanja from Out of the Blue Aviary is one who comes to mind. She has a grey, but mostly dabbles in Ekkies!

 

[Chopper]

Absolutely not - I am an equal opportunity auntie welcomer!

Oh good - I want to be an auntie for your bird.

I hope you get good news on Saturday.

 

[Marcella]

Oh good - I want to be an auntie for you bird.

I hope you get good news on Saturday.

You're so cute Mary!!! Optimistic too - that's what I need now. Loads of optimism, tons, mountains of it. I will force myself to think positive thoughts. Thank you so much for your attention.

 

[Chopper]

@mythic55 had to have her house sprayed for the virus. However, she had mostly marble I believe so it wasn't as much of a problem.

 

[Marcella]

@mythic55 had to have her house sprayed for the virus. However, she had mostly marble I believe so it wasn't as much of a problem.

THAT is very interesting!!! Am I allowed to contact her? I know there are rules about contacting people, if you don't have enough points, or something in that order. Please let me know . I have spent the entire day on the computer looking for solutions to this new problem. Completely disheartened. I may as well go and finish decorating the Christmas Tree and tackle this fresh problem later. But do let me know if I can contact her. Maybe Bonnie would know.

 

[Chopper]

Well - she is currently relocating to the USA so I'm not sure how contactable she is.
@mythic55 will get back to you as soon as she can. Meanwhile look up her posts. It was just this year that it happened to her or maybe the end of last year. She journaled it for all of us to go along the journey with her.

 

[Marcella]

Well - she is currently relocating to the USA so I'm not sure how contactable she is.
@mythic55 will get back to you as soon as she can. Meanwhile look up her posts. It was just this year that it happened to her or maybe the end of last year. She journaled it for all of us to go along the journey with her.

Excellent! I will check out her posts.. I will take the journey with her. You have been incredibly helpful, I thank you so very much!

 

[Chopper]

We are here to help each other. You should be able to start a conversation (PM) her now. You have enough posts I think.

 

[ncGreyBirdLady]

I pray that it was the herpes virus,no monkey wrenches allowed! You do have enough posts to PM @mythic55 and I'm sure she will help You if she can

 

[parrotluv]

Ya I read about the two, I am confused some seem to refer to them interchangeably. Some say contagious and others no mention. I also believe there is a vaccine that can be given available in canada. But not sure if that would be against the contagious or the other one.

 

[parrotluv]

Hope it all works out. Here is baby with sweet Potatoe face! Marcella he loved it.