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Cage issues.

Heybirdie

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Hey guys, sorry if this has been asked many times over, I did a quick search and couldn't find anything.
I recently brought home a Grey from a rescue, he has a plucking issue and I am unsure if it started at his previous home or at the rescue. At the rescue he was living in a tiny (for a grey) cage.
Well obviously he was a bit shaken up when we brought him home, but you could see the excitement in his eyes when we put him in his nice new big cage with lots of fun toys and fresh fruit and veg!
After quarantining him for a month I noticed that many of his chest feathers he had plucked had started growing back in nicely and he had shown no signs of illness, so I brought him into the living room where my other birds lived and he has been there for the last week or so, however this entire time he has only left his cage once a couple days ago, and although he happily stepped up at the rescue, I have been unable to convince him to since he has come home.
I just find this odd as my other two birds are also rescues and they could not wait to get out there cages when I first brought them home and if they know I am home and they are caged they let me know about it! Is this normal Grey behavior? Anything I can do to tempt him out? I leave his cage open nearly all the time but he spends most the day by his fruit bowl waiting for some tasty treats or destroying a toy.
 

expressmailtome

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sunnysmom

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Erithacus

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Hey guys, sorry if this has been asked many times over, I did a quick search and couldn't find anything.
I recently brought home a Grey from a rescue, he has a plucking issue and I am unsure if it started at his previous home or at the rescue. At the rescue he was living in a tiny (for a grey) cage.
Well obviously he was a bit shaken up when we brought him home, but you could see the excitement in his eyes when we put him in his nice new big cage with lots of fun toys and fresh fruit and veg!
After quarantining him for a month I noticed that many of his chest feathers he had plucked had started growing back in nicely and he had shown no signs of illness, so I brought him into the living room where my other birds lived and he has been there for the last week or so, however this entire time he has only left his cage once a couple days ago, and although he happily stepped up at the rescue, I have been unable to convince him to since he has come home.
I just find this odd as my other two birds are also rescues and they could not wait to get out there cages when I first brought them home and if they know I am home and they are caged they let me know about it! Is this normal Grey behavior? Anything I can do to tempt him out? I leave his cage open nearly all the time but he spends most the day by his fruit bowl waiting for some tasty treats or destroying a toy.
Try placing the food bowl outside the cage.
 

Heybirdie

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Hey guys, thanks for the suggestion. I went ahead and filled his bowl with his favorites and left it just out side the cage, but he spent most the morning looking down in the dumps, and the fruit was eventually found and eaten by another of my birds.

We did have a breakthrough though, I shut off the light and settled down to watch TV but had forgotten to close his cage, after about 15 mins he climbed to the top and perched on his play stand. The same thing happened tonight, and he even came over to me and started walking around the room, it seems that he thinks he is an owl bless him! Is this a behavior I should be concerned with? I have never seen or heard of a parrot preferring the dark as I though they had poor vision at night?
 

TikiMyn

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Hmm strangeo_O :laughin:I have never heard of that either, Maybe he is scared of your other birds? It makes sense if he is still adapting to his new home, but it is a little odd that he chooses that time to Come out, but Maybe it is busy the rest of the day and you want him to Come out to play and have fun, so you are looking at him a lot and that makes him unsure and he prefers to Come out and explore when no one sees him sneaking about:D
 

Heybirdie

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You could very well be correct Tikimyn. My other birds were locked away when he decided to come out, and they have been eager to meet him and spend much of the day perched around his cage, I will try keeping the other two in their cages for a while today and see what happens. They are not going to like that though!
 

carolz7

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Maybe he just needs time. It's all strange to him, new birds, new surroundings, new cage, new people. They just need some time. Some will adapt sooner others need more time. Hope this helps a little bit.
 

Dartman

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He just needs time. He's probably a bit scared and out of wack after all the changes in his life. When I got Lurch his eyes were HUGE and he was mad at the world and scared to death. After a mere 6 months he decided to come out of his house, after a mere 5 years he mostly decided I was safe and we were friends.
Do like your doing and he'll go at his own pace and you'll earn his trust slowly and he'll come out when he's ready and start branching out and blossoming once he's all settled in and happy.
 

BirdGuy21

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My guess is he just needs some time to settle in. He went through a huge change and needs to adjust to his new surroundings and family. I would leave his cage open and let him come out at his own pace, when he is ready. I would also recommend working on some target and trick training as a great, hands off way to start to build a bond with him.
 

Laurul Feather Cat

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He is acknowledging the "territory" is already occupied by other birds and is being careful to keep from being attacked for being the new bird in the territory. Give him time. Also, after you put your resident birds away, open his cage and see if he will come out on his own; perhaps even try the full bowl with great treats trick again. If this works, then after a week or so, allow ONE of your resident birds out while he is out; make it a laid back, non-territorial bird, or one of the same species if you have one, and allow the bird to introduce itself to the newcomer. Once the newcomer realizes the resident flock is not unhappy with his presence, he will relax and start interacting with the residents.

I have introduced more than thirty new birds into my flock over the past thirty-five years and I always start the introduction by having the newbie inside a cage with ample food and water and with two and up to three sides of the cage covered by cloth. This way the resident birds can go to the cage and introduce themselves, but not get behind the newbie or even surround him due to sheer by numbers. The newbie is able to feel safe in the cage, and thus able to interact with the resident birds through the cage at his leisure. I kept a newbie in their cage for up to a week, depending on how well they interacted with the residents introducing themselves. Often, on the second day, if I had resident birds of the same species, the resident birds would literally let the newbie out by opening the cage; inviting the newbie to join the flock and by the end of the day, newbie would be perching with the flock for the night.

Give the poor guy time. He needs to understand he is actually welcome in the territory. That is the most crucial test in adding a newbie to the resident flock.
 
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Fritzgerald16

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Although not an African grey, the ONLY time our mac asks for attention is at night when our girls have gone to bed and we are on the couch watching tv. He will hang out now if we put him somewhere but at first it was only under the cover of darkness lol I think he feels sneaky then, he also tries to get into things at night that he doesn't touch during the day.
 

zoo mom

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Time and patience.
 
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