New Grey Owner

[Snowghost]

I'm not a stranger to birds, had a White Front Amazon for 25 years.

He is a CAG a little nervous right now, DNA and vet tested, he is 19, new home different cage the previous owner gave me his old cage it's filthy and will scrub it tomorrow.

Owner told me he likes bananas won't eat pellet and she feeds him Hartz Parrot food. Ugg. He is plucking since she is working 7 days a week.

He has been with me for 3 days, seems to have calmed down, doing the side leg and wing stretches and is preening.

I have given him nutri berries, fresh red and green pepper and celery. He eats all of it. I noticed that he tears the food up with his beak and drops a lot of the food. Is he eating any of it?

He is a very sweet bird, nips a little but I tell him no no. I do hand feed him treats and talk to him all of the time.

I welcome all and any tips!

Will have pics soon!

 

[Mockinbirdiva]

Congratulations! Looking forward to seeing photos and hearing more about him..What's his name?

 

[EkkieLu]

Many congrats!!! He sounds like a keeper to me. So glad he found you!

 

[Snowghost]

Oh his name is Paco. He is so sweet. My amazon was wild caught we had a long relationship, screamed a lot but we communicated. He just seems so much more calm then she was. Is that the species? I'm sure he will warm up and he does talk. I just feel silly as I don't know a lot about this species.

 

[Kodigirl210]

I would start working pellets into his diet. She probably tried something nasty like Kaytee once and decided it was too much trouble.

Parrots waste food. That’s life with a parrot. Eat like bird probably came from people watching parrots who chewed everything without looking like they eat everything.

I would definitely expand his food horizons. Edamame, eggplant, cantaloupe, carrots, spinach, broccoli, green beans, papaya w/seeds, sprouts, kale and Brüssel sprouts.

There are a lot of chop recipes in the food section on AA. Take a look and get cooking! Greys like sweet potato, quinoa, brown rice, pasta. If he needs nutrition right away, give him some scrambled egg or hard boiled eggs.

Everyone does it a little differently but I go with about 50-60% pellets, 20-30% fruit & veggies and 5-10% seed.

There are all kinds of pellets. I use Hagen Tropican. A lot of people on AA use Harrison’s. It’s all kind of personal choice and sometimes it just becomes whichever one they will eat.

Make sure he has access to cuttlebone and a mineral block. Greys tend to need more calcium and Vitamin A then other parrots.

See what works and go from there

 

[Kodigirl210]

I feel like Amazons are much more vocal and expressive than Greys but they can be just as noisy or bratty as any other parrot. And I have to admit, the few 20yrs old I have seen tended to be calmer. They have grown out of the teenager years by then lol

 

[Snowghost]

Oh thank you so much. I just love this this forum. Oh I'm sure he will get vocal, he is working up to it. I was just worried that he isn't getting enough to eat. He takes an almond from my hand. He loves the fresh green and red pepper I gave him, ignored the celery, LOL. He does take the nutri berries, they are 23% pellet. He just chewed them up so I wasn't sure he was eating any of it. So he is not a teenager, too funny. I will be making a trip to the grocery store tomorrow. Is it safe to give the cooked food or should it be fresh and natural?

 

[Kodigirl210]

Cooked brown rice, cooked yams, cooked or dry pasta. I do all fruits and vegetables fresh. You can cook the broccoli, squash, kale, carrots etc. Just try fresh first and if he doesn’t seem to like it, cook it lightly. Keep it al dente.

And just a FYI - most parrots are sneaky and eat the seed part of the nutriberries and spit the pellet part out lol

 

[Snowghost]

Glad we like the same food, I'll share with him. Al dente I can do. I'm just not sure if he ate any of the nutri berrie at all. When I went to visit him he just threw in to the floor, but here at home he kept it in his foot and did chew on a few.

 

[Kodigirl210]

If he’s chewing on it he’s eating it. They grind it to powder basically and swallow that so it doesn’t look like he’s eating food but he really is.

 

[Snowghost]

oh now that is funny! Glad he is accepting them!

 

[iamwhoiam]

Congrats! Post some photos of Paco when you get a chance.

 

[Sweet Louise]

Louise shreds her food, drops half, shakes 1/4 onto the cage/walls. She is quiet except for talking and vocalizing most in am and pm/sunrise/sunset. She will get loud when playing/swinging upside down. Other than that, she is quiet. CAGs tend to be a bit nervous, her brother has to see new things, sometimes for days, until he is sure they are not going to eat him. Louise is ok with new toys, a bit cage protective, and will get skittish at fast movements- most recent was tipping over a broom 5 feet away from her. I've been around CAGs for 5 years and am still learning. Sounds like he is an awesome bird and am looking forward to pictures.

 

[Snowghost]

Thank you for the information. I spoke with his previous owner yesterday, he does have a vast vocabulary, she said it took him about 2 weeks to warm up to her. I know they tear up the food, I just want to make sure he is getting enough to eat. He is on a Hartz Parrot food diet, shudders. So I have been giving him fresh veggies and nutri berries in addition to his current food.

How do I switch him over to pellets?

 

[Kodigirl210]

You can switch over gradually. This just pertains to the pastor food and doesn’t include fresh fruit and veggies. Start out with 50% pellet 50% parrot food. Then in a few days do 60% pellet and 40% parrot food. Then in another few days go to 75% pellet and 25% parrot food. Eventually you should get to a point where it’s a sprinkle of parrot food over the parrot food.

I would just watch the first time he eats the pellets. Some parrots take to it right away and you can just switch them over. If Paco doesn’t seem too interested -just follow the schedule I outlined above.

Best of luck

 

[Snowghost]

Well previous owner said she tried pellets he wouldn't have anything to do with it. She did not keep the cage and water bottle very clean either and only gave him a carrot or some Broccoli and he loves banana's. So I question how much effort she put into his feeding. I have given him nutri berries 23% pellets, he likes them, fresh red and green pepper. Will pick up more veggies today.

 

[sunnysmom]

Congrats on your new bird!

 

[Snowghost]

Thank you Michelle, I remember you when I lost Bugsy.

 

[Sweet Louise]

on the "not sure if he is eating enough", some folks weigh their birds. Birds have tiny digestive tracks and a fast metabolism (given you already had a bird, I bet you have done your fair share of scraping walls and changing papers!). Still, if you were to take a bowl of their food and make it proportional to a human size meal, it would fill more than a grocery bag...Louise got about 3 table spoons of Harrison's and 8 kumquats for breakfast. All 8 will be destroyed and she will eat maybe the equivalent of 1? If I gave her one kumquat, she would still only eat a fragment and spread the rest. When I give her banana, I give her a half. The recipe on that is 1/2 goes in the bowl. Each banana wheel gets a bite or so. 1/2 spread on cage by her feet and beak, various pieces dropped. I think she uses the bananas as foot moisturizer given how much she gets on the bars-thinly spread so I know it is coming from her feet... Her brother Grady (CAG) also spreads his food around, a bit less so than Louise and her owner is able to give a bit less food as more makes it into him.

 

[Snowghost]

Good to know. Thank you.