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CAG Grayson

Darklotus555

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I have posted in African Grey group, but he is special needs, and i need help.
Grayson is around 50 years old. He is a wild caught cag brought from Africa in the late 70's. His past is not clear. He had a male owner for several years who became extremely ill, and finally passed away. Grayson went to a friend of mine, who gave him to me because a cag was my dream bird.
I have not had Grayson long. His male owner kept him in a horizontal cage, and it was very small, with no perches. Grayson has foot problems do to this. Grayson is not able to be handled. He is sweet, gentle, non-aggressive, but will bite.
I have Grayson in a parrot cage with several different types of perches to help his feet.
The friend who gave him to me had him in a similar cage, also with different perches at different levels so Grayson learned to climb some.
This week, Grayson has been spending his time at the bottom of his cage, and will not climb to his perches, food or water.
I have been trying to work with him on stepping up on a glove. He just bites it and growls at it. I have used a towel to pick him up when absolutely necessary. He used to scream if he saw a towel, but yesterday I was able to get him to use the towel to help get up to his perches letting him stand on it. Today, he stepped up on it and the process was way easier, so he is "getting it".
My question now is his cage, and cage arrangement. I thought about putting him in a rectangular cage, but feel he could not climb at all.
I have moved perches around, but no arrangement has seemed to help.
I love him so much, I want to make him as comfortable and happy as possible. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
 

macawpower58

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We have many members that cater to special needs birds.
Can you post photos of your set up, and perhaps what his feet look like?
Hopefully they'll see this thread and respond with some ideas and suggestions on how to improve things.
 

Darklotus555

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I will tomorrow. I am clicker training him to step up on to a towel. He is learning very quickly!! He is learning a towel is not quite so bad. But he does bite holes in it, so Im glad its the towel and not me!! Lol
 

Darklotus555

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So I have to take video in 30 sec intervals sorry. I took these this morning BEFORE cage cleaning time. I just rearranged his cage HOPING he would be able to access everything. He has not been in the bottom of the cage since I rearranged it. I play toys with him, and have been clicker training him over the past 2 days to step up on a towel, which he was deathly afraid of towels, so he is doing awesome as shown in the last video. However he bites the towel putting huge holes in it, so thankful its not my skin.
For anyone who is not familiar, Grayson had a cage mate before I got him, a sun conure, who plucked Grayson's head

 

sunnysmom

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Awww, what a sweet bird. Thank you for helping him. What are his cage dimensions? I think his rope perch should be stretched out more so it's longer/more sturdy. My birds won't climb a curved/slack rope perch although they could. But they don't. Some of our vendors here sell some really nice platform perches. He might like those. I couldn't really see his feet. Has he ever been to the vet? What does he eat? I am a big fan of senior nutriberries for older birds. They contain things like glucosomine, milk thistle, etc.

@ncGreyBirdLady ? @Greylady1966
 
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Darklotus555

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He loves the rope perch. He can sit in the crook, but he used to climb up it until recently. He loved the platform perch until I got him the one he was standing on, then it became his favorite. I don't know the exact dimensions of his cage. Its a large parrot cage. He was in a rectangular cage, but does much better in this cage. If I could get him out of the cage, he would be out except to sleep.
I give him chop in the morning. I make chop for 50 birds from Gouldian finch to the cags. I feed all organic, non-gmo, non-GE vegetables, organic quinoa, ground flax seed, chia seed, egglands best organic hard boiled egg, spinach, cilantro, sweet potato (slightly cooked) broccoli, carrot (slightly cooked) cauliflower, almond, and peppers...other things too, I make it different each time....squashes, snap peas, arugula, etc. The cags get red palm oil too. I also sprout, and they get Soar on top of the chop, and powdered egg shell for calcium 3x a week unless laying. Then they get zupreem natural pellets. They are all water bottle trained and get distilled water. They all have mineral blocks and cuddle bones to trim their beaks.
He has been vet checked and is very healthy for his age.
I have attached a couple of pics of his feet. His toes don't curl. They are straight. So he has a hard time holding onto things.
 

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Darklotus555

Strolling the yard
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OMG! I have to share this. I have been teaching Grayson to step-up on a towel as you may know. He had gone to the bottom of the cage to eat a millet spray i gave him.
Just now, I asked him if he wanted help back to his perch, I told him he has to step up, and got the towel. He stepped right up, and I lifted him to his perch...
He let out a "yay!" Just like i always say when he does a good job. It was so amazing!!
 

macawpower58

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Don't just love these moments!
 

Toy

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Just gonna toss out a few ideas.....

I would guess Grayson has arthritis in his feet. I would also stretch the rope perch out so it's more stable for him. Since he has trouble gripping with his feet you might try putting small/shorter perches on one side that he can walk up sort of like stairs. I'd start low to the bottom & work up to one of his larger main perches. Placing them low would allow him to get to the bottom easier to play with his foot toys & then go back up higher.

If you can get him out of his cage, towel him if needed, you could try doing massage on his feet & see if it helps. Perhaps he needs pain meds.

As for stepping up on a towel. A large dowel rod wrapped in vet wrap would give him something to grip on & be more stable than a towel. It would need to be bigger than his feet, so maybe a short perch would work better, again wrapped in vet wrap or you could wrap it in a towel & tape or tie it on so it doesn't slip or turn.
 

MR. Mango

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:congrats3: on the progress with Grayson! I would recommend for the round perches to maybe try and have ones on the thicker size so he doesn't need to curl his feet too much or grip too hard, and also to try out a few more platform perches. Has he ever been to an avian vet or had his feet checked out, I second the above post that he may need pain meds. He could also potentially have bumblefoot. The idea with the dowel is also really interesting, and you could try to wrap some of his perches with vet wrap for easy gripping and cushioning.
 
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