Anyone got any experience of African Grey's?

Paddy Cow

I'm getting an African Grey that's about 6 or 7 years old. I've taken care of her before and she sees me on a fairly regular basis so I'm not worried about taking care of her day to day needs.

The thing I was wondering about was teaching her to use a harness so that I could take her outside. She's always been an indoor bird but I would like her to experience new things. I know I would have to wait until she is settled in my house and then introduce it slowly to get her used to it.

Would she be too old to take to it? If anyone else has done this and have any tips, I would be extremely grateful

B0jangles

I got a harness for my grey when she was maybe two-ish, but I gave up trying to get her to wear it after about 6 months (she's 14 now) It was just such a fecking mill trying to get her into it, and then once it was on she spent her whole time trying to chew it to bits.

However I probably went about it completely the wrong way, so wouldn't want to discourage you, and she's definitely not too old. I hear clicker training is pretty magical when it comes to reinforcing behaviours in a positive way.

Congrats on your new bird! They are amazing and frustrating and bold and lovely.

Irishchick

Paddy Cow wrote: »

I'm getting an African Grey that's about 6 or 7 years old. I've taken care of her before and she sees me on a fairly regular basis so I'm not worried about taking care of her day to day needs.

The thing I was wondering about was teaching her to use a harness so that I could take her outside. She's always been an indoor bird but I would like her to experience new things. I know I would have to wait until she is settled in my house and then introduce it slowly to get her used to it.

Would she be too old to take to it? If anyone else has done this and have any tips, I would be extremely grateful

There is no such thing as too old with an african grey

I trained mine over the course of the winter so she would be ready to go out in summer. You need to take it very very slowly.

The best advice I could give would be to follow the DVD you get with the aviator harness

B0jangles

BTW if you just want to talk about parenting an african grey I'd be really excited to do so - I know no-one else in real life who has one so I really welcome the chance to talk about it.

(Just put my girl to bed 5 minutes ago, not fun since she got all freaked out about bed a few weeks ago when she was left there later than usual in the morning -there was much grumbling)

Paddy Cow

So Ruby has settled in much better than expected. I'm really happy with her progress and would like to introduce another grey to keep her company. I've found a two year old male, who comes with his own cage and I think this would be ideal. Ruby would have her own cage and the new guy would be in the same room but in a different corner, in a different cage.

I've been reading online and while single parrots can be very attached to their owners and get jealous of new arrivals, if done right, it can benefit both birds. Ruby is 7 and the new guy is only 2, so he's not fully mature and I don't think he will have any dominant behaviours yet.

I know I will have to thread carefully and still give Ruby the attention she always got, while helping the new guy to settle in. Does anyone else have any experience of introducing new birds to each other? I know that trying to put them in the same cage is a big no no and I wouldn't even go there. Any other tips are greatly appreciated.