Noisy african grey??

[WaterBearer]

I have had an african grey parrot for around 3 months now, he(?) is hand reared and suffered from a lot of bordom with its last owner. We have been told by the last owner that it is about a year old can you tell this by the colour of the eyes? Also we have been going in the cage at regular intervals throughout the day stoking and petting him then rewarding him so he gets used to us without overpowering him. When we approach chicco he makes a really loud,deep sqwauk as if frightened, but never bites us.We have changed his diet to special parrot pellets whilst mixing it with fresh fruit, we dont seem to be making any progress and wondered if anyone had ideas. He has been out of the cage a few times but for 4-8 hours at a time as he wont return back to the cage and we have to put him back which he dosnt enjoy. He has just started to say hello and does some beautiful whistles so we think he is settling just very slowly is this normal....sorry its so long just worried.

                        Thanx

[Chessman]

My neighbours have one, had it years, and its a really happy bird, i'll speak to them, and relay what they say, might take a few days though.

[WaterBearer]

Thanx chessman any info would be helpful, hope to hear from you soon.......

[rio116]

Hi,you say he is hand reared? The loud noises he makes at you is probably because he sees humans as a food source,like he would see his parents,and every time he sees you he sqwauks at you as he would do if he was seeing his parents. I don't think you can tell their age by their eyes,you can do that with budgies. The best way to sex and age a parrot is a DNA test frpm the vet.If he was scared of you he would most likely bite you,he probably doesn't want to go back in his cage because he sees you,humans,as his family,possibly mate as hand reared parrots very often imprint sexually on the human or whatever has hand reared it. As parrots are very intelligent you may find he is just testing you and his new environment but you say he is talking and whistles,he can't be that un-settled. Just be patient and give him time,think of it as having a toddler to amuse as a parrot has the intelligence of a 3 year old! Good luck

[Chessman]

As promised, I spoke to my neighbour, printed the question so I didn't get anything wrong. She says that in the main, your doing most of the right things, the points she made were,

1) She says that you leave it out the cage too long,, no more than one to one and a half hours at a time is best.

2) She said she never puts her hand in the cage while the birds there, as your encroaching on its territory.

3) She never picks it up, she waits for it to go on its cage, before letting it climb on her hand.

4) and last, she's never heard of Parrot pellets, but nothing wrong there, but she said make sure there's no sunflower seeds mixed in, as thy are not good for parrots.

Also, today, which was quite interestin, I was taking some branches off my apple tree, and she asked for a branch about one inch thick, to put in the cage, I asked why, and she said it chews it, plays with it, and does various other things, but geneally, it helps calm.

Hope this is of some help.

[Fern57]

I know this guy is plugging his 'play gym', but he also has a lot of very interesting ideas on keeping parrots.
Hope it helps.
http://www.waynesparrotstuff.com/ask_rio_parrot_tips.htm