Marty our new addition

Welcome to the Grey Play Round Table African grey Question and Answer Board. Maggie Wright, author of the Barron's Grey pet manual and creator of the Grey Play Round Table African grey newsletter/magazine, and Lisa Bono, African grey behavior expert, will be the two moderators to answer your questions. Please check out the areas that have already been dealt with... and submit your new questions.


Due to the incredibly high volume of SPAM, the board has been set up so that you cannot submit a question. Instead, please send me your question at merlin@AfricanGreys.com and I will post it for you. Then, both Lisa and I will post responses. Sorry for the inconvenience.

PLEASE send me your questions... we REALLY want to help you!!! merlin@AfricanGreys.com.


Wishing you GREY'T Blessings!
Maggie Wright

Moderator: merlin

Re: Marty our new addition

Postby merlin » Fri Oct 14, 2011 6:13 am

Hi Scott,

Congratulations!!! I'm so happy that you decided to bring in Marty. His life is going to be much happier.

Please read the chapter, "Teaching Your Grey Everyday Living Skills," from my African Grey pet manual. It discusses ways to work on individual skills for the bird. As far as food is concerned, you need to feed Marty pretty close to his current diet and then slowly wean him over to newer food habits. Greys eat what they are used to and will starve themselves, if they do not see food as food. That is, EVEN if it's in a food bowl. Therefore, they need to be weaned slowly to other foods and taught by you that they should be eaten.

If you want him to start eating carrots, for example, sit by the cage and eat some carrots. Get excited about them and act like you LOVE them. You can even act possessive. Greys LOVE to get ahold of things they cannot have. Anyway, keep sitting by the cage while you eat them, and eventually, interest him into trying it. Make sure you don't feed him something that you have eaten because our germs from our mouths could make our birds sick.

Also, if you make the MASH that you have concocted for Baby, do the same for Marty once you get him eating other things. Then, mix some seeds in the Mash, and hopefully, he will start eating some of the veggies. A trick is to make the MASH tasty. I grate up almonds and peanuts and mix them in the MASH. You can also flavor with a little garlic and cayenne. But you have the articles that I sent to you on MASH diets. They give lots of ideas.

Go to the Helpful Hints section of this site and there are ideas for you there, too.

Everything that is new for Marty needs to be introduced slowly. Like a toy. That's in my African grey pet manual, too.

It also is a good idea to feed Marty and Baby a few pellets. I do not believe in a majority-pelleted diet... but only to serve them as a supplement to a WHOLE foods diet. Pellets are very nutrient-dense and our bodies and our birds' bodies were not made to have 100% nutrition for every bite. You could introduce the pellets in the MASH, too... or in the seeds, and get Marty slowly interested that way. I use Totally Organics pellets. Check out their site for some seeds and pellets: www.totallyOrganics.com

Will keep thinking about ideas for you.
Blessings,
Maggie-
merlin
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