termites!

[Lucysmom]

[Lucysmom]

[Guest]

[gamecockgrey]

My termite company guarantees they are not harmful to any pets. They should be able to tell you. If being fumigated they said to keep pets away from the house for 24hrs. If you are "tenting" the house, I do not know anything about that.

[dthomas]

Hello,

I'm new to this forum having acquired a Congo Grey quite by accident. I saw your post and would like to just throw in a warning about "pet friendly" chemicals. Pest control companies will tell you that their chemicals are pet friendly and may really believe that and it may be true for animals that aren't especially subject to sensitive respiratory systems like birds are. I know of a person who was told 'pet friendly' and lost her parakeet due to the fumes. Chemicals injected into the ground are probably the safest means of getting rid of the pests. Sprays are always suspect.

I do have a lot of questions related to Greys and found this site from African Grey Parrots by Maggie Wright. We are owned by two Eclectus Parrots, Baby, a female SI and Kody, a male SI. We've had them for about two years now and we now have Jessie, the Congo Grey.

We were asked to take him in as a result of an accident. He's really a loving, accepting boy and shows no signs of stress, has beautiful feathers and is in good health. We had him checked at our avian vet and he has a clean bill of health. He doesn't react to the noise of the ekkies, I wonder why they can be noisey!!!

I'm not sure what to feed him, if there are any special needs. I've been giving him fresh, organic fruits and veggies, as I do for the Ekkies, I also cook corn bread without sugar and salt and a birdie bread mix for them. It appears that he prefers seeds, will it stress him to change his diet and how do you go about getting him to eat things other than seeds?

He's used to entertaining himself and seems very content to sit on his play stand and play with toys and eat. He can fly and because we don't have other pets or children, we plan to leave him flighted.

I would appreciate any advice and suggestions you may have, thank you and I apologize for the long post.

Diane and the family

[Guest]

Hello Diane and Family!

It sounds like you are doing the correct things. To get him to eat more than seed, you need to teach him. That is, treat the good food like toys & possessions. Sit by the cage and eat certain foods and get into it...play with food and act like it tastes better than anything you've tasted.

Do not take away the seeds....put some pellets in with them...but if your baby is not eating the other food and you take away the seeds, he will starve himself. That's because they don't see food in a dish as food UNLESS they have been taught. That's how they learn in the wild: their parents teach them. It takes time if he wasn't socialized to food as a young baby. So don't give up.

GREY'T Blessings!
Maggie-

PS: go to the Helpful Hints section of this site. There are ideas on how to introduce veggies.

[Lucysmom]

Thanks for your advice & concern- we haven't taken care of the pest problem b/c other problems have taken priority, such as serious leaks in the ceiling while the roof was off. But I will probably take Lucy somewhere else for the day. The exterminator didn't talk about fumigating or tenting the whole house- I think he wants to treat the ground, & spray just the one wall & maybe the basement--fortunately, 3 outside walls are cinderblock- it's just the front of the house that's stick built- the workmen removed the damaged wood (& had to take off the drywall to replace the studs), so we're living with plastic sheeting instead of drywall in our living room & outside bedroom wall. We also didn't have heat for 2 weeks b/c we're installing a new heating system. Lucy has been handling things better than I probably have- she gets freaked out by ladders, ropes, & tarps, but mostly when outside the window near her cage. She's even started to make sounds like a hammer. The new baseboard heating scared her, so we had to cover the side of her cage near the baseboard, or she wouldn't go in her cage, but now she's gotten used to it. She startles at times w/strange noises, but settles down if we tell her it's OK,-so far so good.

[Guest]

Whew! It sounds like you guys are taking everything galliantly!

I'm glad that things are improving and you are getting lots of problems fixed.

Lucy is one special soldier there!

I remember when I was writing the Grey manual, there was construction in my building lobby. This was RIGHT under us. Both girls picked up drilling sounds. It is funny because Merlin has a special "hammer sound" that has the hammer but also she gives it a "far away" spin because it WAS far away (below us). But unfortunately, she STILL uses it!

Maggie-

[Lucysmom]

I don't know whether it's a reaction to all the commotion at our house, but in the mornings especially (& at 6:30 on the weekends, even with her cage covered), when Lucy wants attention she screams. I try to ignore the screaming, & only respond to her when she uses my "contact call" or other whistles or sounds, but she still screams. It's annoying, but also very funny at times, because she will scream & then say "what do you want?" which is of course imitating me trying to get her to tell me in other than screaming mode. She has always screamed when one of us goes down the basement, even if we talk or whistle to her when down there. She also screams whenever I empty the dishwasher, which is usually in the morning, b/c I will often play with her when I'm done, so she's trying to get me to play with her (but I won't as long as she's screaming). She has done this for a long time, but I think the screaming has increased some, & I'm not sure how to stop (or at least reduce) it. Her vocabulary is still growing, but she still does the screaming for attention, or when she has to poop, or "basement speech" or "dishwasher speech", as we call it.
(By the way, she made her first original sentence- I was preparing her food one morning & she said "What do you want? Mmmm, yum yum, more." )

[Guest]

Early morning screaming is NO fun! My Sweetpea did it when we first moved to the country. She was covered too but was so excited to be up in the country with all of Nature. I finally stopped her by getting a cage cover that was DARK.....not black but dark green. It kept the light out of her cage and she finally stopped. This idea may help you. Is there a very quiet room where you can place Lucy too?..... perhaps away from the AM commotion?

Now that Lucy knows that screaming gets attention, it is a hard habit to break. The best advice I can give is to stay strict and attempt NOT to give her attention when she does. The moment she stops, walk in the room and praise her and give her a favorite treat.

Again, my Merlin learned the Cockatoo scream from a boarding trip. I finally got her to stop by responding to her with a sound I could handle, which she started imitating instead. Sounds like you've been trying this....but please stick to it.

Some of the increased screaming could also relate to the elation of the Spring coming. Everything is fresh and new....and WE want attention!

Please keep us posted,
Maggie-