Nothing new I'm sure

[John Mellis]

Ok here goes. 2 yr old Grey named Bowman. Bowman has been with us since 3 months old. We got to experience the hand feeding & the closeness of the relationship created. I started out with clipping wings to prevent the unwanted flying but allow the bird freedom outside of the cage. By the way this is an extremely happy & very talkative bird. He has developed a pretty good vocabulary of stringing 8-10 word sentences & is not a screamer. Yeaahh,good for us. From the time he thought wings were for flying he has been trying. He drops like a rock though. This has caused a broken spot on his breast. It will heal very well only to find he's ready to try again. We've tried to lock him down in the cage but this causes him to chop off his tail & wing feathers. I don't think he's going to go for the lock down. At this point I'm waiting for a wing molt so he can grow new flights & I will then allow him to fly. Not out the door though. We use the anxiety drops but not sure this helps. He also has always been a biter. Not very aggressive just very hard. I'm not sure how to break this. Sorry for the long thread just hoping for suggestions. Thanx, John

[Lisa B]

hi john. sorry to hear of this. its not the first case I have heard of a bird hurting himself from a fall.
you are doing correct by letting his wings grow back in.
Best thing to do, is when he is out and his wings are growing, to keep him low to the ground and the area around him cushioned. you might wnat to keep him near you on the couch and dont allow any unsupervised time out until you know he can hurt himself anymore.
I have had friends who have had to have several surgeries to close up chest wounds as they are very tough to keep closed and heal properly.

the biting might be misplaced aggression or excitement. My Sydney does alot of both, but i have learned to read his body language to tell me when he is thinking about biting. I usually tell him to calm down and distract him. that usually makes him forget about the bite.
good luck.

[huntress]

He sounds Exactly Like my one. He is a good Candidate for the leaving of the two outer flight feathers ! Greys are notorious for being clumbsy in their early years even with full wings. Buckeye fell from his perch only a few days ago. When he had two flights he was much better, Im letting those two grow back. I cut them because he was getting a bit flighty and smacked his beak into the glass door - but he is settled quite a bit so I think we can try again and I dont like the dropping either. Greys are heavy birds.

[John Mellis]

Thanx for the replies. It helps reinforce my thoughts. I have decided to lower his elevation to the floor to help the fall situation. I have not had good luck in clipping toe nails due to the biting thing. I was shown by the vet how they hold them & clipping was made much easier. As a result he doesn't seem to be as bitey as his grip as not as steady. I am now using the distraction idea to get him off key as to my fingers being chew toys. Guess this is sort of like the Dog Whisperer routine for dogs. They can only focus on one thing at a time.