welcome home new baby CAG

[JJin]

I'm a owner of a CAG baby. She's about 3-months-old hand fed baby purchased from a breeder a day ago. Ride home went smooth and introduction to her new cage was ok as well allthough she didin't move around pretty much in the first evening. I had to take her out of the cage a few times to correct the perches and towel on her cage. I tried not to stress her too much. She just sat by her cup and ate some pellets before it was sleep time. She fell asleep around 10pm tired of all the traveling and moving.

Today she has been a lot more alert. She's been shredding the toys already and likes to eat vegetables out of my hand. Well actually she's just chewing them and dropping it down. What's that all about? I still think she's not eating enough food. Is it normal? How can I know she's eating enough. HOW much do they eat? I could start weighting her daily to be certain she's not dropping in weight.

When I go near her cage and open the front door she looks at me, goes silent *chirp* and comes a little closer to me. What does it mean? The breeder gave some baby food with the baby aswell allthough he said he doesn't eat it much anymore. Well I offered her some with a spoon but she only took one bite out of it. One thing was weird she was doing little gasp voices like she didin't know what to do when I was offering the baby food.

She does a step-up nicely when my hand is near. It almost looks like she would like to step-up always when my hand is near, even though it's not what I'm looking for. She doesn't like to stay on my hand for too long, she always goes higher all the way to the elbow. Should I hold her tight by her feet to keep her on my hand or just offer her a more steady "perch"?
Another thing when she's on my hand she likes to rub her nose against my finger and occasionally bite, or more like test my fingers with her beak. Is she just testing what my finger is made out of or what does she mean by that? I just try to ignore it and offer her something else to think about.


PS. I don't know what gender my CAG is. Is there a good way other than DNA tests to know CAG baby's gender? I'm going to bring her to a vet first thing next monday. Oh, and excuse my English

[The Outlaw]

Congratulations on your beautiful new addition. Baby birds OFTEN regress to handfeeding when they are stressed and that's what happens when they move to new digs. Definitely go out today and buy a gram scale. Walmart sells them in the kitchen department and Office Depot and Staples have them in their postal department for weighing mail. Its essential to keep daily weights on new babies.

As a rule, its a good time to indroduce warm, soft foods when they first come home. Its comforting to young birds. Why not also pick up a few sweet potatoes today while you're scale shopping. Cook them until they are soft, add about 1 tsp. of smooth peanut butter and the juice on one orange per potato. Serve warm (not above 104 degrees F)from a small spoon. Or, you could soak some whole grain bread pieces in some fruit juice and offer that from your fingers.

Check the seed hulls carefully to make sure that your baby is actually consuming the seeds and not just breaking open the shells. Id start with 2 heaping tablespoons and make certain that you have fresh newpaper under the bowl. Then you can check what remains.

Most breeders wean to pellets, so I assume you have some of those handy as well. I don't generally use them here, but if the breeder did, please be sure to actually count out how many you place in the dish. I'd start with 20. Then its easy to see how much was actually eaten. Keep us posted on your progress.

THE OUTLAW

[JJin]

It's going fine I think. She likes to play a game where I hand her a toy and she throws it down on the ground or bottom of cage and I have to pick it up again for her. I think she loves to watch the toy fall and make a sound when it hits the ground

I've weighted her and she was 410g yesterday and 406g today. I'm still concerned about her eating. What she eats is fruits, vegetables, pellets and pieces of my food I like to make snacks out of, like cheese, bread and what not. I've given her about 2 table spoons of pellets, 2 small grapes, some salad, 2 slices of mandarin, teaspoon of babyfood, small piece of whole grain bread soaked in juice and now a small slice of apple today. She ate about half of that. I haven't fed her any seeds yet. Today I discovered that she's crazy about pieces of apple, more than anything. That will make an excellent treat for her training. Can you tell me how much do the baby greys usually eat daily?

As you see I tried the thing with whole grain bread soaked in juice today. She ate it only a little though.

I had her on the table while I was at the computer and she was playing with a foot toy. Her nails are extremely sharp and make tiny scars on my arms. After a while she tried to climb on my shoulder, which I don't like her to do, so I put her in her cage and she closed her eyes and went to sleep. Boy does she sleep a lot. She likes to take little naps from time to time and she's very quiet during night and mornings. I think that will change in the future. I was expecting the bird to be very loud but on the contrary she has been very quiet for her first few days.

Scratching her neck is easy, she doesn't mind at all. She even closes her eyes a little when I scratch. Occasional nipping occurs only when she's sitting on my hand. I tell her 'pretty please' instead of saying directly 'no' and try to endure it until she stops. She hasn't made a nip into a bite yet but when it hurts I'll try to make her notice it somehow. Maybe I'll tell her 'be careful' before I move my fingers a little to make her lose balance for a moment but definetly not so much she would fall. I'm strictly against physical punishment of any kind. Even if it's only a small poke on the beak. Am I training her correctly? Should I avoid taking her out of the cage until she comes out by her self? Her wings are trimmed and climbing skills still developing. Any help is appericiated.

She usually (read always) makes a poop when I take her out of the cage and put her on a perch. I read that this is normal for some parrots as they don't like to poop in their cage but when they have to go they will. Or is this a poop when she's scared? At first I thought it could be but then again she hasn't pooped once on my hand or when I was moving her.

[Doubleyolk]

My Timneh at that age likes almonds. I chopped them up and fed about 1/2 almond a day. Almonds also have calcium which Grey's need. JMO

[greyburd]

Congrats on your new baby. You will have years of joy with it around.

To answer some of your questions:

Try not to get too excited when he (we'll call it a he until you find out otherwise) bites. Try telling to be a good bird. And make sure when he does something good (like step up, or take a treat from your hand or says something you're trying to teach him to say) you say "good bird". He will learn that biting is not "good".

I have read (also) that greys don't like to poop in their cages if they don't have to. Take the cue (of him pooping as soon as you take him out) and use that to get him potty trained. Pick and area that you would want him to use. When you place him over that area tell him to "good potty" or "go poop". When he does, give him lots of praise (lots of "good bird" or "good boy/girl"). He will then learn that that's where he's supposed to go.

There are several opinions on this, but I feel that you should be his way out of the cage. Meaning that if he doesn't come out on your hand, he can't come out. He should learn to rely on you to take him places.

Otherwise, it sounds like you're doing a good job. Keep up the good work and continue to let us know about his progress.

[LoriM]

Don, are you getting one of Len's greys? We brought home our little Charlie last Saturday and he is absolutely darling!

[greyburd]

Yes Lori and Jenifer, I'll be getting one of Len's babies in a couple of months. I saw your pics of Charlie on AFlockOfGreys. He is quite adorable. You should post the pics here, I'm sure everyone would love them. How is he doing?

[LoriM]

Originally Posted by npgsoul

Yes Lori and Jenifer, I'll be getting one of Len's babies in a couple of months. I saw your pics of Charlie on AFlockOfGreys. He is quite adorable. You should post the pics here, I'm sure everyone would love them. How is he doing?

He is quite handsome, isn't he? Len sure does raise some precious babies Don, lucky you that you're getting one. Is yours a TAG or CAG? I tried to attach the pics here but it said my pic was too large. I'll have to figure out how to do it. LOL I'd be happy to show off his picture! Are you close enough to Len to visit with your baby?

[greyburd]

I'll be getting a TAG. Fortunately for us, we only live about an hour from Len. This way we'll be able to go out weekly to help feed and get to know eachother. He's delivering another TAG this weekend, but I believe I'll be able to go visit next weekend. I'll keep everyone posted.

[The Outlaw]

JJin:
Two things: if you have a Congo grey (bright red tail) look under the tail. If the edges of the red feathers are tipped in grey, its a girl.

Is you baby still losing weight? Please update.