How To Keep An African Grey Parrot Happy

[Kevin]

How To Keep An African Grey Parrot Happy
By Dave Womach

’ve recently been handling lots of new clients in my parrot training business, coaching them through issues and spending a lot of time thinking about why parrots end up having problems when it hit me… African Grey Parrots are the 2nd most likely parrot to develop behavior problems; Second only to the Cockatoo.

But unlike Cockatoo’s who are in my opinion are not a good bird for the regular parrot owner to own because of it’s nature… African grey Parrots don’t share the Cockatoo’s same nature. So why do I have so many clients who’s African Grey’s have problems?

So I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on this topic with you…

There are a lot of things involved in keeping an African Grey Parrot happy that normal people would like to believe. Most of my clients think they can just walk into any pet shop that sells hand fed baby African Grey’s and think their bird will end up being perfect. Oh… if they only knew how much more was involved.

African Grey’s can tend to be a skittish type of parrot that spooks easily, gets stressed easily and develops lots of phobias and behavior issues. But there also the smartest breed of bird and through proper handling can be nothing short of amazing.

So even though I could sit here for weeks writing 743 articles on all the different things you need to do to make sure your African Grey Parrot is happy.

But instead I’m going to focus on just one thing… TOYS!

Now don’t go clicking off the page just yet because you think you know that your African Grey needs toys. I’m not trying to be condescending, and I know you already know that toys are important.

But do you know how often your African Grey’s toys should be rotated or changed? And better yet are you changing your birds toys frequently? Has your African Grey had a toy in his cage for longer than a month or two?

These are all important questions to ask, because African Grey Parrots are extremely intelligent and need to be placed in stimulating environments to remain happy.

This means they need their toys constantly rotated in and out of their cages. They need their toys hung from different parts of their cage.

You should be constantly searching for different shapes and textures of toy for your African grey to interact with. Toys that are chewable, destructible, touch to chew, easy to chew etc.

The key to a great stimulating environment boils down to rotating your African Grey’s toys at least ever 2 weeks. And if you see a toy isn’t being touched or destroyed first see if changing up it’s placement in the cage works… often that’s enough to get the bird to start playing with it.

If rotating the toys location doesn’t work, and you still don’t see the toy getting destroyed, than you should give up on that toy, remove it from his cage and replace with something different.

If you don’t… you risk the chance of an otherwise intelligent creature getting manic and bored and a bit psycho on you in the near future.

[macattack]

LOl... i'm not disagreeing with you but.... it takes almost two weeks for mine to actually acknowledge the toy let alone play with it. every day for the first week i went and played with his toys. and new perch. and he still has not touched anyone of them... except by mistake and then he fell cause he scared himself... oh no i touched the alien... ha. we are still in week 2, he is not interested. SO, i would say it takes longer than a 2 week time period to keep the interest up.

I bought what i thought were fun toys too! sooner or later he'll play with them. and then get mad at me for removing them, and replacing with others. and then the cycle of ignoring it will start all over again!

[Lisa B]

humm, I dont think I have heard of that author, and agree that it takes time for a grey to get used to a toy and 2 weeks is a bit much for a grey. I dont agree with so much change for a grey. JMO

[Parrotpeople]

Dave & Chet Womach are exceptional bird people

[kensbuns]

Originally Posted by Parrotpeople

Dave & Chet Womach are exceptional bird people

They very well may be good bird people but be completely wrong about this subject. I agree that a toy must sit in my Greys cage for weeks before she will go near it. And outside the cage in her view for a few weeks as well. She doesnt like change or anyone fooling with her cage!!

[iggysbirds]

I think it depends on the grey. Our Timneh Sally will act like she is throwing a fit when you first put a new toy in but within the day she is up tearing at it. If she hasn't touched it in two weeks she just doesn't like it and it needs to be moved. Lewy the Congo is fearless (except when it comes to balloons LOL!). He immediately starts in on any new wooden toys but ignores the plastic or "bulletproof" toy lines so again if he hasn't touched them in a week they need to be moved. I have had many african greys in through the rescue though that are fearful of change and will take weeks or even up to a month to get up the courage for a new toy expecially if they were not used to toys in their old home.

[FoxysMom]

I agree with Stephanie. My grey Fox is tempramental. Some toys she will attack right away. Some she will leave alone and give it the evil eye for a day or so. Some she will panic away from entirely and those I give to Harley. Harley the B & G likes all toys! But I also think that it depends on the toy. She loves to untie knots and doesn't stop until all knots are untied. Sometimes it takes longer than 2 weeks for her to get them all untied. She also loves to chew on leather. So I always have her favorite leather monster toy in the cage for her to chew on. I try to rotate the toys about once a month or so. Seems to work for us.

[houstonlady53]

My Grey prefers me to any toy I have ever gotten her which she promptly proceeds to disassemble. Mainly her cage is for sleeping or keeping her safe when I'm away which isn't all that often.

[huntress]

Are you guys kidding? My greys feather edges are constantly a ruffle because he plays so hard. And new toys?? He is like a kid at Christmas. He plays so hard he sometimes falls flat on his side on the cage bottom,lol.

My Grey prefers me to any toy I have ever gotten her which she promptly proceeds to disassemble.

Disassembly is a grey parrots middle name! He sometimes goes back into his cage to play when he is out - or he goes in and plays with someone elses toys LOL!!

[zkyevolved]

I'm loving this thread. I can't wait for my congo to arrive :( he's still got another week or two to get off his baby formula! hehe.