Hi Pati

I have a three year old Grey. I am trying to make it a friendly bird. I do not know if it is a male or female. Rocco will not come out of his cage anymore. I have a old Goffins and a young Goffins. If the Rocco comes out of his cage, the old Goffins starts to scream at him. If I try to pet the Grey through the cage, he will put his head down and let me pet him for about 2 min. and then wam, he will bit me. He is so fast most of the time it is hard for me to pull my hand away. I open the door of the cage and I stick my hand in along side his perch, in a fist. I call Rocco. He will walk over to me and bit my fingers and hand gently, as long as I do not make any sudden moves. Then he will start to get excited and spread his wings and start to coo. He will walk back and forth and nibble on my hand when he walks by. I tell him to step up and he will put one foot on my finger but will not get on. I guess they are not friendly like Cockatoos. We enjoy the way he can talk. Do you clip your Greys nails? I wonder how I will ever cut Rocco's nails with out me bleeding to death. I am on blood thinners and I cann't aford to start bleeding. One of his back nails grows in a circle. The other day it broke off. The bird is affraid of everything, so skiddish.

Tony

Do you have an avian vet nearby? They will trim the nails for you at very little cost. The alternative is for you to gather up a heavy towel and human toenail clippers plus a product called Quik Stop. It stops bleeding on toenails but cannot be used on skin.

You have to hold the towel and reach in quickly and wrap him up so you can trim them. He can cripple himself with long curly toenails. That could even be a small part of his crankiness. His feet may hurt.

I sit on a small stepstool with the bird in my lap. I don't have to wrap the birds I have now but have done many in the past.

You have to trim a small amount, check for bleeding, clip a tiny bit more and check again. The first trim may be very hard since they have grown so long. There is a quick (blood supply) running down the nail and after trimming it will recede and the next time you can cut them a little shorter. The final appearance should be an arc, not a straight nail. He may have trouble gripping a perch if they are cut too short all at one time.

Best bet, though, is to get a professional to do it for you the first time while you watch so you can see how to do it properly.

Do something soon, though, so his feet feel good again.

Annie

If the nail is growing in a circle, everytime the bird tries to grasp with that toe, he's probably pushing the nail into his foot

 

Suggestion for when he lets you scratch his head.  If you know his time limit is approximately 2 minutes (which is an extremely long time for a Grey)  don't push his limit.  Stop well short of that, BEFORE he has to let you know it's enough.

 

Have you had this bird for a very long time, or is he knew to your house?   You will  need to train him to step up on your command, without hesitation or games.  You can help this, by using your free hand--if you have him step onto your right hand, follow these steps.  Put your right hand in front of his chest, tell him *step up* firmly but kindly, while moving your left hand slowly around the side, towards his tail.  He will be more worried about your left hand, and see your *step up hand* as the lesser of two evils. 

 

It is not uncommon for Greys to resist stepping up while inside their cages. The option of whether to stay in or come out, seems to be something they need.  I never make mine do it from inside, although I know in an emergency I could get them to do it, hopefully without too much bloodshed (mine) 

 

 My Amazon, on the other hand--I do make him step onto my hand INSIDE his cage several times a day, to reinforce the good habit.  For awhile, he went through a terribly resistant stage when stepping up from his cage top.  Bit me every night.  So I started wrapping my hand with a towel and he could bite all he wanted to, and I wasn't going to be hurt.   After a few months of getting that out of his system, we have been working on re-training step-ups from cage top and he is doing really well.

 

 

 

I think she was correcting spelling but decided to see if we noticed. I did !!! knew=new. <snicker>

 

I was typing faster than my brain was working

Did I misspell something?

  I sure enough did

I just saw something else in the Rocco situation.  If there is a Goffin's screaming everytime Rocco comes out of his cage, he is probably feeling very threatened and in danger, so he chooses to stay inside where it's safer.  Can you possibly move their cages so they live in different rooms?  Rocco does need to  be able to come out of his cage without feeling like he will be somebody's lunch.  Feeling threatened by the Goffin's may be part of the problem, where your handling him is concerned.  He seems to be ok with the idea of interaction with you, and might make much more progress out of sight of the screamer.