Re: Poicephalus ARE great birds, and GREYs are among the best..

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Posted by Kestrel on November 02, 2002 at 01:02:29:

In Reply to: Poicephalus ARE great birds, and GREYs are among the best.. posted by Fred Albury on November 01, 2002 at 17:40:13:

my congo grey seems to be pretty unusual for a grey. the owner of our store seems to think this is because of his lifestyle.. he isn't pampered, used to certain things at any point during the day, or expect everything to stay the same ALL the time. His cage is rearranged whenever i feel it needs it(usually every couple of months), which he seems to enjoy, and he gets attention at random points, not at say 7am when i wake up for work, or at 7:30pm when i get home, or at 5pm on weekends, ect.. he doesn't have a schedual. almost all birds raised in this type of enviroment seem to turn out pretty well rounded, and not easily stressed.. Apollo was abused in his first home, although being a very friendly well rounded bird, he's still afraid of sticks, dowels and brooms(which he was hit with), and still doesn't like men. He's NEVER been a plucker, and is as far from easily spooked as you can get. And in the 6 years that i've owned him, he's NEVER bitten me. He's highly intelligent, will ask for certain things, and will show/tell you when or when he's not ready to be pet. We get along pretty well.. lol.. i treat him as an equal and he seems to do the same to me. We will probably live to be the same age, as we almost ARE the same age(i'm 19, he's 18), so its a pretty good set up.. ;)

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::I have a Senegal and love him to death. We are getting an umbrella soon...Did you know the greys supposedly have an intelligence of a 5-10 year old human child? According to Irene Pepperberg... she has been doing studies on them (Alex) for 20 years or so.

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:One of my earliest medium sized parrots were African grey, speicifally Congos, although in time I would go on to keep and breed both Congos and Timnehs(The smaller, more demure of the two) Greys are definetly one person birds and the bond is VERY strong in spoonfed youngsters to their owners or *chosen* people. I say chosen because I have seen firsthand Greys that were hadnraised by one individual only to bond wioth someone else that had no real part in the hand rearing process. They are VERY,VERY intelligent birds, in my opinion possesing the intelligence level of a 6 yr old child. along with this intelligence however, is linked a memory you wouldn't beleive, and a grey that has been mistreated, even once, is not likely to forget or forgive for these injustices against its person. Greys are also not very adept at dealing with change, be it the toys in their cage, the placement of their cage, a new home or a new owner and new home. ALL these things contribute heavily to them manifesting behaviours, i.e. aggresion, denuding of feathers etc etc. they are a very calm stable bird that must be totally appreciated for what it is. I love them, and miss keeping and breeding them and hand rearing the youngsters.

:Kestrel, thanks for shareing, nice to see some interest in animals other than snakes here. Great pics to, do you ever take any bad ones? Thanks again.

:Fred Albury
:AZTEC REPTILES

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