Subject: Razberry Report

Razberry is the baby from John and Wu Woo, African Grey parrots, from Southern Oregon.

Razberry now lives happily with his new family in Alaska; here's a letter and great pictures - thanks!
 
Dear Karol,
 
I just wanted to let you know how things were going with our baby and
share some pictures with you.  I've been clicker training him and am
amazed at how quickly he learns.     He's learned to touch the end of
a target stick and I can get him to go anywhere to touch it.  Of
course there are times when he would rather do something else and
those times don't count.  :)  He does an excellent job of
entertaining himself with his toys.  He loves the cat and we monitor
them closely when they are together but thus far the cat is more wary
than Razberry.  He absolutely loves to take showers.  He never wants
to leave the shower so we take turns with him so as not to waste
water and not to leave him there unsupervised.  

I've decided to feed
him what is called the mash diet.  I basically take fresh or frozen
food and blend it together.  I then freeze it in ice-cube trays.  I
heat up the cubed food and then I mix up cooked oatmeal and freshly
ground flaxseed, pumpkinseed and sesame seeds.  He is eating it very
well and has been eating it completely on his own for the last week.
One of the things I notice about birds is how much food they drop and
waste.  I was also warned that greys tend to pick favorite foods and
not eat other foods.  This way I know he is getting everything he
needs.  I was giving him sprouts every day for fresh food but he
wasn't eating them.  I just taught him to eat them a couple of days
ago by eating them in front of him and holding one between my lips
for him to pull out.  He loves them now.

He's learning to step up and does so without any problem unless he is on his cage.  We're still working on him following through consistently there.  He absolutely loves to be petted.  We always have a passel of kids at our house and he lets anyone and everyone pet him.  As soon as someone walks up to him he puts his head down. The kids just concentrate on the top of his head but I'm working on more places.  So far he lets me massage him down his neck to his shoulders, under his beak, on his nostrils and right where his upper and lower mandible meet.  He's a real teddy-bear when it comes to petting.

 

We have a room under the steps that we mostly use for storage.  No
one ever goes in there so it was the perfect "bedroom" for him.  I
have a small cage that I keep in there and every night when it is his
bedtime we take him in, tell him good-night, cover him, turn out the
light and leave him there till morning.  He hated going into the
small cage at first and would latch onto the opening with his beak
making it harder for me to get him in there.  He has been
increasingly happier with the routine lately.  He doesn't resist
going in and fluffs up happily once he's in.  Last night he shocked
and amazed me.  I've been putting him to bed at 8:00 pretty
regularly.  We were getting ready to go out for a new year's eve
party and I was busy getting something cooked.  It was 8:30 and I
hadn't gotten him to bed yet.  We keep his cage open when we are in
the room so he can climb around it as well as in it.  He flew off the
cage and proceeded to walk to the room where he sleeps.  I always try
to feed him one last time before he goes to sleep so I heated up some
food quickly and put him on his tabletop perch to feed him.  He
refused to eat, climbed down and proceeded to walk back to his room.
I'm sure he was thinking that I'm pretty dense.  :)  I went ahead and
put him to bed.  He fluffed up his feathers and was very pleased.
Now I know how he feels about his bedtime and bedroom.

 
Well, I hope by all this you can see how very much we are enjoying
him.  We've only had him a month now but he has become the most
cherished member of our family.  I hope you have had a great holiday
season.

 
Wishing you all the best,
 
Chrisann

 

 

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