I got so LUCKY! - This is Cricket!

[kodimerlyn]

So tell us a little more about Cricket. How old is she? Is she a she for sure? How much does she weigh? Is she fully flighted? She really is a big beautiful girl!

Cricket is four years old and the previous owners assured me that she is a she but I have yet to receive her papers. Apparently she was DNA sexed. I don't know how much she weighs yet...going to weigh her tonight. She is clipped but only flight feathers so she can glide easily across the room. I hold her feet firmly when I take her outside because I think with a good gust of wind she could go a fair bit. I will not likely have her be full flighted...she loves to wander around on foot so don't think it's necessary.

She has a few bad habits that I'm a bit concerned about...she seems to be a pretty bad carb junkie! She was also fed a lot from her owners mouth and is quite insistent on continuing that practice. I don't mind giving her the odd "treat" that way but seriously she's just rude about it! LOL! Spoiled quite a bit. She is also adamant about sharing whatever meal we are having...and boy is she messy! She digs in like she has NEVER had food before in her life! Just such bad table manners! She also really needs to get better at poop signalling...or maybe I just have to pay better attention. lol.

She's an absolute joy and has such a sweet disposition...so incredibly gentle even when she's saying, "don't touch me"! I wish I could bring her to work with me....maybe one day I will sneak her in! LOL!

 

[OOwl]

Wow, that's totally new information for me. I appreciate the history on that. I've always wondered why my guy was not prone to plucking. Like you described, he is pretty nervous (not as brave as some friends' Greys) and we've had a fair amount of 'drama' in our household with an elderly family member in and out of the hospital for years off and on, and a major move, but he never has plucked a single time.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I guess it does apply, here, too, an large, mature Grey with no evidence of plucking. You might be onto something on your loose theory on that. Thanks for the information.

Here's my guy.

 

[OOwl]

Here's the pic that didn't upload.

 

[Birdman666]

This explains it all fairly well. "Silver" grays imported to the US originated in Congo... I know from talking to old time bird people, that what happened was it was illegal to export from Congo, so all they did was smuggle them into Camaroon, where they were shipped as Camaroon African grays.

The smaller coastal grays were the ones that were originally caught as breeding stock so originally these were the most imported CAGS. (The wild flocks were closer to the main export ports. So, more of them got caught and exported.) The rest are probably ancestors of smuggled birds. (Including ours, no doubt.)

The largest CAGs they have found have been around Lake Victoria, and the wild CAGS there apparently average about 700 Grams!!! Soooo, that's King Kong CAG. If yours is that big, you pretty much know where it's from... CRICKET MIGHT BE ONE OF THOSE!!!

African Grey Variations...

"Trappers in Africa were trapping birds in Zaire (the old Congo) and smuggling them to Cameroon. Cameroon would then legally export them out of Africa (legal, but NOT legal). So we in the United States received birds from Zaire* (475-600+ grams) with papers saying the birds originated in Cameroon; and on top of that, we continued to also receive birds that actually did originate in Cameroon (425-500 grams).

Brokers decided to get more money for the larger parrots, thus marketing them as Cameroon Greys (also, they had to since it was illegal to have Zaire/Congo birds), and then they sold the smaller darker birds as the common generic Congo Grey (any red tail). Are you confused yet? If not, try this.... We now have Cameroon Greys that are really Congo in origin, and we have Congos that are really Cameroon in origin....We even have Zaire Greys that were imported out of Togo; therefore, so much for the “street names.” HOWEVER, after all is said and done, they are ALL one and the same subspecies, the nominate Psittacus erithacus erithacus."

So it's the classic Darwin thing. The ones that moved to more isolated areas, with more food, grew larger.

Those that stayed put, didn't.

 

[OOwl]

Great information, Birdman! So my boy is really in the mid-range of the Silver Greys since he's "only" 585. Where did you get Tusk? I'm in Texas, too, but my godfather met someone with the clutch from down south when they were first pulled (he was a parrot breeder and uber experienced hand-feeder, so no worries). Maybe our boys are related?

As an interesting side-note, my vet (an experienced avian vet who has seen a LOT of Greys) said my boy was female, based on visual clues. I have had him DNA'd twice (once feather, once blood) with two different labs, and he's a male.

That information does explain a lot. I'm going to start talking to more people about the differences in traits and size. Very interesting. I bet Cricket is a Silver, too.

 

[Birdman666]

Tusk was a confiscated egg...

He wasn't a rescue, but his parents were...

Animal control in Colorado confiscated 28 pair of breeders that were kept in deplorable conditions. Half of those breeder birds were on eggs.

My Rachel hand fed the eggs that hatched, and was in charge of placing them.

She essentially called me up and said, "Dude, I'm sending you a CAG! You're taking this one, he's special!" (Was I going to say no?!) So, that's how I ended up with a CAG. That was about a dozen years ago now. He's my youngest, and the last bird I took in...

He's also my last living avian link with Rachel, who passed away about five years ago.

 

[Birdman666]

Cricket might be a Lake Victoria Island CAG!!! Don't see many of those!

She's HUGE! If she's 600-700 grams, then that was her parent's origin.

 

[OOwl]

Birdman, I haven't heard the Rachel story but it sounds special. My Bleu is special, too. He was a gift from my godfather, a very special person in my life. Our birds are almost the same age, too.

Cricket looks like a BIG girl. Hope she's a Silver "King Kong" (love that name; I'm keeping it LOL), too.

Much thanks for the information I've never heard or read.

 

[kodimerlyn]

This is fascinating information. Sadly I didn't have time to weigh her last night or this morning. Will try again tonight!

 

[Birdman666]

FYI - The same thing is true of Macaws.

Those HUGE "Bolivian" Greenwings, and B&G's?!

They're from Columbia. Columbia made it illegal to export, so the bird brokers smuggled them into Bolivia, and exported them as Bolivian birds. They actually come from the interior jungles of Columbia... Those were HUGE, because they came from an isolated jungle area. And they were marketed as "BOLIVIAN" macaws, and the term stuck...

The true "Bolivian" birds are actually the smaller macaws...

My Maggie is a "Bolivian" Greenwing. (i.e. Her parents originated from deep in the Amazon jungles of Bolivia - on the the Columbian side of the Bolivian border.)

 

[Birdjoy]

Cricket is Beautiful! Congratulations!! Awesome pictures!