New CAG owner, looking for advice

[DRB]

My bird (not named yet) is 8 weeks old, will be taking her home in March.

I'm looking for some simple advice for starting out. I'm purchasing the bird from a very reputable bird store/aviary, so I'm sure they'll have some sound advice to get met started with.

I figure this place would be a good place to compare notes and fact check specific advice I get.

Some basic info about my lifestyle:

Live in Northern half of Ohio. Work full time, 40-50 hrs a week most often. Home during the evenings one week, home during the mornings the next. Single, no kids or other pets.

I will have the standard large cage.

 

[JerseyWendy]

Many congrats on your CAG! Exciting times!!! You must be counting down the days until you can bring your Baby home.

I’d say start here, if you haven’t seen it yet: http://www.parrotforums.com/congo-timneh-greys/59366-cag-101-a.html

 

[DRB]

Thank you just read it, VERY helpful. And yes I am excited, I have some plans on doing some very interactive educational exercises with the bird at some point down the road, if I'm lucky enough to have a bird that is willing.

 

[Mallory]

I'd love to know more about your plans! We've got a CAG in the nest too - a few weeks younger than yours - and are waiting eagerly for her arrival. I live with my fiance and we're planning to try the model/rival technique as well as the standard fare of foraging enrichment and operant conditioning.

It's exciting but the wait is tough. You mention wanting some basic advice in your first post, and while I could write a novel for you I'd rather just ask...what sort of advice are you looking for? There are some awesome articles and archived posts here already so I don't want to reinvent the wheel, but if there's a question you can't seem to find a good answer to, we'd love to tackle it!

 

[DRB]

I'd love to know more about your plans! We've got a CAG in the nest too - a few weeks younger than yours - and are waiting eagerly for her arrival. I live with my fiance and we're planning to try the model/rival technique as well as the standard fare of foraging enrichment and operant conditioning.

It's exciting but the wait is tough. You mention wanting some basic advice in your first post, and while I could write a novel for you I'd rather just ask...what sort of advice are you looking for? There are some awesome articles and archived posts here already so I don't want to reinvent the wheel, but if there's a question you can't seem to find a good answer to, we'd love to tackle it!

I'm concerned with starting off with healthy eating habits and how to tackle my coming and going at different times, along with proper sleep habits. Also do these birds need a more specified environment in terms of temperature inside the home. Northern Ohio can get cold in the winter, and hot and sticky in the summer.

It's easy to focus more on wanting the bird to talk ASAP, but knowing that could take some time, I want to make sure everything else is going well first.

 

[MonicaMc]

I'm in northern Nevada. Hot summers, cold winters. I don't prescribe by a set temperature for my flock but I usually try to keep them within the 50° to 80° temps. If it gets really hot, then I do provide ice water to my flock so they'll have something to cool off with.

You may just need to feed your grey healthy foods whenever you are around so you wont have to worry about food spoiling.

 

[DRB]

I'd love to know more about your plans! We've got a CAG in the nest too - a few weeks younger than yours - and are waiting eagerly for her arrival. I live with my fiance and we're planning to try the model/rival technique as well as the standard fare of foraging enrichment and operant conditioning.

It's exciting but the wait is tough. You mention wanting some basic advice in your first post, and while I could write a novel for you I'd rather just ask...what sort of advice are you looking for? There are some awesome articles and archived posts here already so I don't want to reinvent the wheel, but if there's a question you can't seem to find a good answer to, we'd love to tackle it!

I'm looking to incorporate some of Irene Pepperberg's approach in certain areas. If things go well early on and this bird naturally has a personality to learn and communicate I might attempt to see she if she can grasp mathematical concepts like addition and subtraction.

 

[DRB]

Visited my baby today, for an hour. Second time we met, she's warmed up to me a bit. After 5 minutes of settling down after being fed she became rather active and curious. Grabbing on my fingers and bobbing up and down quite frantically. The breeder said it is common at that age especially after feeding.

She let me touch her much more often and firmly, and even climbed up on my hand. I could sense the trepidation and she felt a bit clumsy. Did a lot of whimpering, like a kid or dog.

Pretty cool all in all.