Hi everyone, well it’s been a while and I must apologise for that. I’ve been very busy at home but at last I’ve found a bit of spare time to update you on our little George.
Well, there’s been massive improvements since I did his last update, he’s definitely more confident and coming out of his shell around other people. He is an absolute sweet heart and is getting better every day.
He now lets us into his cage to put bowls in with much less screaming, practically none. He is the best talker of our greys and is now blowing kisses on command to my daughter Eve when she says “Blow me a kiss George.” he also says “Night-night” very well when we turn off the lights at bed time. His vocabulary is varied and he speaks extremely clearly and fluently. He regularly makes everyone laugh as he still whistles the Simpsons and Moves Like Jagger. The thing that makes everyone crack up though is when he whistles random tunes and dances like crazy on his perch.
He lets Sandy give him kisses and put bowls in the cage to give him a drink. When he came to us he did not like men. He has a very special relationship with Eve. It is around her that he shows most confidence, letting her tickle him all over and a little while ago even stepped on to her and sometimes goes to her when he falls or he decides to jump off his cage. He plays with her on the floor when he comes out and he strolls about sussing out the spaces under the chair or behind the sofa!
He loves Scarletts jelly pots and has lots of fruit and veg. His favourite fruit has got to be apple. His favourite veggie has to be sweet potato but it has to be cooked and mashed, oh, and served warm! He gets jealous when it is the other parrots’ turn to have some and is very greedy- he wolfs it down! He is not scared of the spoon and licks it clean every time.
He loves his sprays with warm water and his feathers are growing beautifully. His flights are coming in lovely now too. He preens himself regularly and he keeps himself looking gorgeous.
His beak was huge and I’ve tried all sorts to help him grind it down. However when George came to us he didnt know how to play. It’s taken us since April 2012 when he came to us until now to get him to play. But I’m ecstatic to report, he plays with most things now and because he has lots of chewy toys his beak is slowly shortening.
He’s also a dab hand at throwing his food! He loves nothing more than emptying his food dish at night, little horror!
He will travel around his cage a lot more now. When he came to us in April this year, he would sit for days at a time on the same perch not making a murmur, now he’s all over. It’s so lovely to see the changes in him.
He used to scream and throw himself at the sight of a blanket to cover him at bedtime, so I decided it was far too stressful to cover him so we left him uncovered at night and that helped him a lot. However since then, he’s grown in confidence and his vocabulary has grown with his confidence so he was keeping our other three birds awake until we all went to bed. So, a few weeks ago I thought I’d give covering him up another go. Instead of directly covering him I attached a blanket to Diesels blanket, I attached the top of Georges blanket to the ceiling toys and then attached it to Charlies blanket. Guess what… No screaming no throwing himself and a rested George. Yippeeee I’ve found a way to help him rest a little better.
All in all George is a joy to be around and was a life-changing addition to our family. None of us can imagine life without him and we have never looked back since adopting him. He is absolutely great and everyone loves him.
He’s coming on day by day but it’s baby steps with George and we are still working hard with him as he has major trust issues which means that whatever we do with him has to be done very slowly but for our George, we have all the time in the world.
Jo
Hi Jo and Eve,
It took me ages to approach AGPC rescue as I loved him and thought he would calm again and build his trust up! Months later when I realised he would be better being rehomed I knew I would never sell him as he would have been passed on and on again as most people want a tame parrot. That is what made me approach Paula because I knew he would be safe being rehomed through AGPC rescue and would be dearly loved. Jo, once again I can’t thank you enough for sticking with him and helping him to trust again and I’m so glad of the joy he brings to your family 
I have just read your update on George and I’m over the moon to read about his progress. You both have worked wonders with him and I’m so glad I made the right decision for his future. Sometimes people are quick to jump to conclusions that he was mistreated with us, he most definately wasn’t but its like I said before we made the very unfortunate decision to go back to his breeders( certain 2 chaps in Chesterfield that I’ve since read horror stories about)to have his wings clipped thinking it was the right thing to do for his welfare!!!!! How wrong I was and he obviously associated me with this bad clip
Kind regards, Mandy.
Hi Mandy it’s nice to hear from you again. Thanks for your reply to the latest update on George. He’s making massive progress but its all baby steps with him as he still has massive trust issues. He’s still very nervous around some people but yet he enjoys human company. He has lived next door to our other African Greys Charlie and dexter and his other neighbour is my Daughter Eve’s Black Headed Caique so by watching them he’s copying some if their behaviours which is really lovely to see. He’s started to take his own baths every so often now so we have to get out the covers for the carpet hahahahaha but is great to watch him. I must say Mandy he is a real chatterbox and he’s the noisiest of the boys these days, he’s always talking, shouting the dog or Greeting us with “good morning”or “kiss for George” which makes us all laugh.
My Charlie had a terrible clip and he has never been the same since which is why I would never go down that route again which leads me onto more good news Mandy…. George is flying yippeeeee he’s not quite sure what these big things that flap are for just yet but he’s flown twice which is fantastic to see. If you go into the grey gallery on the forum you will see some very recent pictures of him spending some quality time with eve n me out of the cage for the first time ever.
Keep in touch, jt was really nice to hear from you and I will keep the updates going. But please be assured he’s with us forever and he’s a lovely and very loved addition to our family. Eve absolutely idolises him. He is spoiled rotten with toys and showered with cuddles.I hope this eases your mind a bit because it must have been a very hard decision to come to but as I say we have a very long way to go with him but we have all the time in the world for him as we are at home all day with him and the other boys.
Take care
Jo n Eve
xx
Hi Jo…….WOW fantastic. It brings a tear thinking of him flying,bless him. To think I took him to have his flight feathers clipped off is just awful
but I’m just sooo glad they’ve at long last grown back. What made it so hard rehoming him was feeling a failure as I’ve never rehomed one of my beloved pets before. However it was quite clearly the best thing I ever did for George, especially now he’s got such an amazing home with you 
I can remember his Simpsons and moves like Jagger whistles so well. In fact through all his nervousness and shaking he used to chit chat so much telling the dog to stop it and shut up!! Also asking for kisses and night night when really he would have fallen off his perch screaming if I went near his cage too quickly. I’m really glad he’s smitten with Eve, my young son was the only one who could get near to him(on his terms).It’s great he has other parrot company too so he can watch their behaviour and listen to them. Jo, my mind is totally at ease about George as I couldn’t wish for him to have gone to a nicer home 
xx
Best wishes, Mandy.
Hi Mandy, lovely to hear from you again. Please be assured youmare in no way a failure. You did what you thought was right at the time and unfortunately given the wrong advice by the breeder as I was in Charlies case. The chaps you are talking about have quite a bad reputation but the breeder I used was a local with great knowledge or so we thought. He hacked Charlies wings so bad that they were all jagged at the ends and the vet said they had been cut with blunt scissors. How angry I was when I found out that my poor boy had been butchered in such an uncaring manner! So we travelled to an avian vets in Stamford Bridge and we paid four hundred pounds for Charlie to have a full set of flight feathers implanted into the shafts that had been butchered. Anyway a few hundred pounds lighter we took Charlie home only for him to chew out each new flight feather that had been implanted one by one until he was back to the way he was, all within a week of the operation. So that was 2011 and Charlie still hasnt grown his flight feathers properly.
George still shakes if he’s feeling a bit threatened say….if we have anyone come to the house who he doesn’t know, but apart from that he’s displaying the normal parrot behaviours and he adores new toys especially wooden ones he can chew. Although this weeks treat was a foraging wheel andnhe spends absolutely ages trying to forage for his treats, he’s such a clever bird.
We would love to find out for sure if he’s a girl or a boy though Mandy. I lean more towards a female. He doesn’t perch the same as my boys, he doesn’t stand the same as my boys and he’s built quite a lot smaller than the boys, but to find out we need either bloods done which it wouldn’t be fair to put him under such stress with him still having trust issues OR we could pluck out a chest feather and send that to the lab but I don’t like the idea of that either in case it scares him so for now he’s a George not a Georgie.
I don’t know wether I told you or not Mandy but I bought a 12ft x 9th Aviary for the birds for the summer months. It’s kitted out with a cargo net, loads of rope perches , large bowls so they can bathe if they want to, large double sisal rings to swing on and toys that hang from the roof.
There’s room to fly and perch in the sun and soak up those all important rays ao now George is flying in the Summer he will be going in the Aviary for a few hours a day either with the others if we get that far or on his own with me outside with him if that’s what
he prefers to do.
Hes even started to give my Hubby a kiss last thing at night and first thing in the morning and that’s just happened this week so everyday he’s doing something new. It may be only small but he’s doing them, which is amazing.
I’m glad your mind is at ease with Georges new home, feel free to contact me whenever you like, he will be here with us always so anytime get in touch.
Thank you for your kind words that means a lot and I’m just glad that you’re at ease and you know he’s been loved and cared for as he so truly deserves.he’s a little star and we love him to bits.
Take care Mandy and I will update again soon.
Jo
X
Hi Jo, just a quick reply to your last…..Poor Charlie, I didn’t realise the vets could do an op like that, how clever, sad that it didn’t work though
mmmm thats interesting you leaning towards George being female as I often though that too. Obviously I hadn’t got other parrots to compare him to but he always hated men! At times he would allow me to walk reasonably near to his cage but if my husband(who loved him dearly)walked into the room he would go bananas!!(There’s actually a clip on you tube of Doodah goes bonkers)When we went on the forum to ask for help, Pat asked to see what his behaviour was like so my husband filmed him, its so sad that I had to turn it off). Even when my brother came round for a chat he knew not to go anywhere near poor George as he would scream and throw himself around the cage 
What a huge step for him to give your husband a kiss…..well done George x The aviary sounds brilliant, we have an 8ft x 6ft for our little budgies, they love it with all the toys, does George still make any budgie noises? lol.