2012 December

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