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Jo

Parrot Rescue Centre > Diaries > Jo | You are here

Jo

Little George Update!

December 6th, 2012
Little George Update!

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


Update On George May 2012

May 22nd, 2012
Update On George May 2012

Well another couple of weeks have passed and George is slowly making progress. He’s now letting me remove his food and water bowls without throwing himself at all. We sometimes get a little growl but usually he’s ok about me getting them out and putting them in.
I treated him to a beak buffer from Scarletts to try and encourage him to reduce that beak, it’s still huge and incredibly sharp. I have noticed that he is having a chew on the beak buffer which is great. He is also playing a little bit more. He has totally destroyed the centre of a coconut slice toy and he’s really enjoyed doing it too!!

He has also had a tiny chew on some wooden beads on his toys, I’m hoping all this will help his beak and encourage him to see that he can have fun with toys.

He still loves Charlie and because their cages are next to each other they often sit trying to kiss each other through the bars and they try to preen each other too. I’m still allowed tickles at night time and I now get tickles every morning too. His head goes down and he let’s me tickle until I’ve had enough of tickling then he likes me to stroke his wing at the side. His talking is really good but again he only chats at night when Sandy has gone upstairs to watch football.

He’s now saying, “tickle, kiss, come on, come on then, hello sweetheart, hello Georgie” he will also kiss me through the bars if I ask him.
He really is making progress.

Although it’s small steps I’m really impressed that he feels comfortable enough to chat away at night as it’s lovely to sit and listen to him to what he’s picked up from us.

He’s really enjoying his showers now and his feathers are much improved. He seems to be moulting the odd tail feather and the odd chest feather, they are moulted out and not pulled out as the quill in intact and not chewed at all.He’s enjoying his diet of vegetables, chop, mash, Harrisons, AZ parrot muesli and he loves parrot cereal warm first thing in the mornings.

He’s a really wonderful bird and he fits in lovely with our other birds. He’s one of the family and I’m so glad we have the time to spend with him to watch him grow and develop into confident bird.

We love him to bits!


George’s Next Update

April 30th, 2012
George's Next Update

Well here’s for the next instalment.

George is settling down nicely. I have bought him a brand new cage and he has changed since going in. He is so much more settled and has more confidence which is lovely to see.

He is enjoying his regular daily showers and he also enjoys head tickles at bedtime and first thing in the morning from both Eve and I. He amazes me every day and he is quite a chatty little fella of an evening. He says night night, bye bye, kiss, tickle and he makes lots of different sounds and clicks. He’s started to enjoy some of his toys now and will happily munch his way through some shredder roll and he’s had a play with a pinyata from Scarletts.

He’s not done much chewing though yet, I need him to chew to try and reduce that huge beak of his! I’ve filled his new cage with perches and toys so if he decided to throw himself then he would break his fall, I don’t want him therutrt himself. He’s enjoying sitting right at the front of his cage on a new perch and he loves just looking around and watching the world go by. He does seem very happy and the shaking has really reduced which is fantastic for him. He loves treats in the way of a little White cheddar cheese, el paso nutriberries, palm oil and the odd palm nut. He’s looking great, he’s less dusty and he is coming on a treat.

He’s made our year not our day. So long as he is happy and settled and not frightened then I’m more than happy.

He’s made massive improvements from where we were two weeks ago so I’m thrilled with him.


George Is Improving.

April 17th, 2012
George Is Improving.

Wow well, this week so far has been mega interesting with our George. He has made some massive leaps forward. He has tried different veggies and he has tried mango which he liked. He doesn’t seem too keen on apple though.

He has started to enjoy showers and he has one every morning along with the other three boys.This morning (Tuesday) I actually managed to spray him with his cage door open, his feathers are so dusty so it helps to reduce the dust and he must feel much better for it. He certainly seems to benefit from it.

He has also ventured onto Charlie and Dexters cage, only for a minute or two but he did it. Then he was sat on his perch in his cage when Dexter startled him and he jumped out of his cage onto the floor. So…I sat with him and he just crawled up me, I couldn’t believe it!! He climbed up me, sat on my shoulder for a while taking in the view and enjoying the heat of the sun on his back coming through the window. He then gave me kisses while he was sat there. Totally unbelievable it was!! Then I needed to get him down as I had to somehow get him back to his cage without scaring him, so, I got a cushion and said step on, he stepped on to the cushion and I managed to carry him back to his safe haven (his cage) and then closed the door!!!

He got a couple of treats as did the others and then he started to tuck into his food.

His confidence is growing a little bit each day and we are so suprised by the things he is doing. He still doens’t make a lot of noise like the others and he isn’t all that bothered for toys but he had a little play last week and the odd chomp on his wooden toys but that’s it. But still he is doing great and we are really proud of him.

I will update again as new things happen.


Update on our New Grey George

April 11th, 2012
Update on our New Grey George

Well George has been part of our flock for almost a week now.

In that time I have managed to build up more trust with him and his self confidence is building every day. Each morning our three greys are let out for around three to four hours. They can do as they please and George used his time to go into Charlies cage to pay him a visit and eat his breakfast! We found it so funny.

George almost enjoys a shower with all the other birdies now too, the first few days we had growling and screaming now….nothing which is fantastic. We are still trying to build enough trust between us for me to put my whole arm into the cage, I’ve got my hand in but just now that’s far enough for George, that’s fine we will work at his pace. He gives me kisses through the cage, and we have had the “move like jagger” tune too which was so funny.

George has yet to play with his new toys but in the last few days he has at last ventured from his water bowl onto the lovely new perches I put in for him. I’m hoping they will help to reduce the length of his beak and make his nails less sharp. He has a good appetite on him and between him and his brothers they are eating us out of house and home!

He has settled into our home well considering he is such a frightened and nervous little grey. We will continue to work with him and love him as much as our other birdies as he is one of the gang now and we just adore him. Charlie thinks he’s lovely and he will often sit on his cage asking George for a kiss.
We would love to find out at some point if George is a Georgina but at the moment I would like to keep all my fingers so collecting feathers for DNA seems miles away but it doesn’t really matter wether he is a she, so long as our little George is as happy as he can be, as he deserves to have a long and happy life.

Welcome to our family George. :) ) xxx


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