A newbie here and a ton of questions!!!!!

[LoyaltyNECO]

Hi everyone!!! I'm a newbie on these forums....most of my forum time is on car forums.

I'm hoping I can get some help here.....ok here's the back ground....I'm a manager at PetCo and I've been looking to get a big bird for a while now. I get a call from one of the other managers in the store yesterday and she tells me that someone was looking to surrendor a 5 year old CAG to the store and I was the first person she thought of to adopt the bird. Long story short I adopted the bird. The cage they had the bird in was small IMO. I probably would say maybe big enough for a pair of Conures at most.

I've moved him to a cage for him that is plenty of room for him in now. I don't think the previous owners handled him very much, and of course with all the stress of yesterday he's nervous. I was curious if anyone could suggest some things I can do in order to help him get adjusted to the new surroundings?

Also with him being 5 is he still impressionable???? I know I can't expect him to go to anyone but I'd like to get him more comfortable around other people.

Anyone have any suggestions for someone that has just recently adopted a CAG?

Sorry for the long book and I'm sure there will be much more threads and questions from me so go easy on me . Thanks for any help you guys could give!!!!!

[FairY]

Hi and welcome here LoyaltyNeco

I think the first thing to do is to offer him a calm, relaxing non-intruding environment. Just talk to him softly and let him get used to your voice and yourself.

Because he is already 5 years I figure it might take a bit longer to get used to his new surroundings and owner(s) and that's why I would take it slowly with him.

I think he could still be impressionable after he is used to his new environment and you

[LoyaltyNECO]

Thanks for the info. I have his cage beside where we sit on the couch. We (my girl friend and I) have both been talking to him so hopefully he gets used to us.

What should I be looking for to know he wants to come out of his cage?? And when it's that time how do I go about getting him out (do I reach in, or do I open the door and let him try to climb out?)

His previous owners said he liked the playtop, but from some of the stuff they said I dont think they handled him very much (for fear of him biting).

[FairY]

You could see how he reacted when you hand gets closer by or a perch he can step onto and that way you could get him out of his cage for example.

[DaffyToons]

Give him time, and take things very slowly. I just adopted a 10-year-old CAG from a rescue and he started talking within two days. What a vocabulary!! Anyway, after two days, I just opened his cage door and let him go where he wanted to. He came with his own cage, and even though it is on the small side, I didn't want to make too many changes all at once. Besides, he spends 90% of his day on top of the cage anyway. Poppy (the CAG) is not a biter, but he makes a "popping" sound when he is nervous, such as when he steps up onto my hand. But he spends time in other areas of the house as well, and things are going great.

Five years old is still very, very young for a CAG. He has lots of time to learn to trust you and lots of talking potential. Keep us posted on how he is adjusting!

[LoyaltyNECO]

Thatnks guys for the info. Anything helps. We've had him out now twice. He does pretty well (will step up and perch on our hands) when he's out of his cage. Basically what I do is open the door and sit beside the cage (on the opposite side as the door)....he wonders out (basically spazzes out and jumps) but then I go over to him, "step-up" and he just hangs out.

[MARIR]

I was so happy to hear that he is stepping up and coming out of his cage on his own. Congrats on your success, good luck to future fun!

[FairY]

LoyaltyNECO wrote:

We've had him out now twice. He does pretty well (will step up and perch on our hands) when he's out of his cage.

{Feel-good-000200BB}

Great!!