Just questions on African Grey Trusting

Question
Hi Maggie, my African Grey "Atticus" is 2 1/2 yr old.  I got him at 6 months old, have been training him, loving him, etc.  He is a great bird but he still won't let me hold him like a baby or snuggle with him.  What can I do to make him trust me to accomplish this?  He seems to not like being touched on his wings..He sometimes gets this, I call his sexy time-he folds his wings in, beeps and chirps really low, tries to feed me and wants to be really close to me, but still won't let me cuddle him.  This can go on for 10-15 minutes sometimes.  What is this behavior?  Can you tell a m/f w/o dna testing?  Thank you!

Jeanne

Answer
HI Jeanne,

Don't expect your grey to let you ever hold him like a baby. Very few birds (of any species, except with maybe conures) will allow you to hold them upside down.

And very few birds are ever as snuggly as cockatoos.  Greys have a reputation for NOT being cuddly birds. So it is unrealistic for you to expect your grey to do this.  Many greys will enjoy having their head massaged, but this is about as cuddley as greys get. Even greys who would allow full body/wing touching as very young birds will usually grow out of that and start to assert themselves more as they mature.

It sounds like your grey is deeply affectionate with you and really loves you. The fact that he tries to reguritates to you is a sign of affection among birds and should be taken as a great compliment. :)  And many greys love being held on your chest so that they can snuggle into you under your chin, but they still don't want to be pet like a dog or cat would. What your grey is doing IS his way of cuddling and showering you with affection. Try softly rubbing your grey's head when he does this, he might be receptive to it then. Approach him very slowly and calmly if you haven't tried petting his head before. Most birds will begin to lower their heads for their favorite person (or people) when they are in the mood for a head scratch. It is very cute! :)

There is no guaranteed way to sex a grey (or most parrots for that manner) without surgical or dna sexing. Surgical was the method used prior to dna sexing. However, it involved putting the bird under and opening them up to check their internal organs. This is not recommended unless you are breeding birds and need to check on the condition of their reproductive organs.

Dna sexing is the safest and least traumatic way to find out the gender of your bird. However, a very experienced eye might be able to tell the gender of your bird by looks with fairly good accuracey.  However, it takes a VERY well trained eye to be able to tell the slight visual clues/differences between male and female greys.

If you go to this website, you can get discover your bird's gender by sending a feather of his to this lab:

http://www.avianbiotech.com/Pricing.htm

I hope this helps.

-Maggie