Taming AGs.

A bird that has known you right from the start will always be tamer, it is a sort of imprinting and it sees you as its parent. African Greys are fairly complex though and some can become a bit aggressive around the age of two when they would leave their parents in the wild. There is no scientific evidence about this, it is all from informal surveys, but it is thought this happens more with males because if they do the choosing they have to emotionally detach themselves from their family in order to leave. That is why some people report that their tame and friendly Grey has changed its favourite person around that age.
However, even very tame Greys vary in what they will allow, some like cuddles, some are not so keen, some will go on their backs, some never do. Mine are both very different.
Charlie is still very young in parrot terms so there is plenty of time.

Jane

Hi

I just want to tell you that if i could tame Susu then taming ANY AG is possible. My susu was put in a cage by my grandparents who used to let him run around the house as a baby but then as he began biting people and furniture they put him back in for more than 15-20 years. During this time he was still happy but VERY neurotic. No one was allowed close to his cage without him throwing a fit and going crazy! He was very dangerous and actually took out a chunk of flesh of my aunt's tighs when she decided to take him out on her lap and he also bit very child in the family...we always heard kids and babies crying with bleeding fingers! As a child when i used to see him my heart would break because i knew this wasnt natural and vowed to tame him and let him out of this prison one day...when i got married and moved to my own place and when my grandparents moved back to Iraq, I brought Susu to my own house...I used systematic desensitising/exposure therapy with him lol Id be allowed to pet his head and when he got comy with something as small as that i'd touched his wing...and then slowly leg...and then slowly began putting my hand in his cage and petting him working with HIS comfort level. Then one day he steped up on my hand (i was scratched badly coz his nails were razor sharp and he dug them in as he was anxious) Despite the pain i continued to put my hand in the cage and he's step up until one day i took him out. He was very scared but learned to trust me and we basically worked through it step by step and now he's soo tame he loves to cuddle and the strange thing is that he;s careful not to hurt my skin and will know to tug at clothes but not skin to not hurt us (except when he's possessive over people, he'll occasionally pretend to nip (which is scary but doesn't break skin).
So do it step by step and work with their comfort level and sooner or later he'll be on ur lap and doing all sorts of cute stuff!
Good luck
Hana

Hana, well done you !

Can I just ask, what is 'systematic desensitising/exposure therapy' ?

Aww thanx for all the encouragement guys ;D
I just hope Susu's story gives people out there hope that anything is possible!!

A very sloppy brief explaination:
Systematic desensitisation is a technique that is sometimes used by therapists to tackle phobias. So if someone had a phobia of spiders then they would be asked to first think about an image of a spider until they are relaxed thinking of just spiders...and then the therapist goes a step further and asks them to imagine holding a spider until they're relaxed about it and then has a spider in a cage in the building, outside the rooom until they are actually comfortable holding a spider in real life. So its essentially facing ur fear step by step. Its underlying belief is that u cant be anxious and relaxed at the same time, so when u feel relaxed thinking of spiders, u cant be anxious. So basically i used this technique with Susu in that i made sure he was comfortable and totally relaxed with petting before i touched his leg etc until he was ok leaving the cage.

Hana