The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone! I just started a figure 8 tank but I have been looking on here for a few weeks to prep for them. I am so glad this forum exists, it is incredibly helpful and I want to thank everyone for the help so far, as well as in the future! Anyways, my name is Samantha and I'm 26 yrs old and live in Wilmington, NC. I am a veterinary technician, so I am a huge animal lover. I have had all kinds of pets, seriously, you name it I have had it. Currently I have 2 dogs, an African grey parrot, a hermanns tortoise, 2 African dwarf frogs, 3 platys, and now 2 f8's! I had a fish tank a long time ago but this is a new venture for me, so I apologize for any mistakes I make along the way, or if I offend anyone. Anyways, have a great day everyone!

Welcome! Glad to have you here.

Hi, we're new too. What a lovely place:)

Welcome to the forum

Welcome, always great to see a fellow parrot lover! How old is the grey?

Peanut( the African grey) is somewhere in her mid 20's, so I just say she is my age because it's easier lol. So we will call her 26. I worked for an exotic vet for awhile and we helped with the parrot rescues around coastal nc. An elderly man came in one day and said he had 2 parrots that he needed to get rid of. His wife had recently passed away and he could no longer care for them. So I rescued the grey and my coworker rescued the amazon. Both were in pretty rough shape though, and had been neglected quite a bit. I have had her for over a year and a half and I still can't hold her, although I can scratch her head through the bars if she is in the mood lol. But she was never handled and she can't fly, because she had been locked in that cage for a long time. I never clip her wings and I have tried to make her, but no luck yet. Hopefully she will at some point . Sometimes she will hop down onto the floor and go exploring though, she likes to play hide and seek lol.

Thanks for the warm welcomes!

Aww maybe one day she will decide to become a lovable little bird! My first cockatiel hated me for the first 6 months or so, then one day it was like something clicked in her and she stopped being mean. She wasn't handfed so she was never cuddly but she would always put her head down for scratches and would sit there for hours if someone kept it up lol. I love seeing birds who are near my age or older than me! The bird shop near me has a macaw named trouble who is about 5 or 6 years older than me and he is such a funny boy!

Haha I wish, we will see. She didn't say a word for the first 8 or 9 months I had her. Then one day I came home from work and she had unlocked her cage and was sitting on top. And I just stared at her for a minute, in complete shock, and then she whistled said "hello" and then laughed( in a creepy old man voice). After that she started talking more and more, now she won't shut up lol. She has around a thousand different phrases/words/noises/songs that she does on a regular basis, and she learns new things all the time. Of course, I don't get to choose what she learns, no matter how hard I've tried. Her latest phrases are "hey baby" and "are you a bird?". I'm pretty sure she shortened that one from are you a pretty bird? Or something like that. But it's pretty comical when people come in and she says hey baby, and then asks them if they are a bird.

I am a pet groomer & groom birds, too. I had an African grey to groom & afterwards, it looked me int the eye & said, "Don't hurt me!" Totally gave me the chills...

Hahaha yeah that's pretty on par with how all of them are. Incredibly intelligent. It's weird how they know when to say the phrases that they use. I was trying to give peanut a bath one day and I poured some water on her head and she turned around and said "hey!! Leave me alone!!" And then went on her perch and turned around and wouldn't even look at me for 4 hrs or so

Lol they crack me up! Love the little laughs