African Grey Parrots are considered to be some of the smartest members of the Parrot family, and have become a coveted pet for bird lovers. Known for their ability to imitate sounds and use words in their proper context, Greys are intelligent as well as beautiful. Here are 5 answers to frequently asked questions about the Congo and Timneh African Grey Parrot.

What is the difference between the Congo (CAG) and the Timneh (TAG)? The Congo is slightly larger and can be easily identified because of its brilliant red tail, dark grey beak, and overall powder grey feathers. The Timneh sports a sleeker body build, has a maroon tail, grey feathers that are a darker charcoal color, and has a two-tone beak with the upper mandible being bone in color and the bottom one grey. With proper care they have been known to live 50 years and longer.

Is there a difference is cost? The Congo seems to be more in demand among bird lovers because of their size and their powder grey color. And because of the higher demand they are more expensive, so breeders tend to raise more of them because they can be sold for a higher price. So if you are on a budget, but still want an African Grey, the Timneh is a great bird to choose. They are just as intelligent but cost a lot less.

How does their care differ? There is no difference in the care needed. They both need a high quality pellet base diet supplemented with fresh, organic fruits and vegetables, a continuous supply of fresh water, toys, a large cage with perches at various levels, a lot of attention, socialization, and training. This will keep you Grey physically healthy, and emotionally happy which goes a long way toward preventing behavioral issues such as biting, screaming, feather plucking, and self mutilation.

Is there a significant difference in their personalities? There are some who believe that the Congo tends to be more excitable and prone to feather plucking than its smaller cousin. Others believe that any difference between the birds is due more to their individual personalities than a generalization about the subspecies.

What can be done about the dust they create? The dust they create is a natural phenomenon and is nature’s way of helping their wings develop normally. In the wild this dust would dissipate rather than build up as it does in captivity. This dust is not good for the birds because it clogs their air passages which can lead to respiratory infections. It also serves as a carrier for airborne bacteria and viruses that can cause disease and infection in your bird. In addition, it is also not good for people, particularly those who suffer from allergy or asthma. The best way to keep your bird’s air clear of this dust is to use a high efficiency particle arresting air purifier that is designed with birds in mind.

By: Debbie Davis

About the Author:
An excellent HEPA air purifier to remove African Grey feather dust is offered by PurerAir.com– the Bird Dander Purifier See it now at http://purerair.com/bird_dander_air_purifier.html

The African Grey is a large parrot renown for its intelligence and ability to imitate and, some believe, understand the human language. If you choose a Grey as a pet you will be following in royal footsteps as King Henry VIII of England owned one, but you will also be making a lifetime commitment as most have life spans that range between 50 and 65 years. Considering the following information as you make your choice will help you decide if this is the bird for you, and if so, will result in a happier relationship between you and your Grey.

Social Needs This is a bird that needs a fair amount of social interaction to stay healthy emotionally and mentally. It should be placed in an active part of your home so that it can observe all that goes on. It also needs to be allowed out of the cage for at least an hour each day and given one on one human interaction. Introducing a variety of people will keep them from being wary of strangers and will allow them to bond with those other than the main caregiver.

Toys and Housing Because they are so intelligent, they need to be in a stimulating environment that includes a variety of toys that are rotated frequently, toys that they can tear apart without injury, and toys that contain food or treats that they must work to remove. They need a large cage that is at least 4 feet long by 3 feet deep and 3 feet high with a solid back, or that is placed against a wall to provide a feeling of security. They should also have perches in the room that they can use when they are out of the cage. Allowing your parrot to spend time out of the cage insures a happier and healthier bird-both physically and mentally.

Life Stages If you are planning to acquire an African Grey as a baby parrot, know that they have a fairly long maturation cycle which spans approximately 10 years. It is important that during these first 10 years obedience training is a regular part of your daily routine. This can prevent your Grey from becoming destructive and aggressive with humans and other pets upon maturity.

Food Diet should consist of pellets, a minimum of seeds, and daily offerings of fresh fruits and vegetables (organic is best). Avoid chocolate, avocado, garlic and onions, rhubarb, caffeine, alcohol as they are toxic to your bird. Birds are lactose intolerant, so since they are unable to digest dairy products they have no nutritional value and should be avoided. If you have questions about your Grey’s diet, consult an avian veterinarian before giving any food that you are unsure about.

Maintenance African Greys are considered a dusty bird because they produce a fine white powder that goes airborne when they shake or ruffle their feathers. This will require bathing your bird more often, and cleaning the cage more often that a less dusty bird. Using an air purifier near the cage will greatly eliminate this dust.

By: Debbie Davis

About the Author:
An excellent resource for a HEPA air purifier to remove the dust, dander, and feathers produced by birds is offered by PurerAir.com– the Bird Dander Purifier at http://purerair.com/bird_dander_air_purifier.html

If you are interested in getting an African grey parrot for a pet, there a few things you need to know first. The following tidbits of African Grey parrot information may help you decide whether or not you are ready to take on the responsibility of looking after such an exotic and unusual bird.

Types

There are two types of African grey parrots – one is known as the Congo, which is the larger of the two and the other is called the Timneh. Congo parrots can be identified by their bright red tailfeathers and black beak, while the Timneh’s tailfeathers are more a blend of maroon and grey colors, and they have a red/brown colored beak.

Feeding

This is an area in which many owners of African greys tend to fall down, so it is wise to acquire a good knowledge of the types of foods that greys love to eat, and which will help to keep them active and healthy. In the wild, greys feed on fruits, seeds, nuts and the berries of native rainforest trees. In captivity, they can become easily bored with their food if there is not much variety, so a good mixture of fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as different types of seeds and nuts is advisable. You can either ask your vet, or search online, for exactly which types of fruits and veges to serve up to an African grey.

Cleaning

Like all caged birds and animals, regular cleaning is vital to maintain the health and well being of your pet. It is particularly important to, daily, take out any uneaten fruit and veges from the cage and wash the feed dish, as rotting residue from these can be unhealthy for your parrot.

Time

The most important aspect of keeping and caring for your African grey parrot is that you spend quality time with him/her. These birds are highly intelligent, affectionate and crave company. Almost immediately, you will notice your parrot’s desire to form a strong bond with you – this is completely normal and one of the most endearing qualities of this wonderful species. So, if your present lifestyle does not allow you to spend enough time bonding with your pets, then perhaps you should re-think buying an African grey parrot at this stage.

We hope that these few tidbits have been helpful to you in making a decision to get an African grey. However, these are just a snippet of the African grey parrot information that is available to you online.

By: Kevin Daly

About the Author:
Want to find out heaps more? Then visit http://www.AfricanGreyParrots.net

One of the more popular species of African parrot that is kept as a pet is the African Grey parrot and the reason is that not only are they attractive to look at, they are also highly intelligent and importantly they are one of the easier species of parrot to care for.

There are actually 2 varieties of African Grey, the Timneh African grey and the Congo African grey. They both grow in size to around 10 – 14 inches, so they are a medium sized parrot. The Congo African grey is distinguished by lighter grey coloring and red tail feathers. The Timneh is more charcoal in color, a darker grey and has maroon tail feathers.

As their name suggest these birds originate from in and around the central regions of Africa an area which is located on the equator, which in turn means that these birds are not only acclimatized to warm weather but also having between 8-12 hours of sunlight all of the year round. This is important when you creating a suitable home environment for your African Grey as you need to replicate these conditions as closely as is practical for you at home. Your parrot’s cage must be placed in a location out of any drafts, so usually away from doorways or main walk ways through the house and in order to receive the sufficient amount of sunlight required you will need to purchase a full spectrum light. It is not adequate to place your birdcage by a window even if you are lucky enough to get anywhere near 8-12 hours of daylight because domestic windows block the essential UVB and UVA rays that parrots need as an essential part of their health.

The African Grey is reasonably expected to live to 60 years old and beyond depending on its diet and environment but certainly living this long is a common occurrence in the wild without any unnatural exterior factors imposing themselves. With such a long life expectancy for a pet you need to take careful consideration before choosing to adopt an African parrot as they are a long term commitment and may well outlive their owner.

African Grey’s are very intelligent and have even been compared by some scientists and experts to having the intelligence of a dolphin or a chimpanzee. This makes for very entertaining company for you but it also means that your bird will need mental stimulation in the form of interaction or playing with their parrot toys, otherwise you could risk your parrot becoming bored which is a common occurrence. This boredom often leads to behavioral problems for your bird and they may well start picking their own feathers or become much more vocal and boisterous than normal. Also your parrot’s behavior may well deteriorate if you change their daily schedule or their surroundings.

African parrots, especially African Grey’s make wonderful pets because of their personality and intelligence and they are often trained to actually talk and can develop quite a large vocabulary as well as mimic sounds but hopefully you now have a small insight into some of the basics that you are required by you in order to get the best out of your parrot and keep them happy and healthy.

By: Robert Markman

About the Author:
Robert Markman is a parrot care expert and has been caring for parrots for over 18 years.. For more great information and essential tips on the African parrot visit www.parrotadviceguide.com

The African Grey Parrot may even go on to outlive you; therefore, there is no need to shed tears anymore because your pet died. The African Parrot has been a favorite pet throughout the world since time immemorial. Rearing African Parrots is a full-fledged business in Africa, and businessmen there breed them specifically to sell these to buyers from across the world. But these parrots do require large and special parrot cages to keep them in.

Adaptable African Pet Parrots

The African Pet Parrot adapts to local conditions very quickly as it manages to fit perfectly almost anywhere in the world. Though common sense tells us that the African Parrot will not be the right choice in homes where there is too much open space or you have dogs and cats, or even children. The African Parrot is known for its friendly nature, which can be detrimental to the safety of young children.

The male Parrots tend to be larger in size with round eyes whereas females are smaller and have elliptical eyes. These parrots, however, come at a cost. You may have to pay anything in the range of $500 to $1000 for the parrots. The parrot cages also need to be better, sturdier, and long lasting due to the longer life of African parrots.

African Grey Parrots

African Grey Parrots, however, are equally popular as pets though not very easy to own. Many people would suggest you to expect parrots behavior to be like that of dog or cat. These parrots can be very nervous when they enter your home and can develop behavior problems. They get stressed easily when they are meeting new people or other animals.

Keep Your Parrot Happy

It’s great if you can afford training from a parrot trainer, since the investment will be worth it. The African Grey Parrots are among the most intelligent, they respond very quickly when you interact with them and they can go on to become a great pet. You can keep your parrot happy and stress free with the help of toys, spacious parrot cages, and plenty of attention.

Clean Cages Regularly

You need to clean the parrot cages regularly, especially due to their irregular excretion. That’s why the cages need to be cleaned thoroughly with water so as to remove all the smell and kill bacteria from cages. African Grey Parrots have a habit of chewing almost anything. They enjoy chewing wood, clothes, curtains as well as many other things. We do not intend to discourage you, but you still need to be on the safer side while letting the parrot out of the cage.

Parrots Diet

The diet of African Grey Parrots should include calcium and vitamin A in adequate amount. Some of the examples of proper food for your parrot are fruit, seeds, peeled food, nuts, leafy greens, vegetables and cheese. If the parrot is being supplied adequate diet, you may not need supplements in that case. Make sure fresh water is always available for your parrot and the water supply needs to be changed regularly. Some people add supplements in the water also. When you are buying an African Grey Parrot, you need to keep in mind the environment it is going to live in. Your parrots should always feel safe within their living space. Parrot cages for your African Grey Parrot come in all shapes, colors and sizes. Good parrot cages are expensive, but since African parrots may live for about 50 years, the investment might be worth it.

By: Sunil Punjabi

About the Author:
Shop and buy a small, medium, or large parrot cages [http://birdcagesrepublic.com/] for you pet African parrots and other pet birds. All types and sizes of parrot cages are available for your pet parrots. Please visit our site to view and buy appropriate cages for your pets – [http://birdcagesrepublic.com/]

African Grey parrot breeders need to possess the qualities that are essential when rearing the Grey parrot species. The parrot is one with excellent intelligence and is known to be a favorite pet. Most breeders of the African Grey Parrots usually employ a number of different methods that sets apart many breeders of this species, each possessing their own unique ways to train the African Grey Parrots.

When rearing the African Parrot experts say that the breeders need to possess and observe certain qualities of behavior when raising and training these very intelligent birds. There are two main characteristic behaviors needed by a parrot breeder when raising the African Grey parrots.

The first one is to understand the role of the wilderness in helping the parrots grow and wean. It is vital for the breeder to be able to catch an African Grey with the best qualities that will help it become independent and develop its intelligence by providing them ideal environment to thrive.

The second is to learn how to domesticate these highly independent birds. African Grey is a parrot species that is known for its superior intelligence over their other parrot counterparts. As they are born in the wilderness they have strong characteristics that make them very independent birds. Their instincts and superior intelligence are important traits that make African Grey dominant survivors even when they are taken out of the wilderness.

It is important for parrot breeders to acknowledge the need of helping the bird to adjust to their new social surroundings which is a man made set-up. Breeding them to become sociable birds is very important although African birds which are widely known for their intelligence and survival instincts adapt fairly well to the changes of a social set-up.

Experts further define the need for the parrot breeders to realize the complex behaviors of the species which cannot be solely expected to learn new adaptive behaviors. Instead, they need to be provided with proper guidance and training.

Taming and training the birds require skills and knowledge about the characteristic behaviors of the parrot in order to preserve and protect their main characteristics as highly intelligent bird species.

Those who rear the African Grey parrots should also know how to preserve the endearing characteristics of the species through proper parrot care and learning the best practice of maintaining the creature’s charming nature through proper breeding. Each type of parrot will have unique and individual care needs and experts always stress for breeders to know what kind of parrot care to give to meet the needs of a particular type of Parrot.

Many pet owners prefer the African Grey parrots because of their entertaining nature of being able to speak and mimic sounds. Breeders of this parrot type are required to obtain valuable information about the proper rearing of these birds in order to preserve and bring out the best of the bird’s intelligence and special characters.

Rearing African parrots is not just an easy task to undertake. It requires valuable knowledge about the bird’s characteristics and behavior while learning how to protect, preserve and improve it at its best. Proper handling and rearing by the African Grey parrot breeders will help improve the quality of the future generations of these species.

By: Joseph Keith

About the Author:
Joseph Keith is a writer and researcher on products for weight loss products such as Caralluma Burn. You can save time and money by getting a FREE in depth Caralluma Review at www.carallumareviewer.com

If you’ve looked into African Grey training you’ll know just how trainable these wonderful little birds are – there are tons of videos online of peoples parrots doing the most amazing things. Performing tricks, solving puzzles, imitating a myriad of different noises and sounds and talking so clearly that you could almost mistake it for a person! I know I often think I’m hearing things when my own parrots start chattering away!

African Greys are such intelligent birds, it’s difficult to find a trick or skill that they can’t learn, I keep expecting to see a video on the net of one playing the guitar next!!! If you’re not yet aware of the work of Irene Pepperberg, a professor of psychology and lecturer at Harvard, who has done a great deal of research in animal cognition, you really should check it out.

One particular subject of hers, a parrot called Alex who she obtained from a pet shop for a study and ended up working with for over 20 years learned more than 100 different words which he would use to refer to things or answer questions, for example answering correctly when asked how many objects were on a tray (he could count up to 6) or when asked to count the number of wooden objects, or to say which object was both made of wool and red for example.

Such mastery takes much work and training of course and Dr Pepperberg and her team spend hours a day interacting with Alex and teaching him for many years – with parrots being such intelligent animals it’s only fair to devote time and energy like this to making life fun and entertaining for them, with lots of new things to explore and new games to play.

I know from personal experience though how even spending the time you have available with your parrots every day and ensuring that they spend lots of time out of their cage enjoying life pays big dividends in terms of your African Grey’s enjoyment of learning new things and willingness to play along with games and activities that teach them tricks.

Once you’ve got the right relationship with your feathered friends half the battle is won and with all the great African Grey training materials that are out there you’ll soon have your birds chattering away, rolling over, playing dead and more. It really does come down to it being a team effort and knowing that your bird will readily co-operate with you when you make things fun and enjoyable for both of you.

Training with simple reinforcement can be very effective and just making sure that pretty much whenever you’re around your parrot you’ve got a pocketful of nuts, dried fruit or another one of his or her favourites will go a long way to getting the relationship you need to take your parrots training to the next level.

Talking to your parrot a lot is a must too of course, how do you expect your bird to want to talk to you if you’re not regularly chattering away to him or her? You definitely don’t want your parrot getting the idea that talking is something that’s limited to certain times like “training time” because that can create a negative association in the birds mind that makes talking work.

Everything is so much easier when you make it fun so make sure you always sound upbeat and excited when you’re around your bird, and that you don’t make talking conditional on the bird replying, putting too much pressure on the situation – just relax and chatter away to your bird and soon enough you’ll have a talkative new friend around.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea – keep it fun and fresh and I’m sure your African Grey training sessions will be a pleasure for both of you for many years to come.

By: Paul A Bradley

About the Author:
Here at African Grey Training we love all things African Grey. For more parroty goodness visit [http://www.africangreytraining.com]

Originating from Central Africa, the African Grey Parrot is considered one of the most beautiful species of parrots and highly intelligent. This species of parrot is popular because of their extraordinary speaking skills and socialization. However, African parrots can be a challenge to care for.

The Congo African Grey and the Timneh African Grey parrots that make up the African Parrot species. The Congo African Grey is the most brightly colored with a red tail and is light grey on the body. A maroon tail with a darker grey color defines the Timneh African Grey. Males will grow up to 14 inches and have a larger head than the females.

It is essential to be very sure that African parrots as pets are really wanted as they can live up to 60 years. This is very important to African parrots. New parrot owners would be better suited to a different kind of parrot than the African parrots because of the behavioral needs. Boredom comes easily to these parrots and they will possibly tear things up in their boredom. When upset, they tend to pull their own feathers out or to self mutilate itself with its claws.

Social interaction is a necessity for these species of parrots to help with the boredom issue. Kissing and cuddling are forms of expression in the wild for these parrots. Since they would rather be with you outside the cage, allow the African Grey to sit on your shoulder or fly about the room. If left alone for long periods, the parrot will become agitated and start shrieking, plucking its own feathers and tearing the inside of the cage up.

In spite of this, these parrots are very easy to train as they are adept at mimicking human behavior as well as having a unique ability to speak quite well and have a large vocabulary. The intelligence of this species is actually quite spectacular to behold.

African Grey parrots are perfect for individuals who truly love a bird as a companion. These parrots are a wonderful pet to have. This species will give you years of companionship and joy. If the parrot is cared for correctly, the parrot will be devoted to you and will want and need you on a daily basis.

By: Jason Hutton

About the Author:
Jason Hutton is an african parrot expert. For more great tips on the African parrot visit http://www.caringforparrots.com