African Grey Biting & Feather Picking
African Grey Parrots are so popular because of their intelligence, but it is also their intelligence that makes them a demanding pet to care for. An African parrot needs a lot of mental stimulation and social contact with humans or other pets (as long as they get along with each other). An African Grey Parrot is said to have the intelligence of a five year old and be the emotional equivalent of a two year old. If you have ever had to take care of children then you know those ages require loads of attention, patience, and guidance for them to accept behavior training. Even with the maximum amount of attention, an African Parrot can be a challenge to deal with at times.
African Greys devote themselves to their owners, but they are usually very cautious when they encounter new situations and new people. Since an African parrot requires so much attention there is often only one person in a household that will spend enough time with them to develop a really close bond. That is partially the reason the African Greys have a reputation of being a one-person bird. It is a good idea to introduce your bird to many different people, but she will require some time to get comfortable each new person, so be patient. These parrots are more than happy to develop a connection with anyone, as long as that person spends enough time with the African grey to earn its companionship and trust.
African Grey Biting
African Greys have a bit of a reputation of biting, but this is mostly due to an instinctual reaction. Like any other animal, parrots will bite when they feel threatened. Every person that interacts with an African Grey has to put in the time to earn its trust through patience and social interaction. If you try to push interaction with an African Parrot it may result in a bite because it does not know you yet. Most parrots, including African Parrots, are really good at reading body language and picking up what the people around them are feeling. For that reason you should only interact with your feathered friend when you are relaxed and calm or else your parrot may become excited, stressed, or agitated. A stressed or bored African Grey is more likely to bite or pick its feathers. To avoid any sort of behavioral problems you need to make sure that your care for your African Parrot properly, including meeting her mental, emotional, and physical needs.
As I said earlier, the intelligence of these birds necessitates a lot of social interaction with their owners including physical and mental stimulation.
African Grey Feather Picking
African Greys are known to pick feathers. There are a variety of reasons why African Greys, and other parrots, start to exhibit behavioral problems such as feather picking or worse forms of self-mutilation. These reasons may include being stressed, not getting enough social interaction, not enough physical activities, and improper feeding. Any bird that starts to pick feathers needs to be taken to an avian veterinarian as soon as possible. Greys seem to be more susceptible to behavioral problems because of their high intelligence and need for lots of stimulation and attention.
Despite being a lot of work to care for, African Parrots are magnificent birds. If you are looking into buying an African Grey (either a Timneh African Grey or a Congo African Grey) you will have to make sure that you can commit to fulfilling the needs of the bird for the length of their expected life span. You will also have to learn the right and wrong ways to care for your African Parrot, doing anything else would be inhumane.
