African grey parrot - Leeds

charlesworth82

Anyone know the best place/breeder to purchase one in or around Leeds?

YorkiePud_3

I got mine from Brodsworth Garden Centre Pet Department ... used to be Markham Grange Nurseries, Brodsworth near Doncaster.

Whatever you do (incase you are a novice Grey keeper), PLEASE ensure that when you get your grey, you give it CALCIUM supplements (this is so important cos no amount of eating fruit will give the bird the calcium it needs and they have a hard time absorbing it anyway - I give Calcivet drops in his water twice a week, just 3ml a time) and not to preach at you, but seed is a big killer for parrots ... I have just had to support a friend who lost her parrot after seed caused it to have aspergillosis and die a horrible death.

I feed my boy lots of fruit and veg (no avocado - poisonous), but all the time, he has a bowl of a pellet food (which he loves and is all multi coloured so it's attractive) called Nutri Bird P15.
Every possible vitamin, mineral etc is in those pellets that they need, otherwise you could end up with a very sick parrot, or worse ...

Another new thought in the bird world (have only just found this all out myself, but at only 2 yrs old, I am hoping to reverse anything the seed diet may have started to do to my bird), is to expose your birds to at least 2 hours of those daylight bulbs each day.
It affects their pituatary gland, makes the bird feel happier and does all kind of beneficial things for their plummage, mood etc ... it's certainly working for my canary who has started singing again after over a year of silence!

The nearest decent Avian vet for our area (assuming you're West Yorkshire like me) is at Pocklington .. Matt Brash. He is on Sky on the Zoo Vet at Large programs and he's the vet for Flamingo Land.
There is a lady vet near Bradford whose name I shan't mention, but if you ever need to go see a vet with your bird, Matt Brash is the guy to go to ... he was fabulous with my friend's bird ... the surgery is called Battleflats ...

Hope you have luck finding your bird! *S*

charlesworth82

thanks for all the info - will give them a look and see what they have.
:beer:

dianetheartist

Thats intersting information Yorshire pud. Our Jake (african grey)is on a seed mix called Tidymix which is human quality seed food. he is just 2 years old
and full of beans. he is lively and talking out heads off.
We also have an orange tipped amazon who has the pelleted food, but not the multi coloured stuff, we couldnt stand the sickly smell of it! We have tryed to get Jake onto the pelleted stuff (tropican life time granules from Northen parrots.co.uk) but he wont have any of it bless him! They both have lots of fruit and veg everyday.Paddy had a terrible snotty nose when we had him on the seed diet-but it was not the expensive tidymix seed one we use now.Vet tested him for all the usual things but nothing showed-he was either not getting right nutrients or was allergic to the dust in the food.Both seem in peak health now , so fingers crossed. I will have to check out the calcium drops though, and see if I can get some.

YorkiePud_3

Hi dianetheartist ... yes, they can carry on for so long on the seed diet but all of a sudden they go downhill VERY fast ... my friend's parrot was perfectly well and for 20 years he was on a seed diet (with fruit as well), but in the space of one week he went from being a happy bird to flapping around the cage, screaming in agony because he was in such pain. Apparently, the infection from the seed attached itself to some blood vessels and they ruptured, so he was bleeding internally.

I would have said he was a really healthy parrot ... but as I say, when he started to look ill, it was too late. The vet was in a state too, really upset seeing him how he was and he said he gets at least 5 birds in a week who more often than not, he isn't able to save because by the time they start looking ill, the aspergillosis has taken a hold on them.

The manufacturers of parrot food want us to be using seed diets because they can buy the seed for next to nothing, so they are making an absolute fortune on it. The vet told us that even 8 sunflower seeds a day could eventually kill a parrot ... I shudder to think how many my parrot has gone through in 2 years, because he loved them ...

I was lucky though because from the start, when I got him, they said ALWAYS keep a bowl of the Nutri Bird tropical P15 in his cage for him, so he was used to it from the start. They didn't explain what it was, and with it being all so brightly coloured, I just thought it was a treat *L* but no, it is a complete pellet diet. There are so many out there of course, it's just a matter of what your own bird will take to, but as of now, Elvis just has the pellets and two big bowls of fruit each day (chopped cherry tomato, peeled cucumber diced up, carrots chopped in half then lengthways, clementines with the pips taken out, washed spinach, green beans). Every other day I cook him some veggies, either sprouts, cauliflower or broccoli (cooked in a stainless steel pan, not non stick) and once a week I hard boil him an egg and chop up the hard boiled yolk for a protein boost (he doesn't have the cooked white bit), but the most important thing though, apart from the seed and what it can do to them, is to give them Calcium .. they will die from lack of it so I would really really urge you to get some for him.

I've tried soooo many different types of Calcium supplements and the Calcivet (you can get that from Northern Parrots! I get mine from there) is the only one His Lordship will have. He won't have it in his food, but he is a big drinker so will take it in his water. I put 3mls of it in his water twice a week and that is enough, but as I say, it is so important because their bodies have a hard time absorbing calcium from fruit.

I really don't want to sound as though I am preaching to anyone, and it's just what I have learned recently having gone through a very upsetting learning curve with my friend and her parrot, but if anyone goes to buy any reference books about parrots (and especially Greys), check you are getting the latest editions because the ideas behind parrot keeping, feeding and care etc have totally changed in the past 20 years ... there's just been so much found out about them, what is harmful to them etc ... so as I say, get the latest, most recent books you can so that you know what the thoughts are now of keeping them and the best things to give them.

Oh, btw, when you mentioned about Paddy ... I remember seeing Matt Brash on one show having to clean out a parrot's nostrils under anaesthetic, and he said that was one of the lesser problems caused by eating seeds ... it really is terrifying just what the darn things can cause!!
Yet at one time, even the specialists were saying that was the best diet to give them ... it really is a minefield!!

frivolous_fay

I'd not heard of aspergillosis in parrots. I'm confused about the seed thing though - aspergillus is a mould, and aspergillosis is a respiratory condition, isn't it? Your vet seems to be saying that eating the seed is the danger... but I'd have thought breathing in the spores would be the problem?

YorkiePud_3

The aspergillus fungus grows on and sometimes in the seed ... the parrots either breathe it in or ingest it when they eat the seed and it gradually builds up inside them and starts causing problems over time. (Have just looked it up, and it says it can actually live in live tissue, which is why it can affect the organs of their bodies).
It's classed as a "seed borne" disease although corn can harbour it too.

One of the worst things though, for aspergillosis spores, is actually the peanuts that are still in the shells. A lot of parrot owners and breeders advise people now to buy shelled peanuts because a lot of deaths have been traced back to that ...( it blocks the airways then spreads to the other organs ) but the best nuts to feed are unshelled ones, such as walnuts (up to 3 a day is more than enough) and brazil nuts (same again, up to 3 a day) ... Morrisons do little bags of organic ones so you know they have never been sprayed with anything that could cause problems.

As I say, I didn't know a thing about aspergillosis till my friend just lost her parrot to it, but it is such a devastating thing to have happen which is why I try mention it to just alert other bird owners to what can happen!!

charlesworth82

how much should i be looking to pay?

have been on a few web sites and all the prices vary greatly.

YorkiePud_3

Yes, some people charge over a thousand, but my first Grey was £700 and Elvis, bought 2 years ago, was £800 ... I think £800 is the right price for a Grey, but some people do try it on and ask for more.

They are really expensive, but when you think how many years you've got them for ... *S*

YorkiePud_3

Oh .. and I would NEVER buy a parrot that had been imported from another country ... you're never sure exactly how old they are, what experience they have had being captured which could make them really vicious and if they have been brought in from the jungle, then when they "find their voice", you might end up with all the nasty jungle noises they make to one another and they are horrendous!

You are better off with a little baby who is going to grow up getting to know you and your household ... you soon get used to holding the tv remote all the time, ready to turn it down so Baby Grey doesn't pick up any nasty loud noises from there!!

dianetheartist

Thanks for the advice Yorkie. I have got them some of those calcium drops from northern parrots.I get the roasted peanuts in shells from tesco as a treat for them, though paddy likes them more than jake who prefers banana chips.Sounds like i will not be getting them any more though!
I will try and wean jake off the Tidy mix I think, hes still got a big bag to use up, but I would go mad if anything happened to him.Im sure that is what happened to a friend of a friends parrot last summer. He didnt get him to the vets on time and didnt have a post mortem. It was very quick, off his food for a couple of days and then just died on way to vets.Scarey.