Posted by Madelynn --Previous Message--
on 1/27/2005, 8:20 pm, in reply to "african grey"
: how do i tell age of my parrot i was
: sold a twenty week old and have
: been told by friend he/she is much
: older because of the colour of
: eyes they are dark yellow is this
: true? any help
:
Hi! From my personal experiences and relations with Parrot ,People and a vet friend, I hope this helps,, I have also read this in several african grey books,,,,,, greys are one of very few parrot species where you can roughly determine age by eye color,from weaning "chick stage" they are almost black, again this varies bird to bird, up to a year and in my case storms eyes were grey until 14 to 15 months of age he will be 6 years old in May and his eyes are light yellow,,,, the dark golden color, they are usually mature in years,, but it all varies, at the aviary where I volunteer there is a wild caught {now Illegal thank God} african grey his eyes are light yellow and his age is estimated to be no younger than 16 years old... if you have a 20 week old parrot, you still have a very young bird, if you have a 17year old which I highly doubt,,, just for an example,,, it is still a young bird,, greys can live 20-40-60-80 years I have heard by experts.... a pretty young bird still has darker looking neonatal type feet in appearance,, more mature birds are pretty light grey, very young birds also have if a congo no help if timneh, some black areas around tail feathers as the bird matures, you will see the tail feathers really become fire engine red within 3 years I have found.... now unless you feel your asking price was unreasonable for whatever reason,,, I would love and enjoy my bird as he/she is... remember these greys live a very long, long, time with proper care... you could perhaps contact a different breeder, or call a vet, and find out by the leg band perhaps true breeder info, or where the bird came from,,,, there are backyard bird mills which is heartbreaking, but I do not know for you didn't mention where you purchased your bird from..,,remember to provide lots of love attention, fruit veggies, family time out together, vet check up at least once a year and asap if you see something wrong,, adequate cage space, exercise , bathes, toys,, and you will have a great companion for life,, Best wishes, Madelynn
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