When I got Mac she was on seed. They were also feeding her some vegetables, but I think this was a new thing since they had taken her to the vet about a month before hand.

She liked corn on the cob especially out of the veggies (of course), apples.  Pretty Bird African Grey formula Pelleted diet.  Boca Nuts -- a HUGE favorite.  She especially liked the Beak Appetit - I think Cinnamon Surprise was a favorite.

Mac was crippled on her left foot, so although she got around well, I think her previous owners didn't give her the chance to adapt to more creative surroundings.

She came in a small brass cage - about 20" x 20"".  There was one  cockatoo sized perch in there and one swing --- no toys. She had no playstand, etc.

I looked and looked for the right cage and finally ordered her a new cage with more room and a playtop.A California - style Cage (Hagen, I think).  She loved it and had so many more perches, toys and got very good at moving around inside and out.  She would even climb up to the playtop by herself.

I tried different things so she could get down off the playtop by herself, and she was able to crawl down by herself, but still sometimes she preferred to do a kamakaze off the top to the floor --- go figure.

She would even sit on and balance on the door to the cage --- one that opens out, not swings down!

When I first tried putting toys in there she was scared of them, but we learned about them.  It took her a couple of months to warm up to the idea of playing with toys.

I came in to see her and looked at her and talked softly to her and she looooked at me.  It was love at first sight between us. The people who had her told me they had never seen anyone talk so quietly to her.  They said they had never seen her so interested in anyone. 

I took her home that day (I went over to see her so I could describe her to people because I was going to try to find someone to adopt her), because I just couldn't leave her --- there just was this yearning...

She was like my child.  She was aloof to other people and not really fond of my daughter.  She didn't mind my husband, but very sweet with me.  She sat on my chest and napped on me sometimes.  She would make a "snuffling" noise when she did so.  After baths (showers), I'd wrap her in a towel and lay with her on my chest.  Sometimes while she was playing and I was laying on the couch, she would walk over and "woo" at me to pick her up to snuggle.  She liked it best right under my chin.

Mac is truly the best bird I have ever had and even now writing this I am choked up --- while I love all of my birds unconditionally, I would have given the world if she could have lived.

When I first tried putting toys in her cage she was scared of them, but we learned about them.  It took her a couple of months to warm up to the idea of playing with toys.

I had to teach her how to play with foot toys and her hanging toys. She especially loved playing on the floor in cardboard boxes --- especially empty 12 pack soda boxes.

I tried several different perches in her first cage until I found a couple that she liked.  She loved that swing and was quite adept at balancing on it.  She actually slept on the swing.

She eventually warmed up to a colored sisal and leather braid that I hung in there.  She liked bells a little. She liked foot toys more. 

She really liked this toy where there are 4 light up buttons and a small mirror (they come in 2 sizes - this was the bigger and was red).  The buttons have 4 different sayings, including "I love you".  She LOVED LOVED LOVED that toy! And I know she knew what I love you means.  I still have that toy and it hangs next to my bed.  It makes me cry to push that button and hear the "I love you".

I got her some foraging toys and she took quite a while to figure them out.  Her absolute favorite toy of all was the plexiglass foraging toy that you hang on the side of the cage - you fill it with treats and the bird has to turn it to work the food around the baffles inside to get it to the hole to get it out.  She would even tell me when she wanted me to fill it!

Not much.  A little loud when she got warmed up, but there was a certain repertoire and some woos.

Her foot was crippled.  I guess maybe that is what you mean.

To me -- she and I had a special bond that words can't even explain.  We could read each other's minds.  I knew what she was thinking - got her thoughts -- and could tell her things and she would understand.  I know it sounds nuts, but it is true.

In the end, when she was so, so, sick I asked her to fight if she could.  She lived another 3 days!!  I was by her side the whole time and barely slept.  If I slept it was next to her.  Finally, I told her if it was too hard and hurt too much, to go ahead and go.  That I loved her and wanted her not to hurt and suffer.  3 hours later she died in my arms.

I know there will never be another bird to replace Mac and to lose her was like losing a child.  Next week is the one year anniversary of her death and I can't even imagine what that day is going to be like.  May 5th.

When the vet necropsied her we found out that she wasn't 12 years old, but 40 - 60 years old!!  I don't doubt that she might have even been a wild caught bird and got her foot broken when captured or in quarantine.  She really had a hard life --- only a 3rd of her liver was normal and she had arteriosclerosis!!  The woman who had her before me had to give her up because she had COPD and her doctor said she couldn't have her anymore (dander!!).  Does that mean she was in a house with smokers for years?????

Poor baby she really had a hard life -- no toys, no enrichment, no stimulation.  I take comfort in the knowledge that the last 9 months of her life were probably some of the happiest.

Mac was special because she was Mac.