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We just adopted a 20 year old African Grey (Timneh). It is amusing the funny surprises that come with adopting an older talking parrot. We asked them if she talks much: "oh some, mostly she beeps and whistles"
So far:
I held her up to a mirror. She looked for a few seconds and said "F**k Me!
I burned some hamburgers. The house got smokey, She made the exact sound of a smoke detector. this was the only time she has made that sound before or since. She obviously equates smoke with that sound.
Every time I pick her up or walk up to her, she makes a loud fart sound. I guess that is now her sound for me.
If a cell phone rings or someone walks near her talking on a cellphone she says " Hello, blagh blagh blagh murrgh mummble grrugh. . .
When the microwave signals food is done, so does Percy. Exact same sound.
She makes the sound of puppies whining. The dogs (now dog) go running around looking for the source of the sound. As soon as they stop running around looking for it, she makes the sound again and sets them off again. Hopefully it is not stressing the dog out. It does get her some extra exercise.
She randomly mimics what was obviously a telephone answering machine and then repeats various messages that were left on the machine. She even includes the beeps between messages.
When she wants to go to bed (back in her cage and covered), she makes a soft descending sound like a cartoon sound when something falls.
She gives kisses (and then expects a sunflower seed as a reward). Sometimes she makes a loud kissing sound when she does it.
Personally I think it is more fun to adopt an older parrot and see what surprises come out of her than to teach her to repeat your own sounds or have her pick them up around your house. I am looking forward to seeing what else may come out of her.
We just adopted a 20 year old African Grey (Timneh). It is amusing the funny surprises that come with adopting an older talking parrot. We asked them if she talks much: "oh some, mostly she beeps and whistles"
So far:
I held her up to a mirror. She looked for a few seconds and said "F**k Me!
I burned some hamburgers. The house got smokey, She made the exact sound of a smoke detector. this was the only time she has made that sound before or since. She obviously equates smoke with that sound.
Every time I pick her up or walk up to her, she makes a loud fart sound. I guess that is now her sound for me.
If a cell phone rings or someone walks near her talking on a cellphone she says " Hello, blagh blagh blagh murrgh mummble grrugh. . .
When the microwave signals food is done, so does Percy. Exact same sound.
She makes the sound of puppies whining. The dogs (now dog) go running around looking for the source of the sound. As soon as they stop running around looking for it, she makes the sound again and sets them off again. Hopefully it is not stressing the dog out. It does get her some extra exercise.
She randomly mimics what was obviously a telephone answering machine and then repeats various messages that were left on the machine. She even includes the beeps between messages.
When she wants to go to bed (back in her cage and covered), she makes a soft descending sound like a cartoon sound when something falls.
She gives kisses (and then expects a sunflower seed as a reward). Sometimes she makes a loud kissing sound when she does it.
Personally I think it is more fun to adopt an older parrot and see what surprises come out of her than to teach her to repeat your own sounds or have her pick them up around your house. I am looking forward to seeing what else may come out of her.
What's really interesting is when the bird starts repeating words or phrases it learns in your household...and does so in YOUR voices but doesn't use the voices from the past. An elderly lady friend of mine adopted several older greys and noticed this. The bird never mixed them. Always used the correct remembered voice or inflection for the appropriate word or phrase. Kept each household's "memory" separated.
Our male cockatiel talks up a storm. No one tried to teach him how to talk; he learned on his own.
He never swears, though. And he's heard a lot of cuss words.
Be lucky for that
My friends have an African Grey that also picked up talking on his own and unlike your cockatiel, definitely has picked up the swear words. It was a big surprise when I walked in and the bird said, 'Who the f_k is this?' I guess that you have to give the bird points for using it in the correct context though!
My friends have an African Grey that also picked up talking on his own and unlike your cockatiel, definitely has picked up the swear words. It was a big surprise when I walked in and the bird said, 'Who the f_k is this?' I guess that you have to give the bird points for using it in the correct context though!
The older lady I knew who adopted her greys told me how she dealt with inconvenient "mimicry". One bird could imitate the ring of her phone perfectly. However, it meant she would drop what she was doing, hop out of a shower, and rush to answer a call when there wasn't one. So, she taught the bird to say "Hello!" when it heard the REAL phone ring.
When she'd hear "ring ring" she'd suppress the urge to bolt and wait. If she didn't hear "Hello!" (of course perfectly imitating her voice) after the ring she knew it was just the bird playing around. If she heard "ring ring" and "Hello!" She knew she actually had a call to pick up.
I guess the question remains...who trained who?
Last edited by Parnassia; 04-13-2019 at 03:40 PM..
My parents kept a blue front Amazon for a while. My sister was always getting phone calls. This was before cell phones. Mostly calls were for her. So he learned to call or name, Laura telephone, whenever the phone ran. Also would bite you and yell, ouch Bad bird. Squeaky door sounds. Also a few foreign languages, Quack quack quack, goble goble.
The older lady I knew who adopted her greys told me how she dealt with inconvenient "mimicry". One bird could imitate the ring of her phone perfectly. However, it meant she would drop what she was doing, hop out of a shower, and rush to answer a call when there wasn't one. So, she taught the bird to say "Hello!" when it heard the REAL phone ring.
lol this is so cute actually.
a playful bird! its good that he takes joy in pranking you hahaha!
My friends have an African Grey that also picked up talking on his own and unlike your cockatiel, definitely has picked up the swear words. It was a big surprise when I walked in and the bird said, 'Who the f_k is this?' I guess that you have to give the bird points for using it in the correct context though!
Our late talking budgie used to ask angrily, "What the f--k do YOU want?!"
Sometimes you have to watch what you say around certain birds!
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