# parrots?



## Ruby13 (Dec 28, 2013)

I love birds, but we don't have one at this time! 

I used to have to 'bebe' parrots, not sure what the real name for them was. And we've had cockatiels, too. 

When we started doing rescue, too many dogs and cats were coming through our home that didn't take well to birds. I miss having them, though!

Does Louie talk? All of ours did, and they were so enjoyable. We had one that would call "kitty, kitty, kitty" in my voice, and cause quite the disturbance at the food bowls!


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## Deber (Aug 23, 2011)

I too have an African Grey, female, named Gabby. She will be 30 yrs old in July and we have had her since she was a tiny babe with pin feathers. Greys are very smart and Gabby can copy just about every dog and person who comes by our home on a regular basis. Her vocabulary is very large and she speaks clear and easily understood. I don't know how long Greys live in captivity but I bet she outlives us!

Wonderful birds and Gabby is a full member of our family. I hope you enjoy the many years with your Grey!


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## abradshaw71 (Jan 13, 2014)

You have to post pictures!


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## Burd (Aug 11, 2011)

After losing my male pied suddenly, a few months later an 8yr old female WF tiel was surrendered at the humane society. I honestly wasn't looking and didn't want another bird. It was too hard losing them. A year or so before rescuing Maverick, I'd had my heart bird, Ladybird, a cinnamon pied female who passed away at 11 yrs, of a stroke and complications after a very bad night fright. The vet couldn't do anything and she died in my arms.
But my Dad saw the pictures on the humane society website, showed my Mom, and then interrupted our early Thanksgiving meal to drive to see Missy.
I met her, fell in love, and adopted her. Or rather, she seems to have rescued me.

This is the little overlord.









...She's silly...









...she's cuddly...









...she enjoys the sun...









...and MOST IMPORTANTLY, she LOVES to fly! 









She's stand offish toward everyone but my aunt and I, but she's slowly warming up. Maverick was my Dad's whistling buddy so his passing was hard on him. Mav didn't really like hands (unless it was my Dad's) and he hated women, but I'd trained him to fly to me when asked.


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## Daisy's dad (Apr 8, 2014)

It's funny you say your bird only like men, mine too. He loves me, tolerates other males but, doesn't care too much for women. It seems like the hair matters. If my wife pins her hair back he's more willing to take attention from her. He's 3 and talks like crazy. We got him as a baby. He especially loves anything involving his name i.e. "Louie louie lou-ster!"He's amazing. I love my golden and if I had to pick only one pet (how horrible!) she'd be it but, there is something special about interacting with a pet that talks back to you (with real words). 



















and here's one of Daisy teasing Harley with her stick. I know this is the "other" forum but, Harley is "other" so, it qualifies (that's my reasoning and it's an excuse for more Daisy pictures!)


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## Deber (Aug 23, 2011)

Beautiful birds, and I wish others could see how some birds really become a special family member. My sweet Gabby is very attached to me and other women, but will go to DH too. She hates men who wear hats (ballcaps) and if they reach in to pet her, she will bite THEN say NO! She always watches new people for a while and if she fluffs up, then will allow them to pet her. I am afraid she is not allowed out of her large cage anymore, cause I am afraid the dogs might get her, but her cage is over large and she seems to enjoy being in it but can be moved to the center of any action going on.

She loves to be taken outside (in cage) to our deck where she can talk to other birds. She easily can imitate their calls, but usually we hear a bird tweet, and Gabby says "Hello"? Very funny to hear her saying hello to the birds as the dogs and I are down at the pond. 

Our daughter came home and as soon as Gabby saw her she said "Hello Jamie, you ole fat dog"! Haaa! Funny how these Greys can mix up words, but still come up with something so funny. Daughter still brings this up and we all have a good laugh.


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## sabrinamae12 (Mar 22, 2013)

My mother just rescued a pretty female Eclectus. She went to an animal auction near us, and I figured she'd come home with something (she always she can't go to an auction without buying something). She brought home the Eclectus in a canary cage, and four guinea pigs. Lord knows what we're going to do with those pigs... Two are quite possibly pregnant. Anyhow, this poor bird was so cramped in this cage, and for who knows how long, that she had ruined her feathers. We cleaned a wire dog crate, put some makeshift perches in, and moved her carefully. Actually, they did it while I was gone, so I'm not really sure how they did it. She was angry and scared and kept trying to bite us. 

I went out the next day and got some toys, food, and bowls. The only food we had on hand was not for Eclectus parrots. I guess they have a longer digestive tract and require a different diet. So we did a ton of reading and learning. Mom picked up a real bird cage a little later and got her into the vet. Our vet said she looked good, just stressed. 

The neatest story I have to share is the first or second night she was home, I was walking around singing "Your Man" by Josh Turner. I looked over at her, and she was standing on her perch, swaying back and forth. So I jumped into another song, and she continued swaying and then climbed up top, hung upside down, and kept swaying. The only thing Mom could say was, "crap. I just lost my bird." Haha she named her Sassy because all she has really said so far is "no." And she also will throw everything out of the bowl until she finds sweet potato or grapes. I was playing George Strait one night and she kept making cooing noises along with the music, so at least she has good taste  once or twice though, she screamed/shrieked. Not only did it scare us, but Kuyani jumped up and ran over to her with a toy to see what was wrong lol he was so very confused. Mom always wanted a macaw, so it's not quite what she'd planned on, but we like her so far. 

We think she had things thrown at her at her last home. She gets very scared when you move quickly around her cage. It'll be a lot of work, but my mom is pretty stubborn haha here are the pictures I have 

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## sabrinamae12 (Mar 22, 2013)

Oops this picture didn't post and the full cage picture double posted. 

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## abradshaw71 (Jan 13, 2014)

Sassy is beautiful. She must have been so sad in that first cage.


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## sabrinamae12 (Mar 22, 2013)

abradshaw71 said:


> Sassy is beautiful. She must have been so sad in that first cage.


I think she was too. Mom said she's doing much better now. She has toys and space and people talk to her. She's about four years old, so we have plenty of time to make her happy


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## Daisy's dad (Apr 8, 2014)

I thought about getting one of those when I got my grey. Beautiful birds and supposed to be good talkers too. As a bonus, you know what sex they are just by the color.


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## Deber (Aug 23, 2011)

Wish you could tell the sex of our African Greys by color! We took Gabby to a Bird lady with the Okla. City Zoo and had her sexed so we would know back when she was a babe. 

Love having others to talk to about our birds,,really nice!


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## Burd (Aug 11, 2011)

I'm lucky, with tiels you can determine their sex by their plumage (unless you have a lutino, albino, or lutino whiteface) - and if you aren't absolutely sure about the plumage (pieds and pearl pieds can be confusing the first year and a half or so, since they often get their adult plumage later than other mutations), you can /almost be positive/ from their behavior.


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## maggiesmommy (Feb 23, 2010)

I just saw this...I have a parrot (well, he lives with my mom and dad)...he's a Blue Fronted Amazon named Merlin. He was a Christmas present when I was 5 years old from my dad's friend who didn't really pay much attention to him. My dad is really great with him and Merlin has a huge cage with tons of toys and treats. He also Skypes with me over my mom's shoulder every Saturday. He makes sure to say "I love you" a million times...I know its just vocalizations, but I still think its sweet.


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## Daisy's dad (Apr 8, 2014)

It's funny how they sometimes respond correctly. You know it's just a coincidence but, you can't help but wonder. The other day I asked Louie (my grey) "How ya' doin?" and he said "it's good".


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## maggiesmommy (Feb 23, 2010)

Daisy's dad said:


> It's funny how they sometimes respond correctly. You know it's just a coincidence but, you can't help but wonder. The other day I asked Louie (my grey) "How ya' doin?" and he said "it's good".



Very true...one time, our house phone was ringing and Merlin goes "GET THE PHONE!!! (pause) Hello?"


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## Daisy's dad (Apr 8, 2014)

Every time a phone rings Louie says "Hello? Hey. What?" then some jumbled stuff you can't understand, in my daughter's voice.


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## Melfice (Aug 4, 2012)

I used to have Parakeets when I was a teenager, and I really want to have birds again. But, I have a very hunter type cat, and I think he would try to kill my parrot if I had one.

Oh, and I have a prey driven Brittany too. The poor parrot would have a bad life in my house I think


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## Deber (Aug 23, 2011)

Melfice, at least our Gabby can handle the dogs and cats (while in her cage). Daughter is temp. living here with her 2 cats and one of her cats got too close to her cage and the tip of his tail whipped into the cage. Like lightening Gabby nipped his tail then said "NO". Cat squealed and ran! Both our goldens have gotten a nose bite when dogs stuck their noses too close, so as long as she is safe in her large cage, she loves the attention from the other animals.

After being in the country for a year Gabby has learned about all the wild bird calls and we have a bird feeder outside her large window. She loves the mornings when the wild birds come and they all talk to each other, but gee she can get loud. She can also imitate the dog barks and one sided phone calls. Amazing how funny she can be and probably doesn't even know it! She is such a fun bird.


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## Daisy's dad (Apr 8, 2014)

I put my dogs in the bedroom when I let louie out, just to be safe. Daisy pretty much ignores him when he's in his cage but, Harley (GSD) will go over to the cage and they'll give each other beak to nose type kisses. If louie was out though, I have no doubt Harley would eat him. Very high prey drive. Of course part of it may be that he's tired of the bird yelling at him all day. He goes on these rants telling him "Harley no! Harley, stop it! Harley box! HARLEY, BOX!!!" (box = crate).


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## maggiesmommy (Feb 23, 2010)

Merlin used to call our old dog...He'd whistle for her and go "Heeeerrree! Heidi! Heeeree Girl!!" Confused the crud out of the dog...she'd come running, then just look around...


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## Bwilson (Mar 25, 2014)

It has been a few years but we did fostering for a Moluccan cockatoo she has been left in a small cage with another bird. She was very scared and introverted. Took some time but she eventually started blossoming. She started stepping up for people and walking around on furniture and the floor. I know they aren't great talkers usually but she started developing quite the vocabulary. I loved when she would do running water sound. She and my rottie would fuss at each other like siblings and she would do a laughing sound. I figure one of these years when things settle again we will foster or rescue a bird again. She was a pure joy and seeing the changes and how she groomed and her diet change made her feathers beautiful. Something so charming about birds.


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## PatrickPhimr (8 mo ago)

Burd said:


> After losing my male pied suddenly, a few months later an 8yr old female WF tiel was surrendered at the humane society. I honestly wasn't looking and didn't want another bird. It was too hard losing them. A year or so before rescuing Maverick, I'd had my heart bird, Ladybird, a cinnamon pied female who passed away at 11 yrs, of a stroke and complications after a very bad night fright. The vet couldn't do anything and she died in my arms.
> But my Dad saw the pictures on the humane society website, showed my Mom, and then interrupted our early Thanksgiving meal to drive to see Missy.
> I met her, fell in love, and adopted her. Or rather, she seems to have rescued me.
> 
> ...


I'm ready to get a parrot. I have a friend with an African Grey who gave me the advice of putting videos of Greys on YouTube to listen to for 8 hours a day to see if I can handle it. I'm going to admit that it was pretty distracting.

Do all Greys really make that much noise all day? I really want a parrot that I can teach to talk, and I thought the Grey was my dream bird, as I love my friend's bird so much. But she knows I enjoy peace and quiet and doesn't think I'm going to like having a Grey. (Hers is noisy, but he's so much fun!) I have had quite a few birds, but none of them had the capability of talking. I really want a talker!

If you have any advice for me, I'd love to hear it. I have lots of time for a parrot, and I can bring it to work with me every day except for one, so it will have lots of attention. My kids are grown and my hubby works a lot. I do have other pets, but I don't think that will be a problem. I can afford a parrot, own my home, and have only a few allergies to mold and pollen.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

I had a Norwegian Blue for a short time.


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