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Dorian has done this to me as well. I've gotten up on the stepladder and taken the battery out, only to have the sound persist. Little bugger. Must be laughing it up at mommy.

Time has passed, and he now walks around the place like he owns it, carpet be damned. He has a weird obsession with getting into the bathroom, and I often find myself racing him to close the door while he's making a run for it. Keeping me on my toes lol.

GreycieMae is an excellent whistler. She gave up on any kind of talking very early. Her greatest talent is rattling off a very nice tune with her whistling and then finishing it with a fat juicy fart noise. She does it because she always gets an absolute riot out of it. She sleeps in our bedroom on the handle of a ladder because she used to get terrible night frights when I had them in a bird room. I was sure I was going to wake up to find her dead some morning because she was trapped in there freaking out slamming herself into the side of the cage. It happened way too often so she got moved into our bedroom and now hasn't had one single episode. Anyway she also makes the cutest coo'ing noises in the middle of the night when she hears me moving around. It's such a sweet little sound I have a hard time not reaching over and giving her a cuddle and a kiss.

Haha these are all really funny! I'm sure I have loads of stories with Alfie but I'm struggling to think of many right now. He learned the sound of the smoke detector when we were still living at my parents house. My mum went through a spell of burning everything and setting off the smoke alarm. Unfortunately Alfie associated the noise with my mum being in the kitchen, so whenever she walked past his cage to go to the kitchen he'd start beeping like the smoke alarm! My dad had been round lots to help with the garden and if he wanted to called me he'd walk into the house and yell "Trina!" and then I'd respond or come downstairs. One day he had finished in the garden, told me he was leaving then left. A little while later I heard "Trina!" in my dad's voice from downstairs. I assumed he'd forgotten something and come back so I went downstairs... but he wasn't there and his car was still gone. It was Alfie. He nailed the voice PERFECTLY. When we were still living with my parents if my mum called me from downstairs Alfie would answer "WHAT" in my snotty teenager tone. 😂

Alfie has always preferred whistles and noises over words. He knows the odd word and phrase and he does like to mumble sometimes. But he LOVES to whistle. He'll regularly whistle his own tunes as well. The worst noise he ever learned was in my previous house. His cage was in the hall near the front door and he learned the noise of the key turning in the lock. Which wasn't a problem until I was home alone one night, knowing full well my two housemates were out all night... then I suddenly hear a key turning in the lock and start panicking that someone is letting themselves in. 😂 It took me a good few moments to realise it was Alfie!

Never ever try and rush things with a grey. I believe from your posts that you have only had your second bird Bubbles for a month or thereabouts. Moving to a new home with new people, new animals and a new routine is a massive upheaval for a bird. They need time to settle down and familiarise themselves with their new environment and everyone/everything in it. This can take a while on it's own. And then suddenly there's another grey encroaching on their cage/space. You have to go at your birds' pace, not your own. It may take weeks, it may take months. But every time you try and force a grey to do something they really don't want to do you could set their progress back. Similarly, your first grey, Ziggy has suddenly had a new bird appear in his space- so that's a change that he needs to get used to as well. He may be a bit more curious than Bubbles as he's already familiar with your home, routine and family etc. But he still may take some time to get used to the new addition, especially if he's been an only bird for a while. It's also worth noting that your greys may NEVER get on. That's always a possibility and one you'll have to manage if it happens. This is one reason why I haven't added another bird to my house- I've had Alfie for 18 years and he's used to being an only bird. I'd only ever consider adding a second bird if I knew I could give them enough time and attention separately and away from each other, if they didn't get along.

Don't know I didn't think of this story before. My cockatiel Kodak (RB) loved to whistle but he really stank at it. The worst whistles ever, and an embarrassingly poor wolf whistle. Well Kodak liked to make up his own songs -- absolutely horrible to hear. Anyway, he'd stand on one leg -- his other foot held up like a hand (sort of like the 'stop' hand position). Anyway, he'd be singing some horrific sounding song he'd made up, with that foot out like "stop, wait for it -- here comes the good part." Always made me laugh until I cried. Damn I miss him! His songs were so bad no other parrot here EVER imitated him -- even they knew he stunk at it.

My CAG Snickers does an amazing wolf whistle. He also knows parts of the whistle song from The Bridge Over The River Kwai (which I taught him). If I whistle that song, he joins in on the parts he knows. But yes, I always give my guy a whistle (usually a wolf whistle) but his return whistle is ever so better than mine will ever be. 2022 makes 25 years I've had Snickers. I guess my whistling is probably as good as it ever will be. lol Mine also does all the sound effects -- a spoon scraping in a bowl, sound of a truck backing up, grandfather clock chimes, and the worst: the sound of the smoke detector, etc.. Oh, and he also does the smoke detector chirp sound it makes when it needs new batteries. No doubt that I have accidentally changed those alarm batteries too soon thanks to Snickers.

I have 3 parrots as you all know. My 2 greys talk well, not like some here, they say words and some phrases but don't seem to pick much up anymore. They LOVE to mimic whistling more than words. I just started copying them and they LOVE it! Anyone else here?

1) Years ago when my husband was alive, he'd suffer horrible migraines and was often up in the night to vomit. (Okay, not the best beginning of a story). But I got up one night and as I passed the bird room door, Snickers (CAG) called out "Are you okay?" I ignored him, not wanting to wake the whole crew up. But he kept repeating "Are you okay? Are you okay?" and finally he started making vomiting noises. It was super funny and I didn't know he even knew that noise. Guess he just assumed it was my husband up sick in the night. 2) Once I heard my husband call "What?" and I yelled back that I hadn't said anything. But again my husband called "What?" Took like 3 or 4 of these exchanges to realize my husband was outside and it was Snickers calling out "What?" I laughed but sure felt stupid afterwards -- I had no idea Snicker's mimicry was that good! He fooled me good! 3) I tried to teach my macaw to say "I love you" but she would never say it. Then one she was sitting on the back of my chair chewing up my shirt (she always started with the tags but eventually chewed the whole shirt up). Anyway, she chewed my shirt happily but then accidentally got a tiny bit of skin. I was startled and cried out 'ouch!' She didn't know how to say she was sorry, so instead she said "Well, I love you." 4) The best one I have: Once, I was up on a stepladder (in view of my CAG) trying to replace an HVAC filter in the ceiling return, and Snickers (my CAG) kept saying "Be careful! Be careful!" I only ever said 'be careful' to Snickers when he'd hang upside down from one toe. Guess he really understood what it meant! It's always sweet when a parrot says just the right thing! lol Share your stories!!!

A bigger concern than trying to catch him is trying to out run him when he's in a mood and chasing my feet to take a bite lol.

Once I was in the garage refinishing the kitchen cabinet doors. My dad came out and said "there you are!" I said "yeah, I've been out here all afternoon". He said "well, I've been talking to you for the last half hour!". He'd hit the wrong button on the remote and turned the tv to snow, and needed me to fix it. Thinking I was in the basement, he went to the top of the stairs and yelled for me. He heard me say "Comin' upstairs", so he went back to the living room to wait. This scene apparently repeated itself 2 more times, until he heard the sander turn on in the garage, and he realized he'd been talking to Dorian!

Timber and I whistle back and forth all the time, and he's a good whistler. When I rehomed him, I used the whistling as a bonding thing. He was terrified of course, being in a new place with a new person, but he would always whistle back when I whistled. We still do it, especially if I'm in another room. It's like "I'm OK, are you?"

I had a friend on CompuServe with a TAG, and she let her parrot sleep in their bedroom at night (caged). One morning she heard the carpet shuffling sound of her dog entering the bedroom and she sort of braced for the weight of her dog jumping up on her bed. But that jump never came. Nope, it was her TAG who had actually learned to mimic the carpet sound of a dog walking. Parrots are so attuned to such faint noises. Wild animals really have to assess and react to every single faint sound they hear for survival. Interesting to me. Snickers does make soft sounds sometimes, sounds like a door closing, the furnace kicking on, turning a burner knob off, oh, and dogs in the distance! All these sounds mimicked faintly and softly. So often I tune out some of these faint parrot sounds, much as I tune out the actual original sounds from around the house.

These are so funny! Sydney (CAG) loves to mimic power drills and other noisy tools. One day I thought my son was working on a project, went outside to see, but no one was there. The power saw is his favorite one to emulate. Maalik (CAG) loves to say 'Mom', in my son's voice to which I say 'What?' followed by Maalik letting go with a prolonged burping sound exactly as my son does. Fynn (CAG) copies everything Maalik says, to the point where I'm unable to discern who said what, unless I see one of their beaks moving. Shaylor (macaw) will always say, 'Are you okay?' in context. If something hits the floor, or if someone, say, stubs their toe, Shaylor is the first to ask this question. He also says 'good morning' and 'good night' in context. Shaylor will also extend his gorgeous wings whenever I say, 'Pretty wings'. If I say, 'Good stretch', he'll stretch his foot and wing on the same side in response.

Kevin and the others are correct. This is the best forum, full of knowledge there is. It has been hard to hang onto it without much activity. My schedule has changed since years back, so I work alot of hours. I do check in here, but don't post much as it is so hard to post pics & videos from my phone, if I could do it easily, I would be posting ALOT! I miss rushing to see the latest post, but I get how social media has taken over and pushed forums to a thing of the past. FB has too much drama, I personally don't like to post alot there about my parrots as I don't want the fact that I won 3 out there for others to get ideas..you never know who is sharing your posts. I worry about thieves. I have an alarm system and a big black Shepard that wants to eat anyone who ventures near my porch...but still it is always in the back of my mind. I wish we could get an app, but I realize that's a huge task & I wouldn't know where to start, if we did I think we could push it for more posting..IDK. Well, I appreciate all you do Kevin to keep us up & running and i really appreciate the members that do come here & contribute! Love to you all! <3

Our household is polyandrous: my wife has two husbands. Her main man, Huey and then her servant husband - me. Huey has lived here going on four years. In that time, he has learned to talk like me, act like me and basically does everything I do centered on Marietta. He wants her sole attention and has learned to basically take on my persona in order to get her attention. He tells her to 'calm down' in my voice. When she calls out 'Babe' he ALWAYS answers her with a 'Yeah'. If she asks me from another room if I want this or that....Huey will generally answer with an "ok", "no", "what?" or something appropriate for the question, always in my voice. What's really cute is that I have convinced him that Mommy loves big muscles. I have taught him to 'workout' in front of mommy. He will raise his wings and bring them down and do a 'whoosh' sound. He'll generally do this 4-5 times while Marietta oohsss and awwwess over him. Huey also constantly asks for a 'shower'. A shower is basically, Marietta gets in her tub, and I bring Huey to just outside the entrance of the bathroom and put him on the floor. He will then puff up and strut into the bathroom where he gets lots of ewwws and awwwwss. He then proceeds to hang out next to her inside the cubby hole under the sink and bangs around like a construction worker. It really sounds like he's busy building something in there. One day I made the mistake of getting in the tub and quickly found out that was off limits. It's one of the few times that Huey has launched an attack across a room and nailed me. I'm not allowed in mommies love tub as we call it. Huey does get me into trouble a lot because he will get short with her and smart off in the exact same way I do. He's always telling her "oh Marietta...." or grumbling in a low voice like I do when I've had about enough talking for the day. Marietta LOVES to tell me, "you see how you talk to me sometimes" Ok, thanks Huey, I don't really need help getting myself in trouble.

Tinkerbell is doing fine now. She's back to biting me and giving me strong corrections. Conures do tend to have big-billy-bad-a** syndrome. Gram-for-gram though, the scrappiest fighter of all my birds is Toby my Caique. He will take on GreycieMae and has won that battle a couple times. I don't let them all have fight-nights but sometimes the idiots will find an opportunity to get it on.

Like many, I like checking in here. I don't really have much to post. Most anything I can think of (stories, knowledge) have already been posted. I like having the forum here for searches though -- a place people can search for answers. I am one of those people more likely to search for existing posts when I am researching something than to start a new post asking something. This forum is valuable for the knowledge already posted here, imo. [I was a sysop on Compuserve from around '92 - '02. I remember how busy it was, the thrill of signing in to see what all was new since my last visit 4 hours earlier. lol But eventually those forums slowed down and I'd sign in only to see no new posts (or replies). People were leaving Compuserve and moving on to the internet back then. And now many Internet forums are slowing down too. ]

The facebook groups are too big and too full of drama, although I do remember when there was a bit of drama here too. I only frequent them looking for cute videos. There was one I found the other day of a Grey singing to some childrens song and his singing was absolutely terrible, it was so stinking cute I couldnt' stop watching it. But this place is always my favorite.

I love all of the stories of your greys seeking you out! Alfie's main cage is in the living room - which is open plan with the dining room and kitchen. I have two cats so when he is out of his cage I have to shut them upstairs and he gets the downstairs. He mostly amuses himself but if I start cooking dinner he'll usually fly over to the dining table to see what I'm up to and if I go back to the sofa he'll usually fly back over to his shelves above the sofa or he'll come and join me on the sofa. It's very cute to have a bird shaped shadow following me around. He has a second smaller cage upstairs in one of my spare bedrooms where the computer is so that we can keep each other company whilst I work from home. If I have a quieter day then I'll let him out in the room but have to keep the door shut because of the cats. He has a java tree on my desk and another shelf to play on, plus the play top on his cage, which he still doesn't particularly like being on. He'll often come and sit on the back of my chair to supervise me at work.

I figured it out. This should work better.