neoow

So the IP camera turned up yesterday (much quicker than expected!) and I set it up last night. I set up email notifications for the sound activation and told it to email me a 15 second clip. I got about 80 clips!!! I'm now going through them- Alfie chats a fair bit when I'm out and about! Once I've gone through them I'll string a few clips together and post it on the forums. I'm going to play with the sensitivity settings and try again tomorrow... otherwise I'll be spending the rest of the month fighting the avalanche of video clip emails!!

Thanks for the information Alex, do come back and let me know how you get on. My problem is that I would like to save the video (as I'd like to try and capture some of Alfie's musings throughout the day as well as keeping an eye on things... hence sound activated recording). So I'd have to pay for the service if I wanted to do that. However, otherwise, the dropcam kit does have good reviews.

Thanks Alex. I'd read about the dropcam ones but everything I'd read said you had to pay a monthly fee in order to save videos. If you don't, you can watch it live but not save it? I won't be able to spend much time watching it live because I'll be at work.

They're so beautiful! I bet they're a right handful!

I'm quite fortunate in that the vet I use takes Alfie in his carrier to another room. He doesn't even get him out of the cage until I'm well out of sight. Therefore I get no post-vet-trip sulking.

Totally agree with everyone else's responses here. Once you've ruled out something scary in/around the cage or a health problem, then it's probably attention seeking behaviour. Alfie has learned lots of these over the years to get a reaction from me, family members and house mates. His favourite one is a really loud squeak at the moment- it's very short, sharp and LOUD. He waits until my current housemate is next to his cage then does it, as it has maximum effect. He also does the same to me- but usually saves it for my housemate. My housemate has listened to my instructions and just ignores it as best as he can. I do too. However, it can make you jump! If he makes other noises, I make sure I respond to those and ignore the loud squeak noise. It has certainly lessened- but he'll still do it every so often. He used to make one of my previous housemates react all the time. His cage used to be at the bottom of the stairs and when one of my housemates would wander down the stairs Alfie would launch himself at the side of the cage, making said housemate jump and react. Even though it wasn't a positive reaction, Alfie did it every single time... because it was still a reaction and some form of attention from that housemate. The best way is to reward the "good" sounds and try your best to ignore the "bad"/unwanted sounds. When your parrot starts screeching/screaming, just ignore it and carry on doing what you're doing. Maybe even move further away. When your parrot makes sounds you like then talk back and praise.

All being well I should get it later this week. Once it's up and running I'll let everyone know how I get on with it on this thread.

Amazing. Well done you!

Forscam replied to an email I sent earlier today about their IP cameras and apparently their models starting with FI8 feature sound activated recording -so I believe yours should do it, Timbersmom. However, it's not mentioned on their product descriptions on amazon.co.uk and I didn't see anyone mention that feature so I think I'll stick with the D-Link one I ordered for now. If it's no good, then I'll replace it with a forscam one.

Yeah it seems fairly hard to find an IP camera that does sound activation as well as or instead of motion. I know a lot of them you can sit and watch and choose what to record- but I wouldn't be able to do this whilst at work. Well I could... but I doubt it would go down too well. I did A LOT of searching tonight and found this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CAT0QMQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which is a D-Link DCS-933L Day/Night Network Cloud Camera. It was the only one I found that had sound activation mentioned. However, I'm not sure if it will just alert me with a photo or actually record. So I'm not sure yet if it will do what I want it to do. I figured seeing as it was the only one I found, I'd give it a go and could always return it or sell it on if it doesn't do what I want. Otherwise, I think SterlingSL's suggestion of a voice recorder is probably my next option.

Blimey! So glad you managed to get him back so quickly without incident! Fortunately I've never been in this situation myself, as Alfie is always in his cage when the doors and windows are opened. However, it would only take me not shutting the door properly or leaving a food bowl hatch open etc. I managed to do that once actually- I didn't shut a food bowl hatch properly and he got out into the house whilst I was at work. I was at work and got a call from my sister to say he'd gotten out and was in the kitchen. Worryingly enough, she had opened the back door for the dog before she realised Alfie had escaped!! Fortunately nothing came of it and he stayed put. I know she wouldn't have forgiven herself if he had decided to fly and had gotten out - even though it wasn't her fault at all!! Needless to say, that was a warning enough. I double check all food bowl hatches and doors nowadays!!!

Hello all, I'm really tempted to get an IP camera set up in my house so I can try and capture some of Alfie's sounds and mumblings throughout the day whilst I'm at work. I've had a quick search but can't easily find sound activated IP cameras - most are motion activated but mention nothing about sound activation. I don't think it would be sensitive to pick up Alfie's beak moving! Do any of you have anything like this set up and if so, what do you use? Thanks!

Aaand another quick one

I managed to get a video of Alfie's quack today. He kept quacking so I encouraged him and managed to get him to do it for the camera.

I love that you let the groomer be the "bad guy" and you were able to go in and "rescue" him from it all haha. I took Alfie to the vet last month to have his beak and talons sorted. His beak seems to grow wonky somehow and it was getting quite bad. He didn't seem bothered by it (could still eat drink and play just fine) but I wanted to get it sorted before it got out of hand and caused any problems. I worried the whole way to the vets (I take him to a vet who is in a different town- about 30 mins drive away because the "avian specialist" in my town is hopeless) about how he would react and whether he would be frightened etc. Turns out, he was a little superstar. The vet was really pleased with him and said he was as good as gold. Just sat there and put up with it all, no screams or anything! The only thing he did do was fly away from the vet at the first opportunity and landed on two different nurses- the vet assumed he just wanted to get away from him as soon as he could so he couldn't do anything else! Hehe.

Great advice, thank you. I never stop talking to him. Since I moved into my house, I have a great set up as I was able to have my PC downstairs, so we're together all the time when I'm home except for when I go to sleep. I'll quite often chat to him, ask him what/how he's doing etc. I know he picks up more than he lets on. He just chooses to voice sounds rather than words most of the time. Which is fine, as that's obviously what he prefers! He does have sessions where he mumbles to himself in different voices- I always think he might be practicing new words or phrases- or just trying to come up with his own! He's 11 years old now and still comes out with new things all the time.... like the dog bark, for instance.

Awesome stuff, thanks all! Great to hear how clever all your parrots are! Thanks for the video, Jeff! That's amazing! Alfie isn't a big talker, so I doubt he'll learn the questions along with the sounds. But I'll be super pleased if he learns to associate the sounds to the words and replies!

I've had to leave Alfie behind on several occasions throughout his life (holidays, training courses etc). Fortunately these days, I have a housemate who will look after Alfie (and the cats) for me whilst I'm away. He wouldn't ever let Alfie out of the cage for me (and I wouldn't want him too, as Alfie can be a handful for those that aren't used to parrots... or Alfie!!), but is happy to change food and water etc. Previously, when I lived with my parents (and usually went away with them) I had nobody who could come and look after Alfie for me at the house. So he had to go away on his own little birdy holiday. I used to take him back to the pet shop where I got him from. It was a family run place and the woman who originally owned/ran it was lovely. He would have to stay in a smaller cage (until they allowed me to bring his cage with him) and he used to recognise her and the shop. Unfortunately one year, I turned up and she was nowhere to be found. Instead, there was a youngish man in charge (probably late teens, thinking about it). I was a bit skeptical but had no choice at that point but to leave him there. However, when I came back, Alfie had food and water in his bowls, but they had put nothing in the bottom of his cage for the duration I was away, so all his food and droppings had fallen to the bottom and been left there. The boy was very rude and obviously didn't care about anything- let alone how to run the business, so I shoved the money in his hand, took Alfie home and never went back. My mum looked after him once (when I didn't have a housemate). He stayed at my parents house for two weeks (so was still in a familiar environment) and seemed to have a good time. Again, he wasn't let out for the duration but he was in his own cage in a familiar environment so was fine. I'd always recommend getting someone to "parrot sit" for you if you can- instead of sending them to a different environment. At least that way, everything is familiar to them. It's also less stress for you, in my opinion. I always worried when I had to drop him off somewhere. I now don't have to worry about it because I know my housemate is looking after him in his own cage and home and Alfie will be ok with that. However, if you can take your parrot with you- that's probably even better, as they get to experience the trip away too!

Hello all! Alfie amused me greatly today, so I thought I would share it with everyone and ask about similar stories. I've been trying to teach Alfie to respond to a question- what noise does a [insert animal here] make? He can make a quack quack quack sound, he can meow and he recently started learning to bark like the little dogs from over the road. So I'm thinking my first three should be duck, cat and then dog (once he's mastered his bark). This can then be a fun little game that we play... particularly as Alfie likes to learn new noises (rather than words). So if this works, I can try and teach him new sounds like chickens etc. So today he was practicing his quack noise (as well as saying 'good day' and some whistles). So I quacked back at him a few times. I then said: "Alfie- what noise does a DUCK make?" and waited a few moments. I then quacked a few times, to show him. I repeated myself, always giving him a few seconds to respond before quacking myself. (I must sound like a right nut haha!) I repeated myself a couple more times... before finally: "quack quack quack"!! I praised him highly for this. Then I asked again... QUACK QUACK QUACK!! Awesome! More praise... and then he did a dance for me haha. A victory dance, I'm sure. I tried again a few minutes later, but he wasn't interested anymore. That's fine, he's not a performing monkey. I quacked to myself instead and then went back to whistling to him, which he joined in with wholeheartedly. (He loves whistling) I'll keep at it. He'll only respond when he feels like it, I'm sure. But I was very pleased that I got the right response from him twice in a row. He looked very pleased with the praise he got for it too. I'm sure it will take him a while to learn the associations between the words and the sounds. But it gives me another way to interact with him and gives him something to think about. So- what questions do your parrots respond to?

I would love to take Alfie to work with me. I work in a school in the ICT dept and so I'd only ever want to take him in during the holidays (as otherwise it would be too busy and too noisy). I don't think my work colleagues would like it though and I'm not sure if there are any rules against bringing pets in. I'm assuming there are in case of allergies etc. Someone else who used to work there used to bring her dog in all the time- but got asked not to when the headteacher changed over. So I'm not sure Alfie would be too welcome. Plus, I doubt I'd get too much work done!!

Hah, I read that comic yesterday. I'm pretty sure that's how my housemate (and possibly some family members... such as my sister) feels about Alfie.

Oh man. Your post brought me to tears. I can only imagine the pain and hurt you are going through right now. I'm so very sorry for your loss.

Alfie occassionally regurgitates for me... but he eats it straight away. Not sure what to take away from that... perhaps he thinks he loves me then changes his mind?

So happy that Brutus is home!

Oh no! I can't even begin to imagine what you're going through. I hope you find him very soon.