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Jay your post came from the heart and was in the best inters to all no mater what their belief. To care for all is a gift.

Timber came to us with just a couple. He calls my hubby a**hole, and says d*mn bird with some regularity. It could be much worse! He had a couple of homes (at least) prior to us, so who knows what he has been exposed to or picked up.

Blessed be the members of this Forum and Blessed be the people of this World who fought for it. Thank you all for all you gave to this Country's Freedom and much more the Freedom of our World.....Pray to the one you call God, and to those who do not believe in a God, give thanks to our Freedom.... Thank You for Your Service... Amen... Rev Jay

No cussing birds here, snide remarks maybe.🤐

Sometimes, the mental processes, emotions and speech capabilities of these Grey's just blow me away. I would like to hear others stories as well and keep this thread active, if possible. Today: Early this morning I let Dayo (CAG) and Jake (Conure) out of their cages, went through the good morning and high fives ritual. I then went out the back sliding glass door and did about 20 minutes of chores in view through the windows which both birds watch out of. When I came back in, I immediately walked over, sat down and turned the PC on to check things online. In 30 seconds, Dayo about 15 feet away on the Kitchen counter states "Shoot!"...."GOD!"..... "I'm on the Computer"...."Want some Apple and Grape". I look over in shock at his clear verbal indication that he was totally disappointed in my actions upon coming back in the house and not doing my normal task of chopping up veggies and fruit first thing. He was staring straight at me and obviously waiting for my acknowledgment. Which I did by saying "Oh, sorry, lets get some veggies and fruit" and proceeded to perform that task. I have truly been trying to multi-task mentally and pay attention to what he is saying no matter what I am doing. My theory is, if they are communicating to us and we do not respond with an appropriate statement back or action, they will decide their communication is either wrong or not affective and not be as eager to try and clearly communicate using words and phrases what they want or think. It still boggles my mind that his clear disappointment (Emotional) was clearly indicated just like that of when my children were young and disappointed we didn't do what they were expecting.

How has this not been added to in over a year? We rescued our nearly 5 year old CAG 9 days ago. Every day she gets more chatty, with various noises and whistling. I wonder if the whistling is something she was taught or is she making it up as she goes? And like many Greys, she shuts up as soon as she sees someone coming into the room. Many different voices. Should be interesting.

My Corky is a little lady, Kind of straight laced. She wouldn`t say sh*t, even if she had mouth full.

Alfie doesn't swear. I'm amazed he hasn't picked up the odd word or two as people do swear in front of him (myself included, though I try not to). I'm not really keen on him learning to swear as I know he'll most likely use it at the most undesirable times. Then again, Alfie isn't really a big talker. He prefers noises and sounds over words.

Our Joe when we rescued him would say things like 'Please feed me", Buddy and Pistachio whom we rescued from druggies would cuss and carry on, in a very short time after no longer hearing those words, they ceased using them...In the wild, parrots especially Zons will use the language of the tribes they live by, so it is more than just mimicking.

Dorian doesn't swear. I caught my brother standing in front of his cage one time saying "shit head, say shit head" once, and he was no longer allowed unsupervised time with the bird after that. Our nursing home in town had a parrot for years. He came in with a resident and then, when the resident died he became the nursing home bird. He was known as Tony the swearing parrot. He (the parrot) had a dreadful vocabulary but everyone seemed to get a kick out of it. Some people do find swearing in a bird funny, but it could potentially make re-homing a bird harder. If you want to stop the swearing just don't respond to it, especially with laughter. They love to do things that get a response from us. Don't let her see or hear you respond to the naughty words, and then when she says something positive give her plenty of praise. This can take a while. I'm in the middle of trying to extinguish a sound here with Dorian and it's taking forever. Then again, he's slow on the uptake lol. You'll probably hear lots of things as she unpacks her suitcase. Sit back and enjoy.

To this great Forum, I have and always will respect and honor the members who have contributed to it's growth and purpose. I'm sorry if my post has offended anyone. I will refrain from any such posts in the future. Rev Jayd

As some of you might know, I am a new pet to an CAG. We've had her for about 3 weeks now, Bella has fit in just perfect! Her vocabulary is unreal! We never heard it during visits. But recently we get "G D" followed by "M F". First time I heard it I was on the floor I was laughing so hard! Now we can almost pinpoint when she's going to say it. Not saying it's a bad thing in our household, just want to hear some other experiences with naughty birds.

Our Huey uses the F-bomb. It's almost always when he bites at you and makes contact, then he'll immediately say the F-bomb. I suppose it's from a previous owner that got bit and used the F-bomb.

Hi all ive had my african grey for almost 15 years now but i got him when he was 1 year old most recently i have noticed he is picking at one side of his wing but he has never done this before ? He gets bathed with water out spray bottle sometimes with some aloe vera juice every few days for as long as ive had him and is on a very good diet etc so this is very out of the blue really. Im a first time poster so will try upload a pic and any help/info would really apprecite it thanks

Your bird could have bumped or struck that wing also like a dog they will pick at an area that hurts or a damaged feather. Let us know what your Vet finds please.

I know offense is never your intention, we love you just as you are!😘

The objects that scared her were being carried by her by me. I don't walk slow. I do approach her into the cage slowly. My son said it look aggressive. It was my fault for suddenly poking the top of my head in while cleaning the bottom of the cage. A big round brown scary thing!! When she's at the edge of the door opening or out of the cage I will slowly lower my head and have my son observe what happens. We've had birds that liked to preen hair and others that would attack it.

Anything new in a grey's world is out to kill them (in their minds, anyway). You may notice that they are incredibly observant. Sometimes they will sit and observe for a while before being brave enough to edge towards the new thing and give it a prod. Sometimes they may need to observe 'the thing' for a few days before they finally realise it's not actually going to kill them. In regards to the hair... Is she attacking your hair (e.g lunging at it and acting aggressively) or is she just having a gentle poke at you to see what that fluffy stuff on top of your head is? Alfie likes to play with my hair on occasion. They will 'beak' things when checking them out. I'm just curious if it's aggressive or curious behaviour. Sounds like it's aggressive from your post though.

😊Thank you Judy, Your 100% right😊 Judy's made a real good point......My respect runs deep for you...God bless you Judy, Luvparrots and all you sweet people. Rev Jay

The first thing I would do is schedule an avian vet visit for sometimes when a bird starts plucking it means something is amiss, there could be an infection or inflammation in that area. Then if everything checks out ok then look to see what if anything has changed in his environment, it could be something so slight for greys do not like change. Whatever you do don't let it bother you or allow him to see you upset about the plucking for they pick up on our emotions.

Greetings, if I may, has you home been warmer or dryer his season? You might wish to spray your baby 2 to 3 times a week with the Aloe Vera juice, you an also make a mild solution of Chamomile tea and spray your fid. The spray isn't absorbed by the feathers but by the skin. You can also try limit fruit to 3 small pieces a week and feed a almond or two a day. Greys don't absorb calcium by food very well so you might want to try real sun light and or a sun lamp.You can also increase the green leafy veggies and feed a washed hard boiled egg, just cut in half shell and all, a half every other day. Finely a good food for calcium etc is to boil some chicken drum sticks and let your fid eat them, please leave some meat on them lol...You'll be left fix-ins for chicken soup for you.....

Hello and welcome to the forum! Your grey is beautiful I have no experience with plucking, but others here have, and they will respond soon I'm sure.

Our routine when I get home from work is to go let Bandit out of her cage so we can spen time together. Dinner then cuddles. One night I got home late and didn't let her out. (my husband had her out most of the day, thankully). It had been a long day at work I went up stairs took a shower and when to bed. As I am lying there I hear, "The grey Bandit needs help with a jail break." I feel incredibally guilty and get up to let her out. She repeated this as she heard me coming down the stairs. Naturally I spent about an hour with her as I am fighting to stay awake. Oooh what we do for our birds!! My husband taught her this phrase in the time frame of a couple weeks. It makes me feel terrible every time she says it. And it happens to be only when she is in her cage and wants out.

A friend of my mum's has a CAG her name is Winnie, every night when Hope sits down do have her supper it goes.. Winnie- Winnie need bite Hope- Winnie has to wait its hot Winnie- Winnie need HOT bite Hope- you don't want it its to hot Winnie- HOPE Winnie need HOT BITE NOW!!, winnie likes hot... and it will continue until Hope cools off a bite enough for Winnie to have a bite, also after supper her grey and zon ask for their popsicles lol I'm not sure if this falls in the same catagory but I think it is awesome

OK! So I got up this morning and didn't have to go to work so I thought I might engage Tobie into his "who's in the cage" dialogue. I set up the camera and Tobie was just doing what he does every morning and then suddenly starts counting. So here is the video. I wasn't kidding when I said I could tell a story every day. To be honest I heard the 4-1-6 and he has said 4-0-6 before (a week ago) and so that part wasn't new. You'll hear the new part. My husband swears he isn't doing this. I know I've never said this to him. We still can't figure out where he got the 4-1-6. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpVXIk5Qu_U

It's so wonderful that they have each other, even if they do annoy each other at times. OK - I actually could tell a story every day, but half of them nobody believes. Here is one though. Tobie's newest phrase is to do with "the cage". I think he has just figured out what to call that wire box he lives in. This is how it goes. "Where's Tobie? Tobie in the cage?" Where's Mamma? Mamma going in the cage? Tucker in the cage? I'm going! I'm going! I'm going in the cage? (now he goes in the cage and eats a bite, then ......) Bird in the cage!!! Jan, Jan, Jan, Hey Jan, ---Bird in the cage". About that time I've just gotten the camera set up and he stops the chatter.

From a youngster, a Grey will start to make sounds and noises, it's possible that they are practicing speech, and sounding out sounds. Most Grey's talk at around 1 year old, some earlier, some later, some say few words, some say many, you never know! Does your baby make sounds or talk? Jayd

The other night I was on the phone with my Mom, Paco was happily playing on his spinning playgym and got a little to rambunctious and slipped a bit, losing his balance for a moment. He looked at me and hollered "Woooooowwwww!" I use this exclamation whenever him and I are doing something that I think might cause him a bit of fear, or hesitation, or when I want him to know that we are doing something that is an adventure. Even without really being able to make a facial expression, it was clear that he was relieved he caught himself and was ok. Thanks for starting this post Dan, I hope I can continue to add to it.

More Grey Cognition; Joey's treat rewards are pine nuts and salt-free pretzels which are only given to him on special occasions, as training rewards and as treats sparingly. Joey is very weight-conscious and is careful to only eat what he needs and does eat a balanced diet of all that is offered to him. We, as does danmcq, use all interactions (as much as we can) for training . So, after breakfast, (since Jay does that the majority of the time), Jay asks Joey if he wants a "good nut" and shows him the bag of pine nuts. After a pause, Jay will give him one at a time (he gets two altogether) which Joey savors. Then, later, after play time, he is shown the pretzel bag and is asked if he wants a "good nut" and then he gets a pretzel. (We only started this a few days ago) Well, today is my day off and I had the breakfast duty today. After breakfast, I was cleaning up and preparing veggie plates when I heard Joey say "WANNA GOOD NUT!". OOPPSS! I had forgotten his routine of getting a pine nut after breakfast...as I headed over to show him the bag, he reminded me "Good Nut!!" My bad...he certainly was letting me know in no uncertain terms that he was upset he didn't get his nut. So, I went back to what I was doing...I then heard Joey again say "Good Nut!" I explained to him that he already had his nuts and again he said "Good nut!" I offered him a pine nut and he pushed my hand away and said "Good Nut!!" Jay yelled out, "He wants his pretzel". Sure enough, he took his pretzel and took ten minutes to savor that pretzel. Then he started whistling his own tune and danced to it before turning to his toys to play....amazing... Joey is our 3 year old rescue and it's taken us a long time to get to this point. I wish we could have had him as a fledgling... Spock; Tango, our 'Too says "Whatcha doing?" at which we answer "cooking, getting babies' food, cleaning, etc.". So now Spock will fly over to our shoulder and say "Doing?" and he will be looking down at whatever you are doing and expect an answer, such as "on the computer", "fixing breakfast", "fixing veggies" (at which time he will climb down to examine the process further and if it is veggies, he will help by tossing out what he doesn't want or like and eating whatever he does LOL). Other than a few phrases like "Gimmee a kiss", "Good Water", etc. he still using single words to get across his meaning. He is still a bird of few words...lol! Maggie

My daughter was being cranky one night...it was about time for bed. Wait, only one night of being cranky? HA! I wish! We always let her watch mickey mouse and then bed time. So, she was cranky as all get out, Jasper looks at her and says, 'want to watch mickey mouse?' (that's what we say)! It's amazing to me what these birds understand! Oh and then the dogs where barking to come inside and Jasper said, 'Let the dogs in!'

Both Spock and Joey say,"Gimme a kiss" Joey also says "com-eer gimme a kiss" when you go to them, they both "smack" and kiss your nose. Salsa our Amazon can be corrected verbally , with some forcefulness, so when she's loud, we claped [no more] our hands and say "Shhhh". When Spock and Salsa do something that bothers Joey, he'll call their name, say "stop it" and make a loud clapping sound! LoL Today Joey said his wanna kiss, I didn't respond quickly enough, so he said disgustedly, "Gonna give me a kiss! Clap!", I guess he told me! Jayd .......... As a side note, I wish Spock had never learned "What". LoL

He may or may not truly understand, but it certanly appears that he does by his response. Obviously you consistently use that phrase each time a cage movement occurs, thus "It's ok", is what he has verbally and mentally linked to that event. I tell Dayo "It's OK", everytime something happens that he does not need to fear. Over the last few years, he will slip or see something a little scary and well assure himself verbally "It's ok Dayo". You are on the right path and your Grey is communicating to you, in my opinion. Thanks for sharing this. I appreciate all the others comments too and look forward to this being a jam packed thread with everyones experiences.

That is really amazing. If I have to move Morgan's cage while he's in it, I say in a calm voice, "It's OK." The other day, I sorta bumped him, and said, "Sorry, Morgan, I didn't mean to bump you." And he said, "It's OK." I was not moving the cage at the time!!! Now I wonder if he has put together what "It's OK" might mean, or if he was just babbling. He's now almost 9 months old, so I don't expect him to understand all that much, but maybe he does!!! Great story, Dan!