Hello! Just coming back to this page for an update on Keto and Gracie. I was finishing my masters when we added all these birds, and so had no time for message boards! But I see that we are coming up on 5 years with them, so I will let you know how things are going. It was so funny to read the above when we had first gotten them, because very little of their respective personalities has changed.
It took them about a year before we could count on them not biting us (actually 5 years for Keto and I, since it was only recently that I could carry him from cage to perch without the Gauntlet of Good (a thick dish towel wrapped to protect my hand and arm)). He adores my husband, and Gracie adores me, so I guess we are all good there. Gracie has turned into a shameless snuggler but only in the evening (head-rubbing time). There is always a risk of being nipped in the morning! It has been FOREVER since anyone broke skin.
Keto is the talker, and says the most amazing things. He has always had his "with us" vocabulary, and you can hear him muttering other things when we are out of the room, but could never quite make out the words. About a year ago he really stepped up his game. He says things that appropriate to the situation, sometimes things we have never heard him say before. He plays the "come here" game where he makes the request and I pop into the room and go out again, rinse, repeat a few times. One day I was running late and told him I didn't have time today and he said a long drawn-out "Oh no...." with perfectly sad inflection. He went through a short period where he said "F*ck you" several times, and when i called over to him "Not that one, Keto, that isn't very nice" he replied "Oh yeah?" and said it one more time, after which he was ignored for the rest of the day and never said it again. It is clear that he understands everything we say, sometimes knows the right response, and has a large enough (hidden) vocabulary to keep surprising us. He has said "Oh no" with different inflections, always appropriate to the situation.
Gracie continues to be the whistler. We have shared with her Westminster and Bach, among others. She had repeated parts of the chimes, but is more often her own composer, sometime stringing together a good number of notes, which she can then repeat. Great fun!
The "beaking" happens whenever we let it, always with either cage bars between them, or a thumb securely hanging on to feet. The outcome is always identical to when the first came. They both get involved, Gracie gets too aggressive, Keto hates it, and we pull them apart quick. It is clear that they love each other, and they each get a little nervous when the other one is out of the room.
All in all, things have gone well. They are an endless source of entertainment, despite their demands. And parakeet Birdy is still rounding out our flock.