Inara

Greycie needs her own sitcom! : )

Kevin you are wonderful, and have done so much for us all. Thank you so much for transferring this incredible home and archive. Will definitely be there at greyforums.org.

Always love seeing and hearing about Alfie. Such a sweeheart, and I agree. When our fids trust us, they look to us for our reactions and know that everything is alright.

Oh I sooo love this, and the photos are adorable! HRH is a total shredder. She could care less about chewing wood (hence I have to take her in a few times a year to get her beak blunted down) but she loves loves loves to shred, paper especially and her boings of course. She also enjoys untying knots, and unscrewing wingnuts that hold things onto her cage bars. I have to say that I have never in all of these years thought of putting a telephone book or catalog in her cage for her...... guess what I'll be doing.... :D

Good: Being able to share life with one of the most empathetic and fascinating creatures on the planet. Being a major sci-fi nerd, I just think of HRH as an alien species with whom I have a wonderful friendship like Han Solo and Chewbacca, or the Mandolorian and Baby Yoda The Bad: having to wake up with the sun every day now that I am retired. I would soooo love to sleep in. Just even until 8 a.m. The Ugly: I tell people that living with parrot is like living with a punk rock band of toddlers gone wild on tour. Constant hullabaloo, mess, poop, litter, and things beaked, broken, and a noise level that many people find irritating. Very expensive to boot and there is not a band of roadies to clean up after the band.....

HRH Inara detests any kind of dish that sits around. She will tip it and dump it lickitysplit. Fixed her wagon with these: https://www.caitec.com/birds/bird-cages/accesories/exterior-feeders-3/ Not only does she like them, she loves to hear her own voice in the one that I have that holds her drinking water dish. She does radio free Inara broadcasts from her little sound chamber often of a late afternoon. I like them because they contain the eating mess, and if I need someone else to come feed and water her, the outer plastic chambers slide up and the dishes come out from the outside of the cage since many birds do not take kindly to people reaching in and out of their homes, HRH included! Really, I would not worry about putting a food dish in his cage since he eats plenty outside of his cage and is free to roam, as long as he has plenty of access to water. Do you close his cage door at night for him to sleep? If so, maybe some type of clamped on dish that you can stick a couple nutriberries or some type of non-spoiling food for overnights in case he gets hungry. HRH calls them her "night night cookies" as she gets one in her beak and one tossed into her external feeder when I put her to bed. You are not a meanie or a terrible hooman. She also detests it if I change *any* toys in her cage. She likes her exact ones, in their same exact places, and when they wear out, she wants the exact replacements. I get it. It is her house. I wouldn't want someone coming into my home and rearranging things all the time. So your buddy keeps trying to tell you to keep that @#*(# thing out of his home. LOL

Am so glad to hear that Tinkerbell is doing well. Whew!!

In the evenings, I like to have some Redi-Whip whipped cream in my coffee. One day I was thinking to myself, "Geeze, they sure don't put as much in these cans as they used to..." Later that evening, I was sitting in the kitchen, and HRH Inara was in there on her perch in front of the "squirrels" windows. Joe came in and opened the fridge, and Inara made the perfect sound of canned whipped cream being squirted into a mouth!! I looked at Joe, and he said, "OK, I know this looks bad...." I burst out laughing and he confessed that he often when I was not around (apparently) would swing by the fridge and shoot some whipped cream out of the can straight into his mouth! Then he looked at Inara and said, "Stool pigeon!" Which of course made me laugh harder. These are some great stories! I loved reading them. Keep them coming

HRH Inara also enjoys whistling. When she was little, Joe taught her, "If I only had a brain," and I taught her the first few bars of "Over the Rainbow," so she uses those for our separate flock calls. Then hers is one she made up herself. She also (as many of you know, loves "Walk Like an Egyptian") can't wait for the whistling part in her favorite song. She gives a loud whistle after her danger sound when she is on the ground, and a few months ago took to doing what I call her "Taxi whistle" every time she convinces me to give her a ride back to her cage from another room. She hops on my shoulder and gives that whistle. She also has a singing song that she made up that goes like this: "I love carrrrrrots." With the carrrrots going up and emphasis on the 2nd syllable. She sings it in a pirate sounding voice (wth??hahah). She recently added a 2nd verse to it, "Joe loves carrrrrots." She really is delighted when she gives a whistle, if we answer with our own identifying one. And if we whistler hers, she dances with joy. OMG the stories of the door lock sound, and the "wait here comes the good part" foot, just slayed me!

HRH can also be pretty fleetfooted ! She does love toes, but doesn't bite mine. We play "get those toesies," where I hold my foot up and she come running and then I try to grab her beak with my toes. She loves it, crazy girl ! HOWEVER....she hates it when I try to put socks on in front of her. That is when she will move light lightening and try to nip at my foot. She's like a birdie F1 car at that point!

Well, also as an Internet oldtimer (back in the day when I had to stick my phone receiver into the modem cradle and telnet from Wyoming into Norman, OK to get access), I hope this forum never goes away. It was so comforting to have enough energy to pop back in and to see old friends and fids. Melts my heart. I suspended my Facebook account ages ago and I left all of my groups and deleted everyone from my friend list except for immediate family. It went from being a fun place to game and chat with friends to a quagmire of vitriol. Nope. I am on MeWe which has no ads, no trackers, no click bait, and I only use it for a small private group of 4 dear friends and myself so we can chat daily and share pics of our kids and grandkids. This forum seriously could be considered the Bible of Greys. There is such a wealth of info here that is unparalleled. I'm here until the fat lady sings.... xoxo Jane and HRH

Sukei is such a lucky bird to have such a fierce and loving champion in you, Kevin. That was quite a convoluted adventure getting him here, but you refused to give up. All's well that ends well, and well worth Sukei's extending his birthday celebration for weeks. hahaha

Oh my gosh could Dorian be any cuter??! So sweet to watch his tentative steps and then braver and braver!

Dorian is a champ!! Gosh, nine years have flown by! (pun intended hee). HRH sleeps in her home cage that is on the other side of an adjoining wall to our bedroom. A few years ago, she decided that she loved to be covered at night. I called the cover, her "night night." Well, she loves it and depending on whether it is daylight savings time or not, she likes to go "night night" at about 5 PM but will pipe up with comments from the peanut gallery as we are having our dinner and going about our own evening routines, but settles completely down into a great snooze by 6PM. In the winter, she starts stirring at 7 a.m. and if we do not hustle to uncover her, after she has said, "Good morning out there" in a sweet little voice, she will then switch to a sharp whistle and if that does not work, then it is her pterodactyl shriek! However, I am usually up most mornings by 5:30 or 6:00 so I have to sneak past her and go through the big open area and into the kitchen to make coffee, then sneak back. If she gets any hint I am up -- there's no avoiding letting her out for the day. She will fly to come look for us, or get this: We have an open balcony that overlooks the downstairs where there is a sunroom that we use for our exercise equipment. She will walk to the edge of the balcony and poke her head through the balusters to peer down to see what might be going on down there. If one of us is down there, she will just throw herself off the balcony and then flutter down. The first time she did it, she talked herself through it. 1st she gave her danger sound which is like tchoo tchoo! Then she said, "OK. OKaaaay. OK" and tossed herself over. She reminded me of someone about to skydive for the first time. Other times she will walk to come find us. Anytime she is on the floor she will give her danger sound then a sharp whistle. She can really walk fast, too when she wants to. There is something so heartwarming when our greybies come to look for us. Melts my heart.

What fantastic news, and everything points to that this place was meant to be yours yours yours! I so loved looking at the photos, and reading the descriptions. Congrats!! Natch, we all will want more piccies. Looks like you already have done a lot of mowing and cleaning up. Lovely !

Thanks so much. friends! I've missed you and your flocks immensely! xoxox

OMG that is so great to hear how Huey is doing! I can just picture him and Inara together and it made me snork my coffee laughing. Just what I needed to hear this morning. You made my day. You have the most amazing flock. I so love/d your videos. When Joe was taking down the Christmas tree, you know who had to hang around to "help" and as he moved it, it got close to her and she piped up with, "Holy crap!" Twice this past year, 2 different good friends of mine asked me about getting a parrot (I think they were feeling Covid-lonely) and I have to say as much as I love both people, I strongly discouraged them. I told them that unless they felt like living 24/7 with a punk rock band made up of 4 year olds on tour that they would really not like living with parrots. But did suggest that they get fish tanks. :D

Hi old friends! Gosh, it has been awhile, and am so delighted that the forum is still here (thank you, KevinD!). After a trip to Ireland in the early fall of 2019, I came home with a crazy virus that landed me from the plane directly into the emergency room, then a recovery of 22 months. It was a bit early for Covid-19, and no one seemed to know at the time what the heck I had. Suffice it to say, it was a long climb back to my own state of normal. Note to self: don't party with Aussies in the Dublin pubs! LOL For the last few months, I have been catching up on things that fell by the wayside while I was so ill. I now am back to being able to check in to favorite sites, and have had such a delightful morning catching up on posts. So great to see all of you and your beautiful fids! Things at our end of the rainbow are as hilarious as usual with HRH Inara. She continues to talk up a storm and now uses very complex complete sentences most of the time, which amazes and sometimes freaks out our friends and visitors (although since C-19, because of my immune disease we don't really have any of those unless the weather is good and we are outdoors). Her sense of humor still cracks us up, and herself too. One of her favorite jokes that she made up was once when it was snowing really heavy outside. She broadcasts the weather for us if it is raining or snowing or really windy (for windy she makes a loud whooooshing sound). The day it was really snowing, she was looking out the window and as usual said, "It's snowin' out there!" I agreed. A little while later she saw Joe out the window snow blowing, and she said, "It's Joe-in' out there!" then started laughing! Of course I laughed too, and now it is one of her favorite jokes, summer or winter when she sees him out the window. Somewhere along the line she picked up, "I sure would like to....." So she will let us know, "I sure would like to go to the big shower, (or night night, or to see the squirrels, or to see Joe at the big chair, etc.). The first time she used it she was looking out the window and said, "I sure would like to go to the big tree out there." She blows my mind with her language capabilities. People always ask how I taught her to talk like she does. After much reflection I think it is two-fold. One, I believe that when I got her, her brain must have been (much like a human child's) just in that perfect developmental sweetspot for language; and two -- (as a developmental behaviorist) I never taught her to mimic words. Instead, knowing Greys' cognitive abilities, I treated her from the beginning language-wise like I would have a human child, in that every single thing I did all day long (I had the luxury of this because I was working from home, and then retired) I explained and vocalized for her, named every object, place, and when she would make noises or use words I never ever ignored her so she knew that language was important. I also listened very carefully to the sounds that she would make and began to see how she had certain sounds that she would make that meant "making the coffee," and "setting something down on a hard surface," and "the squeek of the dishwasher door," "the squeak of the bedroom floorboards," etc. I was able to incorporate my understanding of those into our interactions. So I guess it was three-fold -- learning her sounds that were/are not words, and acknowledging them. And of course, of course, of course, and I cannot emphasize this enough for newer parronts -- *she* was willing *and* able to want to use human language. While Greys are good talkers not all feel inclined to do so. This just happens to be her own personal super power, like some Greys are great with math, shapes, colors, whistling songs, mimicking etc. I would love her just as much if she was the strong silent type like my ancient (RIP) Congo, Lestat. If there is a downside, it is that much like some Cockatoos never want to be put down and demand constant cuddling, she demands near constant verbal interaction except when she is napping or enjoying her periodic quiet times of the day. This means that my own quiet times revolve around hers, but it is so worth it to me. She still loves me to have Alexa play, "Walk Like An Egyptian," every single morning, and if I forget, she tries to get Alexa to do it herself, by saying, "Alexa!" Way-oh-way-oh," which is her own title for the song. One day, I heard her say, "Alexa? I do love you." And Alexa answered back, "Thank you, that is nice." It dawned on me that I am living in Star Trek. I had just witnessed a non-human species, talk directly with intent to a 'droid, and the 'droid talked back with intent. Wild! One of my biggest worries, (and Covid has really brought this to the forefront), is that if something ever would happen to both me and Joe, who else in the world would be able and willing to keep up the communication with her. She knows that Joe goes, "bye bye to work," and she knows what "will be back," means but what if we never came back? It crushes my heart on her behalf to even contemplate. We do have arrangements for her, but they have other birds who also need a lot of attention. I'm having a hard time even articulating what my feelings are, but I know that each and every one of you understand the worry about how our fids will carry on without us, and without the understanding of where we have gone and why we have not come back to them. Am in tears just typing this. Did not mean to write a book --- but you know me, if it can be said in 10 words, I'll use 100 :D. Have missed you all, and there is comfort knowing you and your babies are all well. Lots o'love Jane and HRH Inara

What a pretty new gal you have there!! And what a great home she has come into.

I know I am way late to the party, but this just made my day! YAY Dorian !!

HRH Inara used to do this about one feather at a time, no big deal. Then about three years ago, within a couple of days all of her tail feathers would be out. Freaked me out the first time, took her to her Avian Vet, but all was well on her business end. She now does this once a year. Her Vet and I surmised that she gets impatient with the itch or discomfort as they are molting out, so she just gives them an assist. In fact, she has a little bare butt as I type this.....

I so love this! And am a bit envious, too. HRH Inara has never been one for much touching of any kind. She is just too busy for it. She loves to perch on me or on Joe but has never liked scritches. She does, however love to play "gimme that beaky, gimme those toesies," where I gently grab her beak and/or her feet and kiss them. She will dance and hold up her toes and put her beak out for kisses. It's adorable, fun, but not mellow like a nice scritch time. My congo (RIP), Lestat loooooovvvved scritches. And how brave, and wonderful that your sweet Mum did not let past experiences with Alfie color her present open hearted behavior with him.

Love seeing Alfie, and what a great treat for him! Looks like so much fun.

We chose not to try to potty train Her Royal Highness Inara due to the health and safety issues listed above by other members. Like, terryspear, though, I did teach HRH Inara the word potty by using it every time she would poop when she was little. I would also make a raspberry noise which she began to associate with it as well. She now uses this sound as a "swear word." hahaha She also one day while on my shoulder peering into the fridge saw a container of humus and made the sound. Cracked me up!! Whenever she wants to go out of her cage (she asks to go places like the tree, or the big chair, or to see the squirrels, or to the big shower), she will climb up onto the top of the open door and then drop a potty (I have a paper underneath it on the floor) and then is ready to go roaming/flying. If I would like to be on the safer side, I will say, "Potty please," if she's just dancing around on the door and I wait and she will drop then we go. I don't consider this "potty training" in the sense of only have a bird drop in one place only. This is just a reminder to her to get her business done so we can go to her other fun areas. I keep movable perches in her favorite spots in the house where she likes to hang out and this also makes for easy clean up. In her very favorite spot, she has a rolling perch with a tray several inches under the wooden perch. I give this a light spray with PAM olive oil and it makes it super easy to clean up and is harmless to her. First rule of Bird Club? -- poop happens. PS -- what a gorgeous baby you have!

Yay!! (alcohol free) Pina Coladas for Corky!!! Ray, what a comfort Corky is. I often tell Inara what a good friend she is to me. What would our lives be without our fids! xoxox