Silver

I don't really know why he does this...maybe he gets too excited to stay in the bowl for a long time, or it's about re-assurance/feeling safe...

Silver is around 5. He really started talking a lot in the last year. When I got him (he was around 4), his only word was "Silver", but he could already dial/ring/answer the phone and was working on the andy griffith song...He now also starts saying a lot of stuff he must remember from before he came to stay with me (the bad words, "up-up", the meows etc...). We play a whistling/talking game every evening...I sit across the room from him and we take turns whistling/talking (he doesn't talk back, he is a little shy about talking in front of people).<br><br>Post edited by: Silver, at: 2007/09/06 22:17

I am glad to see that I am not the only one with a bird who mastered the "fart noise"...Silver does it mostly when I leave the room and he wants to tell me that he doesn't appreciate it. Other than that Silver meows, drops bombs, does the microwave, the kitchen alarm, the fire-alarm, dials and rings the phone, he loves to whistle "fever" and the andy griffith's song, he also perfected the echo noise from Pink Floyd's "echoes". He says Silver, hello, hey, hello boy, hello silver, Silverbird, Silbervogel (German for Silverbird), Whiteboy (the name of a cat he used to live around), Whitevogel (he made that up), step up, up-up, several f-words which he did NOT learn from me (and uses only when he feels neglected), what are you doing...he also speaks budgie and cockatiel language...and likes to make "oh"-comments.<br><br>Post edited by: Silver, at: 2007/09/06 21:47

Silver had his first bath 6 months after I got him (I had tried, but he hates being sprayed). I had him on my arm while I was washing something in the sink and he started fluffing up like he wanted to take a bath. I filled a shallow salad bowl with water...and in he went. He is usually not in the mood for a bath, but I think he knows when he needs one and then gets pretty excited (every 2-4 weeks). I just keep offering the bowl to him every couple of days (on the kitchen counter). When he wants a bath, he will get in. He will take a dip, then run up my arm (while flapping his wings), run down my other arm, take a dip, and repeat this until we are both soaked.

Thanks, you two, for your comments! He just bit me in the neck again yesterday. I had him out and he was whistling on my shoulder while I was making breakfast for him and then he just started biting my shoulder and got me two times in the neck before I reached the cage. Isn't the bad thing that I might be teaching him to tell me that he wants to go back by biting me? I am not so sure why he does it, but I really agree with you, Monique, that I cannot allow him up there anymore. I will try to do what you suggested and let you know how it goes. I tried placing my thumb over his toes a few times a while ago, which he finds really irritating. When I block his way to my shoulder with my hand he can get quite agressive and once he is on my shoulder, he will not step up on my hand from there. The only way to get him down is usually to sit down and he will climb down my arm. I was thinking of doing step-up training a few minutes each day with him and am now looking into ways to give him more opportunities to be out of his cage without actually having to be on either my hand or shoulder. We built a bird table for him that has a couple of ropes and perches on it - unfortunately he is afraid of it. I will be getting one of those rope climbing grids/nets and maybe try to let him "forage" for some of his food...that's about all I can think of.

Hi, i am new here and could use some advice. Silver is around 4 now. I don't know much about his life until 2 years ago. I know that the woman who owned him developed an allergy to him (I guess his powder) and gave him to an aquaintance, where he stayed for a while and then this person gave him to my boyfriend (before we met). It took my boyfriend a long while to make him step up etc. and I am not sure about how much attention he got. Around a year ago, me and my boyfriend met and he brought Silver to my house. Silver lived with me and my boyfriend for around 10 months now. What happened quite soon after he moved in is that Silver will not step up on my boyfriend's hand any more (at least not without biting really hard). He will step up on my hand without problems and also seems to like other females. I think that many aspects of his life probably improved since he moved in. He gets what I hope is good food (fresh stuff everyday: steamed edamame, peas, carrots, fresh sprouts, radishes, brokkoli, some nuts) and some seeds (he will NOT switch to pellets - and I tried every pellet I could get hold of and different methods). He gets at least 20-30 min out of his cage in the morning and usually a few hours in the evening. He is generally quite friendly to me (lets me rub his head for a few minutes every night before he goes to sleep) and started talking quite a bit. However, when I don't do what he wants me to do (i.e. want to make him go back to his cage when I have to go to work, or if he just gets fed up with riding on my shoulder in the morning) he will try to make me do what he wants by biting (e.g. biting my arm when I try to put him back, or worse, biting my neck if he gets fed up with me or annoyed at me). This will not happen every day, but still often enough that I would like to train him to stay on my hand, rather than let him run up to my shoulder every time. I tried to put my thumb over his toes on order to get him to stay there, but he doesn't like that. Does anyone have experience with a case like that?