darth_mint

I'm going to go on trying to teach him to read. Results will be posted here as they happen, well, IF they happen B)

Nicky, my Grey, is maybe 2-3 years old (this is a guess based on his behaviour) and after observing the level of intelligence he's showing so far, I decided to try and teach him to read. I got an unexpected result... This evening I wrote out a few words on a pad, spelling them out loud letter by letter and then saying the whole word. He stared for a long time, and then instead of repeating any of the words or letters, he said "Book". Now, this little boy can recognize a paperback or hardcover book and gets treats for saying "book" when he's shown one...and I would give a LOT to know if he actually made the connection between "book", the conventional books he sees and a stack of papers with letters written on them. If Nicky really managed to grasp "book" as not just an item but as a concept. It's a level of abstract thought that boggles me...

Been lurking for a while, but this little argument just drew me out because of something Nicky did a while ago that so completely demonstrated his ability to reason logically. My sister was sitting at her desk eating a sliced apple, when a little grey head appeared over the edge of the table and a wheedling voice said, “Nicky apple, Nicky good boy.” Not being in a sharing mood, she said, “No,” and went on eating. The following conversation ensued: Nicky: “Aaaaaaaapppppllllllleeeeee” Sis: “I said NO” Nicky: “Nicky good boy” Sis: “NO is NO” Nicky: “Apple, apple, apple” Sis: “Go away!” Nicky: (car alarm noise) Sis: (who was trying to study) “SHUT UP!” Nicky: “Book” Nicky: “Pail” Nicky: “Patho” Nicky: “APPLE” I had been teaching Nicky to say the names of items such as a book and a pail when asked “What is this?” And my sister had been teaching him to say pathophysiology for some reason - he could only manage the first two syllables. Basically, all these are words he’s been rewarded for! Eventually my sister gave him the apple just to stop him following her around and yelling. The first line in particular really got me, because he wasn't just asking for a treat, he was giving a reason why he should get it - Nicky deserves apple because Nicky is a good boy!

Nicky likes to call himself names when he's alone - he goes "Nicky boy, Nicky good boy, Nicky ball, Nicky water, Nicky apple!" And if he wakes up in the morning to find that everyone is sleeping in for some reason, he'll go "Good morning?" very softly.

I'm so glad this topic came up. Nicky is one of those big, heavy birds and he's spent almost all his life in a cage, even though he wasn't clipped until he came to me. His flight feathers are just starting to grow out now, and he's already learned to jump off high places flapping for a safer landing. I've been trying to think of ways to help him pick it up faster, landings are the big headache like Erika said! Especially since, living in a third-floor apartment in the tropics, where it's simply not practical to keep the windows closed - I'm worried that one day Nicky will spook, shoot out of the window and drop like a stone! I'll have to try the methods brought up and hope he doesn't decide to hang onto me with beak and two feet instead of flapping. Experience tells me that having a little budgie dangling from one's finger by a solidly-dug-in beak is already bad, I can scarcely imagine what Nicky's 0.5 kg would do to my hand...

"Apple, apple, APPLE!" in every possible tone and inflection! It's Nicky's favourite word ever since he worked out that yelling "apple" resulted in someone giving him apple, and now he uses it as a general request for whatever he wants. Eating dinner within view of him? "Apple!" until he gets some! Reading a book? "Apple!" until you run away to save the pages from his beak! Making a quickie chew toy? "Apple!" until he gets it... My long absence was due to a computer breakdown, by the way...happily, it had nothing to do with Nicky's inquisitive beak disassembling the keyboard

I showed Nicky a mirror once and he was fascinated. He chirped at the reflection and then tried to touch it with his beak, and wound up licking the glass. I don't think he recognized it as himself... That said, the first time he encountered a glass pane (the door of one of my bookcases) he tried to reach right through it to grab the books, and bumped himself :lol: But after I opened and closed the door a bit, waggled my fingers at him through it, tapped it etc, he seemed to realize that it was solid. These days he doesn't lick the goldfish tank any more :silly: Nicky hasn't yet figured out that the other grey in the mirror is him, but I've been showing him how it reflects other things besides himself...he should get the idea eventually B)

Whew! In the span of three hours Nicky's managed to make enough mischief to upset everyone in the house. First, he climbed onto the terrapin's tank (which is actually a very big fish tank with some additions) and pooped ON the poor terrapin. All right, so it was her fault for crawling up right under his butt to peer at this strange red and grey creature. But there are nicer responses than dropping a huge poop on her head! :sick: Next, he got onto a high shelf and knocked down a ceramic pot bigger than he was. The pot was full of home-made compost! (we were experimenting with tea leaves and lime) :blink: While I was cleaning the mess up, he then went down to the floor, pulled out the tray at the bottom of his cage, upset the newspaper and dragged it all over the floor...needless to say, pooped side down. :huh: So now my sister is mad about the terrapin, my mom is mad about the broken pot and my dad is mad about the poop painting on the floor. Anyone got a room where Nicky and I can stay for a few days?

I get the same thing from Nicky, he starts bouncing up and down and climbing manically up and down one corner of the cage every time I put him to bed for the night. Even if he'd been dozing on one foot a minute ago. I usually stand by the door where he can see me, and wait for him to settle down before going off. He used to bounce for half an hour straight! But he finally got used to the bedtime schedule, and now he only does it for five minutes or so.

I scrub the whole cage down every two weeks or so, literally take it apart and go over every section with a scouring brush. I find that just wiping it isn't enough as the poop gets into all kinds of annoying corners that can't be reached without dismantling the cage! (And I found out how Nicky gets it into those places - yesterday I saw him hang off the side of the cage, bend his tail down and squirt a jet of liquid poop right into his water dish at 45 degrees so hard that it SPLASHED :blink: guess I can tell he's male without needing DNA sexing) I use whatever detergent comes to hand, then wipe it all down with a vinegar-water mixture - 1 part vinegar to 3-4 parts warm water.

Things just got better, Nicky apparently decided that 'apple' means any and all fruit he likes. I was slicing up a pear earlier, and Nicky suddenly started bouncing up and down saying 'apple, apple' very clearly. And he was staring straight at the pear! I gave him a piece and told him "Nicky, this is a PEAR," and he ate it - and five minutes later he was chanting 'apple apple apple' again and eyeing my pear. Wonder how long he will take to say 'pear'! :laugh:

I skipped the black grapes for one day: no black poop. Then I tried giving them again and sure enough, a couple of black poops showed up this morning. But the timing is really strange! Here's the schedule: 8.30 pm: gave Nicky 2 small black grapes 9.00 pm: put him to bed 7.15 am next morning: Nicky wakes up 7.30 am: first morning bomb - completely normal 7.30-8.00 am: three little tar black poops Rest of the day: poop normal I don't understand why the first poop is normal but the 2nd-4th poops are black. What's more (don't gross out) I poked one of them apart to see if there was anything solid/sharp inside and it was very oily. Is that normal? Thinking of scraping up a sample and taking it to the vet

I guess it comes down to what the parrot wants? If he enjoys being out of the cage and being in your company, then getting put back in the cage and ignored will work as a punishment - negative association. On the other hand, if he's doing it because he wants you to stop doing something (like Nicky wanting me to stop making him step-up ) and you stop and go away, he gets what he wants - positive association! Then there are the terrible twos like Lyric mentioned...so you have to look at the circumstances of the bite. (I'm a great one to talk - me with six bruises a week from Nicky being stubborn)

Yesterday morning Nicky dropped two BLACK poops. The morning bomb was normal, but the two after it were really black - not even dark brown, literally tar black. The third one was discernibly very dark brown. And there are no blueberries/cranberries/cherries in his diet. It freaked me out! But throughout the rest of the day the rest of his poop was normal. Just those three very dark coloured ones. No other black drops today, either. It's scaring me, because I recently bought some new wood blocks for him to chew on - pine from the DIY section of Daiso, but a bit harder than the wood on his usual toys. I did mess around with them to check for hardness, and they seemed soft enough not to cause trouble...BUT...there's always the awful possibility he's swallowing splinters. On the other hand, I've been feeding him black grapes and he eats them skin and all. These are the sort of grapes that really leave stains on everything...so I don't know whether it's the grapes or the wood. Advice please? This is making me nervous...

Thanks for the advice Dan. Honestly, the whole experience over this past month has made me doubt the necessity of making Nicky step up. Many many people have said that he should learn it as soon as possible, and they have given great advice, but it is just so traumatic for both him and me. After every session, he gets grumpy and is cross for the rest of the day, snaps at my fingers when I give him food, runs away to the opposite side of the cage when I come near him, etc. I tried forcing him once - moving my hand up under his tail to make him step up backwards - well, he put one foot on my hand, and the minute he realized what he'd stepped on, he jumped off backwards and landed on the floor with an awful bang. I guess all parrots are different and Nicky seems a lot happier without me poking and prodding at him to step up...as long as I keep the treats coming.<br><br>Post edited by: darth_mint, at: 2008/10/05 16:42

He's now screaming...I'm in view of him but ignoring him...this is driving me nuts :ohmy:

Well it's been two months and I am a total failure at training Nicky to step up He is fantastically obstinate about it. This morning alone I picked up six bites on my hand and forearm, all of which happened while I was trying to coax him with a sunflower seed - and one when I tried to move my hand up. Didn't break the skin, but tomorrow my left arm is going to be black and blue. Now I've ended up resorting to frequent time outs. At the start, I tried to use time out as little as possible because I couldn't bear to leave him there moaning and calling. But this morning's session was a whole series of 5 minutes interaction, step-up attempt, bite, 10 minutes time out, come back, repeat. The time out is definitely having an effect on him, he keeps grumbling and yelling. I even told the rest of the family to ignore him completely. But is it all right to use time out so often? Should I be doing more or less of step-up attempts?

Nicky's been saying various words for a while now, but unconnected and mostly out of context. He especially likes to mutter 'apple, apple' to himself, but never showed any sign of realizing that 'apple' meant the fruit! So when he started mumbling 'apple, apple' today, I ignored him...until he suddenly glared at me and said very clearly, 'APPLE!' And he had this impatient, annoyed tone to his voice, as if he was thinking "how long is this silly woman going to take to get my apple?" I jumped up and rushed to get him a nice big piece of apple. It was cold from the fridge and he wouldn't hold it, so I put it in a dish...and he ran over to the dish chanting 'Apple, apple, apple' and stuck his beak in. CUUUUUUTE!

I just learned about this website through a friend of my mother's, who has a couple of toos: http://www.ministryofparrot.com/ It's very localized to Singapore, but the subject's a universal one - parrots! :laugh:

I usually put newspaper around the places where Nicky likes to hang out - it's fairly easy as he's pretty sedentary and spends most of the time on top of his cage, so I just need to put the newspaper around the cage and he hangs off to poop on it. He's apparently decided the newspaper is the poop place all on his own, smart bird! Of course there are little accidents...like times when he apparently forgets where his butt is and poops in his food dish :sick: or one time I was reading the papers near his cage and he climbed down to investigate, and deposited his load right in the middle of the business section (which I hadn't read yet)...guess he can't tell the difference between papers for reading and papers for pooping on. :blink: Comes down to their own preference I guess, if a bird has common sense it PROBABLY won't poop in its food or tread in the poop

Suzzique wrote: That is so cuuuuute, I have an image of the tree all decorated and lit up with a cherubic-looking little grey sitting on the top...who needs angels? (At least until he crawls down and starts demolishing the ornaments!) :laugh:

Nicky goes in and out the whole day, whenever he feels like it. I just wire the door open and let him wander in and out as he likes. If it's getting close to bedtime I'll shut the door after he goes in for the last time and give him a treat - grapes or nuts.

Eeeeewwwww that reminds me of my last budgie who was totally indiscriminate about where he gurged...it would be half-chewed seed spraying all over the place and paste on the perch, on his food bowls, on his toys, on my fingers...scared me to death the first time he did it, he spat it out so hard I thought he was projectile vomiting!

Speaking of dyes, is it ok if I use food colouring to dye the wood myself? I'm thinking of the kind of liquid food colouring that comes in little glass bottles at the supermarts, and it's also available in powder form. Which is safer? All I know is that the red powder dye is cochineal, which I read somewhere is made from bugs (eew!)

Actually, now that I think of it...it could be worse. He could have decided to poop on my hand while I was pushing from behind :sick: