dejavu022597

Hilarious! My bird won't eat fresh fruit. She'll eat dried fruit a little. I enjoyed your story.

Rosa may be like Marcus. She just turned 3 years old. Most of her language are tunes and animal sounds. She has approximately 30 words and phrases but chooses to use them when she wants to. She also has magic moments like Marcus who told you your cockatiel was talking in a normal voice. One day I was walking Rosa and a group of people met me to talk about my bird. After 10 minutes Rosa began to make noises and I told her to be quiet. She promptly responded, "well then, let's go." She was tired of the niceties between humans. One time she told me to "whisper, the baby's asleep." We don't have a baby but that's what I say to her when she's being to loud and obnoxious. Birds add such a different level of species interaction. I just love all animals because of their intelligence and uniqueness.

I love your story. Told like a true animal lover!!!!!

LOL! I have a phony wood floor. And I keep a 2X3 rug on the floor to catch 95% of IT. I have a special way to lay that on the ground so it is strategy wise-the best for poop catching!

Marcus, that was a GREAT story! They are so personable, aren't they.

Casey, I don't want yours, I just want your birds'.

Thanks for the response to my post! Since Rosa is only 3, I decided that I would teach her 1 song and 1 saying. The song is sung to the tune of the OFFICIAL Air Force anthem and it goes like this: "Off we go into the wild blue yonder, up we go, high in the sky. Cause we are birds and we can fly, so stop and wave as we fly byyyyyyyyyyy! Because she LOVES to be scratched right where her beak meets skin and tissue, she positions herself for this sweet love bonding session and I always say to her... "Does my Rosa need some chewing tobacco between her cheek and her gums? I don't give her tobacco, it's just a fun way to "humanize her." She carried on a brief conversation with me yesterday. She asked me what I was doing, so I explained that I was cleaning the floor. Her reaction was, "alright, but whisper." She's really interested in that whispering stuff. She also enjoys razzing me. I do this silly head tossing and say "rah rha rah rhra wraw" while she fluffs and shakes her head and repeats the razzing. She's so darn cute. I've decided to harvest bird excrement and make millions on it by selling it as a non corrosive, unlimited supply of super glue. It won't dissolve and is guaranteed to work or your money back!

Wow Timotian. I knew almost all of them. I missed the tomatoes. I thought the whole fruit/veggie was off limits. I didn't know about the stems and leaves. Same with apple cores. I had no clue the seeds were bad and I definitely didn't know about dried beans. So far she hasn't experienced any of the bad foods except apple seeds. That is just a hit or miss opportunity, now it will always be a miss!

Rosa wears the harness very well. I started when she was just a baby at 1 y.o. My problem is that it only takes her 2 weeks to chew through it. I have gone through many expensive harnesses and that is why I have to leash her. She sticks her foot out for me to snap it on and does the "crazy" dance. The leash is very long and I cut her wings, I never want to lose her. She has jumped off of me 2 times. The first was when she climbed down my shorts and bit me on the leg. I guess I was a substitute for one of the dogs. I jumped, she lost her grip and fluttered to my feet with at least 18 inches of leash on the ground. The other time I tripped and fell, she jumped off and then walked as far as she could away from me into someone's yard. While I agree that this isn't the best way to walk her, and because she loves to go (she's walked with me since she turned one), I have tried to do everything I can to protect her. I live on a fixed income and buying a decent harness (on ebay) at $20 or so, is just not affordable. I constantly worry that she's already chewed through one of the most important containment straps. I do admire all of you whose birds are not quite so hard headed about the harnesses. I've spent many, many, many times trying to correct the behavior, but she seems to have too much fun to obey the command, "No bite harness."

My girl, Rosa, because she's an African Grey, I named her Rosa Parks. She just turned 3 on Dec. 19th. She loves to go on walks with me and my dogs. She's learned that loud garbage trucks and the like are not to get scared over. But she is impatient with me when I stop to talk to bird/dog fans. One day I was with a small group of people talking in front of their house, when Rosa said in a whispering voice, "Whisper.) I told her no, so she said in perfect english, "well then, let's go!" She was just 18 months at the time. She seldom says a complete sentence so I was blown away!

Every morning I walk my dogs and Rosa, my almost 3y.o., rides on my shoulder. She can't wait and starts up with, "ready to go?, Let's go, wanna go?" And when I meet people on the street, they always want to stop and look at her and talk about their bird, or something birdy. Rosa interrupts with "whisper," and if I say no then she'll reply, "well then, let's go!"

Thank you, luvparrots. I do have a wonderful harness and she wears it well. She'd do anything to go outside. I clip her wings for her safety. When we take our walk with my dogs, she listens to me and follows my instructions. The other day a large branch and furniture garbage truck was coming down the street picking up stuff. LOTS OF NOISE. I just stroked her and told her that I would protect her and the truck was just loud noise and not to worry. She relaxed completely. But, to be safe, I will go back to putting the harness on her. I would never do anything harmful to her, therefore thank you to everyone who posted above this post. I have corrected my mistake. Just please put some sugar on your words. I'm tough, but I'm still human and get my feelings hurt just like everyone else.

While I value your advice, I was taken aback by your delivery. I know you have only good things to say about Rosa, perhaps you could offer advice in the same venue as Dave007. RayP and Capo, It is hurtful to start a sentence like this: "Dejavu, only what I can say is: poor little bird" and "I did not think people still did that any more. Your poor bird." Yes, I am a novice and that is one of the main reasons that I joined this forum. Please don't treat me this way. I want to do what's right and a friendly helpful one goes down much easier.

Thanks for the input. I have never even thought of any of those conditions happening. She has never left my shoulder with the exception of exploring my small dog front pack. I have the harness, a good one that doesn't require 1,000 clamps and buttons, etc. She doesn't mind it at all. Her whole goal is to get outside and sing, explore noises, hanging tree leaves....she just has a jolly good time.

I tried all those aviator harnesses and finally discovered that life was easier and quicker and hassle free by buying a small dog leash and attaching it to my birds leg ring and the other end around my wrist. Just put a kitchen towel over your shoulder and add a leather bird "stand" that you buy on ebay. It works like a charm and it's wonderful!

This is Rosa Parks. She will be 2 years old on Dec. 11th. She is the Alpha person (note my use in animal hierarchy) in my house. This picture is of her deciding at the last minute that she DOESN'T want to share her cheese with my 55 lb. dog, Travis. She laughs like me. She has a variety of mean, teasing tricks under those feathers. Sometimes she'll hold the food out in front of her and then bite the dog when he tries to take it. Then she'll let the food hang from one claw and dangles it in front of him. That's when she's being merciful and let's him take it. My favorite is when she throws the food. It is hilarious. She is so devious, and she laughs after every tease!

OK, I think I might have done it. I'm posting the picture of what I will be doing for the rest of my mortal life and probably into my immortal life. Swinging a d*** bird!

Thank all of you that gave me the hearty English Pub style welcome. But imaginary beer with lots of foam just lacks flavor. So, I have pictures to show you, BUT! Even the most elementary style of explanation still goes right over my head. How do I get out of quit reply so I can go into full reply? And why do computer guys always have to make things a little bit more challenging every year? It takes me that long just to figure out the OLD NEW stuff. I'm late with our morning walk, and down here, if you don't start early (like around 8am) then you're going to burn up. It's almost 9am. I'm in for a treat. Tally ho! I decided not to be a South Texan today. Can you tell?

My name is Sue. I am a divorced mom with 2 grown kids and I still take care of my ex-husband. It's weird, I know. But I like him better when I don't have to live with him. I believe it was George Carlin that said the shortest sentence in human language is "I am" so perhaps the longest is "I do." So enough about me... My Congo African Grey will be 2 on December 11th and her name is Rosa Parks. She's named (appropriately) after the woman who wouldn't give up her seat on the bus for a white man. My Rosa shows the same vitality and determination as her namesake. I have 2 1/2 dogs (my Hungarian Viszla, my ex's Hungarian Vizsla which is the son of my Viszla, and my 6 lb. purebred mutt. I only have my ex's dog in the evening. Hence the 1/2 dog. Every morning Rosa, Travis, Daphne and I go for hour long walks. Rosa loves walks and trusts me when noisy buses, garbage trucks, etc., come around. She is really desensitizing to loud noises while we're out. Different story in the house, but I think she's just over-reacting because she's not tethered to me so she gets more attention. She has moments of complete brilliance and spits out a perfect coherent sentence. Then she goes back to mimicking what she hears. She performs many animal sounds, and human bodily emission sounds. She likes to discipline the dogs with me by saying "quit" and she likes to call one dog by name with accompanying whistle. You know how when small children see a swingset and they want you to swing them and they never, ever want to stop? Well, I have a swing on my bird stand in the bedroom and Rosa is relentless...and she's going to be a 2 year old for the rest of my life since she'll out live me...*sigh.* She calls me boss because I watch to much NCIS! Nobody has ever called me boss before. I like it! So hello and I'm glad to meet y'all (had to throw in my texas accent.)