Mawnee

I had similar trouble with Cosmo for a few weeks around that age. He was exploring A LOT and getting into things he shouldnt A LOT. What I discovered was that I was forced to pick him up and put him in the cage(with him fighting to stay out) far too often. Then he began to associate touch with getting put in the cage. He began to avoid my hands at all costs and thats when I realized the connection. It only took me a couple of weeks to turn this around. Instead of putting him in his cage for being naughty, I distracted him with something more interesting. I never put him in his cage until he is calm and ready to go in. I made sure to praise and reassure him while putting him in the cage(so it isnt a punishment). Try to ensure that touching is always a positive experience. Lots of reassuring and praise.

wow, those two are actually in the same county as me. We just dont have room in our family for another Fid

Thanks for sharing! Cosmo loves spinning his boing. He holds onto the top of it and 'flies' to wind it up then climbs down the middle of it while it spins back. Its on a 2.5' piece of chain so he can really wind it up! One of the first things he does when I let him out of the cage.

I hope you manage some rest tonight and are reunited with Murphy early tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed for you

LOL thats exactly what I was thinking. In the birds defense, the guy was wearing a green shirt. And maybe that bird has a thing for the big girls.

Haha, Cosmo combined phrases and tells us "You're a good poop!" for cleaning up his poop We have him 90% potty trained to go on certain perches when loose. So we always ask "Have to go poop?" then place him on his potty perch and when he goes encourage him with "You're a good boy/bird!". Now when he does it on his own he'll fly to the perch and say "Go poop? Good boy!" then go. From that he decided that whoever cleans it up is a "Good poop!", we take it as a compliment of course lol

Cosmo does not like Black or very dark colors. He is stand-offish with me if I wear black shirts. My favorite color to wear is actually grey so most days i probably just look like a big daddy grey to him We have learned to be very careful carrying anything dark colored in or out of his room. He will scream in terror if we walk by him carrying a large dark object(paper shredder, laptop, box, magazine, ect.), especially if it suprises him.

Cosmo has been hooked on "Whats wrong?" the last few days. He doesnt quite have it down yet. He has trouble with the end of wha"ts" and most of the time it comes out "whushhh wwrong?"

Great picture! Reminds me of a picture I managed to get a few years ago. Very difficult to get the kids to sit still for it

Thought I would share a very amusing and clever behavior Cosmo has developed. As a suppliment to Cosmos diet I prepare frozen mixed veggies(Corn, peas, green beans, carrots, ect) for him. I've found it to be a cheap and quick way to ensure he eats healthy when the meals the family has doesnt have anything good to share with him. To prepare them I simply put some in a microwavable container, add a little water and heat for 30 seconds. I then drain and rinse repeatedly with cool water to ensure there are no hotspots to burn Cosmo. Cosmo has been on my shoulder while I prepare this many times and pays very close attention as with anythign I do For a few weeks I have been finding corn in his water dish on occasion when I get home from work. His seed mix contains dried corn and it was finding its way into the dish. Well yesterday I was off work and was home to find out the details. Shortly after giving Comso his fresh food and water for the morning I watched him pick all of the dried corn out of his food dish and carefully drop it into the water dish while imitating the sounds of buttons being pressed on the microwave. I laughed and asked him if he was cooking. That explained the corn in his dish. But it got better. A while later he starts making microwave sounds again, this time its the distinct 3 beep sound of the microwave finishing and sure enoguh he is fishing the now soft corn out of the water with his foot and eating it. Apparently he does this every day and has usually eaten it all before I get home from work. lol I wonder if I could teach him to cook for the whole family

Here in Florida CAGs go for around $1000. * I paid $550 for Cosmo(CAG) at 4 weeks old(unweened). But I can attest that it is not easy handfeeding and raising a baby through weening and fledging. It requires a life altering time commitment. The added cost to get one fully weened and fledged is well worth it. I would not recommend buying an unweened bird just to save money.

It was bound to happen. Cosmo has learned "No!". He hears it enough "Cosmo, No, get down from there." "Cosmo, No, thats not yours!" ect ect. A couple weeks ago he was being very naughty and kept trying to chew on one of my computer monitors even after being chased off of it several times. So I was a bit more insistent with the word. "NO! ahh ahhh NO!" He immediately started saying it back to me in my deep 'daddy voice' "No NO NO!" For a week or so I noticed it was in his vocabulary practice sessions. And then a few nights ago he started using it in context. With Cosmo, the only person that can really completely handle him is myself. My wife and daughter can hold him and rub his neck, but no touching the wings, tail, back ect. When we play I will chase him around my desk touching his feet and poking his tail and generally wrestling with him. If he is sitting on a perch and I touch his tail he will usually do his laugh and ask for a scratch. If my wife or daughter try to touch his feet or tail they get nipped at. The last few days instead of nipping hes begun turning to them and giving them a firm "No!" Also, towards the end of the night a few nights ago I asked him if he was ready to go in his cage for bed and recieved a very sharp "NO!" while he shuffled away from me to the opposite side of the desk to continue playing. Now if I can just teach him "yes" it will make communication so much easier

Cosmo didnt say clear words until 9 months or so. Its amazing looking back at old videos from back then though. We recognize him practicing words and phrases we didnt understand then but he says quite clearly today. He is 14 months old now and has about 15 words and phrases he uses quite often. Seems like he adds something new every week or so now.

My experience with other birds has been that when you give a bird a mate they become less socialable with humans. They become protective and territorial(aggressive) around their mate and cage.

Cosmo is pretty much potty trained. He will only go on his cage or his table top playgym(with paper under it of course). We call the upper perch on his playgym the "poopy perch". In the beginning I made sure to take him to it every 10 minutes or so and ask him "Have to poop?". Now whenever we see him ruffle we ask "have to poop? go to the poopy perch" He'll fly right over and go. Normally he does this automatically, but he does have occasional accidents. These days its also accompanied by him saying "Go poop? Good boy!"

Cosmo usually greets everyone with the same "Hey, baby!", but in the last few days he has randomly greeted me with "Hey Biiiird"(Think Bert and Ernie)

Cosmo began doing it occasionally pretty young as well. Maybe 4-5 months old? I too thought it seemed too young and was concerned it was something else. I guess this day and age they just grow up faster lol. Now at a year old he does it fairly often for myself and my wife, particularly if we've been gone for a while(like when we get home from work). We do our best not to reinforce it with a "No thanks, I'm not hungry" and walk away for a minute or two. Only once has he really gotten me....he was on my shoulder...shook his head and sprayed wet seeds all over my face *bleh!*

Almost on cue, Disney has started playing this movie daily. Cosmo loves it. He has picked up Wall-Es "sigh"

lol too cute, I'll have to put it on for Cosmo

Cosmo turned one year old this week and has been picking up more and more words and phrases lately. In the last week two instances have stood out that show he knows what he is saying. As grey owners we all know when things get quiet its time to see what our FID is up to. I very often walk over to Cosmo and ask "Whatcha doin'?" and investigate what he is up to or what he has been playing with. Well this has been reversed on me. Cosmo's room is my office/den where I spend nearly every waking minute while I'm at home. So even when he is in his cage we are always talking back and forth. He doesnt like when I am quiet for too long and will strike up a "conversation" while I do other things. Well I have recently become very engrossed in a PS3 game and while playing it I become less chatty because I'm concentrating. Now if Cosmo is out of his cage and I fail to respond when he tries to start a conversation he will fly into my lap, look at the PS3 controller and ask "Whatcha doin'?". Apparently if I'm not paying attention to Cosmo, I must be up to some kind of mischief Cosmo recently learned "Hey Baby" from my wife and I sometimes saying it when we greet him. The other morning I had been in the room with Cosmo for a couple hours and he was quietly preening on his playtop. My daughter woke up and leaned into my office to greet me with a "Good morning Daddy". I responded with a "good morning honey". Cosmo immediately said "Hey Baby!" and flew over to my daughter to greet her.

Very clever Cosmo picked up a good cough imitation last fall when I had a cold. Now I always catch him coughing along to cold and flu commercials lol I know Cosmo definetly watches his TV. I put on Disney Channel for him while I'm at work during the day. He cant see the TV from his favorite perch and climbs down to another perch for a better view. He seems to really enjoy Mickey Mouse Club and Handy Manny. So much so that he throws a tantrum on my days off when I try to watch sportscenter I feel leaving the TV on gives him some varied entertainment to help fill the hours he is home alone. I just hope I dont end up with a Grey version of the "Cable guy". lol

Looking forward to some educated input on this one. I lost a cockatiel to egg binding We dont know whether Cosmo is a boy or a girl. We just dont have the heart to have blood drawn to find out. We have taken to calling cosmo a boy though, since my wife couldnt follow the rule of calling him "good bird" not "good boy". So now that "he" says "Good boy!" we are just going with it until we find out otherwise

^ Yes, I've seen cockatiels and many other birds show the same behavior. As Elvenking said, you really dont want to encourage this behavior. It can lead to...."frustration" for your bird and possible behavior problems. I tell Cosmo "no thank you" and leave him for a few minutes until he calms down.

Cosmo is nearly a year old and I've been having trouble getting him to put on wieght. Hes perfectly healthy, but I'd like to see him get some more protien and put on some...meat. I know many members feed their FIDs eggs, chicken ect. But I've always had trouble with that thought. It just seems somehow perverse...even though its really not much different than me eating cow. Well the other night we had chicken for dinner and I decided to just try it and see if he took to it. I offered him a small piece and of course he jumped right too it happily(he is always VERY interested what I'm eating). He gave it an initial lick and then flinched back quickly like he was startled. He then inched back over to it and tested it with his beak. He gave a growl and attacked it angrily knocking it out of my hand. I said "ok, no chicken..." Anyway a bit later when i went to let him out of the cage(its playtime after dinner) he wouldnt come out and flinched away from my hand. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. when I came near the cage he would climb to the far side of the cage away from me. Mind you this is a bird that ALWAYS climbs right to me and treats me like his personal jungle gym and cuddle perch. This behavior lasted for nearly two days. I gave him his space and on the third day he was back to his normal self. Of course it may be one huge coincidence. And while I was...concerned for those two days he was distant it has now become a good laugh in our household. We all interpret Cosmo as having been offended...... "Is that BIRD?!?! You sick bastard!!!"

Congrats! The pandoras box has been opened! I know exactly what you are experiencing Cosmo is about the same age Sully(hatched 4-11-10) and now talks constantly(quite literally). It starts out with that first word or phrase and snowballs from there. Everyhting is now "What?!", "Good boy!", "Hey baby!", "Kiss Kiss!", "Thank you!" its so much fun just listening to him talk to himself while he goes about his day