MarcusCAG

So here's the deal... I exited the boys' room for one minute and left them both in my hubby's care. I forget what I was doing in the kitchen because suddenly I heard my husband's sharp tone of alarm, and repeated, and then I was running back in there as quick as I could. I found him just putting Beaker back in his cage and my "What happened?! What happened?!" was ignored for a moment too long for my liking. But then: Apparently, as he reported it, he had Beaker on his shoulder and he was walking across the room. When the two of them passed by Marcus' cage, Beaker--who is growing in his flights quickly--flew up off of his shoulder and landed on Marcus' cage next to him. (Keep in mind, Marcus is a CAG and Beaker is a little Quaker parrot.) Apparently my husband moved quickly to pick Beaker back up, but Marcus lunged at him--not the interloper Beaker--to keep his hand away, and then when my husband tried again to get Beaker to step up, Beaker wouldn't budge. (And that was when I heard his tone change and get louder, "Step up! Step up!") So... what does this mean? Are they buddies now? When Beaker flew onto Marcus' door-perch when his door was open the other day (he's enjoying his feathers growing in, obviously!--a trim is in order soon), Marcus lunged at his head and tried pecking at him before I was able to intervene, freaking out the whole time. Since then I've tried to keep them out of their cages at separate times for the most part, because with Beaker such a flying green bumblebee I don't want problems between them! But now I have to wonder, would tonight's actions indicate that they are kind of friends? As in, on a "we want to socialize next to each other out of our cages" level?... Thoughts???

Well, our Marcus hasn't imitated our dog, Dahlia, yet--but he does imitate my husband regarding Dahlia. Whenever my hubby comes home from work, she goes bonkers, jumping up and down like mad (she's part Newfoundland so she's not a little girl!). Anyway, he'll say, "Dahlia! Dahlia, go to bed!" and usually she's a good girl and scampers off to be released once his shoes are off and whatnot. Yesterday, I think it was, for the first time when my husband's vehicle pulled into the driveway and Dahlia started barking like crazy, Marcus snapped in my husband's voice: "Dahlia! Dahlia!" It's the only thing I've heard Marcus say yet in his voice and not mine (dismissing the things Marcus still says from his former home). I just thought it was so funny!

At the moment, our boys are waiting for their pellets to come via the friendly UPS lady and so I'm streeeeetching what we have remaining in their five-pound tub. So there's been more Birdie Bread and beans/grains mixes and such in their bowls these past few days. At this point, because I haven't been putting pellets out all day (don't have that many left, and I want them to get some per day until this taking-forever tub gets here), I've been peeking in their bowls rather frequently and will give them fresh people food if I see they're near empty and/or much of it is on the floor of their cages--or on the rug, haha, I found Birdie Bread halfway across their bedroom this morning! Anyway, a few days ago Marcus would barely touch his grains and beans and veggies, but today I saw him eating happily along with Beaker (in his own cage) a little while after I put their new bowls of food in their respective cages. It made me feel pleased about that, because apparently he's allowing himself to enjoy more varied foods anymore. He doesn't seem to be losing weight either, which I was a little concerned about at first. I will admit the other day I had to sit and eat certain foods within sight of them and offer them to them both for at least Marcus to try--oh, what was it? I think it was semi-thawed frozen broccoli and squash. So maybe that was a stepping-stone to enjoying garbanzo beans and such today... perhaps something like that might help Tui too, if he sees you eating these strange foods and make a big production out of how 'yummy' they are.

Hee-hee, that's a trick... I haven't heard Marcus do that yet, I guess my phone conversations just aren't that interesting!

I'm sure people without Greys or parrots in general wouldn't understand your predicament, but I know I do. The other night I was online and it just ran through my head how much I wanted to go spend time with my boys... but they were already put to bed for the night.

Ooh, I just have to share this, I am so excited!!! So I've been scrubbing the house here this afternoon (needs it badly!) and in the background I've been hearing Marcus do variations of this one 'theme' of his. A few moments ago Mommy actually put two and two together and figured out what he's been saying! Marcus will make a telephone sound, and then, in his voice, "Hello?" Immediately following, with the crackly static that accompanies the sound of what a bystander would overhear of someone else's phone conversation: "Good boy Beaker!" It took me a few moments to realize what this little routine meant... Our Quaker parrot, Beaker, has a known 'vocabulary' of about ten phrases but he only regularly says "Good boy Beaker!" in various circumstances. (Actually, I'd say that's the English that pops out of his beak about 95% of the time.) And I talk to my husband on the phone all the time in front of the boys, so Marcus is quite familiar with what the other end of a phone call conversation sounds like. So what this all adds up to is--Marcus has been pretending he's been getting phone calls from Beaker!!! Oh, I am just so tickled and pleased with our boy!! :)

My understanding is that dog/cat/human saliva isn't good for parrots, either. And as much as I think our Dahlia would be a doll with the boys, when she gets so excited she slobbers on everything, and I just don't want to take that sort of risk...

I didn't see any abbreviations for Quaker parrots/Monk parakeets. Beaker might get upset if he notices. Otherwise, thanks for the nifty list!

If this is any help in terms of introducing your two guys, when we started "showing" Marcus (CAG) and Beaker (Quaker parrot) to each other after we adopted Marcus, we would just walk into the room with Beaker on our finger or shoulder and let them stare at each other. Then when their cages were together in one room, they got plenty of time to stare, call, whatever on their own. Because of the size difference, and because of Beaker's fiery Quaker personality--he attempted to 'attack' Marcus once through his cage bars when I accidentally put his movable perch to close, and Marcus just seemed startled by it all--I don't let them play together yet or anything, but I do sing to them and let them get within a few inches of each other (Marcus perched, Beaker on my hand). It seems to be working to get them comfortable so near one another, in that they both love it when I sing to them so a) they're very happy already, and b) it's "flock time".

Thank you for sharing that, that was a lovely little story! Made me think of the other day when I was upset and I went into the boys' room and just started crying. Marcus was his empathic self but it was Beaker, our Quaker parrot, who made me crack a smile and then laugh. I just was crying in front of his cage and he looked straight at me and said, "Good boy!" Now, Beaker hardly EVER says anything just out of the blue like that, and I knew immediately he was trying to be comforting in his own little way. So I laughed, feeling very appreciative that I was a 'good boy' in his eyes. Yes, the small parrots can have hearts as large as the bigger ones!

Does it mean anything when they lower their heads and kind of bow while raising their wings up and behind them? Because Marcus does that sometimes on the floor and my hubby suggested maybe that's part of a mating dance or something? But I think it's more like stretching... Oh, these lovely, complicated birds!!!

There are worse things to be than a "birdman".

Oh, Sadie is gorgeous! I'm so glad to hear that she's not afraid of your dog, too, that shows she's really blooming there with you and her other 'flockmates'. So happy to hear this!

Thank you both for your comments and concern... when my hubby was at work earlier today I emailed him and let him know what you said, and he got all upset and said he didn't want to play the guitar for Marcus anymore if he was going to pull that type of reaction out of him again with it. I personally think maybe the guitar is the type of thing that can help, by getting Marcus to try and communicate his feelings with us a bit more and everything (like therapy). But we'll just take it slowly, I guess, and I can't make my husband play for the boys if he doesn't really want to.

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They do know how to get their desires across!

If it makes you feel any better, Marcus has been picking up some colorful language from our wonderful neighbors (sarcasm). He can hear them even with the windows closed. But I've ignored it for the most part and, after he blathers away for a bit after its initial 'discovery' he seems to find them not nearly as interesting since he hasn't pulled a reaction out of me with these new sounds of his. So maybe if you don't acknowledge the bad words, too, Timmy will give them up in your presence??

Hello everyone, I'm posting this new thread at my husband's request (honestly). But something interesting happened with us with our Marcus tonight. Not a 'good' interesting, really, but I can't say it was really 'bad' either. While we were spending time with him and Beaker in the boys' room (Beaker was in his cage at this point, Marcus was on the floor), my husband decided to pick up his guitar which has been slowly decaying in the one corner of the room. I've picked away at it a few times in front of the boys before, but my skills are long gone and it's out of tune and so not much came of it. My husband, though, got the guitar to sound rather nice--much to Beaker's delight, at least--and he started improvising a bit... Marcus started up with his little 'hissy fits' again, slapping his foot around and making garbled noises, but this time he didn't "yell" and he kept going with it all. As in, my husband kept playing the guitar and as we watched, Marcus kept mumbling and grumbling and saying strange fragments of words that he occasionally punctuated with an upraised foot, opening and closing his toes quickly. Even after my husband stopped playing for a bit (because we kept looking at each other like, how did we trigger this?) Marcus continued to mumble angrily at us. It became very apparent that he really, truly was trying to tell us what had happened, what he had seen or was remembering. In that respect I personally found it all a bit 'creepy' because it was like being involved with a mystery and you realize suddenly that everything's so much bigger than you had initially thought, the plot is that much deeper and you have no way to really understand it at this point. So, now that I've explained all that... I just asked my hubby what he wants me to share next and he asked me to ask all of you how you think the music might be involved? Personally, I'm thinking maybe Marcus was exposed to a lot of guitar-playing in his other home or something, but I think my husband maybe wants your thoughts on music with greys in general? Either way, he asked me to post this and share it all with you. I'm just happy that we got Marcus calmed down after a bit, and when he finally was on his door-perch again with me getting ready to 'put him to bed' for the night, he wanted lots of tickles and was very affectionate. So he ended things tonight in a more emotionally happy space, thankfully. Again, thanks in advance for any and all input...

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I ordered ours from http://www.parrotplayhouse.com and it took a couple of weeks to receive it. The woman warns potential customers that since she does everything herself (read: makes all the bird toys and things) then sometimes there's a little bit of a wait for orders to be filled. But the Jolly Ball arrived safe and sound and very nicely put together. I ordered one without toys but the chains that you hang it with came with three pretty baubles that Marcus likes to yank on sometimes. ...Still haven't seen him in it, though!

Wonderful pics, thanks for sharing! Tui sounds like a real doll.

That is an awesome line... for some reason, reading that just made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Thank you. And you are so right. A little grey bird has more of an impact than most of us ever would have realized without experiencing their love and intelligence firsthand.

I'm glad it wasn't any worse, but it will heal. If I were in your place, I would like to think Timmy being vocal afterward was his way of apologizing.

Well, I just thought I'd let everyone know that, in fact, Marcus has started using the Jolly Ball... as a wrecking ball. A couple times over the past day or so I've seen him hang upside-down from his bars and grab onto one of the chain links and bash the Jolly Ball into the side of his cage! Even though I was hoping he'd be all cute and crawl around inside it, this other use of it is really kind of funny...