Casey Luria

I just love those little Grey ways! It is too funny, I can see Quinn doing something like that some day. Thanks for sharing.

So far so good, Quinn hasn't tried this. My Cockatoo had to have his cage checked every two weeks and all the nuts and bolts tightened. I leave the door open for Quinn, because he spends most of his time in the cage when I am gone anyway. I have found him out and waiting for me on the bottom rungs of a chair a few times, I figure he does that when he hears the car come in the drive. He doesn't mind being in his cage, perhaps it is all the toys he has in it. The padlock sounds like a good idea.

Amaing to see such a bond. My two, Quinn and Scooter, pretty much ignore each other, or at least pretend to.

I am already amazed and enjoying the antics. I have had only rescue Greys, poor sad scared things that decided they liked my ex husband. I vowed I would finally get one of my own where I could treat it right and enjoy more or less normal behavior and development. This is a whole new ball game and I am loving it. Quinn is a little genius, he learns so fast it takes my breath away. He is way ahead of my Grand daughter a little younger than he is. He is such a clown! If it gets better? I will believe it when I see it. I am looking forward to it!

I know that many of you have had your birds use words in a meaningful way, but Quinn, now just two, has for the first time, asked for something. His language skills are amazing, but he is not used to hearing conversation. I live alone and have recently moved so the only person in his life has been me and the people where he boards. I think this has made it harder for him to realize that language has a use and is not just a series of funny sounds that seem to please me. Tonight he said "Wanna Skritch?", this is the first time he has verbally asked for something. Up until now it has been with body language. He did make a joke once with a sound. That was almost a year ago and he still remembers it and does it, because the audience laughed. Has anybody else found that birds living with groups of humans learn language skills differently?

Quinn just had his 2nd hatch day. We celebrated by making a video on my Mini Pad that was 20 mins long. Too long to send to my computer for proper editing. Quinn now loves to talk more than anything and pretty much does it all day. Since I am the sole provider of conversation, I need to come up with things he wants to copy. The latest is Trot Trot to Boston a children's nursery rhyme. He learned all the words in a week and is now having a problem getting it all in the right order, sometimes putting words together in a way that makes you laugh. He seems to me to be an amazingly fast learner, compared to a number of other Greys that I have known. He learns a phrase or two a week with little help from me except the indroduction of it. He hasn't figured out exactly what all these words are for, he just enjoys the sound of them. He did learn, very quickly, the phrase "No bite!" and maybe even gets that it has meaning. I think he knows what chop means, that is his chopped food, but that is about it. Anyone know when understanding that words means something takes place?

Omg, how funny is that?

Do you think that Sophie is afraid of them? If she is not afraid of them, it might be that you haven't introduced her to the right thing and given her enough time to get used to it. I introduce a toy the way I did with my children. I show them how much I like it and what they can do with it. With Quinn, I get better results with small things that dangle and there are a few bundles of wood that he really enjoys chopping up. I think he watched my other parrot having a good time with it. It does help them to see the possibilities. Also, where you put that toy in the cage makes a difference. Sometimes a toy that was being ignored in now place was discovered and played with when placed in another place. It doesn't make sense but it works.

He sounds wonderful! I can't wait for more posts.

I think you are in trouble! Very funny! What does he do for an encore?

What Quinn can't do with language he is beginning to use body language to express himself. It is very important to him that he sit on my shoulder and have his head scratched before bed. He snuggles in and after a while I say it's time for bed now and he does a funny little nudge to my face. I say one more time and repeat the same and he gives me the same reaction. After the third time he knows that he is going to be put to bed and he makes a funny little grumbling sound. I think he is starting to understand what I am saying and hasn't quite mastered the responses. He sure is vocal though. He was chattering away this morning, and I said it is time for breakfast, he stopped in his tracks and went to where his food was going to be.

That is too funny!!!

I have found that most parrots are selective about what they say. They say what sounds neat to them, or what gets them a reward. The Greys are more interested in real communication than other parrots, but they still want to have fun and get some sort of reward. Brutus might say the full address for a reward, at least to start with. I think the Greys can say anything they want to, or chose to. They may say five hundred words, but the are capable of saying ten times that.

Brutus not only says a lot but he is imitating body language too. It seems like he really understands most of what he is saying. I loved watching the video. Quinn will have to watch this one with me.

Let's hope that Walmart has it because I live in an area with population of 40,000 and there are no toy stores. Thanks for your reply.

I wactched the video of Brutus, he is amzing. How old was he when he was talking like this?

Where did you get this toy? If Quinn doesn't love it Scooter (amazon) will. He loves to do the little childrens play phones and animal noises are his favorite. Quinn has to get used to something first, but it would be fun to try it from a safe distance. It sounds great, Thanks.

Since quinn discovered peek a boo it has been non stop sounds and pretty much a new word every day. After peek a boo, kaboom, then sleepy and yawn, cuckoo, wow, and some phrases that are just human sounding but not words. There is one that seems like watcha doin? He amazes me. Like he rest of you,i am blown away. Quinn gets going in the evening, when he knows his audience is watching, and i would swear, has a really happy funny expression while he is doing it.

That's what I thought but, it could have been coincidence as well, since he was saying peek a boo all the time. Naturally I would prefer it be his new cognitive ability.

Quinn is talking and, being the proud human companion that I am, I think already has a little comedian in him. He turned one in March and is learning to talk. It has been mostly barn yard sounds that I make to get him started. He learned them all pretty fast. Now he says Peek a boo and loves to create different versions of it and is so proud of himself it is really cute. The other morning I walked by his covered cage and suddenly I hear, as clear as can be, "Peek a boo", and nothing else. It certainly was funny, I wonder did he know that?

Not all toys sold for birds are safe for them, so a new toy should be a supervised toy, until you see how it works. If the bird shows interest but has no idea what to do with the toy, you need to do what you did with your children, play with it first and show them the possibilities. And, just like your children the toy you thought would be wonderful may not interest then as much as the box. I find that this can help with a toy that makes them nervous as well. Be careful to move the toy slowly so that they are not alarmed. I will kiss it and talk about it and hold it up to my face and show him that it is fun. I am enjoying the fact that Quinn seems relatively unfazed by new toys most of the time. I find that if I have it out side of his cage for a few days I will find him playing with it. I also find that a toy can just sit there for the longest time and suddenly it becomes the favorite toy because I moved it to a new location, so I rotate them between the cage and the manzanita tree and to new places on each. It has been fun giving new toys to Quinn, unlike my past experience with my husband's rescue Greys he plays with most of them and seems to get a real kick out of a new one once he has warmed up to it, some times that is immediate. I just got him started with the boing, he is 10 months old, and he looked at it with the, I'm not going near this thing look, and three days later I look up and he is on it. He loves it now. That surpeised me. It is fun watching them play with their toys and it is costing me a fortune. I have a ton of toys from another Grey we took care of I have a ton of toys because I couldn't resist buying them and I have a ton of toy parts too. I look through cat toys, dog toys, and baby toys as well and often find that they are later being sold as bird toys. I just got one that was a real hit for babies. Look at toys for sale to get ideas plus there are some sites that will tell you how to make them. I am off on a toy tangent. I used to sell children's toys so you tell I am fond of them.

I agree they have a sense of humor and they love to make us laugh. There is something about laughter, when they imitate it it makes us all laugh. Quinn is just about a year old and becoming very chatty. only one phrase so far but a million sounds. he performs at night when I am sitting on the couch near his cage. He likes to hear me laugh and ramps it up a bit when he knows he has my attention. I swear I can almost see him smile.

My birds, are you crazy? Just when i was thinking that there might be some value in mixing poop for paste. I have an amazon and a grey and a tile floor thank heavens.

You can have mine.