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Grey Cognition and language abilities


danmcq

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I share in your experiences. I'm an adopted daddy. Bo came to my home a few years ago from another home. He's a "plucker" and I've tried about everything so far to get him to stop, but he's intent on dealing with his feathers the way he wants. That being said, when i clean, he says, "yucky yucky what a mess" only when I clean. when i go to the bathroom, he says, "did you go p....ies?", only when i go to the bathroom. when I go to the refrigerator, he says, "I wanna cheeezit", only when I go to the refrigerator. when I leave he says, "bye", when I come home he says, "I'll be back", when he sees a dog, he says, "is that a dog, woof woof," and etc etc. I adore Bo. He is my cuddle pal, affectionate and the most sweet and responsive bird I have ever had the privilege of sharing life with.

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Welcome Mark and Bo! Bo sounds like quite a character and a true joy to have around. :)

 

Why don't you go to our welcome room and introduce yourself so all will know we have a knew member. I look forward to hearing more from you and about Bo and further antics.

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This week Ellie has said her first word/phrase. "What 'cha doin'?"** and sometimes "What 'cha doin', huh?"

 

She mostly does it when she can't see me (I'm in another room)...

 

** In other words, "What [are] ya [you] doing?" - she's saying how I say it to her, of course. Which means that the poor grammatical structure is on me, not her...

 

FYI: Ellie is almost 8 months old.

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Hmmmm interesting. I never asked Sophie "yes", or "no" questions. I didn't need to, until it was time to get her to bathe. Then, thru several conversations, I agreed to let our groomer shower her. She agreed. It has always been the one and only issue we had to discuss. It worked out. Other than that, Sophie rules our animal kingdom, was taught by my dog "max", who saw her potential. She now rules, and does so fairly. Nancy

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Hi all~ At the beginning of the year, I started writing down Marcus' sayings at my mother's behest; she kept telling me I'd forget everything and then regret it. So it's not quite a journal, but if Marcus says something particularly interesting I try and remember to write it down anymore. He's still not the most talkative of parrots--I watched a video recently of one of the other forum member's Greys, a lovely little girl, and she just won me over with her singing and talking and everything. Marcus isn't like that, generally-speaking, I wish he would talk more openly like that, but at least he's getting a little better. He loves peppers now and will actually say "pepper" when he wants one... he requests little things... but he's still less talkative than many, it would seem. Nevertheless, when he does talk, it's usually with a point, and he can be mind-blowing for me/us at those times.

 

For instance, when my parents were visiting from out of state last week, our smaller parrots were all screeching for some seemingly unimportant reason while I was in the birdroom. I turned to Marcus and said something about how they were all talking so loud, I couldn't hear him (I think I was asking him about something--although most questions anymore earn me a neutral "Mm-hm" response). Then I laughed and said of our cockatiel, "Well, I guess Bunsen doesn't talk, she just yells," to which Marcus said very clearly in reply, "That's her regular voice."

 

I laughed and told him, "Yeah, I guess you're right!" But later when I told my hubby what he'd said, he was like, "No, really?!" But Marcus did say that, and it tickled me pink to hear it, even though I tried not to let him know that. ;) So even though he's quieter most days (aside from his microwave beeps and et cetera), and doesn't regale me with ready conversation like I'd like him to--he talks as he wants to. Which I'm beginning to realize is all any of us can expect from our lovely Grey friends, really. It's a lesson I'm still learning. :P

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Marcus, is listening and learning! ( gotta watch out for those quiet ones!) In my opinion, EXTREMELY intelligent! How many engineers and scientists talk up a storm? Not many! I know... as this is my family history.

Even though Sophie came here at two and from an excellent home, her vocabulary excelled between three and four. She always has something to say. ( kids blame me for that!) LOL Nancy

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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.

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  • 3 weeks later...

You know when you use "is" or "are" depending on the pronoun? For example "she is" or "they are." Brutus couldn't figure which to use, so now he uses both. He will say, "You are is a good boy" instead of "you are a good boy." Or, "you sure are is a nice boy." I have no idea why except maybe he is trying to cover the possibilities.

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Love that Chez. he is learning as he goes. He will figure it out! He will also make up his own senetences that will have you rolling on the Floor! :)

 

One example, Dayo will sometimes answer the phone when it rings and sometimes he will say "hello? talk to the meatloaf!". :P

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Love that Chez. he is learning as he goes. He will figure it out! He will also make up his own senetences that will have you rolling on the Floor! :)

 

One example, Dayo will sometimes answer the phone when it rings and sometimes he will say "hello? talk to the meatloaf!". :P

 

I love it! And wherever did he get that combination??

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Hi Doug, Dayo just made it up. He loves meatloaf when we have it. I have no idea why he decided to tell a person on the phone to talk to the meatloaf. Most the time he will just say Hello, yeah, uh huh, how are you etc.

 

They will make up many of their own phrases once they have a large vocabulary. Sometimes you will realize they are making a joke or actually have a different meaning. Dayo will laugh most the time after he pulls his "Talk to the Meatloaf" phone answer.

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Oh, I just love listening to all these stories. I look forward to hearing more and cannot wait until I am able to add to it. Y'all make me impatient to add a CAG to our household! LOL Hubby may be surprised. I'm just very impressed with how smart they are. Many of you have made me laugh so hard I snorted.

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One of my favorite clips of a grey talking is Einstein practicing his phrases. Ellie and I just listened to it again this morning. I love it and so look forward to when she is talking more...

 

 

Edit: is it possible to embed a youtube video in a post?

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Hey Dan "talk to the meatloaf" Who is Dayo referring to????? Huh, huh, huh!!!! I almost choked on my laughing, naughty Dayo!!!!

 

LOL, I believe that is his way of saying he does NOT wish to talk on the phone at the moment. :P

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