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Is Dorian the only grey...


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...who hates the TV being on? I mean hates it! He sulks the entire time I have it on. Won't speak, just makes his 'I'm annoyed' beep at regular intervals. It's not an attention thing. I can just have it on in the background while I'm puttering around cleaning or otherwise attending to his majesty, the 'tude keeps up until the TV is off. He's the main reason I don't know anything about any current shows. I just don't have the set on to get addicted to any of them. This isn't a new thing but it's getting worse. It seems the less I watch the more determined he becomes to get the set off 100% of his awake hours. So, anyone else out there got a feathered TV critic on their hands?

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lol No problems here. Usually they totally ignore it. Sometimes they'll actually watch it. Mine is set up as my computer monitor. They particularly like watching the screen saver.

 

They do have a little thing about the stereo, though. I finally figured out that they didn't like the subwoofer vibration. So that's got me wondering if your TV speakers have a sound in a frequency Dorian doesn't like. Just for grins & giggles, can you try running the sound thru any other speakers?

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Because I live alone I have a tv just about in all the rooms of my home and they are on all the time except when I sleep. My parrots ignore the tvs. They do not repeat words they hear on tv or anything.

 

Can the tv be on without sound to see if it is the sound Dorian dislikes. If it isn't the speakers, then perhaps it is the "people" your grey sees on the tv and Dorian believes they are intruding into "his" time with you.

Edited by luvparrots
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In our household, tv on must mean constantly talk as loudly as she can and be as irritating as possible.

I give up and turn it off.

Or, sometimes, I have to move her into a cage in another room.

Sometimes turning off the lights helps.

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So much easier if this doesn't turn out to be a quirk, obviously. So what do you say we keep blaming the TV for a while? :confused:

 

Have you tried another TV or monitor? On the off chance it's a sound the TV is making, even if it isn't the speakers & even if you can't hear anything out of the ordinary. Have you tried moving it or Dorian's cage around? Speaking of... You said Dorian's getting worse. But has he particularly gotten worse since you've moved? So could there be shadows, echoes, reflections or some such craziness?

 

If you watch half the vids on the forum, you can hear TVs in the background. So this seems a little odd. On the other hand, most of us can't sing like you. So maybe Dorian would just rather you'd cut out all the racket & sing for him. In which case you're just stuffed because there's no arguing w/that! lol

Edited by birdhouse
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They are all certainly individuals. Dayo watches tv, laughs at it, dances to music on it, and sometimes blows a raspberry at some remarks made by the characters. In between he likes to get scratches or just literally lay down on the sofa with a blanky and catch some zzzzzz's. I suspect it feels wonderful to just stretch those legs out the back and have no pressure on the talons at all. :)

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I have the tv on for white noise all the time for Timber. He doesn't seem to pay much attention to it one way or the other. I leave it on animal planet, and sometimes he will respond to the sounds the animals are making. Other than that, I don't think he thinks of it one way or the other. Interesting situation you have there. I'll be curious to hear how Dorian reacts if you make some of the suggested changes or figure it out!

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My fids don't pay any attention to the tv and its a good thing for my hubby can't live without it so it is on all the time he is in the house except for when he is in bed, I leave a radio on during the day while I am at work. I have to echo Val's idea of trying another tv as it could possibly be a noise you cannot hear or notice but Dorian surely is.

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I can be using ... computer monitor, tiny LCD, iPad, if it's TV he's sulking.

 

...don't you hate it when people don't read the posts? I was multi tasking. :o Sorry, I missed that part.

 

ALL video out is currently bad, bad, bad!

 

So if you don't actually want to live totally TV free, then maybe the next thing is to try to focus on finding something Dorian would actually like to watch vs doesn't hate. I'm guessing you've already tried the nature channels. My guys will watch the Windows flying pipes & the ribbons screen savers for ages. They enjoy the colors & the movement I think. They like some of the forum vids. :) Biscotti is always a favorite. Maybe Baby Einstein dvds?

 

Of course if it works, you may have to buy his lordship his own little portable DVD player so you don't fight over each other's shows. lol But one problem at a time...

Edited by birdhouse
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Hahaha, Golden Girls and Mash are two the Bongo likes to watch. It started because I would put it on TBS in the mornings for the cute shows when i go to work in the morning, I Love Lucy and that stuff. He has started doing the logo sound for the station. It was hard finding a station they all liked, cartoons are a nono, they all scream, except for Family Guy.

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I love how we humans look at this as a problem to be solved. Dorian is an old fashioned kind of guy who says he likes you best in person, and yes, better still singing. We go about our day without the television or radio on but when hubby is home watching sports, I am the one making the annoying beep not Gilbert. LOL. I imagine my hubby is writing on some forum asking how to stop me from annoying him with it. LOL.

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How very peculiar. Alfie is indifferent about the TV. Sometimes he will make noises when I'm watching it but a lot of the time I have it on for background noise when I'm at the computer.

 

If Alfie is out and I'm watching TV he will quite often fly to me and sit on my knee which I think is the cutest thing. I don't think he's interested in the TV, I think he just likes the fact I'm sitting somewhere and he can come and share some time and space with me. He knows that if he creeps up my leg and pokes at my arm he will get some head scratches too. It's a good bonding activity for us, actually, as he can be very particular about when I'm allowed to scratch his head!

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Jake isn't much into tv but he does like stand up comedy, he likes to laugh along with the crowd, and movies with sound effects like Star Wars. He also likes ice hockey. If I turn the tv on and he says "scores" I know to turn on a game or the NHL channel. The season is almost over but I do have a few hockey games on DVD for him to watch over the summer. Computer wise there are some videos he likes. There is one in particular of a TAG named "Grey Bird" which we joke is his girlfriend. He loves her videos but he gets aggressive and bitey with us after watching it so he doesn't get to view her very often. Sometimes he will watch Bibi on Ustream

Normally though I just have a radio on or open the front door for sounds of the neighborhood.
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I love it when i get home and go to Bongo's cage and you can see in his expression that he can't decide if he should take his eyes off of the tv or look at me. I get that sideways look from him. Close Encounters played last week and he wouldn't even look my way and he almost mastered the sound that movie is known for. He has now moved on to The Good, The Bad whistle.

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You know, as I got to thinking about this a little more seriously, Gilbert has a checkered past. He has been in at least one home that was chaotic and unpredictable. He also was abandoned after a household was packed in boxes and the rescue group was told, take him today, I am leaving tomorrow. So, he has reacted very badly to the one time I was getting flooring and moved my furniture and put things in boxes. Although that was dramatic, it has me wondering if Dorian had something in his past centering around the television that was troubling. Is it possible when he was young and impressionable he was chastised for making too much noise while the television was playing perhaps? They are so smart, he could associate that with being kicked out of his home. I don't know why that would raise up at this time except that you have moved kind of recently and maybe he was just holding his breath and watching to see if it was that television that caused his upheaval.

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Well, he's been really upset this weekend and it has had nothing to do with the tv. I had a yard sale, and the sight of boxes being moved out of the house really ticked him off. Of course the change in the daily routine didn't help. As for the tv, his first owners brought him to their pet store with them and that's where he lived, and where I met him, so he went years without seeing a tv. I've wondered if that is part of his dislike. He has picked up sounds from the tv, but not often. (I can't watch Star Wars with him unless I want to live with R2D2). I definitley can't watch videos of other parrots. If I want to catch up on Biscotti's latest exploits I have to watch away from Dorian and use headphones. I wondered if other parronts had this issue because I thought maybe their eyes picked up on annoyances that our eyes don't, like the way moving horizontal bars sometimes show up on film when computer monitors are taped. From everybodys responses, I guess that isn't a factor. It is the video, not the sound. He happily whistles along to audio performances where there is whistling (James Taylor is a favourite), and he laughs and whoo hoos along with the audiences in live performance CDs. I guess he's just a weirdo! Oh well, he fits right in around here.

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