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Bird Quirks


Ray P

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I am sure that each one of us has a parrot weather it be a Grey, Amazon, Macaw Cockatiel or what ever that has a quirk.

Each of my parrots has had it`s own quirks, but the strangest one of all has to do with my 24 year old Cockatiel Willie.

Willie has two food dishes that we rotate each day. We remove the one food dish to empty old food and replace with the other clean dish and new food. One dish is pink and the other is yellow.

Willie will not eat out of the same color dish two days in a row. If you empty let say the pink dish and refill it he will just look at it and not eat any until you change to the yellow dish and than he will eat.

The things we do for our parrots.

WHAT IS YUR PARROTS QUIRK.

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Dorians quirk is his hatred of the tv. He will sulk and not speak at all if it is on. If I have it on at night he sits and does his protest beep every few seconds until the tv is off (which I try not to do because I consider that rewarding bad behaviour), or I tuck him into bed. Anyone else got a fid that hates the boob tube?

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lol that's so funny! Well Sully HATES hats. Freaks him right out when someone is wearing one, even me and my husband. So our house is a strictly no hat zone. Sully has a hanging perch in our living room that he hangs out on when we are watching television. I swear he understands a good comedy or can sense a laugh coming on because he will crack up laughing during the most perfect moments.

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HRH has 2 water dishes and uses one as her jacuzzi. She refuses to bathe in a roomy, water filled dish, preferring instead to contort herself into the smaller, round, porcelain one. It amazes me how she can cram herself into it. I have tried various other dishes over the years but that is *the* one and only. She also generally bathes herself once a week on a Saturday or Sunday like clockwork despite her daily showers.

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HRH has 2 water dishes and uses one as her jacuzzi. She refuses to bathe in a roomy, water filled dish, preferring instead to contort herself into the smaller, round, porcelain one. It amazes me how she can cram herself into it. I have tried various other dishes over the years but that is *the* one and only. She also generally bathes herself once a week on a Saturday or Sunday like clockwork despite her daily showers.

 

LOL That would be hilarious to see! I've tried to get Sully to take a "bath" but he's only interested in showering.

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Miss Gilbert's quirk is to only permit touching her with the bars of her cage as a barrier. She is really coming around and asks me to scratch her head twenty times a day or more. Two years ago, I placed her perch strategically near a door so I can open the door, scratch her through the bars, and sometimes sneak in a really good neck rub through the open door. She caught on to me, so then, I made sure to keep one finger on her head from my left hand, then pick up with my right once I moved it through the open door. Now she is on to me again. She doesn't mind if the door is open now, but looks every fifteen seconds to be absolutely sure I am abiding by her "through the bars only" rule.

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I have no idea why this is. But Phenix is absolutely sure, positive that he's going to die if he's near anything that's translucent, florescent orange or translucent, florescent yellow. Things get normal reactiona if they're a solid "safety" orange or yellow color. But an-y-thing that's see thru...? Oh boy!!!

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My CAG Gracie's quirk is her nightly bedtime routine. Now Gracie is a sweet bird and never bites. However, every night at bedtime we go through the same routine. Gracie starts with "Night Night time. Time for sleepies. Step up! Sweet tomorrow." After saying her lines a few times I go get her to step up and place her back in her cage on her boing perch. Without fail, as she steps up on the perch she attempts a mock "sucker punch bite" and says "Ahh--Ahh!". Now she could bite me if she wanted to, but she never actually makes beak to flesh contact--all bluff. Then she proudly says, "Gracie bite! ouchie!"....then she looks at me sheepishly and says "Gracie sorry. No bite. Gracie kiss....'smmmmooooochhhh'. Sweet tomorrow." I cover her cage and we are done with our ritual. Same dance every single night.

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Aw, you brought tears to my eyes at the sweetness of your bedtime routine with Gracie. She learned precious things from you.

 

I wonder what Phenix sees when he looks at or through those translucent neon acrylics? I've read that parrots have receptors in their eyes that allow them to see in the ultraviolet range. It reminds me of Nilah when Talon's kids dyed the dog pink.

Edited by katana600
typo
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  • 3 weeks later...

attachment.php?attachmentid=26697&stc=1

 

Managed to capture some snaps of HRH last Sunday as she was taking her weekly bath in her round water dish. She drinks out of her rectangular one. Can you believe how she can stuff herself into that little dish?

 

JefNOK -- oh my gosh, Gracie's night night routine just melted my heart! Love how she teases you with play fighting before bed. Too cute!

I also am curious as to what Phenix sees through the translucent things that causes the stir. Fascinating!

birdybath.jpg

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Loved the photos! Timber also bathes most often in his round water bowl. He isn't quite as successful at getting himself in it, he does front half dips then back half dips. The first time I saw him it looked like he was trying to commit suicide by drowning...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Misty will go for any unattended cup or tumbler if it has liquid in it. Luckily it is usually water. He will land on it and balance perfectly. The problem is when he takes off. If I try to rescue the tumbler he will get quite snappy. It is one of the few occasions when i may get a nip!

 

Steve n Mistyparrot

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Another "quirk" that Misty has learned by example is to apologize! When he sends something crashing down he will fly back to his tree perch saying "Sorry Babe" He has also said it after a nip when I want to scratch my neck and caught him by surprise on the back of my chair! A while back I tripped while carrying him and sent him tumbling to the floor! As I gathered him up I said "Sorry Babe". When he learn to say "Thank you" it will make my day :-)

 

Steve n Mistyparrot

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Bailey also has an uncanny knack for often saying the right thing at the right time. I have several birds that are out of cage at the same time. Because Bailey is so protective and possessive of me, he clings on the front of his cage, which is next to my chair, when other birds are with me. My wife chases the birds from things they are not supposed to be on by yelling, "OFF!". Bailey was yelling, "OFF!" to chase my Lovebird & a Cockatiel from me, as he often does. I turned, and told him it was okay. He looked at me for a second, and then said, "I love you!". He sure knows how to get to me. I see that all of these are funny quirks. One of Bailey's that I absolutely hate, and have not been able to break, is pinching holes in my clothes with his beak. I have so many shirts that are "Bailey shirts" because they are full of tiny holes. Also, when he's on the floor, I'll suddenly realize that he's nipping my socks. Or on my lap, he pinches my pants. Nothing stops him. He's obsessed. Does anyone else's bird do this? Why do they have to do that?

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I hadn't even thought about it until now. Java will sit on David and pinch holes in his clothes until they are ragged. Gil does the same to him. Neither of them ruin my clothes. I wonder if they do it because he gets frustrated and shoos them off when they are chewing his shirts. When I first got my parrots, I bought 5 or 6 tee shirts with button fronts. I cut them off at the armpits so it was like a little cape to protect my clothes. I didn't care if they chewed on them or pooped on them. Neither of them chew or poo on me but they do on hubby. The first time Gilbert bit me really hard, I went to go lie down with ice on it. No sooner than she chomped my finger, she started saying "Sorry. Sorry. Gilbert's sorry" over and over in the most plaintive, pitiful tone I have ever heard. For the longest time, when she would permit me to rub her head, she would spin and try to bite me. Then she would say "Ohhhhh sorry" like Alex Trebec on Jeopardy. It had just a twinge of sarcasm that made me suspect she was sorry she missed. It has been ages since I have heard that.

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HRH Inara used to pinch holes in my shirts too. I'm a slow learner, a hole pinch usually directly proceeded a poop down my back. Once I connected the two, the moment she would reach down to give my shirt a pinch, I would say, "Let's go over to your perch," and she would drop the bomb over there, and then I'd pick her back up. It wasn't long after several times of me doing that, that rather than pinching my shirt she would look at me and say, "Go-kie." Her own made up word for 'poopage in 3....2...1'! :D :D Natch, it also took me awhile to key into what "Go-kie" meant! LOL Now, no more holes in shirts, no more poop down the back, and we do the Go-kie Pokie..turnourselvesaround thatswhatitsallabout.. sing with me!

 

Much like Dee, whose t-shirt cape idea just rocks by the way -- I had an old denim shirt that I'd toss on over my other shirts to protect them from little miss hole puncher.

Gotta love all the quirks. Love the saying "sorry." Very sweet!

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