The Pet Shop Girls..... Out of the mouths of.... Parrots!

Conrad is so much like his daddy!

This morning, I heard him yelling, "I love you - and ME!"

Yesterday, I had him in the bathroom, playing on the counter while I took a bath. After several attempts at getting me to come and get him ("Come here! Come here!") he proceeded to pick up everything off the counter (my contact lens case, a hair brush, tooth brush, etc), and threw them - one by one - at me!

Like humans, African Greys do not readily recognize themselves in the mirror, but they can be taught to do so. After Conrad threw everything from the counter at me, he spent the remainder of my bath time doing his version of the "sticking your tongue out at yourself" in the mirror! Like his daddy, he loves mirrors, too - and he KNOWS he is looking at himself.

‎(I failed to mention that after Conrad threw each item from the counter at me, he would duck down.... The normal routine is that when he throws something at me, I pick it up, and throw it back at him. He was preparing himself for retaliation by ducking after he threw it!)

African Grey Parrot

Yellow Naped Amazon Parrot

There was a yellow-naped Amazon parrot at a pet store that I used to frequent in Quincy, IL. Her name was Penny. Because of psoriasis - and I like the way I look - I have been tanned for decades. VERY tan. When I walk by Penny's cage, she would call me the "N" word, then she would quickly duck down in the bottom of the cage, yelling, "You'd better watch that! You'd better watch that!"

Where did she learn this routine? The pet shop owners had to set up hidden cameras, and they caught their evening staff showing Penny pictures of black people, and telling her to call them the "N" word! When she would call somebody that word, they would take a whack at her cage in retaliation, and they would say, "You'd better watch that (who you say that to) !" She learned to duck and hide in the bottom of her cage, and say "You'd better watch that!" after she called a person the derogatory term!

Needless to say, the evening shift was fired and replaced.

HOWEVER.... Once a parrot learns something, you can hope and pray to change it, and with VERY minor success, but for the most part, once it's learned, it is EXTREMELY PERMANENT!

Yellow-naped Amazons are immediately behind African Greys when it comes to their ability to use human speech appropriately.

 There are a couple differences between the 2 species:

1) Amazons enjoy 'mimicry', as well as using the language for a specific reason.  Greys do not particularly enjoy mimicry, although they will occasionally engage in such activity, and get rather bored quickly by that simple game.

2) You will rarely ever see an African Grey parrot in "Bird Shows" on TV, or in amusement parks, for 3 reasons:

a) They do not enjoy mimicry games, which is required for human entertainment in "Bird Shows".

b)  They are NOT happy being perched in one spot for more than a few minutes.  A macaw, Yellow-naped Amazon or Cockatoo can be left on a perch in a public for many hours.  If a Grey is left in such a spot, they will jump off (or climb down!) off that perch in a few short minutes, and they are outta there!

c) It is an unfortunate fact that the even though the African Grey parrot has the highest intelligence of all parrots, they are also the most shy of all the large parrot species, AND they are smart enough to 'not talk when they don't want to do so.'  That can be frustrating to a silly human being who thinks African Greys are little puppets that will do everything at the whim of a beckoning human being!  The Grey will have other ideas.

- Michael