TOES!
Those of you who have read Alex and Me know that Alex the grey insisted on calling apples "banerry," his portmanteau of "banana" and "cherry." His trainers noted that once he decided on a label for something, it was pretty impossible to change his mind. I've noticed the same thing in my grey: once he understood and could say "toes" (which is definitely his favorite word ever) he apparently took the word to mean "digits," and believes it applies to fingers, too. He likes to say "Ripley's toes!" when I touch his feet or when he's playing with a foot toy. And he'll waddle up to someone's feet and squeeze their toes and exclaim "Toes? Toes! Got your toes!" But now he does the same thing to fingers. I've tried the past couple weeks to correct him by saying "fingers!" every time he touches my fingers, but he always jumps right back in with an even more emphatic "toes!" as if he's correcting me. I've pretty much given up and when he licks my fingers and says "touch your toes!" I just say "yeah, you found some toes."
I think he's also just got a foot fetish. Sometimes instead of "I love you" he'll say "I love your toes!" Or he'll add it to other phrases, like "Step up your toes!" or "Good toes!" or "You want some toes?"
Anybody else noticed their parrot has decided on a specific, peculiar word for something?
I think he's also just got a foot fetish. Sometimes instead of "I love you" he'll say "I love your toes!" Or he'll add it to other phrases, like "Step up your toes!" or "Good toes!" or "You want some toes?"
Anybody else noticed their parrot has decided on a specific, peculiar word for something?