Tonight I finally got my CAG, Ripley, to hang out with me in my room after a month of him flying back to his cage every time I tried to take him upstairs (our basement remodel has him all freaked out and disoriented about the way the house looks). After hanging out with him for a couple hours, I tried to take him back downstairs, only to find that ( Read more... )

Reginald's vocabulary is expanding rapidly lately, and it's adorable.

He can now say:

• "Pretty bird."
• "Pretty bird, Reginald."
• "Come here."
• "Come here, pretty bird."
• "Yeah, pretty bird." (He's working on it, at least.)

My three year old grey has recently learned to use first person pronouns. It's kind of awkward sometimes, like the other day when he announced ( Read more... )

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Apparently blue crowns are some of the more capable talkers among the conure family, but after owning Beaker for three months, I'd never heard him say a word. He clicks, squeaks, kisses and whistles, but no actual words ( Read more... )

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More Ripley talking video. I think what he does at about 1:20 is the funniest part, though.

Oh my gosh, I just had the most adorable realization.

My grey likes to say this weird phrase which sounds like "Hi-ey-oh!" and which I figured was just his mashup of "hi/hello!" Cue just now, when my cockatiel Enyo starts singing from across the room and the grey starts repeating "Hi ey oh! Hi ey oh!" over and over.

He's trying to say "Hi, Enyo ( Read more... )

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 ( Read more... )

I have been trying to teach Ripley to say "go potty" before he poops since day one. And he does tend to say something before he poops. It's just never "go potty." Instead, he says things like,

"Hey, look!"
"You want some water?"
"I love you!"

I'm apparently just a failure at potty training. :(

It's been established in my house that Ripley's favorite thing to touch and say is "Toes." Originally he'd only say this word when I touched his toes, and sometimes as a way of enticing me to touch his toes. THEN he figured out that toes also applied to everyone else's toes, and began to march around the floor, recklessly squeezing toes and ( Read more... )