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Post by bickitrainer on Feb 15, 2008 22:13:38 GMT 10
Lol my alexandrain parakeet called Tweety (6 months old) already speaks! Sure, he doesn't understand what those words mean, he just uses them randomly, but he still has a chance.
Just think, Alex the african grey was purchased by Irene when he was one year old.
I reckon Tweety has a decent chance, it just requires dedication! I'm going to talk and talk and train and train. Irene worked with her bird for almost 8 hours a day or something, this is kinda impossible for me but I'm still going to try!
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Post by abby-oldaccount on Feb 16, 2008 6:39:02 GMT 10
Ok this could be an interesting debate.  Arthur is now 7 months old. I picked him up from the breeder at 14weeks. At that point he was saying hello and f off (yeah real thrilled on that one). he tells the kids to settle down when they get too rowdy, the quaker babes are now getting told to shut up but only when they're carrying on and I got a "sorry" from him when he threw a complete tantrum yesterday and bit me hard. Yep language is in context. Next subject my blue quakers. The girl is probably the most appropriate. I got told to "go away" for peering in the nest box (amongst other hints), you say kiss and they do the kiss sound back, evil quaker laugh and sure enough the laugh comes out. They also tell everyone to step up. Olly my older lorikeet started talking at 4 months (hasn't shut up since  ). Until then I didn't know lorikeets talked. One of my budgie babes who is living with their new owner has started talking. I know of an Amazon who is amazing with his ability to understand instructions and also speech. In short I think most parrots are capable of speech and understanding. Because of greys such as Alex and Einstein they have ended up getting a far bit of publicity. To sum this up before I end up with an essay, there are some really intelligent parrots out there budgies through to greys and there's some that just aren't interested no matter what one does with training and some of them are greys. |
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Post by just4birds on Feb 16, 2008 7:42:30 GMT 10
hahahahaha .... pretty funny topic .... But i'd have to say along with abby alot of birds are smart .... i wouldnt be just singling out one or 2 ... Also alex was a uni study .... thats why they worked with him 8 hours a day ... and thats why he become what he did .... and one last thing ... my adopted eclectus was given to me at 1.5 years and i was told "he must be stupid cause he cant talk" He now says around 5 or 6 things ... including telling me to "come" or telling all the other birds to "shut up" when they are all screaming ... Sooo i think all it comes down to is the amount of time a human spends talking and generally being around a parrot. Good Luck with your pet Alex  |
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Post by silvercloud on Feb 16, 2008 10:55:01 GMT 10
I think the big difference is that some birds actually talk in context whereas others just talk randomly. My red capped parrot Elmo talks fairly constantly and can say about 20 different things but most of it isn't in context though he always says "hello my darlin" when someone comes through the door and when I get out of bed in the morning LOL
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Post by vankarhi on Feb 16, 2008 12:40:12 GMT 10
Skye can talk well and in context at times. The other day (a couple of weeks ago) I put some fresh food in the aviary and I will swear I heard "thankyou" from Skye. When she was inside she would say "hellllllooooo" to all people who visited. When I walk past her cage she would say "what ya doing?" or if I was cleaning her cage "what ya doing'" When I put her in front of the fish tank we had ........ she turned around to look at it and said "wow" (like she had never seen it before. lol) We played a game with Caillean when he was around 2 or 3 years of age. Rhianna (then 15/16 ..... now 18) hid Caillean in a spot and then said "where are you" and he would say "I hear" (as they do when they are little lol). Well I decided to hide him behind Skyes cage. I knew that Rhianna would see him but also knew she would play along and "not see him" lol ;D So as we were about to start looking for Caillean......... Skye turned around on her perch and looked down at Caillean and said "hello" "I here" and then came her wicked laugh. She had actually dobbed on him. lol When Skye was inside she would see me with the dog food walking past her cage to go feed the dogs on the front verandah and she would yell "UMMA" (Summa our Staffy) and ISSA (Mysta our Border Collie) ..........she knew I was going to feed them and she would call them. lol ;D they never came on her calling though. lol Oh one night we turned out the lights and heard "goodnight" come from Skye. One morning I got up and let Mysta outside............ we were greeted as we walked down the hallway with a "step up" lol. I knew immediately what she meant.........when I said steph up it meant .........come on we are going somewhere ........ and Skye knew that i would be opening up the door to let Mysta out.......to go "somewhere" lol
There are more stuff ........... I believe that our birds do quite often know what they are saying ........or at least what our reponse will be.
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Post by bickitrainer on Feb 16, 2008 18:10:55 GMT 10
Wow you guys have really smart parrots!
Lol yep, Einstein and Alex just got all the publicity, there could be like really smart parrots out there that are smarter than them! We just don't know about it!
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Post by avinet on Feb 16, 2008 21:16:11 GMT 10
We have always tried to give our birds the best education that money can buy, and following the lead of Alex the Grey maths has been a major part of the educational process. Bambi the Alexandrine was one of our star pupils, and we began his maths education at an early age (he is now 9 years old). The photo below shows Bambi at 9 months learning how to count and working on the number 1.  Of course being good at maths isn't limited to Alexandrines, and the next photo shows Ziggy, our Crimson-wing Parrot, who has just accomplished learning about the number 4 and is progressing onto learning about 5. Ziggy is a rather emotional bird. comes with the cleverness I guess, and is a plucker. Been doing it for 10 years now. Perhaps we pushed his education too hard when he was young?  Of course our star pupil is Bambi's mother, Buster, and the next photo (sorry for the quality) shows Buster leaving her abacus after she had just finished solving a complex algebraic problem on the abacus. She is our star maths performer and has indicated she is keen to move on to higher calculus problems - it's a worry when the bird's maths is more advanced than your own  Naturally their education extends beyond maths and Bambi is a very proficient reader. My last photo shows him reading a useful article on fungal infections in birds. It is a bit strange though since he always reads the articles upsidedown, must be the different way that parrot brains are wired compared to ours - or maybe they are just cleverer   cheers, Mike (feeling a bit frivolous tonight) |
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Post by vankarhi on Feb 16, 2008 21:37:31 GMT 10
LMAO Mike.......extremely clever birds there especially reading upside down. lol (the fact he is reading at all is totally amazing lol ;D ) Actually at the risk of "causing an aguement" lol ;D I have read many times over the past few years that Eclectus parrots are actually rivalling the African Greys for intelligence and talkablilty........I have actually read that many times (and not over and over many times the same article too. LMAO) ;D .......... oh it is good to be back to me again. |
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Post by silvercloud on Feb 17, 2008 1:36:41 GMT 10
LOL Mike and Tracey. Mike it seems Bambi finds the fungus story quite tasty too ;D
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Post by Jane on Feb 17, 2008 6:30:28 GMT 10
 That's fantastic Mike |
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Post by abby-oldaccount on Feb 17, 2008 6:42:21 GMT 10
You're a funny bugger Mike. I noticed you didn't have the greys amongst your star pupils. I look at birds as being similar to your children. If you put the time, energy and most importantly genuine love into it you'll get the results. Some birds (like children) are naturally gifted and will thrive on knowledge and learning no matter what species. Others (again like children) will do only what they want and are capable of which sometimes may only go as far as step up. There's also the slow learner who all of a sudden clicks one day and surprises everyone. I see it in my human kids and my feathered ones too. |
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Post by abby-oldaccount on Feb 17, 2008 7:17:14 GMT 10
Forgot to say... Took my life into my own hands a few days ago and was playing with a female Ekkie (nearly 2yo). I have to say I got the same look from her checking me over that Arthur gives people. She also worked out pretty quickly that I wasn't frightened by her so decided to start pushing things. Yep the cow nailed me.  Not bad but nice little blood blister there. Didn't really react apart from removing her beak from my finger (the hand she was sitting on). Just said to her in my nice calm voice "yes you are a girly Ekkie aren't you". She got put back in her cage a few minutes later but I was damned if I'd let her have the upper hand on this one. |
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Post by vankarhi on Feb 17, 2008 7:57:49 GMT 10
lol Mary.........yes I know that look very well (the intelligent look of really "thinking") both Gunny and skye do it. Geesh Mary that wasn't a bite.........come visit me ........... I give you an example of a BITE. lol I must admit though since being in the aviary I make her step up and sit on my arm whenever I go in there and I talk to her etc and she hasn't bitten me. I realise they are not hormonal biting machines 24/7 but once bitten or attacked by a "ferocius female ekkie" .......... you do think twice about going near her again. |
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Post by avinet on Feb 17, 2008 8:51:24 GMT 10
You're a funny bugger Mike. I noticed you didn't have the greys amongst your star pupils. I've lived with a variety of different species over the years including (as house birds) Ringnecks, Alexes, Cockatiels, budgies, Plumheads, Bourkes, Mulgas, Turks, Kings, Crimson-wing, Little Lorikeets, Quakers, Princesses. And I've hand raised many additional species which have been temporary residents. Without a doubt the Greys are significantly more intelligent than any other species I have had experience of. The only other species that comes close (and I admit I have no meaningful experience of Eclectus) is the Long-billed Corella - certainly the smartest of the Australian parrots I have known. The photo below is of four that we hand reared back in 1996. cheers, Mike  |
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Post by vankarhi on Feb 17, 2008 9:27:49 GMT 10
aren't they adorable ........ I actually used to think they were "dare I say it" ....... I will whisper it ....... no I wont say it now. but I actually met a lovely handraised one a couple of years ago for sale in a pet shop and I was just so tempted to buy it. I was talking to it and it wanted to come to me and without asking.....it tried to step up for me. The colours were just adorable....so pastel. That is one breed of bird I wouldn't mind owning too. Plus I have told this story a few times.......but in brief........there was an african grey iin pet shop in Brisbane that I wanted to see but the corella was doing its best to get my attention ........and he did. |
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Post by bickitrainer on Feb 17, 2008 12:44:36 GMT 10
Omg Mike are you serious your birds can read?  That's absolutely amazing! |
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Post by courtzrocks on Feb 18, 2008 10:50:30 GMT 10
Yeah i thought that too about the corellas when i first saw them lol then once you meet one your opinion completely changes lol i find them adorable now they are so sweet. And yeah i heard that the eclectus is one of the smartest if not the smartest parrot. Also heard the greys are too but then again it depends on the bird. My cockatiel knows how to annoy the hell outta ya. We didnt do too much training with him but you can tell he's a smart birdie. We did however have a lutino tiel who was...hmm how should i put it...dumb? Lol. She was really not the smartest bird lol. I'm hoping that it was just the colour lol think being a blonde didnt help her haha. Hope Matches is a smart bird...Well he/she has been doing backflips since a bit over 2 months lol.
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Post by angelicvampyre on Dec 15, 2008 11:05:53 GMT 10
I have Elmo the king parrot and over the weekend is has been coughing every time my sister does it and somewhere has picked up the evil laugh! bangs head against desk* and people told me King Parrots can't talk! (FTR he also says, Hello, Out, Elmo what you doing, no Elmo non amoung other things)
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Arthur is now 7 months old. I picked him up from the breeder at 14weeks. At that point he was saying hello and f off (yeah real thrilled on that one). he tells the kids to settle down when they get too rowdy, the quaker babes are now getting told to shut up but only when they're carrying on and I got a "sorry" from him when he threw a complete tantrum yesterday and bit me hard. Yep language is in context.
). Until then I didn't know lorikeets talked. One of my budgie babes who is living with their new owner has started talking. I know of an Amazon who is amazing with his ability to understand instructions and also speech.
Not bad but nice little blood blister there. Didn't really react apart from removing her beak from my finger (the hand she was sitting on). Just said to her in my nice calm voice "yes you are a girly Ekkie aren't you". She got put back in her cage a few minutes later but I was damned if I'd let her have the upper hand on this one.
