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Sonny screamed F---You at me one day as I walked in the door after work. I was floored to say the least, but I noticed that she would go over to the window and scream it at every noise out side. Turns out she had been carrying on a conversation with the cable man and he taught her it. How I found out is I stayed home the next day and low and behold they started up. He looked like he felt 2 inches tall when I told him he was arguing with a parrot. Well actually after I proved to him he was arguing with a parrot.
Usually ignoring works, but this one word is just not going anywhere soon. Birds like words said with inflection. If you shout it out and say it with passion you can hear Sonny practicing it over night. She has a whole litany of sayings from listening to me watch NASCAR or from me while I'm canning or cooking. I love that she will interject very timely and appropriate comments during conversations. My favorite by far is the rude noise she makes and then blames it on the dog. We do not have a dog.
When I croak my older son plans on taking her, but my younger son says no way. They can fight it out after I'm gone. She is such a wonderful part of our family.
She sounds like a crack up!!
When my older son was away in the Army he would call to see if Sonny had any new saying. They always made him feel like he was right there with us. She has always been just a laugh a minute. And laugh she does. She has the scariest psycho laugh that my son says sounds just like me.
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The whispering is so cute isn't it. Our late Sun Conure Julian would whisper Baby to myself and My older son, his actual owner. He was such an awesome and loveable bird. Sonny also whispers after she gets told to pipe down. Then she says things under her breath like "dumba.." and "jacka.." She's such a BAAAAD girl, but we do love her. She also likes to tell me to shut up when I hum. Apparently she doesn't like my kind of music.
On the subject of treats I personally prefer to use things like fruit or veggies. For training I often use grapes, apples, bananas, peas in the pod or green beans. It is much better for them than seeds or nuts. One of Sonnys favorites is a strawberry. She will walk over to it and start talking to it saying things like "come here come here give me a kiss" and then she takes a bite. She does the same for radishes or hot peppers. We put them in a small bowl of water and she gets to chase them around. Parrots love to play. Right now we have Sonny stringing Cheerios onto a string. She eats one and then puts one on. When she gets bored she eats them off the string. Our Pacific Parrotlet Tiny Tim is always trying to steal a bite. Of course for him 1 cheerio is plenty.
I have a question. I have 2 sun conures. My problem with them is the squaking!!! They get all the attention they want and are out of the cage alot. They also have lots of toys in there for while i am at work. They never use to be so loud. Before i would take them out as soon as i got home and say hi and then put them on top of the cage and do what i had to do and then play with them some more. Now as soon as i walk in the door that is all they do is squak at me and i pick them up and say hi just like always but as soon as i put them back down they go right back to it! And they wont stop till you come back over. If i put them on their stand now in the same room i am in, if i get up or move my leg they start to squak at me again and they will do this to everyone who moves in the house. I dont know why they started doing this because i know they are naturally loud but with attention they get better but with attention they have gotten worse!!!
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So you trained them to love you and love you they do. Suns are the neediest of all the parrots I have ever had. We lost Julian last year over Thanksgiving and I still miss him very much. He was our "baby." I'll bet when they are shrieking they are also fluttering their little wings and swaying from side to side. It's so darn cute.
The problem you have is that they are very needy and have learnt that you will respond to their shrieks. We had the same problem with Julian. He had to learn that he was fine by himself and during that time we had to learn to IGNORE that persistant and obnoxious shrill that feels like it is cutting right through you. Man I miss that sound. I know crazy, but they also do it when they are just plain happy, excited, sad, lonely, bored, scared, angry.......pretty much for every reason. Thankfully for you they aren't into screaming to their demon the way cockatoos are. I have 2 of those too. Anyway one thing we did with Julian was tell him no in a firm voice and ignore him (I know it's hard) and then rewarding him when he was quite. For rewards we would give him a grape or a piece of apple or something like that and pick him up and play with him a bit, but only when he was being quite. Julian soon learnt and so will yours. Once we got him to quite down then we let him have his wings back over winters only. That way he could come and go as he pleased. He would spend just as much time back on his perch as he would hiding down one of our shirts. Of course Julian was potty trained and would always fly back to his perch to go. Gosh I miss that boy. Good luck with you two!
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So you trained them to love you and love you they do. Suns are the neediest of all the parrots I have ever had. We lost Julian last year over Thanksgiving and I still miss him very much. He was our "baby." I'll bet when they are shrieking they are also fluttering their little wings and swaying from side to side. It's so darn cute.
The problem you have is that they are very needy and have learnt that you will respond to their shrieks. We had the same problem with Julian. He had to learn that he was fine by himself and during that time we had to learn to IGNORE that persistant and obnoxious shrill that feels like it is cutting right through you. Man I miss that sound. I know crazy, but they also do it when they are just plain happy, excited, sad, lonely, bored, scared, angry.......pretty much for every reason. Thankfully for you they aren't into screaming to their demon the way cockatoos are. I have 2 of those too. Anyway one thing we did with Julian was tell him no in a firm voice and ignore him (I know it's hard) and then rewarding him when he was quite. For rewards we would give him a grape or a piece of apple or something like that and pick him up and play with him a bit, but only when he was being quite. Julian soon learnt and so will yours. Once we got him to quite down then we let him have his wings back over winters only. That way he could come and go as he pleased. He would spend just as much time back on his perch as he would hiding down one of our shirts. Of course Julian was potty trained and would always fly back to his perch to go. Gosh I miss that boy. Good luck with you two!
Yes they both flutter their wings and go from side to side when they do it. Their names are Sonny and Sammie. I have another problem with Sonny to. He is my bird and only likes me. Tolerates others but only for so long. He also just wants to be taken out and then put on your shoulder and left alone. I have got him to the point where he doesnt run for my shoulder everytime he is out and will let me pet his back but that is it. How do i make him more friendly? He came from a home where he was for show. They had a huge house and put him in a cage to look pretty and never touched him. Sammie on the other hand is nice as can be. But he is my fiance's. Sammie will let me take him out and play a little but not like my fiance can which i am completely fine with. Just want to make Sonny a little better.
Sammie loves hiding in shirts to lol. Sorry about Julian