Life with birds.
I don't like to share my birds with many people. Don't get me wrong, I love for them to get the proper socializing required to encourage their positive behavior around human beings, but often times (unless it is a good open-minded friend) I find the process of sharing my birds slightly irritating. Most people see them (and especially Elvis) as toys. Things in which to entertain their curiosity and provide endless tricks. "What can she say?" followed by "make her say it" is a big peeve of mine. Like Elvis has no free-will and is a toy in which I push a button to get the exact phrase out of her. Sometimes I will humor them and repeat what it is I would like her to say--but it certainly depends on Elvis whether I'm going to hear it or not. There are some call and response things we work on, like "what noise does a kitty make?" Elvis will usually answer with an uncanningly good "meow." Not always the case and definitely more so if no audience is involved. This morning she was hanging out with Juicy who continued to scream over and over...usually that would elicit a "be quiet!" from Elvis--today it got a nice and demanding "stop it!" instead. She knows what she is saying and is not a toy to be poked and pleaded with "I don't perform!" is my common phrase. Quite the contrary--Elvis loves performing, she'll dance and make rocket noises and sing and do call and response whistles (her favorite). If you are eating, you will most certainly get a persuasive "yummy yummy" in the sweetest and most convincing birdy tone ever...but ask her to stand on her head and say "pretty bird" on command--not happening.
Seriously--people, this is a creature that says "hi" every time I open my cell phone and squeaks with every single door opened--cabinets, microwave, closet, dresser--every door, who beeps like the scanning thing at the check-out at the pet store. She is most definitely saying these things for her own entertainment!
My favorite was when we tried to buy her a ton of toys at Petco. It was a few months ago and we had just bought Juicy. Brenton, Myself, and Elvis headed to the Pet store to buy a few necessities. While we like Pet World much more they are awfully expensive when it comes to toys etc. At Petco we roamed around coming up with great obstacles for Juicy's cage, Elvis--who has an opinion about everything found a few items of her own that she wanted and would reach out and hold onto them with a free talon or an empty beak and she was just bustling (puffing up and walking in circles and jabbering) with excitement by the time we reached the check-out. So I piled all our goodies up on the counter. Elvis was ok with this--it was the Petco girl picking them up one at a time that set her off. She went off in a rally of jibber jabber that I'm sure if translated would sound something like "don't touch that bitch, hey that's mine, that's mine too, listen you, don't make me kick your ass..." and on and on. I would tell her that "it's ok" to which she would stick her face in mine and say "it's ok" until another toy was picked up and she'd let slip another complaint to the poor (giggling by this point) girl behind the counter. Finally she passed the bags over and...silence. Elvis let out one more definite "about time" sort of command, and off we went. Of course I received about 100 kisses (very animated and noisy kisses) all over my face on the way back to the house--but that poor check-out girl--she was in big trouble for touching Elvis's stuff!
For the last two months we've been sharing a room. Myself, Elvis and Juniper--my new little Fischer lovebird. It is a horrible arrangement and often leads to a very early wake-up for me. As soon as the sun comes out Juniper starts chattering (record breaking obnoxious bird outside your window kind of chattering). Pleading with her doesn't help, she just gets excited and talks more, and silence well then she gets louder and louder. I have taken to putting her inside the hamster ball and letting her roll about the floor--this helps. It was only recently I learned how to quiet both Juniper's chattering and Elvis's early morning "be quiets!" The solution: Bring them to bed with me.
Most people don't realize, but birds are incredibly affectionate animals. They love to be kissed and cuddled and held really close and tight and Elvis--well she loves to be under covers wrapped up close to me. She even purrs like the cats do and in recent years has adopted that as her "I am very happy" noise. So...starting Monday my early morning alarms went off sounding something like this...
Juniper: loud tongue rolling bird chatter
Elvis: be quiet!!!
Lisa: Juniper, STOP IT!
Elvis: baby?
Juniper: (racing to the top of her cage) even louder tongue rolling bird chatter
Elvis :Hi baby!
Lisa: go back to sleep
Elvis: babybabybabybabybaby
Juniper: (continually loud bird chatter)
Elvis: Be Quiet!
Lisa: Damn-it (stomping from bed to birds--grabbing Elvis in fist, chasing Juniper, grabbing in fist) (*nicely of course) climbing in bed, tucking Juniper a foot away in a fold of blankets, tucking Elvis under covers by my chest and neck).
*silence*
Elvis: soft purring sound
Lisa: two more hours of sleep!
Life with birds.
Don't you think if I had it my way she would say more useful things like, "Wow, you look hot today!"
I don't like to share my birds with many people. Don't get me wrong, I love for them to get the proper socializing required to encourage their positive behavior around human beings, but often times (unless it is a good open-minded friend) I find the process of sharing my birds slightly irritating. Most people see them (and especially Elvis) as toys. Things in which to entertain their curiosity and provide endless tricks. "What can she say?" followed by "make her say it" is a big peeve of mine. Like Elvis has no free-will and is a toy in which I push a button to get the exact phrase out of her. Sometimes I will humor them and repeat what it is I would like her to say--but it certainly depends on Elvis whether I'm going to hear it or not. There are some call and response things we work on, like "what noise does a kitty make?" Elvis will usually answer with an uncanningly good "meow." Not always the case and definitely more so if no audience is involved. This morning she was hanging out with Juicy who continued to scream over and over...usually that would elicit a "be quiet!" from Elvis--today it got a nice and demanding "stop it!" instead. She knows what she is saying and is not a toy to be poked and pleaded with "I don't perform!" is my common phrase. Quite the contrary--Elvis loves performing, she'll dance and make rocket noises and sing and do call and response whistles (her favorite). If you are eating, you will most certainly get a persuasive "yummy yummy" in the sweetest and most convincing birdy tone ever...but ask her to stand on her head and say "pretty bird" on command--not happening.
Seriously--people, this is a creature that says "hi" every time I open my cell phone and squeaks with every single door opened--cabinets, microwave, closet, dresser--every door, who beeps like the scanning thing at the check-out at the pet store. She is most definitely saying these things for her own entertainment!
My favorite was when we tried to buy her a ton of toys at Petco. It was a few months ago and we had just bought Juicy. Brenton, Myself, and Elvis headed to the Pet store to buy a few necessities. While we like Pet World much more they are awfully expensive when it comes to toys etc. At Petco we roamed around coming up with great obstacles for Juicy's cage, Elvis--who has an opinion about everything found a few items of her own that she wanted and would reach out and hold onto them with a free talon or an empty beak and she was just bustling (puffing up and walking in circles and jabbering) with excitement by the time we reached the check-out. So I piled all our goodies up on the counter. Elvis was ok with this--it was the Petco girl picking them up one at a time that set her off. She went off in a rally of jibber jabber that I'm sure if translated would sound something like "don't touch that bitch, hey that's mine, that's mine too, listen you, don't make me kick your ass..." and on and on. I would tell her that "it's ok" to which she would stick her face in mine and say "it's ok" until another toy was picked up and she'd let slip another complaint to the poor (giggling by this point) girl behind the counter. Finally she passed the bags over and...silence. Elvis let out one more definite "about time" sort of command, and off we went. Of course I received about 100 kisses (very animated and noisy kisses) all over my face on the way back to the house--but that poor check-out girl--she was in big trouble for touching Elvis's stuff!
For the last two months we've been sharing a room. Myself, Elvis and Juniper--my new little Fischer lovebird. It is a horrible arrangement and often leads to a very early wake-up for me. As soon as the sun comes out Juniper starts chattering (record breaking obnoxious bird outside your window kind of chattering). Pleading with her doesn't help, she just gets excited and talks more, and silence well then she gets louder and louder. I have taken to putting her inside the hamster ball and letting her roll about the floor--this helps. It was only recently I learned how to quiet both Juniper's chattering and Elvis's early morning "be quiets!" The solution: Bring them to bed with me.
Most people don't realize, but birds are incredibly affectionate animals. They love to be kissed and cuddled and held really close and tight and Elvis--well she loves to be under covers wrapped up close to me. She even purrs like the cats do and in recent years has adopted that as her "I am very happy" noise. So...starting Monday my early morning alarms went off sounding something like this...
Juniper: loud tongue rolling bird chatter
Elvis: be quiet!!!
Lisa: Juniper, STOP IT!
Elvis: baby?
Juniper: (racing to the top of her cage) even louder tongue rolling bird chatter
Elvis :Hi baby!
Lisa: go back to sleep
Elvis: babybabybabybabybaby
Juniper: (continually loud bird chatter)
Elvis: Be Quiet!
Lisa: Damn-it (stomping from bed to birds--grabbing Elvis in fist, chasing Juniper, grabbing in fist) (*nicely of course) climbing in bed, tucking Juniper a foot away in a fold of blankets, tucking Elvis under covers by my chest and neck).
*silence*
Elvis: soft purring sound
Lisa: two more hours of sleep!
Life with birds.
Don't you think if I had it my way she would say more useful things like, "Wow, you look hot today!"
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