Valentino is talking

I read somewhere the locals think the Red Fronted Macaw does not talk very well. They consider the RFM not to be a very smart parrot. Oh how wrong they are. Valentino has been talking and learning new words almost daily for the past few weeks.

I am upstairs in my office and Valentino is spending this time in his cage. He is laughing and talking to himself. Sometimes I will answer him back but mostly I get to listen to him jabber on and hear the bells ring when he is playing. He just said very loudly. "YOU'RE WEIRD!" Oh just heard a "good Boy" in there too. Oh my now he just said "What cha doing?" I am listening carefully now and just heard "gross parrot" I guess I need to stop saying that when I clean his cage huh? I never even said that to him. Interesting with all the Hello's and Hi's I say to him not one is coming from him.

Now I know I can say some colorful language when I am working hard on my computer on projects. Writing code is just not my forte and I can get pretty frustrated with it. I am thankful Valentino is not listening to me upstairs in my office but I think this is a delicate time as his brain seems to be a sponge and he has such a desire to communicate with us. So far he is not saying any of my "code language". Valentino constantly amazes me of how smart and willing to learn he is.

Have a gratuitous picture of Valentino to look at from me. Enjoy.

When I was looking into Macaws .I kept reading red fronts were the best kept secret because of their size,their temperment and how they talk.Its not surprising your posting this Funny the words they choose to learn Can he say his name?

Nice to hear Valentino is talking. It does not suprise me. I assumed Macaws in general have the abilityto talk. Maybe not as well as a Africa Grey but they can talk.

That's awesome

I don't like when people think a parrot's intelligence is based on it's talking ability. it is a very human way of thinking, we have to think like a bird to appreciate how amazing they are.

Red fronted macaws not smart that is so dumb. I have found that both blue throats and red fronts are extremely intelligent. For example my blue throat will break out of his cage within seconds if his locks are off wrong and does many other behaviors of the same nature. Most red fronts ive heard of and seen are sooo smart it's almost insane.

It's great though that he is talking and learning that is the best thing about this speicies is they never stop learning .

Where did you hear that red fronted are a dumb bird because i think that's extremely wrong as well?

I read that so long ago and remember the author was referring to the local people in which the RFM hails from. They were saying that was probably the reason the RFM was not heavily exported and because they are not as brightly colored as the larger macaws. Best kept secret I think because I really enjoy my RFM. His intelligence is amazing and is VERY sensitive to when I am pissed at him. He sure can push my buttons in his mission to manipulate me and when I finally raise my voice to tell him to stop he has this look on his face that will break your heart.

If I was to say one negative thing about my RFM is the way he plays. He is really rough and tends to grab and pinch with that beak. I sport tiny bruises from his grabbing and am working with him to teach him I am not a very good RFM in playtime. He knows what "gentle" means and will check himself when I say it but sometimes he gets too worked up. That is when I send him to his java tree to go beat up and chew his toys. I tell him "you need to learn to govern your passions boy." LOL.

I do really love the famous RFM meltdown. Valentino will lay on his side on my tummy while I hold him like a baby. He will suddenly collapse on me rolling like a puppy while laughing like a rabid outbreak monkey. I have to be careful that he does not roll off of me. The other day while working with him on the table teaching him to "roll over" he decided to practice while having a snack at the table with us so he threw down his shoulder and began rolling. He damn near rolled off the table and I had to catch him. Lupe looks at me and asks. "Have you dropped him yet?" Geeze I would NEVER drop my baby. Sometimes it is like having a feathered puppy. I love the RFM meltdown.

His feathers are very very soft. The softest I have ever felt on a parrot. I believe this is because of where they come from. RFM live in cliffs in a higher altitude so I think the feathers are different because of this. Their flying ability is like no other parrot. The only thing I had to teach Valentino is to fly down to me from the second level of my home. This is in case he ever escapes and I can recall him back to me so he is not afraid to fly down to me from higher up. All his other flying skills he came with. I never had a parrot fly with such skill. I also think this is because of his unusual feathers, his large wingspan and the weight and length ratio. RFM can fly up to 40 MPH. Holy crap. That is fast for a parrot. I cannot outrun him when he is flying to me. Valentino catches me every time.

What is my favorite thing about Valentino? I see each of my boys in him. I see Joaquin my Solomon Island Eclectus, Mihijo, my Noble macaw and Diego my Illiger's macaw. In different ways at different times some traits of my other parrots are part of Valentino. He is the most unique parrot I ever lived with and with each day I learn to love him a little bit more. Even when he is frustrating me.

Pinklady. So far Valentino says "Tino". That is what I call him during training because its shorter than saying the whole name and works for the training.

jtbirds. Valentino breeder also breeds BTM so he was raised with him. I debated so very very much to add a male BTM a client backed out of this season but decided that having two babies to train and teach was too much for just me to handle. Lupe enjoys the parrots but is not big with helping with training. A part of me wants the BTM to be my next parrot but I also have visions of them both being very bonded to me and having to split myself between them. On March 12th Valentino will be 7 months old. We have him for only 3 months and I have trained and taught this parrot so much is such a short time. The rabid outbreak monkey laugh of his is apparently how I laugh. *sigh*. Valentino does sound kind of insane when he laughs and that just makes me laugh harder.

He looks like he's smiling in that awesome pic.

noblemacaw said:

I am thankful Valentino is not listening to me upstairs in my office but I think this is a delicate time as his brain seems to be a sponge and he has such a desire to communicate with us. So far he is not saying any of my "code language". Valentino constantly amazes me of how smart and willing to learn he

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Hahnzel learned, "dammit" from me as the result of his nipping my fingers. As soon as I heard him say it although unknown to my wife and kids, I not only recognized it I was horrified how quickly he picked it up. My son learned the hard way not to use the f bomb around him too.

I love my little guy enough not to ruin him by making his vocabulary too salty for company. We got lazy around our conure before since he really didnt vocalize words clearly.

Heres a gratuitous pic of Hahnzel, right back at ya!