Electronics for Parrots: Crazy, Genius, or Meh?

I would very much like to offer a home one day to a rescue, but I know that at present I cannot offer the right environment. In the meantime (for fun) I've brainstormed different ways to better keep a parrot entertained with electronics while people are away. I wanted to offer them up to see if they have any merit at all, or if I'm just nuts.

1) THE CLAPPER: I know it's standard practice to leave the TV or radio on for a parrot's benefit while you're out, but has anyone thought of putting one of these on one of those clappers from TV? I would think they'd get the idea pretty quickly. And why stop at those devices? Put some pretty christmas lights in the 3 clap socket, perhaps? You can keep them guessing what making 2 or 3 clapping sounds will turn on and off day to day. So... crazy, genius, or meh?

2) CHILDREN'S ELECTRONIC TOYS: There is a galaxy of annoying light-up singing educational toys for children. I had once seen an internet video where an amazon was going to town on one of these clearly enjoying herself. Now I DONT APPROVE of putting one of these in the cage or otherwise letting them handle these unsupervised (They can break the plastic and hurt themselves), but could there be a way of mounting them outside the cage? I'd think that you'd have to space it far enough that the parrot could press buttons but not chew the toy. Crazy, genius, or meh?

3) A FURBY (OR SEVERAL): Whereas my last suggestion may be a physical threat a parrot, I think this does have the potential to HORRIFY a bird if handled badly. The toy does look kind of like an owl (a predator). I know there are plenty of humans who are creeped out by the things. Just setting one of these out by a parrot's cage one day and trapping the bird with the glowey-eyed demon for hours is a BAD idea. Then again, the toy is triggered by vocalization ( parrots do a lot of that) and a group of Furbies will apparently chatter and dance and sing for hours. The new ones move in a lifeloke manner. I'd think with proper desensitization a Furby or 2 would do a lot to make a single bird not feel alone in an empty house. For the same reasons as stated above I'd never let them have direct access to an electronic toy; when the parrot comes out of the cage the furbies get put away. So... crazy, genius, or meh?

OMG I so want to try the clapper device! If it meant parrot videos my fids would get it pretty darn quick.

Do a google. You can get parrot pianos. Or maybe they're just kid pianos.

My daughter has a furby. I'll try it and get back to you.

The Alex project was at MIT for a while, in the Media Lab, and someone came up with a screen that let the parrots choose an entertainment. The idea was to see if parrots could entertain themselves. It was interesting. For example, Alex seemed to prefer to play classical music but then lost interest. Dr. Pepperberg asked them how often they were changing up the playlist - turns out it was just the same music over and over, so they added some new content and he showed a bit more interest. This was a long time ago, but you can read about it in Alex and Me. And there are tons of Arduino ideas, simple ways to program ... say, play a parrot video when the parrot pushes the green button and play music when the parrot pushes the red button. Buttons could be made of hard acrylic and attached to the outside of the cage, so they stick inside, with a flat plate on the outside, and use Bluetooth and batteries so no wires, to communicate with a cheap laptop programmed with media. I have an Arduino kit I've never used, and I'm so tempted to add another project but I can't, not until I clean my plate of obligations. It would be really interesting to try!@

I bought Oliver a stuffed parrot toy that would talk and repeat things. He ignored it if it was far away and hated it if it was close by. Total bust.

There is a recording online ... a parrot, is it in NY? whose parront taught her to speak English somewhat conversationally, by talking to the bird as if it were a child. I found the reference in Of Parrots and People, and googled it. The recording is only sound, no video, so I can't say for sure if it is a parrot talking. But they play with a Speak n' Spell, some toy like that? Or See N' Say? You hear the music play, then stop, and the human says what's that, and the bird voice says ha ha, it's a chicken! Very compelling if real.

I would be interested if they could be trained to communicate better through similar systems as special education programs now use to help non-verbal students communicate utilizing tablets. I believe Kiwi is far too old and limited in his vocalizations to start learning to talk, however I absolutely believe him to be capable of more advanced communication. He is becoming more able to identify basic shapes and colors correctly, it seems only logical in the future he could learn to associate simple images with things he'd like to communicate with us too.

As for a Furby, why not get one of those life-size FurReal macaws? You can find them on Ebay. We have one and it was a good training tool when Kiwi was new to have a "moving talking bird" to kind of "demonstrate" on so he could hear a command or cue word and see how the other bird "responded". Kiwi doesn't mind the animatronic macaw, he even tried to preen it a few times

Kiwibird said:

As for a Furby, why not get one of those life-size FurReal macaws? You can find them on Ebay. We have one and it was a good training tool when Kiwi was new to have a "moving talking bird" to kind of "demonstrate" on so he could hear a command or cue word and see how the other bird "responded". Kiwi doesn't mind the animatronic macaw, he even tried to preen it a few times

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That does sound like a great training tool! I'm not familiar with the Fur Real Macaw's functionality. It sounds like you can program it to say something, but can it chatter on through several hours? Does it respond to noise and vocalizations?

Salty and I use quite a few baby toys, both as toys and in our training. In his cage he has several teething toys. In our training sessions he plays a childs xylophone and he is learning to play a small electonic piano. Of the ideas above I think the clapper one would show the best results. Set up to turn either music ,video or silence, so a radio, a small laptop might be used.

The Fubie idea is themost intriguing, but Salty is not fond of stuffed toys. Some creative thinking there MrMadness.

Bad news regarding Furbies as a possibility. Apparently they go for about 10 minutes before going to sleep to save batteries. I had hoped that parrots' vocalizations could wake them up, but apparenty I'd need some way to remotely wiggle their antennae to wake them up!

I belong to a group on Facebook called Parrot ABC: The reading parrot group. People are teaching their birds on the iPad. They also use flash cards for yes and no and word association. Sorry I don’t know how to cope the link into my post but if anyone is on Facebook they should check on this group.