Renaming rehomed birds?

[LakeDesire]

A friend of mine has adopted rescued Boston terriers and mentioned that the rescue organization encourages people to rename their rescue dog so it can ease its transition into a new home, especially if the dog was neglected. (Sometimes you also don't know a rescued dog or cat's old name because they can't tell us. Now parrots are a bit different because many can will us their names!)

What are your thoughts on renaming rescued/rehomed parrots? Have you done it or heard of someone doing it?

 

[horsesculpter]

Sunny wasn't having it. She corrected us when we called her something else and would reply "Sunny"

 

[aliray]

My African redbellied parrot came with the name Chompers, Sorry didn't do it for me , I changed it to Tiki without a problem. She was 5 mo old at the time

 

[terry52449]

The age and vocabulary will make it possible to change the name or not. Cameo constantly introduces herself to everybody. Sometimes several times if you ignore her to long. Talking parrots will be more difficult because they already know their name and probably say it often. So I guess it depends on the bird.

 

[Timgeorgr]

I've renamed my Alexandrine. His name used to be Lou but now its Tiki. When I got him he was really aggressive (he used to bite until it bleeds) He is about two years old and is learning to talk. When's first got him, I wasn't settled with the name Lou; I went searching online and I came across an article that said renaming could probably calm aggression. I thought that was perfect, and he looked like his name should be Tiki. So I started calling him Tiki and everyone in the house called him Tiki. After about three weeks the biting really calmed down. And he respond to the name Tiki. It's been about 10 months with Tiki. He is very nice out of the cage, but if I put my hand in the cage while he is in there he will get aggressive, but we are working on that. From my experience renaming was a great idea.

 

[henpecked]

i can only comment on older rehomed amazons and macaws. they don't have issues with what you call them.Even my pet hen of 42 yrs has been called many different names by many different peoples. They know when your talking to them and what your talking about.I call her different names in different situations, and the names have changed many times over the years. Calling a new rehome a new name only personalizes your relationship.

 

[lpolliard]

I did not rename Chico but I do use nicknames on occasion. I think English is his second language as he gets excited when spoken to in Spanish.