Right now Salty is.....

[wrench13]

Sneaking in huh? LOL. Once Salty gets covered, he zonks right out until it comes off.
Generally he goes to bed at 9:30 -10:00 and Geri gets him up at 10 AM. We dont hear a peep out of him all night, lots of coming and goings on and the TV is on for a good time of that. He sleeps thru it all ! My last parrot, Max, used to wake up and peep once in awhile, and even fall off his perch occasionally. Salty - boom, a few rustlings as he gets settled and then nothing all night. Once in awhile he will say 'Good Morning' to Geri, but not every day. With your tribe, are mornings noisy? WHo else has a noisy morning crew?

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

As soon as BB hears my bed "squeak" as I roll out of it,he starts right in with his " Its great to be alive" sounds. Al, it is really refreshing to hear him ( I GOTTA get a video of it) He whistles and chirps,goes thru the few words and phrases he knows ( what are you doing? BB good boy? Hi BB) then he launches in to his rendition of Andy Griffith,then there is a bunch of cockatiel gurgles and mumbling).
All of his stuff is very sweet and not at all loud,and it really makes me to hear him being so happy.

Like I mentioned before,Amy has her morning routine also. Sometimes she is LOUD! HELLO! HOW ARE YOU? WHATCHA DOING? She doesn't sing like some 'zons do or whistle,and definitely no screaming.lot of"huh?" and 'zon mumbles. She is a relatively quiet Amazon lol.

Jim

 

[GaleriaGila]

Mr. GoodWrench, as you well know, *I* have a morning crew. One bird, but he is possessed by a legion of demons. Like Salty, he would always zonk out and stay like that until dawn, but a year or two ago, he started hooting and hollering in the middle of the night. Eventually, we discovered we had a mouse problem (since handled by finding and blocking their entry, re-vamping cleaning tactics, and taking mouse-attracting foods away at night).

So if your bird suddenly starts night-time noises, I'd suggest looking for mice or other pests!

 

[CDavis]

When bonkers hears the bed creak it is a barrage of hellos and Wadda doins until he is out and his breakfast is made

 

[wrench13]

Right now Salty is eating a well deserved treat for sitting in the car with me for almost 2 hours. Last nights training was pretty special. As some or most know, Salty has been color training with colored plastic rings, green, red, yellow and blue. We train every night, and the rings always make it into the trick line up. About 2 moths ago I got these little plastic boxes, same colors, that have a sliding door on them. I;ve been using the red one to teach him how to open the box, and that there will be a treat inside when he does. Last night I lined up all four boxes after hiding a treat in the blue box. I put the boxes onto our training table and told Salty, " Blue box Salty, Blue", and darn it if he didnt go right to the blue box, open it , and get his treat. THis means he is able to transfer the color learning to other objects, which is a pretty big thing, I think. After doing this for a few nights, I am going to try and teach him to hit only the blue keys on his little xylophone, which also has colored keys. He is such a smart little parrot, and tries so very hard to do what I ask of him. He is going to get a special cooked dinner tonight , for being such a good boy in the car.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Whatever it is that Salty has... if you can bottle it, I'll take a few gallons for the Rbird. TO START WITH! He is the most astonishing little guy. I like to watch his face: he's thinking... you can see the wheels spinning as he kinda squints and cocks his head. I remember that from our Skype! I love me some Salty.

 

[wrench13]

I tell you Gail, the trick training has been the very best thing for forming our bond. Its not for showing off in a show or even for other people ( other then you good folks) or even my family (who, if I mention one more time a new trikc he has learned will disown me). . Its more like developing his mind and thinking ability, and I highly reccommend any parrot owner to try teaching their parrots even basic tricks.

 

[GaleriaGila]

You're the best, dude. I think some lead by positive example (you/Salty) and some lead by "don't do like I did"... (yours truly/Rbird). Maybe most folks are somewhere in between. All I know is that this place has hooked me up with more happy feelings than any place else, regular-life or virtual. I have learned here that it's all about doing your best, doing right, and no matter what, loving your bird.

 

[wrench13]

The little guy never ceases to amaze me. Last nite, I asked Salty to do a new trick, you would think it would take 2 or 3 tries to get it right. No - first time. I have one of the cheap bells that are attached to a lot of parrot toys. I asked him to ring the bell, and sure enough he picked it up by the top loop and rings it merrily AND put into my hand when I asked him to ( which is pretty good trick in itself, as I find most parrots don't like to relinquish anything they are playing with).

I really have to make a new video of his sessions. I think you folks will enjoy it.

 

[LeaKP]

Salty is amazing. I just love to read about him! Nigel is learning from Salty but the grey in him only allows for training when his highness feels it appropriate. Other times, he stares at me as if to say, "Did I say it was time to train?"

Yes, your majesty.

But...I digress, he loves choosing shapes and colors. Can't resist that.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Yes, we wants to see the nice videos.

Raising the bar a little bit, Salty. I used to think all I had to do was provide food, toys, entertainment, conversation, and preening services for life. Now you guys are demanding home schooling? Can Gus copy off your homework?

 

[wrench13]

Kentuckienne, if you want to see all the Salty videos, go to Youtube and search on
captniceguy . Dont let it send you to other variations on that like capt nice guy.

Salty has quite a few videos there.

Dont think of training as homework, think of it as bonding time, especially in your case.
If you are the only one doing training with Gus, it may help to overcome some of the things in his/your special conditions. Seeing as Gus's mobility is not great, I would start teaching him to do the macaw side to side head dancing thing on request.
That would be pretty simple to teach.

 

[Kentuckienne]

Ha! YouTube did try to convince me to try Captive Nice Guy, but thanks to the warning I avoided him. Salty's videos are very impressive. That's the calmest, most attentive amazon I've seen - can't wait to see where he goes from here!

What is the side to side dance? He does an up-down head thing, and the more he wants something the more exaggerated it is. When he sees SOMEBODY with potato chips, he goes wild with it. And when he gets a chip scrap, sometimes he holds in in his left foot and waves it wildly from side to side. If it were ethical to use chip scraps as treats, he would be mighty motivated.

 

[wrench13]

Tonight Salty decided to explore a bit and wound up under his cage, on the storage shelf. Thats the animal larder, where Tinker has a basket of doggie supplies and food and treats, and Salty's basket of food , treats and toys. I heard a squawk and his head popped up from being burried somewhere in one of the baskets. Both of the animals have accumulated a fair bit of crap lately. But I gave him the UP command and he climbed out, no issues, no fuss, except he had snagged a peanut.

Also first time ever he snuggled into my open dress shirt when I came home and he said hello. Snuggled right in, and his little head popped out and he pulled the shirt over his head. Did it a few more time in the course of the night, too.

And for the first ever, Salty destroyed a wooden toy, I mean he really reduced this thing to toothpicks.

So it was a night for firsts!

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

And at just a little over a year old,that little boy of yours is making huge strides there Al..might have something to do with the "parronting" too


Jim

 

[Anansi]

Right now Salty is eating a well deserved treat for sitting in the car with me for almost 2 hours. Last nights training was pretty special. As some or most know, Salty has been color training with colored plastic rings, green, red, yellow and blue. We train every night, and the rings always make it into the trick line up. About 2 moths ago I got these little plastic boxes, same colors, that have a sliding door on them. I;ve been using the red one to teach him how to open the box, and that there will be a treat inside when he does. Last night I lined up all four boxes after hiding a treat in the blue box. I put the boxes onto our training table and told Salty, " Blue box Salty, Blue", and darn it if he didnt go right to the blue box, open it , and get his treat. THis means he is able to transfer the color learning to other objects, which is a pretty big thing, I think. After doing this for a few nights, I am going to try and teach him to hit only the blue keys on his little xylophone, which also has colored keys. He is such a smart little parrot, and tries so very hard to do what I ask of him. He is going to get a special cooked dinner tonight , for being such a good boy in the car.

Al! Just saw this one! This is an exceptional breakthrough! The true measure of whether he understands the concept of color! Huge! And great idea with the boxes! (Where did you get them, btw?) I'm looking forward to when you catch this on video.

 

[wrench13]

I got the boxes from Dr Foster/Smith, here is the link:
Colored Cubes: Educational Interactive Bird Toy at Drs. Foster & Smith

OK so he didn't do quite so good at this particular one last night, when Mom was watching, and several disturbances going on. Fun to watch him try the different boxes anyway. These boxes are so small, I don't see how a BFA or even a grey could get their head into them to get a treat, unless the treat was pretty big, like a hunk of chicken.

Let the education continue!

Tonight's goal: Pack up everything for our trip to see Jim and Amy and BB tomorrow.
It will be Salty's longest car ride, first ferry ride, and first time being with multiple birds since he was in the creche with his sister and other babies. We have been trying to get him to say "Hi Amy" for a few days now, I hope he is successful tomorrow!

 

[Anansi]

Thanks for the links! If they're too small for BFA's or greys, though, they probably wouldn't work for my Eclectic Duo, either. Too bad. It looks like a great toy.

Enjoy your trip up to see Jim, Amy and BB! Hoping to see some video!

 

[GaleriaGila]

I love this thread. I come here to fantasize about having a bird like Salty!
He's just so amazing.
And adorable.
And smart.
I'm a fan.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

I love this thread. I come here to fantasize about having a bird like Salty!
He's just so amazing.
And adorable.
And smart.
I'm a fan.

Gail....for Salts being so young still,and has come THIS FAR...I can only imagine what he is going to be like in a few short years. This boy puts a new twist on the term "bird brain"! Who knows? Maybe in a dozen years or so,we'll be seeing "Salty for President!" He can't be any worse than either of the two knuckle heads we have running now

BTW? Are you going to be able to join us tomorrow ( Saturday) via Skype?
It would be SO COOL if you could!!


Jim