Calum Grant

Parrot behaviour

It's about time I tried to convey exactly how expressive these energetic little creatures are... well where do I begin? We have a blue-fronted amazon called Ollie.

They are social, they follow you from room to room. They like to play, in fact it seems that just about every moment is playtime. If you are not playing with them, they will start to nibble on something, just so that you pick them up and give them fuss for trying to chew something dangerous like a power cord. Ours likes to unhook the curtains, and he particularly likes to chew a little wooden horse I carved once upon a time. He also likes chewing tape. He will demolish a clothes peg in 30 seconds, and we have an array of semi-chewed parrot toys. He also chews the metal hooks on his cage door, since he thinks one day he will make good his escape. One day he took a square piece of wood and turned it into a perfect cylinder. Hmmm...

They talk, sing, chirp, shriek, especially when there is a pigeon outside, a blue-tit, you are preparing food, or about to shove them back into the cage. Catching them is a bit of a pain (see earlier reference to playtime). We have a naughty duster, so we tire him out by chasing him around with a blue duster, and panting, he will return to his cage. When there is food to be had, Ollie is there. His favourite is pork-pie, which is so unhealthy for him. In fact, everything we eat, he likes. It's quite difficult to eat in peace since he'll fly at you from all directions, and has the cutest begging face.

When the hoover goes, he fans, plates and paces. At this point you are quite likely to get a nip, since he is very agitated. When he gets exited, his tail turns into a fan, which is nice and pretty, but his pupils will rapidly dilate. In fact when he is pissed off, he will also frown, flatten his feathers, and bite for his own amusement. When extremely wound up or excited, his whole body flattens and he struts his wings, which we call plating. Sometimes he will just do that for fun since we think something is wrong.

Parrots like music, and will sing along/talk over any other noise, since they have to be the most important person in the room. He's not the world's best talker, but he has a cute quacky-voice. He'll say good morning, good night, how are you, ow, poo, good boy, bye ollie, see you later, pieces of eight, i love you, calum, charlotte, oi, step on, naughty. He could probably say a lot more if we actually put some effort in to train him. He's fairly well trained, however he does have the odd accident, and it's quite impressive how much he can produce in a night.

In the morning, he'll stretch one leg and wing at a time, showing a lovely black, red, blue amd green plumage. He'll also turn himself into a puff-ball and shake like a dog. He preens a lot, like all parrots do. They'll also preen you, which is very cute, though sometimes this extends to biting just for a joke, and biting holes in clothes on the odd occasion. Sometimes he lets himself be held, but generally they like to be sitting on your shoulder. We shower him, he hangs upside-down in the shower and lets the water drip off him. At this point he looks a bit like a drowned rat.

When he feels randy, he'll clamp his beak on you, gurgle, spread his wings and vibrate his body on you. We don't encourage that sort of thing....

posted by Calum Grant @ 10:27 PM