27 replies to this topic

[Sharyn and Mr Piggy]

We all know that I adopted Mr P.

 

When he first came to my house, he said some things that I couldn't understand, and a few things I could.

 

The things he said that I could understand, I repeated back to him.

 

The things I couldn't understand, over the months, have pretty much slipped away to be replaced by other things I can't understand, except it sounds like me instead of some random stranger.

 

The other day, Mr P said something I have never heard him say, and something I don't say to him.

 

He said, "Can you hear me?"

 

He has said this several more times in the last few days.

 

Did this mysteriously come back from his previous life now, after almost 5 months?

 

I never say this, not to him, and not to anyone else.

 

Where did this come from I wonder?

 

This seems to be too complicated a phrase for him to have just made it up.

 

I guess it's possible that he is saying something that sounds like this, but I still don't know what it could be

 

 

[Jan Cullen]

That is pretty incredible seeing as it is a whole sentence.  Shah makes up words - Monkey Butt and Monkey Breath - although I only get called Monkey Breath now - and other words I just cant get the hang of. I got him from a breeder when he was 5 months of age.  He never heard these words from me or the people I was living with at the time. These little quakers never cease to amaze us!

[LindeeV]

Sounds like he's remembering something someone said to him....I wouldn't be a bit surprised, anyway. These little birds are SMART!!!

[msdani1981]

When Zach and I go on vacations his mom stays here with the animals.  One day we called to check in, and she said "Chewy told me that he's scared, did you teach him that??"  No, we hadn't, and neither of us have ever said "I'm scared" around him.  But he made it up and said it in context.  It took a lot of convincing for us to believe her! LOL

 

The only other time he's ever said that was after we came home, and I was re-arranging his cage.  I put a blue plastic ladder in and he ran to the other side of his cage and said "I'm scared!" so of course I took it out.

[Sharyn and Mr Piggy]

That's amazing, Dani!

 

I am beginning to think these little guys are smarter than the "experts" give them credit for.

 

I agree with Lindee, I think he is remembering something that someone else said to him.

 

I just find it weird that after 5 months (and I thought he had said everything he knew from his previous life), this just magically pops out of his little beak.

 

It is definately NOT my voice he says it in

 

I wouldnt be as shocked if he made up something that combines words that he heard from me, but I never have said anything like this to him.

[Siobhan]

They don't forget things they've learned in the past. They just don't always trot them out for you to see. Jade says this long, complicated sentence that I can't understand a word of, that we've never repeated back to her because we don't know what she's saying, but it sounds like a little girl's voice she's using and we don't have a little girl but they did at her former home. She's been with us for five years but she hasn't forgotten that, whatever it is.

[Sharyn and Mr Piggy]

When I first got Mr P, he used two distinctive voices, what I called the "man" voice and the "woman" voice. I could understand almost everything he said in the "woman" voice and nothing that he said in the "man" voice.

 

Over the months, the man voice sentences have pretty much disappeared, they were never repeated back to him by me cause I couldnt understand what he was saying.

 

"Can you hear me?" is not in the man voice, the woman voice OR mine.

 

LOL

 

I should email his foster mom and ask her if she ever said that to him!

[Siobhan]

Could he have picked it up from TV? Remember those silly cell phone commercials "Can you hear me now?"

[Sharyn and Mr Piggy]

Good point! Didnt even think about him picking stuff up from the TV!

[Siobhan]

Mine didn't learn stuff from TV but they respond to it. If I'm watching something with a laugh track or people on TV laugh, Clyde and Jade will both laugh, too. Clyde has responded "Hello?" when someone on TV says "hello." And they're all willing to start whistling the Andy Griffith theme if they hear that on TV.

[Sharyn and Mr Piggy]

Mr P will laugh with the TV and if someone screams (I watch a lot of horror movies) he says "awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww"

 

But I've never heard him say anything that he learned from it, well, at least nothing I can be sure of

[cnyguy]

I thought of the same commercial that Siobhan mentioned. On another parrot forum I belong to, there's a CAG who learned to say "But wait! There's more!" from TV.

 

Parrots don't necessarily forget words they learned in the past that they no longer hear repeated. My old YCA George sometimes would come out with something he hadn't said for years. And some parrots only need to hear a word or phrase once before learning it and repeating it. However he learned it, the answer to Mr. P's question is obviously "yes." 

Edited by cnyguy, 14 May 2014 - 07:40 PM.

[Casey's Mom]

They are smart little guys with great memories. My friend runs a rescue and takes in lots of different birds, both Casey and the finches came through her. Last summer she had a bird that sung the most amazing opera songs, I used to love going over and asking her to sing. I was over one day while they were out and one of them called out when I walked in the door "Are you my friend?"  He came with that expression too.

[Sharyn and Mr Piggy]

Well , when it's all said and done, Mr P STILL hasnt said I love you, at least not that i've heard.

 

My b/f claims he has heard him say it occassionally when I walk out of the room to shower, but I have STILL never heard him say it and I say that to him a zillion times a day.

 

He makes the little kissy noise I make after I say it but that's as far as it goes.

 

He even says Good morning now (although not in context) and I didnt even try to teach him that, just something I say to him in the am when I take him out of his cage

 

He obviously knows "I love you"  goes with cuddles cause when I say it to him and he's sitting on my hand, he puffs up his feathers like he is expecting me to pet him

Edited by Sharyn and Mr Piggy, 14 May 2014 - 08:14 PM.

[cnyguy]

Of course, it's not unusual for a parrot to refuse to say something that we really want them to. I think that's in the Official Parrots' Behavior Manual somewhere.   I tried for over 30 years to get George the YCA to say "good night" at bedtime, and he consistently refused. He did learn "rise and shine" in the last year of his life, after I'd said that to him every morning for years, never expecting that he'd repeat it.

[Sharyn and Mr Piggy]

Well, I think Mr P's one new phrase, must've triggered some sort of memory. Today he said "here i am!"

 

He said it several times today and seemed absolutely delighted when I laughed and repeated it back to him. So apparently if that isnt what he is saying, then whatever I repeated back is really close.

 

This is definately something else he learned somewhere else, I don't say that to him either.

[Allee]

I don't like to admit this but after a year Harry's favorite, most used phrase is the same phrase she was saying the night she arrived. We have never rewarded her in any way, in fact since day one we absolutely ignore her cussing. She still calls someone named Cameron too but I talk to her about Cameron, it seems to satisfy her. She has also very clearly said, "I'll bite you", she didn't learn that from us either. She learned to imitate an electric drill and a cat after hearing them only once. She picked up a monkey noise from a song the same way and she does it every time she hears the song. My all time favorite though, is when she asks, "Can't you fly?" and giggles about it. Parrot language fascinates me. I'm amazed at how they communicate with each other too. Zeke and Popeye have picked up a lot of Harry's words. That's scary but it hasn't happened yet.

[Sharyn and Mr Piggy]

It makes me wonder WHY they say what they say.  As I mentioned earlier, Mr P just refuses to say I love you, although he knows what it means as far as it's a good thing, and he knows it normally comes with cuddles. ON the other hand, he does say all this stuff that I didnt set out to teach him.

 

We are trying to learn Old McDonald. He says Meow Meow from that, no other animal noises, just  the cat.

 

He also picked up the riding lawnmower sound from our next door neighbors and does his own accompaniment to it every time they mow, which is normally when I'm on my morning conference call. He also picked up the sound of the veggie chopper that I use to make his birdie bread with after hearing it once.

 

His "fallback" word is baby. When he says stuff I can't understand and I don't repeat it back to him, he will literally look at me, roll his eyes as if to say "are you stupid?" and then call out baby. He always gets a response to baby because I can understand it. That is also his flock call to me. When I walk out of the room, he'll squawk a time or 2, (which I ignore) then he'll start yelling Baby at me. I always answer back, would rather hear him holler baby at me then hear his natural flock call which is rather annoying and LOUD. He does variations of baby, stretching out the "a" sound so it sounds like baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaby. He also says Hey baby.

 

He just learned "good morning" which he does NOT use in context, he says it all day long.

 

Of course, though, his favorite words are YUM and YUMMY which he probably says 20 times a day easily, in content, when he wants one, when he sees one, when he sees me go into the kitchen, when he is actually eating one, when he sees me with his food dishes, when he hears the bag of pumpkin seeds opening or the crinkle of the cellophane of the wheat thins box......etc. I had a dog (may she rest in peace over the rainbow bridge) who could hear the sound of  a peanut m-n-m drop in the kitchen from outside across the yard. That's what Mr P reminds me of when it comes to treats

[Sharyn and Mr Piggy]

And, another new one,..."here we go"

 

I'm seeing a pattern:

 

Can you hear me

Here I am

Here we go

 

(although hear isnt spelled the same as here, I don't think Mr P is *quite* smart enough to know that )

 

All his new phrases have "here or hear" in them!

[cnyguy]

All his new phrases have "here or hear" in them!

 

And at least two of them were used in television commercials--  "Here we go" in a beer commercial, and "Can you hear me (now)" in the cell phone commercial.

Edited by cnyguy, 16 May 2014 - 08:11 PM.