Wharezzazzo?

   Pronounced : Warez-Ah-zo
 definition: where is Aldo?

     This was asked of me/Sam this evening as I carried Tango about on my shoulder. He's been very talkative lately, adding appropriately used "thank you"s and "you're a silly shawn" to his already impressive vocabulary skills

     I'm not sure if he is some rare conure genius, or if it has to do with how I talk to him, or if it is just the way I listen. What I know is this: the bird is SMART. He was working on words within weeks of coming home with me, and now has a vocabulary of about 30-35 words, including comprehension of at least a portion of what he is saying


     I took him this weekend for a wing trim/nail trim(Wini/Pedi)(yes, I invented that turn of phrase, far as I know) and one of the ladies at the shop offered him a tortilla chip(loves them) and was surprised when he said "thank you"-I was surprised he made himself understood. He learned thanks and its usage from me thanking him for stepping up tho.

what follows is a far from comprehensive list of his sayings. Bear in mind also he uses different words and phrases in conversation with Sam than he does with me

• What's up?
• yeah
• that's fine
• whatcha doing?
• what are you doing?
• pretty bird(learned from another bird, not me, so he has the other birds accent)
• chi-chi-wah(hard to describe, you just have to hear it)
• you're so silly
• hey shawn
• HEEYYYY!
• daddy
• dadddyyyy?
• bad bird(not directed at himself-directed at Aldo)
• Sam
• Nancy(you know who you are)
• Come here
• Come on( a specific direction, it means I am to take him around the house)
• you step up(yes, it is intentional sass)
• What you say?
• Tango(various intonation)
• baby
• aldo
• seewee(sidney)
• treats
• crust
• let go
• let go right now
• come here right now
• Let's see

     Of course- he is smart, and strong willed, and thinks he is the boss of all of us- this can lead to bites, and bites lead to the time out cage

     I did not want his home cage to be a punishment-ever- it's his play area, his safety, his sactum sanctorum. So I set up a smaller cage with a perch, and a water dish(read as BORING) and a timer shaped like a green owl. Timeouts are 5 minutes for a first infraction, 10 minutes for second onward as well as for multiple bites on a first infraction.

     Curbing his biting, which had seriously gotten out of control took about ...get this...

three days

 

which is about how long it took him to figure out he really did not like time outs(day one) and that it was going to be a consistent reaction, and would not be going away(day two and three)

 

     Of course, now when he bites...he tries to make the bite go the extra mile, but we are working on that...

 

    

 

this parrot update has been a service of this blog, and the fine people at the national center for parrot updates