Do you have animals? Do they think they're people?
Well we do have animals, many, and a lot of different ones.
And yes, they think they are people! Shhhhhh! Don't tell them that they aren't, it'll hurt their feelings.
4 dogs, 4 fish, 3 cats, 1 bird, and another animal that I won't disclose what she is. :}
Roxie is an African Grey that my husband bought a little over 5 years ago. She was an ugly little featherless wrinkled little baby when he first got her. Her cage was small, baby birds don't move much so they don't need a lot of room. And like a baby, you have to get up and fix their food and feed them in the middle of the night.
 |
| Roxie |
She is grown now and talks and whistles and dances! Yes, she dances. I always try to leave the tv or radio on in her room so she doesn't get lonely, when we aren't in the room with her.
I taught her to dance (which to her is flapping or spreading , her wings, and bobbing her head up and down).
One day, I walked up to her cage and said, Dance, she said it back to me! Wow, up until now she was a closet talker. (She would never talk if you were looking at her, only if she thought you couldn't see her).
She can be very loud at times, especially when no one is in the room with her and she wants attention.
When I open the back door to let our dog, Madison, out, Roxie says "Come on Madison", same thing when the dog's comming in. She doesn't say everybodys names. Only a few. She says Madison, Ronnie (my husband), Amber, (my middle daughter) and Riley (our youngest daughters cat's name).
I have taught her how to say a lot of things, one is "yummy". She gets a vanilla wafer 1 or 2 times a day and I always say Yummy when I give her a cookie. Now she says it.
She's beautiful and smart. Oh yeah, she loves watching an african grey on the internet named Einstien. He or she is one of the smartest birds with the largest vocabulary I have ever heard! Look for it on Youtube.
The clip Roxie likes is , Einstien's word pratice, check it out. This bird is so amazing, someone has spend a lot of time with it.
And that's the key to getting a talking bird to talk, time. Someone told me that normally an african grey doesn't talk very much until they reach age 5. That's how old Roxie is and she has began to talk much better and a lot more than she use to.
You can tell she's a mans bird. My son hadn't been here in months, maybe 6 months. Mind you I am around Roxie everyday, talking to her, feeding her and cleaning after her.
Erik (my son), walks in to the room and puts his hand up to pet her and she just loves it! He can rub her belly, head, back and you can tell she's loving it!
I do good to get to pet her or rub her on the head! Now when I get her out, she's sweet and talks up a storm.
We love her. I believe the african greys usually live 75 years. Seeing that I am 51 and Ronnie's 55, Audrey (our granddaughter), will inherit her :}
