 Mason 2-3-2-2-2. I feel like I should have been more prepared for this question. Hello, my fellow snippers and flighters. My name is Merlene McCohen, and this here is Merlin. Do you wanna say hi, Merlin? Yeah, you're on camera. And that there is Jersey. Jersey's already getting anxiety about being on camera, but she doesn't wanna be anywhere else. And I think you can see Rocky right there. So hopefully he'll let me. Merlin wants to step up. Rocky's like, I'm in this? Okay guys, so you know I had to do a Merlin update, right? Of course. I was trying to follow Merlin and document his life here as much as possible, but so many other things got thrown into the mix, like blue for one. So I thought I might as well do a Merlin update, but I should obviously ask you guys what it is you want to know about Merlin. So I did on Instagram. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram at Marlene McCohen so that you're always in the know. We are gonna go over those questions right now. And those of you who ask me the question are gonna get a shout out on Instagram. So yeah, here we go. I'm gonna start with this question real quick because it's going to kind of give you guys a little bit of backstory. So those of you who are new to the channel and don't forget to subscribe because you're just gonna, I mean, who doesn't love animals, right? And I have the coolest block around coolest, smartest, my little human being. So the first question is from Mukul Juria on Instagram, she wants to know when, why and how did you get him? So this whole thing is on my channel. I'm not gonna go into great detail on it, but basically I met Merlin at Apparat Rescue when I went to look for a bird for a friend of mine. It was a very educational video. If you guys wanna see that video, it's gonna be in the Merlin files or the Merlin playlist and you can watch the whole story. A few months later, I actually never stopped thinking about Merlin. And then a few months later, she contacted me and asked me if I knew of a good home for Merlin and if I would take him. So here is Merlin. And this whole story is up on my channel. I think you guys would really love it. So don't forget to check out that playlist because I don't know if you really watched something and the story of how it came to be. You could see all the emotions and how exciting it was. It's one of my favorite stories. Oh, you're chill now, right? Okay. Yeah. Krusty.bean wants to know, was it difficult to remove him from his cage at first? Yes and no. It wasn't difficult to remove him from inside his cage because I just opened his cage and he came right out. But he was territorial over you getting him off of his cage. So if he was hanging out on top, on the playstand and you wanted to get him off, he would strike at you. But he actually doesn't do that anymore because he's happier being with us than he is being on the cage. So any moment that I come to get him, he's excited about it. If he hasn't flown off or ready to join us in our activities. So that's all taken care of. For those of you interested in the training with those sort of things, it's all really about practicing, step up as soon as you get a bird, step down, making sure that you socialize your parrot so he can go from one person to another in the family, which brings me to another question that a ton of you have asked me. Monica Monet wants to know if he chose his person already. I don't think so. Merlin has been surprisingly social. For a bird that I thought when I saw him at Parrots first in the rescue, I thought like he was extremely timid. And you know, he was gonna be someone that I had to get him out of his shell, but it's not true. Merlin came and just inserted himself really fast into the family. And another thing is the first day that we came home, I think you see this in the video, we had dinner that night and George's father came and he walked right up to George's father and climbed up his leg night one. That is extremely rare because you have to understand like this bird is saying, oh you, I don't know you, you've been here a few minutes. So obviously George's dad reminds him of somebody that was in his family previously. So that brings me to the question of Abbey212000. You wanna know, does he like you or George more? Does he like me or George more? So I was really worried that he was gonna love me more. And I'll tell you why, because all of these birds, except for Rocky, like they love me more, that's like the truth. And mostly it has to do with how they socialize. I'm the one at home and I'm taking care of them. Fun fact, even though Rocky loves George more, he listens and responds to me better. So I have a better control over Rocky. I don't have better control over Rocky in terms of like loving him and hugging him and being able to bond with him in that way, but I have better control over him. Like if I want him to step down, step up, get him on the stand or get him in the cage. Because you don't have to be your bird's most bonded person to get them to listen to you and understand what you're trying to get out of them. And also for you to understand how they need to be coached into doing the things you want them to do. So on that note, I really thought that Merlin was gonna love me more and I was scared of it because George loves African graze as well. And you know, with the loss of George, we have like a soft spot. George was my other African gray, my first African gray. We have a soft spot for African graze. So I didn't want George to feel rejected by any bird, let alone an African gray. I mean, Leo rejects him all the time and cheers when he leaves the room, but like that's okay, but an African gray, no. So I really took a step back. Honestly, I just guided George through a lot of socialization. I would let George take him out of the cage first. George feed him first, George transport him first. I really made sure that I was on point with equal socialization with Merlin. Every day it's a little bit different. Sometimes I think he does actually like George more, but he doesn't show it in a way that he steps up to both of us. He includes himself with everything both he and I are doing. And he's also inserted himself and walked over to visitors himself. If we keep going like we're going now, I'm sure we'll see a preference in who he loves more, but I don't think he'll reject any one of us, which I'm really happy about. So far our socialization with him is going fantastic. And I'm really pleased with George for being able to recognize everything that I told him to do with Merlin so that Merlin would love him. Such as being the first to approach, such as, you know, being the first to feed him, such as including him, such as spending alone time with him. All those things are very important socialization methods. And oh, one more thing I wanna say about that subject is that he has bit George more, but that's not really an indication of who he loves more. Actually, sometimes birds can bite you when they do love you more because they're more upset about certain things. So for example, if I put him back in the cage versus if George puts him back in the cage, he might not want George to put him back because he's enjoying his time more with George. So he bites George. But I think the real reason is cause I have a little bit better of a sleight of hands. I've had parrot since I was a child. So like I'm just very prepared and ready for the bites, especially African gray movements. Being not bit by a bird is all about really being able to read their body behavior and when they're gonna do something. It's the same with photography. You guys probably don't know this about me, but I'm really good with sports photography and wild animal photography, catching animals in flight and sports stars in great positions. And it's a lot because you don't just like try to get a good photo. You really analyze the behavior and start seeing patterns and you know what they're gonna do next. Sometimes my OCD lends itself to that, but really I just am kind of like a behavior analyst and that's also due to being an actor, honestly. Cause if you really study acting, it's really going out, living life and delivering what you learned, right? Gabby Halla wants to know, what is his reaction to unfamiliar visitors? Okay, so I went over this a little bit. He's pretty chill. He doesn't try to go out and like attack anyone or anything like that, but he has kind of walked over to them and inserted himself. Today we had a visitor and Merlin had never seen him before and Merlin just walked on over. I'm not saying he climbed up and like gave the visitor hugs like Jerseywood, but he did like, you know, test the waters just to see like how familiar this guy was with birds, which was interesting. Sophia.exe wants to know, have I ever heard Merlin sing? I kid you not, Merlin was here like a few weeks, maybe even more and suddenly literally just singing opera. He didn't do it in front of me. I was upstairs and I heard him like practicing his opera and then I responded to him by singing some opera back to him and then he responded to me. When I tried to get it on camera for you guys, I did this on Instagram. I didn't get it, but I did get him say, oh my God, when I was upstairs and he was talking, it was really cute. Jay Jeffery 946 wants to know how many homes he's lived in. So as far as like official homes, from what I understand, he was with his previous owner for like 20 years. So if any of you have the question of how old he is, definitely at least 20. I guess her lifestyle changed and she took him to Parrots First and then Rose over at Parrots First was waiting for like the ideal home for him and it turned out to be mine. So here he is. So I guess you would say like two official homes and then, you know, Parrots First which is always a transitional place. Valerie Renee 3 wants to know what seems to be his favorite fruit or vegetable. So he loves mango. That's the first thing, like he just loves mango. He also appreciates banana. These are really good eater. He loves peas and green beans and he also likes, see I'm not great with food as you guys know, these beans in a, in this stick, like they're green, like not edamame but maybe like snow peas or snap peas. I buy them, I wash them and they love them. He likes that, but he also likes green beans a lot. That's one cute thing. Like I see him pull the green beans out of like some of the stuff that I make for him, which I know I always say George makes but sometimes I do make the food for the birds. I have been known to make some really good chop but he loves his baby food. If you guys saw that mango, it's like different. It's got different fruits and vegetables, all organic, only has the ingredients that are in it. That's his favorite thing. He literally says wants some. These are really good questions guys. By the way, ender time babe, I'm gonna give you a shout out because you did ask what Merlin's age is, it's probably about 21 and Casira loves 16, 2008 says the same thing. Livy Poe, one, two, three wants to know if he gets along with Cody, not really. This is the weirdest thing guys, okay? When I tell you how weird this is like, this has got to be like a one in a million, a one in a hundred type thing. So actually Merlin's my fourth African gray. The other African gray that we had was nothing like these two but it only loved George. That's a whole different story for another day. Usually all birds are extremely different and Merlin and Cody are very different but they're very much alike. It's so weird. So Cody has that spot that she likes to sit at and Merlin has decided that he also likes that spot in the kitchen. So they kind of fight over it. So I'm like, okay, fine. Cody actually has two spots in the kitchen so I recreated her spot in the kitchen and then what happened was Merlin decided to go over there and then Cody will like totally growl when Merlin comes over there. So they're kind of territorial over the same exact spots. They both stand at the sink. They're both obsessed with the sink. They're both obsessed with each corner of the kitchen. It's like the weirdest thing, okay? So they don't really get along. I'm not saying they attack each other but they do get very territorial over their space and Merlin's always trying to get up in Cody's space. So Cody's not happy about that. Digitally buttercup. How did he lose his feathers? Stress being lonely. Did they ever gain their feathers back? Okay, loaded question. I'm obviously can't speak to the previous owner because I don't know what I was told and I always believe in telephone. Like unless you go directly to the source you really don't know anything. So I don't like to say anything that I'm not sure of ever and you guys should probably practice that in your lives always forever because I think it's very important. But what I understood is that Merlin started losing his feathers when he got a little bit depressed that the previous owner started going on the road. And I guess he used to go on the road with her for these road trips because she was a trucker and then they realized that maybe Merlin didn't like the road trips or didn't feel comfortable. So they started leaving Merlin at home in the care of their daughter. And apparently Merlin kind of felt rejected or left alone or depressed. I'm sure he was in great care but it's hard when you're used to something and it changes and then he started plucking. Now birds can grow their feathers back. It really just depends on how damaged they were in the first place. So we will see what happens with Merlin which brings me to my next question by Patrick Williams. He wants to know will Merlin's feathers grow back? I don't know but I can tell you this. I may be crazy but to me it looks like they're growing in a little bit honestly. I could be imagining it. It could be like me positively fantasizing about it. But I haven't seen Merlin pluck but just because you haven't seen a bird pluck doesn't mean you shouldn't check the bottom of the cage. And I have checked the bottom of the cage and there has been times that I've seen feathers at the bottom. Feathers that were plucked feathers because I know the difference. Not a lot, very few. And I've never seen a pluck when I'm around so he's obviously like happy in our presence but unhappy when we're not in his presence if that makes any sense. Yeah, we're just trying to improve his life and make him happy. The difference between him and Jersey is that I will see Jersey pluck. She's got a lot of anxiety and things easily affect Jersey so even though she's extremely loved you guys know that. So I see her pluck and I have seen her get a lot better. I've seen her feathers grow in which has been amazing and I do see some improvements on certain times when I've been able to have feather ethic in an AviCom which they don't have anymore. It's a little bit of a hard time. It's also been hard for her since Picasso left and she also had a hard time when George died. So she's kind of been through a lot. She also had a roommate of mine that she loved that slept in her room. They were like in the same room together and when he moved out like that's when I also saw a drastic change. These are the kind of things you take on when you adopt birds. So in a nutshell, I do think that there is hope for Merlin to get his feathers back. I don't wanna get all your hopes up but I do think that he has a much better chance than Jersey. Dania Abu Abdu wants to know, does he smell good? Not yet, but like when he gives me a kiss which he recently learned I'm so excited about I thought I'm gonna give me a kiss and he actually makes the kissing noise. I get kind of like a good breath smell but he has the smell right now of like being somewhere else and I don't know how to explain that but like my birds get this good smell after being in my house for a while. One time my baby sat for someone I didn't like the smell of her bird and then like I got that sniff out and then the bird started smelling really good. Maybe it's what I feed the bird and then when she came back to pick him up she's like he smells so different he smells so good and I'm like yeah. Tamara P86, what is the most fun thing Merlin likes to do? Well okay for me what's so much fun is when Merlin is hungry and he says want some? I just love that like oh he heard it he's like wait yeah. So like I love that. Oh another fun thing that he loves to do if you say his name and you're like Merlin Merlin Merlin he'll dance let's do it. Merlin Merlin Merlin Merlin Merlin Merlin Merlin Merlin Merlin You saw him do a little bit of it. Yeah he likes his name. He's always like pretty pumped about himself which to me is absolutely the cutest thing so I love that. Mason 23222 I feel like I should have been more prepared for this question. Do you wanna know what words or noises does he usually do? He has said oh my god oh that's another weird thing about them both they both like say the same thing they both came saying the same thing him and Cody very weird so he says oh my god he says Merlin and I swear he started saying Marla and he also says George and also of course him singing opera the other day he asked me to get him a lawyer but then I realized he didn't want a lawyer he's still good here he wanted water he makes the noise of water when he sees me pouring water and he also says want some what you guys saw he makes all sorts of weird noises like I don't know like all sorts of different things like and weird things and when he talks he talks like nonsense like Rose told me he's like one of the best talking African grays ever but I'm gonna have to disagree because for example my bird George was a much better talker much clearer talker much more concise maybe Merlin will surprise me because I think he does learn things fast but also a lot of your African grays that I've seen on parrot station speak better than him but he does talk a lot and I think like being in my house you know how they kind of transform into little human beings I think he will really get the opportunity to shine Tiradan wants to know how him and Cody are going which I covered and how does Ms. J feel about him well you know Ms. J is pretty fine with him today him and Leo and Cody were all on the counter and Leo he's always the biggest bully but I do have to tell you guys one thing about Merlin he's extremely territorial he does not like any other bird on his cage and he will go to attack them if he's in the mood so so far we're gonna need to work with him on like flock integration which is something that I believe we can achieve and for those of you interested in that let me know in the comments if you want a video on that a lot of you ask me all the time how all my birds get along I don't know if you guys know right now but Nellie, Monty and Blue are all getting along and there's certain ways that I integrate all of them with each other and it really really works obviously Rocky not so much but he's just a much larger bird and I just don't take chances and I was told when I got him how aggressive he was but when it comes to Rocky and Vinny Vinny is more of the gangsta there JanaHarn98 says is there any particular bird he loves to hang out with or just you? Some noises I think him and Jersey are chill like I've seen him and Jersey on the same stand and he hasn't gone crazy but he has been kind of aggressive to obviously Blue like I said and he don't mess with Vinny nobody messes with Vinny I've seen him and Vinny together just so you guys know I haven't put him like in the aviary yet I'm gonna do that on a day when I can watch them all and make sure that they are fine together VS Stevenson says why does he have random red feathers? Okay, so he is a red factor African Gray which means that he has some red feathers if his feathers grew in we might even see more red feathers George also had one red feather on his chest such a special baby some people actually take African Grays with red feathers and they try to breed, breed, breed them down until they get like a completely red African Gray and there are some out there I think there's like last time I heard there were three of them and you guys could look it up and sometimes there's scams of people selling them or trying to sell them with those photos for like $10,000 I gotta do a video for you guys on discoloration in feathers because some people do believe that if an African Gray gets a red feather in a certain spot it could mean that they have like a liver issue and things like that but it all really just depends on how the bird was born I actually have on my board to do a video on that subject for you guys so I will get more into that Megan Beverage says how is training him going? Well, obviously he's great at step up and step down he is not potty trained yet which is something that I highly enforce over here as you guys know I am great at getting my birds to fly to go potty and fly back he is not potty trained he does love head scratches already and he is very loving and extremely inclusive he also likes to dance for me that's all part of bonding and training with your bird it's all about finding out the things that they're good at as well and letting them enjoy those behaviors Aurean, the dis it doesn't show me the rest but which applesauce things does he prefer? I mean the flavor cause they have multiple so it's basically actually an organic baby food that I give him what Rose used to do was make him these vegetables and then put the baby food on top which is like a mango or just different flavors he loves the mango the best that's why it's always the one I remember so I also do the same thing like I put it on top of his bowl if you guys watch the video of Carolyn and I shopping for bird toys and just going to that large bird store I got them all new bowls with their own colors and Merlin has a black one I basically put his food in there with his sauce on top and he loves it the low down now wants to know does he cuddle? No, I, okay so here's what I could do I could kiss his wing I could kiss his head I could kiss his beak and I can scratch his head but I haven't like with Cody for some reason in three days I had Cody upside down playing around and just grabbing and kissing Cody but I haven't done that with Merlin you just kind of can read birds and I just know that he ain't ready yet and he might never be and that's okay each bird is different next question from Kray19 are you fostering him or keeping him? I want this one to keep her I'll tell you why because when she came to me and she was looking for another home for him like I felt like I was chosen for Merlin I know I could say that about a lot of birds but if you go back and watch that video and you see the first time I went into that rescue and I saw Merlin it felt like Merlin hadn't bonded with anyone because she told me he really hadn't but she loved Merlin a lot and when I heard that he was with his owner for 20 years I knew that it wasn't because of the personality that he seemed to have it was because he was heartbroken and he just needed like a new happy home so if you guys remember I said hold the camera I'm gonna bond I'm gonna pick up this bird and I did because sometimes it's not about pulling a bird out and like training them sometimes it's just about making them understand that you're there for them I know it sounds so human but you have to understand that birds do understand more than you think and yeah look he came to me and that's why I literally told him to come down off of the cage and he came SophieMcw underscore wants to know what was it like taking him? I don't know if you saw that video Sophie but it was really emotional because I don't know I mean I'm happy to be giving a bird a new home but I know it's hard for them like I don't know I just feel the feelings and that's why in that video I got really sad cause I was sad for him and I know he was in a good place with Rose too so that's why Goldfish dragon K and I I don't know what else it says have you found a way to keep him away from the popcorn cabinets? Yeah I think I did a video on this about how to prevent your birds from being somewhere you don't want them to be but I will do another video if you guys are interested in this video specifically let me know in the comments I have these sticks they're kinda like you know when you go to new age stores and there's these canes that someone carved out and they look like I don't know like Moses or Jesus is walking down like wherever they walk so like I have those and I got them cause I thought they'd be so interesting but it turns out they're brilliant at just laying them where you want where you don't want a bird to go so for example sometimes Rocky's on top of his cage and he wants to go down and walk around and maybe I'm afraid he's gonna chew a cabinet so I leave him out on top of his cage but I put two sticks around his cage and he won't walk past them and it just creates a barrier but he's out and he's free but he's not doing anything it's like my trick you know the same with the cabinets I just took like a stick and when Merlin's out I put it if I feel like he's into that at that moment he's not always then uh oh then you know I put those sticks in front of the cabinets and he won't go there so the thing here with this is that you're not gonna try to scare your bird with it just trying to place it there like any other item was placed and they're gonna be suspicious of it and they're not gonna cross it a lot of birds are scared of sticks it's really funny it's almost like they associate it with snakes now some birds are really smart like cockatoos after a while a cockatoos is gonna be like I know what that is that thing hasn't moved so every once in a while you gotta shake it up you know you gotta kinda like show the stick moving a little bit but for example you know Jersey climbs the railing on my stairs she doesn't do it often but for example when my sister was here she used to climb up there and scream her head off for my sister to come get her out now that my sister's gone she doesn't do that but sometimes when my sister leaves she goes up there and like remembers that she used to live here and like looks for her and if I know she's gonna do that and I don't have the energy to keep going up and down the stairs then I just take the big purple Swiffer you know that you clean the floors with him just kinda lean it up against the banisher she will walk out over here see it go nope and turn around so it might be a different thing for your bird maybe your bird's familiar with something or there's been a stick near him all his life so he's not scared of it and I don't mean like little perches I just mean like a big stick you coming over here Cody you can come back come here mommy misses you so that's kinda my trick and listen I just wanna clarify this for you I'm here to make your life with birds easier okay I am not here to sugarcoat it and make it look like all birds are perfect and you can train them to never do anything you don't want them to do so that's why sometimes I will tell you tricks just to like get through the day you know like if your bird is chewing up cabinets how to prevent your bird from doing that sometimes you just need to know those things too as well as classical conditioning as well as positive reinforcement but it's always important to know these other little tricks too because it's bird psychology and it's important fresh Brit I'm gonna answer part of your question cause I already answered most of it you wanna know how does he interact with Jenna so Jenna comes in the house and she's like looking for a bird to like grab, kiss and squeeze and then sometimes with the new birds that she didn't live in the house with them and she hasn't bonded with them yet then she's kinda like why doesn't he love me she hasn't been here enough times while Merlin's here to really bond with Merlin but she is kind of obsessed with Cody so I do think they need time for the relationship to grow I don't know if she trusts Merlin 100% but they will get there Bexlight 90, do you think Merlin is a male or a female? I haven't thought about it enough but I just feel like Merlin might be a male but you know what Lou told me and Lou hasn't seen Merlin but just from a video that Merlin might be a female because of the light wing but I don't know what picture he saw so I don't even know if Merlin has a light wing but we'll see I would say Merlin is a male Global wants to know what's my favorite thing that he says I think it has to be, oh my God cause I haven't heard it enough Phoenix three, I can't see the rest What pet store breeder did he come from originally? I have no idea you have to remember he's a rescue Greyl Lerum, honey has he let you preen him like head scratches? By the way I love your videos thank you Grayson Yeah, totally, he's obsessed with head scratches he lets me scratch his head all the time Parrot Animations wants to know why is he the sweetest and cutest bird? I don't know, he is sweet he is cute, he has a little bit of an attitude he's boss, like Merlin is boss that's the thing Kylie Sisu, why did the rescue give him to you? Okay, I'm gonna tell you guys this because I don't think I told you in the last video but the rescue is moving that's all I can say that I know that probably is obvious but the rescue is moving I don't know where they're moving but they needed to move and so you know how that goes they need to make sure to find homes for all of their birds before the move and before they have important decisions to make so that's what happened there Nisi from the, I can't see the rest why is he so fluffy? Well, because what you see there are his down feathers and so that's what's left of his body so those always look fluffier that's why Jersey looks like a cotton ball Sam Gart five wants to know all about his past life if I could get in touch with the family, I might I think that would be kind of interesting but I can tell you this something that I haven't told you that one of my flighters on Patreon found a comment now I try to see all my comments but I guess I must have missed this one and I'm sure I missed a ton more apparently the comment was from Merlin's owner's daughter and I really appreciated this comment and being shared this comment because it said Merlin's mom, the original owner loved Merlin so much like Merlin was a part of the family that she looked for a very, very long time for the right person to take Merlin that would find Merlin a good home and the funny thing about it is after getting to know Rose it's like she really did find the perfect person so I have to give her props for that because like Rose just cares so much about the birds and she found the perfect person and the end she did right by Merlin craft with birds is Merlin the type of great is sit there and judge you with judgy eyes, yeah Cody does more judgy eyes, more like assassin eyes but I do appreciate Merlin's ability to just kind of sit and chill sometimes Cody does less of that but I'm pretty sure that Merlin will do even less of that after getting acquainted with the house me, I'm 167, is he a nice bird because I have a family that says African greys aren't always nice well, you know another video I wanna do for you guys is about rescue parrots versus non rescue parrots if you wanna see that, let me know in the comments yeah, he's a very nice bird it's all about what you wanna get out of your bird in terms of what type of bird suits you African greys suit me a lot but they may not suit you and do they tend to be more one person birds, yeah but ironically both Merlin and Cody came here loving both me and George Galaxy the budgie, how is his personality different from Cody? I love you Merlin, yeah, I love you his personality is a little less rambunctious than Cody I know they're both crazy about the kitchen I know they both kind of galavans but Merlin's more of an explorer he wants to see how things are and Merlin is more likely to go up to a new person and involve himself in the new person and check the new person out like literally walk up to the new person whereas Cody will stand there and stare and possibly attack you if you go over to the sink and when men come in, Cody just stands there and stare but Merlin's been known to go up and introduce himself in some way so they're different like that but at the same time Cody is a lot more loving and Cody is a lot more into being handled and hung out with and turned upside down and played around with Korty girls, not about Merlin but how do your birds not fight or get along like how do all of them? I'm gonna make a video about that for you guys that's a whole subject in itself typical Shivani wants to know how do you manage all your birds at the same time? Okay, I'm looking at them right now I wanna show them to you, I'm here I don't know who else could have a flock like this honestly Do you guys see them all? Okay, look, Leo, Cody, Jersey, Blue, Melly and then Vinnie's over there, Rocky's over here I have a bunch of very good birds I know I show you guys on Instagram all the crazy stuff they get into that's cause I want you to see the real life with carrots but believe me when I say that there is order here, okay? Like I'm here, I have them all and they're all really well trained and really well integrated within each other and another thing that's really important is that I'm not so strict with them if you know what I mean I treat them to be a part of the family so when I'm chill, they're chill one thing I want you guys to understand it's really about knowing birds since I grew up with them, since I was a kid like I honestly know what they're gonna do before they do it and they're all different they're not all the same, right? I know when Cody's gonna fly and I know when Merlin's gonna fly and I know when Jersey's gonna say something and I know when Jersey's gonna love someone and I know when she's gonna get hurt feelings and like all of this is all about knowing your birds and if you know that then you can keep them really happy, okay? Trisha Beauty TLC, how old do you think Merlin is? Is he looking for a girlfriend? I don't know Well, as we found out, Cody is a female and he is not into that so either Merlin is a female as well or Merlin, that's not Merlin's type My friend Sarah asks, why is he coming to meet his cousin Samir in Houston? Probably pretty soon, Sarah Cable Modem says, is he a magician? Probably, my birds are very magical This is Gretcho, what's his favorite food to sneak? I haven't caught him. Well, you know, like sneaking food would be like if we're, well, yeah, he snuck the popcorn he opened that and got into the popcorn so I would say that. Jack James 95, how did we not get to this question yet? Can he fly? Yeah, he actually can fly. Oh my God guys, the other day he literally like, I don't know if you guys know what my stairs look like but he was down here chilling. I was upstairs, my phone call took a little too long and then I go into my office and there he is waiting for me so yeah, he flew all the way upstairs. Burbo Byte Do, do you think Merlin is smarter than the other birds? No, I think they're all smart, even the smallest ones. Even Finchie, Finchie's smart. Finchie bosses me around, okay? Ekdani has a video idea that I really like. I think I should do that. Sanjh says, how did you get the feeling you had to get Merlin? I don't know, I don't know and I didn't reach out to get him. That's the funniest thing, like I was contacted. It's almost like the truth of if it's meant to be let it go or whatever and if it comes back to you, it's meant to be. I said that all wrong but it was like that. Like I saw Merlin, felt very strongly towards him and I was like, well he's fine. My house or Rose's house, he's fine where he is. He doesn't need to be with me and I don't need another bird and then you know, I kept thinking about Merlin. You guys kept thinking about Merlin. George saw Merlin and fell in love with Merlin and the video, my brother and my sister-in-law asked me about Merlin all the time and then came Merlin. And another good question you had Sanjh LH was you were wondering if like the mysterious Cody story does anything add up for Merlin. Well, some very mysterious things and I'm still trying to put it together is that he's very similar to Cody and they also say a lot of the same things like very odd like and they also both loved me and George and are fine with Jenna. So I thought that was very interesting and they're also both into the kitchen. George died in the kitchen. I found out. I thought that was very interesting and of course he has his red feather situation. So those things are very interesting to me. Kasper Soto says maybe have him choose his favorite applesauce. I'm gonna do that. You all think it's applesauce but it's actually baby food. Catherine, does he know and can he say your name? I swear he says my name. I swear he says Marla but it sounds so much like Merlin that like, you know, I don't know. Seth Wilson, has he bonded with any of the other birds if so not who is his favorite? I don't think he's really bonded with any of the other birds, maybe Jersey. Ramona Buzzard, how are you dealing with any fears or anxieties he might have from his past? Ramona, he doesn't seem to have too many anxieties. He has a lot less anxiety than I thought he was gonna have truthfully but I think his anxiety stems from being left alone. The reason I gathered that is cause I never see him pluck like I told you guys but seeing the feathers at the bottom of the cage sometimes if I haven't been around then I think it's all about neglect. That's what I think. Wendy Cottingham, do you think he started plucking when he got to the rescue or before? I heard he plucked before and he was only at the rescue for six months and you love how he just fits right in. He really does, it's crazy. And John Servas, Willis Feathers come all the way back. I really do hope so. Okay guys, that is the end of the Merlin update. I'm sorry, Merlin didn't wanna stay here to be involved in this. I should probably go see what he was doing. Merlin, where's Merlin? Merlin, what are you doing? By the way guys, to go on what I was saying before because I know I'm gonna end the video and then I'm gonna like forget. Also, it's important to keep your birds engaged because when your parrots are engaged during the day they're gonna sleep better, they're gonna have had exercise and that all lends itself to better behaved birds, right? Because if birds aren't getting attention that's when they get destructive, that's when they chew, that's when they get aggressive, that's when they get loud, that's when they bite, right? If I'm keeping them very busy playing games, playing hide and seek and playing with toys and creating foraging for them, another reason why things are a little bit easier for me. All right guys, I love you so much. Thank you so much for watching this video. Don't forget to subscribe, check out all my links below. If you wanna become a flighter and get in on all my videos early, don't forget to check out my Patreon and of course my Amazon link. You guys gotta check that out. It's like a real cute store I created. All right guys, I love you so much. Bye!