 Someone asked me are they hard to take care of and I would say that if you've never had a bird it would be a wild ride, a lot of work that absolutely does not end. You heard they're smart. Are they smart? Absolutely. They are so incredibly intelligent. They're intelligent in a different way than let's say my cockatoo jersey who can literally unlock herself out of a cage and figure things out and dismantle things. They're like cognitively intelligent in a way that they can show you. So just because a bird can't talk doesn't mean that they're missing that kind of understanding. That's what we need to understand about the animal world. It just means that you are not aware of it and I feel like my job here in this lifetime is to be aware of it and to show you guys by raising these birds as family members. So for example, thank you Cody. That's very wonderful. I'm glad you decided to stay through the whole video and do my hair. Can I fix my hair? No? Oh this is fantastic. I look great. I would urge you guys to start by researching and looking up Dr. Irene Pepperberg. She's obviously a pioneer in the science of discovering and making it known how intellectual these birds are. So she proved through her work that African grades have the human intelligence cognitively of a five-year-old. So they can tell you colors and numbers. They've put a tray in front of her African gray who since died, Alex, and said how many blue blocks are here and how many red triangles are here. And then he answers like oh there's four red triangles or four blue squares. So he had to be able to deduce how many were squares, how many were not, and how many were red out of those, which is pretty impressive. But then they have the emotional intelligence of a two-year-old and they're gonna stay that way. They live a very long time. Imagine having an over-intellectual two-year-old running around your house all day. So their intelligence is extremely entertaining, but I would argue for a very intelligent person if that makes sense. And I'm not saying if you can't have an African gray, you're not intelligent, but some people get really stimulated by watching animal behavior and analyzing them and realizing what caused the bird to do this versus this. It's never boring. It's kind of like an Android versus an iPhone, honestly. Clearly I have a droid. That's all work. That has to be your sense of entertainment. Do you know what I mean? You can't be the type of person that when you want to relax, you want to sit on the phone, or when you want to do something fun, you want to go hang with your friends. I mean, you can, but you have to be the type of person that would involve your bird in that. You guys see on my Instagram, you watch my story, you see all my friends know how to get them to bed. All my friends know how to play with them. Otherwise, you don't really fit into my life, because this is it. They're included. I would never, ever, ever put them away to do something else consistently on a regular basis. They have to become your priority. So they're extremely intelligent and you always have to be entertaining them, and you always have to be giving them new things. That's like another full-time job. With one bird, that's a full-time job. So yes, they're extremely intellectual. Are they cuddly? No. This is a hard question to answer. They're not a cuddly bird like a cockatoo, and I would never get an African Grey, or recommend an African Grey to cuddle with. They're a little more independent. Can you scratch their head? And that, that's amazing. Yes. My first African Grey, George, who I got pretty young actually, let me scratch his head, but he did not want to be necessarily cuddled at all. Cody, she is a rescue that I don't even know how old she is, and she will kind of let me cuddle her. She'll let me like hold her under the blankets, but again, you never want to stroke them, you know? So wanting a cuddly bird might not even be to your benefit, because you don't want to accidentally stimulate your bird as well, but I would not put them in the cuddly bird category. But there are some African Grays like Cody who will let me cuddle her, but mostly you want to stick to scratching her head, and she will let me scratch her head for a long time. But Merlin and my African Grey, George, the scratching ahead was kind of like, you know, a privilege. And that's the way I see African Grays most of the time, as when they're letting you get close to them, it's a privilege, their passion, that manner. And so if you need that for bonding, then it's probably also not the bird for you. But preferably I like birds that are not cuddly because I'm not into the Velcro bird thing. You would think you would be, but the more the novelty of having a bird wears off, you realize that, you know, it's nice to have an independent bird that can, you know, just kind of chill with you, which is why mustache parakeets are my absolute favorite bird in the world and as well as African Grays. But this one is not chill. So, uh, yeah, don't chew that. I see you. Know what you're going to do before you do it and you'll ask me, yeah. Next question, are they good apartment birds? You know what, I'm going to say not bad to this, honestly, just because they're a little bit bigger. I don't think I would rule them out for an apartment. I had my African Grey George in my apartment for like eight years. The thing with the George was that George talked, uh, I would not have a cockatoo in an apartment, but in African Grey, most of the noise that they make is all what you hear in the background. A lot of talking, a lot of beeps, they imitate you. So if you're screamers, then they will scream. They can imitate crying babies. They can do a lot of things. My African Grey George would do the construction behind my apartment. So you would hear hammering and stuff. I think if you get your bird to bed before, you know, 10 o'clock at night, when neighbors can legally complain about things, then, you know, you should be doing pretty good with an African Grey, which brings us to, are they loud? Which I feel I kind of answered, but the truth of the matter is a lot of that is going to depend on you, but I would not put them in a macaw or a cockatoo category at all. They might be noisy if they talk all day. If that's something that bothers you, it doesn't bother me at all. I love hearing them talk. I love hearing the beeps. The African Grey noises do not bother me at all, but you may be a different animal. You may have to take phone calls. You may be in the film industry where you can't have these sounds in the back. I have no idea. These days, we're all at home. Maybe you're hypersensitive to noise. So if so, this might not be a good bird for you, although very entertaining what they can pick up as far as them talking and what they do pick up, that's going to take training from your part as well. So remember, if you're getting a bird because you want them to talk, that's going to be all training that you put into it. I believe my African Grey, George, talked a lot because he was my only bird at the time. It was me and him, and I just talked to him like he's a human being and he was unbelievable, like very comparable to what I think Alex the African Grey was or what he could have been. Next question, do they bite? Yes. Any bird can bite you and what are you going to do? Are you going to take it personally? Are you not going to like the bird? I think I currently have a nice one right here from Leo who rarely bites me, and it was completely my fault because I knew it was going to happen, but I made the choice to do what I did anyway. And sometimes, if you're experienced with birds, you will make those choices because you feel like it's something you have to do and believe me, when I said I did not react at all, everyone watching had no idea a bird was biting me and I just put Leo back all calm and that does two things that lets Leo know that the biting had no effect on me so he might as well not try it next time and also it makes sure that no one else is scared. The rest of the bird is George, not George the bird, was bitten like this. He would have been like, I like it, I'm dying and I need to be done for the day. And that's just the difference between somebody that grew up with exotics and someone who's good with them, but didn't really live their life with them. Just another day for me. Stop hammering. You see? Do you guys want this? I don't need hammering because we already did the construction on the house. The house is already built. I don't need you to build anything. I mean, I kind of would like you to build a little bit of an enclosure downstairs in the kitchen, but you know, aside from that, most of the time when you get bit, it's going to be your fault. And if you know your bird well, you'll know that. When George gets bit, I'm like, you should have done A, B, and C because of the bird's temperament in those exact situations. Most of my birds don't bite, but you always have the chance of getting bit. Can you train a bird to not bite you? Yeah, but are you the trained one or are they? Most of the time it's good parrot trainers that know how to not aggravate their bird and know how to work with their bird and keep them calm in certain situations. But then what happens when someone in African grade doesn't know comes into the picture? Right, Cody? I'm here. That brings me to the next question. What is different about African grace from other bird's personalities? It is literally just that. I feel like they're human behavior analysts. Their entertainment sometimes can be less about toys and more about watching you and being prepared to do the things that you're going to do before you do them. So like, if you're a bird behavior analyst and they're human behavior analysts, you could have a lot of fun with them, but you have to be that. I love them for that. I've always been interested in science, animal behavior, studying, reading, researching. I can't go to sleep without researching something and learning something new. If you're that type of person, you might love the reactions you get from working with and training an African great, but if you're not that type of person, you'll probably be doing a disservice to the bird. That is the way that I think that they differ most. So my cockatoo will come over and want to play and want to dance. And don't get me wrong, my African grays also like to dance a little bit, but the cockatoo has a lot of physicality to her as a bird, whereas my African grays have a lot less physicality to their behavior. So that is what's different from me. And then they're speaking. If they do speak and if you do work with them, is on a whole nother level, but also Amazon speak very well and so do eclectus parrots. So, you know, it really just depends on what you're looking for. But there is a perfect bird for different personalities, you know, how do I convince my mother to get me one? Okay, here's the thing. If one person in the family living in a house does not want a bird, you should never get a bird. And I'll tell you why, especially if you're young and your parent doesn't want a bird. How responsible are you planning on being for this bird? Where are you planning on going? Are you after this going to go to college or are you going to move out? Is this going to become your parents responsibility? I believe that no one should get a bird unless the entire family is aware of how much work it is. It can't be like the mom, listen, moms, okay, if you're the mom that wants to please the kid and you're like, Oh, he wants a bird and like we can afford it and we can get whatever you want. Do not do it because you're adopting a toddler, I swear. And if your kid is going to go off to college or your kid is going to not move out with the bird or have experiences or want to get married, that bird is going to be your responsibility. So if you're not on board and you don't know what you're signing up for, mark my words, you want to go find out, watch my videos, do some research, watch everything from entertaining things to terrible things to how easy it is to make mistakes, to accidentally, yes, Cody, to accidentally, you know, have a death in a bird, like to feed a bird, to make sure you're feeding your bird healthy, all of that. Let's talk about their diet. And this is going to go for pretty much all birds. What is an African grade diet like? Well, of course, you guys know, you could go to the bird store, you could buy seeds, you could buy pellets, you could buy Marlene's signature blend for your birds. But is that enough? Absolutely not. You have got to be chopping up vegetables for your birds, certain grains for your birds. You probably should know where they come from. A lot of people are like, my bird won't eat fruits and vegetables. And it's like, yeah, well, maybe they come from a place that is a little more grain based. And you need to, you know, that's what they eat in the fields. And that's what the crops that they're trying to get from the farmers. And you need to know that as well. But in general, a bag of seeds, a bag of pellets, a bag of Marlene's signature blend is not enough. Okay, you want to be chopping things up for your birds, giving your birds things all day long, like just as many meals as you, if not more, you want to have all those things available so they're getting the right nutrients so that they're healthy, so that their feathers are beautiful, you should be educated on how to look at the feathers to know if they're healthy or unhappy. All this is important information. You have a lot to learn if you are new to birds. So just take that into consideration. Okay, this is a big question that people have about African Grays. Are they one person birds? I don't like to label birds as one person or not one person because I've seen African Grays that go to everybody. And I've seen cockatoos that only go to one person, even though cockatoos are more on the social side. When I lived alone with my African Gray, my African Gray George wasn't as socialized. So George was a one person bird, even though I actually lived with two roommates at the time, they didn't know how to socialize with the bird they gave up. They were like, Oh, the bird loves you more, which is quite often what's going to happen in the house. Someone else will take it personally, say the bird loves you more and then be bored and over the bird. If that happens, or you think that's going to happen in your family, to be really careful with making sure that the bird is equally socialized and then you can have a bird that is good with more than one person. Two rescues I have right now, Merlin and Cody are both rescues and they both surprisingly go to both me and George and Merlin goes to other people that visit. Cody is a little more weary. We call her like a super ninja that she's like a little more protective. She's territorial, which is another thing. What if your bird gets territorial over a certain spot, let's say in the kitchen and then wants to attack everybody that wants to enter the kitchen, what do you do? These are just things I'm bringing up that maybe you're not prepared for. I just want you guys to know all the things that could happen so that you're aware. And then the last question that I got that I pretty much covered here, but I just want to touch on and conclude someone asked me, are they hard to take care of? And I would say that if you've never had a bird, it would be a wild ride, a lot of work that absolutely does not end. I would encourage you to not get a bird, but I would encourage you to research and maybe go to a rescue nearby and volunteer that way you could get your bird fixed and that way you could see how much work it is and that way you can learn a lot. If you guys are studying to be a vet or hope to be a vet, I would encourage you guys to become avian specialists if you can and not just avian specialists. There's a lot of people with the avian specialist title and I would still not trust them because they don't want to have a bird in their house. So sometimes things are just paperwork and tests. So I would just encourage you guys to go out and learn everything you can and change the world and change what we know on birds because that's what I'm here trying to do and if you could help me do that, I would really appreciate it. Those of you who are young and watching me, we need more avian specialists that have experience with birds living in their house that have a sensitivity to parrots. I think that would be a wonderful goal for us to go out and promote. Until next time guys, let's all practice, engage, not cage. You're engaging with and keeping your birds active and entertained. You know, these birds, another thing I didn't imagine, are amazing. Like play with them, play ball with them, keep them stimulated, keep them occupied. That's a job in itself, right? Imagine having a toddler, those of you a nanny, those of you a babysit. That's what it is. I've had moms come over here and go, I don't know how you handle all this and I'm watching you like, you know, just take care of all the birds and it's kind of unbelievable how much work you have. Yes, I do have that work. Yes, I would never lie about it, but I don't mind it because it's something that I love and it's something that comes natural to me. If it doesn't to you, could it? Yes, you may be a natural with birds, but I would go and educate myself and find out first. Okay guys, I really hope that was enlightening. Please let me know in the comments your experiences with your African Gray. If you would advise someone to go out and get an African Gray. If you disagree with anything in this video, remember, everybody has their own experience. Every bird has their own personality. One bird may not be like another bird. One person may be carrying another workload. You know, it's just, it's just different for everybody. I encourage you to join my Parrot Station group on Facebook and if you can offer anybody any kind of help, those of you that email me asking for help. Guys, I see your emails and I want to answer them and some of you I do, but it's just so hard. So please don't ever take it personally. If you've messaged me in inboxes, I'm not the best person to message because I am working with birds all day. I am trying to get videos out and we have our Parrot Station store to, you know, help me sustain doing these videos for you guys and be able to get things that I know and trust out to you guys in places that you don't have access to bird stores. So I'd encourage you guys to check out our store, ParrotStation.com, where you can get this amazing merch and also toys for your birds and bird food. We have our own blend. So please guys check that out. I hope you guys have a wonderful day. Thank you. Please subscribe to my videos. I really enjoy doing what I do and every new subscriber to me means that you are all here for the birds to try and do better for the birds. So I don't look at it as a personal subscriber count. I look at it as, wow, we are 200k strong of people that want to change the world for birds and want to improve their lives. If you guys have any suggestions for videos, please let me know. Don't forget to follow me on Instagram. I know this was a lot of information today. I'm kind of liking the purple background. Let me know what you think. I didn't like it before, but kind of like it today. Cody, do you want to say bye? Cody's now calm. Cody's got her footsie up and she's sitting on top of the TV and she's chilling. I love you guys so much. Good girl. Can you wave? Good girl.