 Hello my fellow sniffers my name is Marlene McCohen and this is Cody my African Gray and we would like to welcome you to Parent Tip Tuesday. Now today I think it's an African Gray kind of day so we're gonna do something different today and eventually I'll do this for all birds and all different kind of birds but today we're going to talk about what it's like to own an African Gray. I thought this would be a great video because Cody thinks it's really funny so funny he just wants to jump on my head. I thought this would be a great video today because although there's a lot to be educated on when you are looking into buying a parrot sometimes you just need to know what it's like to own a certain type of bird and of course since it's the anniversary of George this week well kind of past but for me it's still the anniversary of George I thought we would talk about African Grays and also yeah do you like that? I have my African Gray nail polish if you guys noticed this is basically George because he was all gray with one red feather and then of course I have a red pedicure for his red tail so every year I do something like that. Cody likes it right Cody? Yeah he always likes the red one which finger do you like the red one? Yeah do you want a toy? All right I'm just gonna talk to you guys and tell you from my experience what it's like to own both the African Grays that I have owned. The first thing you need to know about owning an African Gray is that of course it's a lot of work they need constant attention. You guys have heard that so often about so many parrots but of course the bigger the parrot the more attention they're going to need in different kinds of ways so of course even the littlest bird needs all of the attention you can give in the world but bigger birds need like a more focused attention because they're more capable of destroying stuff getting rambunctious they have the ability to destroy things that little birds kind of aren't able to destroy that's why some people call certain birds starter birds because experienced bird owners know that no matter what if you get a larger parrot they're gonna be after everything you own to destroy and it's not that you can train them not to do it you can try but most of the time you just gotta be more aware you know hey I can't put my purse on the table hey I can't leave my laptop open all these things become a whole new world when you own a parrot. Let's talk about African Grays. African Grays are my favorite they're my favorite birds in general of course you guys know that like Picasso is my little favorite bird but African Grays match my personality so well when you're looking into getting a parrot you have to decide what kind of bird does match your personality because the truth is everyone's different and the truth is also that if you've never had a bird before this might be a very hard thing to know before you get one all birds especially large birds will make you feel like you basically have a toddler but African Grays are kind of like having the intelligent child on the block so for example Jersey is 100% a toddler running around the house crying if she doesn't get what she wants freaking out if somebody doesn't accept her advances she's 100% like a two or three year old and it's extremely cute and it's extremely funny. Cody is not a two year old in that way and African Grey feels a little bit different while Jersey feels like the cute little kid on the block that everyone wants to play with. Cody and my African Grey George felt more like the posh little kid on the block that would answer you rather than chase you isn't really interested in you engaging with him 100% physically but intellectually needs to be stimulated so they're very different some people want a bird that they can cuddle all the time like Jersey you see how cute she is and some people need a bird that can be with them observing but not necessarily needing to be fondled like all birds they insist on being in your presence they want to see you they want to know that you're there if you're not in the same room they're going to scream just like any other bird would with African Grey's I always felt like George could be near by me but not necessarily on me he was able to be kind of like a sidekick he also didn't want me petting him and cuddling him all the time because that's not really something that African Grey's are into can you give them head scratches sure have you seen me cuddle Cody yes but that's not something you should expect out of your African Grey if you get one believe me not all of them are cuddly in fact it's pretty rare they just have different feathers than cockatoos and cockatoos really want you to engage with them with that physical love and African Grey's don't for me personally that works great because sometimes it's hard for me to be cuddling a bird all day we will discuss how to prevent your bird from wanting to cuddle all day because it's very important that you're able to keep your bird active and engaged with toys and foraging as you can see Cody's on my shoulder he's what I call a shoulder bird meaning that he enjoys being on my shoulder my African Grey George did not like being on my shoulder he would have much rather been right here on the stands of this chair just sitting next to me and I really like that so in this way Cody is a really different bird Cody gets a lot of anxiety if he's not right here on me I think that has something to do with the true story of Cody if you guys watch that video even if I am in Cody's site he flies to me every second I can put him down then I walk two steps he flies to me I walk somewhere else he flies to me Cody lands on me all day probably about 70 times a day does Cody fly to me in such a panic as if I'm going to leave and go somewhere in fact I'll tell you something funny about that in light of the recent hurricane my sister told me that my brother is probably going to go work for FEMA which is the disaster relief and then she mentioned that his girlfriend CEO may have signed up for it and I said to myself oh maybe I should do it and my sister said um yeah I don't know and I thought she was thinking like cuz you know there might be any kind of like physical labor or something to do she goes you can do it but you're gonna have to take Cody African grays are extremely sensitive they're very sensitive emotionally because they're so intellectual African grays are one of the most emotional parrot companions that you can have so you always have to be aware before getting a parrot or an African gray that there is a lot of emotions to deal with so if you're not someone that enjoys dealing with emotions of human beings on a regular basis it's even harder to deal with a parrots emotions because they can't just say to you what is bothering them so what is it like living with a bird that can talk to you it's amazing for me this is one of my favorite things about African grays but I must tell you not all African grays talk you may get a bird that doesn't talk that's why you can never ever get a bird for its talking abilities or expected to talk because you're doing a huge disservice to the parrots and you have to make sure that just like your dog doesn't talk to you but he communicates that you're well aware that you may get a parrot that communicates but does not talk so that's very important but as far as how much noise a bird makes like an African gray all day you're looking at a lot of talk chatter beeping noises alarms somebody commented on one of my videos that the video was great but the alarm in the background was a little stressful there was no alarm that was the bird that was my bird pretending to be kind of like a smoke detector maybe the comment was a joke but either way that's what it was so you have to be well prepared for the fact that you will be hearing noise all day long different kinds of noises are they entertaining yes but are they always entertaining what if you need some peace and quiet what do you do that's when you have to have your bird next to you because that's probably the only guaranteed way to keep him quiet or give him such great foraging toys and keep him as busy as you possibly can engaged and entertained all of the time so it can be a lot of work here are some examples of what you might hear during the day with an African gray microwaves beeping phone messages coming in computers turning on phones ringing phone conversations with the bird the dogs barking any beeping that the bird may have heard outside the door opening the door creaking an alarm ringing any single process that you go through that the bird has seen so George was able to do my morning routine for example I would put on my makeup and every click of every bottle or spray or any single thing that I used on my face he knew the exact sound of closing the top opening the other bottle pouring it and he would go through it exactly at the same time as I did there's so many noises that a human could never ever create that just sounds so real and they are real that your African gray will be able to imitate it may trip you out a lot you may think somebody is beeping or turning on a button or the oven just went on or I don't know if ovens make noises honestly that's my own fault the microwave every single noise you can think of the bird can make you spraying you watering things the noise of water the noise of waterfalls these are just things that the bird hears anything on TV I told you guys about the time my bird did the exorcism in my house that was unpleasant when it was dark at night so any little thing that they have heard if they're interested in it they can absolutely recreate so those are some of the noises you will be hearing all day long when you own in African gray do they have quiet time yes there's many moments when the bird doesn't say talk or do anything but there's a lot of moments when it's kind of sporadic so things may be quiet and then suddenly your bird makes some beeping noise and sometimes it's a really good warning African grays can be great to let you know what it is you're missing from your routine maybe that's more specific to me because I tend to be really obsessive compulsive so the bird learns quickly what it is that I should be doing I have gotten signs from my bird that it's time to clean the glass table because the bird is making the spray bottle noise these are the things the birds do and they identify when it's going to happen so the birds like we put a lot of crumbs on this table looks like it's time to hear that noise so yeah I'm telling you a lot of the fun stuff about owning an African gray because I want you guys to know what it really is like in daily life they're also very routine I've talked about routine before but grays are prone to plucking just like cockatoos are so you want to make sure that you're giving them a really good routine that they're comfortable with and not changing things up too much it can happen that your bird can start plucking and you have to solve the mystery so if you're not generally good at solving mysteries without someone flat out telling you what's wrong maybe these aren't the birds for you your bird could start plucking and it could be because you're waking him up an hour later or an hour earlier or putting him to bed at the wrong time you have to be able to analyze what is different in your household now there could be a new piece of furniture that you put near his cage and he doesn't like it these are all things that you have to consider before getting a bird do you really want a bird to be able to rule your house because that's really what it feels like you know we become slaves to our birds in a way not to say that I don't have some sort of control come here baby come here not to say that I don't have some control over the birds of course you know I'm able to make a schedule for myself and for the birds but a lot of my time goes into keeping the birds happy I can't get out of the house on a decent time it takes me a while I want to make sure that they've had their breakfast that they've had their lunch or that they're put to sleep or woken up or had some good time with me before I leave when I come back my priority can't be to go to anything else except the birds they take things personally we can't take things personally we're not allowed to take our birds personally and behave differently towards them that's the one thing I noticed about African grays African grays can be difficult when you're in a relationship because they often are one-person birds of course through socialization you can train your African gray to be more cordial with people but you cannot force your African gray to like somebody that person has to want to win over the African gray and has to really take the time and have the patience to do it so sometimes I hear about people who take their gray personally meaning that the bird is their girlfriend's bird or boyfriend's bird and the bird pushes them away and says don't come to me or don't talk to me or all sorts of things and those things sound so real you feel like a human is telling you so you're like fine okay the bird doesn't like me so I don't like the bird that's what happens guys these birds feel so human that sometimes people take them personally okay baby you can't do that you have got to treat the bird like this is a little soul that you are determined to convince that you mean no harm and you want to be its friend so that's something I would say to any of you who have a significant other with an African gray or any other parrot that doesn't like you it's your job to put all of that effort in and when I say that it could take a day or it could take a year I mean it I've had some comments on one of my videos where I say don't take it personally I was trying to explain that it could take a year or so so be patient someone commented my gray only took a day or my parrot only took a day and I'm like yeah that's possible too but what's more important is to let the people know that even if it doesn't take a week or two weeks or a month it's always still possible you just need a lot of patience and you're gonna have to put in that effort right baby one of my favorite things that Cody does and also George did is laugh at appropriate jokes it's so amazing it's almost like maybe we give off a vibe before that they know that we're going to laugh and sometimes it's just like their geniuses they understand everything that's going on and that can be a real argument breaker in the house if there's an argument going on you can tell that the birds will take one side or start getting excited to cockatoos will do that a lot another thing you should probably know about owning an African gray back on the subject of cuddling let me show you see he's kind of nippy we know that he loves me and he's obsessed with me you have to be prepared for that be prepared to get bit not all birds bite but a lot of birds bite every once in a while and it'll come out of nowhere and usually you could figure out what you did wrong but you have to be prepared to have a bird bite so that's another reason people talk about starter birds starting with small birds you go out and you get a macaw and it's the sweetest thing and then it goes through its hormonal stages and that big beak bites you what happens there that's why there's research and that's why yeah baby and that's why we have to get used to things Cody doesn't want to step up right now he's afraid of where I was gonna put him so he attempts to bite right Cody this actually doesn't hurt he's not really biting but he could and that's something you need to be prepared for you also need to be very intuitive when you own a parrot you have to know just like they know about you what they're going to do next like is he going to bite right now is he going to push me away I know but for the purpose of showing you guys I'm not afraid to let you see what it's like so for example step up Cody he's doing a good job of stepping up if I do it wrong oh you're a good bird if I do it wrong he might try to bite my finger right I know that so these are little things that you always have to know about owning an African gray now this is very hard for me to convey but when I talk about African grays passionately and how intelligent they are you all know no matter what bird you have they're super super intelligent they're more intelligent than probably you even expected them to be but owning a gray is like having a bird that's intuitive with your mind and what you're going to say and that's what's very fascinating having a bird that knows when I'm going to laugh knows when I'm going to cry knows when I'm going to move a certain way I used to breathe and go and George used to go all right because he knew that's what I was going to say and that kind of stimulation is very interesting and entertaining to me personally I love that they're observing every single thing that I do now all parents especially African grays need foraging toys why are we talking about foraging toys well they have to keep busy it's a really great idea to create forging toys to hide your bird's food so they have to work to get it remember in the wild birds are busy all day long they're looking for mates they're digging for food they're bringing food back they're regurgitating for the babies they're sitting on eggs there's so many things that birds are busy doing all day long in the wild so when we take a bird and cage it they get really bored as you can imagine we're talking about birds that have learned to speak any language that you want my African grays have learned to speak all of my other birds languages including English which is pretty fascinating right so it's very important that we do not bore our birds when you leave your bird in a cage he has to be left with a lot of things to do and in fact when you feed your bird it's a good idea to give him some work to do to feed him that is what a foraging toy is a foraging toy is a toy that has a mechanism of some sort maybe there's a dial that the bird has to turn and when he turns it his nut comes out things that the bird has to figure out before he gets his food but the toys don't have to have those kind of mechanisms you can make foraging toys at home you can actually take tubes and paper and things that the bird needs to chew and then suddenly he finds his nut and those things keep birds really busy and really entertained because that's what they would do in the wild is go through branches and all sorts of different things to get their food so we have to kind of figure out the best way to recreate the wild for them why are we talking about foraging toys because it's important to know that when you have an African gray you have to put a lot of work into keeping them busy you make one foraging toy for a few nuts do you know how quickly your bird can destroy it so you also have the job of creating these things all the time for your birds your bird could eat a toy in two to three days so how often do you have to replenish toys or if you enjoy making your own toys for your birds as I do I have a drawer just for beads and wood and all sorts of things that I can put together to make the bird toys if you enjoy doing that think about the time that goes into that versus the time it takes for them to destroy it you're gonna be pretty busy so these are some things you need to know before getting an African gray a lot about time how much time do you have to spend with your bird every day well for me personally it's every moment that I can I don't really sit at home and leave them caged I can't do it I have to find ways for them all to be engaged now you may just have one bird so that could be a lot easier and that's probably the best idea but even with just Cody Cody keeps me very busy if I take Cody into the bathroom with me to put my makeup on and get ready for the day most of the time I'm chasing him around oh no no no don't chew that don't get that I've moved everything that I can but Cody can fly so you have to be prepared for every single thing that you do regular daily routines to become a lot more difficult now although African grays tend to be okay with being just next to you for a little while maybe you can give them a toy Cody he gets himself into things he really does for example you guys have seen on my story time on my Instagram how Cody behaves he likes to go into the drawers he likes to play with things he likes to get at all my makeup brushes pull them out so a lot of my time is spent saying no don't do that put that back let me get this you know he doesn't care he wants to get the next thing that he can get that adds a lot of time but I'm not going to cage him up I'm gonna do my best to put him in an entertaining spot and give him an entertaining toy or something to play with I have boxes everywhere that I keep them with little things that I can give them to keep them entertained and Cody really enjoys that but still they get bored so every five minutes I have to give him something new so I just wanted to give you the real deal on what it's like they can be chill for a little while but they can also be very rambunctious like this bird climbs on my head about 40 times a day when I'm walking when I'm going to get some food when I'm making myself tea when I'm doing any normal task Cody flies lands on my head would you be able to deal with that when I'm telling you it sounds so cute and fun and oh my god imagine a bird landing on my head but what if you're just trying to get something done and you put him back and then he flies again and lands on your head what if he has like attachment issues like Cody does Cody's 100% an attached bird and a lot of birds get like that so that's something to consider George was a little more confident about our relationship he knew he was number one bird he was happy sitting next to me but not on me and I really liked that about him but as I said if that story is true this makes 100% sense and you could get an African gray or any bird like this I prefer African graze over cockatoos I love cockatoos because they're so cute and so cuddly and I love cuddling Jersey but you got to be really careful with cockatoos and not getting them used to too much cuddling because they need to be engaged so that is my perspective on owning an African gray all in all it's a lot of fun I love that bond intellectually that I have with Cody and the one I had with George do you see how he just went for my necklace you know your bird is going to beat the boss so that's something to be well prepared for but I really wanted to take you through a day with an African gray and just let you know things that you could expect things that are so much fun but also have their downfalls and also things that you may not have ever thought of and also put a light on them where you realize that things that sound fun may not be it's a lot of commitment to own a bird it's a lot of commitment to own an African gray just to keep them entertained just to keep them happy just to be the detective that figures out the mysteries of what is their problem that's something that you're going to have to do for a lot of years and again you cannot get a bird and get bored of it you cannot get a bird and assume that when it bites you it just doesn't like you and that's it that's wrong it takes a lot of training and on that note I should tell you guys if you know somebody that is an expert with birds or has a bird maybe you should ask them to go with you to get a bird before you get yours because it's important that you bond with your bird and not just get one because you thought this was the one that you like the look of or you want to own it's really important when you bring your bird into your home that you know this a lot of people ask me for advice before getting a bird and I tell everyone the same thing love him like he's your family member include him in everything like he's your best friend and respect him like he is your teacher and then you and your bird will be very very happy thank you guys so much for watching cody do you want to say bye let's say bye cody bye we really enjoyed this parrot tip Tuesday let me know if there's any specific birds you guys want to know about of course i'll go through all of mine first but if you have a favorite of my birds i'll do that video soon for you guys thank you guys so much for watching please come join parrot station on facebook that's our members group and the community I have for me to see your birds so come on and share them and follow me on instagram at marlene mcconan for the daily life of these babies you can watch them through my story time thank you so much bye