Beignet the African Grey

THE NEED TO SPELL

2011-10-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

The other night Bob and I were talking about Beignet. She has been out of her collar for nearly two weeks without picking until she bleeds. That is a new record for her. It seems that she now understands that when she makes herself bleed she has to be in the COLLAR.

So...we were talking about her progress and what might happen if the collar needed to go back on and I realized that Beignet was listening to us. She knows the word collar very well so when I said it I had to whisper it to Bob. After I did we both started laughing. This is what you do with a six year old child. By seven they can spell.

We were also talking about the ways that Beignet understands languages. She knows body language, sign language, English, Parrot, and a few mechanical sounds. The actually knows two kinds of body language - hers and ours. That is a lot for an animal to understand and I am always stunned by her intelligence. Recently she has been learning the days of the week. Amazing!

BEYOND UNDERSTANDING

2011-07-31T08:33:00.000-07:00

I have an itchy red rash on my head that is hard not to scratch. Beignet has a similar problem with her tail and has had for sometime. She will pick at it until it bleeds. One night I tried to explain to her that she should not pick at her tail. I told her I had an itchy spot on my head that I couldn't pick at either. I showed her what I meant. Six weeks later I was sitting watching a movie and scratching my head :(. All of a sudden Beignet said, "No scratch head!" She was telling me that I shouldn't do that. Bob and I were both amazed at the understanding of action/consequence and the ability to convey what she thought to me. There is always a new surprise around the corner with her.

Oh, my rash is from a medication that I HAVE to take. Her problem stems from a fall nearly two years ago after which she had four surgeries. I think the area is numb.

PLEASE

2011-01-30T04:05:00.000-08:00

For more than a year we have tried to teach Beignet the word please. She has now said it one time. I was eating breakfast and in a hurry, so hadn't given her lots of bites. In a quiet little pleading voice she said, "please, more cracker:(" We had been saying, "More cracker, Please.", but even in this she used her own personality and put it in her own wording. How could I resist. She got more cereal.

The other day she said, "Step up, more kiss?" Of course I had to yield to that one too. She is such a sweet parrot and loving to the nth degree. She kisses us both good night and will even offer Google the cat a kiss, though he is wary of accepting it. Both cats are afraid of her, as they should be.

We are applying for a service dog for me to help in my balance. It could be from two to five years before it arrives, but we think it will help to prevent falls for me. They come trained to exercise on a treadmill. It will probably be Golden Retriever or Goldendoodle.

MORE CONVERSATION

2011-01-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

Recently Beignet has figured out how to request things that she wants. She will say, "Step up, cracker?" and that means that she is hungry. She is still in a collar and going to the feeding perch is difficult for her, so we always help her down. By learning how to let us know she is hungry, she is now eating more and hopefully gaining weight. She will ask, "Step up?" and that means she just wants some attention. I am careful to honor that, even if it is brief. If she changes the tone of her voice and volume, the same remark means she wants to play games.

Beignet also announces what she is doing such as eating, getting a drink or such.

A nightly practice of mine is singing a special song I made up for Beignet. We talk about what happened during the day and what will happen the next day. It is a way I have found to help Beignet feel assured about the happenings in our lives.

Recently I had to go by ambulance to the emergency room. By letting Beignet know what was happening before the medics came, she was able to be calm and assured about me leaving. I told the medics that she had a high IQ and that what was going on was frightening to her. After I came home we talked about it to her. I always ask if she understands and she indicated that she did. Using hand signals for words like understand has been very effective.

Beignet has also learned her body parts. She is very reluctant to have her wings, tail, belly, or feet touched, but she knows what they are. When trying to teach her the names of the parts I realized that nose would sound like "no's" to her, so we call it her nostril. I hold my finger up and ask her to show me the particular part I ask for. She is very correct in her answers. She now holds her foot up when I ask her where her toes are.

Her math skills are still impressive. She has learned the days of the week and I can ask her a question such as, "If I give you two seeds on Monday and Wednesday and Friday, how many seeds will you get?" and she always answers correctly. That means she understands the number, the word seeds, and the days of the week and how many are named. She is always surprising me with her intelligence. Her skills aren't strong in speaking, but her skills in understanding are phenomenal.

TOILET TRAINING

2010-12-20T02:10:00.000-08:00

This photo was taken at the Vet and isn't what her current collar looks like.

Okay, I know this topic isn't a favorite for people, but for the owner of a bird that likes to be around us throughout the house, it is a critical topic. Diapers are out of the question. When I first had Beignet come to live with us we began toilet training. When she would go we would tell her good girl, DROP! Now that she has been with us 5 1/2 years, the message has sunk in. I will ask if she needs to drop before she leaves her cage and most of the time she either will, or will try very hard. Either way she gets a verbal reward. I've taught her that there appropriate places to Drop and they include anything porcelain (not the kitchen sink) or on her perches or in her house. Currently I would rate her 95% toilet trained. It is so nice when your pet knows proper toilet manners.

Beignet doesn't like us to watch, so I back up and give her a moment and then I hear the tell tale sign, a dropping sound in her house. She is such a well behaved girl.

Today was bath day and I had to take her collar off. We have built a removable collar that doesn't constantly have to be rebuilt. She is an angel when I'm taking it off, and very well behaved when it has to go back on. I have the process down now so that I can do it by myself. Beignet LOVES her bath so we gave her time to preen her feathers before and after her bath. She was so happy, and didn't complain too bad when it was time to wear the collar again. She has finally accepted that this is a way of life and has become a happy bird again.

Our only problem with the collar is that it is a bit heavy and it uses her energy to wear it. She is woefully thin and we are eager to get it off her and get her fattened up. Despite her grueling year in a collar and with four surgeries, she is a light in our life.

COLLAR STILL ON

2010-03-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

My dear Beignet has been wearing a collar (collar of shame) since mid December (I think). At first she just chewed on it randomly. However, because she has such a high IQ it wasn't long before she figured where the collar came together and she worked furiously on that spot. It took her four days, but she got it off. She can now get the collar off in four days and sometimes less. That means a vet appointment almost every time. Bob and I are learning the skills to put it back on. She will be wearing the collar at least until the end of March, maybe longer. All of her tail feathers have to grow back in and be very healthy before we can take it off. Then it will be a careful watching time with me setting the timer to look at her and make sure she is doing no damage.

Beignet has been such a good patient the entire time, and seems to have held no animosity toward me for the things I have needed to do for her. To say it lightly, it has been a horrible experience for us both. She maintains her cheerful self and despite the fact that the collar prevents her from talking, she whistles to me regularly.

When Beignet is having something uncomfortable done to her at the vet she just relaxes her eyes and seems to leave her body so that she can get through the experience. It has been a revealing experience to see how well she does with these things.

She has had two surgeries and I have watched both. During the first one she quit breathing and there was a quick ER type episode of getting her breathing again. I was amazed at their efficiency. They said most birds don't make it when that happens but they thought that since she knew I was in the room she "tried" harder to live. I don't know, except that she started breathing and I quit holding my breath.

We went to Hawaii during this time and she stayed with the vet who has four birds, so Beignet had lots of company. It was the safest way to work things so that she could get immediate care if she needed it. I love our vet. She is absolutely the greatest and is always happy. She works really hard to make sure that the animals and birds she treats are always healthy. It is an avian and exotic animal clinic, so I get to see a lot of different types of animals when I go there. Fun!

IMPROVING

2010-01-27T00:44:00.000-08:00

Beignet is improving all of the time. The biopsy came back as severe staph infection. We have been treating her with antibiotics twice a day and pain medications twice a day. Yesterday we were able to stop the pain medications as she seemed to not have much pain. SHE HATES THE MEDICINE. Did I mention she HATES the medicine. I am at risk of digital loss when giving them to her, even with her wrapped up in a towel. She has nipped me a number of times and I have quite a few marks to show. I would be mad too. All of this came from a fall on December 10. We were unaware she had injured her tail and it wasn't until I came into the house from the garage and saw literally six feet of blood all around her cage and lots of it in her cage that I knew something was wrong (ya think...?) It scared me to death

Today for the first time since December 10 she sang. She hasn't been able to talk because of the collar around her neck and also because she has been so sick. For a while it was touch and go. The go part was twice a week visits to the vet (don't ask how much I've paid the vet). I was so afraid she would die and the relationship one has with a parrot is nothing at all like any other animal. There is conversation between you and your parrot both in words and in body language and it is intense. It is much more like having a child, even though I know she is not human does not mean that I don't know how intelligent and emotional she is.

So, we get the stitches from the surgery taken out at the end of the week (Beignet is counting down the days). She will still have to wear a collar for quite a while until the scab has completely come off. When we are in Hawaii the vet is going to be Mom for her and I think perhaps the ends of the scabs will be coming off by then and she will be able to keep good track of it.

Never in my dreams did I think I would have a relationship with an animal being like I have with Beignet. She is truly my companion. She knows how I feel and talks to me all of the time. She plays verbal games and catch the ball. She counts and shows me the colors of things. Parrots see the entire ultraviolet spectrum. I think the fact that she has an incredible sense of humor makes her even more "human". When playing ball she tries to make me miss it and is pretty crafty in being subtle about it. She sees the funny parts of life and comments about it. Parroting is not at all part of what she does. She talks - communicates back and forth with understanding. She understands hand signals when words don't quite do it for her. Most of all this last six weeks she understands sympathy and sadness. My heart aches with this because I couldn't protect her from it.

The good thing is that she feels better and is probably going to live now. She is feeling happy again with singing and I'm so happy for her.

SIGH

2010-01-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

I had Beignet at the vet two days ago. The vet had to do emergency surgery and thinks she may have cancer. What to do? What to do? I can't write any more.

OUCH TAIL

2009-12-28T21:09:00.000-08:00

By our calculations, about 10 days ago Beignet's perch was too close to the window and she stretched or something and touched the cord to the blinds and got bound up in it. We were there immediately as soon as she cried out. Though she grumbled about our handling her, she didn't bite and let us free her of the cords. I asked her if she was okay and she nodded yes. I was worried that something might have happened to her wing, so I told her I would need to put a towel on her so I could look at her wings better and her reaction to this was to raise her wings high and show me under them. It was the essence of saying, "towel not necessary, I can show you." True to parrot behavior, they try to hide any wound or illness. I came into the house after being outdoors for a while and there was blood everywhere. She had broken a blood feather.

We took Beignet to the Avian Emergency Room after the vet's office (who had no openings until the next afternoon) said that there are no blood transfusions for birds. She was still losing blood. She had a broken blood feather removed and they said she would be fine. The next day I took her to the vet anyway. She had yet another broken feather and her tail was terribly bruised. They took out the other broken feather and cleaned up another area and put glue (yep, that's right) in the feather follicle. They said she should be just fine now.

By the next morning it was evident that Beignet was still not doing well. She had periodic bleeding of the feathers and wasn't eating well and was preoccupied with preening her tail. The vet gave her some ointment to put on it. To say the least, Beignet did not like having this done. It took both Bob and me to get this done. By today it was pretty evident to me that she had an infection as she felt quite warm. To make a long story shorter, she had chewed away at the parts that hurt in an effort to relieve the pain, thus making the situation worse. She got cleaned up, disinfectant put on the wound and then antibiotic on the wound. She is taking oral antibiotic and has a very uncomfortable neck collar on (cone of shame for those of you who have seen UP) and still has to have the ointment put on her tail every day. She is one very unhappy parrot and probably will be until next Monday when we see how she is doing.

It is hard to see someone that you love be it human or animal be in pain. I do love this sweet, kind parrot so very much and my heart is breaking for her because she doesn't understand why she has this horrible thing on her neck. Being a sentient being, it makes it all the more difficult for her. Unlike a dog she actually thinks about what has happened. For those of you who read this I ask for your prayers for a speedy recovery for Beignet.

BEAUTY SALON

2009-07-15T00:46:00.000-07:00

Ms. Beignet absolutely loves a shower and never misses one with me. If I head back to the bathroom in the morning and forget to take her, I get a loud reminder that she has been forgotten. I equate it with a very loud clearing of a human's throat. Ahem! When we have finished in the shower I always use coconut oil on my body. What is left over on my hands I use on her beak and toes. She likes to lick it off my fingers.

The next to last time she got a bath her front toenail almost pierced my skin. I decided it was time to learn how to cut her toenails. Her trust level has gone way up and her understanding of preparatory remarks by me has gone way up. So I told her what would happen and then put a little hand towel on her, laid her on her back and clipped her toenails. She was a little angel.

The next time she had a bath, I once again put the towel around her, but this time she just got held and a head scratch. I'm hoping that I can acclimate her to being held in this manner. It is gentle, she gets a reward and it is something that can be done regularly.

As we near Beignet's (?) 10th Birthday on July 19 I realize that I will have had her half of her life. The other half was torment. When she came to live with us all that I every wanted to do for her was provide her opportunities to become who she can be and wants to be and to provide those opportunities in gentle and careful ways. I had no expectations of her ever stepping onto my hand much less allowing me to clip her toenails. She truly is an amazing parrot that has exceeded by far any expectations I held for her. She just needed to have a good nurturing home.

I count it an honor to have this parrot friend live with us.

DADDY

2009-07-15T00:40:00.000-07:00

Beignet has loved Bob from the first day she met him. It isn't just a tolerance, she really loves him, but in a much different way than she loves me. I am her caregiver, her love provider, and her primary person. I correct her and do most of the housework around her cage. Bob gives her veggies and fruit every morning, and gives her more crackers than I do. He was the one that listened for three hours as she learned to say "more". But, Bob doesn't have much physical contact with Beignet because he is concerned about the safety of his fingers. They do help provide the paycheck.

Tonight I was playing the "Step-up Step-Down" game with Beignet (self explanatory game). Since she was quite warmed up and feeling very friendly I encouraged Bob to come over, showed him how to hold his hand and asked Beignet to step up. She hesitated and didn't know if she wanted to, and then we adjusted his hand a little and she stepped right up. I was so proud of her. It was the first time she had gone to another person and felt comfortable. Bob was amazed. He has always used a dowel to pick her up if he needed to. This is a good start.

FIRST FULL SENTENCE

2009-07-15T00:28:00.000-07:00

Beignet has been quite busy learning words. We decided that it would be good to learn a word that allowed to use her other words to her advantage. "Want", provided the word and now Beignet says, "want more cracker", "want more water", "want head scratch", "want step-up". It creates a change in her life that allows her to effectively ask for things. "Want more" has become a favorite. It works for everything, but especially lovies.

Well, not one to be outdone by a human, Beignet listened very carefully time after time when I asked her by both signing and speaking to use her words. One night she had asked "Want more", to play a step-up game and I needed to do some other work. I said, "No, all done for tonight." A silence followed..............."I know WORD, step-up!". Well, I could hardly turn down that kind of effort. Well said Beignet.

A few nights later she was busy talking and she said, "I want more cracker." In all of its simple glory she said a complete sentence. She has called herself "I" for a long time and it came in useful to create her full sentence. Of course she got a cracker and of course I praised her and told her how proud I was of her.

Beignet has also become more animated since we have moved to this house. I really believe she likes it here. At first her cage was by two windows, but I think that was a bit much for her, so we moved her to a corner near one window. Now she has a quiet place to feel safe. She comes out onto her perch and watches the hummingbirds come and go (little birds we call them). She loves it. She teases the cats to come near her and then lunges at them. She is definitely queen of the animal household. Both cats are quite respectful and afraid of her.

Beignet has also met her new caretakers while we are on vacations or out of town briefly. Margo and Isaak come and pour love on her and she amazes them with what she knows and can do.

LIKES MY BROTHER

2009-05-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

So, my brother came to visit us and he was just a little bit timid about what Beignet might do to him, so his approach was hesitant. That set the mood for Beignet and she was a little timid about him. After he had been here for three days she had grown attached to him and his interactions with her. I asked her if she liked having him come to visit and the reply was a nod of the head, "Yes!". Then I asked her if she would like him to come again to visit and the reply was lots of head nodding. Having a good question and answer relationship with a parrot is a wonderful thing.

A couple of days ago Beignet said this without any pauses in between and at a rapid pace, "I love you sweetheart girl want more water step up." I'm not quite sure when she practices because I never hear the timed practicing. It must be done in her head. It was sure a rattle of a long sentence.

Beignet is growing in her abilities to be touched. Recently she has offered her wing to me to scratch and has begun allowing me to preen her pin feathers which are so itchy for her. I have been having her step up every time she gets a piece of food from me. It seems that this repeated contact has helped her to grow. She knows that I will put her back as soon as she gets the food and it creates trust. Parrots don't like a lot of change in their lives and trust is the one thing that is unchanging. Once trust is established it seldom goes away. I'm touched to have this amount of trust from a bird that was so badly abused by humans.

I LOVE YOU

2009-05-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

Last night when I told Beignet good night I told her about my brother coming to see me. When she was captive in her abused situation there was a bird that ended up named Jordan that she lived with for 1 1/2 years after her rescue. She was very close to him. I refer to him as her brother, because it is the only bird family she has. She clearly has fond memories of him. We talked about it for quite a while and I told her again that I had a brother that was coming to visit too. Then I said that I was so sorry that we don't know where Jordan lives. We were both very sad and she reached over and kissed me in her special way.

This morning as I was making coffee we were in our usual banter of "want more cracker" which is the Quinoa cereal I make for us. Then she sweetly said, "I love you,", which is not uncommon during this banter. I replied, "I love you too, Beignet." Then immediately without hesitation she replied, "I MORE!".

First I am continually surprised at her reference to herself as "I", and secondly I now understand the importance of discussing past events with parrots, especially Beignet.

I am beginning to lack understanding of what divides us from the parrot species in intelligence. Clearly they can think, reason, feel, and even wait for things to happen. They can understand future tense and they accurately understand all of their surroundings. They form attachments to favorite things. They can also have the same destructive vices that humans have such as smoking, overeating and alcohol abuse. The parrot version of this is feather plucking (used to, doesn't anymore), chewing on things, and screaming (doesn't much). They form long standing bonds and love with parrots and with people, and they are fairly tolerant of people they don't love. Here I speak only of Beignet, for she is the only parrot that I know. A new definition has to be forthcoming, as we are finding this with more and more animals. The definition of human in my world has changed.

BIG OUCH!

2008-10-12T19:16:00.000-07:00

We have been getting ready to move to our new house and that has included getting some carpet samples to look at. They were sitting up against an end table when we went to bed for the night. Beignet's cage gets closed for the evening so the cats can't bother her when we are not around. In the middle of the night I heard "CLUMP" and then a frightening flopping of bird and feathers. I sprang out of bed to check on Beignet and she seemed to have just been frightened, but okay. The carpet sample had been pulled over by one of the cats. I reassured her and returned to bed. The next morning when I went to open her cage for the day I was horrified to see flight feathers all over the cage. She had one flight feather remaining on her right wing. After many tender words to her I realized that all of her wing had caught in the slats of the cage and they had been traumatically pulled out. I felt horrible for her and knew that her wing must be bruised and hurting.

The very frustrating part of this event is that Beignet loves to have a daily flight around the house. She can't fly until she gets her flight feathers back (she lost the last one, too). On the positive side, she took a shower and two baths today. It seems the new feathers are working hard on coming in and she is trying to relieve them by bathing.

It is like having a child - this having a bird. They have a bad night and you soothe them, the fall and you kiss them to make it better. How I love this little gal!

MEMORY OF PAST EVENTS

2008-10-11T11:12:00.001-07:00

Beignet has the ability to remember past events and respond to them. I had my husband hold seven crackers and asked Beignet number questions about them which she answered correctly the first time with 100% accuracy. The next day it occurred to me that she might be able to remember that. I asked her different number questions about the crackers and she answered all of those questions correctly. These included subtraction and addition. At this point her math skills are only limited by my number of fingers, so we have begun work with an abacus.

Beignet also remembers old friends, Jordan and Isabo and remembers when she moved to our house. She also remembers her first trainer well and with great adoration. When she saw a photo of Kelly Balance, she kissed it and stayed at it for several minutes.

We had to be gone for a night to move some of our things from the house we just sold. We had explained that we would be gone "one bedtime" and that we would be back at the next bedtime. Beignet understands the passage of time well. Due to a situation beyond our control we couldn't return the second night, but the following morning late. Our neighbor said that Beignet cried all that morning. We felt horrible that she had missed us so much at our promised return time. We always leave adequate food and water for up to three days, and she had plenty, but she grieved because we had not returned. Poor baby!

I have begun to think that I have to treat Beignet as if she were a young child and assume the same type of responsibility for her feelings, as she has many emotions. I think it is easy to think of an African Grey as just a pet, but it is not so for this dear parrot. Her emotional level is higher than most Grey's and her intelligence level is that of a six to seven year old child. We are just beginning to tap into that intelligence.

BATH TIME

2008-09-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

When one brings an abused animal into their home the process of trust is slow. That has been the case with Beignet. African Grey's are not usually a cuddly parrot like some other parrots. They enjoy their personal space, and for Beignet that personal space is carefully controlled by her. I observe it and honor it. That is how trust is created.

For some time she has been cuddling my cheek and I have a hand sign that means cuddle to her. Once again, sign language takes down one more barrier for a parrot. They are keen observers of body language and this is a way to use that to my benefit. Last night when she cuddled with me she purred! I have never known that a parrot would do this. I heard her growl at a lady she didn't like once, but to hear her purr with affection was pure bliss.

Over the past two weeks Beignet has been eagerly coming for a bath. In the past I tricked her to get her to the bath, but now she looks forward to it, and is insulted if I don't offer a bath to her when I take mine. This is a great sign of trust on her part. Parrots need daily baths and she has always used her water dish for this. Now she does both. The fantastic part of this is that her feathers have begun to glow. All this from a parrot who was rescued bare naked.

MATH

2008-09-24T11:48:00.000-07:00

Beignet continues to grow. We moved to an apartment about 2 months ago while selling our house and finding a new house. One would think that would slow down the progress of a parrot. Not Beignet! When I told her we were going to move and that the cats would go in their "bye-bye house" and she would go in her "bye-bye-house" and we would all go in the car to a new house I was amazed at her understanding. When all was ready for her to leave her cage we said to her, "Okay, we're ready to move to our new house now. The cats are in their bye-bye house and we need you to go in yours." Her reply to this was in all new words in the form of a question, "In car?" I believe I referred to this in my last post.

In the meantime, we have been trying to teach Beignet the word "want". It is a functional word that will expand her ability to ask for what she needs. She has used it three times now, but seems hesitant to have it as a regular part of her vocabulary. She does, however, ask for crackers every single day. Low Salt Triscuits are her very favorite thing (along with sunflower seeds). They are relatively healthy for a parrot, but we limit her consumption to two crackers in a day. She knows how many she has eaten and how many are left and has started to stop asking for "more cracker" when she has had her daily two. Today I put five of them on my hand and asked her how many she could have in a day. She pointed to my fingers and indicated two. I asked her how many would be left if she ate those two and she pointed to three. I asked her how many would be left after she ate one and she indicated four. I am convinced that her addition and subtraction and counting is only limited by my lack of fingers. I'm now searching for a better way to communicate math to her. It occurs to me that an abacus would be a good choice. This mathematical ability is equivalent to six to seven year old children. I don't believe we have seen this complexity of math skills in parrots before. I will be checking with Dr. Irene Pepperberg for more information about this, as she is the founder of the famous Alex Foundation.

Until then, Beignet continues to learn.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN - MOVE?

2008-08-26T16:35:00.000-07:00

Beignet writes this post:
Dad has been going to school away from home for a very long time. I know that because he always says he will be gone a very long time. He comes home on the weekend and now I know how long four bedtimes is. I've also learned how to count to 10. Mom thinks I can count further and she is right, but her human limitations are 10 fingers and so that is all I can tell her. I can add and subtract, too. So while Dad has been at school Mom keeps saying we are going to move. She keeps trying to explain it to me by saying we are going in the car, but then she said the cats are going in the car too. I didn't like that idea until she said we would all go in our "Bye-bye houses". Then she said that is like when I moved here to live with her after I had lived with Kelly. Then she started telling me how many bedtimes it would be before we moved and since I know how long it takes for a bedtime, and I am an expert counter, I figured out that something big was happening. Well, the other dead give-away was that Mom kept putting things into boxes and she was really busy. Then the day came - MOVING DAY.

At a certain time when everything was gone from the house she said, "Okay, it's time to go bye-bye." I hadn't ever asked her a questions before but I said, "I...car?" Yes, she told me, so the cats got in their houses and I got into my house and we all went for a very long trip in the car. Dad drove the other car and very late at night we came to a new house. At first I was afraid because there are big black birds here that are as big as a hawk, but Mom said they were crows and they were okay and that I was safe inside my window. There is a place across the street where people pick up "paper mail". Mom tried telling me it was mail, but when she said "paper mail" I understood, because I'm really quick on the uptake. There are Mom's and Dad's and children who come and get their paper mail every day and also a big white truck that brings the paper mail. I'm beginning to enjoy my new home and especially our new neighbors Samatha and Nithia who are from India. Nithia wells bells on her ankles and when she wiggles it makes me happy. Mom says she is a baby and that our Aimee is going to have one of those too. Life is so exciting. I even get to watch movies at this house.

ONE SMART GIRL!

2008-05-12T01:07:00.000-07:00

Beignet has referred to herself as "I" for a long time. Now she has begun using begun using more words in her sentences. Instead of saying "I'm so smart", she says "I'm a smart girl". The evolution of her language abilities has been interesting.

Today as I talked on the phone Beignet carefully took all of the clips off her cage liner and threw them on the ground, thus releasing the liner papers. Then she climbed underneath the cage floor while hanging onto the bars and browsed through the tidbits that had dropped onto the lower liner. Once she realize that she might be stuck she worked through how to remedy the situation and finally pushed herself upside down onto the floor bars and strenuously pulled herself up between the skirt and the door. There is now now portion of her cage which she does not OWN! When we clean the cage she always tells us "NO!"

Counting continues to be a favorite of hers. She learned the numbers 6-10 with only two demonstrations. I believe she understands more, but I only have 10 fingers (which she touches to show me the number) so I'll have to find a new way for her to show me numbers. She can add and subtract (I think she knew this inherently as opposed to me teaching it to her). I watched some of the Alex YouTube videos and decided to try some of those ideas with her. In one session she knew how to count the number of one color in a collection of items, how to tell the difference between rock, wood, or plastic, and how to tell the difference between large and small. She is such an eager learner, but not a performer. She has to be in the right mood to do these things for other people.

Beignet keeps raising the bar for me. What to teach her next...? Something I think I'm the one that is being taught.

Every once in a while I think of the humble beginnings of this abused bird and realize how horrible it must have been for her with a mind with such great capabilities to be kept in such squalor.

HAWK

2008-01-08T15:02:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to get Beignet to allow me to touch her wing. She doesn't hesitate to let me do this if she is on my hand, but she doesn't like it if in or on her cage. She has been taught "gentle no", so doesn't bite to make me stop, but it has been clear to me that she really isn't ready to pursue this avenue of training. I'm willing to go at her pace. She has become much more cuddle with head scratches and face cuddles. One thing at a time is really best for her.

Beignet has been screaming with regularity since a few days before Thanksgiving. She saw the hawk that we captured and sent to the Audubon Society (it died after several weeks) and that began the screaming episodes. She has a genuine fear of predators. It has been a hard time for six weeks listening to her go through screaming attacks and ignoring them. Many times I want to say "Enough already!!!), but I'm doing my best to be a good parrot Mom and ignore the things I don't like. We praise her over and over if she sings something pretty, so that she can get the message "Scream, no attention; sing pretty, lots of attention". I did take time with her after we captured the hawk and we realized that the screaming had been about the hawk sitting on our deck. I explained to her that it made her afraid (using her hand signal for afraid), but that it had gone bye bye and wouldn't come back. When explaining things to her and using sign language, she is very attentive and I'm able to tell if she "gets" the message or not. She knows the hawk is gone, but she still has fears. The do circle high in the sky outside the three tiers (19 feet) of window and she is able to see them. Having one so close must have been terrifying.

GOOD MORNING

2008-01-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

When Beignet wakes up in the morning she makes little cooing sounds and then begins playing with her toys. As soon as she senses that I am awake she makes her little locating whistle and then says "Good Morning" in a cheerful voice. As soon as I answer her she says "More water: More Cracker!". When she first came to live with us she called all food related things "Water-Water", but then she learned to say "More" and "Cracker". She loves our low salt taco chips and she only gets two in a day. When I started giving her cornmeal mush for breakfast she instantly called it "Cracker". Now when I am making breakfast she constantly asks for "More Cracker!" Sometimes she comes to watch while I cook, but most of the time she prefers the safety of her cage.

I have been working with her in trying to get her to let me touch her wing. She considers this a very private and untouchable part of her. She has learned how to say a "gentle no" by pushing my finger aside. I began holding my finger still and asking her to touch it with her wing. Usually this is answered by getting a head scratch instead. Last night she gave me a firm "no" by biting until it was uncomfortable. This kind of action is always followed by my turning my back and walking away. When I came to her later I again asked her to touch my finger and this time as a first she said "NO". I responded by removing my finger from the asking position and told her she was a good girl to use her mouth to say no.

It constantly astounds me to live with an African Grey Parrot. They are so intuitive. I have always used a lot of sign language with Beignet and she responds very well to it. I don't use American Sign Language, but a made up language that is descriptive of the things she does. Sometimes she is able to reply with signs herself.

I LIKE CHRISTMAS

2008-01-02T13:32:00.001-08:00

Beignet thoroughly enjoyed Christmas this year. In this photo she is helping Bob to open his package. She was very talkative during our gift opening time and was thrilled to get to chew on the paper which is her favorite thing. Who needs a paper shredder when they have a parrot!

AFRICAN GREY PARROT BEIGNET CAN COUNT

2007-12-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

Beignet can count! We have had a number of things happen in our household where I have needed to tell Beignet numbers. I was sure that she didn't know what I meant, but I told her anyway. One day I got magnetic numbers and told her the names of them. I asked a pertinent question and she immediately answered with the correct response. I have shown her my hand with the five fingers and also shown her the magnetic numbers up to five and she always gets them right. I didn't teach this to her - she just knew about numbers. She constantly amazes me with her brilliance.

Our dear Beignet has also learned how to manipulate Mom. "I love you SO much - - - more piece of cracker?"

HOW TO ASK

2007-11-17T11:58:00.000-08:00

Beignet has made leaps and bounds in both talking and in her physical boundaries. First off, she has decided that snuggling once in a while is okay. She likes to come to the kitchen, the bathroom, and most of all my art studio. She has also established herself as ruler of the pack (two cats and a small dog). Yes, we are very careful about the cats and her cage is always closed when we are not present.

Beignet's newest words are "more", "please" and "piece of cracker". She has taught herself to combine them with already learned words and now says "more piece of cracker", "step up please", "more water", "MORE cracker", and when that doesn't work for a cracker she says "I love you...MORE piece of cracker". Manipulative little gal!

Among her other assets is the ability to identify 11 colors, to count to four and to understand the difference between morning and night. She has begun shape identification, but it is still an elementary thing involving getting used to the toys themselves. She has some mechanical toys that require her to do something and then she gets a tune or a sound for what she does. These are durable baby toys and she totally loves them.

Let me know what your birds are doing.

AFRICAN GREY PARROTS ARE SO SMART

2007-09-13T16:12:00.001-07:00

It has been a long time since I have posted on this site, but here I am after finding the appropriate password.
Beignet has gone from a timid bird who said a few words to an outgoing happy bird who loves people, wants to be with her people, and a bird who has learned appropriate touch.
Beignet's language skills are phenomenal. She now says over 100 words and has made many combinations of these words to create communication for her thoughts. She can easily identify ten colors and knows the difference between the capital letters A, B and C.
Probably the most amazing of Beignet's accomplishments has been her ability to describe herself as "I". Without encouragement from us, she uses "I" and I'm" appropriately whenever she is referring to herself. One of her favorite phrases is "Good Girl, I'm so smart!"
She loves to read the "African Grey Parrot" book and has about a 25 minute attention span when doing this. The other day she kept saying a word that I hadn't taught her. It took me a minute, but she was telling me that the birds were only pictures, not real birds. She said, "Picture" every time I pointed to an African Grey in the book. The brains in these birds is so advanced!
She misses her previous African Grey Parrot family and is always eager to catch a glimpse of a picture of one, or to see herself in a mirror.
The most endearing thing that Beignet says, in my opinion, is that she has named me "Heart Girl". The why of this is unknown to me, but I love it.
For all of you African Grey Owners out there, I encourage you to spend positive time with your parrot. The benefits are unending.

Adoption Day

2005-09-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

I'm Beignet and I've been adopted by a man, a woman, a cat, and I'm suspicious that there might be another parrot in the house. My story is long, the humans only know about me since March of 2004 when police rescued me from an insane hoarding woman's home. She had over sixty birds besides me. I shared a very dirty cage with 20 other parrots. I was so afraid that to pass the time I pulled out all of my feathers. It made me awfully cold. When my feathers were gone I didn't know what to do, so I began pulling on my skin and it broke. I was a mess. I'm really and truely a happy parrot, but I was so sad and afraid in that crowded cage. It was the worst kind of jail, and I hadn't done anything wrong.

One day I heard sirens (I learned how to make that sound that day) and police and some nice women came and looked at all of us and then I could tell that they felt very sad because their faces began to make water from their eyes. They sighed and then began the hard task of trying to calm all of us and take us away from that awful place.

At this point, I was so frightened that I don't remember a lot of what happened. What I do remember is that these two ladies gave me my very own cage. It was like heaven. They gave me my own things to play with and learned that I love to shred paper. My feathers slowly began to grow back as I relaxed. My wound healed up and for the first time for as long as I can remember I felt happy, except for one thing. I wanted - no needed - someone to spend more time with me and to love me. It was nice to see the people all day long, but I needed to feel touch and be close to someone. All of the other birds except one had been adopted. The two women talked and said that they didn't think I could go to a home because I had been so sick when they rescued me. They were afraid that I would hurt myself again, so I wasn't to be adopted, but to live at the hospital.

One day everything changed. A lady came to see the other bird. She told the women that she wanted an older "used" bird, one that needed a special friend. I saw her and my heart lept inside of me. SHE was the one I had been looking for. I did my best to let her see how much I wanted her. The other bird just sat there looking like a bump on a log and since my cage was right next to his, she saw me.....and then came to MY cage and talked to ME! She thought I was wonderful and I felt like dancing. I was at my best behavior and leaned towards her to show her how much I loved her.

The next day the hospital ladies talked a lot about me. The lady who had showed me to the new person told them, "You don't understand! Even though Beignet isn't available for adoption SHE liked the woman. She picked HER out!" Finally they understood what I wanted and they agreed to let the woman take me home after she took classes to know about me. She already had a cat trained to do dog tricks and a Parrotlet that could pick out colors, so they knew she would take good care of me.

The day came for the class and SHE was there. I saw her again and she gave me treats. I tried very hard to behave myself so she would really know I liked her, but this other parrot kept stealing the show. Even with that, she kept her eyes only on me.

Three days later when it was time for breakfast and cage cleaning, I was pushed into a treatment room at the hospital. THERE SHE WAS! It was the lady I picked out. She talked sweetly to me and said the word "home". I didn't understand. She stayed with me for a while and then the hospital lady went to the computer and the nice lady followed. I made my special noises and they didn't notice, and then I CALLED to her. They both held their mouths open and the nice lady came back and talked sweetly again and said "Good" and gave me a treat. After that they put my cage into the lady's car and gave me a beautiful blue blanket. The car drove a long way and then the lady began to say "Home" over and over. A good neighbor helped to carry me and my cage into her house. She lifted up the blanket and I knew in my soul that I had chosen the right person. She was smiling and talking softly and I saw beautiful sun shine and trees and smelled fresh air. This was what she meant. This was HOME.

All of that day we became used to each other. I tried some of my special calls and she liked them a lot. I tried to rattle my cage, but she didn't even notice. Later I said some of my special words like "I love you". She said, "Good Beignet, I love you too!" She gave me my favorite paper to shred and fresh food and water and a new bowl just for fresh fruit and vegetables. She also gave me a new toy. At first I was afraid of it, but she let me get used to it from far away and then moved it closer and closer until I knew it was safe. On the next day she put the toy inside my cage and it is now my favorite toy except for the paper. I am so happy here

By accident I bit her finger today. I was exploring her finger gently and forgot to be gentle. She said "Ouch", then turned her back for a bit and came back and I remembered to be gentle this time. In the evening I asked her to scratch my head and she did. It felt wonderful to be touched with love.

I like her special person man that she calls her husband. He is kind and gentle and he really loves her. When he comes near my cage he always gives me a treat and says "hello". In the morning time he exercises near my cage and I make quiet sounds for him.

I will keep on telling my story on another entry until you have heard all of it. Then my special lady will write more about me.

Beignet's Beginnings

2005-09-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

Beignet is an Congo African Grey parrot who was rescued with the help of the police department and animal control. She had been living in a small cage with 20 other African Grey Parrots, in a house with more than 60 birds in similar condition. When she was rescued she had plucked all of her feathers out and had begun to self mutilate her skin. She lived at an Avian Hospital for a year and a half after her rescue before she chose me to live with. This is the beginning of her story. She is making a remarkable recovery and is enjoying living with me and my husband, our other parrot which is a Celestial Parrotlet and our Balinese cat.

African Grey parrots live a very long time, sometimes up to 100 years. For this reason, I wanted to adopt a "used" parrot. I had seen babies and they were so cuddly and swee, but I am not a young person in the beginning of adult life, so I couldn't morally buy a baby. I wanted to live my life with a parrot who would not need a lot of owner changes.

I have a lot of experience training animals and the patience it takes to make them want to do different behaviors. For instance, our cat is trained with basic dog training: sit, lay down, lay down on the side, roll over, stop, no, up. Isabo our Parrotlet can tell colors and talks, though her consonants are unheard to my ears. I can hear the appropriate vowels when she talks. A Parrotlet voice is very high pitched, so it is uncommon to hear what they say. It is quite obvious that Isabo knows what she is saying.

I will attempt to post things that will be of help to others who are rehabilitating parrots, or who want to know different methods of training.

Your comments are welcomed.