I feel so heart warmed when someone tells me the number of animals they have, we have 4 cats, 3 soon to be 5 dogs & about 30 fish. We looked at Parrots, often wish I'd followed through.

It's a commitment. I know dogs are too, but parrots really need lots of attention. They expect to be constant part of the goings on, and will often choose one human as their "mate". They notice everything that is going on - if I'm making a sandwich in the kitchen where he can't really see, he goes "Tasty eh?".

We went for a species that is relatively quiet - some parrots are deafening. The first 2 years he only made his usual sounds. Then one night, as he was out of the cage, he flew towards my wife, and I heard her laughing. "Strange" I thought, why does she laugh? Took us both 3 seconds to realize it was him doing a *perfect* imitation of her laugh. Once the lid was off, he started talking more and more. The names of the dogs, the cat, laughs, coughs, giggles, kisses, "I'm a bit angry", the list goes on. We always talk to him in short sentences, and that's what he uses: not just words, but sentences, in context, with inflection (he knows or seems to know the difference between a statement, a request, and a question).

Sometimes, mostly late at night, you can hear him whispering. When you listen very carefully, he is 'rehearsing' every word and sound he knows.

But we also do call & response games with "his" sounds. I learned his language too, and he loves that. And like cats purr, he grinds his beak very quietly when he's happy & feels safe.

All that said, you have to learn how to "read" them. They can change very quickly, and when angry or startled they will bite, and you will bleed. After all, it's not a domesticated pet, it's a tamed-from-birth one. But in a way that makes them special.

(I'll stop babbling about our zoo after this one )

You just made my day

My two cats are camera-shy at the moment.

My land is visited by about 10 different kinds of parrots (not all at once).

Here are a pair of Rainbow Lorikeets. They came round to take advantage of the food hand-outs that I provide for the birds.

I've managed to attached some of the menagerie correctly & even captured a fish in the background. This was at Xmas when DB was away, I took photos of the animals, do you think I could get them to look happy ..... the oldest dog at the back nicknamed smiler always happy to smile, the other 2 sulking because daddy is away. The cats, well we all know cats.... although all our animals are pedigrees, all were rescued. Will be a bit strange when the Springers arrive, first time ever purpose bred & bought DDD. But the one they've just finished training has turned out a pearler. Meanwhile I'm still thinking of how to create a new, safe and secure dog run, springers are full of energy, very slim and can escape easily. Think we will have to enclose the right side of the house as we have done the left for the cats

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Those lorikeets are beautiful. We are lucky to live in parkland area and have birds a plenty. With it being magpie season & a fairly viscous one in WA this year with 3 children already attacked & one lost his eye we are quite lucky we have 2 crows who were born on our property 10 years ago, each year they come back and keep the magpies from the park over the road exactly there in the park, they don't dare cross crow territorial pathways. Quite amazing to watch. But I'm told magpies have long memories and if you give them a gift they will remember you, I gave gifts to our crows, hair for nesting (tons and tons of dog hair) and something shiny if you can. A golden piece of cellophane paper... never had any problems with them ever. The parrots come to the park across the road, never cease to amaze me how they all seem to come at different times.

Those are lovely pictures Pamela .

Douglas doing his jolly good batman impersonation when the sun has gone down & the neighbors back light throws it yo lol

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I like Douglas .

I found a picture of my two, snuggled up in their nestbox. The black one in Blackberry and the other is Waiwaiā (Maori for "beautiful").

Great animals, all of them. Nothing can look lazy like a Lab eh? Love the lorries too, as well as the kitties. Oh, and cats and cardboard boxes eh...

One other reason we chose the Senegal is that they are actually considered a pest in many African countries - they completely destroy crops in a minimum of time. And when I see how he attacks stuff, and with how much force, it doesn't surprise me at all. Put a couple of hundred together... eek. But at least that means they are not endangered or even "valuable".

One last anecdote: when we were going to get the bird I completely renovated the space he would live in, and opened up walls/the staircase/build an upstairs so that he would have a huge space and could fly 7m upwards. Took me weeks.

Turns out they don't really enjoy flying all that much. Sure, he will do a few rounds, but he much *much* prefers to crawl around/walk. When he wants to be on the other side of me when I'm sitting he climbs one leg, back down, up the other leg, and down again. Takes him 20 seconds. He could fly it in 0.5 secs, but he can't be bothered.

Oh, and he never goes upstairs unless we take him sitting on our shoulder.