Trained Parrot BlogParrot Wizard Online Parrot Toy StoreThe Parrot Forum

African Grey noise

Want to teach your bird talk? Learn about and discuss methods for training birds to vocalize and mimic different sounds on cue.

African Grey noise

Postby sgtpepper » Tue Sep 02, 2014 7:07 am

Hello,

We have recently adopted a 3 year old pair of CAGs . We are on day 5 with them and we are making progresses, they eat from our hands in the cage and they are used with our presence. The problem is, the male makes this extremely loud and annoying noise, and he makes it more and more often.
We cannot let them out yet, as they are not trusting us enough to step up, but hopefully we will manage to do so in the next days. Their cage is filled with toys and things to destroy, so I do not know if that would represent a problem

See the link below
http://tinypic.com/r/2duwkjq/8

Any opinion is more than welcome!
sgtpepper
Cockatiel
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 63
Location: Denmark
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Congo African grey
Flight: Yes

Re: African Grey noise

Postby Wolf » Tue Sep 02, 2014 8:23 am

I know that this may sound nuts to you, but the fist noise sounds like a question, sort of like " Hello ?" or " Is that you?"
The second noise sounds like a statement, and it may be what he calls you, like a name.

Listen to it carefully and compare it to this recording to see if it remains the same or not. If it stays the same it may be your name to him.
Parrots name their babies at birth the same as we do and they also have names for each other, these name remain the same and do not change, even if they learn to say your human name they will still call you the name they gave you.
They will call you if you leave their line of sight and they will call you if they want your attention or anything else from you. I always answer my bird when thy call me as I am part of their flock and they get worried if I am gone or if they can't see me.
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 8679
Location: Lansing, NC
Number of Birds Owned: 6
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal
African Grey (CAG)
Yellow Naped Amazon
2Celestial Parrotlet
Budgie
Flight: Yes

Re: African Grey noise

Postby sgtpepper » Tue Sep 02, 2014 9:11 am

Thanks Wolf for such a quick reply!:)
Do you think it's possible to be that kind of"call" noise, when we have them for only a few days?
Also, should we encourage it by responding? the truth is that we simply ignore it, but when it's too much one of us goes near the cage and explains him not to yell as we live in an apartment. that moment he stops.
but the first noise you hear he usually makes whenever we are at the cage, or whenever his mate receives treats and he wants some as well
sgtpepper
Cockatiel
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 63
Location: Denmark
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Congo African grey
Flight: Yes

Re: African Grey noise

Postby Wolf » Tue Sep 02, 2014 9:51 am

Well, my parrot isn't as good as theirs is but the first noise is a query as I said earlier, listen to it. Could still be the equivalent of the word hello, used as a question when you give a treat to his mate " HELLO? ( What about me? or Do I get some too?) This last part unspoken, but implied by the question, hello? In any case he wants to know if you are there for him.
Or the noise that he makes when you give his mate a treat could be a different sound but still sound very close to the other.
Now, when my birds call to me I do respond to them and they don't scream it they just do it loud enough for me to hear them. I also do not go to their cage or try to explain anything as that could easily encourage them to call louder and more insistently. They are accepting you at least as part of their flock and as such you are expected by them to remain in contact with them and to spend a large portion of your time together with them. They want your company and your attention.
If you let them out a couple of hours before their dinnertime, the chances are that in just a short time they will return to the cage for dinner all by themselves or by dark at the latest. they may not be able to tell you what day it is but they have a much more developed time sense than we do , provided that they are exposed to sunlight and most importantly the twilight that occurs in the evening, as this is when their internal clock is set and reset.
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 8679
Location: Lansing, NC
Number of Birds Owned: 6
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal
African Grey (CAG)
Yellow Naped Amazon
2Celestial Parrotlet
Budgie
Flight: Yes

Re: African Grey noise

Postby Pajarita » Tue Sep 02, 2014 10:22 am

Well, this is one of those rare cases where I don't agree with Wolf. I would not assign human meaning to tones of parrot's vocalizations because an ascending tone at the end does not necessarily mean a question as it does in human language. I'll be honest with you, I don't know what these vocalizations mean. I don't know if they are asking you for food or simply calling or maybe just talking to themselves but I doubt it's the name they assigned to you because, for one thing, parrots don't really assign names to other animals or birds, the only time they do it is when they name their babies. They use the name the other parrot uses for itself (which is either identical to the one the parents gave it or very similar -sometimes they tweak it a bit, just like a human would say his name is Mike when his parents named him Michael). So a parrot that encounters a second parrot he doesn't know will say his own name to him as a way of introducing himself and the second parrot will then use this name to refer to him. But the second parrot would not make up a name for the first one. Parrots do learn their human name and would call themselves this name but, sometimes, they get confused -like when a parrot says "Hello" first thing and people think the parrot is greeting them but, in reality, the parrot thinks that Hello is his name and he is very politely introducing himself (I have an amazon that says "Hello" when I start feeding and have not gotten to him yet because he thinks that's his human name so he is telling me "Hey, Hello is here, don't forget me" - and I have one that thinks his name is "Hi, Zachary" instead of just Zachary).

If the parrot stops making the second noise when you approach it or makes it when you are feeding a treat to the hen, then I would say that there is a possibility that this is his own name so why don't you try saying his human name to him? By the way, does he know his human name?
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: African Grey noise

Postby Wolf » Tue Sep 02, 2014 12:53 pm

Well perhaps I did take it a little far , but I have been watching my Grey and usually when it sounds like a question, she appears to wait for an answer as if it were indeed a question. Such as when ever I begin to put birds in their cage she makes a noise that sounds like it is a question and I answer it and she goes in her cage. Or when I am fixing food for them she makes a different noise that also sounds like a question and I answer her and she watches for a minute and hovers on her perch by her feed dish.
Perhaps the second noise is his name or something else entirely. My whole point is that they are intelligent and they have a language, different than ours and it is likely that a sound may just to draw attention to something and maybe not actually a parrot word I don't know as I really don't speak parrot. But again they are intelligent and so I do look for meaning to what they say and do. And although I am not attempting to ascribe human terms or emotion to them, it is what I have to work with when trying to explain what I see.
It is kind of like when the natives of America upon seeing a sailing ship for the first time and calling it a canoe with wings.
Any way intelligent being will for the most part act intelligently even though that intelligence is alien to my intelligence. I have seen a lot of shows recently, the past couple of years where scientists are studying dolphins intelligence and their sounds and are finding that their sounds create the same audio patterns as does out speech. They are also doing this with whales and are beginning to think that the speech patterns of any intelligent species will produce similar speech patterns. These shows were all on either the science channel or on discovery channel so maybe they will air again and I can write down the names of the shows in the near future.
But then ,Pajarita , when you describe the meeting of one parrot with another you describe the very same way that humans do the same type of meeting as you have both parrot one and human one saying their own name and then parrot two and human two repeating ones name and adding their own name. so you identified two names where as I identified a possible query and a possible name. Not really any difference, as in neither your example of in mine did we either one of us say this is what was said, but we both said that this appears to be what is happening in this particular instance. so you don't agree with it when I do this but you turn around and do exactly the same thing to refute me, so you accept it when you do it. That sounds a lot like a double standard to me and we really don't need double standards.
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 8679
Location: Lansing, NC
Number of Birds Owned: 6
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal
African Grey (CAG)
Yellow Naped Amazon
2Celestial Parrotlet
Budgie
Flight: Yes

Re: African Grey noise

Postby sgtpepper » Wed Sep 03, 2014 12:47 am

I have noticed that most of the time he makes the dinosaur *second* noise when the female starts singing. He kind of interrupts her.
He doesn't stop when we say his name, or "answer" to him.
It is quite annoying because he stopped singing at all, and those are the only noises he makes
sgtpepper
Cockatiel
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 63
Location: Denmark
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Congo African grey
Flight: Yes

Re: African Grey noise

Postby Wolf » Wed Sep 03, 2014 2:35 am

How much attention is he or they getting every day?
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 8679
Location: Lansing, NC
Number of Birds Owned: 6
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal
African Grey (CAG)
Yellow Naped Amazon
2Celestial Parrotlet
Budgie
Flight: Yes

Re: African Grey noise

Postby sgtpepper » Wed Sep 03, 2014 4:15 am

well we live in an one room apartment and these past days we have been mostly home. we sit with them approx 4 sessions a day and talk, give treats, give toys. now we give them treats by putting our hands into the cage . the male still sometimes gets scared by our presence , but the female is really sweet
so i don't think that is the problem:)
sgtpepper
Cockatiel
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 63
Location: Denmark
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: Congo African grey
Flight: Yes

Re: African Grey noise

Postby Wolf » Wed Sep 03, 2014 5:34 am

Well, you are probably right, but I am not there and so you are my eyes and ears into their world. This means that If I am to help then I must ask and will probably be wrong more often than right but can't tell until after asking.
At this point all I know is that your bird wants something and is trying to tell you what it is. What about food? what are they getting, and when ? Is there any left?
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 8679
Location: Lansing, NC
Number of Birds Owned: 6
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal
African Grey (CAG)
Yellow Naped Amazon
2Celestial Parrotlet
Budgie
Flight: Yes

Next

Return to Training Parrot Vocalizations

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests

cron
Parrot ForumArticles IndexTraining Step UpParrot Training BlogPoicephalus Parrot InformationParrot Wizard Store