Have your parrots renamed themselves??

[apollosparents]

Reading a post about nicknames made me have to ask this question. Our oldest Blue Crown; Ozzy decided to rename himself a name about a year after he was born. The weird thing is, it is not a word we use regularly and there was no one but us taking care of him at that time to teach him the word.

He calls himself Scoop. He doesn't just say it, he means it as his name. He says the following:

If I say who is a bad baby? He says Crash..
If I say who is a good baby? He says scoop.
If I say, who wants a Nummy Now, he says Scoop wants a Nummy Now.
If I say Ozzy directly to him, he says Scoop everytime. Really, everytime.

I guess he didn't like his given name but I wish I could understand how he made up his own....

[Natacha]

Well I have a similar story.

My parents took in a few rehomed birds. The first one though was an African Grey. The lady who was selling him said his name was Chucky when I asked her, although she hesitated for a while and didn't sound convinced. The lady was purely a bird swapper (would get them cheap from people who trusted her with their loved pets if they couldn't keep them anymore and sold them for a hefty profit and kept them in deplorable conditions until she did). Anyways, Chucky we called him until down the line he decided his name was Coco. He would refer to himself as this and actually started saying a "full" name, by adding our family name at the end of Coco.

Mind you, it could have been that at one point he was named Coco - we'll never know.

[Ticoisagoodbird]

I really enjoyed reading the question and the response, I don't have anything to add -- Tico hasn't renamed herself as of yet.

However, I did notice that when she wants attention, she says "Tico, Good bird. Goooood bird." I think she is starting to understand what "good" means, as I will give her something I know she will like...peaches, a bit of peanut butter (I think I may have my husband's understanding that she can only have a bit of that each day), blueberries with Cabot yogurt (one of my favs)...and I will say "Good!", and occasionally she will say "Good!" back (as she sinks her parrot beak into whatever deliciousness I have offered).

My 17 (almost 18) y/o daughter, who Tico used to be great buddies with (until puberty hit Tico) tried to get Tico to do "UP UP" today, and Tico leaned waaaay back on her perch. I told Rachael something like:

"Tico is going through puberty, I've told you that. Don't take it personally"

"When is it going to be over?"

"I don't know, why don't you tell ME?" **knowing glare**

"Oh, Mom"