Parrots are among some of the most intelligent animals I have ever lived with.
Many people think that they just
mimic things they have heard. However, Marley, the African Grey associates names or sounds with the appropriate animal or person. For example,
Lucy may walk by his cage, and Marley will say "Lucy, NO! Bad Dog!" (which unfortunately has to be said too often). However, Marley never says the same thing
when Merlin walks by his cage. Marley also mimics the various cat's meows, and again, matches the correct meow to the cat in his immediate vincinity. Ripley, the Gold Crown Amazon,
loves to sing "opera"...even though we rarely play this style of music (he possibly picked up some from various TV shows or commercials). He takes bits and pieces he hears, and combines
them to make his own "arias". The interesting thing is that the tunes he comes up with sound remarkably similar to arias we have heard while away from the birds.
Louie, the Green-Wing Macaw, is very friendly to most people. He has a little bit of a tendency to nip, or grab at clothing, but this goes along with his personality which can only be
described as impish. In fact, his favorite thing to say is "Stop It!" which he hears when HE is teasing our younger daughter when she goes to play with or attend to him.
Marley prefers men...even though he was hand raised by my wife. His favorite person is Willis, and he likes me quite a bit, but only tolerates Diane.
He likes attention, but is not very fond of physical contact. Even his favorite people get bitten once in a while out of his nervousness (and he bites HARD).
Ripley prefers women, especially Diane, but he usually lets me pick him up and hold him without being very agressive. Even when he bites, it is more
show than anything...he rarely bites hard enough to even break the skin. Ripley loves physical contact, and allows himself to be held close to your chest where he will bury his head.
I refer to all of these birds as if they were male, but we are not sure of any of their sexes since we have not had their DNA tested (the care is the same for males and females, and
we are not breeding the birds). If I had to guess, I would say that Marley is a female and Louie and Ripley are males, just from the way they interact with the opposite sex.
All three birds are omnivores, and can eat just about anything they want except for avacado or chocolate. They love potato chips, french fries, peanuts (in the shell), ribs, and just about any other food
with a high fat content. Ripley and Marley are a little picky about what they will eat, but Louie eats just about anything. He looks hilarious when he eats spaghetti and sauce. They all have very long life-spans (80-100 years or more), and barring accident or illness will probably outlive both Diane and myself.
