Our Cure For Habitual Screaming! Sort Of

[Allee]

I have two talking Quakers, if they are awake, they are rattling on about something, in other words they seldom shut up and I never ask them too. If the Quakers are quiet, they are up to no good or plotting something evil. They talk to me, they talk to any human that will listen (most humans will freeze in place and listen intently when a parrot speaks directly to them, Quakers know this), they talk to the dogs, they talk to the wild birds, they talk to mirrors, they talk to their food....

Poppy is jealous of the Quakers' language skills. The Quakers try to teach her but it usually ends in frustration for Poppy and rude laughter from the Quakers. I feel bad for Poppy, I love her awkward speech and after all she's setting herself up for disappointment by trying to compete with such accomplished speakers.

Poppy was taught to scream by her former owners, we have been trying to undo their training with great success. We gave her other options, a piano and a guitar, she loves both and plays them daily. We get a little sick of her piano favorites, Mary Had A Little Lamb, No Place Like Home, The Wheels On The Bus, I think the dogs know the words to, Old McDonald. The Quakers sing along to any and all music.

Poppy has screaming relapses during hormone season but she has improved drastically. I think part of her success is simply peer pressure. When she flips her switch to wide open and lets out a jungle call that could give neighbors in a three mile radius a migraine or sudden heart failure, the Quakers feel an intervention is required. Sammy says, Stop It, or Stop It, Stop It, Stop It! Harry imitates a baby crying or a duck quacking or a Yorkie barking or if she's really irritated, a cat or a car alarm. Nine out of ten times, the Quakers' intervention is successful after Poppy's first yell.

Poppy is a good natured girl, she has learned to entertain herself rather than sit on her perch and scream. She still loves noise and sings to herself (and everyone else) a lot. I made up a bedtime song for her and she sings her own versions as she makes them up. She refers to herself as Pidey (my fault) or Pie (her fault, she came up with that one on her own).

All day today she has been saying Bop Bop Bop Bop Bop Bop Bop, and what sounds like, Fry Pie. I have no idea where the Bop Bop came from and I have no clue what she's trying to convey with, 'Fry Pie', is she ordering a fried pie or does she think she deserves to be fried or maybe she means, Fly Pie? I like the last one and I admit I have said, 'Fly Poppy', a lot recently.


A favorite snack toy and a little guitar music

 

[Bundiibird]

Hello beautiful gorgeous Poppy. I just love when your mom tells stories about you and your wonderful flock member. Millie is just like your Quaker family members and Bundii can relate to your way of doing things.

Many happy squawks from Bundii & Millie.

 

[RavensGryf]

Look at that cute, sweet face! Oh the eyes! Allee, it must be fun hearing your Quakers talk, or at least never a dull moment!

 

[Dinosrawr]

I'll never get over how sweet Poppy looks. Every time I see a picture of her my heart just melts. And I couldn't help but laugh at her nick names... I can just imagine her with the sweetest look yelling "PIDEY!", hahaha! Cockatoo voices make me giggle either way. They're like toddlers... you basically have to be the parent to have any clue what they're saying, but anytime something comes out of their mouth it just sounds so cute!

It must be a tad chaotic with all that chatter though. Shiko talks up a storm to hear his own voice! I can only imagine the chatting him and the Quakers would get into if they had a nice round of strawberry smoothie and some nutriberries to snack on. The things they would say! [emoji33]

 

[Allee]

Awww, thank you! Poppy is a lot like a toddler in more ways than one, haha.

Julie, those eyes get her out of trouble quite often.

Chantal, I love hearing parrots talk but I guess I take their chatter for granted, after a while it's background noise, then someone will remind me how cool it is to live with talking parrots. Poppy's language and the Quakers' language is so different. Quaker talk sounds eerily human and it's in context. Poppy sounds like a two year old learning to talk but she has the sweetest voice. I understand most of what she says but occasionally even I don't get it. The quakers get excited and mix phrases sometimes, for instance, Sammy stated, 'Harry is a good dog', of course I cracked up which caused him to repeat it several times.

ROFL at the thought of Shiko, Sammy and Harry having a snack and friendly conversation.

 

[Scott]

It's pretty clear to me from Poppy's face she can do no wrong!

What you need for Poppy's benefit is the proverbial Universal Translator from Star Trek. Would help her process Quaker English to Umbrella English as well as the inevitable chatterings we perceive as gibberish.

 

[Christinenc2000]

I would love to see a video of them

 

[Siobhan]

Rocky's talking is pretty bad, too. He'll sit there and talk and talk and I don't understand word one. All I'm able to understand is "hewwo" and "ah wuv ooh" and a garbled version of "whatcha doin'?" (Jade puts him to shame with hers -- she's as clear as a bell on that) and something that could be "how are you?" but might be another attempt at "I love you." He WANTS to talk -- like Poppy wants to talk -- but it's apparently not a easy for a 'too. Rather than cutting back on his screaming when Quakers are talking and whistling, it makes him worse, and when he starts screaming, they start squawking and the dogs start planning ways to leave home. As much as 'too screaming hurts my ears, I think it hurts theirs more, poor babies. All I can do is apologize. LOL "It's not exactly my fault ... okay, yes, I brought him into the family, so I guess it's my fault, but I didn't TELL him to scream."