Right now Salty is.....

[Kentuckienne]

Oh, its totally my fault, I know that already. Its never the fault of the bird, right? I upset his daily routine and thats my fault for not doing it more often, so he is used to it. SO that means I need to take more car rides with him, and introduce him to more situations out of the house. With lots n lots of treats, which is the way to this little boys heart.

Hey, come down this way around Derby time, or for the annual Lebowski Fest, whichever floats your pirate boat.

 

[Rival_of_the_Rickeybird]

Wait, what, can parrots enter the Derby?????????????

 

[Kentuckienne]

Wait, what, can parrots enter the Derby?????????????

Down here, we train all our parrots to sit demurely on our heads as Derby hats. All day. At the world's biggest, loudest horse race. Oh, and we also wear them to Thunder Over Louisvile, world's largest regularly scheduled fireworks and air show two weeks before that so they can get used to the hubbub.

 

[wrench13]

Tonite Salty had me laughing so hard. I had to talk to my staff in China and Hong Kong on Skype, and they only get into their offices after 9 AM (9PM our time). So Salty is still up, but we had finished his training session early, and he had been fed and watered and was being nice and quiet hanging out on his chain. I dail up Joe Chan in HK and Yan Yi in Shenzhen and we start the meeting, on speakerphone. I dont know if it was the accent or the voices on speakerphone, but all of a sudden Salty starts getting... chatty. Not loud chatty but low Amazon speak, with the occasional Hello Salty thrown in. And as the meeting progressed, he starts to amp it up, until Yan Yi asks me if that is my parrot talking, I said yes its not his bed time yet. And Salty lets loose with one of his crazy maniac laughs and we all start laughing, which sets him off more, and sets us laughing even harder, and now Salty is in full Amazon robot voice ( where it sounds like 4 or 5 parrots are in there in his throat) mixed with laughs. We cant even hear each other now, so I have to put a stop to things and put him to bed.

 

[Kentuckienne]

So jealous again! I used to work for a small start-up, my region was "Asia" including lots of trips to Hong Kong & Guanjhou. Oh, do I miss the food, the building with the changing colored lights, the weird souvenirs ...I still have a pair of water buffaloes covered with what looks an awful lot like kitten fur. But that was a long time ago, almost 15 years...is there still a big breakfast/dining place full of old men with birds in bamboo cages in the mornings?

Is there a Chinese version of the pirate songs? Will you ever get the domain name back so's we can see if you are a real pirate or not? Ok, way past bedtime, sign off before getting too far off topic.

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Hey Al?? We all know that The Saltmiester is one smart little green guy..wouldn't it be a HOOT if you could teach the boy to say "hello" in Chinese..and maybe at one of your Skype chats he'd go blurt it out??

You'd have all of your over-seas buddies running out to buy Amazons (specifically yellow shoulders lol)


Jim

 

[Shine]

hehe... Just read through a bunch of this thread. Salty is quite a character! I'm gonna have to keep up with this thread just for my daily smile!

 

[wrench13]

Yup, the Bird Street in Hong Kong is still the same, I was there earlier this year.

Jim, Hello in Chinese is NiHow, and I saw a cockatoo there a few trips ago , in a restaurant that would greet the diners at the door with that. Made me laugh like hell, but everyone was like , 'well what do you expect a Chinese parrot to say?'

Shine - glad Salty's story made you smile. It's a privilege for my family to have him.

 

[GaleriaGila]

Shine,
Salty is kinda our All-American boy here: lettered in tricks, made the National Honorzon Society, earned his Parrot Scout patch...

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Shine,
Salty is kinda our All-American boy here: lettered in tricks, made the National Honorzon Society, earned his Parrot Scout patch...

LMAO!...Gail my dear...where do you come up with them,eh? Me thinks you have wayyyyyy too much time on your hands!



Jim

 

[wrench13]

Salty is so well manner it's kinda amazing. Oh he has his wild moments, like when I first get home, he can get so charged up, he forgets his bite pressure. And in the last few minutes before dinner, as he sees the table being set and food being brought over - that is NOT the time to play with him or offer scratchies. But once he settles down, he is happy to just hang on my shoulder, stick his beak into my ear and twitter to me, or play in my lap as we do battle or play peek a boo (his new game!) where i cover is whole head with my hand and ask "Where's Salty? Anyone seen Salty?". Or he will lie on his back in my lap and play with a bit of rag. He even plays a bit with my wifey and sons, but if I am home it's DADDY time!

His harness training has progressed a little too. Now I can get the harness on him pretty tight, and he will walk around the table. Still cant get his wings thru though - any tips from successful users of harnesses?

 

[GaleriaGila]

Well, you've seen his evil opposite in action. Maybe I should start calling the Rbird the anti-Salty.
Congrats on the halter progress... it's a matter of time!

 

[wrench13]

Gotta find some new tricks for Salty, he seems a bit bored by our usual training sessions. He rips thru the whole gamut of tricks in 15 minutes.
For those newbies who dont want to read thru the whole thread to get links here is one of Salty doing his rings.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oBwGIwo4SCU

 

[AmyMyBlueFront]

Al..we all know you have one intelligent green cookie there..heck I've seen it first hand! There isn't much I fon't think that little guy can learn and impress with..geez I mean to do taxes and change out starters..thats a feat in itself and now learning TRICKS?? The possibilities are endless!!


Jim

 

[Rival_of_the_Rickeybird]

Yeah, that blows me away. Is Salty even a PARROT? Okay, I stipulate that he's a parrot. But like from Mars or Utopia or someplace.

 

[Loko]

Salty sounds like hes living the life! For the wing thing, I would start by practicing getting him used to you touching them/that area. I start scratching locos cheek, and then make my way down to his wing, go under it (he will lift it a bit, and then once I give a few scratches in his armpit I am usually able to gently open his wing with his primaries in my fingers. Start slow, it may some time but it should work!

 

[GaleriaGila]

Here you go, Mr. Goodwrench.
He'll fly out tomorrow.
The background is white... my camera makes weird gray squiggles sometimes.
The eye is much more real-looking in person, with a nice sharp glint... you'll see!

 

[LeaKP]

What a great bird, Salty! He truly is amazing!

 

[wrench13]

Holy....! That is amazing Gail. Thanks so much.

 

[GaleriaGila]

My pleasure!