If you are the owner of a parrot you will know how important it is to watch your parrot. Not 24/7 but be aware of his body language, his antics, games and general condition. Parrots can tell us alot about how they are feeling by the way they act.

Late yesterday afternoon I had a situation on my veranda which could potentially have been a disaster but thankfully needed only some encouraging words and time spent with a favourite person.

Sam, my husbands African Grey, started falling off his perch, at first I thought something major was wrong because he never falls of his perch, My instant reaction ran to seizures, liver problems, rust poisening, but instead of having a complete fit, I decided to watch him for 15 minutes..

My conure as I told you before, is known for his acrobatic skills in the jungle and even in his cage he shows these traits. He does the most incredible things and I encourage him. Sam the grey, has watched very closely the antics of Sprog my conure and at every opportunity tries to do the same.

Sam never climbed on Duncan’s shoulder until he saw Sprog do it with ease to me. And yesterday afternoon was no different, as I watched Sam, I had to laugh, there he was, big as he is, trying to get round a 360 tumble turn on his cage bar. When he could not get it to work, he simply slid down the bars and tried again. And so kept falling of his perch!

I waited for my husband to come home from work and told him about the highlight of the afternoon. He went straight up to Sams cage and started talking to him quietly.. ” come on Sam he said, you are not a Jenday conur, you are a beautiful African Grey”

This quiet chat which continued for a while was a delight to watch and when the chat was over, he took Sam into the lounge and put Sam on his play chair. Carried him to the bathroom as he usually does and ofered him tit bits from his plate. This had a very calming effect on Sam and so far typing Sam has not tried the whirly whirly’s again, and I have been watching for them.

It is very important that we watch our parrots. If the whirly whirly’s had been the sign of a physical problem I would have been right on top of it, we would gone to the vet and we would done some tests. But because I know what Sprog does, and what Sam tries to copy I was in the happy position of having a quiet chuckle and a good laugh with my husband.

As I have told you, parrots do not like to show illness, this in the wild would get them abandoned by their flock. So as part of their new flock we need to be able to read their body language….

Have fun watching your bird, keep on top of the problems and enjoy the chuckles they let us enjoy..