Living with a super-talented African Grey

A parrot that would talk, wasn’t on the list of ‘must haves,’ when Lisa and Eugene Conway first decided that they wanted to give a permanent and loving home to a parrot. But, once they had selected a young African Grey as their chosen species, they became excited at the prospect of teaching a bird to talk and planned how best to go about it. Now, nearly five years later, Red has an amazing vocabulary, and is still learning more each day!

Here Lisa tells her story and reveals how she and her husband Eugene ended up with an exceptionally easy-going, and super-talented African Grey.

Eugene and I are a married couple with no children, and had been thinking for a long time about getting a pet. We had both had birds when we were young; Eugene kept, bred and showed foreign finches, budgies and canaries, and I had a pair of pet budgies. So, we were unanimous in deciding that our chosen pet should be a bird.

We spent many months researching the different parrot species, to ensure that we chose the right bird for us. We read many books, asked many questions on Internet parrot forums, talked to bird breeders, and also visited a few pet shops to gain as much advice and gather as much information as we possibly could.

We both wanted a parrot that would come out of its cage, interact with us, and be part of our family, and a talking bird didn’t really cross our minds in the beginning. But, when we eventually decided that a young, newly-weaned, highly-intelligent African Grey would be the perfect bird for us, we both agreed that we would enjoy teaching him things to do and say.

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