# What we DON'T teach parrots to say. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 18, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-dont-teach-parrots-to-say/313033 "2005-07-18T20:37:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 8:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-dont-teach-parrots-to-say/313033/41 "2005-07-24T08:06:41Z")
Heh, this reminds me of the parrot owned by the family of a friend when I was in high-school. Her parents were kind of strict, especially her father (he was an uptight accountant type). She had a little brother who was, probably as a reaction to his dad, a bit of a little shit. Anyway, the little brother had been secretly teaching the parrot, I presume, because one weekend I was staying with them, and at dinnertime, which was all about everyone saying Grace and please and thank you and only speaking when spoken to, the parrot’s screeched utterance “Ah, ya fuckers!” could suddenly be heard from the next room. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-dont-teach-parrots-to-say/313033/42 "2005-07-24T14:25:45Z")
Some friends have a blue macaw that they feed warm food. So the bird now has all the sounds of the microwave down cold. It beeps to set the timer, it whirrs to cook the food, and it gleefully gives the “foods’ done!” beeeep-beeep-beeeep at the end. You can always tell when it’s hungry because it starts doing the microwave noises. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-dont-teach-parrots-to-say/313033/43 "2005-07-24T14:45:43Z")
My blue fronted amazon had spent his early years living with the elderly father of the police officer from whom I bought the parrot. Bo had the habit of muttering “asshole” and when you’d ask, “What did you say?” he’d reply “heh, heh, heh.” ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-dont-teach-parrots-to-say/313033/44 "2005-07-24T15:00:04Z")
I had two parrots when I lived in NY, and the Grey in particular was an incredible talker. He did the cat meows, the dog woofs, and all that stuff (doorbells, microwave sounds, etc), but my favorites were the Godzilla scream (which he got from the movie and would do just whenever the urge struck) and the dog call. You see, our dog Yoda is thick as a brick and I used to call him like this: “YODA! …Yoda!..YODA!!..DAMNIT!!” because he never came when I called. So the bird took to doing the exact same thing in my voice. It’s amazing how unbird Greys sound- He would also do a phone imitation- as soon as the phone rang, he would ring. And he would pick it up in my exact voice and say “Hello? yabbayabbayabba? yabbayabbayabba…” ect while I was trying to talk. So his worst was probably the DAMNIT! exclaimations after calling the dog. We tried very hard not to use bad language around him, as you never knew what he would pick up. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-dont-teach-parrots-to-say/313033/45 "2005-07-24T15:00:39Z")
Mine can say “Hello,” I’m a Pretty Bird," “Good Morning” and I am now teaching him “Don’t bite me, it hurts.” ---
**Author:** ![KRC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/45deac/32.png) [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-dont-teach-parrots-to-say/313033/46 "2005-07-25T05:37:08Z")
I once had a parrot who said “Goddammit” when he was hungry and “allright” when I filled his food tray. A couple years ago my male cockatiel got bored and decided to amuse himself by imitating the smoke alarm. (Smoke alarms beep when their batteries run down so that’s where the feathered freak had heard it.) I ran out of my office thinking the kitchen was on fire, only to discover that it was one of the cockies trying to get some attention. I yelled at him for a while, basically telling him the story of the boy who cried wolf. I don’t know how much he understood but he’s never repeated the stunt. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2005, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-dont-teach-parrots-to-say/313033/47 "2005-07-25T12:33:44Z")
My ex-landlord had one of those predominantly red, colorful birds. He had the perch next to the window and when people would walk by, the bird would say, “Nice Pooper!” ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-dont-teach-parrots-to-say/313033/48 "2005-07-28T12:46:37Z")
The Dope Speaks, the the very fabric of Reality conforms to our collective will! [BEHOLD! The saucy parrot in real life!](http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16064442-13762,00.html) We must use our Great Powers only for Good. ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-dont-teach-parrots-to-say/313033/49 "2005-07-28T17:50:10Z")
That’s great. Although I do think my suggestion would have been better for a bird to say to a lady vicar. Even better if you could train another one to say “I myself, cannot.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-we-dont-teach-parrots-to-say/313033.md?page=2)