# Very Embarrasing Parrot Problem



## zach_sutton (Oct 23, 2008)

Hello,

I am a new member in a rather sticky situation. 
Myself and indeed my whole family are keen church goers. We pride ourselves for being upstanding members of the local parish.

The minister of our church is a passionate animal lover. Our children enjoy nothing more than visiting his residence to see his pet parrot. 
Sometimes when he is visiting other areas or is on holiday we look after the animal for him. We do not have pets of our own and the children love looking after it.

Unfortunately my brother has also been staying with us. 
I say unfortunately because our personalities are polar opposites. He apparently thought it would be hilarious to teach the bird some rather crude words.

Frankly I am amazed that he manged it in such a sort amount of time.
He must have a real knack for it. If only he could put the same effort into something constructive!

In short, I need your Help!
how can I encourage the parrot to stop saying the new words? I don't like the idea of punishing it, as far as it knows it is doing nothing wrong.
But, returning a beloved pet to a man of god, only to have it blurt out some very rude and offensive words isn't acceptable. I am really starting to panic!

Our minister is NOT the kind of person that will see the funny side of a situation like this.

please, Please, PLEASE
Do you have any advice?

thank you for your time.

-Z Sutton


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## scosha37 (Feb 24, 2008)

Oh dear.... am glad the minister did visit my house when i had my Parrot 
i honistly dont think it will stop it now it may forget for a little while but if its been recently it will say it more to really get it right they change all the time my bird was a very notty boy he would say things that really wasent nice......oh not by us by his prev owners and wich told us he only sayed 2 bad words.....more like 22! but we never reactide to it but yeah it was embarrising sometimes when certain people came to visit us 
If you really dont want him to speak when he calls cover him up but am not saying it will work 

hope you get it sorted soon


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## Guest (Oct 24, 2008)

my parrot says lots of noughty things sometimes you only have to say it once and they will repeat it im afraid you cant do anything once hes learnt it he wont forget.the gas man came he said thats a nice parrot zuki replied with p... off


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## Guest (Oct 24, 2008)

Wouldn't worry about it myself - Maybe the minster will find it hilarious(fingers crossed). If he ever mentions it I'd just say - yeah we rescued him and he came with a few bad habits we have been unable to break!!!
sorry can't be no real help
regards
sue


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## tinamary (Aug 17, 2008)

I think you should ignore the bad words when he says them. do not react or he will think he should say it again.
If you want you could always reward the good words he says with food and not give him any when he swears, it won't take long for him to realise what is going on and he will stop it.
Or when he says something you don't like answer him with a word that sounds similar but clean. He will then repeat the clean word eventually.

I studied animal behaviour and we had a grey at college, the students taught it alsorts. It was really crude.


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## Freebird (Sep 12, 2008)

Oh dear, yes a Tinamary mentions.

Don't give him any reaction to the bad words or try to get him to say something different instead. Then as soon as he says the words you like reward him. 

Sadly this is the only way, what ever you do, DO NOT PUNISH HIM! This will lead to all sorts of behavour problems. Also do not cover him, this will not help either.

If he gets a reaction from people when he says these bad words it will just encourage him to say them more.

It's so sad when people teach parrots swear words etc, it makes them very hard to rehome as people don't want birds that swear. I find it very upsetting and all your brother has done is hurt a poor diffensive bird by doing what he has done.

Sounds like the parrot you look after might be an African Grey, they can pick up words very quickly only after hearing them once.

Good luck!


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## zach_sutton (Oct 23, 2008)

Yes he is a Grey.
He is a very nice bird indeed.

I will try to teach Him some new words that sound similour to ones that he is saying at the moment. 

The trick is finding new words that sound similur and also fit together. 
so far I have... and please bear with me.

Please do not read the next few lines if you are easily shocked.
thank me off (does that work? I can't think of a context that I would ever say that.)
big fits
fat chock

I still have 8 words that I need to discourage. I obviously will not post them into a forum. 

I just don't know if this is going to work.
I have three days to put this right.

It really would be a last resort, but could I swap the Bird?
As far as I can tell all parrots look the same. (obviously I would keep to the same breed if possible)

You may be please to hear that my brother has now left our residence. Unfortunately we practically came to blows over the matter. 
He just doesn't understand we don't share the same morals!
He once lived with a Pilipino woman for 6 months. He actually had the cheek to insult my wife before he left. (she suffers from a speech impediment)
I have a good mind to report him to the authorities. 

Thank you to all of the people that have replied to my original post. I will try to act on your recommendations to the best of my ability. 

-z


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## Tasha (Sep 23, 2008)

eerr if he loves the bird he will notice a difference Im afraid as I see it you have two choices

1.... Apologies and explain your brother has over educated his bird and work with him to correct the problem

2.... Lie through your teeth do several hail maries and tell the minister your brother went to bed and left the tv on a sky channel and the bird took full advantage of something that was on in the night

good luck


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## zach_sutton (Oct 23, 2008)

Success! I managed to get him to say a new and more importantly CLEAN word!

he said "Let me see door knockers", Instead of... well I am sure you can guess. 

I came home from work at lunch time and spent the rest of the day repeating it over and over. I feel a real sense of achievement. I am very proud of myself and major. (that is the birds name) The minister is a huge fan of fawlty towers.

I am afraid to report that my wife has taken the kids on a weekend trip to her sisters. She said it will help me to focus. However I suspect it is because every time she passes the cage it is rater like walking past a building site on a hot day.
I think we will all look back on this one day and have a good chuckle. 
(that or I will kill the blasted thing)

I feel like it is doing me the world of good to vent my frustrations (and also joy) to this forum. I hope nobody minds me doing so. I will try to keep you updated as we (hopefully) progress. I do not feel as stressed as I have felt over the past few days. My eye twitch has all but stopped. 

Thank you to all of the people that have offered their support. you have been a real help to me in this troubling time. I would be very grateful for further encouragement and advice. I am not out of the woods yet. (far from it)

Thank you so much for your time my friends. 

-Z Sutton. 

p.s

I still am finding it hard to come up with alternative words for some of the crude language. Due to the nature of the problem I wouldn't dream of posting the offending words onto a forum. However I could email them to anyone that as a gift with language and is willing to help.


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## zach_sutton (Oct 23, 2008)

Oh my, I have just read my last post.
I hope you all know that my off the cuff remark about the ending of majors life was most defiantly a joke. I would never harm a living animal!

I also forgot to supply my email address. 
[email protected]. thank you.

-Z Sutton


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## 3333 (Nov 2, 2008)

I guess the most important step to un-learn something is to ignore it. This will help teach the parrot that saying that word will not do anything good.

When it says the word, maybe you could turn around or walk out of the room. This isn't really punishment, and will probably have not bad effects. But it may be effective in stopping it's behavior.


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## Chelocoonz (Sep 6, 2008)

I have a congo African grey who is gorgeous ..he talks for britian and says loads of things but never says anything naughty as yet, if he did I would just ignore him and hope it goes away ..I must say when I read what you had written I have never laughed so much in all my life ,I wouldn't worry to much .My neighbour is a vicar he can swear as much as the next man and joke around:wink: they are not as stuffy as we are all lead to believe .:wink:


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## lizward (Feb 29, 2008)

zach_sutton said:


> Hello,
> 
> I am a new member in a rather sticky situation.
> Myself and indeed my whole family are keen church goers. We pride ourselves for being upstanding members of the local parish.
> ...


I rather suspect this might be a wind-up but it is truly funny!

liz


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## rottiesloveragdolls (Nov 2, 2007)

*If i were you i would try to change the word for something else as i no where your coming from with thins as my son tought my african parrot to say turkish tart  to my sister in law who is indeed turkish  although she see the funny side of it i didnt think it was a nice thing to say we ignored him to start with but thought as it was a new word he would say it all the more  so in the end when ever he said it we would reply NO and then say Turkish Smart, he did change his saying eventualy  *


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## Searyan (Aug 9, 2008)

Yeah punishment is not possible anyway lol I`m afraid it wont stop saying the words, the only option is to teach it another new word that will hopefully delay the guy hearing the rude words lol I find my parrot won`t stop saying new words all the time ! its her latest thing ! until you teach her a new one, then you might not hear the one before for a good while.


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## Colliepoodle (Oct 20, 2008)

I can't believe anyone is replying to the OP as if it were genuine


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## Searyan (Aug 9, 2008)

Yeah I thought it sounded thoroughly made up lmao


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## Chelocoonz (Sep 6, 2008)

It most certainly makes you wonder if he was genuine as he hasn't been back on here as he ..


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## Sarahnya (Oct 27, 2008)

lol "let me see door knockers" real or not it's a very funny post.


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