Years ago when my friends mother passed away, no one wanted her parakeet, so we took him. We figured he was around 6 years old when we got him, and we had him for about 5 years. So I figured he was around 11 years old before he passed on last fall. I didn't even know they lived that long..? Anyway, we sort of missed him, and in April we bought another one, "Petey No. 3." We didn't know if he was a boy or a girl since he was maybe 7 weeks old. Actually, he barely knew how to eat and drink. We had to give him water with an eyedropper, and hold seed in our hand just to get him to eat. Well, he turned out to be a boy. Since boy parakeets can be taught to speak, I thought I'd like my wife teach him. Since my wife talks non-stop, the parakeet picked up speaking fairly fast. Now I have a non-stop talking wife, and a non-stop talking bird... ugh..! My wife taught him two things to say, "Kiss-Kiss (then) three smacking noises, and Pretty Pete." After that he just started saying all kinds of stuff. We can't figure out how he did it..? He must have been eas dropping or listening to the tv. He whistles, makes the razberry noise, and says, "Pete Pete, Gimmie a kiss, Everybody kiss pretty bird, I'm you boo boo, That's funny Pete, and Petey Treats.... I'm going to see if I can attach a little video. If I can, he sounds fake, but it's not, it's really him talking. Oh, he's saying, "Kiss-Kiss...
I had no idea that male parakeets could mimic sound. #LearnSomethingNewEveryday
I had always heard that male parakeets could talk, but I have never seen one. The male parakeets have a blue, purple, or blueish purple nose. The female are dark tan or brown. When they are young their nose is pink, so you don't know what you are getting (which we didn't know). I told my wife it was more important to find a parakeet with a good personality vs picking one for it's color. I had heard that if you wanted a puppy, to take the puppy and lay it on it's back, and then aggravate the hell out of it. If it takes the aggravation and doesn't bite or attack you, it most likely will have a good disposition. We had to go to a few pet stores. I asked the girl if I could stick my hand into the big cage of birds. She said sure. When I put my hand in, all of the parakeets flew to the other side of the cage to get away from me except for one. He didn't seem to mind me at all, and he almost hopped onto my finger. I told the girl we would take that one. She was going to get a net to catch it, but I said, I bet he will hop onto your finger, which he did. He was most likely hand fed, and tame. That's what I was looking for. We only tried to teach him how to say Kiss Kiss, and when he was around 6 months old, he said it. Then we started on a second phrase. Everything else he has just picked up and added into his vocabulary. So if you get old and want a pet, he's fun to have and easy to take care of. Fresh paper in the bottom of his cage every two days, and add some water and seed. At the most it only takes about 10 minutes of work on the days I change the paper. He only has a couple of places he likes to sit, so we place some paper towels down in those places when we let him out. So far, he only poops on take offs and landings, so it's not like he's flying around and shitting every where. We place paper towels on our table with the computers, and we also place his playpen on the table too. He watches youtube videos, some times pecks on our touch screen and starts programs. We have some little cups that we put jingle bells in, and he love to play with them. He will grab toys and run all around the table with them. We haven't tried yet, but you can teach them to play fetch, and other tricks. I've taught him a few tricks, and I didn't even use treats. He just seems to respond to the praise. My wife wants to buy a travel cage, so she can take him with us on trips. Sort of like that little old lady in the Bugs Bunny Cartoons and Tweety Bird... haha
