Joey

When I was young, I had an aqua-blue parakeet named Joey for about 7 years. He was a great pet! He became a very tame and cheerful bird, and we let him fly all around the house. He would sit on my shoulder while I did homework or the dishes, chirping and singing the whole time. He learned to “talk” and while chirping and singing would intersperse phrases that he had heard me repeat and repeat, such as “Pretty bird, pretty boy, pretty pretty bird,” “Hello, Joey” and “But I’m not interested, Joey.” He had a total of 35 words, I once counted.

He was a playful bird, liking to talk to his mirror image, to hop on and off his swinging perch, to knock and ring his bells, and to pick up and toss around various small objects and bird toys. He liked to sit on the edge of a glass or cup and drink whatever we were having. Once he fell in headlong into a tall narrow glass, and I had to pull him out by his tail.

As I did with training of the pet grasshoppers (see earlier Wilbur story), I observed Joey’s natural behavior and tried to figure out how to make them into tricks. All captive parrots will reflexively step onto a stick or finger that is pressed gently into its chest. I noticed that Joey would put just one leg on my finger if I put it only partially in front of him. Thus I “taught” him to “shake hands.” 

For some reason, Joey really liked to sit on my finger with his head very close to my mouth while I talked and made various noises to him. He would do this for quite a long time. Once when I stopped talking or making noises, he gently nipped me in frustration. Thus I “taught” him to “kiss me.” Eventually he would peck several times until I started talking again. Apparently, the sounds I made were rewarding and reinforced the pecking behavior. Then it occurred to me that I could use this for a really amazing trick. I would say, “Joey, how much is two plus two?” and fall silent. When he had pecked four times, I would say, “That’s right, Joey. Smart boy, good boy, good bird, etc.” It really wowed my friends! I would tell them to ask me any math problem where the answer was less than ten, and I would pose it to Joey and stop talking and then start talking when he reached the right answer. No one seemed to figure out how this was done.

I made little hats and outfits for this poor bird, and I made a little harness and leash so I could take him outside. He would object, but put up with it. When I entered him in a school pet show, he won the ribbon for Trickiest Pet. 

Since we had never clipped Joey’s wings and he was a very fast flyer, he did manage to escape from the house and fly away for several hours, on at least two occasions. I was devastated each time, but he always came back, landed near our house, and chirped till I came and got him, putting him on my shoulder and taking him safely back inside.

I loved that bird and wish I had another one just like him.