Vinny shows off 4 years of personal growth

Vinny came out of his egg on January 1st, 2012. That makes him 4 years of age tomorrow! Congratulations to Vinny of course, but also a time to reflect on how he is now.

And we can be short about this, he's doing great. The past year Vinny has gone through a big molt that lasted almost half a year and he has learned new words and phrases. Like most parrots, their talking/whistling/mumbling is usually triggered by some kind of background sound. Could be a tv, could be music playing, or could be people talking.

In Vinny's case, we noticed that he often laughs along with the audience when we are watching a sitcom. Or he starts whistling when he's waiting for a shower and I'm in there whistling a song. By now he knows part of the Addams Family theme song. And apparently he has picked up on the snoring sounds I make, since he had a few sleep overs in our bedroom recently. Wonderful (ahum) ...

As you can imagine, he constantly brings us lots of joy, usually when he surprises us with his wit and smarts. For example, he often shows his cleverness when he's downstairs and says 'Wanna go upstairs?', yet when he's upstairs with us, he sometimes utters 'Wanna come downstairs'?

And of course he's gotten better at saying the things we've been talking about before. 'Go Poopie' is still one of his favorites, and when he wants/needs a shower, he usually lets us know by saying 'Shower?'. That in itself is not new, but he did progress from 'ower' to 'shower'.

I'm dreading the day he'll fully have outsmarted us!

Now, I know what you're thinking ... is this all we get? An update on this blog once a year? That's it? The simple answer is No. As you may or may not know, Vinny has a Facebook page and by now over 2,100 friends and strangers are following him. Amazing, isn't it? Vinny has done some posts during the year, and there will be more stuff on this blog in the year to come. That's a New Year's Resolution for 2016.

For everyone who's curious on how Vinny sounds and what he looks like, here's a 3 minute YouTube video compiled from pictures that have appeared on this blog and his Facebook page, accompanied by an edited soundtrack of Vinny talking and making sounds. We were able to make a 14 minute recording of Vinny and edited out the boring/silent parts, which left us with enough material for a video. So here goes ...

And after this there's only one more thing left to say ... 

Happy New Year, and lots of luck, happiness, success and love for 2016 !!!

Vinny has the Winter Blues

It's early March. Vinny turned Two not long ago. And Vinny has the Winter Blues.

A while ago he was still fine. He was talking, chatting, showing many many signs of happiness, playing, learning, he just picked up the awesome skill of whistling, and did I mention talking and chatting?

He would just sit there at the top of his cage, especially around sunset, he would just talk away, go through his whole vocabulary in all directions and especially when stimulated, he would whistle. We had this thing where I would do a simple 2-tone whistle (high-low) and he would repeat it. Sometimes this went back and forth over 10 times. Always followed by laughter from both Vinny and me.

During our morning showers, we would have complete discussions about anything that fits his vocabulary.

But now?

It's gone. He lost his mojo. He still does all the same things, being cute, showing signs of happiness, playing, communicating, but sans the talking and whistling. One day, about 3 weeks ago, he just stopped.

All he does now, is make short sounds. Like humming, but a bit higher pitched. Sometimes he does it in an asking way, sometimes just to give confirmation. Like someone just saying 'uh-huh' instead of 'I agree'.

Actually, come to think of it, it stopped around the time when we were giving our bathroom a big overhaul. We used a lot of chemicals and the bathroom had a very strong swimming pool odor, so obviously the bathroom was not a very healthy place for a parrot. We had to put showers on a hold for a little while.

After the smell went away, we gave it a few more days and an extra, very thorough, hose-down. And this week we have resumed giving Vinny showers in the morning. Yesterday he uttered a half-baked '.. come out' or something, but today he's back to uh-huh and uuuumm.

Of course we did our usual Google sessions, where we tried to figure out if other people have dealt with this before. And people have. Apparently it's a pretty common thing for a bird to stop talking, and we read a million and one reasons for why it could happen. But you know... everyone's just guessing, no final answers or studies on this behavior.

Our advice:
Don't google this particular problem. If the no talking persists and if your parrot shows other signs of trouble (depression, physical signs of illness or injury, other very strong behavior changes), just give your vet a call.

Vinny has been and is as happy as a parrot could be. He's affectionate, playful, trainable, he's been eating well, need I go on? He's also not going through a hormonal phase. No molting, no biting, etcetera. In fact, now that he just does the humming thing, he's actually more communicative. Vinny has just stopped using words.

So what is the cause, in Vinny's case?

No clue. But we suspect that it's just a case of the Winter Blues. Lack of sunshine and thus vitamin D12 deficiency, like in humans? He has been sleeping a bit more than usual.

Although the Dutch Winter of 2014 was extremely mild, we haven't had a lot of sunshine. It's been a pretty dull and grey winter. And today, this weekend, is actually the first weekend of beautiful weather. This morning Vinny had the longest shower in quite a while. He kept asking for more by fluffing up, spreading his wings, the usual. And now he's been sitting in front of the window, in the bright sunlight.

Maybe it's an instinct to look for natural light? We like to think so, and this has also confirmed another valuable lesson for us ...

Vinny Is Sunbathing After A Shower

Watch your parrot's behavior closely. Be a true bird whisperer. Just read the signs, weigh them, and draw your conclusions. Don't panic. Discover what your parrot's sad, neutral and happy sounds are. "It's elementary, my dear Watson!", as Sherlock would say.

We are not worried. We are confident that he will be his old chatting self soon enough!

Word!

Vinny takes a shower

Hello everyone, just a quick note with some Youtube action here. Well, actually it's just audio, but at least you get a pretty picture of Vinny, sitting on his custom-made shower perch. 

Vinny has been pretty vocal from the start, but he's getting better and better. Any hissing sound, he still has trouble with (f, v, s, sh, etc). Lucky for us, that excludes some profane words. But the words he does speak, he gets much clearer in saying. 

Well, practice makes perfect, right? Almost every morning he gets a shower, together with me. First he gets his 5 minutes of cold spray (he doesn't like warm or even luke warm) and he sometimes really digs in, spreading his wings and all. After that, I take my shower, and he sits there talking. 

Earlier this week, I took my new Samsung Galaxy S4 phone (Woohoo!) with me in the shower and recorded some audio, while he was quiet. You won't hear me, just the shower and Vinny. Mind you, this is unedited and there is an inherent danger of getting bored! Just skip back & forth as you see fit. 

(in case you can't see embedded video: click here)

One thing you may hear him say a lot, is Go Poopie. Also see the previous post on this blog, "Vinny talks dirty!" But you might recognize some other catch phrases. I pointed out a few in this video (make sure captions are on). Can you discover more recognizable speech? Please feel free to leave comments!

Oh, and while you're listening to Vinny, have a look at some random pictures of Vinny (see below, fresh from the last week).

Till next time!

Vinny sitting on his small cage in our office

Vinny in the shower, on his special perch (pvc pipe, stainless steel screws, vet wrap, no glue)

Again, Vinny on his small cage in the office

Vinny checking himself out, while trying on some jewelry

Monthly weighing session. Right on target! (420-430 grams, ~15 oz)
ps. yes, he pulled out the button on the right!