Introducing Chester the Rainbow

[chestersmum]

Hi everyone, My name is Katya, I am new here and I wanted to introduce myself and my baby, Chester.

Chester is a Rainbow Lorikeet and he is about 6 months old. We got him when he was only 7 weeks old and he was soooo cute (and still is). He was just starting to pearch at that stage and he would get up onto a pearch but he would forget to hang on and he would slowly let his grip go and get the wobbles up and fall off.

From day one my husband and I have been doing word association with Chester. We started this in the hope that one day if or when he does learn to talk he might be able to tell us what he wants. We don’t care if it doesn’t actually happen, but it would be interesting if it did. We have been quite consistant and although he doesn’t talk properly yet we ae making progress. He makes sounds that sound like words (only a mum can understand!)

This is what we work on...

Up - When we want him to step up
Poopy - Used for toilet training
Good night - When we go to bed and turn the lights off
Good morning - The first thing we say to him in the morning
Thank you - When we give him somthing ie: food or toy
Scratch - When we give him a good scratch on his head

He learnt ‘up’ within the first few hours after we got him. He is semi toilet trained and will get all jittery when he needs to go and he tries to say poopy. He will also poo on comand, but we still have accidents. Good night and good morning get a bit confused and some times when we turn out the lights he says good morning! He has only started saying thank you the last week or so and it is only when we put new food in his cage, however thisafternoon he tried to eat food out of my mouth and said his little thank you sound (maybe I should teach him please as well!). We didn’t try to teach him ‘scratch’ he picked this one up by himself, we obviously said it when we scratchen him, but we didn’t intend to teach it to him like the other words.

We also do it for places in the house, so if he wants to go somewhere, or we want him to go somewhere. These include...

Kitchen
Bed (as in bedroom)
Couch (as in loungeroom)
Outside
Hammok (for when I am going to the hammok and he is aloud to play in it)

He has mastered Kitchen, couch and outside.

I have also been doing it with food and drinks, so that when he does start talking he can tell me what he would like to eat or drink. Everything gets put into 1 of 4 catagories and we repeat the word when I put each infront of him or he is actually eating/drinking it, these are...

Food - Wet and dry, anyhting not F & V
Fruit - All fruit & veg
Water - Plain water only
Juice - Nectur, juice or any drink that is not water, including water with his vitamins in it (cause it tastes different to plain water)

If I put fruit in with his wet mix he will pick it all out and put it in his fruit dish and he gets cranky if I mix his juice and water dishes up!!!

He is a beautiful little boy and he is smart. He loves playing and rolling around on the floor, but he loves cuddles with mummy and daddy too! He was hand reared, actually the egg was hatched in an incubator and the only other bird he has ever seen was his sister and they were seperated when they were 7 weeks old. So he has a very strong bond with myself and my husband. We have no children yet, so he is our little baby, we treat him like a human child and he rules our life!!! We are Assistant Managers at a Resort on Fraser Island, Queensland, Australia and he gets on great with all of the staff. Most birds only like one or two people and they can be quite agressive with others that they have not bonded with, but Chester loves anyone and everyone, especially if they have shiney earrings or a bushy beard!!!

Anyway, that’s a general introduction of Chester.

Both my husband and I have kept a few types of Native Australian birds, mostly babies that have fallen out of trees or been abandoned by parents, and the occasional sick or injured one aswell. Chester is the first bird that we have obtained from a breeder. We wanted a baby that we could keep, not just help get stronger then let go (although that can be quite rewarding). I don’t claim to be an expert by any means, but I do have some extensive knowledge, especially with Rainbow Lorikeets, so feel free to ask me questions, I'm happy to help where I can, I’m sure I will ask some questions myself.

This is a photo of Chester the day we got him...


And these are photos of him taken a few days ago...




I think this is enough of an intro now...I’m sure I’ll be chatting to you all quite a bit.

Katya

[ROYJOY]

chet is very beautiful.

[Tommaso]

Chester is such a beautiful bird. Love his colors. He sure is lucky to be with such a loving family.

[Abby]

Hi Katya. Chester looks fantastic. I'm another Aussie with 2 rainbows Pip and Olly, both complete ratbags and love them for it. Olly has quite an extensive vocab (most of it swearing) whilst Pip doesn't get a word in. Pip is lying on his back screaming at his feet while I type this. Don't know what his feet did wrong to him today.

[Anony]

ChestersMum is named Katya! Hello, I'm also very new here and have a red-collared lorikeet in the family who has the same hobbies as Chester :) Jack could learn a few things from your Chester (in the behaviour department)! We adopted him as an adult so wondering if you can teach an old lorikeet new tricks (shhhhhhhh ... Jack can talk and I wouldn't be surprised if he proves that he can read by next week).

[MaryG1959]

Welcome your bird is gorgeous!

[rainbowlorry]

Hi Katya, my boyfriend just signed us up to birdboard very recently. I am amazed at your progress with teaching Chester to talk. We have an eight month old Rainbow, Koko, and he just sounds like Daffy duck when he gets chatting.
I was wondering, how many hours a day do you have chester out of his cage? Does his mood alter if you don't let him out as much?
Does Chester have any aggression issues toward you or your husband?
I have so many questions to ask people on this forum so i thought i'd start here.

[swanwillow]

Oh, how sweet... I should do word associations, so far Blueberry just swears, says step when she wants me, and yells Matthew.. and mumbles other various stuff (I THINK shes saying I love you and come here)

I didn't get her until she was past weaning by a few weeks, how scary and fun for you! I think she was around 12 weeks when I got her. She's a green naped vs what you have (which is AWESOME LOOKING btw)
Welcome!

[Heather_Bird]

Hi Katya and welcome! I'm Heather from NZ (but I hope you won't hold that against me! ) and I've been breeding rainbows for quite a few years now. Chester looks lovely and I applaud your attempts to try and get a meaningful conversation going with him. If it's going to happen, it's going to be with a lory!! They are the most intelligent little birds you could wish to meet and I am still in awe of my lot.

My pet male, Tui, has a fairly good vocab now and certainly uses his words in appropriate situations. If the dogs appear when he is out of his cage he screams "OUT, OUT!!!" and out they go! They are all petrified of him anyway. My little Scaley, Squirt, is nearly as good and we regularly hear him say "Bugga!" when he drops something.

Looking forward to hearing more about Chester and his progress.

All the best,

Heather

[Banshee]

Its great how much Chester knows already! He's beautiful. I have a lorikeet too. Its funny how they seem to pick up swearing so easily, most lories I've met swear like sailors!