Parrot Post

I have a native Brazilian currently staying for a month. He speaks very little English and is a vegan so I've been lurking in the relatively uncharted waters of the nut and cereal section of the health food shop and adjusting my shopping lists to supplement his staple diet of rather unappetising-looking extruded pellets with acceptable items such as sunflower seeds (which have to be rationed apparently), pumpkin seeds and peanuts in the shell (for treats) etc. Our purchase of fruit and vegetables is also now driven by our visitor - we are eating an awful lot of raw broccoli, celery, pomegranates and bananas! In addition to being vegan he is unfortunately allergic to avocado pear, chocolate, alcohol and anything with caffeine in it so we are not quite sharing cosy chats over a cup of tea or a glass of wine!

He arrived just under ten days ago with a fair bit of luggage and things have been exciting ever since. I'd only met him twice previously which is not much before having someone to stay for a month when all is said and done!

As you may have guessed, my visitor is not a human one!

"Hello, Raffles!"

He's a green Amazonian parrot whom I am looking after while his owner is in the French Alps for a month. His name is Raphaele, "Raffles" for short. And life with Raffles is nothing if not lively. When I first met him he took a fancy to my pearl earring and proceeded to nibble it to see if it turned out to be some kind of seed. Fortunately he decided the offer of a peanut was better. He then perched on the back of my collar and investigated behind my hair-slide, presumably to see it there was any livestock there or if I'd squirrelled a cache of parrot treats there for his delectation. Although the result (in both cases, thankfully!) was negative, he accepted a proffered piece of fruit, faute de mieux, and decided he would adopt me temporarily.

I've done cat-sitting before - fairly straightforward. I've also looked after a neighbour's chickens - again fairly straightforward. Parrot-sitting is a whole new (and not entirely risk-free) ball game! All the literature and, believe me, I have read a lot in the last ten days or so, insists on the importance of parrots being trained to "step up" and "step down" on command.

On H's shoulder before shoulders were deemed out of bounds as too risky for the owner of the shoulder!

This enables good quality and safe interaction with said bird, when out and about on the loose, rather than contained in its cage. And parrots need "time out", as in "time out of the restrictions of bars and cages". (Don't we all?) So far, so good except that Raffles has not been taught these two commands and so interaction out of said cage has been fraught with a certain amount of peril. Thanks to a "parrot jacket" by which I mean a singularly expensive, English wool, man's tweed jacket, trimmed as a result of Raffles' attentions, with a number of tufts and fringes it did not originally have when new, which was thoughtfully supplied by his owner to save my clothes from going the same way, I have escaped serious blood-letting but never have I been so thankful for the sheer, dense thickness of good quality traditional English tailoring. I still bear the marks of several bites from a week ago which were delivered through the material of the sleeve when trying to dissuade him from pulling my hair and destroying my hair-slide! Parrots, like small children do not like to be thwarted from what they want when they want it!

But parrots are mighty quick learners and Raffles is as smart as any quick-witted three-year old. A week on and he has learnt that my shoulder is a no-go area - too close to my face and the apparently irresistible lure of my hair-slide for comfort. He now sits happily on my forearm for conversation, a snuggle if he's in the mood and any treats that are going, as well as a base from which to take off and return to when having a fly round the room. I hear my own voice echoed in his imitation of conversation - seriously weird, I tell you, to hear what you say being imitated and repeated by a parrot - and work 'phone conversations, when he is being chatty, can only be conducted by the judicious application of choice morsels of chilled celery or banana slice bribes! It's a whole new take on life, living with a parrot and despite the initial teething (ha ha - apologies for the bad pun!) problems of behaviour I shall miss him like nothing else when he goes home. He greets me when I come in. He says goodbye when I go out and when I'm in the house but not visible he keeps in touch by calling and chatting just to make sure I am there. When he is feeling affectionate he is utterly endearing and melts my heart every time he puts his head against my hand for a snuggle. I have learned more both about myself and about him than I ever thought I would when I took this on. As is so often the case when one takes on looking after and loving an animal (or bird) for who he or she really is.

"Time out" for good behaviour!

 One of his most entertaining habits is to carry on a conversation with himself which seems to include an enormous range of elements overheard and imitated from human conversation - whistles, chuckles, laughs and high and low pitched voices. I will try and get a little video of this to upload but he likes to do it when he knows he's not being observed so it's not easy to get it on camera.

Parrots, apparently, are like elephants and never forget, so any mistakes their carers make are indelibly marked on their memories - I am sure I have made plenty of mistakes with Raffles (hopefully nothing too major but I have had to learn what goes and what doesn't) but the fact that his crest still rises on seeing me and he never fails to give me his own special call of welcome every time he sees me says to me that parrots may never forget but they can also forgive the odd inadvertent error!

"Who's a pretty boy then?"!