sacc51
26th October 2015, 06:09 PM
When I was living in the territory I was given a sulphur crested cockatoo. He quickly settled in and spent very little time in his cage, he followed my everywhere and whenever I stopped he would stand on my foot. In the workshop he would perch on the drill press or the lathe or any other machine I put him on and nuzzle by head. Over time he picked up a few words (not nice ones) and tended to copy entire conversations between the wife and myself, couldn't understand a word he said but his voice would rise and fall depending on which participant he was copying. He flew off one day and I received a phone call shortly after from someone wanting me to come and collect George, seems George was walking up and down his street yelling obscenities. On another occasion when he flew off he was missing for a day or so, couldn't find him anywhere until I walked past a bush and heard a heap of obscenities coming from within, I put my arm in and George jumped on real quick - couldn't wait. He never flew off again, must have been a scary night! Just before we moved overseas and I had to give him up he started making strange noises, we puzzled over them for a while until we discovered he was copying my machinery, bench grinders, lathes, cut off saws and the like. We also had to change his name to Georgina when we gave him/her up - what a surprise. Incredible pets sulphur cresteds, extremely affectionate, but by crikey are they destructive and noisy...