#idk about African Greys but I know there’s some ethical concerns about owning certain birds because they’re too intelligent for the average

[reputayswift]

African greys are so smart and cool! I wanted one for a while but honestly the bird owner life is not for me. I will stick to cuddling my dogs and watching videos of birds on YouTube.

This is the one I’ve been watching! And I’ve been doing exactly the same thing 😭 It seems like having an African Grey is like having a child prodigy that’s stuck in its terrible twos for 60+ years (what I’d give for my dog to have a parrot’s lifespan though…).

It’s really fascinating how he tries repeating and classifying things using his existing vocab. Like when he was trying to learn “Shrek” he started out saying “red” or “shrock” (because he knows “sock” and “rock”), or another vid where he ASKED what the kitchen backsplash was made of and his owner said “rock?” and he smacked it with his beak and said “glass” because that’s how they’d been classifying ceramic mugs and bowls.

OH or how they taught him to say “Wario” when they held up a Wario figurine so now he classifies all plastic figurines (Shrek, Mario, etc.) as “Wario.”