Don't Break That Door!

Arua

Our first Congo African grey parrot was a crusty male rescue parrot named Corky who spoke little in the way of understandable English. However, one of his few phrases was: Don't Break That Door! He liked to slam his cage door shut, so he probably heard that quite abit in his short life. After Corky died from cardiac arrest in 2006, we acquired another Congo African grey. This one a female named Arua.

Arua Upside Down

Arua also likes to slam her cage door shut. However, she didn't say Don't Break That Door! So, as homage to our beloved Corky, we decided to train Arua to say: Don't Break That Door!

Arua easily picks up the words and phrases she wants to pick up. You Done Yet? I Want Apple! Watch Your Tail. I love YOU! Go poop. Come here missy. Tara, Tara, Tara, TARA! But year after year she refused to say Don't Break That Door! Even though we constantly repeated that phrase to her.

Recently, we heard a couple of garbled words that sounded strangely like Don't Break! Although at first it sounded more like What Break.

As we listened, and as Arua practiced the words, Don't Break became more and more apparent. Success! Now we just need to get her to complete the phrase.

Corky