Bird lovers flock to adopt parrot who is 'rated R, parental advisory required'

[question everything]

Animal shelter employees were enjoying a rare quiet moment in the lobby when a yell came from a room designated for small animals: “Shut the f--- up.” Four employees looked at one another in confusion. Then the shriek came again. The culprit? Hendrix, a blue-and-gold macaw who came to the shelter the prior month, surrendered by his longtime owner. The cursing only became louder after that late-May afternoon.
Chantelle Rogers, administrative assistant at the Forever Paws Animal Shelter in Fall River, Massachusetts, was tasked with writing a blurb to help Hendrix get adopted. She opted for honesty.

Thousands of people shared the post, which got traction for its candor and its humor. The next day, the shelter received a windfall of about 60 adoption applications, prompting employees to close applications that day. One person was soon selected, and Hendrix’s new owner took the parrot home June 21 after hearing the bird curse a few times.

Rogers said the first person who popped into her mind when she saw the colorful macaw was the late singer and guitarist Jimi Hendrix. But many of Hendrix’s feathers were missing on his roughly 3-foot-tall body and 40-inch-wide wingspan, Rogers said, probably due to malnutrition.

The shelter mainly houses cats and dogs, so Hendrix was the only parrot in a room with a few rabbits and a guinea pig. Hendrix was initially scared of people, shaking when an employee approached his cage. The shelter bought Hendrix an extra-large Chewy pineapple toy that employees hung in the parrot’s cage and discovered the bird’s favorite treats: strawberries, blueberries, dried bananas and peanuts.
A few weeks after arriving, Hendrix began opening up, saying “cracker” when the parrot wanted a dried banana chip and “thank you” when he received one. Hendrix once told Rogers: “Good morning, baby.” Hendrix chirped when he wanted attention and tried to mimic barking noises he heard from the shelter’s dogs.

While his language remained salty, Hendrix grew new feathers by eating soft-pellet bird food. By mid-June, Rogers said, Hendrix was ready to be adopted. “One day he will call you baby and the next day he’s calling you a...hmm. MFer I guess is the politest way to type it out,” Rogers wrote on Facebook on June 11. “He says thank you when you give him snacks but will also tell you to shut up.”'

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[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. Thank you for posting.

I have twice owned parrots, both African Grays, which are wonderful talkers. They picked up things like the sound of a toilet flushing, as well as whatever random things the humans said.

[nuxvomica]

2. My mom had a parakeet named "Sunny"

She was always trying to teach him to speak without success until one day she spilled a can of paint in the basement and screamed "shit!" Upstairs, the bird immediately responded by saying "shit!" and that was the only word he ever learned, and would say often.