Freddy remains awesome, but still pretty quiet. On Sunday and Monday I played some Youtube clips of other parakeets, and he responded with a few chirps but was otherwise not interested. Today, however, I played
this clip for him and he went apeshit. Started cheeping like mad and climbing all over the side of the cage near the computer speakers. Dug at the side of the cage, trying to get out. So I brought him out on my finger, showed him that there were no other birds around, and he calmed down quickly. Tried playing the clip again, same reaction. Brought him out again and he calmed down again.
So now I'm thinking that having him by himself might be cruel, and that I'm not good enough company for a young 'keet. May have to see if the store still has any of his siblings for sale. I'm hesitating, though....not because of the cost or because the cage is too small (there's room enough for two), but because they would almost certainly bond with each other rather than me, and the chance of either one learning to talk will drop dramatically.
Sigh.
ETA: He responds somewhat to
this but doesn't seem to know what the bird is talking about.