Hello strategists,
I would like to introduce myself. My name is Eddie and I am an african grey parrot. I am also the eponym of this blog. Together with my buddy Nicki I live in Germany. On the “About” page you can find more information about my owners and their consulting and training company (of course in the fields of strategy, strategy development and strategic planning).
How did I join this job? Well, we parrots are very curious birds and hence we always want to comment on something. It is said that a parrot can achieve the intelligence level of child in the age of 3 or 4. I am not quite sure about that; I guess it is more the age of 5 or 6. 🙂
Anyway, a little bit about myself and my living conditions. My favourite hobbies are flying around in my room or in the entire flat. Due to security reason I am just allowed to fly in the entire flat under supervision. My room is – as far it is possible – a parrot secure room. That means no cables and no things that might hurt me or my buddy. We have got an air cleaning system (including ioniser), a humidifer and an UV lamp (as an replacement for natural light). Of course our room has got windows but we need also UV light for our plumes.
Our favourite dishes are fresh fruits (e.g. pomegranate, litchi) and vegetables (e.g. corn, chili).
Parrots’ world view
- The univers has got a center = me
- “Yours” = This word does not exist in my language, since everything is mine.
- Entertainment = To entertain me is the central task for my owners.
How I live
My owners say they take all efforts to provide us parrots living conditions that are appropriate to our species. I think they do a good job and I like it here very much. In case you are interested I will describe my living conditions in more details:
I have a friend
I am not alone here. With me is Nicki, a beautiful female african grey parrot. Nicki is about my age and of opposite sex. So we have the best preconditions to live happily together. We parrots live in flocks and so we really need company of our kind. Ideally this is one or better more parrots of our own species. Of course, other parrot species or humans can be friends for us too but nothing compares to another african grey! Only a buddy of my own species shares the same language, the same body language, the same instincts and habits as I have.
To make it easier for you humans to understand – how would you like it if your only company in the whole wide world was a parrot (this is the equivalent of what a human is for me) or a gorilla (this is about what a cockatoo or macaw would be for me)?
I have a room for my own
Nicki and I live in a separate room of our owners’ apartment. We are allowed to move around freely in this room all day. This room is really fun. There is enough space to fly and there are lots of branches to sit and climb on. Of course the room is also equipped with lots of parrot-toys. My favourites are the wooden ones on which I can chew until they are totally destroyed. This gives us hours of entertainment. I am really allowed to play with everything I can reach in this room. My owners have covered all things that could be dangerous to us or that are not intended for destruction.
There is also a cage in this room. I am so happy that I don’t have to stay in this small thing all day. The cage only is the place where we eat and where we sleep. It is also nice to sit on it and to climb on it. Honestly, at night I feel quite save in my cage. (Comment from the owner: The cage is about 100 centimetres in length, 80 centimetres in depth and 80 centimetres in height. This is much too small for two healthy and active parrots of the size of an african grey to spend their day in.)
I can fly!
Well, I am a bird. For me it is the most natural thing to fly. My humans told me that some owners clip their parrots’ wing feathers so that the poor guys cannot fly anymore! This is cruel! Flying is good for my health. Flying is a great exercise so that I don’t get fat and develop liver problems like many captive birds do. In addition, flying helps to vent my respiratory system which is also important for my physical well being.
But more importantly than that – flying is fun! Luckily, my humans have a spacious apartment. From my room into their living room and up to the gallery it is more than ten meters to fly. You should see me when I start for this tour. My humans always say that I look like a fighter pilot taking off from an aircraft carrier.