Peaches the Cockatoo Repeats Previous Owner’s Marital Arguments

The cockatoo has now copied her current owner's laugh too

ByABC News
February 11, 2015, 12:58 PM

— -- Adults know to be careful with what they say in front of their children, but a Moluccan cockatoo is proving you have to be careful in front of your pets as well.

The bird, named Peaches, has become a viral star after her current owners posted a video of Peaches mimicking her former owner’s marital arguments.

“We’re not the ones she got her bickering from,” Peaches’ owner, Elaine Sigmon, told ABC News.

Sigmon, who has been married to her husband, Don Sigmon, for 41 years, got Peaches nearly two months ago from a dog breeder in their home state of North Carolina.

The Sigmons visited the breeder to look at a German Shepherd but came home with Peaches instead.

“He told us about her first owners, a couple, and that they had separated,” Sigmon said. “He said that every once in a while she argued but we didn’t know to what extent.”

Sigmon says that despite the video that has made her famous, Peaches is actually a very lovable bird.

“She starts that ranting and raving but you could just walk over to her in the middle of that and she’ll calm down,” Sigmon said. “We just let her go because she’s so funny.”

“None of this is on demand,” she said. “She just says it when she wants to.”

Luckily for everyone, Peaches has already picked up some gentler phrases from the Sigmons, their four children and 12 grandchildren.

“Evidently I have a funny laugh and she’s picked that up,” Sigmon said. “I’ll go up to her and say, ‘Peaches you’re pretty,’ and she’ll whistle.”

“She’s also picked up, ‘Whatcha doing,’” Sigmon said. “My daughter loves the show ‘Friends’ and has already got her saying that in a month-and-a-half.”