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These TikTok Bird Channels Are Building A Huge Community Using TikTok Lives

• Kyle Kaplanis / Gizmo the Grey Bird / Cosmo The Funny Parrot / Qbert • Episode 80

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Looking to build a solid online community? Then this episode is for you!

You won't believe how these bird channels are building one of the biggest communities on TikTok right now!! How are they doing it? Using the TikTok group live feature!!

Gizmo the Grey Bird, Cosmo the funny Parrot, and Qbert and Friends have been going live together along with many other bird accounts and through their efforts are starting to build a massive community.

This community is having a positive experience not only for the many birds who join and watch, but is effecting the hundreds of thousands of people who watch daily in an incredible way in helping with Mental Health!

We hope that this episode brings you a lot of fun, joy, laughter and value on how you can start using TikTok features like the lives to grow your online community!

Be sure to Follow the BizTok for TikTok podcast wherever you listen to podcasts so you never miss a new episode.

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Kyle Kaplanis - HOST

Gizmo The Grey Bird
Emily Vincent - Mum

Cosmo the Funny Parrot
Cindy - Mom

Qbert and Friends
Bruce - Dad

Support the show

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of BizTok for TikTok. Today I have a very, very special episode because we're talking about birds. I know that sounds weird. A lot of you come to my podcast every week and talking about TikTok, but we're talking about these really cool bird accounts that are blowing up and are building some epic communities. You can take these conversations away and apply it to your own personal channels or even businesses. There's gonna be some key tips in here that you can apply to anything. So in the studio today, I have three awesome bird owners. We have Gizmo's mom, Emily, aka, my beautiful wife . We have Cindy, the mom of Cosmo, and we have Bruce, the dad of Qbert. All these birds are African Grey's and we're gonna be talking about their experience, how they acquired these birds and what we're doing over on TikTok with them. So Bruce, Cindy, Emily. Welcome to the podcast.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Hello. Thank you.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Let's talk about the origin story of each of the pets. So Cindy, let's start with you. Tell me a little bit about Cosmo. How old is she and how did you get Cosmo?

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Cosmo's nine years old. She has had a birthday last week. As everybody knows, we had a huge birthday party.

Cosmo:

Cosmo's birthday. Still alive. Oh, it's going. Happy birthday.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Yep. Cosmo came into our life, six years ago now. We were called, eight and a half years ago, from a relative of my husband and asking if we would take, an African Grey from her that she just got, just in case anything happened. She was in her early fifties, so we thought. Yeah, why not? The woman has no children to inherit to the children because when you have these animals, these African grays or parrots, they could live up to sixties to 80 years. Mm-hmm. she chose us because we have kids ourselves, we have grandchildren and everything like that. Makes sense. Not thinking that anything's gonna happen to her in the near future. Right. Unfortunately, not even three years later, she had a stroke and then eventually crossed on.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Oh wow.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Was way too busy to keep care of Cosmo, and she came into our lives that way, bless. She's been with us since. Oh, I love, it was a struggle, because African Grey's do not like change at all. Mm-hmm. And it took her a while to get used to my husband, to her family. She took to me about an hour after she arrived at our place. Oh, . So she's my bird. Kyle - Gizmo's Dad: Exactly. All Bruce, talk to me about Qbert. What's Qbert's story and when did you get him?

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

I've had Qbert now about three years. He's, 13. I got him from the Iowa Parrot Rescue. I went there just to visit. I'd seen him on their Facebook page and was like, Oh, I want to go check this bird out and check out the rest of the birds at the rescue. I went there and I met him and we clicked just like that, like instantly. I was like, I want this bird so bad. He chose me while I was there. He flew right to me. He was just, Chilling on my shoulder. I was like, This is so cool. It turned out that somebody had already claimed him for adoption. They had to come back for him or whatever. So I'm like, Oh, that's a bummer. And I was on a road trip, this rescue's about three hours from where I live, and I was on a road trip so I wasn't gonna be able to get him that day regardless. And that's a bummer. But it is what it is. And I left to finish out the road trip and I got about an hour or so away and the guy that runs the rescue, Mike, he calls me and he is like, Hey the people that were going to adopt Qbert just called me and they said that, they changed their mind because he's too flighty. He doesn't like to stay in one spot for very long. He likes flying laps around the room. He's not very obedient, which anybody going to get a bird of any type, let alone an African gray, knows there's really no such thing as obedience with them. Mm-hmm., I'm like, that's part of the reason why I liked him so much, is his personality. He's like, Are you still interested? I was like, Absolutely. I went back two days later and picked him up and brought him home with me.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Ah, I love that. I love that. I wanna dive more into that once we hear Gizmo's story about, I think rescuing is such an important piece to this as well. Mm-hmm., and I love how all four of us share that story, of rescuing one, not buying one from a baby, but em, talk to me about Gizmo's story.

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

We got a Jenday Conure and fell in love with birds and we was uneducated back then and we chose to go to a pet store, which I would never, ever do in my life again. We fell in love with birds and then I was like, I wanna rescue one bird. So I went through the Parrot Club and we got in contact with this couple and they were rehoming, their macaw's and they had 16 huge parrots. We narrowed it down to three. There were green Winged. And there were blue and gold ones, but there was one in particular that we loved. And then in the background in another room, we could hear this whistling and we're like, who's that? And they're like, Oh, that's Gizmo. He's aggressive. He's not for adoption. He's just not safe for children. So we're like, Can we just go and have a look? So we did, and yes, he looked aggressive. He was pacing, he was growling. So we went home and we thought about it and we were like, Let's go back. We chose this Mccaw and we wanted another visit just to make sure. So we went back and in the background again, I heard this singing and I'm like, Can we just have one more look at him, and they're like, Yeah. So we did, and again, he was growling. He said a few words and their words to me was if you want a bird in a cage that talks, he's good, but you won't get him back in. He's aggressive. So we went home and we both looked at each other and we were like, We need Gizmo. So I phoned him up and we went back that day and got him, and I've only had him since April, but he has been. So down to just trust. Mm-hmm., I let him make every single move. I didn't pressure him in anything. We left him in his cage for two weeks so he could get used to us. But every single move has been his move and it's really paid off for us. And he's the most loving, cheeky, funny boy. And he has helped me with every form of, my lone. My depression, everything. He's my absolute. World is my best friend.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

What you just mentioned there is a good example and we'll talk more about the TikTok side in a second, but I love the fact that we all share the same thing and I think a misconception of people who wanting to get birds specifically, they think, Oh, if I adopt when it might not bond to me or know who I am, or have that connection. Or maybe they have bad habits and they won't be able to break those. But clearly between all three of your stories, That didn't happen. You were able to make a connection with these birds even though they were homed at another point in their life. And same with how Gizmo was known to be very aggressive, but to all of us, sure he is tried to bite us a few times, but any bird will do that regardless of how tame they are or great they are. It just shows that people who are interested in birds really look to rescue them. You have so much time. They live almost your whole lifetime, depending on the bird. So you have a lot of time to build that trust and build that bond. We heard the origin story of these three amazing birds, but this podcast is about TikTok, so I'd love to talk about that because these birds have been having so much success over there, not only with their followers, but the social side of it, the community side of it, because. We all have been going live. When did that start? Was it you, Bruce, that kind of kicked that off and did you find Cindy along the way or was it opposite where Cindy, did you find Bruce? How did that work?

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

If I remember correctly, one of Cosmo's videos came across my fyp, and I reach out to Cindy, Oh my God, I love your bird. Let's do a duo live. It was one of the videos where Cosmo was either talking about Carol Baskins or, something like that.

Cosmo:

Fucking Carol Baskin.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

And I was like, I wanna do like a duo live with this bird. This would be hilarious. I did lives on Saturday afternoons or something with Qbert, just for fun, play some music and chat with people. And I was like, it'd be fun to do a duo live. It'd be funny to have, a couple birds on there. We did that for what, about a year, Cindy? Yeah, actually, Yeah. Little, little more than a year. Oh, wow.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Yeah. That we went duo live. That our birds actually connected.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Yeah, they connected quick and then all of a sudden cosmo's going, Hey, Cuber, want to go live? And Wow. Um, giving him nicknames and everything. And then, I saw, in other countries that TikTok had that six box option and I was like, Oh my, how hilarious would it be? Cause I know personally maybe just cuz I'm a bird brain, how funny it would be for me to be scrolling my fyp and instead of seeing six people, in there, you just see six birds, right? Like, that'd be hilarious. So I told Cindy, I was like, As soon as that's available for us, we need to do that. So we talked about it, talked about it, talked about it, it finally became available, and it's like, all right, so now we gotta get some other people on board. And it took a little while. The first couple of times it was like, What me, you, and usually one or two other random people. And then, yeah. Yeah. Somebody's like, Oh, you gotta get Gizmo and Chiro, and I was like, Oh yeah. we gotta reach out to 'em and get them on this live.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

That's so cool. So you were doing this for a year before this started evolving into more birds coming in.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Yeah. Not quite regularly. Like a couple times a week usually?

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Yeah. We would go a couple times a week. At first, when cosmo first met Qbert. You could see a connection after a couple times, right? Yeah. And then I'm sitting home and I'm recording her, and then she starts saying, I wanna go live. And then she started going Cubert, qpi. Cute bomb. She started coming up with all these cute little nicknames here. I'm recording it and I'm standing, I'm over to Bruce , and he's like, Oh my gosh. This is fantastic. Right?

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

So

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

right with this, I knew that she had a connection with Cubert, or she wouldn't be talking about 'em,

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

you know?

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Exactly. It had to be a thing where these guys had to at least a couple times, I think during a week that we would get together just for them to have a connection. After a while it was like, it would be fun when you seen this, there was like six lives out, one, live. When it comes out and it was a great idea.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

No, it's super cool. Like these birds are so intelligent that why not? We communicate via technology, right? Why can't they they have the brain power to understand and think. So why couldn't they be able to use technology as well and connect with other birds and it's proof, there's proof of concept here that this works because our bird as well. Always says, Want to go live?

Gizmo:

You wann go live? You go live in a bit, okay? Thank you. Hello You wanna live,

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

And he says, Cuber. He said, Cosmo before. And he interacts, He says Carrots now because of Cosmo. So clearly it is working. They're being able to communicate between each other and see each other and it's so cool how technology is not only helping enrich our lives, but also our pets. Mm-hmm.. Mm-hmm., they're really cool.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Even though that they're. In with each other, but they're seeing each other visually and hearing each other every day that they themselves. I think it's a good mental health for them because I find becoming a flock, Like becoming together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cosmo. Every night she will go up on her perch where I do alive, and she'll somehow know the time. She'll go on that perch and wait to go live with her friends. Aw,

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

right. It's so funny how they actually have that because Gizmo,, he gets excited even though sometimes he's quiet. Anybody who's listening that has birds will understand that they don't talk all the time. Sometimes they have quiet times and things, but he still is learning. And sometimes birds that aren't talking, like sometimes Cubert doesn't, sometimes Cosmo, they're just taking that in and they're just learning from each other and letting, their fellow bird friend have their moment of fame on their. But what's, what is really fun is, what I love about this . Community is the fact that so many people rotate through in these lives and everybody has the ability. And what I loved is that there's a lot of people out there who, their content isn't about their birds, but their bird lovers, right? They just, they love them, but having this live experience is allowing them to share that part of their life and sharing their pet, even though their content isn't about that. I love the fact that our community we're just like, Hey, you. Come in and be able to experience that. And there's been so many new faces and different pets. There's been chickens, there's been ducks, and there's been all kinds of birds on

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

raccoons.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Yeah,

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

The fish. Oh yeah, the fish during that battle that one day. Yeah. That was pretty funny.. Kyle - Gizmo's Dad: Yeah. and I love that aspect of it though, that we all get to share that, the love for it, regardless of our content. I like to bring in a couple things about TikTok, but. I think for people who are listening and how this could make sense is that, lives are a good example of how to bring other parts of yourself into there and sharing with your community because our community's building with all kinds of people, just because we share that love of birds and is really fun to, to see it grow and these lives when I'm talking, these lives are successful. I'm telling you, these are very successful. Bruce, you have some statistics what are some of the views? When the live ends and it says how many viewers have been on, what are some of the top numbers that you have seen these lives get? The best ever we did was 57,000 viewers for the entire live. It peaked at about 1400 before it magically got capped and everybody got booted out, that was the highest one altogether over the last 28 days. I checked prior to last night sitting at just under 400,000 total viewers. The best part is, at least in my mind, is the average watch time. Back when we were doing the duo lives or did individual lives, if you had two or 3000 people roll through. The average watch time would be like 30 seconds or so, right? yeah. Last night's live, the average watch time was like eight minutes, which I dunno, Compared to other. Lives, that seems like a lot. I know it's very rare for me to hang out in a live For that long. I might keep jumping back and forth, but to sit there and just watch alive for like 10 minutes, it's TikTok. You're used to 15 second bites of entertainment before you go on to the next thing. It's pretty cool that we're keeping people in there, especially for the average watch time to be as high as seven minutes.

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

I think it's because there's six birds there and if three out of four are not talking. There's always, that's there's three. Someone is always entertaining and if they're not talking, than we are, and we're interacting and we're answering questions, so I think that's a good point as well.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

57,000 people in one live is a lot and 400,000 people coming in over the course of a month is a lot. There's a lot of really big craters, and I know this for a fact, that we're blowing them out of the water. For one, it catches people's attention for sure. Cuz they're like, What the hell is this? A bird meeting? So many people, you know, , and they come in and then they realize how fun they are. Mm-hmm.. But also I think really our group is really good too. Like everybody here is really good about being really respectful to our communities and answering people's questions and I think people appreciate that. So they stick around. And these people come back and there's a lot of people that are in these communities that don't have birds themselves. Yeah. But now become huge fans of just wanting to be a part of it. The best part of it. What I love, and I think the watch time has, a lot to say to this is, you know, Cindy, you mentioned about mental health before, but I think this community is not only helping our birds mental health by being interactive with others and building that flock, but we're building a flock ourselves as humans. Because when I'm in the chat, I am paying attention to what people are saying and the amount of people every single day on these lives saying, I come here to relax or get away, and this helps reduce my anxiety, this helps my mental health. This has helped my mood. And people are building friends and mm-hmm. That's where I think is so much power in this is like the mental health aspect is huge. How many times do we see that? Like, right. Mm-hmm., Oh,

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

at least a few dozen times during every live, and that's just what I see when especially when they get really busy and those comments are flying by, you still see that this is so good for my mental health. This is my way of escaping reality for a little while and Did I just walk into the Bird Zoom meeting and? Kyle - Gizmo's Dad: Yeah,

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

too. If you recall this, Bruce, I think you guys were in there too, Emily and Kyle. I think it was one of the first bird zooms with the six a couple days into it, there was a discussion with the viewers about how this is helping their mental health. They were talking amongst themselves. Mm-hmm., Yeah. How important it was that they're loving this and that they're coming out of their zone and that, they're meeting new friends and, they're all discussing it about how it's helping them, not just the birds.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Absolutely.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Was it not yesterday, but the day before where I was about a half hour late starting it when I got out of the live, as soon as I noticed what time it was and got it started. When I got out of the I had so many dms, Where are you at? Where are you at tonight? It's like, Oh no, we're creating an addiction . Yeah, that's true. But I'm too, like even if it wasn't, in the lives, I'd be sitting there watching too, cuz that's what I do. I leave the room, sit there on my tablet and just watch. And a lot of times I get lost just watching all of them. I'm like, Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be taking notes. Kyle - Gizmo's Dad: So

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

I also get you guys probably get it too, is like inbox thank yous. Mm-hmm. for doing this. Yep. And how much it's helping them, or that they really enjoy it and that this is their after work or after school or whatever thing, what they wanna do. Mm-hmm.. Mm-hmm. thank yous goes a long way. It makes me feel,

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

yeah. That you're bringing true value.

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

and also our awesome moderators, because most people don't realize that in order to sometimes get our birds to talk, we have to leave the room. Mm-hmm.. And sometimes they don't talk when you leave the room and then people come on, Why aren't they talking? Why aren't they talking? And then you've got this amazing community of our friends now that have become moderators that know everything about every single bird , you know,

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

some of 'em

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

more about my bird than I do.

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

Me too. I'm like, I need them to moderate my life. Yes, it would be awesome if they could just organize my day, and I wanna thank them because, without them half the time I'm like hiding. And they're answering every single question. Cuz before I had moderators, I used to feel really awkward and I used to feel rude to the viewers because, I dunno what they're saying because I haven't got a second account. Cause I've only got the one device. Mm-hmm. So I can't see. So I walk away and it's good when Kyle's here because we'd both hide together and he's answering questions while we're hiding. But, I love that part of this live as well and all the people that are helping make it happen.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

I think you made a good point for people listening is, having that community piece, but giving people roles. Regardless of what you're doing, if you're talking about birds or you're talking about business or your consumers, your audience people, is giving them a role to be a part of this and showing appreciation. Like us, seeing people come in and they're really good at answering the chat. Us just saying, Hey, do you wanna help be a moderator? It makes them feel like there's a special place for them, that they're part of this community more so, and, and it really is just as simple as giving them that attention to say we appreciate you being a moderator. Just that aspect alone anybody that's growing personal, brand or business just needs to take that piece in. Is that this bird group is really fundamentally leading, how to build communities. And that was one of the reasons why I wanted to do this podcast is that's something that most people lack is a community aspect, whereas mm-hmm. This bird group is all about community and therefore you're seeing success. You're not worried really about views or followers because you have that community and that's really the core. And it grows over time because now People consume content and they're like, That was so cute. And maybe they share it amongst a couple people. But when you're part of a community, I bet you a lot of these members talk about it all day. To their friends, they're sharing it. And that's the difference between sharing this, Hey, watch this cute video of Cosmo talking about Carol Baskin. But really going out and just being like, You guys have to come on these lives. You have to be a part of this. You have to see this, and they're gonna be fans for life. I promise these core group of people. And it's growing. I see new people coming in and then sticking around and then. New people coming in, sticking around, and then building, and now these people are talking. And I wanted to mention too, how fun is it? Our UK audience is really big.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Yes. How many are, are up at four o'clock in the morning for them? like, go to bed, Qbert Tell 'em, go to bed. Tell Gilly, go to bed.. Cindy - Cosmo's Mom: It's amazing to see like four 30 in the morning for them and they come up every day, right?

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Yeah.. Cindy - Cosmo's Mom: That's why

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

we were doing the 7:00 PM Central Time live every night, and I'm gonna have to start doing one early in the morning for me, or, early afternoons. So some of the UK guys and, other people in that part of the world can come in and watch too and not have to be awake at, three o'clock in the morning. Right. But yeah, it's crazy the amount of people, we've had birds from definitely every continent in there. Mm-hmm., maybe not every country yet, but pretty soon it probably will. Exactly. I think most of the countries in Europe, we've had at least one bird in there. Mm-hmm., maybe not for very long, and it's so cool meeting everybody from all over the world. Even if you don't understand what the other host is saying, it's pretty cool watching a bird speak, German or Dutch or, you know, Well,. Kyle - Gizmo's Dad: Exactly.. Cindy - Cosmo's Mom: I know when you're their lives and everything like that. I recall people saying almost every day, I used say gizmo's quote today with my friends, I've used. What Qbert has done with my friend . I have done what Cosmo has said with my friend, and it's like an everyday thing. What they quote the birds, Bruce - QBert's Dad: If, Netflix notices King that ought to be cutting, Cosmo, Check , How many people have came in there and said, Who's Carol Baskins? Tell 'em, go look up Tiger King on Netflix. You know, not everybody watch. I, I, honestly, I never watched a single second of it. I knew, you know, why was addicted just having your head to the ground? You're gonna hear about Carol Baskins and Joe exotic, but I'd never watched the show. But there's probably been at least a mild uptick in, people watching the Tiger King again of, Yeah.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Let's actually that because Somebody's following Cosmo now. Let, talk to me about that. Cindy

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Joe Exotic on Instagram. I sent her actually a long time ago. Like she comes back with old sayings. I text him through Instagram, I would say about 10 months ago. He never responded, so I sent him a new one from just recently how she's catching up again for what her old sayings are. And he started following Cosmo. And if I could put on there, get her to say, Free Joe exotic, or pardon in Joe or something.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Funny Joe.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Joke, I love that. And it's funny stuff. You got it from watching. The Tiger King when you put it on Netflix and you just keep on watching it, watching it, watching it. Well, I guess it was too much for her because all you said is f Carol Baskin this or whatever, and she picked it up, right? Mm-hmm. So it's funny because she says it in his voice, The

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Baskin,

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

it's hilarious. It's one of the best.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Hey Google, Carol Baskins.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

I think that would be fun cuz some of my audience obviously would not know that I even own birds. Cause I don't talk about them all the time. But I think people would find this very interesting. What are some of the other things that are just so funny that are really well known for each of our birds?

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

I've been telling Cindy she make one of those, doll things with the recording box, Cosmo already is one of those because she picks up so many things so quickly. She's picked up almost all of the regular birds' names now. Has it? She, she's said 'em at one point. Maybe not regularly, but I've her say chiro. I've heard her say Gizmo, Yes. Yeah, Ed Crazy. And Bird

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

does say quite the bit of stuff, but she's just, I don't know. She's always on the roll with something and she's always trying to. Everybody laugh and I think that's what it is with her. When I first got her and she's talking away and what she makes something funny, we would laugh and she likes that interaction. Yeah. So therefore she wants to start, keep going and to keep doing things funny, to make people laugh. Mm-hmm.. Yep. Mm-hmm. even once with Bruce, like when we're on live. And then Bruce he could interact with her no problem. Yeah. The more he's laughing, the more she'll continue on what he's laughing about.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Even when she's threatening my life, that Google, I tell you,

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

I find that with Gizmo, he talks more now. He never used to, I think in the past he spoke for attention. And that was the only way he could get it because he was in a room on his own mm-hmm., and they would only spend a few minutes. So if he spoke really good, he'd get that interaction. And then when we got him, he was talking loads, but then he kind of quieted down, but he will talk better now when I interact with him and he waits for my response. He really waits. And if I don't, then he gets a little sarcastic. But he says some cracking stuff and new stuff every day. There's always something new with him. Yeah. We have no idea whether it's from us, from them, or if it's just from him.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Yeah. He likes to remix things up. That's what we call it. Like when all of a sudden the word starts changing, like his now name is Gibby. Gibby.

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

And before I even did this today, he goes, You're fine. He says to me, You're fair. And then he says, But then after that he was like, You're

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

fire. Yeah. He said, You're fired to me too. He's like, You're fire. Emily - Gizmo's Mum: We Don't know. Kyle - Gizmo's Dad: I swear he just even gives you a look after he says something , What's your reaction to that? And then if you laugh, he's like, Okay. That was funny. Yeah. These guys are so.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

That's same thing what Cosmo does, She looks for your reaction. Yeah, she could rhyme things. It's amazing. I got a couple of videos where she started picking up happy and then she started putting nappy on there, Are you happy when you're nappy? Right. There's like a whole slew, I just can't think of it at the head, top of my head right now. Mm-hmm.. Kyle - Gizmo's Dad: And sometimes this little brush, which I love.

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

Yeah. I actually sit there and watch that for hours. Me

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

too.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Come on over cuz that's what he is doing, probably doing right now. I just tried to, and yeah, he'll do that. He'll whistle while he is throwing it around. He'll bark at it and growl at it. But he loves that freaking brush.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

like the video where he used to brush to lock you out the room?

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Yes. Oh

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

my. Have you guys seen that one yet?

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Oh, I don't know. No.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

I will have to show that one to you. He jammed the brush under between the carpet and the door from the inside. But after he did that, he sat there and was yelling, Daddy, Daddy. I had just got home from work and I was out helping my kids with their homework. And he's in his room he knows the routine. I come home, I give him a treat. Then I take care of my Unfeathered kids. He's like, Oh, I get the treat first. I'm spoiled. But that day, as soon as I walk in, my son needed help with some math homework or something. I went over, I was helping him, and I just hear daddy, Daddy. I'm like, All right here, just a second. Shamus. I go and I get him his walnut go to push open the door. I'm like, it's stuck. And he's standing there at the foot of the door. We've got late at the French doors with the little square windows. Yep. And I'm like, What the hell? And I look and I see the brushes jammed under there. I'm like, What? How did he do that? There's nobody else in that room. There was just him. Hell, even the bud. I don't think we had the budgies at that point. So I'm like, Qbert, move the brush. He's looking at me. So I show him the walnut. He's looking. He kind lifts his birdie eyebrow at it. And I'm like, Well, if you want it, you better move that brush. He kind of thinks about it for a second. He goes over, he grabs the brush and chucks it away. He gives me a look like. Did I seriously get pranked by a bird? Right? You know, like, this isn't

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

right. They're so smart. We were only limited to what we saw on YouTube, in the last 10 years to seeing other birds. And I think that these lives are showing more real time, how quick they're learning. The community. To watch along with us because we're reacting to new things and they're seeing how fast, there might be two lives and maybe something is said and then the birds are picking it up that fast and they're like, Holy smokes, this is so cool. Versus people can even change things or manipulate to look like they're moving faster or learning quicker. Mm-hmm.. but people are seeing real time on how intelligent these birds are, and not just the grays, but just watching how each bird interacts. Like Cuber is so fascinated by bird. The conure, you know, he's like, Oh yeah, there's other grays, but who's his colorful girl here? You know,

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

there's a dirt eyed one, like the one out in my living room. Yeah. What's her deal exactly.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

But it's funny how they can recognize that. Like you can see the immediate change between birds and who's there.

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

There is an option for people to give us gifts and I noticed last month, Gizmo made quite a bit of money and. He was able to buy his own UV light for the winter now. Mm-hmm., and what I love about our community also is that they always even out for each bird. They're not like, Oh, this is my favorite. Obviously some people that don't know the rest of the birds will give their special gifts to their special birds. But a majority of the time, especially our community will always five for them. Five for them, five for them. And I just think that's beautiful. I know it's so cool how much, the birds don't necessarily watching how much money they're cashing in. No. It is nice. It's nice for

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

them. Yeah. And our community's great cuz we never expect it. We never say Yeah, no, but people understand that they wanna just. These birds. And I think that's fun from just a community aspect of how much support you get. Mm-hmm. And it does help because it does help going live we're real human beings and we're giving a lot of our value and time, to doing this. So just that support really does help keep us going and being able to contribute back more. Mm-hmm., I would love for like, for this to . Grow even more and be able to, do bigger things, in person events and being able to, , host Yeah. Or have resources or build a resource foundation or something that can help bring more value to our community for those that are, donating toward it and be able to do more stuff. That would be really cool to see and it's just the

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

education as well, we're educating.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Whether it's

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

people that, No, my last night on your life, that person came in, my bird's beak is bleeding. Everybody's like, They did it with gizmo, with the onion. Yep. Yeah. And so we're educating on not only rescuing, which there's so many rescues, but also bird's health, What to eat, what not to eat. That birds don't talk constantly, don't go out and buy bird just because they, they walk . Or they marched. That's his latest. Cindy - Cosmo's Mom: Oh, from Cairo.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Oh,

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

March. March, Yeah.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Oh, March. March, March.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Again,

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

went work. They do. I'm,

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Oh man. You'll have to make sure to tag chiro in that. That's funny.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Didn't know that was chiro thing. Yeah.

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

Was funny.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

Forever Gone. March, March, March, March.

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

Yeah. Say they did pick things up. I didn't even know that.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

A lot of times, they'll pick things up and I don't really realize until look back when he said I'm gonna steal your woman or whatever. It's because the day, either the day before or the two days before we were talking about Qbert and um, cause you know a lot sometimes cos the only girl bird on the watch out, they're steal your woman. And he picked it up just like that. Yeah. That was like when he first said it, I was like, I never said that. I put that in the chat, in the comment of that video. I'm like, This was not me.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

That is so great. Cause Hubert heard that and he got upset. He was literally upset. Aw.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

That's another thing. People, you'll get, people come in, they're like, they're just mimicking. I understand it because to some degree, I knew they were really intelligent. I didn't know how much, and I really don't think you can until you've lived with one. Even watching 'em in the lives, you get some idea. But you guys know and that moment of, Oh my God, this animal is smarter than a lot of people. I'm just gonna put it out there,, they, these birds are smarter than a lot of people that I know. Yep and not only just intelligence, but emotionally how they read how you're feeling. They try and cheer you. They're not just mimicking, they're talking and learning. Sometimes they're just randomly saying words. Yeah, sure. People do it too. Yeah. But other times they're legit. We've seen 'em have conversations, to the point where, It can't just be a coincidence that they Exactly. Bounce right back and forth off of each other. Exactly. There's no way if, if it was one bird doing that, you could say, Oh, you're hitting the slot machine. But when you're watching the birds respond in context to each other. Yes. During a livestream. No, there's no way. That's happenstance. Exactly.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

It's like that one. Huber did something, I can't remember what it was. And then there's Cosmo. Oh, it's okay. It's okay. And then he fell

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

off the he he fell off his perch. Yeah. And Cosmo was like, Are you okay? And he flies back up and it's What in the world is going on here?

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

No one hurt you. She's going like this. Yeah. She does it. Even at the humans at home here, like I'm telling you, People don't realize that these birds do have empathy very much. Mm-hmm. I'm a firm believer now that all animals do, just because the parrots can talk and show that expression by verbally doesn't mean that the other animals can't. Mm-hmm.. So I know, there's been quite the few times, like human interaction. There was one time my mom was. We're out. So I dropped her off at home. She came in, went to the bathroom, got sick. She come out and cosmos, Are you okay? Nanny Nanny's sick. Aw, Nanny's sick, Right? Aw. Now there's a thing with another animal. My cat, I'm brushing him out. He hates getting brushed out. Cosmo's making fun of him because the cat's like Right. And cosmo's like mocking him. Right. And then I hit a spot. What hurt the cat? All of a sudden Cosmo stopped making fun. It's okay buddy, it needs to be done. She says,

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Wow.

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

It's not like they're just picking up empathy for us humans. Right. But for other animals as well.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Mm-hmm.. Bruce - QBert's Dad: Cuber He blows kisses at his Guinea pigs. And it's funny because his Guinea pigs look like half of his stuffed animals that he likes to attack, but it got really cold last winter. So we moved the Guinea pigs into Hubert's room, just cuz we already had the good heater in there for him. And he'd go and land on their, kitty swimming pool for 'em to be able to run laps around in get some exercise Cause it's a small room. Yeah. And he'd just go land on it and he'd just watch 'em and blow kisses at 'em. It's weird. It's like he knows the difference between his stuffed animals and the real ones to where he is not gonna fly down and attack them to, if anybody's own Guinea pigs, they know they're pretty, skiddish around anything, especially a big bird that looks, to them they're thinking, this is a hawk. They don't know what's a parrot, a vegetarian. And so at first they were terrified of him, but. They just kinda look up at him like, Hey dude, what's up? And just go back to doing what they're doing. Exactly. I think like Gizmo, he gets along with our dog really, cuz they, they will walk on the ground together by each other. But it was funny, one day, something happened and I think Bean was just going kind of crazy by his cage, and he's like, What are you doing down there, Dog?. Yeah, . It was like, but I was like, What the heck? I've never heard him say dog but it's funny how like they don't need to know that they just see us, how we interact, maybe what we've mentioned in the past. So they're learning that like a person would, Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to be , This is dog. They would just see how you're interacting and you would know, and it's just so cool, how smart they are, but how much that they've been driving these communities and helping people. I'm really excited to see, how this goes and that we're continuously building and I really feel like that we could build something bigger, for resources for people and I love that a lot of our community members don't even have birds themselves, which is super cool, but they just love part of it

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Was it Kayla that just got a cock tail, the other. And, we walked her through. She's like, you, she does just sit there and his at me and, sent me a video with the, tips that we all gave her, whisper's already stepping up for three days in. Right. I think she said she had a cockatoo or something like when she was a kid. But, this is her first bird as an adult and already this bird's. Bonding with her. And that's why I like doing this is the education and yeah, the mental health stuff too. Inbox is full messages from people. Thank you so much for doing these. It helps with my anxiety, with my depression, whatever, mental health issue these people have, and that's great. Granted, it, it, it's fun. I'm not gonna lie, like part of the reason why I do it is just merely for the laughs of watching these birds interact. But yeah, that's a very cool bonus to see messages like that from people. There's times where I'm like, Oh, I really don't wanna do the live tonight. I have to run back and forth between the two rooms and adjust the camera every five seconds and make sure I'm getting everybody in there. But then I'm like, if I don't, they're not only the bird's gonna be disappointed, but the people that like to watch are gonna be disappointed too. It's the motivation to keep doing it. Mm-hmm., it really is. If it was just for the entertainment of it, it'd. I've got other things I can do tonight, and there's been times where I've thought that, and it's like, no, no, even if it's a quick live, at least get on there so everybody can see their birds. A lot of them start to think of our birds as theirs, which is cool. How super fans of Cosmo Gizmo Chiro or Cubert are out there that they're concerned. That's their bird too. They just might be, 10,000 miles away, but still,

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Yeah,

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

if I'm a little bit late coming on live, I get Is Cosmo okay? Are you guys Yeah, yeah,

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

yeah. Or

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

you get invites to Bruce's live, like doing, Are you doing I

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

get that. I, Yeah, there's sometimes where I'm like, Should I even bother to, invite Kyle and Emily because I know that if Cosmo's live when Hubert's not, there's been days where I gotta open up 57 notifications. That's only been an hour since I've been on there and 35 of them are invites to Cosmo cuz she's live , it's great. Mm-hmm.. Yep. Yeah. Where's Cuper Cosmo's asking for Cubert.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Yeah. This is a really good point because outside of the bird community, some people feel like they don't have a place because somebody's already doing something that they're wanting to do. Mm-hmm. and the birds are a good example. They're all grays. Talking. Right. But they all have their own personality. Mm-hmm., and everybody they wanna follow all of them. Whereas people that are listening, they might be just enjoying this cuz they want to hear about birds. But what you could take away from this is that regardless of the content you want to do, even if a thousand people are already doing it, You have a place, those same people who enjoy all those other thousand will enjoy you as well. Mm-hmm.. And you get to grow from the people that are already doing it. So I always tell people like, you have your own voice, you have your own message, regardless of if it's similar to somebody else's, share it. Don't be afraid to go out there and your communities will come. And just because somebody follows somebody similar doesn't mean they're not gonna follow you too. That's just how it works. I always like to bring things back around and. I would love to everybody to be able to tell people where they can follow each of these birds. Cindy, do you wanna start? How could people follow Cosmo?

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

They could follow Cosmo on YouTube, Instagram, and of course TikTok. And she's under the same name, @cosmothefunnyparrot.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

I love that. And where can we find Qbert Bruce?

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

So Qbert's on, Instagram and TikTok, uh, Hubert underscore the underscore. That's G R E y, the proper way of spelling it, and then on YouTube he is bad gamer. Good bird,. Kyle - Gizmo's Dad: I love that. And how about gmo?

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

We are on Instagram as gizmo, the gray Bird. The same way as Bruce spells it and we study YouTube as well. And it's the same gi me, the gray bird on TikTok is Emily's floor called Gizmo's, got me hostage, which I'm waiting until the fifth, until I can change my actual username. Yeah. Cause I'm actually gonna change he's completely taken over my account now, so I'm gonna name it up. Say goodbye.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Hey then. Then

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Emily can get her account. Yeah, . Then you'll have your back

Cindy - Cosmo's Mom:

account.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

We can go back to my

Emily - Gizmo's Mum:

drunk talk

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

thing. Yep. But for anybody listening to this podcast right now, you could go to the description notes and I have all the links that you can click right now to all their channels. Please give them a follow and come and check out our lives. Pretty much you can catch us daily, even if one of us. Live. Chances are somebody from the group is live. Mm-hmm.. You can almost catch us every single day. So make sure you follow 'em. I'm gonna throw a couple links to some of the other birds that are part of our group as well, so that we could check them out and see what they're doing. But take notes of how these bird community is building a solid foundation of a community because that's what you need to take notes of. And I appreciate everyone of you listening in every week. And thanks for listening to BizTok for TikTok. Bruce and Cindy, thank you so much for your time and jumping. Yeah, thanks for having us.

Bruce - QBert's Dad:

Yeah, this is, yeah, this is awesome.

Kyle - Gizmo's Dad:

Thank you

People on this episode

Contributor

Kyle Kaplanis

Host