This Blue Throated Macaw Knows his Best Angle

Apparently Jackson the Blue Throated macaw has modeling experience. It seems more often that not he strikes a very specific pose. It’s almost as if he has rehearsed it. Hmmmmmmm. Judge for yourself!

A Great Day of Parrot Training

Not too many things compare to a great day of parrot training for me. And today was one of those days. Crate training is an important behavior for the two baby parrots, Jackson and Joker. They both traveled from the breeder to my house in crates. Both seemed pretty comfortable in the crates for the four hour drive, but the next day they were a bit hesitant to consider entering a crate again. (Four hours in a crate was probably a bit more than they were ready for) Since then I have been working on retraining the behavior.

I was very pleased today when both parrots entered their kennels voluntarily. I had to break it down into small steps. In other words I reinforced with treats and attention any movement towards the crate and eventually stepping inside it (Find more details on training this behavior in my second DVD Training for the Veterinary Exam).


Joker, the Amazon parrot, was by far the star on this behavior. I had also loaded the crate with toys. He kept running in and out to play with different toys as well as get treats. At one point I worked with Jackson (the macaw) on another behavior in another room, Joker was being so quiet I had to check on him. There he was asleep on his perch inside the crate! The door was off the crate so he had the choice to be anywhere at all, and he chose to be in his crate. Woohoo!

Jackson also was a training superstar today. The behavior at which he excelled was harness training. Harness training can be a really difficult behavior. It often involves some manipulation of the wings to achieve. Many parrots are not too comfortable with this. Because of this it is really important to focus on pairing positive reinforcers with the situation. Fortunately Jackson is a sucker for a good head scratch. He practically melts. Using head scratches as his reinforcers Jackson sat calm as can be while I gradually adorned him with his harness two times. It is really important that Jackson views this behavior as something that results in copious amounts of good things. And right now he is learning harness time, means scratches galore.

Joker is also working on the harness, but doesn’t respond as enthusiastically to head scratches as Jackson. This means using other reinforcers to train this behavior. One reinforcer Joker likes is playtime. He will roll around on his back and kick his little feet up in the air. Right now I am pairing the presence of the harness with playtime, toys and also food treats. He is progressing a little slower than Jackson on this behavior, but his excellent crate training makes up for it.

My reward was some playtime with both birds after our nice training sessions.

Barbara Heidenreich
www.GoodBirdInc.com

Hilarious Parrot Basketball Video

When a Parrot Does not want to Go Back in the Cage

Having a baby Blue Throated Macaw (Jackson) and baby Double Yellow Headed Amazon (Joker) parrot in the house is fun. And apparently it is fun for them too. I like to think so as my house has a number of very entertaining play areas for parrots. There is this super cool play stand, perches all around the house, and two training areas loaded with all sorts of toys and treats.

So when the sun rises, the birds are ready to stretch their wings, participate in some training and play, play, play. This makes for a great morning for the birds, but at some point they do need to return to their cage for a little down time for everyone. This can be a challenge when being outside of the cage is such a blast. Why go back inside if all the fun happens outside?


When I felt one of the birds leaning back on my hand when I approached the cage one morning, I knew it was time to take action. If I forced the bird into the cage, I pretty much knew I was asking for trouble. What would happen is, in the future the birds would be even more hesitant to go back inside.

Instead we had a training session right then and there. As soon as I felt the lean, I stopped in my tracks and took a step back from the cage. When Jackson’s body language relaxed I gave him some head scratches for sitting calmly on my hand while we were close to the cage. Over time we were able to get closer and he even stepped on a perch in the cage for a treat. I then let him step right back on my hand and come back out.

We repeated this until he was back to stepping into the cage easily. He learned going in the cage doesn’t mean all the fun stops. I now also rotate different toys into the cage, so that every time he goes back there is a new toy to play with. This helps keep this behavior strong.

Because this behavior can be challenging, I know I will always be careful to look for body language that says the bird is uncomfortable. And if I see it I will slow down and go through these steps again. This will be important to helping to maintain that behavior for the long haul. For now I am also going to be sure to give myself plenty of time to return the birds to their cages, just in case I see any hesitation. I don’t want to have a set back by not planning ahead.

Barbara Heidenreich
www.GoodBirdInc.com

Baby Parrots!

My blog has been kind of quiet lately. But my house hasn’t! Both are the result of some new visitors to my home. Two baby parrots. Jackson is a young Blue Throated Macaw and Joker is a young Double Yellow Headed Amazon parrot.

These two adorable youngsters are here for some training. The Kaytee Learning Center is their intended home. There they will help educate people about responsible pet ownership, as well as be ambassadors for conservation education. (Blue Throated Macaw numbers are quite low in the wild, and captive hatched Jackson will help spread the word and raise awareness!)

Because of their role in education there are some specific training goals I am working towards with these two birds. They are both flighted and will not only educate at the Kaytee Learning Center, but also at special events. This means both birds need to be comfortable with travel, be comfortable wearing a harness and interacting with new people in new environments.

For some birds, those can be challenging behaviors. With Jackson and Joker being youngsters they are a little more receptive to change at the moment. I am taking advantage of this time in their development and exposing them to many new things and pairing these experiences with positive reinforcers.

They recently met two new people and also some puppies! Both birds responded as I had hoped. No fear whatsoever…….just a bit of curiosity. They flew to new people for treats. However they soon discovered playing with one new friend’s curly hair was more tempting than a treat. I had to spend the next day teaching Jackson that other places were for perching….not heads.

It is an easy trap to fall into. A parrot flies to someone’s head and starts to have all sorts of fun. That makes flying to heads reinforcing. This means that flying to heads is likely to happen more often. To address this the following day, whenever Jackson tried to fly to my head, I simply stepped aside. He is a very confident flyer at this point and remained aloft and looked for another perch. As soon as he landed I reinforced him. This quickly got him back on track. It was now hard to land on a head and super easy to land somewhere else. Plus you get a treat for it. Problem solved!

These two young parrots will be with me for a number of weeks. I will continue to post on their training and their progress. Keep checking back for updates!

Barbara Heidenreich
www.GoodBirdInc.com

A new flying partner

Carly made a new friend flying today, a Willet. They’re about 16″ high with long legs. She called to him repeatedly with a dog-calling type whistle while they were flying.

By the way, there are some amazing photographs of birds, especially shorebirds, at Morris’ site, Birds As Art

Conspiracies, Jealousy & Brawls — Oh my!

How do you find a source of training advice you can trust? Is the bird training world really as brutal as some make it out to be, wrought with conspiracies against individuals, professional jealousy, and continual arguing over methods? Who do you believe?

No one. That’s right, no one. All the highly respected trainers I have met or seen in action do not work in isolation. It’s not a huge community, and most bird trainers from zoos and shows know each other — the “degree of separation” probably averages 1 or 2. Attending the IAATE meeting in Cincinnati this year, the collegiality among trainers from different parts of the country — and the world — was even greater than I expected, and I learned as much from talking to people as I did from the talks. If there’s a conspiracy out there to shut out particular trainers, it must be super secret, because no one I’ve ever met knows about it. Or perhaps more likely is that you reap what you sow, and those who cultivate sound training practices, professional friendships and sharing of information earn that respect.

Avoid: Sites [trainers] that lack any references or affiliation to other materials and professionals known in the field. Established professionals usually work together in a cooperative and/or collaborative way with other recognized professionals. This usually includes references to other sources of information and products on their sites in addition to their own. — Barbara Heidenreich, Good Bird Blog

Observing the trainers I have learned the most from, it’s also striking that they rarely toot their own horns, claim to be “the best,” or that they are the only one to ever do this or that. They do not make promises about training outcomes, or take ownership of established methods by branding them as their own. Training is a science, and like other sciences, is built on what has come before. Good practitioners recognize this. “Revolutionary” is pretty much reserved for those exercise machines advertised late at night on infomercials. The art and science of training is an ongoing learning process that takes patience. It really is true that “the more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” Anyone who believes they don’t need to learn more is only at the outer layer of a very large onion. (To paraphrase Donkey.)

Continued education, and close mentorship with respected, well-known professionals in the field is paramount. . . . Courtesy, reliability, and accuracy are also trademarks of the “expert”, as is willingness to share freely their knowledge. — Animal Education Foundation

These are some things I ask about trainers:

• Can they give you good references? If not, run, don’t walk. Expert trainers work with others and never stop learning, whether it is through informal relationships or formal collaborations. Any good trainer should be able to provide several names of professional trainers who can vouch for their ability. Talk to them, and ask them about the other references as well. Is this trainer someone who has really made a difference?
• How do they care for their own animals? Do they know about mental and environmental enrichment, and practice it? Do they feed a balanced and varied diet that includes fresh food? A good deal of training is about relationship building and general standards of care — what happens outside the training session does matter.
• Is there a strong emphasis on fast and/or easy? This is typically an indicator of exaggeration, a shallow understanding of training principles, or over-reliance on weight management.
• Who have they learned the most from? Who has had the biggest influence on their training, and why? Can they recommend to you a few other good sources of training information? Every single trainer I know who is respected among their peers can and will refer you to others that you can learn from as well. While it’s good to work with a single trainer on specific problems to avoid giving mixed signals to your birds, any good mentor will encourage learning as much as you can from other sources they trust.

. . .

With the internet there is the possibility of sharing information now as never before, but it also opens up the door to just about anyone who wants to call themselves an expert. The cream of the crop among trainers are those that can convey more than just instructions; they demonstrate the principles they are teaching in every interaction with birds. It’s a rare gift, but well worth seeking out those who have it.

Phoenix Landing Foundation’s New Blog

Thoughts on Stress & Feather Snipping

I just got back from a 6 day trip, and when Carly was younger she was so unfazed by me leaving that I seriously wondered if it mattered at all that I was gone.  But since she started seasonal feather snipping at 3 years old she has also been snipping when under stress.   Her seasonal snipping was reduced to almost nothing with the help of lots and lots of foraging (for most all her food) as well as lupron shots every 4-6 weeks during the spring.  Since then her feathers have been growing back in nicely, with just a few exceptions, all of which are stress-related: me leaving town for a week (twice), and the death of another pet in the household.

This is her at her worst, after I was away for a week at the IAATE meeting in February; she stayed at Tex’s house with a pet sitter and did a lot of feather damage, both snipping and plucking.

The next snipping event occurred in mid-April, after she had stopped for about 6 weeks. It lasted 36 hours, starting the evening my vet came to the house to put my cat to sleep (after battle with lymphoma). This was such a short duration and intense bout of snipping it’s hard to see it as coincidental.

When Grace and Roelant visited at the beginning of June, many feathers had molted out and were starting to grow back in. That continued through July and into August.

She was a velcro bird when I was packing for my last trip, and for the first time gave me an enthusiastic greeting when I arrived home (instead of the cold shoulder). The snipping is not as bad as before on the belly, but she did crunch her upper wing feathers quite a lot.

During both trips she was with Piper, with lots and lots of foraging material. The latest trip she stayed at home, with familiar people taking care of her, and her snipping started the third day, immediately upon hearing me talk to her over speaker phone. (Note to self…. ) She had already been behaving oddly, including hanging upside down rubbing her back on the cage, even with the door open; something she’s never done in front of me.

Since I’ve been home she hasn’t touched a single feather except for normal preening, and is carefully de-sheathing some newly grown feathers.

It was nice back when she didn’t notice I was gone! I’m not sure what can be done to make these trips less stressful. Perhaps a few short overnighters to break the routine that every time I leave it’s for a week. But then when it gets to be day 3, day 4 on a longer trip…? I wonder if it’s possible to train an alternate behavior for stress relief.

Vacationing with parrots

I recently took an extended leave of absence from my birds, to go work in an orphanage for a number of days in Nicaragua. Outside of the trip itself, my largest concern was for my parrots- how would they deal with being under the care of someone else during my absence? I wanted to share a few trip and tricks that helped me have a safe, and stress free trip.

1. Find a reliable pet sitter! It seems like common sense, but I cannot stress enough how important this is. I was fortunate that my family is able to care for my animals- but if your family is unable to do so, there are many great resources out there that you can use to employ a reliable sitter. When interviewing the sitter, make sure they have previous exotic bird experience- you may be surprised.

2. Make the transition gradual. Have whoever is watching your animals come over a few times prior to your departure. Encourage the person to engage in the activities that they would be while you are away- feeding the animals and etc. Observe a session so you can give constructive criticism (if necessary) on how they can properly deal with your pets.

3. Always have a backup. In case your first petsitter of choice has something come up and is unable to care for your pets, or simply has an emergency while you are gone, have contact information available and ready so that your pets are always covered and you don’t need to stress.

4. Let your vet know you will be leaving, and leave the petsitters information with them. If your pets need medical treatment for whatever reason during the duration of your vacation, veterinary clinics often need owner consent before they can legally treat the animal.

5. Relax, and enjoy! I’ve heard of many bird owners that haven’t taken a vacation in years because they worry about the impact on their animals. Its not healthy for you, and its not healthy for the birds. Everyone needs a break once in awhile, and I can assure you that your flock will welcome you back with open wings.

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