The Biggest Myth

By Ken Globus

You hear it over and over again. You read it in magazine articles and books by virtually all of the popular behaviorists. It’s repeated in Internet chat rooms, on message boards, and email rings and is echoed at bird club meetings everywhere: “Never use gloves. Birds are afraid of gloves.”

Oh, yeah, that’s right. Birds ARE afraid of gloves. But then, birds are afraid of lots of things. In fact, they’re afraid of anything new. And yet nearly all the well-known, influential bird experts staunchly forbid the use of gloves. So, what’s the result of their sage advice? When birds bite, their owners feel frightened and helpless and back off.

What’s the result? Your bird bites. Ouch. You back off. When you approach it again, it is with some hesitation. Your movements are tentative and jerky. This makes the bird more nervous, so it bites with more conviction. “After all,” he’s thinking, “if that bite got him to go away, I’ll do it again.” Now you’re even more hesitant to get close to your bird. So, you back off. The bird is rewarded with exactly what it wanted - to get you to go away. The next time, it bites harder. In other words YOU’RE TRAINING YOUR BIRD TO BITE.

I contend that the no-glove rule does more harm to people/bird relationships than any other misinformation. And it is promoted by virtually all the experts. With something as important as this, wouldn’t you think that those pushing this theory might have taken the trouble to find out if the rule actually holds up under scrutiny? Well, I did. And it doesn’t.

Want to stick a bare finger in here?

Birth of a Legend

So, where did this pervasive concept, that birds are afraid of gloves, come from? In the days when I first started working with birds they were mostly wild-caught adults. People believed that because the imported birds had been roughly handled with gloves during capture, transit and quarantine, birds built up a negative association with the bulky hand gear. It seemed to make sense, since birds recoiled at the sight of them. But birds aren’t wild-caught today and they still recoil from gloves. Even birds that are hand raised babies. Why?

Anyone who spends a lot of time around birds soon realizes that birds are afraid of ANYTHING new. You can change your hair color, put on a hat, new nail polish, introduce a new toy to its cage, and your bird might wig out. So, rather than there being a negative association with gloves, it’s the fact that gloves are something new that scares birds.

Get Over It

If using a glove is the only thing that will keep you from being hesitant or backing off, my advice is, use gloves. Birds soon become accustomed to them and in a very short time the gloves can be abandoned.

What if you were Superman? What if you were invulnerable? Impervious to pain and injury? You could tame any bird in the world. So why do people let fear of pain keep them from taming their birds? Remove fear from the equation and you’re on your way to a tame bird. Want to be less vulnerable, less frightened? Wear gloves. And hold the kryptonite, please.

When I work with a new bird, the first thing I do is test to see how committed it is to biting. Only then, if necessary, do I put on gloves for the first minutes of a session. The bird soon realizes that biting is not effective and it stops. At that time I slip off one glove and continue with one gloved hand and one bare hand. Then the second glove comes off and the bird hardly notices the difference.

Another “F” word

Another benefit of the gloves is to help lower your fear level so you can remain calm enough to keep your energy low and move your hands in a slow, smooth, fluid way. Birds don’t perceive fear as much as they perceive what makes them fearful. And it is almost totally visual. The way you move your hands makes all the difference. So, it doesn’t matter how afraid you are; I can have sweat running down my spine, but as long as I’m able to control my energy and movements and project a sense of calmness, the birds respond well.

So Much Malarkey

So, what would it take to convince you that the glove thing is a myth? Here’s what got me. Like the majority of my most important realizations about working with birds - and the glove issue is a major one - it is the birds that taught me how to work with them. And this one came about totally unexpectedly. I was working with a very aggressive bird, a passionate biter. I had to wear gloves or I would have been shredded. I had worked a few minutes on the biting behavior, getting it to stop biting, then do step ups, etc. Then I slipped off one of the gloves. What happened next really surprised me and it was as clear as a bolt from the blue. The bird recoiled at the sight of my bare hand! So, now do we have to say, “Birds are afraid of bare hands!?” Of course not. The bird had gotten used to being touched by my gloved hand, but not the bare hand. It was that something new was added to the mix. And that same thing has been repeated with many other birds; not every time, but often enough to clearly indicate that birds are afraid of change, not gloves. Once again, I want to emphasize: The glove thing is nothing but a myth!

Here’s another compelling piece of evidence: In a bird club program in Salt Lake City I worked with a wild caught adult Orange Wing Amazon. It apparently had negative experiences with gloves and was more than a little afraid of them. I didn’t need to work with gloves with the bird because it was not biting very hard, but I decided to demonstrate something for the audience to illustrate my point. When I went near the bird with gloves it squawked and recoiled. Then I handled the bird with gloves, exposing it to what it was afraid of. In a few minutes, I handled the bird with one bare hand and one gloved had and it accepted either hand equally as well. Again and again the birds teach us.

Empower Yourself

Get gloves that reduce collateral damage, but are supple; you need to feel what you’re doing. You’ll find that what gloves do for your confidence is invaluable. And having confidence is a big part of being able to lower your energy and help your bird become more comfortable with you. That’s anything but a myth.

Glove Me Do

Here’s a photo showing Arlene, a Redondo Beach workshop participant , with her African Grey. Arlene had lived with this bird for years without ever being able to touch him. After Ken got the bird accepting his touch, he blended Arlene into the process. Because she was fearful, Ken had her start with gloves. After a couple minutes she gained the confidence to remove one glove. At this point the Grey related the same to the gloved hand and the bare hand. And, for the first time, Arlene was touching her bird.

Many photos on this web site show Ken and others working in various combinations, with gloves, with one gloved hand and one bare hand or with both hands bare. When you get past the bird’s aggressive stage you can blend in the bare hand. I do this as quickly as possible.

All You Need is Glove

You can find gloves at your local hardware store. Ideally, you would want them snug fitting; the more slack, the easier it is for a bird to get a hold of soft tissue. They should be thick enough to provide protection yet supple enough for you to feel the pressures of your touch on the bird. No welder’s gloves or oven mitts. A cowhide work glove will do just fine. Lamb is better. Goat is the strongest for the thickness. Deerskin is my favorite. It’s very flexible and supple, but also a bit expensive.

When I do workshops, knowing that I may have to handle as many as twenty birds in a weekend, I usually put self-adhesive bandage (also known as vet wrap) on my index fingers. Great protection.

Also, when dealing with a bird that repeatedly takes chunks out of my forearms, like the large macaws, I wrap them in Ace bandage (the forearms, not the birds).

The Fist of Iron

The Fist of Iron

No, it’s not a chop-socky movie… it’s a simple, effective way to get close to a bird that’s hand-shy and aggressive

If you make a fist and bend your wrist as far as it will go, you’ll notice that the skin on the back of the fist becomes very tight. In fact, on most people, it’s too tight a surface for a bird’s beak to get a hold on. And it creates a safe place (a “sweet spot”) for you to use to get your hand near a nippy bird. In this way, it’s similar to the “heading” technique. Bring your fist up to the bird very slowly, finding out where its striking range is. Making gentle contact with the bird’s beak helps get it used to your hands, to being touched and helps it gain trust. It can also be used to fend off an attacking bird.

***Keep in mind that you must use care and judgment with this technique. It is still possible to get bitten if you’re not alert and agile. You don’t just thrust your fist at the bird’s beak, you must keep the center of the back of your fist, the “sweet spot”, where the skin is stretched tight, lined up with the bird’s beak. If the bird moves its beak to bite you, you must move your fist accordingly. Otherwise it will simply bite you on the edge of your hand where the flesh is soft. Also, approach the bird with your hand at a distance and let the bird demonstrate how far its striking range is. Then slowly move into the range so the bird is only able to barely touch the back of your hand when he is reaching out to bite you. ****

This workshop participant uses the “fist of iron” to approach an aggressive macaw

After a few failed bite attempts Fred, this Sulpher Crested, begins to calm down and nibbles harmlessly at Ken’s “sweet spot.” Fred is already becoming comfortable with hands.

Moments later, Ken is freely cupping Fred’s head and kissing him. Fred’s enjoying the contact.

The fist is also great to protect yourself from an aggressive bird. Let’s say your bird gets territorial and starts attacking you when you go to feed it. Or it goes after your feet when it’s on the floor. The Fist, brought slowly toward the bird’s beak, can be used to control the bird, move it away from you, hold it off and let it know that you are not about to be driven out of the territory.

“But He Doesn’t LIKE It….”

I offer a wide range of parrot behavior consulting services and am privileged to consult with owners as far away as Australia, Japan and Canada. Each consultation is tailored specifically to meet the client’s needs, and is conducted in as thorough a manner as possible. In each case, I attempt not only to target solutions to particular behavior problems, but also provide up-to-date, accurate education regarding species-specific nutrition, caging, social issues and environment.

For additional information about my consulting services click here.

“But, he doesn’t like vegetables!”

“But, he’s afraid of showers!”

“But, he won’t sit on other perches…he afraid of them!”

I hear these, and similar, protestations frequently, in response to recommendations I have just made, recommendations aimed at improving a parrot’s quality of life, which will in turn serve to reduce or eliminate existing behavior problems. These reactions have given me a good understanding of just how frustrated owners can feel when trying to introduce new foods and experiences to their parrots. They know that their bird needs showers, and should eat fresh vegetables. They know about the dangers of a parrot getting too cage-bound. However, they often eventually feel powerless in their efforts to introduce new things or experiences to their parrots, in the face of the resistance their birds routinely and vociferously offer.

Not only can it be difficult to figure out how to introduce new things and experiences to a parrot, especially a mature parrot, but also we find ourselves reluctant to push very far in this endeavor. I observe a widespread need among owners to make their birds happy. This is quite understandable. They certainly bring joy to us in so many ways. We want to give back to them and make them as happy as they make us. Thus, as we live with them we seek to discern what they like and concern ourselves enthusiastically with providing those things.

The Owner’s Appropriate Role…

Teacher and Protector

A parallel phenomenon I observe is a reluctance on the part of the owner to take the upper hand with his parrot, not in any authoritative manner, but as a flock leader who actively seeks to teach and guide the parrot during the parrot’s learning process. I have often mused at the genesis of this tendency. We seem almost to sit in awe of our parrots, afraid to impose ourselves on them perhaps, or to even be a little physically afraid of them.

In discussing wing clipping, I regularly ask clients how many flight feathers their bird has clipped. They usually have no idea. They not only apparently have no ability to handle their bird in such a way as to be able to look and observe the answer to this question, but they don’t even see it as their responsibility to know this. And, yet, the number of flight feathers and the way the wings are clipped are critical to many aspects of the human-parrot relationship. There is some unspoken barrier there that apparently keeps many owners from really developing a true intimacy in their connection with their birds, in both a physical and an emotional sense. Perhaps because we know we lack a true and complete understanding of them, we are reluctant to push too hard, especially if we don’t have the tools to know how to do this effectively.

Recently, I was astonished to hear a client tell me that she had never asked her African Grey to do anything he didn’t want to do. This woman loves her parrot and wants badly to do a good job with him. However, she bought him as an unweaned baby, and as a result of her lack of knowledge of the sort of instruction young parrots need, as well as her reticence to serve as his “instructor,” he is now, at the age of two years, a bird that doesn’t even know how to step up and can not be handled. And, as you might imagine, the quality of his life is much less then if she had been less concerned with what he “likes” than with what it was her responsibility to teach him.

Unfortunately, many parrot caregivers allow their choices about handling, feeding, and care to be guided solely by what their parrot seems to like. However, this is a concept that has very little validity when it comes to our companion birds, at least in terms of how it should guide the choices we make about how we care for our birds.

The Concepts of Like and Dislike

Humans have contrived the concepts of like and dislike. They are ideas directly reflective of and generated from our egos. In our crowded and pressure-filled society, in which we ourselves can feel so invisible, we define ourselves in part by what we like or don’t like, comparing this knowledge with the likes and dislikes of others. In this manner, we build a concept of our own individuality and an understanding of how we differ from others.

However, parrots have no ego. On the most fundamental level, their primary concern is with survival, and similarities with other flock members are much more likely to insure this than their differences. In order to insure his physical survival, a young parrot in the wild is patterned into the ways of the flock, so that he will be best equipped, as the older members are, to survive and breed. Once he becomes patterned to the ways of the flock, new things that appear in the environment frequently spell “danger” and he is instinctively programmed to react to them with caution.

In captivity, when we experience from our bird an adverse response to a new item or experience we have attempted to introduce, in most cases, this response is based solely on this same instinctive response, not upon any ego-driven need to assert his own personality. Parrots live with one foot in our world of logic and reason, and one foot in their own world of instinct. This is largely what makes them such delightful and magical companions. They have the intelligence and ability to think and respond that allows them to participate in relatively sophisticated relationships with us. However, much of their behavior is not a proactive response, but an instinctive reaction, to what we have offered. Further, this instinctive reaction is largely influenced by the patterning the parrot receives during the first two to five years of its life.

Parrots are fundamentally creatures of patterning. When living in the wild, they receive their early pattering from their parents and other members of the flock during the years prior to becoming sexually mature. Thus, for African Greys and other medium-sized parrots, their period of patterning will occur between fledging up to the age of two or three. For larger parrots, it is likely to extend even further.

Let’s use our imaginations to take a look at what type of patterning might take place when young parrots fledge and leave the nest for the first time with their parents. This is when the most influential patterning begins in earnest. The first task, once the young fledglings have achieved a measure of competence in their flight skills, is for them to learn where to find food, what types of food are to be eaten and how to manipulate the food in such a way that they can successfully eat it. Their parents and other flock members of course, lead these early foraging trips.

Do the parent birds take the babies out to a certain foraging site and say to them, “Here…take a bite of this, and if you don’t like it, then we’ll make the whole flock fly over there so that you can try something else?” Of course not. Instead, I feel certain the message communicated would look more like this: “Here…this is what African Greys eat. We are African Greys. Thus, you eat this, and here’s how to do it.” For young parrots in the wild, the world is as it is. They learn about it, about their own place within it, and that is that. Their survival depends not upon individuality and exercising any likes or dislikes they might have, but upon following the flock and doing what the flock does.

In captivity, examples of this early tendency toward patterning are everywhere around us, and especially evident in second-hand birds when we provide a new home for them. In fact, our success in helping them to adjust can depend upon how much of this earlier patterning can be discovered from conversations with the previous owner or “divined” from observations made of the parrot himself. An example: An owner who had adopted an older large macaw was perplexed and frustrated at his behavior. Enthusiastic about improving his life, she had provided

him with lots of physical freedom, lots of time out of his cage, as well as a great diet and the opportunity to interact with other large macaws. She could not understand why he had become so aggressive. Although this is not the whole story, she found that when she gave him more cage time and kept him further away from the other birds, he became calmer and less aggressive. His early patterning in his last home had included life as an only bird, as well as long hours and often whole days spent in his cage. Thus, even though greater freedom and the opportunity to be around other parrots seemed on the surface to be a real kindness, it created problems in his behavior because he had been patterned to feel comfortable with just the opposite. Examples such as this abound.

The fundamental truth is that, as prey animals who derive their physical safety from living in flocks, parrots are instinctively “programmed” to learn their survival skills during their early years before they begin to breed and are fully independent. Whether they are in the wild or in our living rooms, they are learning…every minute…and this learning takes place as patterning. A young parrot is instinctively programmed to look to a “flock” leader of some sort to teach him what he needs to know. If he lives with a loving human who is unaware of this responsibility and works instead to please him and discover what he “likes” so that he will be “happy,” it sets the stage for a myriad of misunderstandings and ultimate behavior problems.

In an ideal situation in captivity, both the breeder and first owner are cognizant of their appropriate roles in a young parrot’s life. First the breeder, and then the new owner, take an active role in teaching him about new toys, bathing, eating a variety of foods, entertaining himself, and all of the other skills which will ultimately insure his success in captivity, whether he stays in his original home or goes to another at some point.

In fact, this is a major reason why selling parrots as unweaned babies can be so detrimental to the parrot’s eventual quality of life. Aside from all the issues surrounding problems that result from changing hand-feeders and the inexperience of the new hand-feeder, the new owner is likely to know little about how to provide the learning experiences to the young bird that he needs. In fact, often this same person is working full time. The young parrot sits in a cage all day, learning nothing, and in this void, begins to demonstrate problem behaviors, such as repetitive calling.

It is also important to understand that much patterning also takes place in a more passive manner as well, in that the parrot will “imprint” on physical circumstances, such as cage size and type, diet, cage location, bonds to other pets, the type of treats shared with the human, etc. This early pattering dictates later what the parrot will feel comfortable with. Thus, for example, a young parrot who has a primary bond with a woman during his first three years may be likely to always prefer females in subsequent homes. A young parrot, who lived in a standard powder-coated parrot cage for several years, may have terrible problems adjusting in a new home when provided with an acrylic cage. These examples I hope serve to illustrate the importance of both intentional and unintentional early patterning.

As most of us know, the ideal scenario described above occurs in only a small minority of cases. Most parrot owners are currently living with older birds that were not patterned when young to have a full set of living skills appropriate to life in captivity. Usually, because of this, they are dealing with behavior problems of one sort or another. Even in the best of cases, usually at least one or two important skills are missing, and the owners are helpless in the face of the parrot’s instinctive reactions to remedy this, despite their best intentions.

Thus, we have come full circle in this discussion, back to the challenge of providing such skills to these older birds, in other words “re-patterning” them. However, it is not as difficult as it appears to re-pattern an older bird to accept new foods and experiences, as long as it is done with skill, compassion and an understanding of the process. Further, it is our responsibility to each and every bird that comes under our care to work to make sure that the lives they live with us are as full as possible.

Things to Understand before Beginning

Before attempting to re-pattern an older parrot, certain knowledge is necessary. It is important to understand that it is the absolute responsibility of the owner to gently, in a trust-building manner, work to broaden a parrot’s living skills, in such a way that he is eating a healthful diet, showering frequently, able to be handled, etc. Such things should be introduced slowly and with sensitivity to the parrot’s reactions, and if the parrot shows initial fear or hesitancy, we must provide constant reassurance and be careful not push too quickly or too far. However, neither must we waiver in our efforts. Sally Blanchard has often said that, when behavior problems are not resolved, it is usually because the owner didn’t do the right things for long enough. The same statement could be made regarding parrots who are never successfully re-patterned to have better skills.

Second, we must understand some things about the both the physiological and instinctive nature of parrots. For one thing, parrots tend to react to different things in the environment based upon their visual experience. Much of a parrot’s instinctive behavior is based upon his visual experience. Parrots have vision that is significantly different from ours in several ways. Most owners know that parrots are able to see into the ultraviolet (UV) portion of the light spectrum, while we are not. Consequently, many objects look quite different to parrots than they do to us.

I have several times heard African Grey owners on the Internet state that their parrots hate the color red. Since Congo Greys have red tails and the degree of health of an individual bird could be indicated by the depth of this coloring and might indicate desirability when choosing mates, common sense might dictate that perhaps something else was at work in the reactions these people had observed in their parrots. For instance, a parrot may react to a red article of clothing that is made from a synthetic fabric, because the color on that fabric looks different and startling to them under the UV portion of the light spectrum. Does the parrot’s reaction mean that he doesn’t like red? No, it means that there was something about the appearance of the shirt under UV light that startled the parrot. It was an instinctive reaction, not one based upon color preference.

Another way in which the vision of parrots differs from ours is that they have two foveas, instead of one. A fovea is an area of the retina most densely packed with sensors. Most mammals and we have one. According to Gould in The Animal Mind, parrots have two, so that they are able to look ahead at what they are eating, while at the same time looking to the side for predators. Often, when parrots demonstrate a startle reaction, it occurs when they have seen something “out of the corner of their eye” or from the side. I have often wondered if perhaps some instinctive programming exists which dictates that things viewed from the side will purposely elicit a more fearful reaction than do objects viewed from the front.

Thus, when introducing new things and experiences, it is important to not move too quickly, physically, but to pause and allow the parrot to view the “scene” or item or room carefully from all directions, but especially looking at it from their front.

Secondly, as referred to above, parrots are conservative, wary creatures likely to respond to anything new in an adverse manner. Thus, owners should not give such reactions much “weight” when they are observed. Again, new things are introduced cheerfully, with reassurance, in “baby steps” by an owner who acts with the conviction that he is doing the right thing for the parrot and that the small amount of anxiety the bird might experience along the way will not be detrimental in the long run.

In fact, this is really the true manner in which owners establish themselves as “flock leaders” with their parrots. This much-discussed concept is never really achieved through any type of dominance or control. It is achieved through the process of the owner assuming a leadership role, teaching the parrots about new things by introducing them in an appropriate manner, which in turn, leads the parrot into depending upon the owner to show him what he needs to know and reassure him through the sometimes “scary” process of learning. Thus, a relationship akin to child and parent is established, which helps to prevent the frequently developed mate-bond type of relationship between owner and parrot which can be so problematic once the parrot reaches maturity.

Re-patterning Diet

Most frequently, my discussions with clients of what parrots like and don’t like centers around diet. The owner has fed fresh carrots and corn, and decides to give the parrot broccoli. The parrot takes one look at it and tosses it down. The owner concludes that the parrot doesn’t like broccoli. Is that a valid conclusion? No. It means that he has not been patterned to recognize broccoli as valuable food. As we have said, parrots will react with aversion to many new things that are introduced. The very qualities that insure their survival in the wild, will hamper their ready acceptance of new experiences in captivity, once they have grown past the fledgling stage.

I frequently work with clients to re-pattern their birds to eat a healthier diet. Granted, many are the theories about what a healthy diet even is. This is arguable. However, for the purposes of this article, we are going to assume that the healthiest diet includes a vast amount of fresh, raw food, since this is what parrots eat in the wild. It also needs to include enough complete protein to satisfy the requirements for replacing healthy feathers annually and meet energy needs.

Fresh foods contain certain nutrients that cooked and manufactured diets can’t possibly include. Among these are myriads of enzymes. Enzymes, so necessary for optimal health, are destroyed by heat and processing. For one thing, enzymes initiate all cellular activity. Enzymes also break down toxic substances so that the body can eliminate them without damaging the eliminative organs. Animals in the wild consume large amounts of enzymes as a result of their primary raw food diets. IN addition, as I have pointed out in previous articles, a fresh diet foraged from the wild is also high in essential fatty acids, which are also destroyed by heat and manufacturing. Thus, to me, it simply appears to be common sense that a creature that has evolved to enjoy the greatest health from eating live, raw foods should, in captivity have a large percentage of his diet provided in similar form.

Diet and nutrition have grown to be one of my greatest concerns, because with each passing year I see more and more frequently a correlation between behavior problems, especially feather picking, and diet. Thus, I encourage clients to feed a wide variety of fresh, raw foods, cooked grains, cooked legumes and beans, and fresh nuts, some seed and some pellets, as well as a source of complete protein occasionally.

Upon first suggesting this, I am always met with reassurance that an individual parrot will not eat what I am suggesting. However, I personally have converted many, many of my own rescued parrots, as well as those of clients to this type of diet. In doing so, I make use of a layered fresh food mix. The instructions for making this are included at the end of this article. By using the recipe for the layered mix and the following instructions, you will be able to successfully convert any parrot to a fresh food diet that includes tremendous variety.

The diet itself has several advantages. First, there’s no need to chop fresh foods every day.
Second, parrots are very visual, as well as wary, creatures as we have said. When fruits and vegetables are fed singly, or in large pieces, or in small combinations, and you add something new, it is likely to be rejected solely on the basis of the fact that it is visually unfamiliar. When you feed a mix like this, you can put anything into it and it will be accepted because the appearance of the mix hasn’t changed overall.
Third, this mix is exciting for the birds, and allows them a foraging experience. They never know what they’re going to find in their food dishes and show considerable interest when I feed them. A huge amount of variety can be achieved. Greens and the types of vegetables used vary from week to week. The pasta shapes are varied (alphabet, whole wheat, elbow, etc.). You can use other types of citrus instead of oranges, including grapefruit, lemons, tangerines, etc. Instead of grapes, you can substitute fresh blueberries and pitted ripe cherries, or fresh cranberries. Instead of the 17-bean mix, you can use a soak and cook mix. Instead of grated carrots, you can use cooked and chopped sweet potato or winter squash. The possible variety is endless.

Fourth, parrots that won’t eat pellets, often will when they are combined into this mix because (1) they are part of an exciting mix, and (2) they will be slightly softened by absorbing some of the moisture from the mix.
Lastly, I leave this in the cages from 7:00 am until 4:00 pm, which you can’t do with mixes that have been frozen or cooked. Since the majority of the foods are neither cooked nor frozen, they stay fresher longer. Temperature, moisture, and the breakdown of cell walls increase bacterial growth. This mix tends to be relatively dry, because the pasta and pellets absorb the vast majority of the moisture. Further the cell walls in the fruits and vegetables are largely intact because they have not been broken down by either freezing or cooking. In hot weather, it tends to desiccate rather than spoil.

Directions for Converting a Parrot to a Fresh Food Diet

Using the Layered Fresh Food Mix

The following instructions have been written with the assumption that the parrot has had unlimited access to seed, whether other foods have been fed or not. If the parrot has been eating a diet of only pellets, then the instructions should be modified to eliminate the dish of seed that is provided in Step 1.

1. Begin with four dishes in the cage - pellets of choice (no dyes or preservatives hopefully), a high quality seed mix, water and the fresh food mix. The fresh food mix provided at this time should contain a ratio of 50% high quality seed mix and 50% fresh layered mix. Pellets may be added to this mixture, if desired. The latter will not be eaten for several weeks. Get over it. Serve this twice a day, in the am and in the late afternoon or evening, for the sole purpose of creating a pattern of feeding and allowing the bird to get used to looking at it.

2. The day you see the bird exploring the fresh food mix in order to eat the seed out of it, you make the following change in your procedure: Each morning, you remove the seed dish and have only three dishes in the cage - pellets, water and the fresh mix, that is still 50/50 seed and fresh foods. Each evening, you again feed the fresh food mix, but give the seed dish back. We don’t want a bird undergoing diet conversion to be hungry. A hungry, anxious bird does not make behavioral changes gracefully.

3. The day you see the bird with a piece of fresh food in his mouth, or observe that he has eaten some of it, then you eliminate the seed dish completely. From that point onward, you provide only three dishes - water, pellets, and the fresh mix that is 50% seed and 50% fresh foods.

4. A month later, and on each succeeding month, you decrease the amount of seed in the mix until it is down to between 10 - 20% of the mix. So, for instance, if you remove the seed dish on February 1, then on March 1, you will begin to feed a mix that is 40% seed and 60% fresh mix. On April 1, you will begin to feed 30% seed and 70% fresh foods. And so on. The amount of seed can be decreased more quickly if the parrot is really eating the fresh foods well. In my personal opinion, the final amount of seed included should be approximately 10% for New World parrots, such as Amazons, macaws, Pionus, conures, etc. For African Greys and Cockatoos, I include 20% in the final mix fed.

Readers should note that this particular mix is still not what I would call a “complete” diet, for a parrot should also receive a large variety of cooked grains, and nuts in moderation. I believe that, in feeding parrots, the goal should be to achieve an abundance of variety. However, this gives the owner a good start toward this goal.

The Introduction of Showering

Showering a bird is another area of great difficulty for the parrot owner. Many settle for misting the bird with a spray bottle, since an initial attempt at taking him into the shower produced such fear, the owner was reluctant to try it again. Still other birds demonstrate fear of both the shower and the spray bottle, and thus do not get bathed at all unless they do so in their water dish.

I personally believe that showering in the bathroom until drenched is a necessary life skill for a parrot to have. For one thing, they need the drenching regularly for good feather health. Second, in our environment, they are exposed to more airborne substances than they would otherwise be in the wild. For this reason also, they should be drenched until thoroughly wet once or twice a week. And, I don’t know about you, but showering a bird with a spray bottle until drenched is not a happy proposition. Everything in the surrounding area gets soaked, it takes a long time, and my hand gets tired. Thus, call me suspicious, but I often doubt whether all these birds being showered with spray bottles are really getting as wet as they need to be.

Teaching a bird to shower in the bathroom with you is not difficult, once you understand that it must be undertaken in “baby” steps. Necessary equipment includes two shower perches, one for the bathroom mirror and one for the shower wall. Please make sure that these have four suction cups holding them onto the surface. There are many styles available, and I have tried them all. I believe that only those with four suction cups are safe. It is also helpful if you replace a stationary showerhead with a hand-held model.

Instructions for Introducing the Showering Experience

The following instructions are written with the assumption that the parrot is even afraid of the bathroom. The speed with which the owner can proceed to the next step can be increased according to the comfort level of his own parrot.

1. Take the parrot into the bathroom and let him look around. If he seems comfortable and interested, show him the contents of the medicine cabinet or a drawer. If he seems nervous and anxious, take him back to his cage after just a brief look into the room itself. Continue this once a day until you can show him all around the bathroom and, by his body language, you can see that he now feels comfortable being in the room. This introduction “honors” the parrot’s visual experience.

2. Take the parrot into the bathroom and place him on the shower perch that is attached to the mirror. If he seems reluctant to get on it, gently encourage him. If he still persistently resists, tell him, “That’s okay…you can do it next time,” and return him to his cage. If he will sit on it at all, but is very nervous, just leave him there for a minute and then take him off again, praising him extravagantly and returning him to his cage. Continue this daily practice until the parrot readily gets on the perch without protest and can sit there comfortably.

3. Begin to take the parrot into the bathroom and have him sit on the perch attached to the mirror while you shower. This will allow him to get used to the sound of the water running, the sight of the shower curtain opening and closing, etc.

4. When he seems completely comfortable with accompanying you to the bathroom and sitting on the mirror perch, then begin to place him on the perch in the shower while you bathe. Make sure that this is at the end furthest from the water source. Don’t expect to get him wet. Just let him watch you. If he seems very nervous the first time, then after a minute, take him out and place him back on the mirror perch. Gradually, his comfort with sitting on the perch in the shower will grow.

5. When he can comfortably sit on the perch in the shower and watch you bathe, begin to allow a little of the spray to bounce off of you onto him. Gradually, begin to spray him with the hand-held showerhead, or hold him under the spray, increasing the time you do this as his comfort-level increases.

I have a variety of species of all ages and backgrounds, but I have taught them all to bathe in this manner. Some have come to love it and some only tolerate it. However, even those who still protest a little and seem only to tolerate the experience often reward me with a happy shake and tail wag once the experience is over. The truth is, they feel better for it.

Breaking Things Down

These have been two examples of introducing new experiences, provided in detail with the hopes that owners will see how “doable” these things are. The introduction of new things and experiences becomes a process that we learn to accomplish. We become successful at it with more practice, if we keep in mind the tendency of a parrot to react instinctively and do not misinterpret this or take it too seriously, and if we learn to break new experiences down into very small steps, always proceeding in accordance with the parrot’s comfort levels, remembering never to push too quickly. At all times, what we do should be, to use Sally Blanchard’s well-contrived phrase, trust building. It will not destroy trust to introduce new experiences and foods, even if the parrot becomes slightly anxious in the process, as long as we work to minimize that feeling for him and reassure him constantly during the process.

Jane Hallander once pointed out in an article that it is often the toweling experience at the vet’s office, if the parrot has been toweled from above, that triggers phobia in a parrot. This is quite true. However, I do not believe that this would be so, if the parrot had been introduced to traveling in a car and to toweling by the owner in a safe manner and environment previously. A parrot who has been “sheltered” and then who is taken by car to a strange place and is toweled from above is very likely to have a bad experience. However, if the owner has introduced traveling in the car in small steps until the parrot feels completely comfortable with the experience, and has toweled him herself at home many times, this whole scenario is prevented. In effect, in the scenario which Ms. Hallander so wisely described, the parrot was “set up” by the owner to have the phobic incident because he was already so stressed by the time he arrived at the veterinarian’s office by all of the other unfamiliar things with which he was dealing.

Any new experience or thing can be introduced to our parrots if done with sensitivity and if we proceed slowly. And, the bottom line is, as their caretakers, it is nothing less than our responsibility to keep working at it…slowly but surely.

Recipe for Layered Fresh Food Salad

The following instructions will allow you to feed a diet high in live, raw foods with minimal effort. This diet has several advantages, not the least of which is that I can feed fresh foods to multiple parrots on a daily basis, while only chopping fruits and vegetables once a week. I have successfully used this recipe to feed anywhere between 12 and 40 birds.

For those of you with only one or two parrots, this recipe will need to be modified. You may find it easier to create a similar “salad” every two to three days, or to try creating two or three smaller containers, each of which will last two days… giving you a week’s worth of food. (Bear in mind that every time you open a previously mixed container and dish a serving out, you are introducing bacteria. Thus, a salad that is served over the course of two or three days must be watched closely for signs of deterioration.)

The size of containers you use will depend upon how many parrots you are feeding. When feeding 30-40 parrots, I used seven 2-gallon containers. Currently, I feed 13 parrots and use seven containers that each hold 1.1 gallons. My daughter uses this recipe with her single parrot and makes three containers that hold 4 cups each. Some experimentation may be necessary to achieve the correct quantity, but the end result will justify your efforts.

Once a week, I layer in plastic storage containers the following:

Layer 1 (bottom layer) - chopped greens, which are varied each week. One week, I’ll use collard greens and parsley and mustard greens, and the next I might use Swiss chard, kale and dandelion greens.

Layer 2 - chopped (1/4 to 1/2 inch cubes) vegetables, including any of the following: Brussels sprouts, zucchini and other summer squash, jicama, red or green peppers, fresh hot peppers, chayote squash, green beans, fresh peas, cucumber, cauliflower, celery, anise root, etc.

Layer 3 - chopped broccoli and chopped, sliced or shredded carrots

Layer 4 - a mixture of chopped apples, oranges and whole grapes

Layer 5 - frozen mixed vegetables.

The containers are then placed in the refrigerator (don’t freeze).

This mix stays fresh in these tubs for up to seven days for three reasons. First, layered salads stay fresher longer than those that are mixed up. Second, the orange juice from the chopped oranges filters down and slightly acidifies the mix. The frozen mixed vegetables placed on top super-cool the mix immediately (cold air sinks/warm air rises). I do also wash all the fruits, vegetables and greens with Oxyfresh Cleansing Gele, which not only gets them clean but also has some anti-bacterial action.

Use: each morning, I empty out one container into a large mixing bowl. At that point, I add the following:

1. Cooked beans (I prefer to soak and cook dry beans, which are then stored in the freezer in bags until defrosted and added to the mix. However, canned beans can also be used.)

2. Cooked or sprouted grains. (A rice cooker is an invaluable kitchen appliance. Any grain can be cooked to perfection in a rice cooker, then cooled, and frozen in serving sized portions.)

3. Dry, uncooked, whole wheat pasta.

4. Other soft fruits in season (blueberries, peaches, plums, kiwi fruits, melon, etc)

5. A small amount of high quality parrot seed mix.

*Sometimes, in order to generate a little excitement, I’ll sneak in some pine nuts, walnut pieces, flax seeds, Molucca nuts or other item of interest. (Usually, I feed nuts separately, but I like to use this fresh mix to surprise the parrots – since it also offers them a true foraging experience.)

When making the mix each week, strive for variety, alternating the vegetables, fruits, grains and beans that you include each time you make the mix. Also keep in mind appropriate proportions when creating the mix. I suggest the following: Cooked beans 15% - 20%, cooked or sprouted grains 20%, raw pasta 5%, fruit no more than 20%, greens 5%, seed mix no more than 4% - 10%, vegetables at least 30% - 40% of the mix.

This recipe can be adapted for any number of birds with a little creativity, by reducing either the number or size of the containers used or both.

All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reproduced in any form or by any means, without permission from the author.

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What Exactly IS A Parrot Behavior Consultant??

The “Pet of the 90s”

Parrots are incredibly popular these days. Humans have kept parrots in captivity for thousands of years, but it is only in the recently that they have become increasingly common pets. This popularity coincides with the appearance in the pet trade of large numbers of domestic bred, hand-raised baby parrots, which happened about 18-20 years ago. Wild parrots can be quite formidable, since they tend to scream and throw themselves around their cages at the sight of a human. Not so with hand-raised babies! Instead of being terrified or aggressive, domestic bred babies perceive humans as their friends, and few people can resist a warm, fluffy creature that toddles cooing into their arms.

So people buy them like crazy, often without learning anything at all about this wonderfully loving, totally complex and alien life form. Things have improved slightly from the old days of feeding only a seed mixture called “parrot food.” Knowledgeable bird owners know that a total seed diet is inadequate. (Actually, an all seed diet is the nutritional equivalent to a diet of potato chips.) They may also know that birds in captivity need good yearly veterinary care just like dogs and cats, but from an avian veterinarian.

Tick, Tick, Tick….

However, even these more knowledgeable people may not understand that these baby parrots are creatures with complex psychological needs. Most buyers have no information at all regarding the psychological development and growth of young parrots. Some unethical pet stores and breeders tell prospective buyers that domestic bred, hand-raised parrots will never bite at all — as if being born in captivity automatically insures manageability — and unhappily, they are often believed. The reality is that without proper training, that cute toddler is actually a ticking time bomb.

Since these domestics are so recent, we really have limited experience dealing with their behaviors. Most information about parrot behavior came from working with imported wild adults, and domestic babies are very different. Consequently, serious problems are developing with them, because they do not stay babies. When purchased, they are in what I call The Bassinet And Goo Stage, and for some idiotic reason we believed they would always stay that way. Boy, were we wrong!

Long Life and Lots of Changes

Parrots are extremely intelligent and potentially long-lived creatures. Thanks to research done by Dr. Irene Pepperberg, the intelligence of parrots is now ranked with chimpanzees and dolphins — approximately that of a five year old child. Even budgies (the perky little birds that Americans are still incorrectly calling “parakeets”) are capable of living longer than many dogs. In their long lives, parrots (and their owners) experience various developmental stages that are quite similar to many that children (and their parents) encounter as they grow and mature. For example, most parrots seem to get stuck in The Terrible Twos for most/all of their lives.

In the many years I worked with avian veterinarians, I saw the same thing repeatedly. A sobbing owner would bring in a sick parrot, asking that we do anything and everything we could to save the life of this priceless pet. Often we succeeded, only to find a few months later that they had gotten rid of this same beloved pet, because “He screams” or “He bites” or “He doesn’t like my new boyfriend.”

Obviously, a serious problem exists here.

Trying To Make A Difference

Consequently, I became very interested in learning how to educate people about the normal and abnormal behaviors of their parrots, so that this unhappy scenario did not continue to happen. There are a few of us now, that do this kind of work. We are not “animal behaviorists” because none of us (that I know of) have a degree in ethology (animal behavior). Consequently, we call ourselves (for lack of a better title), “parrot behavior consultants.” Our purpose is simple — but not easy. We spend hours each day trying to teach people how to deal with the behavior problems they are encountering in their parrots, educating these owners about the intelligent and complex creatures in their care. We do this one-on-one through house calls and phone consultations, or with large groups through lectures, seminars and publications.

It is no doubt unanimous that our absolute favorite type of call is a new baby consultation — when we teach people how to get off on the right foot with their new parrot. It’s so much easier to prevent problems than to try to fix them later.

Endless Variety from the Same Cause

The behavior problems we encounter cover a tremendous variety, including biting, cage territoriality, over-dependence, phobias, obsessive bonding, feather plucking and excessive screaming. (Note the italics — a normal, healthy parrot is NOT a quiet animal. Like they say, “If you want a quiet pet, get a reptile.”) Without exception, these aberrant behaviors are different manifestations of the same underlying problem: a lack of control by the owner. They are also correctable to varying degrees.

There IS hope….

So, if your adorable young parrot is developing behavior problems as it matures, there is hope — depending more on YOU than on the bird. You need to learn how to properly socialize your baby, to teach it how to interact with its human flock and how to establish yourself in the position of flock leader. YOU need to learn how to change the patterns that may have contributed to the development of these problem behaviors. For example, probably the greatest mistake we have made with baby parrots is to accidentally give them the nonverbal information that they outrank us. We accomplish this in two classic ways. First, we do not require them to do anything they do not want to do. (”But he doesn’t LIKE taking a bath…”) Secondly and most especially, we put them above eye level on high cage-top playpens and on human shoulders.

Gradual Improvements

The mistakes we have made with parrots in captivity are many, but as we learn, their physical, medical and psychological care improves. This improvement will continue as long as we so-called “higher life forms” (and I admit I am skeptical about this) are still open to learning about the life around us.

Liz Wilson, Certified Veterinary Technician, has been assisting pet bird owners with parrot behavior problems for over a decade through lectures, phone consultations, and house calls in the Greater Philadelphia area

She can be reached at (215) 946-5964 9AM - 9PM M-F
Website: http://www.upatsix.com/liz

NURTURING GUIDANCE WHAT IS IT & HOW DOES IT WORK?

If you have done much reading about pet parrots and behavior, you have probably encountered the phrase, nurturing guidance — a concept developed by Sally Blanchard, author of the Parrot Psychology column in BIRD TALK MAGAZINE and editor of THE PET BIRD REPORT. From my experience as a parrot behavior consultant, the establishment of a relationship of nurturing guidance is the single most important component to enjoying years and years of cohabitation with a parrot. Without it, a parrot is often unclear as to his position within his human flock…or worse yet, through other mistakes made by his well-meaning owner, the parrot receives the nonverbal information that it is the head of the flock.

The result of this linguistic misunderstanding is not pleasant — a parrot in control of its human flock is an animal that is out of control. A parrot is genetically a wild animal (whether it is domestic-bred or not) who has some basic instinctual information about survival in the rain forests, but it has not a clue regarding adaptation to a person’s living room. A parrot also may have some basic information regarding the responsibilities of a flock leader, but not the foggiest idea how to supervise the behaviors of all the different life forms (humans, cats, dogs, hamsters, goldfish, gerbils….) it may encounter in captivity.

The analogy I like to use is that of a person who has been hired for a management position. The job isn’t fully explained except for one thing: there are several people to supervise. However, no matter what the new manager does, the people under his supervision totally ignore the orders they are given. A person placed in that situation would probably exhibit increased tension resulting in a variety of unhealthy things like yelling, temper tantrums, nail chewing, etc.. In parrots, the result can be unacceptable behaviors like cage territoriality, biting, screaming, and feather plucking.

Out of Control….
I think all parrot behavior consultants agree on one thing: the behavior problems commonly seen in captive parrots are a direct result of a lack of control on the part of the human, and too much control on the part of the parrot. So it is obvious that a person cohabiting with a parrot must establish that (s)he [the human] is the head of the flock and the parrot is in a submissive position within said flock. Sounds simple enough – but how does one do it?

Actually, from my experience, it is simple. By establishing a relationship of nurturing guidance by teaching and consistently using four basic commands, you can successfully demote your parrot from its perceived position as head of the flock. These commands – Up, Down, No and OK — block the parrot from making major decisions, such as whether or not it will come out of (or off of) the cage, whether or not it will go back into the cage, whether or not it will stop biting or screaming, etc. etc. These commands will NOT, however, turn a parrot into a little robot, so that is not a concern. These commands will also not remove all decision-making from the parrot’s life, because a certain amount of decision-making is important for an intelligent animal’s mental health. The parrot still has critical decisions to make regarding which food to eat (or fling) next, which toy must be beaten into submission next, etc. etc..

The First Command
The first command is Up. The meaning of this command is simple — Up’ means step onto a human hand NOW. It does NOT mean, step onto a human hand IF the parrot is in the mood. Many people think their parrots are trained to this command, but when questioned in detail, it turns out the bird may know what the word means, but only follows it when it wants to – and if so, that parrot is NOT trained to the Up command. Just as one expects a properly-trained dog to sit when it is told to sit, when one says ”Up”, the parrot MUST step up, not some of the time or most of the time but ALL of the time. This is the human’s decision, not the bird’s.

The most important thing to understand about this command is this: It’s purpose is not JUST to get the bird on one’s hand — it’s purpose is to remind the bird that the PERSON the one making the major decisions, NOT the parrot.

As with all commands taught to animals, the use of a single word is generally more effective than multiple words, so ”Up” is often more effective than ”Step up” and definitely more effective than ”Baby-get-on-my-hand-like-mommy’s-good-little-birdy” or what Blanchard calls ”motor-boating” with ”upupupupupupup”.

Command #2
Down is command #2 is and it means step off the human hand onto an inanimate object (such as a perch), NOW. This is not a directional thing — if one wants a parrot to step up onto a high perch, the command is still Down. This is the command one uses when it’s time for the bird to go back in its cage so the human can leave for work, neatly circumventing the bird-glued-to-a-hand routine. One of my clients told me a story about her macaw that I thoroughly enjoyed. She had the macaw on her shoulder [which is NOT recommended] and was trying to get him off her shoulder and up onto the top of his cage by saying, ”Step up, Freddie, UP”. Well, Freddie apparently had a much better grasp of the proper use of these commands because he looked her in the eye and said “DOWN,” then stepped onto the cage!

Commands #3 & #4
Command #3 is No and I don’t suppose anyone needs any explanation of this one — all parrot owners already use it with varying degrees of success. However, the human companion will be delighted to find that this word gains tremendous potency when a parrot is properly trained. After all, when your boss says No, you listen!

The fourth and last command is Okay and this is the release command. This is used when the parrot really wants to do something and the human wishes to give the bird permission. In this manner, it becomes the human’s idea, NOT the bird’s. For example, the bird is on your hand but obviously really wants to go to your spouse — so you say ”Okay” and your spouse says ”Up”. So the decision becomes the person’s, NOT the parrot’s… ….which is the whole point.

Lesson Time and Place….
To teach these commands, one only needs a neutral room and a neutral perch. In this situation, ”neutral” is defined as something the parrot does not already consider to be his own property, such as his cage or his jungle gym (or his sofa). To attempt to teach commands with the parrot sitting on what he considers to be HIS turf is an exercise in futility. We humans tend to underestimate just how territorial a bird can be, and learning this can be a painful lesson. Just remember that propagation of the species is the prime directive for any animal, and protection of one’s nest falls under that heading. The subject of cage territoriality is a very important one, and it is addressed ad nauseum in another article.

Lessons should be given once or twice a day for no longer than fifteen to twenty minutes. If done more than once, they should be several hours apart. You should make sure you are relaxed before you begin, or it is guaranteed the lesson will not go well. Parrots are incredibly empathic creatures that often mirror our moods — so if you start a lesson in an angry or aggressive mood, for example, don’t be surprised if you get bitten. Smile, be patient, and always end the lesson on a positive note.

Be Mod Philosophy
The concept of behavior modification is quite simple — to give positive reinforcement for good behaviors and to (and this is the hard part) ignore bad behaviors. So when the parrot follows a command, smile at him and/or tell him he is wonderful. When he does not, ignore the transgression and simply repeat the command, pushing gently but firmly at his legs or lower chest. Say the command clearly and decisively, like you expect the parrot to do as you say. If you don’t really expect him to behave, he probably won’t.

Always remember that parrots prefer to step up than down, so hold your hand a little above the perch for an Up command, and slightly below for a Down. Your hand position is also important — hold it as if you are going to shake hands, except that the hand is held parallel to the perch on which the bird is sitting. Your elbow is bent and held close to your waist so there is no clear, inviting pathway to your shoulder.

Perch Training
And while you are teaching your parrot to step up onto your hand, take a few extra minutes and also teach him/her to step onto a hand-held perch on command, also. This will come in handy later, especially with headstrong birds like Amazons and macaws, who can become quite aggressive during spring nesting behavior. An Amazon in full display (neck feathers up, tail feathers fanned, eyes flashing madly), is better handled with a perch — your healing time will be greatly diminished.

This trick will also come in handy if you have an inexperienced person bird-sitting when you’re out of town. Inexperienced people are often much less afraid of parrots if they don’t have to get the bird directly onto their hand, so your feathered friend will have a better chance at getting out-of-cage time if he’s perch trained.

To Shoulder Or Not To Shoulder…
The subject of shouldering is NOT a controversial one. Every parrot behavior consultant I know agrees that the owner who allows a bird to shoulder is an owner who is asking for trouble. Forget the pirate movies you watched as a child — allowing a parrot on your shoulder is ASKING FOR TROUBLE. Yes, it is convenient, and yes, most people think it is cool… but be very aware of exactly what you are accomplishing by doing this. By allowing a parrot on your shoulder you are putting him above eye level. When you put a companion parrot above eye level, you are giving him the nonverbal information that he outranks you. Consequently, all your little training sessions might very well be a waste of time — they will not negate the parrot’s belief that you are subservient to him (after all, that’s what you TOLD him!).

The second critical thing you accomplish by allowing a bird to shoulder is that you have exposed a tremendously vulnerable part of your anatomy to that beak. After twenty years as a veterinary technician, I have plenty of scars in a variety of places and frankly, scars generally don’t concern me. If I cared about getting scars, I would’ve found an easier way to make a living. But from personal experience, I can tell you that being bitten in the face is a completely different story. Even without the danger of loss of an eye or other permanent disfigurement, being bitten in the face can have a permanent negative effect on your relationship with your parrot. Psychologically, it can take a long time, IF EVER, that you will learn to trust the bird again. It is simply not worth risking permanent damage to your relationship — as well as your anatomy.

And even if you don’t care about the potential of losing a nose, ear or eye, I wish to point out one more thing: forgetting a bird is on your shoulder and walking outside with it is one of the most common ways people have lost parrots – especially if you haven’t been paying attention and the bird’s wings are starting to grow out.

Conclusion
From my experience, if you follow these guidelines and use these commands clearly and consistently, life with your parrot should improve immensely. You must be patient, though – habits can be hard to break, both for your parrot and you. It took time for your parrot to learn the behaviors he exhibits and it will take time for him to change. But more importantly, it will take time for you to remember to be consistent with the commands, and until you are consistent you cannot expect a change in the behaviors of your parrot. But believe me, it is well worth the time and effort for years of enjoyable cohabitation with that amazing little life form called a parrot.

This article was first published in CAGED BIRD HOBBYIST

Liz Wilson, Certified Veterinary Technician, has been assisting pet bird owners with parrot behavior problems for over a decade through lectures, seminars, phone and in-home consultations.

She can be reached at (215) 946-5964 9AM - 9PM M-F
Website: http://www.upatsix.com/liz

ADOPTING AN OLDER PARROT: The ULTIMATE In Recycling

A woman in my area was planning to buy an African grey, and we’d talked extensively on the phone about good local breeders, local pet stores, what to look for, what to ask, etc., etc.. I enjoyed talking with Anne a great deal — she was trying to make an educated decision, and was carefully learning everything she could before she bought her first parrot. This is really refreshing, since most beginning parrot people (including myself when I got my first bird) seek help only AFTER they’ve screwed up. (She also had a very funny black sense of humor which didn’t hurt either!)

Fruitless Search
However, when Anne contacted one of the better local aviculturists, she discovered to her dismay that the lady had no more babies. There wouldn’t be babies in the future, either, since the lady had unfortunately burned out and was discontinuing her breeding operation. After talking to Anne for a while, the (ex)breeder did comment that she had one bird that needed a home — a sweet little 1� year old Congo grey named Timmy who had been kept as a personal pet.

Anne remembered what she’d read and been told by various sources –“You have to get a parrot as a young baby so it’ll bond to you” or worse yet, “You have to hand feed a parrot so it will bond to you.” Obviously, at eighteen months this individual was totally weaned and no longer a young baby.

Old Wives Tales
The old wives’ tales are rampant about parrots and bonding and most, from my experience, are simply not true. So let’s look at this stuff about bonding and hand feeding, and bonding and young birds.

The fact is, hand feeding is a dangerous process when done by a novice. This needs to be said over and over — I don’t think that it can be said too much. In the 20 years I worked with avian veterinarians, I have seen too many times how easy it is for an inexperienced hand feeder to do serious physical and psychological damage to an unweaned parrot chick — indeed, many parrot babies do not survive the human’s learning process.

Aviculturist Bobbi Brinker told me an amazing story the other day. Dr. Branson Richie is the veterinary microbiologist who has made stupendous breakthroughs in the field of avian virology, such as the tests for the Beak and Feather virus and the polyoma virus, as well as the polyoma vaccine. However, he commented to Bobbi that these achievements would pale in comparison to convincing people not to sell or buy unweaned parrot chicks. Rather strong statement, don’t you think?

Incredible Responsibilities…
The process of hand feeding a baby parrot is an extremely complex matter, with tremendous potential for disaster. The training a novice hand feeder requires simply cannot be covered in a couple of minutes prior to the purchase of an unweaned chick.

So why, you ask, is the inexperienced parrot buying public so willing to take on that kind of incredible responsibility? From my own experience, they aren’t. In my VERY short career of working in a pet store, I was not comfortable selling unweaned bappies,

but I was not in a position to change store policy. Consequently, I could not refuse to sell an unweaned chick. However, I was delighted to find I didn’t have to — once the possible dangers were clearly and unemotionally explained, people quickly changed their minds about wanting to hand feed. They were delighted to have experienced personnel finish off the process.

So if hand feeding is so potentially dangerous, why is it that so many people are encouraged to take home an unweaned chick after minimal teaching? Simple, really — it has to do with “The Bottom Line.” Hand feeding is incredibly labor intensive. The sooner a parrot chick is sold, the higher the profit ratio for the store or breeder. So it behooves the seller to convince the buyer that hand feeding is safe and easy.

Does “Let the buyer beware” sound familiar, anyone?

Bonding, Garbage and Hogwash
The garbage about parrots only bonding to the person who hand feeds is simply that: GARBAGE. As to the stuff about parrots only bonding as a baby, that’s also hogwash. The subject of bonding is a complex one, worthy of an article in itself. Suffice it to say, you do not need to be the one holding the syringe to have a parrot learn to bond to you — in the long run, bappies don’t care who is holding the syringe. For a parrot to bond to you, you need to be the one that nurtures and teaches and protects… and the one the bird learns to trust.

After all, people have kept parrots as pets for thousands of years, and those birds were wild animals who were captured and tamed, NOT babies that were hand fed by humans. Hand fed parrot chicks only appeared routinely in the pet trade about twenty years ago. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again — Do you actually think that no human ever had a bonded relationship with a parrot prior to twenty years ago?

What About Older Birds?
So, what about giving an adolescent or adult parrot a chance? As always, there are variables. For example, there is the apparently nice bird on consignment in a pet store? This not a hard and fast rule, but I would suggest caution. From my own experience, most parrots on consignment in pet stores have behavior problems. (Please, guys, before you start writing letters — please note the use of the word “most“.) The people in the store tell you a really sad story about how it is a wonderful bird, but the owner MUST get rid of it. Reasons given generally include things like the owner is moving or pregnant or “got a new job and doesn’t have the time.” In my opinion, this makes no sense. After all, does a person put their kids up for adoption when they move, or become pregnant with the next kid?

The REAL Reason
From my experience, when the bond between a parrot and a human is not strong, then any major life change can become a good excuse for getting rid of a bird. These excuses generally cover the fact that (whether the owners admit it to themselves or not), there is a problem with the bird.

Now, that problem could be the humans, NOT the bird’s. Often, the beauty and potential talking ability of parrots will lead people to an impulse buy, and unfortunately many pet stores do their best to capitalize on that. Later, these people may decide they don’t really like cohabiting with a parrot. After all, parrots can be a real pain at times. You may have noticed that. So the bird goes up for sale.

This is not because the parrot did anything wrong — parrot’s can’t be anything but parrots. So if a person with really sensitive hearing or an allergy to feathers can’t live with them, that is not the bird’s fault.

Prefab Behavior Problems
However, many of the parrots on consignment in pet stores are there because they are screamers, or because they are aggressive. Now that does NOT mean they will never make a good pet, or that they don’t deserve a chance — far from it. But the subject of rehabilitating parrots with behavior problems is not an issue I’m going to tangle here. That should be done in a whole separate article. However, I will stick in a quote, here — to give everyone a jolt of reality regarding some of these birds and some of the stores that sell them. There is a pet store owner in my area who supposedly made the following comment: “I love selling parrots, because I get to sell them over and over and over…..” Food for thought.

However…..
If the bird needing a home is a parrot who was raised by someone who values socialization and behavioral limits, then as far as I am concerned, go for it! These animals can make excellent pets, and they deserve every chance to prove it.

True, these birds are no longer babies and may be more reserved at first. Bappies love just about everyone — they would probably love an ax murderer just as much as they would love you — when they are bappies, anyway. An older bird may take a little while to warm up to you — but so what? No, we are not talking about instant gratification, here — we are actually talking about having to work for something, just a little bit. But oh, the rewards!

Ann’s Choice
So back to Ann and the choice she had to make… Having spoken with people like me, she remembered being warned about the potential dangers of hand feeding. She had never owned a parrot, and thought that would not be a great way to start. She decided that getting an older bird was a great idea. So home she came with Timmy, the year and a half old African grey. His breeder had an excellent reputation for nurturing and socializing her chicks, and he had been her pet.

The Honeymoon or Break-In Period
When a parrot changes environment, often it also changes some behaviors. Its established behavior patterns of the past were centered around the bird’s territory. When a parrot changes homes, then, there is a window in time during which it is settling in, before it has established its new territory. During that time, everything is neutral territory. That window is open for around 10-14 days. During that time, new rules and behaviors are much more easily implemented. After that magic two weeks, the parrot has reestablished old patterns in its new home.

People call me all the time about this wonderful bird they found on consignment. They brought it home from the shop and the bird was fabulous….for a couple of weeks. Then the parrot started biting/screaming/what ever. They thought the bird had changed and didn’t understand why. I would explain that in reality, the bird had changed back.

Oddly enough, many sources of information about parrots tell a new owner to leave the bird alone in the cage for the first couple of weeks, to let the animal “settle in.” In my opinion, this is exactly what the new owner DOES NOT want to do. After all, the bird doesn’t have its own agenda established, yet. Once that agenda is established, it won’t be impossible to change him — it is rarely impossible to change a parrot’s behavior — but it will be more difficult.

Ann and Timmy — We Meet
Ann scheduled a consultation with me before the end of the first week of her new life with Timmy. This was excellent timing — it was before the window had closed, and before she had made any serious mistakes. Timmy was already trying out some new behaviors that were going to mean trouble. In an effort to control her new environment, Timmy had become cage bound. She hadn’t been out of the cage in three days and Ann was worried. Timmy would scream and growl and throw herself around the cage on Ann’s approach, and Ann was afraid the little bird would hurt herself.

Following my usual pattern for consultations, Ann and I sat on the couch in Timmy’s room (what used to be the living room) and I watched Timmy while Ann and I talked about the importance of bathing, unfiltered light, rotating toys, diet, etc., etc., etc.. Timmy relaxed after a couple of minutes and started beating up a toy in her cage. It was a very good sign that she relaxed so quickly with a stranger in the room. This bird was going to be just fine.

The Training Begins
Then, much to her horror, I captured Timmy in a towel and removed her from her cage, transferring her to the neutral territory and perch we had already set up. I proceeded to teach Ann (and Timmy) all about what Layne Dicker called The Two Commandments For Parrots: Thou shalt Up and Thou shalt Down. Ann really needed more training than Timmy did, since she was new to the ways of these intelligent and manipulative creatures. (Timmy had dealt with humans before!) However, she had common sense (something that is very UNCOMMON these days) and she learned fast.

Timmy had already bitten her a couple of times, so Ann was a tad beak shy. She would pull away when Timmy lunged. Timmy tried that with me and I didn’t react at all, so the bird stopped. No fun if it doesn’t work, right? So Ann and I talked about how it wasn’t fun to be bitten. I pointed out that I’d never heard of anyone dying from a parrot bite. I also pointed out that Timmy weighed a bit less than a pound.

“That makes her smaller than a dressed down Cornish hen, doesn’t it, Ann?” She thought about that for a minute, then giggled.

“But SHE thinks she’s bigger than that,” she pointed out. I agreed, and added that Timmy had convinced Ann of that, too. However, the reality was that Timmy STILL weighed less than a pound. She laughed again, and approached the little bird with more confidence. After all, the bird weighed less than a pound.

Follow-ups
Follow-ups are important to me. As a human trains a parrot (as opposed to visa versa), questions and problems come up that need to be addressed. I also need to be sure that my teaching was effective. So follow-ups are a indispensable and educational part of my work. To encourage people to call back with updates, there is no additional charge for them — except to the phone company if they are long distance. They are a essential part of the process so they’re included in the initial fee. When Ann called back, she and Timmy were doing much better than she’d expected. I wasn’t surprised, however — I knew they would be fine.

Conclusions…..
Timmy has boarded with me several times since then, and she has blossomed into one of the sweetest parrots I know. Ann has done an excellent joy with her. Consequently, I thoroughly enjoy it when Timmy stays here. Actually, I have to admit that I wouldn’t mind having this bird permanently — and that is not a usual reaction for me. After all these years of working with other people’s parrots, few of them really get under my skin. (Actually, there is only one other parrot that I feel that way about — another African grey that was also adopted as an adult, interestingly enough.)

So the moral of the story is obvious. If you are looking for a baby parrot but find a well recommended older bird instead, don’t simply walk away. Ann didn’t, and she ended up with one of the most special birds I know. There are some fabulous “older” birds out there that will make excellent life long companions.

This article was first printed in THE PET BIRD REPORT, Issue #29.

Liz Wilson, Certified Veterinary Technician, has been assisting pet bird owners with parrot behavior problems for over a decade through lectures, seminars, phone and in-home consultations.

She can be reached at (215) 946-5964 9AM - 9PM M-F
Website: http://www.upatsix.com/liz

PARROTS & CHANGE Is It REALLY So Dangerous??

In the twenty-three years that I have lived with Sam, 35+ year old female my blue and gold macaw, we’ve been through a lot of changes, the least of which was moving ten times. When I first started living with her, I was a full-time animal technician student and was home studying many hours per day. After graduation, I worked at a 24 hour veterinary emergency practice and my shift changed every three days. I endured that craziness for two years , then went to work for the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, supervising the small animal practicum for animal nursing students.

Sam for sale…??!?
I came very close to selling Sam four years later, when I first started working extremely long hours. That was about fifteen years ago, when I took on supervising a second department at the U of P Vet School. I had loved parrots for years and was also fascinated with other exotic animals like reptiles, so when I was offered a chance to create and supervise an exotic animal department I could not pass it up. I began working 10-12 hour days, and was on call every night and week-end.

For the first time in the eight years Sam and I had been together, I felt she received much too little attention for a prolonged period of time. She had her radio to listen to, and plenty of wooden toys to chew in her 4′ x 3’ x 3′ cage, but she didn’t have the companionship to which she was accustomed. Needless to say, I felt very guilty and came extremely close to finding another home for her.

However, I didn’t. I loved her - I did not want to face life without her.

Life Settles Down a Little
After a couple of years of working myself into a physical collapse, I left the U of P and went to work for an avian practitioner. My working hours settled into something more “normal”, and I had a lot more time again to spend with Sam. I even had days off! Much to my delight, I found that she and I were able to pick up where we left off — in other words, she was still my best friend and she forgave me for my neglect.

Craziness Strikes Again
Two years later, I cofounded an exotic animal practice and took on the job as hospital manager. I went back to working ten to fourteen hour days, eight days a week and carried a beeper for emergencies. The rare times that I was home I was so tired all I could do was sit and stare at the wall. Sam had her physical needs taken care of, but was again emotionally neglected.

Working For Myself
After about two years of that madness, another change! I started my own boarding and grooming business, then began to do behavior work with parrots — with lots of free lance writing and lots of telephone consultations. Now my office is in my home, and I have more time again to spend with Sam. And once again, she was there waiting for me, still my best buddy and glad to welcome me back.

The point of this story is simple: once you have established a good, solid relationship with a parrot based on love and good care and nurturing dominance, then that relationship becomes like a good marriage. True, Sam did not get as much attention as she wanted and needed for large chunks of time, but that did not mean that she gave up on me. She tolerated life’s fickle inconstancies, and remained my friend.

Parrots stressed by change?
Many pet bird magazines go on and on about how stressful change is to pet birds. The same message is preached constantly — a concerned bird owner should do everything in their power to keep routines the same every day. To quote a regular column in BIRD TALK, “Living With Birds” from the August, ‘93 issue, “They [birds] do not like change in their surroundings, and stress from that change will shorten lives.”

I agree that parrots, like humans, are creatures of habit and routine. Like humans, they need to know that their basic needs of food and shelter will be fulfilled on a daily basis. But I have found from personal and from my clients’ experiences that parrots are much more adaptable than most people seem to think.

For example, I have been boarding birds in my home for many years. Many people initially want me to go into their homes to care for their pets, because they are convinced that changing the bird’s surroundings would be too stressful. In the past when I had more time, I would do this but discouraged it — I am not as comfortable only seeing an animal for a limited time per day. But when birds stay with me, I own a good scale and weigh new boarders daily to be certain of adequate food consumption - and not once have I encountered any appreciable weight loss. Of the hundreds of birds I have boarded in my home, most have actually gained weight during their stay.

Taught by the flock…
Sam, as a wild-caught bird, was probably taught to adapt to change by her parents and the rest of her flock. After all, I think it is highly unlikely that everything is routine and unchanging in the wild environments these birds have lived in for thousands of years. What with changes in weather, food sources, etc., about the only real constant might be when the sun comes up in the morning and goes down at night. Wild parrots may return to the same feeding area day after day, but if the food source has dried up or a predator is lurking about, the wild parrot must be adaptable and come up with alternatives. It’s survival depends on it.

Problems with Domestics
As an avian behavior consultant, I find that serious problems arise with domestic-bred parrots that have been protected from change by their well-meaning human parents. Without exposure to change, the young parrot never learns to be adaptable. As a result, the parrot becomes inflexible — and a creature that is inflexible is much more vulnerable in the long run. After all, we know that parrots have the capacity for extremely long lives — as long as eighty-plus years for the Amazons. And who among us feels that we can provide an unchanging routine for eighty-plus years? I know that I can’t.

So when change does come, as it al-ways will, these young domestics often don’t have the flexibility to cope — leading to classic behavior problems like feather plucking, biting and excessive screaming.

Teaching Them That Change Can Be Fun
Consequently, I think that parrots must be taught to accept change in their lives, not be protected from it. Filling a bird’s life with interesting changes in location, people, toys, and food will help produce a mentally healthy, well-socialized and self-confident companion parrot.

So instead of keeping to rigid patterns, parrot companions should be slowly introduced to changes that are non-threatening. Move their cages periodically, and rotate toys every few days. Take them into different rooms in your home. Take them for rides in the car, and visit different friends. Send them to a “slumber party” — to stay overnight with a special human friend. Take them with you on vacation, if possible. Offer tremendous variety in their diet, so they don’t become rigid in their eating habits. In other words, teach them that change is fun and interesting and non-threatening.

Peace of Mind
Then you won’t have to worry what will happen if unforeseeable changes occur in your life — emergency hospitalizations, business trips, job changes, etc.. You won’t feel that you have to find another home for your parrot if you suddenly have less time to devote to it, because it will have learned to be adaptable. You will have taught your little feathered friend how to cope, so you will have peace of mind when you face, as we all do, an unpredictable future.

This article first appeared in THE PET BIRD REPORT Issue # 12 Vol.3 No.4

Liz Wilson, Certified Veterinary Technician, has been assisting pet bird owners with parrot behavior problems for over a decade through lectures, phone consultations, and house calls in the Greater Philadelphia area.

She can be reached at (215) 946-5964 9AM - 9PM M-F
Website: http://www.upatsix.com/liz

DEMYSTIFYING VETERINARY MEDICINE * Especially Regarding Avians *

Many years ago, I was privileged to witness the following scene. A young vet, recently graduated from veterinary school, was dealing with the owners of an EXTREMELY over-weight beagle. He was trying to explain to them about putting their dog on a diet, and launched cheerfully into a rather extraordinarily complex lecture on calories as a unit of heat quantity, calories burned via exercise vs. calories stored due to inactivity, kilocalories, etc., etc.. His explanation, sprinkled liberally with medical terms and 3-4 syllable words, went on for several minutes. When he finished, he asked the owners if they had any questions. The couple shifted uncomfortably and exchanged bewildered looks..…… then the husband spoke up.

“That mean she cain’t eat no taters no more?” he asked.

Communication Breakdown
Needless to say, that newly-graduated veterinarian had completely lost his clients with his explanation. He not only failed to communicate, but actually increased the owners’ confusion. Since that was obviously not the veterinarian’s purpose, why did he do it? Simple. In the process of going through veterinary school, students have to learn the incredible complexities of a medical vocabulary. Multisyllabic Latin words replace common ones, so a nosebleed becomes “epistaxis”, and a simple and unattractive thing like a hairball becomes a fantastic, romantic-sounding “trichobezoar. ” (Think I’m kidding? Hey, I haven’t the imagination to make up these words! Look them up in a medical dictionary, if you don’t believe me.)

In the process of getting fluent in this new language, many veterinary students seem to lose track of their regular, everyday vocabulary. Speaking medical jargon becomes so second nature that they no longer realize they are not speaking a language understood by everyone.

Once graduated, they often have a terrible time communicating with their clients — not, as many people assume, because they want to make the layman feel stupid, but because they simply no longer know how to talk any other way.

Therefore, should your vet use an unintelligible word in a conversation with you, do them a favor — ask what that word means. That is the only way the vet will learn what words are or are not understandable to their clients. It also reminds them to speak English!

Other Apparent Weirdness
Veterinarians, especially avian veterinarians, do other strange and unintelligible things as far as their clients are concerned. For example, you are a brand new bird owner and you take your new friend to be checked by your friendly local avian veterinarian. While taking the history, he or she asks you where you purchased the bird.

Your answer to that question may very well affect the way your animal is treated medically. In other words, your vet may wish to do minimal testing if the bird came from some sources — whereas from other sources, your vet may want to do every test known to avian medicine. The reason for this is obvious….once it is pointed out. Your vet is often aware of disease problems associated with certain stores and/or breeders, but he/she cannot explain that to you without risking expensive liability suits.

Avian Medicine Still In infancy
Avian medicine is still more an art form than a science. The Association of Avian Veterinarians (AAV) is the only national (and now international) organization dealing with birds and veterinary medicine, and it has only been in existence for about 15 years. Considering how young avian medicine is, it is absolutely incredible how far it has come in such a short time.

But there is still so much to learn, so much unknown.

Consequently, some diseases are more difficult to diagnose than others, and some are absolutely impossible. Some of the diseases that are in the “impossible to definitively diagnose” category include many viral diseases such as Pacheco’s, which is generally diagnosed only on autopsy.

A very common disease that is in the “difficult to diagnose” category called psittacosis or chlamydiosis… better known as “Parrot Fever”. There are a variety of tests that avian vets can use to rule out this disease, but most of them are capable of producing false negatives or false positives. This means that the tests are not always conclusive in themselves — the avian vet often needs additional information in the form of other testing. Often, good avian vets will chose to treat a bird for psittacosis even when all testing comes back negative. This is because their experience indicates the potential, despite test results. So much of avian medicine is still based on the instincts and experience of the veterinarian, rather than concrete test results.

Controversy in the Avian Veterinary World
One subject considered controversial among avian vets has to do with the interpretation of culture results. A culture is a test where-by the doctor takes a sample (with a sterile cotton-tipped applicator) from bird’s mouth (specifically the slit in the roof of the mouth called the choanal slit or choana) and/or the vent (cloaca). Simply put, any potentially disease-producing bacteria, yeast or fungus found are grown out in a laboratory and identified.

The controversy has to do with what are called “pathogenic” (disease producing) bacteria. Some avian vets feel that the finding of any pathogenic bacteria (no matter how few) necessitates treatment with an antibiotic. Others feel there are other variables to consider. These would include the following:

1) where the bacteria are found (mouth or vent);

2) the amount of growth (very light growth? heavy growth?);

3) the age of the patient

4) the general condition of the patient; and

5) (and this is really important) the know-ledge and experience of the owner.

Let me explain each of these variables in more detail, because it’s important that bird owners understand.

Location: Most avian vets expect some light growth of pathogenic bacteria from the vent or cloaca. After all, the GI tract of any animal is far from clean, and by itself this result does not necessarily indicate disease. Many avian vets feel one can also find light growths of pathogenic bacteria from the mouth if the bird is eating fresh vegetables and fruits, no matter how carefully these foodstuffs are washed. These bacteria are considered “transitory” — in other words, they are on their way through the GI tract (as we say, “in Column A and out Column B”) and are not causing a medical problem.

Amount of Growth: As stated, light growth is often transient, but heavy growth of a pathogenic bacteria, from either end, is generally considered significant.

Age of the Patient: As with all animals (humans, too), babies are more at risk than adults because their immune system is not as experienced at combating disease. Also, when they get sick, the illness can progress at much greater speed. Consequently, bappies generally get treated with antibiotics more often than adult parrots.

General Condition of the Patient: A clinically normal, bright and alert parrot at good weight is less likely to need treatment with antibiotics than a bird that is obviously ill. However, the bird may look clinically normal, but the owner may describe a decrease in noise level, mess, etc. — all indications that a problem is developing. In this situation, the vet may (will probably?) choose to treat. If a bird looks clinically normal but has been on a nutritionally poor diet (i.e., predominantly seed), the odds are also better that the vet will elect to treat the animal. After all, sooner or later a crummy diet will catch up with the bird (and the owner), and odds are that is what is happening now.

The Knowledge & Experience of the Owner: Someone who is an experienced bird owner, who is well versed in the subtlety with which birds show symptoms of illness, can be trusted to recognize tiny changes in a bird’s demeanor that may indicate the bird’s physical condition is going downhill. With owners like this, a veterinarian is safe adopting a “wait and see” attitude, trusting the owner to respond if there is a change for the worse. On the other hand, an inexperienced owner may fail to recognize the gravity of the situation as a bird’s condition disintegrated, often waiting too long to seek veterinary assistance. In situations like this, it is ALWAYS the animal that pays the highest price.

But she SAID she understood….
An experience I had many years ago illustrates this. A very nice lady brought her sick budgie to the avian veterinary hospital where I worked. My vet put the little bird on medication, and arranged for a reexam the following week. The lady SEEMED to understand when my vet explained she should keep a close eye on the bird and CALL IMMEDIATELY if it seemed to get worse. Under NO circumstance should she wait until the scheduled reexam if there was any question about the bird’s condition. We didn’t hear from her at all that week, so we assumed that no news is good news, as they say.

However, when she walked in for the reexam appointment, we learned we were very, very wrong. The little bird was in terrible shape, MUCH sicker than he’d been the week before. It was the end of the day, so we admitted the budgie and sent the lady home.

Much to my horror, that little bird became one of the few birds (one of five in twenty years, actually) that died in my hand as the vet and I worked frantically to save it. My older sister happened to be visiting from out of town that day, and that was when she learned that her little sister could swear like a sailor when she was really angry! I was absolutely FURIOUS with the owner — I simply could not believe she didn’t realize the little bird was getting worse……

However, the reality was that the lady was neither evil nor uncaring — she really DID NOT understand. We thought we’d explained it properly, but for whatever reason, the information had not penetrated. Moral of the story? When it comes to avian medicine, if the vets are not sure, they have to ASSUME THE WORSE as to the level of the owners’ understanding. Therefore, when it comes to an inexperienced owner, it is probably better to over-treat a bird, than it is to under-treat.

To Treat Or Not To Treat
So what do I mean about “over-treatment” and “under-treatment”? Simply put, to “over- treat” means to use medications too much, to treat animals with medicine who probably would do fine with no treatment at all. Over-treating can cause serious problems, since any strong medicine has potential side effects. For example, human doctors using antibiotics too freely has resulted in more and more strains of bacteria that are resistant to most commonly used antibiotics. This has forced human medical research to come up with stronger and stronger antibiotics – and stronger and stronger drugs generally mean worse potential side effects.

To “under-treat” is to do the opposite — to not prescribe medications when medications should be used. This situation is perhaps not too dangerous, as long as the animal’s owner is experienced enough to recognize the dangers and get help if the bird starts getting worse.

Whether or not a vet is quick to treat or more comfortable with a wait and see attitude will be based on his or her experience. For example, after that sweet lady didn’t call my vet when she should have, I know my vet tended to perhaps treat too quickly for awhile — which in my mind is very understandable, considering the circumstances.

Conclusions……………?
If at any time you think there may be something wrong with your pet bird, you should immediately take it to your avian veterinarian. While you are there, make very sure of a couple of things. Give your vet as complete and honest a history as possible — there is no telling how useful a detail might be — but try to be succinct, please! If the vet thinks your bird needs treatment, it is your right to discuss your treatment options — if something does not make sense, or you don’t understand, ASK. Your vet wants you to make educated decisions if decisions need to be made. They want you to understand what they are telling you!

The bottom line is that no veterinarian is a god, incapable of making mistakes. Avian medicine is still a very young field, with a tremendous amount to be learned. If you are lucky enough to have a good avian vet, then trust them to do the best they know how. If you don’t trust your vet, then you need to do some looking around.

This article was published first in THE PET BIRD REPORT Issue #25

Liz Wilson, Certified Veterinary Technician, has been assisting pet bird owners with parrot behavior problems for over a decade through lectures, phone consultations, and house calls in the Greater Philadelphia area

She can be reached at (215) 946-5964 9AM - 9PM M-F
Website: http://www.upatsix.com/liz

THE DRAMA REWARD or…. How To Reward Your Parrot Without Really Trying…….!

Not long ago, I received a phone call from a very excited lady who wanted to know how to stop her budgie from chasing her children around the house. My answer was simple: “Tell your kids to stop running!” Obviously, the budgie was having a wonderful time — he would swoop over, shrieking his head off, and the kids would scream and run. What a great game!

Inexperienced parrot owners often make the mistake of rewarding their birds without realizing it, and this can obviously lead to problems — especially when the person thinks he or she is punishing the bird. The most common way to do this is through what we call The Drama Reward

Sally & Bongo Marie
Sally Blanchard tells a wonderful story that really illustrates this concept. Years ago, Sally’s African grey parrot, Bongo Marie, had been chewing on the wooden cafe doors next to her cage, and Sally had understandably been trying to discourage this. So whenever Sally heard the sound of splintering wood, she would come running, yelling “Bongo, BAD BIRD — Get back on your cage!” This routine went on for several months, with the behavior continuing despite Sally’s best efforts. Then one night, with Sally sitting in the same room, Bongo started making the sound of splintering wood!

The moral of the story? Bongo enjoyed Sally’s running in and yelling — that was even more fun than actually chewing on the wood (and heaven knows, parrots LOVE to chew on wood)! Bongo loved the drama of her pet per-son yelling and she also liked making Sally appear when she wanted. Sally may have thought she was reprimanding Bongo for being destructive, but in actuality she was rewarding her!

Rewards for Screaming
I do phone consultations all the time, and one of the more common problems I’m confronted with is excessive screaming. When I ask the owners what they do to stop the bird from making a racket, people usually tell me they do one or more of the following: they rush back into the bird’s room and yell at it, or let it out of the cage, or they give it something to eat to shut it up.

And then the human can’t understand why the hideous noises don’t stop! Obviously, the behavior is going to continue and probably get worse, because the owner is actually rewarding the bird — NOT punishing it.

Fun & Games, Parrot Style: BITING
Parrot owners make the same mistake when they yell at a parrot for biting — the reality is that parrots LOVE it when we yell at them. From the parrot’s point of view, there are few things in the world as much fun as getting your person mad enough to yell at you. Watch closely, and you’ll see the little monster’s eyes flash in excitement! And the next time the little fellow gets bored, don’t be surprised if he bites you, again — just for the fun and excitement of it!

TOE CHASING
Another fun parrot scenario is The Foot Chasing Game. The rules are simple. The parrot gets down on the floor and runs at the feet of the nearest human. The human, anticipating tender toes being bitten, lets out a whoop and dances around the room, waving their arms and yelling. Now, put yourself in the parrot’s place — how could any game be better than this?!!

KEEPAWAY
Another nifty game is what I call “Catch Me If You Can”. It is generally played when the parrot is on top of its cage and the human is late for work and in a hurry to get the bird back in the cage. The owner reaches for the bird. The parrot, fully understanding the joys of this game, ducks and runs to the back of the cage, well out of reach. The human, reacting in true play fashion, yells at the bird, then rushes around to the other side of the cage and makes a grab. The parrot, really getting into it now, faints to the left, dodges to the right, and escapes again. The human is now yelling and getting red in the face, which REALLY tickles the parrot! Times like this, I’ve known certain little feathered individuals to gleefully yell, Bad-Bird-Bad-Bird!! while playing this game. What fun!

Illogical Higher Life Form
In all of these cases, the bird is not trying to be bad at all — it thinks the human is playing, too. It does not understand that the person’s yelling indicates anger — after all, parrots yell simply for the fun of it, right? So it is illogical of us humans (”higher life form” that we’re supposed to be) to expect that they should perceive a human yelling as a reprimand. We humans consider yelling to be negative feedback because we don’t like it when someone yells at us — so we mistakenly assume that our parrots feel the same way — and we are very wrong!

Negative feedback a l� Nurturing Dominance
Since parrots love drama, the point is obviously to avoid drama when you want a particular behavior to stop. If you have a relationship of nurturing dominance established then reprimanding a parrot in a manner it understands is easy. If you are late for work and need to put it in its cage, you simply say Up and your well-trained parrot will step onto your hand, so putting him/her away is ridiculously easy. If your parrot screams from another room, you do absolutely nothing. Under NO circumstance should you go into the room to punish them, because if you do, the next time they want you to appear, they will yell. If your parrot screams for attention when you’re in the same room, you give it a REALLY ugly look (the Evil Eye) and say No in a firm, unfriendly but not loud voice. If your parrot bites, you quietly and firmly say No and ladder the little monster from one hand to the other several times, using the Up command in conjunction with the Evil Eye. (I never felt the need to de-fine the word “several” until I discovered a client laddering her parrot 35-40 times as a reprimand. So several is hereby defined as five or six.)

NOT a fun game….
Parrots do not care for these disciplinary techniques, so the techniques constitute negative, not positive feedback. Consequently, if you are consistent (and that’s the key word) in their use, your parrot will learn not to do the behaviors that result in them. In this manner, you won’t be accidentally rewarding your parrot for behaviors that you would like to eliminate, not reinforce.

This article was first printed in CAGED BIRD HOBBYIST, Vol.2 No. 6

Liz Wilson, Certified Veterinary Technician, has been assisting pet bird owners with parrot behavior problems for over a decade through lectures, phone consultations, and house calls in the Greater Philadelphia area.

She can be reached at (215) 946-5964 9AM - 9PM M-F
Website: http://www.upatsix.com/liz

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