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

Hands On Techniques

By Ken Globus

For years I’ve used the term, “hands-on,” to describe my approach to bird taming. It’s a pro-active approach used to desensitize birds to the things they are avoiding. On the other side of the coin are the “patience” people, who believe that you must wait for a bird to do everything on its own terms, and “come around” in its own time. What if “in its own time” turns out to be never? Sometimes waiting, being too sensitive and passive can make your bird more fragile and actually increase its sensitivity. When patience is getting you nowhere it’s time to take action with a hands-on approach.

Keep in mind that this method is not aimed at teaching “tricks” to birds that are already tame. Or taming birds that are only slightly wild. The birds I’m talking about are biting, fleeing and avoiding contact. In other words, they’re living in constant fear of humans. And their owners have been unable to make progress with them with all the “patience” in the world.

In some cases the birds had never been tamed. In others, they were once hand-fed babies that, because of improper handling and the owner’s lack of techniques, pulled away from their human companions and gradually became more fearful and aggressive. This unfortunate pattern repeats many, many times.

Every time I do a program around the country I ask the audience for a show of hands of who had a tame bird that they now can’t handle. The majority of them raise their hands, which illustrates how common this problem is.

Progressive Desensitization

In order to tame a bird, you first have to get it out of the cage. The Patience People are against taking even this step, which renders the owners helpless. I do this by gently maneuvering the bird out even if it doesn’t want to come out. This enables me to expose it to the situations it is avoiding (coming out of its cage, perching on my hand, doing step-ups, being touched, etc.) long enough to realize that those situations are not dangerous. In other words, through a process of progressive, systematic desensitization you can help birds become comfortable with the very things they have been avoiding. The bird’s afraid of hands? I gently expose it to my touch and very quickly it discovers that my hands won’t hurt it. Aside from being direct, the approach has to be gentle and calm. Never get excited, move quickly or raise your voice no matter how wild, aggressive or noisy a bird gets.

“Seeing is Believing”

Here’s a good example of how progressive desensitization works. Ken helps this Macaw move from biting and hand-shy to calmly enjoying touch in just a few minutes. Photos by David Howell from a Tri-State Avian Society workshop in Tallahassee, FL You can read David’s article, “Seeing Is Believing” Read Article

Downward Spiral

Don’t forget that birds occasionally bite. If it happens to you, don’t be insulted; it’s nothing personal. And don’t feel like a failure. Even tame birds occasionally bite. We frequently see birds nip at each other. That’s how they communicate things like, “This is my perch,” or “Let’s get outa here!”

So, here’s the all too familiar chain of events where normal bird behavior develops into problem behavior and the relationship between bird and owner spirals downward. At a given moment for a reason not always obvious, your bird bites you. Ouch. This makes you wary. You now move your hands more tentatively. Trying to avoid your bird’s beak, you might offer your finger (or hand) a bit lower down for the bird to step-up on, perhaps near its feet. The bird doesn’t feel secure stepping onto that lower perch. Birds don’t like to step down. Or, it feels that your finger is attacking its feet. So, it “beaks” your finger either to test it as a perch before stepping up, or stop it and push it away. Or it outright bites. But now you’re afraid of the bite, so your finger wavers, or jerks away, making an even more precarious perch, which causes the bird to trust it/you less. So, the bird tests that weak perch even more emphatically by biting harder. Now you jerk your hand away. Normal human reflex. And you’re even more nervous. Your hand movements become more erratic, which, to the bird, appears very threatening. So, you offer your hand even lower and more hesitantly. Or you’re afraid to offer it at all. And so on. And so on.

This is how the fear level between bird and owner typically escalates. It turns what was once a warm and friendly relationship into one of mutual fear and mistrust. Your bird is now on its way to becoming hand-shy and aggressive and you’re on your way to becoming bird-shy.

Winging It

My handling approach was developed through dealing with birds during the days when they were mostly wild-caught adults, and extremely aggressive. These were birds that were terrified of humans. If you got near their cage they would throw themselves on their backs, squawking, flapping, screaming, ready to fight for their lives. I tried leaving them alone and found that that did nothing to calm them. Every time you got close to them the pattern of fear would be repeated.

Because my techniques were developed in a vacuum I had no preconceptions. I had never seen anyone tame a bird. But sometimes, ignorance can be the mother of invention. I was forced to be creative, to figure out on my own, a way to get these birds to calm down. I glanced at some of the books on taming, but none of what they described seemed to make sense when working with the wild-caughts. Patience just wasn’t going to get anywhere. And the only teachers I had were the birds themselves. By observing how they reacted to the things I did, I learned what was effective. And they let me know every step of the way.

The Light Comes On

The biggest breakthrough came the first time I got three larger birds at the same time - three wild-caught, adult Umbrella Cockatoos. After I got them back from the quarantine station, I would take the first Cockatoo out to trim its nails and clip the wings. During this grooming the bird would be fighting and screaming bloody murder. Remember, these birds are convinced that I’m out to destroy them. After the grooming, I put the first bird back in the cage with its other, un-groomed pals. Later, I noticed something very interesting: when I approached the cage the other birds were much more afraid of me than the one I had groomed. Even though I had just subjected the bird to the rough handling of a grooming it was now less afraid of me than the ones I hadn’t yet touched.

So, what did I conclude from that? That because the bird had been exposed to a vulnerable situation and survived it unharmed, it began to realize that I wasn’t going to kill it as it had thought. The others, which had not yet had that experience, were still much more afraid of me. This was the key that began to unlock my thinking about assertive handling techniques: expose the birds to what they’re avoiding and they become less afraid of them.

Easy Way Out

Many of the birds I deal with today are nowhere as difficult as those wild-caught adults. It seems to me that most cases now have to do with a bird’s normal tendency to seek what they perceive to be the “easy way out,” and develop some bad habits that cause them to pull away from their owner. Or, it’s a case of miscommunication between owners and birds, with the result being a gradual pulling away and the increase in the mutual fear level.

Many people consider a hands-on approach to be controversial. They believe that anything that exposes birds to an increased amount of stress should be rejected; no matter how little the stress and how short the duration. My approach does expose birds to a temporary increase in their stress level, but so does a visit to the veterinarian or a grooming. Yet we consider those things to be necessary evils, for which it is worth exposing birds to stress. Why isn’t helping a bird come out of its fearful state considered as important as a grooming? I think it is. In fact, I think it’s vital.

The short-term stress of this pro-active approach is much kinder than the long-term stress experienced by birds and owners who live together for years in mutual fear. Imagine being in an environment where you live in constant fear that your captor, some 50 to 100 times your size, may at any moment kill you.

Lifetime of Stress

In another article (”Taming Older Birds”) I relate the story of Nigel, the 25 year-old (at least) Double Yellow headed Amazon that had lived his entire life in fear of his owners. How stressful is that? Nigel felt like a prisoner in his own house, always on the alert, always frightened, backing away, growling, threatening, biting, when anyone came near him. In Nigel’s mind he was certain that his demise could take place at any moment. And this went on for 25 years! Is this a way for a bird and human to live together? I think it’s cruel. When I worked with Nigel, he went through a half hour of stress until he reached a point where he realized I wasn’t really a threat. It was as if a switch flipped in his brain and he suddenly became relaxed, trusting and wanting human contact. The stress he had lived with all his life, more than 25 years, was gone and a new relationship had begun.

If I had waited for Nigel to volunteer to come out of the cage in his own time, on his terms, another quarter century might have passed. Yet, using progressive techniques of systematic desensitization, I exposed Nigel to the things he was terrified of, and now he’s living without fear and aggression.

Parrot Food Recipes

“Quinoa Breakfast of Champions”Quinoa (pronounced “keen-nwa”) is a South American grain that is high in protein, calcium, and phosphorous. Probably the most nutritious grain in the world, it is an excellent food for parrots, either sprouted and served raw, or cooked, as in this recipe. It is available in most health food stores as a bulk grain.

1 cup quinoa
2-3 cups water
Corn kernels
Chopped carrots
Raisins and/or dried apples (unsulphured, found in health food stores)
Cinnamon stick

Boil 2 cups of water, add quinoa. Cook for 10 minutes, then add veggies and dried fruit. Cook another 5 minutes or until the quinoa grain is clearish and has a tiny tail sprouting from it. You may have to add a little more water if it gets too dry too quickly. Let cool. Serve. You can put almost any veggies or fruits in this recipe.

“Birdie Bread”

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup yellow corn meal
2 tsp baking power
3/4 tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
1 Tbs sugar
2 eggs with shells
3 Tbs oil (your preference)
1 cup buttermilk

Grease an 8″ pan with Pam. Mix dry ingredients. Wash eggs then pulverize in blender. Mix in oil and buttermilk, then mix in dry ingredients. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool and cut into small squares and freeze.
Variations: Fruits, veggies, peppers, nuts, etc. can be added to the mixture if you like.
“I Yam What I Yam”
(six servings)

Yams are an excellent source of vitamin A. The corn is a good addition because most birds will eat corn, and the yam mixture sticks to it, so they get to learn how to like yams if they’re wary of new foods. The yogurt gives them not only calcium, but acidophilus and bifidus, both excellent fighters of yeast infections! This is a great recipe for birds that are feeding their young. It’s easy to digest and regurgitate for babies.

2 Medium/Large Yams
1/4 c Raisins (unsulphured)
1 tsp. Butter (optional-but does have things a bird needs!)
½ tsp. Pumpkin spice
½ c Corn
1/4 c Nonfat Yogurt (preferably organic)

Cut yams into quarters then boil until soft. Drop in raisins for the last 5 minutes of boiling. Cool. Peel off skins. Put peeled yams back in pot and mash, adding butter and pumpkin spice. Add back raisins and corn and mix into the yams. Serve in glass bowls for maximum visual stimulation ;->. Put a dollop of nonfat yogurt on top of each serving.

Warning: Do not leave this food in the cage for more than 2-3 hours, especially on a hot day.
“Soft Food Mix For Eclectus”

This nutritious mixture of foods is relished by all Eclectus, from babies to adults, including breeders who feed it to their babies in the nest, however, other parrots have tried and enjoyed this recipe. The mixture is very similar to the popular prepared ones, but is much less expensive and can be tailored to the individual taste preferences of your birds.

Soak overnight half a large stockpot of dry shelled whole corn or popcorn. Bring to a boil and cook over low heat the next morning for several hours, or until the corn is plumped and soft in the middle. Water will need to be added several times as it is absorbed by the corn, which more than doubles in volume.

Also, soak overnight your choice of dried beans. Eclectus seem to favor garbanzo beans (chick peas) and you can also use kidney, cranberry, pinto, lima, northern, chili, black beans or others. Cook the next morning for an hour or less or until “al dente”.

Cook one or two boxes of Uncle Ben’s Original Brown Rice or a large bag of brown rice for approximately thirty minutes.
Optional foods to be cooked with the brown rice are raisins, currants, shelled sunflower seeds, shelled pumpkin seeds, wheat berries, barley, whole oats, pasta, nuts, and cinnamon, cloves or ginger for added flavor. For Eclectus, I usually include chopped sweet potato for the Vitamin A content.

Combine all ingredients in a large container or clean sink. Mix and allow to cool. Seal in plastic bags in daily portions, press flat for faster thawing, and freeze. To serve, thaw and bring to a boil. Allow to cool before feeding. For faster cooling, add frozen garden peas or individually frozen fruits, such as cranberries, which act as mini-ice cubes. The heat from the mix will thaw the peas or fruits. Do not leave this mixture in the feeding dishes long enough to spoil.

“Cornmeal Fantasy”

If you can boil water and stir, you can make your birds very happy! ! This recipe is similar to a flan or soft pudding. You need only fine ground corn flour, available in most supermarkets.

Stir fine ground corn flour into boiling water until it starts to thicken, and continue stirring for another minute or two. At this point, you have a soft pudding. If you want to embellish the recipe, you can now add pumpkin puree, apple sauce, or baby food fruits or veggies. I think you may be surprised just how much your birds like this simple food. You’ll have no problem finding a feathered friend to “lick the spoon”! My birds just call it YUM! It can be refrigerated for several days or frozen in squares for later use.

“Bird Bread For Eclectus”

This recipe makes a “heavy” bread, not as light as you would prepare for yourself, but the birds love it! Notice that it contains very little baking powder (some baking powders contain aluminum), no added sugar or other sweeteners, and no added salt.

In a large bowl combine the following ingredients:
2 cups yellow corn meal
1 cup whole wheat flour
l cup currants or raisins
1 cup nuts (pine, almond, walnut, pecan)
1 cup shelled sunflower seeds
1 twenty-nine ounce can of solid pack pumpkin
1 thirty-two ounce bottle of papaya nectar
1/2 cup of sunflower or safflower oil
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder

Add enough water or juice to make a pourable batter. Use two large well-greased baking pans. Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes or until done. Cool and slice. Can be frozen.

“Popcorn Pizza”

Use popcorn cakes, a corn version of rice cakes, available in all health food stores and most supermarkets. Spread on the top of the popcorn cake a thin layer of peanut butter. Top with your birds’ favorite foods, such as: grated carrots, chopped broccoli, thin-sliced apple, apple sauce, fresh peas, grated mozzarella cheese, etc. No cooking required.

“Sweet Potato Balls”

Blue and gold macaws, African greys, Senegal, Keets, ‘tiels– it seems as if most birds–enjoy this recipe. You can add just about anything to this basic mix and birds seem to love them. Peanut butter, oatmeal, coconut or any fruit or vegetables are some examples.

1 large sweet potato, microwaved until soft
1/2 cup raisins
1 mashed banana
1 cup mixed fresh or frozen mixed vegetables
1 cup diced apples
1 1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal, corn flakes or granola cereal.

Mix all together and add enough fruit or vegetable juice to make it form small balls. Freeze balls individually. Defrost and serve.

“Tropical Rice Pudding”

My Baby Senegal Niki just loves this recipe!

1 c brown rice
1-1/2 c rolled or cracked corn
1/2 c unsulphured dried banana
3-1/2 T split green peas
2-1/2 T raisins
2-1/2 T pistachio nuts (unsalted)
1 T dates broken in pieces
1 tsp dried milk powder
1/4 tsp allspice

Add contents to 1 quart water. Bring to boil, lower heat, cover and boil gently for 30 minutes. Serve warm or cool. Yields 2 lbs. Approx. 1-1/2 quarts.

You can make batches weekly or monthly depending how many birds you have. Keep a 3-day supply in fridge to reheat in the microwave (avoid hot spots) Serve no more than can be consumed in 5 hours to avoid spoilage. In hot weather, be careful not to leave it in cage for any more than 2 hours, unless you have air conditioning. My own added observation after feeding it to My African Grey and My Senegal is that they eat it all within 2 hours. I also freeze the recipe in ice cube trays, then I put the frozen cubes in baggies in the freezer. They will keep for a month, and when supper time comes I pop 2 cubes in the microwave on DEFROST, cool (do check, it can get to hot) and serve.

Easy Cornbread

This recipe helped us convert our cockatiels to pellets.

1 package cornbread mix (try to get one low in sugar)
2 eggs, shell included
1/2 cup seed mix
1/2 cup pellets (any brand you prefer)
1 cup mixed vegetables.

Mix ingredients together per package instructions and adding the extra ingredients above. Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes.

Tails Up Good!

I have a parrot rescue aviary. I have had to learn how to convert older seed lovers to veggies. This is a winner.

1 c cornmeal
1 c wheatgerm
1/4 c groats
1/4 c buckwheat
1/4 c soybeans finely ground
1/4 c nuts coarsely ground
1/8 c olive oil
1 c fresh/frozen corn cooked
1 c shredded carrots
1c greens chopped
5 eggs shell and all
1 apple chopped fine
1/2 cup soy milk
left over rice or beans (optional)

Mix all ingredients together. Prepare 9×13 inch pan with olive oil. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, then at 350 degrees for another 30 minutes or until done.

Fruit and Veggie “Popsicles”

My senegal Emerald realy seems to like this recipe!

1 apple
1 carrot
1 orange
several grapes
1 tomato
1 green pepper
Any other fruits and veggie your bird might eat

Put the ingredients on a cutting board and dice them finely (except for the orange). Place the ingrdients in a bowl. Cut the orange and squeeze (over the bowl) until it is out of juice. Pack your ingredients into a ball and stick in a wooden popsicle stick. Wrap with wax paper and put in freezer. Let it sit for an hour. Take out and give it to your bird (my bird likes the popsicle stick the best!).

Tropical Fruit Dish

I have a quaker and a Lovebird and they just love this recipe!

Put in a certain amount of everything depending on what kind of bird you have: kiwi, watermelon, grapes, hard-boiled egg (shell included).

Mix all ingredients (look at chart below) except the egg shell together in a food bowl. Chop the egg shell very finely with a fork. Sprinkle egg shell on top of the fruit mix.

Lovebirds-Budgies:1 slice of cut kiwi, 1 cut up cube of watermelon, 1 sliced grape 1/2 egg, 1/4 egg shell.

Quakers-Lories:2 slices of kiwi, 2 cubes of watermelon, 2 grapes, 1 egg and shell.

Amazon-African Grey: 4 slices of kiwi, 4 slices of watermelon, 5 grapes, 2 eggs and shell.

Macaws: 6 slices of kiwi, 6 slices of water melon, 7 grapes, 2 1/2 egg and shell.

This recipe comes from Jenny in Florida.

Sweet Rice Mash

I haven’t found any parrot on a veggie diet that wouldn’t eat it!

4 coarsley grated sweet potatoes
2 bags brown rice
1 can carrot juice
1 can veggie baked beans (rinsed to remove excess sugar)
1 bag small shell pasta

Boil rice using carrot juice added to the water until almost done. Add in sweet potaoes and pasta (adding a little more water if needed - just enough to keep from sticking - you want it to fully absorb). Stir often. Add in rinsed baked beans, stir some more. I divide it up into several zip freezer bags and then take out what I need each day.