What It’s Like, Living With An Older Parrot

During a dialogue on a computer bulletin board for pet bird owners, an extremely astute gentleman commented that everyone on the boards apparently owned parrots that were less than five years old. He had heard that parrots could live a very long time, and wondered if there was anyone on the boards that owned an “old” parrot, and if so, what was it like? When I responded that I had an old blue and gold macaw, I was inundated with questions — people with young parrots are apparently fascinated with what it must be like, living with an old parrot.

I decided then to write about Sam, but it has taken me a very long time to do so. After all, it is more important than usual that I express myself well, that I do my best to capture the essence of what is different about her…but this is not easy to do. To help in this endeavor, I drafted two of Sam’s closest human friends — who fortunately happen to be friends of mine, too. Peggy and Dianne helped a lot with this article.

Disclaimer: By no means is this article to be construed to describe what all parrots will be like when they age – each parrot is an individual who will grow and mature in it’s own fashion. This article is about Sam (alias “The Blue Chicken”) – the only old bird I really know.

Her History
First, the background information. I purchased Sam 23 years ago, from a couple who’d owned her 12 years. They were not happy about selling her, but the wife was six months pregnant and Sam lived in the second bedroom. Considering that they lived in a small trailer and could not afford to move, they had no other options but to sell her. Sam was an import, which is obvious since birds like her weren’t routinely bred in captivity until about 20 years ago.

So I know she is at least 35 years old, but she must be considerably older than that – she was an adult when her previous caretakers got her. My avian vet, Dr. Liza Clark, laughs and says Sam and I are the same age – 50 – which really irritates me. If it’s true she is my age, I have valid reason to gripe – she’s not only better looking, but she has a lot more energy, too.

She has had a slowly progressive bilateral feather loss over the last ten years – possibly partly due to a slowed thyroid function and partly maybe similar to male pattern baldness in humans. We know little about geriatric parrots because so few have survived that long in captivity. (Don’t let me climb on THAT soap box!) Other signs of aging would include her white facial skin, which is a bit thinner and more wrinkled than with youngsters. To the best of my knowledge (and avian medicine’s), she is otherwise in excellent health.

I don’t know her history prior to her previous owners. Whoever tamed her did an excellent job — she has always been extremely gentle (when she feels like it). I have always assumed she was what they used to call “cuddle-tame.” As I understand it, these were birds who were captured as babies and given to children in the South American villages to be raised by them. As the stories went, these birds were mouth-fed a corn gruel by the children, so they were extremely tame. I’ve always been amazed at the reputations of different species of parrots — macaws are not famous for being cuddlers like cockatoos, but Sam obviously hasn’t read those books. I have not met a ‘too yet that outdid her — except that ‘toos (WHEN cuddly), are usually cuddly with everyone — strangers included. Sam is NOT cuddly to strangers, and I’m glad. I’m not cuddly to strangers, either.

Sam is definitely a female, since she laid her first egg (that I know of) about eight years ago. Her previous owners had also thought her to be a female, but she laid no eggs in the time they had her. Why she waited until she was at least twenty years old, I could not say. She refuses to answer my questions about it (or anything else, for that matter). So far, she has always laid them from her highest perch, so they fall about three feet. Humpty Dumpty eggs. Fitting, somehow.

Long Term Relationships
A long time relationship with a parrot is more like a marriage than anything else – it is certainly NOT like a “pet-owner relationship.” [See Phoebe Linden’s excellent articles on "The Impermeable Bond" in PET BIRD REPORT Issues #27 and 28 for more info on this subject.] It is also not, as far as I am concerned, like a parent-child relationship. Sam is entirely too old and street-wise (which I am not!) for me to ever consider myself to be her surrogate “mother.” Besides, she was an adult when I got her. She is too much of a friend and equal, in her own way.

Like a marriage, it is not always good between us – there is an ebb and flow. Sometimes the relationship is wonderful, and I enjoy her company to the fullest. And sometimes I stand at her cage and wonder “Why the @#$% do I even HAVE you?” Undoubtedly, there are times when she feels the same way. When push comes to shove, I think I am more consistently difficult to live with than she is. (Please don’t tell my husband I admitted that.)

Major Differences
So how is Sam different? She seems to be so wise, so worldly, so sure of herself. This is no Spring Chicken, here. She is an excellent student of human behavior. She should be. She has been watching us carefully for a long time. Unlike myself (I’m usually totally oblivious), she pays attention to people. At times I feel she knows me a good deal better than I know her.

For years, I didn’t realize that Sam was different. How could I – I knew no other macaws with which to compare. Then baby parrots started appearing on the pet market and I formed a friendship with a lady who had raised several baby blue and golds. As a favor, Judy came in to care for Sam at my home for a week while I was out of town. When I returned, she commented how different Sam was from the youngsters she had at home. When I asked for clarification, she said she couldn’t fool Sam at all. “Babies are gullible,” she said. “Sam is NOT gullible.”

She found she could put Sam back in her cage as many times as she wished during her daily visit, and have no difficulties. But when it came time to put her in before Judy left, the situation changed dramatically. No matter what Judy did to fool her, Sam always knew when she wanted to leave. THEN, Judy would have a lot of trouble!

No Accidental Slips
Sam KNOWS when she does something wrong. After all these years, she knows what the rules are! When she chooses to break a rule, it seems like she has made a premeditated decision to do so. She doesn’t just slip up. She knows the outcome (getting into trouble) ahead of time, then decides to do IT anyway. Consequently, she is not contrite at all when she gets caught. It’s more like she says, “Oh fooey, you caught me… Oh well.”

As Dianne put it: “She doesn’t wait around being cute to get attention (very often). She is far more likely to wander around looking for trouble knowing full well that you’re going to have to come stop her pretty soon. She knows you’ll grumble and scold, but she also seems to know just how far she can get [into trouble] before she gets put back in her cage and she walks that line like the pro that she is.

Sam goes through life on her own terms. Most young domestic-bred birds reared with nurturing dominance seem respond to commands almost automatically. You get the feeling that they really aren’t thinking it out, just responding out of habit or not knowing how else to respond. [Like Sally says, they are patterned to respond in that manner]. You say Up, they get up. Even when they don’t respond properly it doesn’t feel like they really have the consequences figured out. Sam is different. You say Up and she looks at you and you KNOW that she’s decided OK, I know what that means and I’ll do it because I don’t feel like dealing with the consequences of disobeying.

How can you tell all that from a bird? You haven’t looked in her eyes or you wouldn’t ask! She looks at you and conveys the current phrase “Been there, done that” and you KNOW that she is older, more mature and far wiser than you are. You just can’t get anything past her!”

Sam and “Boo”.
Game playing with Sam is extremely sophisticated, and she definitely has a highly evolved black sense of humor. She plays an evil little game with new people that I call “Boo.” When she is meeting a new person, she can be very out-going and friendly. She sits on the person’s arm and does all those silly head-bobbing and figure-eight weaving dances that are her normal greeting behaviors. She blushes prettily and says “Hi!” in a very sweet, feminine voice, lulling that poor sucker into a false sense of security. When the human is just starting to relax with her (as in Hey, dealing with big parrots is really no big deal after all!), she instantly changes. Moving so fast that she’s a blur, she will suddenly lunge directly at that person’s face, throwing her wings out to their full three foot span, simultaneously yelling Boo!

Inexperienced humans, possessing a normally functioning nervous system, jump violently. They HAVE to jump. Obviously pleased with her success, Sam’s eyes flash and she laughs – as in, “Ha, ha, GOTCHA, sucker!” Great game, very funny.

I should add here that Sam has never bitten anyone while playing Boo. Biting has nothing to do with this game. Being a tad slow on the uptake, it took me a while to figure out what she was actually accomplishing with this. Then I realized that in one split second she had established that the person was afraid. That meant Sam was in control of the relationship.

What is interesting with Boo is that she will continue to play the game for as long as a person jumps. I had a friend years ago that adored Sam and played with her a lot. But no matter how hard she tried, Debbie simply could not control her physical reaction when Sam lunged – even when she realized that Sam NEVER bites when she’s playing Boo. So Sam kept lunging. When Debbie finally got control of her sympathetic nervous system (the old Fight Or Flight Response), Sam stopped playing Boo. No fun when the folks don’t jump.

Turnabout Is Fair Play
Then, one night a friend visited who bred Hyacinth macaws, and this lady was not about to be cowed by a little ole’ blue and gold. I had warned her about the game of Boo, so Dee apparently decided to head Sam off at the pass, as it were. Before Sam had an opportunity to establish her superiority by lunging, Dee suddenly lunged at her, threw up her arms and loudly yelled BOO!!!

Completely caught off guard, Sam jumped. (Actually, so did I!) Then the old bird looked really startled and confused for a moment – like, Whaaat?? After all, this was the first time anyone had ever turned the game on her. Then, exhibiting the highly prized traits of a Good Loser, Sam laughed! From then on, she and Dee were the best of friends… and Sam never did try to play Boo with her.

Hey, Who’s In Control Here?
Periodically, Sam will decide not to respond to commands — especially during nesting season, which for Sam is November to January – same as the wild macaws in South America. During this time, she has an agenda that often doesn’t involve humans, no matter how fond she might be of them. During nesting behavior, she MUST DESTROY.

House rules regarding Sam are simple – if you take her out of her cage, you are responsible for her behavior. Last nesting season, Dianne was playing with Sam on the living room floor when suddenly, Sam was apparently over-come with the need to DESTROY something. Leaving Dianne, she made a bee line off across the floor, aimed in the direction of the thing (probably a piece of clothing or furniture) that needed destroying.

Dianne knows the rules, and I watched with great amusement as she reached down for the macaw, saying Up and offering her hand. Well, Sam had more important things to do than to hassle with silly humans, so she ignored her completely and kept right on going towards the destructible object of her choice.

Not wanting to lose control, Dianne said UP in a firmer voice and gave Sam a nudge with the side of her hand. Sam was having none of it so Di nudged again – and rather than stepping up, Sam simply rolled over onto her back! Needless to say, Dianne (and I) cracked up. Sam, having apparently accomplished precisely what she wished, flipped herself back upright and insolently sauntered away, CHUCKLING (as if to say, “Eee gads, humans are SO EASY TO MANIPULATE!!) As Dianne expressed later, “I had just been insulted by a bird!” (And we call them birdbrains?)

Button Pushing
After all those years together, Sam is really good at pushing my buttons. For example, she knows very well that she is not allowed in my office without invitation, and if I have a client’s bird boarding in there, my office is off limits. So when she comes strolling down the hall for a visit, I look up briefly from my keyboard and say No. She stops, considers, then goes back down the hall just out of my sight. There she climbs the molding next to the closet that holds the furnace. Reaching the top, she leans over to the grating that vents the furnace and runs the tip of her beak down the grate with a flourish. This makes an extremely aggravating sound like, gggGGGLIIING!! If I’m not paying attention, I generally respond with an absentminded “SAM, STOP IT.” (So much for the Drama Reward, right?) That is exactly what she wants. She is simply making a point. She chuckles softly to herself, climbs down, and strolls off.

When there isn’t a boarder and she is invited into my office, there is another wonderful game to play. Her favorite perch is the high back of my office chair. The back tapers to a small width at the top, and she has discovered that she can sit there and flap her wings without hitting anything. And this is what she does, flapping and flapping while the piles of paper on my desk start to blow around. This is the only time she flaps her wings other than to actually fly, so I assume it’s a fun game. For her, that is. Must be a riot to watch me as I lurch around, snatching at flying papers. It’s especially fun if I lose my temper. (Seems to me that there are few things that tickle macaws more than getting their humans mad enough to lose their tempers.)

More than once, people have gotten very tardy callbacks from me, because Sam blew all my little notes all over and I lost a message behind my desk. Somehow, that doesn’t seem like a good excuse for a parrot behavior consultant to use, though. Great game.

Living With A Fully Flighted Bird
Sam hasn’t had her wings clipped for about twenty years, and she is obviously a very good flier. In each of the ten times we have moved together, she has flown around the new space without hitting anything, windows or otherwise. This isn’t surprising when you think about it. After all, when wild parrots fly through unfamiliar parts of a jungle, it is hardly likely that they run into trees. Unlike young birds I have known, she uses flight only for transportation, not for play. As she has gotten older, she flies only when necessary. If offered the option, she will generally chose to walk. Makes sense to me – flying takes a great deal more effort.

Her flight capability has one useful quirk attached – she simply cannot fly without yelling. If I didn’t teach avian anatomy and know better, I would assume there is some sort of wiring connection between the wings and the voice box of a parrot.

I was delighted to discover this, since it meant I could safely leave her on her tree and go outside to play in the garden. After all, if she flew off the tree I always knew it, because I heard her yell. However, in the last few years the pattern has changed - either due to her advancing age and/or her wiliness… Now, rather than fly, she holds onto the 2×4 and does a fireman’s slide to the floor — silently. Consequently, she can leave the tree and I don’t know it. NOT GOOD. I learned years ago how meticulously destructive a macaw can be. When she got a hold of a watch of mine (fortunately just a $10 Timex), it took only a couple of minutes for her to have it in seven pieces – not counting the watch band. (She carefully removed the stem, then the crystal, then the hands, then the numbers…. etc.!)

Serious Mind Games
My friend Peggy has taken care of Sam on a number of occasions when I’ve gone out of town, and Sam loves to stay with her. First thing she does there is to quit eating her pellets completely. Peggy, being a highly trained and experienced RN with lots of common sense, immediately concludes that Sam will Starve To Death in the next five minutes. She rushes off to the grocery store and comes home with lots of wonderful goodies and Sam gets plied with all her favorite things (i.e., spaghetti) — which is precisely what she wants. Peggy wrings her hands and worries about weight loss.

At this stage, Peg’s highly-evolved brain has apparently shorted out completely because she does not weigh the bird – despite owning a good triple-beam balance scale. She just worries and Sam cashes in.

Sam invariably comes home from Peg’s one or two ounces heavier than her normal one kilogram of weight. Guess that’s why Peg says that Sam is “more human and can manipulate better than most humans.”

Sam and who is — and ISN’T — Competition
Over the years, Sam has shown one talent over and over – the ability to tell exactly who was, and wasn’t competition for someone she really liked. I have no idea how she does this, but she has never been wrong. There have been multiple examples of this, but probably the most dramatic one was years ago, when I was single and dating a great guy named Billy. He’d never been around a parrot before, and he was fascinated by Sam, but she was homicidal towards him, and attacked whenever he tried to approach. Then I met David (my husband), and overnight (literally), Billy changed categories from boyfriend to friend. When Billy came over the next day, the change in Sam’s behavior was stunning. She rushed over to play with him, and they have been best buddies ever since. How did she know that Billy was no longer competition for my attention? I have no idea. (Does she like my husband, David? NO.)

Mutual Influences
How much of Sam’s personality is due to her being a wild-caught import and how much is due to living with humans for so many years…? I have no way of knowing. She’s been dealing with people a very long time and she knows how to read us so well…

I realize that even after living with Sam all of these years – almost half of my life – it is still difficult for me to capture her essence in an article. I don’t know if anyone could, but I certainly haven’t. I guess all I can say is that she is my oldest and dearest friend – we have shared so much over the years. Sometimes she’s a crotchety old lady, sometimes a giggling girl. And when I’m really upset about something, she is sweet and compassionate, whispering quietly in my ear and nibbling the edge of my jaw, licking away my tears. There is absolutely no price that I could put on her friendship.

This article was first printed in THE PET BIRD REPORT Issue #32

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

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

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

Parrot Behavioral Myths and Misinformation

Spare No Expense
I first recognized the gravity of behavior problems in parrots when I still worked full-time with avian veterinarians. I saw the following scenario over and over again: a desperately ill parrot is brought in by its distraught owner. The veterinary staff is assured that the owner would do ANYTHING to have his/ her bird back: “Spare no expense. Money is no object. Do whatever you need to do. Save my parrot!!!!” And we would do everything we could, staying up nights with the bird, spending hours treating and nursing it, even dreaming about it when we did finally sleep. And often we would win the battle, and proudly send the little guy home with its tearfully grateful owner.…only to find in a few months that the same beloved parrot had ended up being sold or given away because “He bites” or “He screams” or “He doesn’t like my boyfriend.” Obviously, something is seriously wrong here.

I’m going to start off this article with a little historical perspective because I think it is very important. As a veterinary technician working with some of the top avian veterinarians in north-eastern US, I vividly remember the first domestic bred, hand-fed parrot babies I encountered as patients in our hospital. That was in 1983, I repeat – 1983 – just fourteen years ago. The point I am making for those of you who have just become parrot people in the last few years (which, incidentally, includes most of you), is that aviculture in this country only started routinely breeding the larger parrots domestically in the last fifteen to twenty years. (The west coast started sooner than the Northeast.)

Old Sources of Information
So what, you ask? So the point is that, even though we humans have been keeping parrots as pets for thousands of years, those parrots were captured in the wild and tamed. We have only been dealing routinely with baby parrots, or bappies, for the last couple of decades at most. Therefore, most of the parrot behavior information we have is based on our experiences with wild-caught or imported parrots, and an import is a very different animal in an extremely important way. The imported parrot has been socialized, at least to some degree, by other parrots.

Now, let me stop a minute and define “socialize” as I mean it here. What I mean by “to socialize” is to teach to animal to adapt to the society in which it lives. So an imported parrot has been taught by its parents and peers how to adapt to the society of their flock. And once taught, the bird then has the basic tools to adapt, to a degree, to the society of their human flock. This is critical, because these domestic babies are generally not socialized by other parrots. And if they are incubator-raised by breeders who have so many babies in their care that individual birds are handled only when being fed (if even then), then they are essentially not socialized by anyone. They have been basically left to figure things out on their own. And this is a real problem, because just how are they supposed to do this? These are basically wild animals born in captivity, with no genetic information as to how to cope with this captivity. So we are just beginning to catch on to the fact that bappies are really different from adult parrots and have very different needs.

We humans like to consider our-selves to be a “higher” life form (and personally, I am skeptical), but in retrospect we sure have not shown a lot of intelligence and common sense when it comes to baby parrots. Sure, we know that a puppy is going to grow up to be a dog, and that a puppy generally acts different from a dog, and a puppy has to be taught stuff or socialized so it becomes a good pet and happy member of the family. And we know that a kitten grows up to be a cat, and that kittens usually act differently from cats, and that you need to teach a kitten the rules of the house (at least to SOME degree) so it can learn how to be a good pet.

But for some reason, we were not that smart with parrots. We suddenly had these deliciously tame, fabulously cuddly and soft little parrot babies who thought we humans were WONDERFUL. We brought them home from breeders and pet stores in what I like to call “The Bassinet and Goo Stage” – and for some idiotic reason (wishful thinking?), we apparently assumed that they were going to stay that way FOREVER. There was nothing we needed do but feed them a well-balanced diet, get a competent avian vet to look after their health, and love them. Nature had given us the Perfect Pet! (Which is only fair, since we are all such Perfect Owners, right?)

Pets For Sale In The Newspaper
Then those cute babies started to grow up and we started learning how wrong we were. All you have to do is read the Pets For Sale sections in your local newspapers to see this in black and white. If you look, you will notice that many (most?) of the birds for sale are between the ages of six months and two years. This is not a coincidence. From my experience, most of these adolescent birds have behavior problems of some sort or other. And the people who are selling them could possibly be the ones who unknowingly created the behavior problem to begin with. And these well-meaning but uneducated people will probably get another baby parrot and start the same process over again. You know the old saying about history repeating itself unless we learn from it, right? Ultimately, it is always the parrot who pays dearly for the mistakes of the human. We don’t socialize them, or teach them HOW to be good pets. Then we get rid of them when they are not good pets.

People tell me their birds don’t like, for example, broccoli – so they do not offer it anymore. But one of the few guarantees in life is that if your bappy (or for that matter, your human child) does not like broccoli so you never offer it again, well then, I will give you my personal guarantee that he NEVER WILL like broccoli. Human parents know that they have to keep exposing their human children to things that are “good for them.” And parrot parents most likely have to do the same thing in the wild. After all, what makes us think that bappies in the wild automatically eat what is good for them? Isn’t it feasible that par-rot parents might go through the same struggles we go through with our own kids regarding consuming a good diet?

Easy Cop Out
A lot of the behavior information written by breeders often tells the pet parrot owner to put their birds in breeding situations, or “get it a mate” when the animal starts acting up (i.e., screaming, biting, feather plucking, etc.). As far as I am concerned, this is generally a copout. It may be tempting for a human parent of a human child to respond to negative behavior – especially the horrific behaviors associated with the onset of puberty – by putting said child up for adoption. After all, as far as I can tell, puberty is that wonderful time that changes the definition of “child abuse” into “justifiable homicide.” However, society frowns on parents who get rid of their kids at this time.

But this is exactly what many breeders recommend the pet bird owner do when negative behaviors are seen. No suggestion is made regarding fixing the problem – the owner is simply told to get it a mate, breed it, and keep one of the babies.

Experts On Everything?
So there are lots of theories a-bout parrot behavior, but most of them are out-dated or simply incorrect. Some are sweeping generalizations based on the behaviors of a very small population of individuals. And from my experience, some of the worst information I have seen has been put forward by a small number of animal trainers who teach birds to perform tricks in shows – which apparently leads them to believe they are experts on ALL forms of parrot ownership. (I’ll talk more about them later.)

And the various conclusions drawn by these various sources can be fallacious when applied to individual pet birds, especially domestic bred birds, of-ten leading to glaringly incorrect information being perpetuated as fact.

Basing behavior theories on sweeping generalizations is the method used when you hear broad statements about specific species of parrots, like “All African greys are good talkers.” Now, most of us happen to know a non-talking African grey. This isn’t surprising, since a number of them simply don’t talk. And these unfortunate individuals are often “gotten rid of” because of that – I guess because their reputed talking ability is the only reason their owners bought them, instead of because of their intelligence and complex personalities. To my mind, this is like a woman deciding to get pregnant because she really likes baby clothes. As far as I am concerned, if the only reason someone wants a parrot is because of its potential talking ability, (s)he should buy a radio instead.

Another fallacy I hear all the time is that “All cockatoos are sweet and cuddly.” Well, yes, a lot of cockatoos are sweet and cuddly. And a lot of African greys are sweet and cuddly. And a lot of macaws are sweet and cuddly. Why don’t we hear about them? But let me tell you, I also know SEVERAL cockatoos that I would NOT categorize as “sweet and cuddly,” if you know what I mean. (After all, male ‘toos are famous for killing their mates, right? Why is it that humans never seem to think that violence could possibly be turned on them?)

Another example of parrot behavior myths is the one that states that “Lovebirds must be kept in pairs, because they don’t make good pets.” This, of course, completely ignores the pet potential of a hand-raised lovebird – which is from my experience one of the most delightful and reasonably-priced of all the small parrots. I have a very dear friend whose name is Hamlin. Hamlin happens to be a peach-faced lovebird who has been boarding with me for the last several years, and he is truly delightful – an animated Easter egg, if there ever was one! Hamlin would dearly like to meet the person who proclaimed that lovebirds don’t make good pets, and he would also like every-one to understand that he wants his PERSON – NOT another lovebird! And he is only one of many lovebirds that I know who were raised with a firm and loving hand by humans who understand how necessary that is – and he is the norm, not the exception.

The Dreaded Sexual Maturity Thing
“Many parrots (especially Amazons) don’t make good pets after they reach sexual maturity, and need to be put in a breeding situation.” This is a behavior myth that is repeated all the time, and from my experience, this is not necessarily true at all. I am a female human who suffers from PMS. My husband ALSO suffers from my PMS. And there have been times when he comes home to find me in the kitchen slamming cabinet doors. Now, if he should choose that moment to try to pick a fight with me, then that would be HIS problem, right? He would simply get his head ripped off.

But if from then on he never acted the same with me, if he acted unsure of me, then we would not still be together. And in a nutshell, I think that is what has happened with a lot of Amazons. The owner does not understand the bird’[s body language and does not know what it means when an Amazon has its tail feathers fanned, its neck feathers up and it’s eyes flashing wildly. Now, anyone that knows anything about Amazons knows THAT bird is the avian equivalent to me slamming cabinet doors. In other words, this is NOT the time to try to start any meaningful exchanges. So, DON’T REACH FOR THAT BIRD!

But inexperienced owners might do just that, then not understand why quite suddenly they are bleeding. And because they didn’t recognize and understand the blatant warning signs the bird was displaying, they then decide that their bird is unpredictable and dangerous. From then on, they are afraid and hesitant with the parrot – and as we all know, people who are afraid and hesitant with parrots do not get along well with parrots. End result, the bird becomes cage-bound due to a lack of handling, and really does lose a lot of pet potential. But not so much due to the bird changing its behavior towards the human, but due to the human’s changing his/her response to the bird.

Bird Show Trainers
On the subject of people who make a living training birds to perform tricks in shows, I have nothing against that if the birds are properly handled and cared for. If a show is well done, I will enjoy it as much as the next person. But what does bother me is when a small number of these people then consider themselves expert in fields other than training birds to perform tricks in shows. As far as I am concerned, asking a bird trainer advice about pet birds is roughly equivalent to asking a circus lion tamer advice on how to litterbox train my cat.

Finding Good Information
To conclude and summarize all this: Many bappies are raised with absolutely no limits, and given no instruction (socialization) as to acceptable behaviors and their position within their human flock. If they then are allowed to sit above eye level on shoulders and on the tops of cages, allowed to make all of their own decisions (such as whether or not they wish to come out of their cage, or whether or not they want to get off a human’s shoulder) and allowed unsupervised reign outside of a cage, then this is a parrot that has inadvertently been given the nonverbal message that it is head of the flock. And their genetic information tells them that the head of the flock is supposed to tell their flock members (human or otherwise) what to do. So when their human flock doesn’t follow orders, then the frustrated parrot often screams and bites and sometimes even plucks. Not a happy picture, is it?

Well, don’t despair, because behavior problems aren’t necessarily permanent. And along with all the reams of misinformation out there, there is some good information, too. THE PET BIRD REPORT, for example, is an excellent source of information about pet birds. And good, up-to-date information on pet parrot behavior is useful to all of us. If you’re a breeder, you can learn how to properly socialize these marvelous bappies from the very beginning, so they understand where they belong in the flock. If you’re a veterinarian or veterinary technician, you can learn how to give good advice to your bird-owning clients. And if you’re a pet parrot person, then you can gain insight into the mysterious behaviors of your little feathered kids and learn how to establish a loving, firmly-guided relationship with your parrot that will enable decades and decades of enjoyable cohabitation.

Whichever you are, my best advice on parrots is to enjoy them and love them – and most importantly, to quote Chris Davis, love them for what they are – NOT for what you think they should be.

This article was first printed in THE PET BIRD REPORT, Issue #14.

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

Facial Bites, Nozzle Nuzzling, &Tummy Kisses

Obsessions and Compulsions
I have a small ‘perversion’ I need to share – I adore the smell of parrot feathers. Red, white, yellow, blue and green, powder down feathers or not, I’m not picky – any psittacine species will do. I just have this compulsion to bury my nose in the tummy feathers of any parrot I meet.

Now, I have to say this obsession has gotten me into trouble more than once. After all, a parrot’s tummy is only slightly south of an even more impressive part of a parrot’s anatomy – it’s beak. And I have learned from sad (and painful) experience that those beaks are often brought into play when strange middle-aged women accost the tummies of parrots that aren’t accustomed to having their tummies accosted in this manner. BUT, this obsession of mine cannot be controlled (by me, anyway), so I have learned a few tricks over the years that enable me to satisfy this addiction with a minimum of risk to my vanity (and my reputation as a parrot behavior consultant).

Since I have recently discovered other unfortunates sharing in this compulsion, I figured that, rather than start a Support Group (Tummy Kissers Anonymous?), I would share some of my avoidance techniques. We addicts need all the help we can get.

Facial Bites
But before getting into that, I want to discuss facial bites. After all, facial bites are obviously going to happen to inexperienced compulsive tummy kissers and facial bites are a Real Problem.

Since I worked in veterinary hospitals as an animal tech for 20+ years with all kinds of small animals, it’s obvious that I don‘t worry much about the possibility of getting bitten by an animal. I can’t say that I don’t mind being bitten (I’m not THAT crazy, thank you). But I’ve survived chomps from many a different mouth, and I’m still alive and I still have ten (count ‘em, 10) functioning fingers. I should also mention that scars don’t particularly concern me. If I were concerned about scars, there were lots of easier (and better paying) ways to make a living that are not animal related.

Educational Experience
So the first time I got bitten in the face, I was not at all prepared for the visceral nature of my reaction – and I was extremely lucky and was not severely injured. I’d been working with veterinarians (and other kinds of animals) for over a decade – then I was bitten in the face by a very large dog. With previous bites, I’d been a tad skittish around animals of the same type for a few days, but that was my only reaction. After all, animal bites happen when people work with animals, and that’s part of the territory – it’s not a daily occurrence, but it’s certainly not unusual.

You maybe swear a little, shrug, do a little first aid and start healing. And I heal really well.

BIG Difference
But facial bites are different, I found. VERY DIFFERENT. After being bitten in the face, it was a good six months before I could be on face level with an dog (any dog) without getting a really nervous stomach (and nervous stomachs are not my style!). Since that day, I have never been on face level with a dog without being conscious of exactly what that dog could do if it so chose. It’s not that I’m afraid of dogs now, or that I don’t like them… it’s just that I am more aware of potential dangers than I ever was before. So that facial bite, many years ago, has made a permanent difference in the manner in which I approach dogs.

Super Trick For Whom?
Parrot owners often like the idea of teaching their parrots tricks, and one of the first tricks many syndicated parrot magazines teach is Giving Kisses. This is generally taught by the human holding a sunflower seed (or other treat) in his/her lips and rewarding the bird when it takes the see, therefore “giving a kiss.” This is a fabulous idea, far as I’m concerned. It makes perfect sense to offer one of the most sensitive and tender parts of one’s anatomy (psychologically as well as physically) to a sharp little parrot beak! Who thought of that one, a plastic surgeon?

The Dangers of Shouldering Parrots
Parrot people who have kept abreast of current information about parrot behavior are aware that allowing a parrot on one’s shoulder is NOT recommended by those of us that are called parrot behavior consultants. Aside from the obvious dominance issues that can arise when a psittacine is above eye level, there is the very real problem of facial bites. As Sam Mall joked several years ago, “Why do you think all those pirates had an eye patch?!”

Parrot companions are not the only ones who’ve discovered the dangers of parrots on people’s shoulders. During a beginner’s avian veterinary lecture years ago, I loved the advice offered by an experienced practitioner to his audience of avian veterinary wannabes: “Never capture a parrot off a part of the owner’s anatomy that you are not prepared to repair.”

Growing List
In the years that I’ve lectured around the country about parrot behavior, I have collected a list of names of people I have actually met – not just talked to on the phone or heard about – who have had plastic surgery to repair damage to their faces caused by parrot bites. At this time, that list has grown to 33 names.

To be perfectly frank, this doesn’t concern me at all. What does concern me is what has happened to those 33 parrots who, for whatever reason, bit their owners so badly. In every one of those cases, either of two things have happened: they lost their homes, or they still live there but haven’t had real human interaction since. And for most parrots, social creatures that they are, the latter was probably the worse fate.

The day after an emergency room visit for three stitches in her lip, a client of mine told me about the experience. She’d heard me lecture about this, and she’d understood what I’d said – yet she still wasn’t prepared for the psychological impact of a facial bite. Commenting that she was really glad the cut was the result of a “kiss” from a friend’s bird and not her own, she said, “NOW I understand, and I can really see how something like this could do permanent damage to a relationship with a bird.”

Obvious Dangers, But….
So ok, putting one’s face close to that little buzz saw’s face is obviously dangerous. A parrot is, after all, Nature’s Cuissinart.� (Someone on the internet described his bird as a Chain Saw With Feathers). However, I’ve already confessed to an addiction here, and addictions aren’t easily dismissed. So how does one minimize the danger of a cheap (or cheep) nose job? I have a few tricks that have worked (so far) for me.

Official Disclaimers
Before I go any further with this, here are two disclaimers I need to insert. (These are, after all, still the 90s) First and most importantly, none of these techniques should be used with a parrot who would be frightened by such impudent and brazen behaviors from a human. Not ever. This is supposed to be at least tolerable to the bird, not torture. And second, don’t kid yourself that these tricks of mine will protect you from facial bites. They can decrease the risk, but they certainly don’t eliminate it. And none of these techniques will even begin to protect you from a parrot who wants to bite you. Easiest way to avoid a bite from that critter is to stay in another room.

Nozzle Nuzzling Trick #1: Beak Holding
This one’s pretty obvious, and works nicely when dealing with species of psittacine whose beaks are easy to grasp firmly with one’s fingers. (For many sizes of human hands, hyacinth macaws don’t fall into this category.) Once I’ve decided I can no longer resist a fast nose nuzzle with a parrot, I’ll gently grasp its beak with a couple of fingers and pop in for a quick fix. This is a hit and run kind of technique, to be used for a quick tummy kiss but not to be used for prolonged nuzzling sessions.

Nozzle Nuzzling Trick #2: The Loving Neck Throttle or Throat Grab
I couldn’t think of a better name for this one, and these two names sound quite violent, which the techniques most definitely is not. When a bird is relaxing and enjoying a good head stroking, I gently grasp it around the neck and bring up my thumb to block it’s face. This leaves the field clear for a kiss or snuggle.

Nozzle Nuzzling Trick #3: Mutual Trust Beak Restraint
This is my favorite technique for nose nuzzling with a bird that doesn’t know me well. To demonstrate it’s safely with me, I offer a hostage – usually my thumb. With my pollex in its mouth, it can quickly and emphatically inform me if it doesn’t like my attentions. Since I do so much consultation work, I am often pushing the envelope with birds I’ve just met. I feel it is only fair that I offer this gesture – and interestingly enough, I have not been bitten (YET), using this technique.

Other Fun, Kisser-Threatening Games
For an addicted nose nuzzler like myself, these tricks have enabled me many a snout snuggle that would otherwise have been foolhardy or virtually impossible. So far, they have kept my gorgeous face intact. (They have also kept my regular face intact, which is great since that’s the only one other people see.)

They can also facilitate tow other games that many parrots seem to really enjoy – opposed to tolerate (which is what most do with Tummy Kisses): Mouth Blowing and Wingpit Raspberries.

Mouth Blowing: For some unknown reason (to me, anyway), most parrots seem to get a huge kick out of having someone blow in their mouth. They usually respond with eyes flashing and unrestrained birdie tongue-wagging. My own blue and gold macaw (Sam, a.k.a. The Blue Chicken) responds to this game by making blowing noises back (”phooooooo!“), then snickers (”hehehehehe“).

Wingpit Raspberries: This game is played by burying your face under a parrot’s wing and blowing with your mouth up against the bird’s skin. This is also called a “ploo,” due to the noise one can make when it is done properly. Again, this appears to be wildly funny to many parrots, especially bappies.

In conclusion…
So, for pitiful souls such as myself who are addicted to the extraordinary smells of these extraordinary creatures, there is a chance of avoiding nasal amputations and split lips. These tricks certainly can’t protect you, but at least they tell you the location of a parrot’s beak when your face is too close to see it. And that may give you enough warning should something (like you) upset the bird.

For those of you who can’t tolerate the idea of a facial bite, it is easy to avoid – don’t put your face anywhere near a parrot. And for those fearless danger junkies in the audience, don’t whine if you get your face a tad customized. Otherwise … live dangerously!

This article was first published in THE PET BIRD REPORT, Vol. 7, No. 4, Issue #36.

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

The Little Ringneck

By: Ken Globus

I think both the saddest and happiest moments of the workshops in Anchorage, Alaska were provided by the same bird: a very troubled little, female Indian Ringneck. This was a very sad case. The Ringneck was believed to have had a history of abuse and neglect. One thing of which the owner was sure was that the bird lived in a state of extreme agitation and constant, intense fear.

Every time the woman, or anyone, even approached the Ringneck’s cage, she would explode with fear and thrash around, banging her wings on the sides of the cage. No matter what the woman tried to do with patience and love, she was unable to calm that poor bird. Its wings were beat up; some wounds were scabbed over and were repeatedly re-injured. You could even see her injured blood feathers that had been repeatedly injured, broken or chewed and never been allowed to fully grow in.

What to do? Even bringing her to the workshop was risky. When the woman showed up, before even handling her, the little Ringneck had already thrashed around and re-opened a wound on her wing caused by a broken blood feather. Fortunately, there was a vet on hand to observe the workshop and he sutured the wound.

Last Chance To Save a Broken Spirit

But I was left with a difficult decision: should I work with the Little Ringneck and risk re-opening the wound or should I just leave her alone? First, I decided to leave her, but then it started eating at me. How could I give up without trying? That bird was headed downhill and I really believed this might be its last chance to turn around its life. So, I decided to at least take the first steps and find out how she would respond to some hands on. If there were any signs of problems, I could back off.

I used some direct touching techniques and she responded immediately. I worked with her for all of about fifteen minutes. That’s all it took. In minutes I had that bird sitting calmly on my hand, doing step-ups and allowing scratches. It was incredible.

In the end, I was able to tug at its neck feathers with my lips and kiss its head. People were in tears. So was I. When we put her back in the cage, it was like a different bird, sitting calmly and preening as people approached her. No more thrashing around at the sight of humans. Of all the birds in the workshop, in many workshops, this Little Ringneck was the most moving and I’ll never forget it.