Stick Training Charlie

Charlie is my 20 year old White Fronted Amazon. When I adopted Charlie a few months ago, he was very fearful of the stick. He would sometimes step onto a stick for someone, but only after he felt he had no choice. This is using negative reinforcement, which means that something aversive goes away, in this case, the stick stops chasing you, when you do the behavior...stepping onto the stick. As you can imagine, it can be relationship damaging but it can also make the stick a scary thing. Also Charlie is more comfortable with men than women and part of what I am trying to do is make him more comfortable with me.  Doing something frightening, like chasing him with a stick, would not be helping to further our relationship and take it in the direction I want to go. I want Charlie to feel comfortable and safe around the stick and around me.

I set out to stick train Charlie using positive reinforcement and by shaping the behavior. Shaping means that you slowly build the behavior and reinforce all approximations towards the complete behavior.  Essentially, I started out by reinforcing Charlie for looking at the stick, then moving towards it, for staying near it, for putting a foot on it, then two feet one it, etc. 

The process can vary in how long it takes to get to the goal behavior. It depends on many things including the animals learning history, their individual personality and temperament, the skill level of the trainer, how often training is done, past life experiences for the animal and so much more. It probably took a couple of weeks of my working on this sporadically for us to get to where we are. Had I worked on it more often, we would have gotten to our end goal much faster.

The most important thing with this training is that you take your time and allow the animal to take their time. Do not push or force or pressure the animal. Instead, take what the animal can give you and reinforce that.

In this video I am usually using pieces of cashew, sometimes a safflower seed and on a few occasions a sunflower seed to reinforce Charlie's behavior.

Introducing New Foods

The best diet for birds is a varied one.  Variety is very important and this is where a lot of people go wrong. All of my birds get some pellets, some seed, either loose or in the form of nutriberries and fresh food daily. The fresh food is different all the time depending on what I have made for them or what I decide to choose. Here are some of the things that I make them for their fresh food meals:

• Mash - For my mash I usually use a brown rice base.  To that I add vegetables which can be chopped, cut up or food processed depending on your birds and how they prefer their food. Sometimes I use a frozen veggie mix.  I will also sometimes through in some raw pasta, baby food, raw oatmeal and ground flax seed.  Sometimes I add in one of the ready made mixes like Goldenfeast, or Krazy Korn as well. You can be creative.
• Grain Bake - I just recently learned about these and started making them.  Basically, you fill a baking dish with different grains, cover it with water and bake it for an hour at 350 degrees.  I have put brown rice, pasta, oatmeal, fruits, veggies, just whatever!  Again, you can be creative!
• Bird bread or muffins - I love to make bird bread or muffins for the birds and they love eating them.  I will sometimes buy a bird bread mix such as Avian Organics or Mama Bird which basically contains everything you need and simply fix that.  Other times, I will use a muffin mix, like Jiffy, add some veggies, seed, pellets or whatever you think your bird will like and cook it up.  The birds love it and it can be a great way to convert a seed only eating bird.
• Many times I simply cut up veggies for them.  I usually cook sweet potatoes and carrots, but leave things like squash raw.  I offer fruit as well, but more veggies than fruit.  I sometimes offer lettuce, which for the small birds, I hang in the cage.  It doesn't have a huge amount of nutritional value, but it is still enriching and they love it.
• Chop - You can make a chop by simply chopping or food processing (depending on the size of your bird) and mixing it all together.
• Dry mixes - I buy different dry mixes and keep them on hand for days when I will be gone long and unable to take out the wetter foods that may spoil.  I offer veggie crisps, dried fruits and veggies, mixes such as My Safe Bird Store's Quacker Jax, Bountiful Harvest or Veggie Crisp.  Sometimes I make my own by throwing in a bunch of dry pasta, some dry cereal like cheerios and shredded wheat, some dried veggies, etc.
• Other stuff - I save leftover pasta and will throw in some veggies and offer that.  I sometimes make my birds scrambled eggs and a little wheat toast.  I sometimes offer comfort feedings of warmed baby food, mixed with a little oatmeal.  
• Skewers - Some birds love to eat hanging food.  Try using a skewer and hanging fresh, raw fruits and veggies in the cage.  I like to do corn cob wheels, halved jalapenos, fruit, pepper pieces, just whatever you think your bird might like!
• Many of these things can be made in large batches and divided up so you have some for now and some to freeze.
• Remember when feeding fresh food that is wet or moist to take it out of the cage a couple of hours after serving it so that it doesn't spoil.

Merlin enjoying some squash

Iris with a dirty mash face

Argyle eating a rigatoni

 Ivan enjoys a muffin

 Nemo eating some bird bread

Always offer fresh food first thing in the morning.  This is when the birds are most hungry.  I do not ever withhold food to get them to eat something else, but I will feed the things that they eat more readily after having offered them something fresh.

When I am offering a new food to the birds, I usually sprinkle some seed and/or pellet on the top or even incorporate it into the new food to get them to try it.  I have found that when doing vegetables, many birds love corn and peas, so you can try those.  

With some birds, if hold the food, look at the food and even pretend or actually eat the food, they will give it a try.

Most birds will try it if they live with other birds who eat it.  So, if you have groups of birds living together, one may start and get everyone to try it!

I offer it every day and continue to offer it, even if they don't eat it.  It can take quite a while for birds to realize that something is edible and to actually want to try it.

Be creative!  Don't be afraid to try new things, just make sure that they are bird safe.