Joey, in three months time

Nearly three months ago I agreed to take in five birds from a friend who had to rehome her animals due to a tragic, life changing event.  Her flock included a 5 year old White Capped Pionus, a 4 year old Canary Winged Parakeet, an 8 year old Green Cheek Conure and two budgies.  Two of the five have moved on from my home, but Joey, the Pionus and Easter and Peep, the two budgies will remain with me.

I have spent a great deal of time over the past three months working with Joey.  When he first arrived here he was very defensive of his cage and would lunge and bang into the sides with his beak every time I came near.  When my friends family brought the birds they told me that he was very aggressive.  I was not able to communicate with the friend who had the birds before me.  Just going by what I saw it was clear he would be hands off for a while.

Joey's cage was set up in a way that you could only change his food and water by opening the large front door opening and putting your hands into the inside of the cage!  This is challenging when you have a bird who is rushing to get to your hands aggressively when you open the door.  I have had this issue with several birds and always deal with it the same way which is to teach them to go to a certain perch in their cage and remain there while I do what I need to do.  That is what I did with Joey.  I tested foods and found his favorite to be grapes.  Grapes are not particularly nutritious to birds, but I offer them because they like them and they are not harmful.  I have used grapes with a few of my birds as I worked through finding other things they like.  Every time I would go to feed or water Joey, I would lure him up to a certain perch and fed him grape pieces while I changed his food and water.  I would continue to offer pieces or give him big pieces that lasted awhile.  It wasn't a day or two later that the moment I came into the room he would rush up to that perch.

As time went on, he began to look pretty excited when I came in and went up to that perch every time I would enter.  I did not let Joey out of his cage right away for a couple of reasons.  First, I did not want him to come out and then me have to force him to go back in.  Our relationship was moving forward in a way that I was really happy with and I didn't want to damage that.  So, we did quite a bit of training with him in his cage and me sitting with him, talking to him, listening to music with him and training him.

Finally, about 3 weeks after he arrived, I decided to open his cage and let him come out.  He crawled right out and went to the top of his cage.  He seemed happy to be out.  I offered my hand and he lunged to bite it.  I did not offer my hand again for more than a month but I did begin to let him out regularly because I learned that he would go back in eventually, so I just had to time it when I had plenty of time.  Here is the first time I let him out of his cage.

Sometimes when I had Joey out of his cage he would do the infamous "Pionus strut" where he would drop his wings and march back and forth on the top of his cage.  He has not done this in a long time, but did do it when a new person came by to meet one of the birds to adopt.  That strut clearly indicated he was feeling defensive and probably a bit territorial and that it is best not to touch him!  Here is a short video of Joey "strutting" https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10203723388301927&set=vb.1134617830&type=3&theater

I decided to move Joey to another cage.  I had a trip planned and my friend was going to be staying with my animals and I didn't want her to have to rely on Joey staying on his perch while she fed him, which by the way, he did, but I didn't know it that would be an issue.  Also, I wanted him to have a larger, heavier cage and I happened to have my Amazon's old cage, so I decided to see if Joey would mind moving to that one.  I also hoped that a new cage would lesson the territorial behavior around his cage.  I left the open cage next to his cage for days and let him explore and check it out at his pace and then finally moved him in.

I began stick training him and the stick training came along really well.  He learned to step onto a dowel fairly quickly which allowed him to choose to get close to me.  He began to want to be close very quickly and would come as close to my hand as possible.  Initially, I would put my hand inside my sweatshirt so that he couldn't see it since it seemed to upset him so much in the beginning.  He always seemed to be asking for me to get the stick so he could come and be close.

We continued with the stick training and he would always rush onto the stick and as close to me without getting onto my hand.  A couple of times he beaked my finger through my shirt.  Only one time with pressure and not very much, just exploring and checking it out.  One day I went into the kitchen just around the corner from where he was and he flew into the room after me.  I decided to put some trust into what I thought we were building and I offered my hand and he stepped up.  A lot of birds will step up from the ground, but I would never purposely put a bird in that position just to get him to step up.  When he stepped up that time I brought him back to his cage, but he wanted to stay on me and he hung out on my arm watching tv for a really long time.  He did make his way up to my shoulder and hang out there for a while to.  Clearly, he was ready for the next step in our relationship.

Joey now steps up and hangs out with me regularly.  He gently puts his beak on my fingers but never with any pressure.  He allows and asks for neck scritching.  I am impressed and amazed with how far he has come in such a short amount of time.  People sometimes think that 3 months is a long time, but it is actually an incredibly short period of time for a parrot.  I am excited to continue to grow with Joey.  

So, that is where we are at and I will surely keep you posted on our progress!

Five new birds, oh my!

So, due to an unfortunate tragedy a friend of mine is no longer able to care for her animals.  I offered to take the birds and today, five new birds were delivered to my house.  I had not met her birds before, so I just knew the little bits and pieces that I had heard about them and seen pictures of them.  Most of them are rehomes, with the exception of the two budgies that she got as babies.

Two of the birds Thistle, a Green Cheek Conure and Bamboo, a Canary Winged Parakeet are very handleable, but I wasn't sure about Joey, her White Capped Pionus.  Joey seems very excited and interested when I talk to him and when I am by the cage and some of the time he looked pretty defensive and upset. When I changed his water I saw that my perception was correct, he is not okay with me messing with his cage.  He came over and became really agitated and aggressive.  But, I needed to change his water and I needed to take out his fresh food bowl.  However, there was no way I could just stick my hand in there as every time I reached he rushed over aggressively.

I was already planning to work with him, but was going to give him a little time to settle in, but obviously something needs to be done so that I can change his food and water.  When I fed him earlier, I noticed he liked grapes which I had offered in his veggie and fruit mix earlier.  He has taken food from me, but I can tell when he is agitated he just grabs it and drops it.  When I offered him millet, he didn't want it.  When I gave him a piece of popcorn, he threw it down.

I cut the grapes up into spears, with each grape become four spears of grape.  I offered him one and he took it and loved it.  I asked him to come to the other side of the cage onto another perch and he did, so I marked it with "good!" and then gave him another grape slice.  While he was eating it, I replaced the water bowl. After he was done, I asked him to move to another perch, when he did, I marked it, "Good!" and gave him another grape spear and was able to easily remove his food dish.

Thistle and Bamboo also took a grape slice from me which is great as they had not wanted to take any food from me prior to that.

I will not longer be offering grapes in their food bowls, all grapes will come from me, from my hand and used for training.

I have been through this before with birds that are aggressive around their cages.  I simply have to teach them that I mean good things happen and that if they move where I ask them, I will reward them with something I like.

Welcome home little birds.

Things to do with a new bird

So many people come on here with new birds asking what they should and shouldn't do that I thought I would put a short list together of things that owners of new birds could do to build a good relationship with their bird. These things can be done with all new rehomes, rescues or baby birds.

1. Reward stepping up. Whether you have to teach the bird to step up or the bird already steps up, it is smart to reward each step up with a treat for quite a while. This will build a strong reinforcement history of stepping up for you with your new bird. Not only does it reinforce the actual behavior of stepping up, it also helps the bird to realize that YOU are reinforcing to be with and around. Sometimes people will just say "good bird" and this can be okay, but with a new bird you don't know how much you saying "good bird" actually matters to the bird. In an established relationship with a bird you know well, you may have learned that other things like verbal praise, petting, touching are reinforcing but with a new bird you don't know if the bird actually finds those things reinforcing which is why it is best to use food, a primary reinforcer in the beginning stages.

2. Reward vocalizations that you like. Many birds end up screaming because it gets them attention. A lot of birds who scream likely offered many other vocalizations such as whistling, talking, chattering, etc that went ignored. They did not get the attention they were seeking until they upped their vocalizations to screaming which caused their owner to scream along with them or engage in some other way. So, be sure to reinforce with food or attention any vocalizing that you like from your bird. You should also reinforce when your bird is quiet so that your bird learns that being quiet is reinforcing will earn him attention and treats. Playing quietly on their own should also be rewarded.

3. Encourage foraging and playing with toys. I have been able to get most of my birds to forage and play with toys, by continuing to try different toys and foraging ideas. If your bird "doesn't play with toys" keep trying different toys of different types of materials to see what your bird likes. It can take birds (especially ones that have never been given toys) a while to try them out, but even my 35 year old Amazon who wasn't given toys before coming here loves toys now. I just had to experiment with different ones. If you plastic toys don't work, try a shreddy toy, if shreddy doesn't work try wood, if wood doesn't work, try paper. There are so many toys out there and something is bound to click with your bird. I have found that baby birds are very receptive to toys and foraging so if you get a baby bird, definitely introduce these concepts early. Toys and foraging ideas don't have to be expensive, there are many things you can use around your house. I routinely give my Meyers a hunk of 2 x 4 wood or a cardboard box to chew on. He loves these more than any toy and they are just lying around my house. Check out Parrot Enrichment for foraging and homemade toy ideas.

4. Develop a routine but include some flexibility in the routine so that your bird can cope with slight changes in the routine. For example, all my birds eat fresh breakfast first thing in the morning. Throughout the day different birds are let out to play on play areas, trip around, etc. I switch around who comes out first and where they play, so there is always some flexibility there. Also, while most of them come out daily, there are some days when some birds don't come out at all. This is necessary because there are times (usually only once or twice a month) where my birds are not out of their cages. Most days I play music in the bird room, but some days I don't. I do not change the times of their meals, those always remain the same. It is very important that new birds are introduced to being alone, playing with toys and entertaining themselves early on so that they are able to cope with this on a regular basis. Even if you never have to leave your bird alone, you should still get them used to this because your life could change and it is important that your bird can deal with it. 

5. Start offering a variety of fresh foods right away. You can and should continue to feed your bird what he was eating prior to coming to you but you should also immediately start offering a variety of fresh foods to your bird. Vegetables, fruit, brown rice, pasta, bird breads are all things that you can begin to offer your bird. If you have a bird that is not used to eating fresh foods, don't give up and just keep doing it!! You can get creative and try hanging fresh greens or herbs in the cage. You can make bird bread or muffins and sneak veggies into those. Most birds can learn to enjoy a healthy varied diet it just may take some time for them to get brave enough to try it! If your new bird was not eating a healthy diet in their previous home, begin to offer the new, healthier foods right away so that you can transition the bird to a healthier way to eat.

6. Find out how your bird likes to bathe and offer bathing opportunities. I find that my new birds flourished when given bathing opportunities. Many of them enjoy simply being sprayed down with a water bottle set on mist. My conure doesn't like misting at all, but prefers to bath in her water dish. My amazon likes to bathe in the shower with me in there too! Figure out how your bird likes to bath and then offer this to them. Giving them something reinforcing to them like the opportunity to bathe only helps to strengthen the relationship you are developing with your bird. 

7. Learn to read your birds body language and respect what your bird is trying to communicate. A bird that bites has likely given much earlier warning signals that went ignored prior to deciding to bite. Take your time learning how to read your birds body language so that you will know when it's time to back off and when it's time to move forward.

8. When it comes to training the best thing to do is to use positive reinforcement to reward any behaviors that you like. Positive reinforcement means that you do something the bird likes such as offer a treat, give a scritch, give attention to or give access to something right after your bird does a behavior that you like. For instance, if you say "step up" and offer your hand and your bird steps up you immediately hand the bird a treat. Again, it is advised to use food in the beginning since with a new bird you may not know the bird well enough to know what things will be rewarding. Once you learn other rewards the bird likes you can use those as well as food. Using positive reinforcement to build behaviors you like will allow you to not only train your bird but also to help strengthen the relationship you have with your bird. Never use aversives like yelling at a bird, hitting a bird, throwing things at the bird or cage or squirting with water. This will only teach your bird that you are not trustworthy and will cause your bird to be fearful of you. Any and every time you use punishment with your bird you are breaking trust and damaging your relationship with that animal. Don't do it! For more information on training check out The Parrot Problem Solver and Good Bird by Barbara Heidenreich.

9. Most importantly, don't pressure, push or force your new bird at all. This is by far the biggest mistake people make. They want a relationship with a new bird so badly that they destroy any possibility of that happening by pushing the bird or trying to force the bird to be with them. If your bird is fearful of hands, don't attempt to hold it with your hand instead try training the bird to step onto a stick or cover your hand with a long sleeved shirt. If your bird doesn't want to come out of his cage, simply open the door and leave him alone. Whatever you do, do not set up situations where you feel you have no choice but to force the bird. Good, strong, healthy bird/human relationships are built on trust, communication and mutual respect, they are never built on fear, force or intimidation.