Dear readers,

    As the title suggests its been an interesting time since my last post. heres the bad news first: Eos, one of my beloved budgies, passed on. I came hom from school and found her at the bottom of the budgie enclosure mostly paralyzed but alive. I picked her up and sat with her on my bed. I had just been listening to the song “Noel” on the radio and  felt it was a good song for the moment. so I sang it to her trying to limit the cracking in my thought as I tried to breathe simply waiting for her to leave me. I sang for a few minutes untill I was crying too hard to talk let alone sing. I then got my Dad on the phone as he was at work mom had needed to leave on a very important errand. So I was talking to my father when I told him “Stop. Its coming” I set the phone down and watched My little girl take her last breath. I kissed her said good bye and set her down. Quickly after doing so I became hysterical screaming “Shes Dead, Shes Dead!!!!” dad tried hard to calm me down on the phone. I calmed down then I hung up the phone. And proceeded with her burial. I wrapped a towel around her beautiful yellow feathers and placed her inside an egg carton (her favorite source of enrichment) dug a hole placed her inside filled the hole and placed a large pile of rocks around her grave. Now she will become apart of the earth as its meant to be. I will never forget her but she has become one with the earth and for that I am envious.

         On a happier note Portia my ducors corella’s training has progressed even further. I have been working hard on teaching her to forage. Shes doing wonderfully. And for the first time since she came to our home she took a bath! it was beautiful.

thats all for now,  sorry I’m a bit crunched for time.

I would like to introduce a new member to our flock. PORTIA! Portia is a Ducorps Cockatoo (Cacatua Ducorpsii). I adopted her from a good friend of mine who is also a FANTASTIC trainer. She had Portia for about three years after she got her from a …..well lets just say “a less then perfect household” if you know what I mean. She was plucked then and has continued to pluck and shred her feathers. Luckly she has left her flight and tail feathers alone. She hasn’t been clipped for the last 3 years but was before then. My friend has done some training with her off and on and was successful in getting her to fly on her own accord ( a HUGE step with a bird previously clipped) shortly before Portia came to live with me. When she did come live with me for the first few days she was very  class=”hiddenSpellError” pre=”very “>hesitent about being on me but elicited plenty of  ”>scritches from us. She now allows me to handle her a lot but still gets quite a few scritches. She has from day one done ALOT of flying much on her own accord. She isn’t a good flyer but is improving everyday. I have been training her multiple times everyday. and her recall is getting very GOOD! Though she already had the concept down when she came I have been working on difficulty. For instance: flying up as high as I can reach, flying down from high cupboards, flying longer distances, from every room in the house, we’ve been working on corners and she has been improving on her out of sight recalls aswell. She has already shown quite a bit of improvement.  Over the past few days I taught spin in 3 sessions and targeting in one. I will be working on the retrieve soon.

I just want to clear something up. I am not a professional and don’t claim to be. I can only tell you  what I’ve learned and what I agree with. I can only tell you what I’ve experienced or what I know friends have experienced and even then I would probably have to direct you to them. I have only recall trained 6 birds. and none for free flight. Though I do hope to become a proff. one day I am not now.

Peter

    I would like to post My new training plan to train/teach my Blue and gold macaw Azaria flighted recall landing and flight in general. This plan is subject to change.

I will first focus on solidifying the walking and stretching recall and work on getting her to Hop/jump to my hand.

I will also work on recall around playgyms and other locations.

To work on landing I will be gently setting her down on the bed (as discribed in the article  “training sedetary parrots to fly” by Mandy Andrea) and increase the distance as seems appropiate.

I will also be taching her to hop off of my lap by tossing treats on the floor and increasing the distance she must hop (also described in the article “training sedetary parrots to fly” by Mandy Andrea)

I will be teaching her to touch her wing to the target stick to get her used to opening her wings  

I will be having 2-3 sessions a day dedicated to training recall. Depending on the day I’ll also have another training session that will be for teaching other behaviors.

I would like to thank My good friends Hugh, Dana, and Raz for helping me get the plan together.

keep flapping

I have been talking with some of my good friends and trainers about getting down and dirty with Azaria blue and gold’s training. Hopefully now we are starting to get into more of an schedgule and I’ll be able to keep up with it. So anyway My friend Jeni and I were talking yesterday morning about training and my changing plans to get the optimal response from Azaria as well as what works best for her. The topic of “alternative reinforcers” came up. When Jeni asked what reinforecers I use besides treats I told I told her other then treats and cuddles/scritches….. nothing. She suggested I use something like a special toy or something ther then food that she enjoys. So when I thought about it I idnd’t think of anything that would work. even after reading this article she suggested http://www.clickerdogs.com/createamotivatingtoy.htm I still couldn’t think of what I could use.

So later that day azaria was roaming around on her cage and on the window sill. I haven’t had to lock her in her cage at all except when I leave which is very nice for her. Anyway I came back and she had found her way to the top of her travel cage. I was exactly excited she was on it as she finds irt VERY reinforcing so much that she doesn’t hesitate to chop on me even with the simplest “up” cue and showing her the food reinforcer. So I wanted to get her off without using the handheld perch which she will comply with but hates and is sour with me for the rest of the day. So I looked at the reason for being on the travel so reinforcing to her. I have decided there are many reasons she finds the cage reinforcing but at the paticular moment in time she was chewing/shredding a paper towel. My mind poped back to what Jeni and I were talking about and it dawned on me ALTERNATE REINFORCERS. So I ran across the room grabbed a new paper towel went back to Azaria and waited for her to finnsh shredding. the second she was done I gave the “up” cue and placed my hand between her and the new paper towel I was holding. She had a look of Shock on her face as though she were saying “WHAT THE HECK!!!! I get another paper towel if I comply?” She then stared at me and the new paper towel for a second  and then quickly stepped up! I was so excited! So next time your in a possibly very aversive situation think  something more then the regular food reinforcements.

Expect a new post about my new training plan to get my Macaw Azaria flying and recalling. It is being developed with the help Of my friends Hugh, Dana, Jeni and Raz. You can see Jenis training blog here http://fur-n-feathers-training.blogspot.com/

Have funflying

Peter

    Today i would like to address something that is very important to me! I have a good friend who is one of the best and most dedicated bird owners I know. She has recently brought to my attention that there is a common thought that every bird that plucks or mutilates is or has been abused/neglected. This is however not necessarily the cause. My friend Barb has two moluccan cockatoos. She was uneducated when she first had them and due to to Strong a bond and not understanding that interacting with a bird in front of the other bird can cause a extreme amount jealousy. Barb never abused/neglected ,and never will, her birds!  She was simply uneducated, and because of this her male is now a mutilator, and her Female is plucker. I know of birds that unless they are constantly busy they simply view they’re feathers as a source of recreation. These birds are happy and well cared for but need a huge amount of  activity to keep them busy. As you can see on her blog her birds are Extremely well cared for. She has done everything she can and still is. So though Abuse/Neglect will cause plucking /mutilation it is much more common when the owner caretaker is simply uneducated. Now when you look at a plucking bird don’t automatically assume it is abused.

Peter

Barbs blog is here http://barbsbirdsandaviary.blogspot.com/

     I’d like to tell you a little about what I call Human or Sapien driving. Its really quite easy if you watch your bird’s behavior and and feel it aswell. When you drive a car you tell it to move forward by stepping on the gas. You turn it by moving the steering wheel in the direction you want it to go. Well how can your parrot do the same with you? Have you ever been holding your bird and lets say it wanted to into the bathroom and as you were walking by it your bird leaned and looked in the direction of the place it wanted go. Have you ever thought about indulging your bird and moving in the direction he is leaning? I do this all the time with my Azaria and its wonderful! she will lean when she wants to move forward (or which ever way she wants to go) and stop leaning and stand straight when she wants to stop. If she leans back I move back because something disturbed her or we went to far. This is a great way to empower them and they actually are controling you! When doing this you can get most of the enrichments in visual, auditory, behavioral, and maybe even olfactory! I can see zoos doing this as well withh their birds.

A bird trainer in training ,

Peter

and I added 2 new videos aswell here is their links http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXRbT3h1Q6Q&feature=channel and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzMR5MwMT68&feature=channel

A wonderful plant I recomend. It is bird safe though I don’t suggest letting them really chew on the foliage. Great plant though! For sure!

        I filled it with pellets, almonds, and sunflower seeds.  Azaria (blue and gold macaw) went Nuts over it ,no pun intendid. I was shocked at how quickly she started using it. She is a rescue and had never been introduced to foragin/enrichment before I got her.  I have been working hard to teach her how to use foraging toys and I think this is her first real break through! She is slow to play with toys  but this took about 2 seconds for her to take notice and a whole 5 minutes for her to start chewing on to get lower. I highly recomend it to anyone! Except maybe someone who has a smaller beaked species like (budgies cockatiels etc.). My only concern is that it won’t last long. But I will let you know about that!