A Foray into Avian Culture

Progress with Noah

2007-08-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

Noah has made incredible progress. He only requires 2 treats to feed him now, as opposed to the many treats required in the past. When the bowls are brought over to the feeding station, he immediately moves to the other side of the cage. He does still move a little bit toward the food/water bowls when the food door is being open, but immediately reconsiders and waits for the treat from Brian. Also after the new bowls are put in his cage, he does not attack the food bowl. Now we must figure out how to feed with only one person. I have a number of ideas, but comments are appreciated.

Screaming

Yesterday, we had NO screaming. What a treat..a totally peaceful day. Noah seems to be more relaxed and wanting to partake in any fun we are having. When I throw the ball to the dogs and they catch it, Noah lets out a wonderful Weeee sound. His happy call. It is really something to hear, just pure joy. Hopefully our progress will continue, and Noah will perch and be willing to be brought out of his cage.

PePe The Adorable

2007-08-03T16:11:00.000-07:00

This bird has to be the sweetest bird on earth. He never ever is "bitey" and has the cutest way of fluffing up. I cannot wait until he gets his sight back, I think it will make a huge difference for him. In the past week he has chewed away at an oak perch and it finally fell down. I was so worried that he may of hurt himself, but Brian said they do that type of thing all the time. We have left the perch inside his cage for entertainment as he likes to go down and chew on it. We have also taped small paper cups folded with nuts to it. This way he can do a little foraging. He has already stumbled upon one treat, so I'm sure he will find the next. I'm going to set up the video camera in the room and get him to vocalize. He just loves this one word...it is something to see. I will not give it away...the video will be a must see.

Feeding Noah

2007-08-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

Noah is a challenge when it comes to feeding time. He screams and is very territorial over his food and water bowls. We are employing the following techniques for feeding:

When he screams, we continue what we were doing or stop dead in our tracks. Any behavior that is different is perceived by the bird as reinforcement of the current behavior.
If we are in the process of going over to feed him we immediately stand still until the screaming has stopped.
When we go to place the bowls in the cage it is always a 2 person job. Brian targets him on the opposite side of the cage with a peanut in one hand. He tries to incrementally increase the time that Noah stays on the opposite cage before giving him the treat. To get both the food and water bowl in the receptacles requires at least 4 targeting/treat scenarios.

Targeting Treat Scenarios for feeding:

Brian shows Noah the peanut on the opposite side of the cage. Noah goes toward the treat. Brian says "Stay". On the "Stay command", I open the water receptacle door and remove the dirty water bowl. Meanwhile Brian has given the bridge word "Good" and then the peanut. Noah precedes to go towards the water receptacle door, which I have shut.
The above technique is then repeated for putting the new water bowl in, removing the food bowl (where Noah shows the most aggression), and replacing the food bowl.

The above technique over four days has dramatically decreased Noah's aggression towards his bowls. At the onset aggression was displayed for both the water and food bowl, now it is only the food bowl. The targeting and small approximation technique is demonstrated in the DVD: Parrot Behavior and Training #1

2007-08-01T20:48:00.001-07:00

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Pet Bird: Dealing With Macaw Parrots

2007-08-01T13:07:00.000-07:00

Pet Bird: Dealing With Macaw Parrots

The First Weekend With The Parrots

2007-08-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

Brian is keeping a log of their behaviors and recording the parrots aggression on a scale of 1-10. Ten being the most aggressive.

PePe:

Pepe (the Military Macaw) is adapting well to his new home. He still has not reached his full vocalization. He toured his whole cage, which we setup exactly like his cage at Ken and Diane's, since he is blind. Pepe has been on a diet of :

Harrison's Life Coarse
Zupreem Avian Maintenance Natural Diet
Zupreem Avian Maintenance Fruit Blend for Large Parrots/Macaws
With varying additions of Almonds, Walnuts, Apples, Grapes, Broccoli, and Scrambled Eggs (his favorite)

Noah

Noah, the Blue and Gold Macaw, on the other hand, has many issues to work through. He is 11 years old and very aggressive. His aggression is partially due to being in prime mating season, as well as negative reinforcement training. He is extremely territorial over his food bowls. We are attempting to get him to stay on the other side of the cage using positive reinforcement, when the food bowls are replaced. We are following the methodology of Barbara Heidenreich (Good Bird Inc). He also screams for his food at dinner time as well as at dusk. Apparently the dusk scream is normal, it is for herding the flock. When they scream you are suppose to ignore it and keep doing what you are doing or stop dead in your tracks. It can be a bit much, Brian has started wearing ear plugs...I may have to do the same.

How we ended up with Macaws, Part II:

2007-07-31T08:24:00.000-07:00

At the Mickaboo class, Brian and I offered to volunteer for transport and various fund raising activities. To make a long story short we volunteered to pick up a recently surrendered Blue and Gold Macaw from the vet and take him to his new foster parents up North. He was a spectacular looking Macaw. The whole 21/2 hour ride he was quiet, except for an initial Hello when he got into the car. He took one or two pieces of blueberry scone from me an allowed me to touch his foot. He seemed to be a really sweet bird, and I felt for him.

After dropping Noah off, we went down to see PePe for our approval visit. Pepe was staying with Ken and Diane, the original people who had rescued the bird. He had been found in the care of an eldery woman whose husband had died 3 years ago. The elderly woman was no longer able to take care of Pepe. Pepe was found in a very small dirty dark cage being fed a peanut-only diet. He was malnourished and dirty, but not badly handled. Due to the care of Diane and Ken he has regained some much needed weight and strength. He is a quiet, mellow parrot that likes to say "Rubber baby buggy bumpers".

After discussing Pepe our thoughts turned to Noah. He seemed like such a sweet bird and after the long ride up we had fallen for him. So we decided to try to pick both Noah and Pepe up on the same day, last Friday. That required a lot of quick execution to get cages, food, etc. ready for the birds.

We went down to Milipitas and got a pretty good deal on two large cages. I didn't know they were as heavy as they were, so it took a bit to get them in the door. We washed, sanitized (with a Novasan solution), and assembled the cages until 1:30 AM.

Pepe
We picked up Pepe from his foster home on Friday 7/27/07. Upon pickup he presented very relaxed behavior: talking, sitting comfortable, etc. Diane (one of his foster parents) perched Pepe on a dowel and easily moved him to the carrier. During the ride home, Pepe investigated his carrier. Pepe was easily moved into his new cage at 5:00PM. He did not make any attempts to move around the cage or go to his food bowl.

Noah

Upon pickup he presented very aggressive behavior: lunging at the boys in the house, chewing up perch presented for step up and striking out when trying to close door to carrier. He would not accept treats at any point on Friday. Noah was put into his new cage Friday around 5:00PM; upon exit of the carrier, he immediately went to the cage wall and tried to climb to top; Brian used a perch to step up and move Noah inside cage. He immediately started eating from his food bowl.

Starting with Parrots.

2007-07-30T22:22:00.000-07:00

Well I hope this blog can be an exchange with many people about their pet birds. I intend to share my learning experiences with our Macaws. I should say from the start, I have never had a pet bird until now. I have always had the more tradtional dog and/or cats. My husband, Brian, on the other hand has had birds and even bred them for a time. I came into the picture shortly before he stopped breeding...birds that is :).

How we ended up with Macaws, Part I:

Brian had been talking about getting a bird for about a year or so, but with our work load we just didn't see how we could fit it in. Well this summer we are re-vamping our business and have some down-time. Brian started looking online for parrots. He came across a Mickaboo, a parrot rescue organization in the Bay Area. He read the story of this sweet 51 year old Military Macaw named PePe. I saw a picture of PePe and read his story, and felt we should at least help. Pepe is blind due to cataracts, but has a very good chance of recovering most of his sight with surgery.

We have pursued potentially adopting Pepe with Mickaboo. As part of the process with Mickaboo we must take a class, have an in-home visit, and visit and obtain approval from the foster parents. I think the worst part of the class was finding out I must part with my Grill/panini maker and my teflon pots and pans. I checked out the enameled cast iron the other day and the one upside is I'll have great arms well into my eighties...who knew?? Well I have more to write...we now have a Blue and Gold as well. More later...