Saturday, April 5, 2008

Birdie Springtime

It finally feels like spring today. Although still a bit chilly this morning, the sun is shining brightly, the grass is greening, the birds are singing and the crocus and daffodils are blooming. Warm weather is almost here. Typically, spring in Indiana goes like this: one week we are in the 30's with the occasional sleet or snow shower and the next week, we are in the 80's, trying to get the AC to work after a long winter;>)

The inside birds are becoming a bit flighty with all the nesting behavior going on outside. We don't breed our birds, nor do we intend to-there are more than enough unwanted, abused and neglected cockatoos in the world! When hormones rise as daylight hours increase, undesirable behaviors (screaming, biting and destructiveness) escalate. What I call undesirable behavior is often a very natural behavior for the birds. Screaming to call to a mate, chewing wood to make a nest cavity in a tree are understandably wonderful attributes in a wild parrot. Most parrots do not bite in the wild-they can fly away from something thye dislike or fear and they pay much closer attention to body language than we do. Parrots signal others with body posture, eye and feather shape and position, etc. We teach our parrots to bite when we do not observe their body language that says "I don't want to, go away, don't touch me ", etc.

This is where positive reinforcement comes into play. When we teach our parrots a desirable behavior (waving their foot, for example), we can achieve two major goals:

#1 We learn to observe our bird more closely while teaching, so we can reward the desired behavior. Behavior that is rewarded is repeated. We learn our bird's body language.

#2 We teach an acceptable behavior that we can ask of our parrots when they are exhibiting undesirable behavior. In other words, if Merlin, my cockatoo, is engaged in repetitive screaming, I will ask him to wave. This refocuses his attention to getting a treat and he stops screaming.

Too good to be true? Nope, positive reinforcment REALLY works. Check out my DVD at:


Companion Parrot Media

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello,

I recently adopted an adult Umbrella, Aurora, from Bird Fever (I will be scheduling her appt with you Monday.) Due to her lack of attention at her previous home, she over-preened and began exhibiting negative behaviors. She has made much progress in the past 3-4 weeks while preparing to come to her new home. Her and I formed such a strong bond which grew and grew each and every day I would visit.

She came home Friday and seemed to be adjusting quite well to her new surroundings as her new brothers - my 2 dogs. We are unsure whether or not she had been introduced to dogs in her previous home but her reaction to Charlie, Kim's (bird fever owner)small dog, gave her quite a scare. When introducing her to Buddy and Rocky, a boxer/bulldog mix and long haired min. daschund, I took things very slow. Buddy, boxer mix, unfortunately is over-excited about everything in life her meets and does not have a slo-mo button. I truly believe he may want to eat her. I removed him from the room today when Aurora began screaming although, it did not seem to settle her. She continued to scream the rest of the evening,even while cuddling and playing. She also exhibited signs of preparing to fly from her cage as well as from out laps. Her wings have not fully grown back as of yet so they have not been clipped. I'm worried for her safety due to both the dog and her flight attempts. I know that I can provide her the attention and affection that she needs but worry the co-existence with the dogs will overpower our bond resulting in overpreening and stress, which she has already been through in the past.

PLEASE HELP!!

Lindsey

Unknown said...

please excuse spelling errors and brevitity...

Lindsey