Dave and I sat down to watch some TV and take a night off when we decided it might do Storm some good to hang out with us. He stayed out for a couple hours?and was very content being with us both in the same room which I felt was amazing progress. There wasn’t any aggressive behavior towards Dave, who was sitting on the couch and he was still fine with me being up and about and sitting down, too.

Although he was concerned when I left the room at times, he never screamed as I think he still felt Dave was there and that was some kind of sense of security somehow.

This is something we try to do with all our birds who can be mellow around the TV. Like Cressi, our African Grey. She and Dave have taken naps together before, it’s incredibly cute.

Don’t underestimate the power of quality time with your parrots at home. It is a love language in humans, after all, and I’m sure it fits right into the birdie love languages, too.

My rehomed cockatoos are the best of friends: Linus, umbrella cockatoo and Theo, goffins cockatoo.

Let me first say that people who take in a parrot in need of a new home are the biggest-hearted people I know. Finding the patience and compassion that is needed to care for, work with and love these birds is a challenge, even for the most experienced people.

Some parrots have suffered years of abuse and come with medical and psychological issues. Some have been surrendered by people who just didn’t have the energy or knowledge to handle the species they chose (and likely didn’t research first). Some have had to leave loving homes due to the owner’s change in lifestyle or ill-health. Regardless of the reasons behind the displacement, a parrot is likely to suffer issues of anger, mistrust and fear of the unknown to varying degrees. They may mourn the loss of a loved human, or mate, if the flock has been dispersed. Many will transition beautifully into your home and flock.

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In the morning I walked in to say hello to Storm and saw one of his foraging toys (aka food finding toys)?opened! I was so excited because it meant he did it all by himself and figured out how to forage for the first time… ever!

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I decided since Storm was eating well at our house that I would take his food out of his cage for 24 hours and see if it would encourage him to use some of his foraging toys. Now, in the wild, there’s plenty of times where birds end up going 24 hours without food so I didn’t think it was a cruel thing to do and food went back in his cage after the 24 hours was up.

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The cool thing about it, is he made his amazing progress. This will make Storm be more active, healthier and more mentally stimulated (less aggressive) when he goes back home with this new found talent of his!

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He is learning to self-entertain which is a great thing to teach a bird to prevent boredom which leads to feather chewing, plucking and over-preening as well as biting and more aggressive behavior because the birds aren’t healthy if they aren’t active.

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To find this toy and many others like it, check out Busy Beaks. They are my personal favorite for variety in toys where you can get a bunch of cool ones all in ONE place. I’ve loved every toy I’ve gotten from them and more importantly, so has my flock! For all natural food finding toys, please visit our store at www.birdtricks.com/store.

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Tip to take home: Some great beginner food finding toys are clear ones where the bird can actually SEE what it is it’s working for. This creates a much better motivation that toys where you can’t see the good stuff inside. Sometimes you have to start with treat-foods and then eventually begin putting your parrot’s pellets in there once he gets used to the idea of working for his meals.

Selecting a species of parrot is probably the most important decision you need to make if you are considering bringing one into your home. Size and color aside, each species has its own sets of quirks, talents and needs.

I have had a lot of animals in my life: dogs, cats, rodents, raccoons, rabbits. I have loved and had wonderful experiences with each of them.  Dogs and cats have been domesticated for thousands of years. Not so with birds. They can be tamed, but they are not domesticated. Many of the “pet” parrots today were literally yanked from the forest and placed into a human environment, or their parents or grandparents were. We are only two or three generations into a domestication process, with literally centuries to go.

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To see Storm’s progress from day 1, click here.

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On Day 10 with blue front Amazon, Storm, I woke up and saw Storm playing with part of his swing in his cage! He was grabbing at the rope pieces with small wooden blocks on them and pulling them this way and that. I was really excited as I watched with one eye open, pretending still to sleep and not notice…

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Because you see, Storm always sleeps on the right side of his cage at night but in the morning he comes over to the left side to watch me sleep in the morning until I wake up. When I wake up, he tells me hello excitedly and it’s something he waits to do every morning. Well, I guess I lost his attention that morning because he started playing with that toy instead.

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Shorly after, Dave walked in the room and he never went back to the toy but it was still HUGE progress from a bird who wasn’t playing at all. So far he has shown interest in 3 toys but hasn’t really gotten into them yet. I’m getting the feeling I need to be more creative with his toys and how to encourage him to play with them…

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He also began working with Dave more this day and tried some fresh apple which he was very fond of. Dave ended up using apple as Storm’s reward for his touch training lesson that day.

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By this day, Storm was successfully touch trained but refuses to do it with 100% accuracy in front of my camera and sometimes me. He works best with Dave when I’m just not there.

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Here is a quick clip of Storm touch training with Dave:

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Storm also had his second bath on day 10 which he loved, as usual. This time he let me get his chest area for him so he didn’t have to bathe himself afterwards. I felt like that was a new comfort level for the both of us and was happy it only took a single day.

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In day 10 Storm got his touch training technique down, ate a new food (apple) and took his second bath. Quite a bit of progress for just one day! He has lately been accomplishing more in his single days than before.?

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Tip to take home: The more “in tune” you are with how your bird is feeling, the more receptive they will be towards you. And the more they will trust you.?

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If you always knew your significant other knew how you felt in certain situations, and knew that they would know when you were happy or uncomfortable; you would feel better going into those types of situations as well as being around that person because you knew they were aware of YOUR feelings and would act accordingly. Your bird feels the same way, so try to be aware of how your bird is acting and feeling all the time.?

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This will make it more likely your bird will be more open to learning and trying new things.

You may be wondering which day Storm took his first bath, well, it was also on day 9. The same day he accepted a male figure! I was extremely happy with day 9 of Storm being here as he made SO much progress in one day, it was unbelievable. I kept waiting for someone to pinch me!

I had really wanted to try taking Storm into the shower with me, however, Dave didn’t feel it was a good idea to trust him like that yet and I didn’t want to put him in alone as a running shower head can be intimidating to a bird when they’re all by themselves unless they are really familiar with that sort of thing.

So, I decided to try misting Storm with a spray bottle. I had went out earlier in the day and misted my two macaws; Jinx and Comet. My macaws are mostly fans of taking showers through the natural Florida rainstorms but that day, they were all for the spray bottle! It was a very hot day… the other birds didn’t want it, though. And I made sure to respect that. Not all birds like being misted with a spray bottle.

Here’s how I did it with Stormy for the first time ever…

I made sure Storm was in a calm, comfortable place. For him, it was on this black table I’d been using to weigh him daily so he was very used to being on it. I made sure he didn’t show any signs of being scared of the bottle just being in my hand and close to him.

Since Storm already trusted me, I knew I would be able to tell if he didn’t like the misting of the water and stop before betraying his trust. This is when I knew I had more “deposits in the bank than withdrawals”.

I pointed the water bottle about 2 feet above his head and slowly pulled in it towards me as it misted out and lightly fell over Storm’s body. He shook his head a little, wondering what just happened but didn’t appear to be startled. I did it again, reading his body language every time to make sure he wasn’t irritated, scared or bothered by it.

Since he wasn’t, I kept it going and pretty soon he fluffed up the feathers on his head. This told me he was starting to like it and I began spraying more often between reps… eventually he became vocal and got really into it.

Once I left (as I ran out of water!) I saw him climb into his water dish and bathe his chest himself! I was so proud I rushed and got my camera to get it on tape. Luckily, he showed me a little bit of it so I could share it with all of you but stopped quickly after. I got some great photos and video of his soaked body after-wards though!

Tip to take home: Your birds at home should be bathing 3-7 times per week, especially those with more dander than others (those cockatoos!) and those living in houses with smokers (such as Storm). Smoke can irritate a bird’s skin and feathers causing them to chew and eventually pluck in order to preen them clean. Over-preening is very common in households with smokers. Your bird needs to be able to bathe as often as they need whether it’s a spray bottle from you, in their own dish inside their cage or in the shower on a shower perch… even outside in an aviary works great for these guys! Find the way your bird likes to bathe and give him the opportunity to do so as often as possible!

For more pictures of Stormy bathing, click here.