Blue and Gold Macaws

Above is a photo of Jersey and Chayko, two related blue and gold macaws that we trained and sold to David Copperfield. I know most of you have seen the photo of Dave with these guys and David in his warehouse in Las Vegas. We originally delivered them to Vegas, and trained David’s entire crew that would be handling them. You may have read various stories about it in our newsletters and various products where we might draw reference to it.

Well, they are now on David’s gorgeous private island in the Bahamas. You can check out some articles about Musha Cay here and visit his website at www.mushacay.com.

If you’d like to see how Jersey and Chayko are doing on the island, check out Cathy Daly’s flickr photostream here! You can see videos of them now talking and dancing! Pretty cute stuff over there.

However… the team on the island isn’t trained like the team was in Vegas that Dave and I personally coached and worked with, with the birds, in person. So, we are headed out tomorrow for 10 days to work with these new people with Jersey and Chayko so things like the picture below don’t happen anymore…

Bird bite

I’ve heard internet is sketchy out there so not sure when I will be posting an update for you all to hear about but keep an eye out!

Umbrella Cockatoo

Natural sunlight varies as seasons progress and ebb.  It is the intensity and duration of light that tells a bird that it is breeding season, and when to molt – it regulates it’s cyclical clock and adjusts metabolism. Ultraviolet light strengthens the immune system and works with the glandular system in the synthesis of vitamin D, which through a series of processes, increases calcium absorption.  This means healthier and stronger bones and beaks, and improved feather production.  Additionally, a bird’s vision and perception is dramatically enhanced.  Our parrots can see into the near ultraviolet range. This gives them the ability to, for instance, to see colors that we cannot, and to see things from a different perspective than we do.  In the wild, it is how they select mates and identify other flock members, and predators.  It assists in their search for food. Have you ever been outside with your parrot, when she suddenly cocks her head to the side and stares upward in horror at something that is a mere black speck in the sky to you?  She has likely identified a hawk.

Umbrella Cockatoo

Birds love the sunshine. Linus would spend all day outdoors if he could.

Natural sunlight is the best thing for our parrots. But it is impractical (and often unsafe) to roll their cages outside each day to give them this advantage.  Being in tuned with the seasons makes for a more psychologically well-balanced bird.  The health benefits are many. As 90% of the sun’s beneficial near ultraviolet rays are filtered out through modern window glass (even aluminum screening will filter out 30% or more), simply placing the cage by the window is ineffective. The next best thing we can offer as an alternative is full spectrum (FS) lighting in our indoor cage areas.

What is FS (full spectrum) lighting?

Full spectrum is a term that is used in the marketing of bulbs that replicate natural sunlight.  It radiates near ultraviolet light that, while not equal in quality to sunlight, it is the best artificial light that we have at this time and is very effective.

Where can I buy these bulbs and which ones are the best?

FS bulbs are available in many pet stores and online.  They come in two varieties: tubes that vary in length (like the ones you might have at work and bulbs like the high-efficiency bulbs we have at home (the curly ones).  The tube bulbs require fixtures that hold those particular bulbs in a length equal to the length of the bulb you are purchasing (usually 24″ or 48″) and the screw in bulbs will fit into any regular lamp base.

Some brand names are Vita Lite, Chroma, BioLight and Lumichrome.  The bulbs, to be effective,  should have a CRI (color rendition index) of 90 or more, and a color temperature of 5000k or more. Be sure to get bulbs specified for avian use.  Reptile have different lighting requirements.  Logic tells me that the tube bulbs would distribute light more broadly and would be a better choice.  If you elect to go with the screw in bulbs, I would consider using two of them.

If you get a parrot cage by cages by design, their cages come with full spectrum lighting.

Where do I place the lighting in the room and how long do I keep it on?

To maximize the benefits of FS lighting, the bulbs need to be placed about 12″ to 18″ from the cage. The heat generated by these bulbs is minimal and it won’t cause overheating. Try to place them over the top of the cage (if there’s a tray covering the top, you can either remove it or angle the light in from the highest possible point). Since we are trying to duplicate nature, shoot for high-noon.  Put the lights on a timer that will turn them on at sunrise and off at sunset, or as close to that as you can to work within your schedule.  Remember to adjust the timer to mimic the seasonal sun.

Umbrella Cockatoo

As I was doing research for this, I learned that my own lighting system is inadequate in one room. I need to add at least two more light sources to fully cover the needs of all the cages.  Hopefully, one day, I will have the outdoor aviaries I’ve always dreamed about and FS lighting will no longer be an issue.

I think many people misunderstand the term training diet and hurt their training success as a result of this. While Chet’s method of figure out how much your bird eats, weigh it, reduce by ten percent, etc method is probably the best way of doing it, I want to explain the next best thing which is very easy to apply and anyone who wants to train their bird can begin applying right away.

The fact is, you have to train your bird when it is hungry. You should feed your bird it’s main food twice a day and take it away in between. Ideally it should be pellets but even if you are still feeding seed (working on transitioning to pellet of course) the same method still applies. If you are feeding seed, you will have to figure out the bird’s favorite seeds and pick every single one of that kind out by hand and save them exclusively as treats.

The way it works with my bird is that she does not get one morsel of food unless it’s a reward for doing something right. This may seem brutal but since this is the way I have always been doing it, she doesn’t know otherwise. And it makes for a well behaved and well trained parrot.

The way I do it is uncover my bird’s cage at 10AM. I usually don’t train her until 12PM because it takes her a little time after waking up get hungry. I train her for about 10 minutes using miscellaneous nuts and seeds as treats. Think of this as an appetizer. After training I prepare fresh vegetables and carry the bird in one hand and food dish in the other hand over to the cage. This gets her excited about the main course yet to be served.  When I return the bird to the cage  she is still hungry for food because she underate during training. I put her on the outside area of her cage and let her watch as I am putting the food inside the cage so that she voluntarily climbs into her cage. In this way I am using food as a reward for going back in the cage without causing any fuss. Returning to the cage is always a positive experience because there is food waiting (obviously not every time, but this is like random rewarding where she has to wonder which times she will get cage food). Normally I serve a side of pellets with the garden salad. I leave the food in for about an hour and then proceed to remove the dishes.

Midday I might allow my bird to play with foraging toys on the climbing tree and earn some bonus treats for dessert. I still see this as a forming of training and reward where the bird is being trained how to keep busy on her own and rewarding herself. If I am eating something that I want to give my bird to eat, I will always ask her to perform a trick before giving her a piece of bread, pasta, apple, etc. Even though this is food that I am gladly sharing with my bird, I will have her do a nominal trick or two to earn it. While this is not a formal training session and I am not as critical, I will still make her know that she has to do something to get what she wants. This is a very effective way to get my bird to practice a trick because she is really excited for the out of the ordinary food she smells and really wants. Usually she will perform any trick I ask flawlessly for these kinds of rewards. Dinner is a repeat of the morning procedure at 9:30 training, 9:45 cage food, 10PM cover cage to sleep.

Don’t make the mistake of giving your bird a free lunch. There’s no free lunch in the wild and neither should there be in your house hold. Make your bird have to earn all of its food and it will quickly catch on to the whole trick training routine. You will have a better and more enjoyable relationship with your bird from it.

Kili earned a carrot for doing tricks.

Below is an email from Storm’s owner, Jeannie, to me. I thought you’d all love to hear about Storm and how to keep in touch with his progress at home with his owners from now on!

“Storm heard your voice on the phone when I was talking to you tonight. Right now I have his cage next to my desk during daytime hours. He was so excited to hear your voice, but, he wasn’t sure where you were. He kept looking at the back door waiting for  you to come in.

John had tears in his big mushy eyes when Storm let him kiss his beak. This just was never possible before. Storm would take whatever John offered him and shred it, then drop it to the bottom of the cage. When John offered to scratch Storms head, Storm puffed his feathers and leaned into Johns hand and turned his head as if to say, “oh, right here, and you missed a spot dude”. It was terriffic.

We will keep you posted. I asked Sheri to charge up the flip video camera and I hope to get some video of John and Sheri with Storm over the weekend. I will attempt to upload it so you guys can see it for yourself. It is so amazing to see Storm accept others.”

Thanks and Love to you both,
Jeannie and Storm

To visit with Storm and see his progress, visit his you tube account at www.youtube.com/freeflyersarefree!

Although I had heard of bowling parrots before, I was not really trying to teach this to my bird. I was at a store called Big Lots just picking up some miscellaneous junk when near the cash register I walked by a desktop bowling game. I stopped and went back to look at it and said “this is just the right size for my bird.” I bought it for 10 bucks, one of the coolest and yet cheapest props I bought for training my bird. I always keep my eyes out for toys and props that I can use for my bird and you find these things when most unexpected.

The way the trick works is the bird walks up to the bowling game, pushes the ball, the ball rolls toward the pins and knocks them down.

Luckily this is one of the easiest tricks I have ever taught my bird and yet visually perhaps the most impressive. Fact is, the setup does all the work; the bird only provides the momentum to get the balling rolling. Gravity and the setup do the rest of the work. No one is going to care about how many pins get knocked down because just the site of a bird bowling is so amazing by itself. If you want, you can teach your bird to knock down the remaining pins with its beak or fetch the pins one by one to you to clean up.

The way I taught my bird to nudge the ball to get it rolling was quite easy. With clicker and treats at hand, I put her down near the bowling game and the red launcher and shiny ball got her attention immediately. She started beaking these and messing around on her own. I would click and reward the bird whenever she made contact with the ball. Unfortunately she was never using enough power to get the ball to roll over the notch that keeps it in place, so I needed to teach her that she needs to push the ball harder. What I did here was pick up the bird in my hand and held her in such a way that her beak was against the ball. I then nudged my bird toward the ball so that the beak pushed the ball over the retaining notch and rolled it down the ramp toward the pins. Of course I immediately clicked and gave her a jackpot reward. I didn’t have to do this more than 5 times if I can remember correctly for her to understand that she gets a reward for putting the ball in motion. So next time, I let her try it on her own and it took her a minute of fighting the ball and pushing on it from different angles till she set it off. Once she figured out how to beak the ball to get it rolling, she had mastered the trick. Basically I taught the complete trick in just one training session. All subsequent training sessions of this trick were only for the purpose of getting her to do it more reliably and willingly.

There is no formal cue for the trick. Seeing the bowling setup is the cue for walking up to it and launching the ball. I try to say “bowl” every time she is walking up to roll the ball but she will do it without the command just the same. It just makes it look like she is following a command and I think it also gives her extra encouragement to do it.

One final tip. At first I tried to train this trick to my bird on the floor and in the middle/end of her normal trick training routine. She would get too full and too distracted to do the trick and sometimes would ignore the ball. I suggest training the trick on a very small and empty table and at the beginning of the trick training routine rather than at the end. This way the bird is hungry and focused and will try harder to make it happen. If the ball is trying to roll the ball and can’t get it rolling and is not getting treats, it may end up giving up. Don’t let it get so discouraged, try to reward it for the best effort possible and eventually it will bump it hard enough by accident and then will know how to do it. Your bird should know at least a few elementary tricks like target, wave, and shake before teaching this trick.

Anyone who used the birdtricks training system should be able to train this bowling trick and similar tricks with ease. Just remember to apply the skills you learned in the areas of target training, clicker training, training diet, and immediate positive reinforcement.

Some of the criteria I immediately set when trying to choose a name for my Senegal Parrot were that the name had to be short, easy to pronounce, not a human name, unique, fun, and suitable for my bird. Personally I think it is kind of silly giving a pet a human name because talking about it would be strange. Imagine you name your bird John and then later you are telling your friend about how John bit you so you had to put him in a cage… Seems a bit weird because it sounds like a person did it or they may associate it with some other person they know by that name. So by giving your bird a unique name I think it is more suitable and really more fun as well.

I also opened the floor to suggestions from my family in case they came up with a good idea I missed. Eventually I tried to narrow the list down by discarding names that are too long, difficult, or unsuitable. I think some names I considered were Kermit, Kiwi, Jet, Floyd, Zappa, and Duke. Extra kudos to anyone who posts a comment guessing correctly what each of these potential names referred to.

Unfortunately none of these names clicked. They seemed ok but for some reason none of them seemed ideal. I was leaning to go with Kiwi but something just wasn’t right. I think someone mentioned this to my kid sister so she went around telling everyone about a bird named Kili, mispronouncing it as kids often do. Word of this got back to me and the name sounded perfect. It finally clicked. This was the right name for the right bird that chose me at the store. The name met all my criteria: short, easy to pronounce, unique, just right. Furthermore, earlier the same year I had climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania so Kili it was. I should note that the way I pronounce the name is kee-lee and not killy (like willy).

Pet parrots can live for a very long time, sometimes 50 years or more, so make sure when you pick a name that it is really suited and you are absolutely sure this should be the name for it. Consider that your parrot is likely to try to say it’s name in the future because it will be a word it hears often, so make sure it is something that is easy enough for it to pronounce. Remember, naming your bird makes it your own so choose carefully and have fun with it.