There are reasons besides appropriately naming your parrots to have them DNA sexed.  I’m pretty sure that DeeDee, my male cockatiel, has no objections to his effeminate name, and Theo, my female goffins cockatoo, seems to be comfortable with hers as well. I know the sex of all of my parrots except my quaker.  I decided to have her (I think of her as a girl) DNA sexed.

Why should I bother, what difference does it make? If you’re a breeder, this is pretty important.   If you are not a breeder, it’s still pretty important because you may find out that your pair of assumed female parrots have just produced a chick, and, well, now you are a breeder.

There are other reason as well.  Most parrots are monomorphic, meaning that you can’t tell the sexes apart by visual means. You can tell cockatiels apart by their feathering, cockatoos, less reliably so, by their eye color, and the male and female eclectus are different colors altogether (dimorphic).  But, for the most part, you can’t tell unless it has laid an egg, and that it hasn’t laid an egg doesn’t make it male; Theo is 23 and has never produced an egg.

Knowing the sex of your parrot can help you assess and prevent some behavioral and health issues.  For instance, you can be certain that egg binding is out when your known male parrot is not pooping.  There might be intestinal blockage.  Also, male cockatoos, for example, can get a little feisty when they are hormonal.  Knowing this in advance can help you prepare his environment for the upcoming breeding season and prepare you emotionally for behaviors to come.

DNA sexing is very simple and inexpensive.  It can be done through blood, feather or eggshell (immediately following hatching) testing. Feathers would be the simplest, least invasive, way to go. The company that I found that is most commonly used, and the one I selected, is Avian Biotech International and it will cost under $25 per bird.

I rehome or rescue my parrots.  It’s something that I strongly believe in.  Healthy baby parrots will almost always find a home, but the ones that have been given up, often because of behavioral problems, might not be so lucky.  The feeling of accomplishment and pride I have felt when the parrot finally gives in to trust is unlike any other.  Still, there have been a couple of babies that have more than caught my eye.

The pet store where I get some of my supplies specializes in parrots.  They are locally owned so I try to support them.  Every now and again I walk in and hear:   “Patty, we have some babies.  Come see!”   I can feel myself tense up, wondering if this will be the day that I give in and drop my rent money on a down payment for a new parrot.  I’m pretty good at resisting.

About a year ago, I went in and was introduced to a baby greenwing macaw.  He was a ball of flesh and prickly new feathers.  There was just something about him.  I went in to see him every couple of days.  After a few weeks he was feathering out into the most glorious parrot and was beginning to show his personality.  He would call to greet me as soon as I walked in the shop.  He would make a baby-like “grrrp” sound apparently only for me. I was completely taken with him, and he was with me.  When I was with him and someone entered the room, he would hide his little head under his wing until they left and he would start “grrrp-ing” again.  I found myself pricing their macaw cages.

Around this same time my umbrella cockatoo, Linus, became ill.  Since we weren’t sure of the nature of his illness or its contagiousness, and because the vet bill were piling up, I decided that it was not right to bring another bird into my home.  He was eventually sold and I worried for him, hoping that he’d found a good home.  About two months ago, I was in the shop and a lady came in wearing a beautiful green wing on her arm.  I noticed him watching everything I did.  I heard a “grrrp” and I almost fell over.  After quizzing the lady, I found out that she had bought him there and the dates matched up. He had found a wonderful, doting home and I was very happy for him (and her).  She said she had never heard him make that sound before, he remembered me.

I have a friend who runs a rescue in New Mexico.  One of her greatest talents, aside from rehabbing and socializing her rescues, is the knack for finding just the right home for them.   She, in part, leaves the decision to the parrot.  They have their likes and dislikes just as we do.  She will carefully screen her clients, try to get a feel for the type person they are and what their homelife is like so she can match a parrot’s personality to the lifestyle of the client, but if the parrot doesn’t like the person, it’s a deal breaker. I know a number of people that go to see her planning on taking, say,  an african grey, and wind up leaving with a macaw just because the macaw fell in love with them.  How do you say no to a needy parrot that is doing cartwheels to get you to take him home?

This is not to say that you can’t have a wonderful relationship with an initially indifferent parrot.  But what better way to start a relationship than love at first sight?

In this video I breakdown the $1,027 in bonuses that you’ll receive when you order our Seminar DVD series that’s being released this Monday, June 29th at 9am PST or 12 noon EST.

Make sure you watch the last part of the video as I have a HUGE surprise for you!

*2 IMPORTANT Things*

#1) If you’re having problems watching the video, I’m Sorry! Our servers are getting hammered right now and we’re having problems making our videos play fast enough for you. But you should be able to get the video to play correctly if you’ll hit pause and give it about 3-4 minutes to load, depending on your internet connection.

And if that still doesn’t work click here to see a written list of these bonuses: Click Here To See The $1,027 In Bonuses

#2) Here’s the webpage you need to go to on Monday where you can get your copy of our Seminar DVD series when it’s released:

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If you want to qualify for these ‘Fast-Movers’ bonuses you should probably make sure you go to the link above about 5 minutes before we release this course on Monday, and refresh the page at exactly 9am (Pacific Time).

If you’re wondering what timezone that is in YOUR neck of the woods, here’s a good website that will tell you:
http://time.gov

There are currently 4,978 who’ve asked to be on my pre-notification list to get a copy of this new DVD series when it’s released on Monday and I only have 500 available.

And the last time we offered these ‘Fast Movers’ Bonuses we sold out in 15 minutes. So act fast, because the bonuses get snatched up in a hurry.

Feel free to leave any comments or questions about this video below, and I’ll do my best to go through them before we launch on Monday.

Cheers!

I noticed that my birds learn certain tricks better in a certain order. For instance, it was very easy to teach the budgie to go through a toilet paper tube after he’s already learned to go through a ring. Also, we taught him the toilet paper roll trick just a few days after teaching turn around but the tricks did not interfere. To me it seems like there are 3 types of tricks (and basically one of each can be taught simultaneously as they do not interfere):

- Taming (handling, touching, petting, etc)
- Prop induced tricks (fetch, jump through hoop, bowling, etc.)
- Cue induced tricks (wave, turn around, wings, etc.)

I have found it very effective to teach a bird several tricks at a time if they are in separate categories as above. I don’t mean literally at once but interlaced in the same weeks as each is taught. I can only teach about one to two cue induced tricks per month or else my Senegal parrot gets the cues mixed up or one trick overwhelms the other. On the other hand, the prop induced tricks are very memorable to the birds and the props look different so they don’t get confused on those. If the tricks are different enough, they can learn several at a time. And finally taming just takes a long time and a certain type of taming like holding on back in hand take a long time to teach so the bird gets comfortable. A good routine for a month might be to handle the bird and progress toward getting it on its back. Teach going through a hoop with the prop. And teaching to turn around. These three tricks being completely different do not cause any interference and can make a good routine. Of course target training and training diet are prerequisites to it all.

Parrots in the wild have to learn to deal with many different situations on a daily basis. And like humans they learn to adapt to their surroundings. But also, like humans they forget things as well. This is why you can’t train too many things at once. However, it seems that they remember tricks differently. A taming routine is something they slowly get used to over time so this is mostly taught through calm and continuous repetition over a long period of time. The prop tricks on the other hand, the birds seem to remember exceptionally well because each prop looks unique. The cue tricks are harder for them to discern because the prop is almost always your hand or a verbal cue so just the sign of a hand vs a prop is not enough to determine what trick it is. The bird has to look at the hand motion or position to understand what trick is being asked. What happens with these cued tricks is that you might teach the bird how to do the trick in just a few training sessions and then spend weeks practicing the cue so that it remembers that that exact cue goes with that trick.

So the point of this post is that you should consider what set of tricks you would like to train your bird in the upcoming month. You can think of a taming exercise, prop trick, and cue trick to work on and then span that training out over the necessary period of time. But at the end, you will have taught your bird 3 things in parallel rather than taking 3 months to teach these in a series. The more tricks your bird knows, the better it can learn more tricks. You should still emphasize one trick at a time for introductory training sessions, but you can definitely teach multiple tricks this way in the span of days and weeks.

The NEW Total Parrot Transformation Seminar DVD Series

Well here it is!

The first pictures of our new Parrot Training Seminar DVD Series that we’re releasing 500 copies of this upcoming Monday, June 29th at 9am PST/12 noon EST.

If you got any questions or comments you’d like to ask about this package before it’s released…

Please post your comments below.

Talk to you soon!

Chet

P.S. If this is the first you’ve heard about this new seminar DVD series and you missed the pre-view webinar where we covered in detail what comes in this package, you can click here to listen to the replay of that presentation:

Click To Watch REPLAY Of The Seminar DVD’s Preview Webinar
(This webinar also walks you through 3 parrot transformation case studies)

Or if you’re looking for a shorter sample of the types of techniques you’ll learn from this Seminar DVD series, you can click here to watch my “Parrot Attacks Baby” video.

>NOTE: I had to make this last video a bit lower quality because our server kept crashing from too many people hitting our servers at the same time… so I apologize if the video isn’t as clear as you’d like it to be.

Maybe it’s the rebellious kid in me, but nothing makes me more uncooperative than being told what to do.  Ask me to do something, sure, no problem.  Suggest that something needs to be done, I’m all over it. Barking an order to me is the surest way of seeing that I’ll get to it in my own sweet time, which might mean next month.  My umbrella cockatoo, Linus, seems to take after his mom.

I think it’s really important to allow our parrots to have some control over their environment. We make all of the important decisions for them: we feed them what we believe they need, they get their baths when we decide it’s time, we provide their sources of entertainment.  Left to their own devices in the wild, they would be more than capable of fulfilling these needs and wants on their own.  In situations where giving them the choice to decide what they want to do is appropriate, it will only make for a happier, more well adjusted parrot, and will strengthen the relationship between you.

If he’s not in the mood for training and is being uncooperative in his efforts, let him be.  Chances are you wouldn’t have had much success at this time anyways.  If he doesn’t care to step up, and he’s fine where he is, respect his decision to stay put and try again later.  If he is swinging from the cord to your iron and doesn’t want to step onto your hand, this is when you put your foot down. But otherwise, always forcing a parrot to bend to your will either break his spirit or bring about resentment, and most likely the latter.

I find my parrots to be  pretty cooperative.  With a little gentle coaxing, I can usually get the behaviors from them that I want or need.  I think the biggest part of this is mutual respect.  As I continually respond to their wishes to do or not do something, they respectfully comply when I require cooperation from them.  If something has come up and I need to leave the house in a hurry, I can count on that  Linus will step up for me regardless of his mood because he respects me.  Another part is trust. They know I wouldn’t hurt them or put them in harm’s way. Aside from trips to the vet, which are occasionally held against me for an afternoon, I have never put them in a situation causing them to question my judgment where their well-being is concerned.

Like people, a parrot is inclined to be more agreeable about things they don’t want to do, when they are given the opportunity to make some of the decisions. When my daughter was young, I would often let her choose what our vegetable would be served with dinner that night.  Giving her the responsibility of that decision made the “eat your veggies” argument a thing of the past.  It made her feel grown up and less excluded from decisions that were important to her.  Eating broccoli was no longer a thing that was being done to her.

Your parrot is more likely to offer respect when he is treated respectfully.