Parrot scams are out there in all kinds – and they can be very good and disguised. In fact, Dave almost fell for one himself and because he got so close to being scammed personally, he figured out it was a scam.

Here’s what happened…

When you see a hyacinth macaw (baby) being offered to a good home for just the cost of shipping (few hundred dollars) from another country besides the US and the person claims all papers are “taken care of”… it’s a scam. There are import/export permits and numbers you need to be able to bring an animal on CITES into the USA legally. And there is paperwork you HAVE to do on your end that cannot possibly be taken care of. If the “seller” or “giver” doesn’t have a permit number for you, don’t pay. No permit number? No bird.

In this case, there was no bird.

Not to mention… I don’t know many people who would GIVE away a $8,000 bird.

Lately, scammers have just loved using pictures of me. They are literally EVERYWHERE. I don’t seem to find them myself, but our clients are sending links to us in emails, customers, blog readers like yourselves and more are sending these sites our way. So please, keep sending them to us so we can make sure our photos are taken off these places!

The latest one I received in email today from a client was here. The photos on their site aren’t all ours, but the ones of a blonde girl with rosies and a grey? That’s me and MY BIRDS. The ones of macaws on a play gym? Those are birds we raised and train for clients, photos taken in my house during!

All of our photos are kept on flickr, so if you see them on any other websites other than our blog(s) and birdtricks.com related sites, they are fake. They are not “breeder birds” and the breeders we use don’t advertise on the internet. We will never be promoting the “sale” of our birds to the public. We don’t do it.

And, for those of your that know your birds, some of the scammers have been advertising a “blue and gold” macaw for sale and using photos of my blue throated macaw. Hopefully most everyone can tell the difference and catch on that there really is no bird.

Report any fake websites promoting/using our images to info@birdtricks.com.

Training your budgie, other type of parakeet, or parrot to turn around is very easy. It took me a few days to teach it to my Senegal Parrot and we taught in just one training session to Duke the budgie.

Before you start training your bird to turn around, make sure that you have begun basic training with a proper training diet, clicker conditioning, and target training. While the bird might be able to learn the trick without some or all of these prerequisites, it will be very quick and easy to train the trick if the bird has been properly prepared. So if your bird is not yet target trained, you should go back and read the article about target training. If you have properly target trained your bird (or taught it some other tricks) you will already know when the bird is most motivated to train and what its favorite rewards are.

The purpose of the trick is to have the bird do a 360 degree turn on its perch. To begin. Hold the target stick in one hand and the clicker/treat in the other. Warm the bird up by doing a couple targeting exercises on the perch. The bird should be eager to touch the target stick and be willing to make multiple steps toward it. Now hold the target stick over the birds head with the tip at about eye level but far away enough that it cannot reach it. Bring the stick around the bird at a pace that it can follow. Once it has completed the full turn, click and reward. Be careful not to click too soon or the bird may learn to do incomplete circles. Practice this until the bird follows the target stick in a complete turn every time.

The next step is to start holding the target stick lower so that your finger is pointed down but not completely covering the tip. This will help to later establish your cue. Continue targeting the bird in circles with this kind of grip. If the bird is confused, try exposing more of the target stick. Once you have completed this stage, start reducing the distance which you target the bird around. Move the target stick in a 270 or 180 degree circle and take it away and see if the bird completes the 360 degree turn to face you. If it is catching on, it will finish the turn on its own. Progressively reduce the amount of targeting you do and let the bird do more of the turn on its own.

Now at this stage you should be able to use just your finger without the target stick. You might start by targeting the bird 360 with your finger and then reducing the turn as before and letting the bird do more of the turn on its own. Finally, once the bird is doing this with minimal involvement on your part. Start receding your finger from doing a loop gesture over the birds head to doing it in front of the bird. Now the pointed down finger twist becomes your cue for the trick. If at any point the bird seems confused, try going back to the last successful stage. If on the following day the bird is having any difficulty remembering the trick, remind it with a 360 over the head with your finger or target stick to remind it. It should be much quicker on the following day to reteach the trick.

You can also throw in a verbal cue and with enough practice have your bird perform reliably on just a verbal command as you can see my Senegal in this video. Also, you can challenge your bird by having it perform the turn around trick on a flat surface like the table or floor. This way it has to really focus on doing a 360 turn as opposed to two half turns on a perch. If your bird does a complete 360 turn on a flat surface on cue, you know it learned the trick completely. We taught Duke the turn around trick in one long training session. He still remembered it on the next day and even did it on a table. What a fast learner. Good luck.

I recently had someone ask me about making their own parrot toys for their cockatiel and other birds so I thought I’d write about it this week. So, “can I make my bird its own toys?”

Making your own bird toys is a fun and economical way to provide entertainment for a parrot of any size.  Most of the online parrot toy stores and many pet stores now carry supplies for those of us who make their own toys. I make most of my own.  My cockatoos go through so much wood that I had to buy a table saw and a drill press.  Making toys for the smaller birds is sooo much easier.

Cockatiels enjoy with plastic, wood, shredding materials and shiny bells, among other things.  Most of these things can be found in a toy parts kit for small parrots.  Everything will come with pre-drilled holes and usually with hanging material included.  Shredding materials can be purchased by the roll and cut into strips that are the right length for a bird’s size.  One thing to be wary of is what you string these toys parts on.  Yarn is not a good choice.  A good parrot toy is one that the bird will chew on and play with, usually to it’s total destruction; an untouched toy is not being enjoyed and might as well be removed. As the bird nibbles away at the toy and pieces start to fall off, the chain or cord becomes exposed and it can pose the danger of hanging.  Yarn is very lightweight and can be easily tossed and looped around the birds neck during play. For this same reason you should never make a toy that forms a loop. Strands of small linked chain (ONLY stainless steel or nickel plated), leather strips (vegetable tanned leather ONLY), and cotton or natural fiber cords are a far better choice.

For my cockatiels and quaker, I often use things around the house.  Paper towel rolls with the glue removed or cut away can be cut into 1/2″ to 1″ slices and, with a hole punched into each side, will slide right onto a chain or cord.  Try alternating between these and 3″ or 4″ strips of Shredders for a quick, fun and safe toy.  If you have a drill or a Dremel, drill a hole in your Popsicle sticks just larger than cord you will use and pile them on. It makes a really cute toy when you fan the sticks out. Get creative and make foraging toys! Find ways to hide dried fruits and veggies in the toys you make.  Wrap treats in tamale wrappers and tie them off at the ends.  Buy some bamboo skewers and push lengths of Shredders, peices of fresh or dried fruit, and plastic toys parts onto it and hook the ends into the cage bars.  I have so much fun making toys for my smaller birds.  There’s just no limit to what you can do.

If you want to color the toys, there are colorants on the market that are safe.  The one I use is Vitacritter. It’s easy and the colors are stunning.  Be sure to never use paint or glues of any kind, even if the claim to be non-toxic.  Paint peels and glues chip, both can be ingested.

Toy making is not for everyone.  When you purchase toys for your parrots, be sure they are safe and come from a trusted source.  Birdtricks.com have an online store with great toys that your parrot will love to destroy!

I had a call on my answering machine when I got home today:  “Hey, ummm, STANLEY just laid an egg. (laughter) One of us is really confused.”  That really made me laugh.  I clearly remember the day that my Henry laid a clutch of two.  Sometimes this is how we find the true gender of our parrots.  It’s that time of year.  The bird talk boards have egg laying posts all over them.  Someone I know just had to have what she called “the mother of all eggs” surgically removed from her cockatoo.  It was HUGE!

The question that most commonly comes up is: how can a “single” parrot produce an egg? Egg production is not the consequence of mating. A female parrot will produce an egg because her body reacts to certain stimulus that tells her it is time to do so.  In the wild, things like change of season, increased daylight hours and more availability to certain foods signal the breeding season.  In our homes, our parrots react to the same stimuli. The way that we physically handle them and even a bath (reminiscent of spring rainfall) can bring on the hormones which can result in egg laying.  These eggs will not be viable, as there was no fertilization by a male, and will not produce babies.

So your parrot has laid an egg, now what do you do? If yours is a single female parrot, and there is no chance that this is a viable egg, let her keep it (or them) for a few days.  She may choose to incubate and turn it, like a doting mom, and might lose her interest after a while, and if she doesn’t, take it away from her in her absence.  Removing the egg immediately will only serve to cause her to lay more to replace it instinctually, which can lead to health problems.  Some choose to remove the eggs right away and replace them with similar sized pebbles or plastic eggs.  Strangely, they often don’t seem to notice and continue to incubate them.

The shell of an egg is made primarily of calcium that comes directly from calcium stores in the female’s body.  Their bones and muscles provide almost all of the calcium needed to produce the shell.  Excessive or chronic egg laying can profoundly deplete the body’s calcium (hypocalcemia) causing improper body function.  Hypocalcemia can lead to egg binding, where the uterine muscles do not expel the egg .  It can also cause seizures and brittle, easily fractured bones.

Egg binding can be the result of a number of things including obesity, large or poorly formed eggs, bad diet, even bad genes, and it requires immediate vet attention. This is not uncommon with cockatiels, lovebirds and budgies.  Signs of egg binding might be lethargy, sitting at the bottom of the cage, large or excessive droppings or none at all, straining, standing/perching with the legs further apart than is normal or a swollen vent area.  Often the vet can “coax” the bird along with the aid of warmth, a lubricant, and  the injection of fluids, calcium, antibiotic and steroids.  Sometimes the egg can be palpated out (only by your vet), being very careful not to break the shell.  Sometimes, depending on the location of the egg,  a needle is used to extract the contents of the egg, and the shell is crushed so it can be passed.  If the egg breaks, or breaks down inside the abdomen, it can lead to a serious inflammation called egg  yolk peritonitis, which is life threatening.  These are all very good reasons NOT to let your parrot overproduce eggs.

If your parrot is laying excessively, there are environmental changes you can make to deter her.  Keep her away from  dark enclosed areas that can be perceived as nesting spots.  Limit her daylight hours to 8 – 10 per day.  Avoid warm, mushy foods like mashes.  Bathe her less frequently.  Be careful to touch her around the head and neck only, and if she has a favorite toy that she is behaving sexually with, remove it.  Be mindful of her diet.  If she is laying excessively, and until you get it under control, she needs nutrients to handle the task.  An all seed diet will not provide her with the calcium she will be needing.  If these methods don’t work your vet might choose to administer hormones.

A bird laying an egg is the most natural thing in the world, and as long as your bird is healthy, it isn’t a cause for concern.  It’s just one more of the many incredible things they do.

I am lovingly owned by four beautiful angels…a Blue and Gold Macaw named Kacey, a Moluccan Cockatoo named Chloe, an African Grey named Sophie and our recent added family member Zazu, a baby Blue and Gold Macaw.  When I say I am “lovingly owned” I can assure you that it was not always the case in the early onset of my infatuation with parrots.  At a very young age, I was actually attacked by an Umbrella Cockatoo which made me deathly afraid of birds!!  Then as an adult I had the chance to work at one of the highest rated pet stores in the US…lucky me, they put me in charge of the Bird Department!!  During that time my fear of birds subsided and I started learning their behavior and little quirks.  This was so fascinating to me I started to research on the web anything I could about parrots.  I purchased a cockatiel from the store and hand tamed it (Sydney was a parent raised wild little thing that couldn’t be touched).  After about 6 months, I started getting an itch for something bigger (maybe a conure).  Well, the call came in and I suddenly found myself driving an hour and a half to go see a Blue and Gold Macaw that I had no idea about!!

Kacey

Here is Kacey’s Story:
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The wave was the first trick I taught my Senegal Parrot and so it had become her best and most practiced trick over time. That is why I was surprised that she forgot the cue for it when I started to train her to lift her wings. I use the word “wave” as the cue to wave her foot or I can use a hand cue by waving my fingers. To lift her wings I say “wings” or I point two fingers at her. She started to do wings not only when I would say wings but also when I would say wave. I realized that the “w” sound in both words was what confused her.

I felt bad that she forgot her best trick and wanted to correct this before the problem got any more serious. So instead of continuing training for the new wings trick, I went back to practicing wave for a while. I dropped variable frequency of reinfocrement techniques and went back to rewarding every trick. I started to practice the wave for maybe 80% of the tricks in the session rather than the usual maybe 10% (because she used to do it so well, would get less practice). But I did not practice the wave exclusively. I would stick some other tricks in on occasion so that she wouldn’t get so used to waving every time that she wouldn’t listen for the cue.

The way I got her to learn the verbal cue back for wave was fairly simple. She still clearly remembered the hand cue so I would say wave but she would do wings. I would ignore her. I would try this a few times. If she waved, she would get rewarded. If she did not, I would ignore her and then on the next try say wave and wave my hand for the hand cue. What I was doing was retraining the verbal cue for my bird for a trick she had already known. I would also practice the wings verbal cue in between as well so that she can learn the difference in the sound. Parrots are really good at discerning sounds so I think anyone who tells you that the bird cannot remember verbal cues is misleading. It just takes more practice to maintain the verbal cues but they can learn them and be consistent. My bird knows 6 tricks on verbal cue and growing. Teaching a verbal cue is easy but time consuming. If your bird already knows a trick with a hand cue or is learning a new trick, just be sure to say the verbal cue every time you are cuing it for the trick. Eventually it will associate both the word and the hand cue and will perform for either.

So in that same 10 minute training session that I realized that my Senegal Parrot forgot how to wave, I practiced it extensively with her until she could do wings or wave consistently on verbal cue. I was sure she learned the difference because on the following training session that day she was doing significantly better. Seems like she just needed a reminder of which word goes to which trick.