Hyacinth macaw

There was a video on Youtube some years ago featuring an african grey with the nastiest vocabulary I have ever heard. It said not only the worst of the worst words known to English slang, but it used them to descriptively detail human anatomy.

It was obvious that these words had not been simply overheard and repeated – they had been taught. The video had a gazillion hits on it. I am by no means prudish, but hearing these words said with an african grey’s perfect clarity, my jaw bounced off the floor.

congo african grey

There are those who might find this kind of thing funny. Let me tell you why it is not:

Often, unforeseen thing happen in life. People lose their jobs and their houses – eventually we all die. Circumstances may dictate that your bird be rehomed. We need to prepare our parrots in many ways for that possibility. They should be well socialized and able to adapt to change. They should NOT be able to vividly describe activities that take place in a bedroom.

A bird that has an offensive vocabulary will be difficult to rehome. It would not be suitable for a family with children or for those who are sensitive to vulgarity. It might be hard to find a willing bird sitter when you want to go on vacation, and it might cause people to not want to visit your home.

Blue throated macaws

Our birds pick up enough colorful language just by overhearing what we say in their presence. Abu, my first umbrella cockatoo, learned the term “shut up” in an innocent way. A friend came by to show me a guitar he had bought for next to nothing from a person who was unaware of its value. When he told me what he had paid, I excitedly said: “Shut. Up.” (in the same way you would say “no way”). That’s all it took. From that point on, whenever the conversation in the house would get lively, Abu would tell us to “shut up”.

One day my daughter’s teacher came by to drop something off and she asked to see the parrot my daughter talked about all day long. She greeted Abu with a cheerful hello and was told to “shut up” in an equally cheerful tone. It was a bit embarrassing.

Umbrella cockatoo

Wild parrots learn about appropriate behavior from their flockmates. For a captive parrot, that responsibility falls to us. Just as is the case with children, we have to demonstrate with our own behavior that which is acceptible, since it will likely be imitated. Ultimately, our bird will pay the price for our lapses in judgement.

Photo of african grey by parrotsancturay.co.cc

Just like people, parrots sometimes find themselves in a place in life where they have a hard time getting around. This might be the result of a deformity, an injury or the struggles of old age. And, just like people, parrots learn to adapt to their circumstances with a little help from those around them.

To most people it makes sense that a parrot hatched with a deformity would be better able to learn to get by. After all, it has never known any other way. But how could a parrot that lost a foot in an injury learn to adapt when everything a parrot does involves its feet? How could a blind parrot learn to navigate it’s cage without hands to guide him in the darkness?

The answer to these questions is quite simple: a parrot makes the difficult adjustment because it must in order to survive. And frankly, it is a lot easier for a parrot to adapt because they don’t suffer from bouts of self pity the way humans do. They don’t waste time or energy thinking “Why me?”, or considering “If only…” They see a task ahead of them and they get to it. The footless parrot plots out another means of getting from point A to B. The blind parrot learns to rely more heavily on its other senses.

This is not to say that we shouldn’t do everything we can to make the cage more practical for our special needs parrots. Our highest priority should be in the matter of safety. Until which time the bird recovers or has adapted to its infirmity, we must be certain they are not in danger when perching or moving around the cage.

Footless african grey photo by Anna Sloan

A few years ago, a friend took in two handicapped african greys. Shortly after hatching, their parents bit off their feet, for reasons no one will ever know. If I remember correctly, the breeder’s solution to the problem was a river and a bag of rocks, but fortunately someone stepped in and they wound up in the care of my friend. Each bird had a different degree of “disability”. One had remnants of feet, one had only stumps. They both needed special considerations for their care.

Obviously, the biggest obstacle was finding a way to offer comfort and stability in perching. Below is a photo of a starter cage that my friend modified to suit the needs of one of the birds. The cage is large enough to encourage active play, but small enough to prevent injury during a fall from any real height. Everything is padded for comfort, while offering help with balance. The climbing ramp is wound with rope to add traction for footless-ness.

Aside from the obvious special caging and perching needs of the greys, some unanticipated problems arose, such as how to confidently step up a footless bird. It is difficult for a human to be a stable perch for a bird with no toes to grasp fingers or wrists. This resulted in some trust issues as the birds struggled to feel secure when being held by humans, but it was sorted out with patience and diligence. There is more to tending to special needs than meets the eye but the birds did remarkably well and have since gone on to new homes.

Photo and cage modification by Anna Sloan

Recently, someone contacted me because her bird was going blind. She was very upset, but I explained to her that this was not the end of the world – for her or her bird. She sent me some video footage of her bird’s cage and in the end we decided to change nothing. Her bird had been in that cage for its entire life and was quite aware of where the food bowls were and how the perching was laid out. As its vision declined, the bird was showing that it was quite capable of navigating the cage without any problems.

I think one of the biggest challenges with having a special needs parrot comes from within ourselves. Very often, their physical shortcomings are a bigger deal to us than it is to them.  Birds are very reactive to the stress levels of their people, and wouldn’t it be ironic that while we fret over making their lives livable in the face of their handicap, that we are actually making it more tense with our own stress?

Photo of handicapped budgie by avianweb.com

Once we have tended to their health issues and to their safety, we really must learn to back away and let the bird take it from there. Their perseverence will astound you. It’s important that we don’t over-assist our birds. In doing so, we might take away opportunities for exercise, which might be somewhat limited anyways. Once your bird has adjusted to his new way of life, be sure to allow him opportunities to explore and play like any other bird. We want to help make life do-able without crossing the line to where it is sedentary or boring.

Two years… 730 Days… 17,520 hours… Countless Miles… No matter how you look at it, two years on the road is a long time!  Especially when you travel the country by truck and RV… correction; make that two trucks, and two RV’s, a flock of birds, magic props, motorcycle, and a house cat.  Driving separately from Jamie can be painstaking, but it does give me some time to reflect.  Not only on shows and future plans, but on training, and what I can do to become a better trainer.

Image Copyright Feld Entertainment 2010

I’m one of those people who is constantly in the pursuit of perfection.  Always trying to learn more, and always trying to become a better person and professional.  At many times, it’s to a fault.  These past two years have really given me the chance to realize how important it is to live in the moment.  It has also given me phycological insight on how to get my birds to reach perfection on and off stage.  After all, I’m hired to perform a 1st-class production with professionally trained parrots – and likewise, my birds are expected to be “1st Class Performers” as well. It would be hard to be “the best” if my birds would land in the rafters, or fly out the backdoor and disappear into the Vegas desert, only to be found a week later by strangers.  In my industry, there’s no room for errors.  Sometimes that can translate to a lot of pressure for my birds, after all they didn’t sign the contract, I did.  So I always do my best to reward their every moment.

October 30, 2011 finally arrived, and we performed our last show in Wilkes Barre, PA.  I had performed for five different Ringling Shows over that two year tour, and it was all coming to an end.  Aside from a huge sense of accomplishment, there was a strange calmness that suddenly overwhelmed me backstage shortly after performing Catapoultry with Bondi.  I looked around and realized… 5,000 people in an arena, sold out shows, TV, Radio, Print… it was all coming to an end in 73 minutes from that exact moment.  Surrounded by black curtains and 7-sets of birdie eyes staring at me through the dimly lit backstage, as if they could tell I was finally processing it all; I took each bird out, kissed them on the head, held them for a moment and thanked them out-loud for being there for me for the entire tour. The ups and downs, the tornados and snow storms, 20 degrees to 120 degrees – it didn’t matter, they had achieved perfection in nearly every show, night after night, mile after mile, audience after audience.

Fiji’s Last Show – Photo Mishelle Statford

It was when I picked up Bondi, who had been looking at me concerned the whole time, that a single tear made it’s way past my right eye, and was now slowly passing my lips.   I kissed her on the head, thanked her for giving her all, even on days that she wasn’t feeling well.  It was as if she and I connected more than ever.  She mirrored my mood through every phase of the tour, from being a rock star on stage, to the tender moments offstage that an audience and cameras never see.  When we lost Fiji, she completely shut down with me, as if she was mourning her loss through me.  And on October 30, 2011 she once again  understood my feelings and that this was her last show, and we could both go home and relax until our next journey begins.

Bondi Performing Catapoultry

I learned many things on this tour about life & training.  From the highest highs to the lowest lows, and yet one lesson stands out miles ahead of anything else I could ever possibly write.  A lesson that we should all live by, a lesson that keeps you moving when your down and constantly elevates you while you’re up.

“Always love your birds like it’s the last day you’ll see them, for they provide more to us than could ever be transcribed into any human language.”

I’m so grateful for everything they’ve given me.  Those of you who can truly relate know the exact feeling I’m conjuring when I say these words.  And those of you who are just now paving that path with your birds will soon understand the feelings that are impossible to put onto paper.