Although we had the set back of the Spring season kick into gear for Storm, we are still making progress with him! Dave and I left for 3 days while Storm and the rest of the flock stayed home.

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When we got back, I saw little red wood chips all over the bottom of Storm’s cage and realized he was picking at his wood parrot toys while we were away! I think a little “alone time” was good for him because it encouraged him to self-entertain rather than keep waiting for me to enter the room to do it for him!

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Not only that, but he really dove into eating his organic pellets! Check it out…

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Storm was already eating his organic pellets, but I usually gave him fresh foods along with them and he tends to always prefer the fresh stuff over the pellets. I think being away was great for him as he really got to just dive into the pellets without distraction of other foods.

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And although he had sort of manipulated a few toys in the past, he hadn’t actually destroyed them in any way before so this toy shredding thing was definitely a first and a huge step of progress!

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Tip to take home: Giving your parrot some alone time can be a good thing once in a while, as long as you give him all the neccessary tools it takes to self-entertain while you aren’t around.

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I decided to do a video blog about the changes we made to Storm’s environment in an effort to set him up for better success in his time here with us. So please take a look!

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Tip to take home: Setting an animal up for success just means putting the odds in his favor. For example, if you’re going to train your bird a new trick, you don’t want to start at your neighbor’s house, during a party with a bunch of strangers looking over your shoulder and talking distractions and music playing. That is setting your bird up to fail. However, if you work with the training table they are used to “learning” on, with no music or outside distractions and it’s just you and your bird and he’s on a training diet, you have set your bird up for succeeding at the task ahead.

You’re all probably wondering what happened with Storm?! Well, I will tell you…

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In my attempt to let Storm spend more time with me, I brought him out in the morning to watch me work out. He can watch me from his cage, but I thought some “out of cage” time was even better. The quality time trick had worked so well the day before that I thought… why not?

?Well, I quickly learned the reason why not…

Read the rest of this entry »

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At home, Storm was allowed on his owner’s shoulder by choice. He wasn’t put up there, he was LET up there to put himself there. This is a huge problem over time and it’s best to always PUT your bird on your shoulder if you want it there, and not let it put itself there.

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The reason why is because you bird will know that it’s only OK to go there if you put him there and otherwise will stay on your hand. It can also be super tough to break the habit of a bird who immediately lets himself on to your shoulder and if he does it to you, it is likely he will do it to everyone else, too. Such was the case for Storm.

? Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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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.