If anyone would have told me 5 years ago that today I would have amazing but totally unique companionships with 3 different birds, I would have quickly let them know that they were crazy! But the fact is, it is very true and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So. Who am I and how did I get here? My name is Liz. I am 23 years old, living in Raleigh, NC. I am a senior in college with a job, friends, a boyfriend, and just a generally busy life. So where do my parrots fit in? Well, that’s one reason why I am here- to talk about that. I currently have a 3 ½ year old male sun conure (Skittle) , 2 ½ year old female blue and gold macaw (Charlie), and a 10 year old female congo African grey (Roxanne) that I have adopted in the past few months.

The main focus of my writing here will be about Roxanne. You see, I hand-fed and trained my conure and macaw from when both were just over 2 months old. My bonds with Skittle and Charlie are strong, they are some of my best friends! They are by no means perfect angels, but in each of those bonds I have a trust and companionship that comparably, is just non-existent with Roxanne.

When Roxanne came into my home, I realized that on rare occasions she had been outside of her cage for very short periods of time. Roxanne had rarely been handled and by her vocabulary of “OW that hurt!” or “Don’t bite me!” she had no plans of being handled either.

I found this very puzzling since Skittle and Charlie always want to be around the humans of the house playing, cuddling, just whatever to have human interaction. But Roxanne, she is content sitting on one side of her cage all day and not being bothered and is quick to those blood-drawing bites if you have anything BUT the same notion.

So. Here I am living the typical busy life meanwhile trying to maintain and keep the two birds I am bonded with content, as well as, trying to develop a relationship with a 10 year old grouchy bird! What can I do to simultaneously continue fortifying the relationship I have with my bonded birds and grow the relationship I have with Roxanne? These are just 2 of many simple things that I have noticed that help both of those needs along.

1. Give me some LOVE!

Charlie and Skittle love human interaction. First thing in the morning or whenever I get home, they are ready to jump out and into my arms. Roxanne, not so much. If the first thing I do is head straight for Roxanne, she shakes and puffs up larger than a blowfish . As soon as I open her cage door, she poses for a strike. I have found if I go onto to Skittle and Charlie first, give them both a few minutes playing and loving each within sight of Roxanne and then approach Roxanne, she is much more inclined to step-up onto my hand.

I will keep her on my hand for maybe a ¼ of the time I was with my other 2, give her a sunflower seed, and put her back into her cage to reward her for not biting me. I also don’t keep her out as long because the longer she is out, the more nervous she gets. I am definitely taking it slow with her for now.

2. Calling in back-up!

I could not imagine living in a multi-parrot home by myself. The feeding, clean-up, entertainment, and time spent is never-ending. I am sure that there are many out there that succeed quite nicely on their own, but I can admit that I don’t think I could do it right now. I have 4 other family members that I presently live with that enjoy being around the birds. Each of them have some kind of relationship with either Charlie or Skittle.

My boyfriend that does not live here happens to have a great relationship with both of them. So far Roxanne is the most responsive with me. Having others in the home that are able to give time towards Skittle and Charlie not only help them by socializing them, but help Roxanne so she can spend time with me while I earn her trust. With Roxanne seeing the others interact with Charlie and Skittle, it encourages her that us humans are not out to scare or hurt her! I strongly believe that having frequent and different human interaction is not only vital in keeping your own sanity, but it’s also good for the well-being of the bird.

I look forward to writing again and tracking Roxanne’s progress in her new home!

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OMG! I just accidently ripped off my bird’s tail! WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN!?!??!?

I have a conure, which is a small parrot. I was letting her out of her cage and by accident sat on her tail when she was walking around my lap. Since it’s her feathures, neither her nor me noticed that I sat on them.
Then I accidently startled her and she flew off rapidly causing all the feathurs to rip out.

- JayJay

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I’ve seen this happen with Dave and a dove before. This is a defense mechanism that birds have in case they are ever caught by a predator (such as a cat) or other animal that will step on their tails in order to stop them from going anywhere.

You bird is perfectly okay, and it didn’t hurt it but you are going to have to be patient while new feathers come back in and refurbish the place!

Birds have the ability to “release” their tail feathers. They literally just eject them right out so that they can make a clean escape from the situation alive. Your bird might be a little nervous with the idea of you checking out her back end for right now because it wasn’t the most pleasant event to happen… but they will come back in soon enough.

Anytime pressure is on a bird’s tail feathers and they are startled by it – thinking whether or not they will be able to get out of the situation – they are likely to eject the feathers to get out of the situation.

I have a young green cheeked Conure and?he simply will not go back into his cage once he is out, any help?
- Alison

I know it doesn’t seem like it, but this really is a positive thing! It’s a sign that your bird enjoys your company. Usually bird owners have issues getting their bird OUT of the cage so it’s kind of nice to have your issue be the complete opposite.

I had this same problem (or I should say, we had this same problem since it was me, Chet and Dave) with our military macaw. His name is Cash, but I’m sure you’ve all heard us call him his nickname “Crash” which he got during flight training…

What happens when your bird refuses to go back inside the cage is that he is having too much fun outside of his cage and there is ZERO motivation to go back into it.

As humans we have to remember that just because we really really really want our bird to go back inside his cage so we can go do whatever it is we want to do… is not a good enough reason for THEM to want to go back.

There a few changes you can make to your bird’s environment to encourage him to go back into his cage when you ask him to:

Make your bird’s cage more fun!

You may need to make his cage a more fun place for him to be. You can do this by adding what I like to call “shreddables” which are just toys he can tear apart. Food finding toys are great for mentally stimulating your bird and giving him something to do. You may also look at adding a variety of perches; ones that he can eat and others that are of different textures like sandy, rope or different types of wood. Rotating toys regularly is?a MUST with these parrots. They need change and constant stimulation. The idea is to make his cage a positive place for him to be.

For our Swainson Toucan we put shredded strips of newspaper on top of her cage because she absolutely loves playing with them! This creates a great motivation and excitement when putting her back into her cage.

Offer a reward for going back.

When I say “reward” I don’t always mean “food”. A reward can be ANYTHING your bird likes; including time outside of the cage with you! If you teach the bird that if it goes back, it will come out again, it will be more willing to go back into the cage.

We had to use this technique with Cash as a food reward didn’t do much… (but you can do that too and only offer his favorite treat INSIDE the cage using the Touch Training technique.)

Every time Cash went in the cage nicely, he got to come right back out again! You must vary up your actions for your bird so your movements don’t become predictable. Dave talked about birds needing?”consistent inconsistency” at the Seminar and it is so necessary.

If you choose food as your bird’s reward, work around feeding schedules to set your bird up for success. If he ate all day and you take him out only to put him back for the motivation of food… you are setting both you and the bird up for failure. Think about taking him out in the morning and putting him back in his cage with his breakfast once you’re done with your quality time.

And?make?sure that every time you take your conure out, you do something different with him. And put him back in the cage when you can immediately take him back out again. If he doesn’t know whether he’s going to get a big jackpot reward of treats, or a new toy or even going to come out and play? again – he is more likely to go back inside his cage. But if every time you put him in his cage you leave him alone for long hours to do nothing as fun as hanging out with you – then why would he ever want to go back?

>>> NOTE: If you’ve got a problem with your bird that you’re having a hard time fixing, check out our new online store. We’ve added a lot of new courses lately that might be able to help you:

http://www.birdtricks.com/store

>>> Reader’s Patagonian Conure Success Story:

Chet,

Having just enjoyed our first Christmas with our beautiful patagonian conure, I just had to write to thank you for your fabulous emails and training dvd’s I have received from you because I can honestly say we’ve had a breakthrough!

I bought the taming training and tricks dvd back in September time and recently purchased the speech training system.

We bought Ruby having looked after a family member’s cockatiel whose noise we missed! When we first got her she wasn’t a bit hand tame but would let you put your hand in the cage to fill her food and water bowls and would happily sit on top of the cage – oh and she also hated men! We’ve been working with her since August (and seemingly getting nowhere!) trying to get her to step up onto our hands and eat treats from our hands. Having established her properly on the pellet diet she indeed started taking sunflower seeds and peanuts from our hands – that was about a month ago! Since then she has come on leaps and bounds in what seems like weeks!

I also sort of took your advice regarding a parrot tree. She wouldn’t touch her toys and if you added a new one she merely stared at it like what the hell is this?! We turned the front of her cage into a temporary tree until we can get a proper one (and to see if it worked!). During the day whilst we’re at work we close the top of her cage and hide her food in the toys and she will happily entertain herself even with men in the room! Even at night time when we’re in she’s happily entertaining herself.

On Christmas day we had the best pressie from her! She stepped up on both our hands and even sat on her “Dad’s” shoulder! She’s now waving (even unprompted when you’re just talking to her so she can have the sunflower seed!) and tonight, just before I wrote this I started working on her talking skills. She started talking about two or three months ago but as we ended up doing a massive house re-decoration and moved she completely stopped. Tonight though with the help of a few sunflower treats she is starting to just find her voice, and I am so pleased!

Chet I just want to say from the bottom of my heart thank you. I am watching her turn into a “real” parrot from a tiny little creature that just sat there doing nothing but watching us with a beady eye. I am so proud and grateful. I’m sure you will have experienced a frightened non-hand tame bird or two in your time but she has come on so well and I am absolutely shocked as to the progress made over the last few weeks all thanks to your genius and for this I will be eternally grateful! I think my partner may well be a bit fed up of me saying “Chet says” but he always forgives me because to date you’re always right!

I wish I could be with you for your conference but it’s just a bit too far!

May i take this opportunity to wish you a very merry (albeit slightly late!) Christmas and a very happy new year – looking forward to the next instalment!

Kind regards and with many many thanks

Anita Carey and John Davies and our beautiful Ruby England

>>> My Comments:

Well Anita & John,

Thanks for sending in your story. It helps give people hope that their bird can be fixed to. And it’s too bad I won’t get the chance to meet you in person at our upcoming Florida seminar, but maybe we’ll get another chance to meet someday.

NOTE: We still have about 5 tickets available for people who’d like to meet me personally at our 1st ever training seminar in Orlando, Florida. If you’re interested in attending, you can still get a ticket.

See this page for details:
Birdtricks.com Live Parrot Training Seminar

But back to business:

You mentioned one thing that really caught my attention that I think a LOT of people struggle with.

You said, “My parrot wouldn’t touch his toys”

This is SUCH a common problem. One that unfortunately we as owners cause.

You see, birds are meant to spend their entire days searching for things. They’re VERY curious creatures.

In the wild they probably encounter 100 new things a day, and it’s exciting.

But how many new things do we as owners expose our parrots to in their cages?

Usually very few. Sure, we might get them some new toys now and then, but it just doesn’t compare to the wild.

So what happens is birds get bored with their environments. They stop searching and chewing on things because they’ve already done that. And over time, a bird becomes less and less active, until it no longer even has the desire to interact with new things.

One way to fix this problem is to do what I talk about in a recent past blog video that I created about how to create a curious environment for your bird with play trees stuffed with food.

By stuffing trees full of food, and making that the only way a bird can get food, you force him to be active if he wants to eat… you don’t give him another option.

And from the sound of it, that’s what Anita & company did with their Patagonian Conure!

They used play trees, stuffed with food to get their bird engaged in life again.

And a bird that likes to explore is not just a happier bird, but an easier bird to train. They become less irritable, scream less, and don’t develop neurotic behaviors or fears as easily.

If EVERYONE reading this would follow Anita & Company’s example, we’d have a lot more happy parrots in this world!

Until Next Time!

Happy Training,

Chet Womach

Just thought I’d let everyone know that we’ve added a content section to our website about Greenwing Macaws and Jenday Conures. So if you’re trying to decide on purchasing one of these types of birds you might want to browse through these new sections of our site. We try to give you lots of little tips, hints and behavior tendencies for all sorts of species of parrots… so you can make the best decisions possible.

Chet