I couldn’t decide which title to go with.

I know I’m behind a post for this past week. I have a good excuse though,  I just got home from visiting Dave and Jamie at the circus in Coney Island, NY where they have been stationed for the summer. It was so much fun. This was my first time out to see the show. It was strange to see my friends in this bizarre setting, and stranger still that they fit in so well.

The show was GREAT. I have decided I like a 1-ring circus better than a 3-ring because it is so much less overwhelming an experience and I think you see much more cool stuff that way. I watched the show three times and I still hadn’t gotten enough of it by the time I left.

I worked in entertainment most of my life and have seen a lot of strange things happen in backstage areas, but nowhere else will you walk back there to find an elephant standing around casually wagging its trunk back and forth right next to a guy juggling items that were moving too fast to identify. There was a guy warming up before his act in such a way that would’ve dislocated my joints, and everyone was wearing costumes that were so bedazzled that they probably weighed more than the people wearing them. Then there’s Stevie the clown who takes spiky hair to a new level. It’s all part of a typical day in the circus.

Of particular interest to me was watching the trainers interact with their animals, not all of whom were part of the show.  The care and attention they received was an all day/everyday thing with no small detail being overlooked. The animals and their enclosures were kept in pristine condition and it was heartwarming to catch a trainer talking baby talk to their animals when they thought no one was watching.
Of course, I was paying a lot of attention to how the birds were faring, and they all looked in great health and spirits. If I’m going to be honest, I was expecting to see some wear and tear on the flock (and on the Womachs), but I didn’t. They all looked and acted much like they did before they had left on tour. Jamie and Dave have done a spectacular job in raising the birds to be able to handle their lifestyle which always includes a lot of travel. The birds are well adjusted and therefore open to change and new experiences. And, man, do they look beautiful flying across the ring during the show.

So, you’re probably wondering where recall training fits into this post. Unfortunately, in order to explain, I have to throw Jamie under the bus for a second.  Following the final show on the first day I arrived, Jamie was carrying the macaws, Comet and Tusa, from their backstage cages to the aviaries for the night when Comet broke loose from her grip. I remember my jaw hitting the ground as I watched Comet fly ahead of us and bank to the right and out of sight. Jamie yelled to Dave, who was at the aviaries, that Comet was loose and he somehow managed to be on top of the aviary in the time it took us to round the corner to see Comet circling back and landing in his hand. These accidents happen to trainers too. If it weren’t for the excellent recall skills trained into these birds, Comet might be gone.  I think Jamie will forgive me for bringing this out into the open in the hopes that it will serve as a lesson for others.  Hopefully she’s forgiven everyone for all the teasing she received following the incident.   Got to have a sense of humor around here!

Photo by www.tripadvisor.com

Have you ever wondered why parrots, being prey animals, are so brightly colored?  How is a brilliantly colored macaw supposed to blend into the green background of the rainforest canopy?
Have you ever casually looked into your bird’s cage as you were passing by to find him gone? You try to hold down that feeling of panic as you frantically search the cage with your eyes. And then there he is, right where he was when your eyes looked in that direction a minute ago and saw nothing.
Camouflage is a very complex science, and it seems to sometimes dismiss logic. The very feature that makes a parrot stand out in the animal world: its coloring, is the same one that helps keep it hidden from the eyes of a hungry predator.
Parrots, and many other animals, use pattern and color variation as a means of camouflage. The purpose for bold patterns and vivid colors is to disrupt the outline of an animal’s body. As the predator’s eyes follow the contours of the what they believe to be the body of the prey, a color or pattern change will draw the eye sharply to the left or right, disrupting the image. Some brightly colored parrots tend to have green, yellow or blue undersides that blend into the scenery in the dim forest lighting from below, and rely on this pattern and color disruption for safety from above.

Photo by www.paws4pets.co.uk

In fact, everything about a parrot’s coloring is completely deceiving. Many vibrantly colored feathers do not actually contain what appears to be their predominant color at all, but are instead the product of a trick of lighting. Some colors absorb light, others reflect it, and by making use of the Tyndall effect, which is an illusion created using light, the same illusion that makes the sky appear blue when it is not, parrots have evolved to host the coloring that makes it safest in it’s natural habitat.
Given that most are tree dwellers, it makes sense that the majority of parrots are green, or mostly green. Or are they?  In the book Parrots: A Natural History, authors John Sparks and Tony Soper say: “‘Parrot green’ is produced with the help of a yellow pigment. This is laid down in the surface layers of the feathers and interacts with Tyndall blue to produce the illusion of green. If the yellow pigment is artificially removed, …the feathers turn blue.”
If you were to take one of the back feathers of your blue and gold macaw and hold it up to different angles of direct lighting, you will notice that at certain angles, it is distinctly brown, not blue. Green, blue and purple feathers actually contain none of these colors at all.

Photo by www.birdphotos.com

For anyone interested in the origins and nature of parrots, the above mentioned book is a great read, and much of the the information in this post came from within its pages.

When I first came to live in Orlando, the first month was spent sharing Jamie and Dave’s house with their 11 birds and my flock of 5.  I tried my best to integrate into their lifestyle and could only hope for cooperation from my flock. It was easier for them to make many of the changes because they were the out of their element in someone else’s home.
When the Womachs are not working, their birds follow a natural daylight schedule, going to bed at sunset and rising with it in the morning. Most of their birds were out in the aviaries and mine occupied the bird room which is situated right off of their bedroom. The first sounds they heard in the morning were the raspy chattering of my quaker and the cockatiel’s good morning songs which, according to Dave, began promptly at 6:31am. Every day. For a month. Turns out that this was the exact time of sunrise during this time of year, changing by a minute or two as the season progressed.
This is a great schedule for a bird. Natural as can be. However, by about day 15, I’m pretty sure Dave wanted to start putting the quaker in the dryer overnight to get some sleep in the morning, and I was thinking about keeping the cockatiels in an underground cave somewhere because I could hear them clearly all the way upstairs. I love hearing my birds greet the new day, but could they greet it a little later?  Say around 9:30 or 10?

After Jamie and Dave left for the tour, I settled into my own routine here at the house. This includes beginning to cover the bird’s cages at night as I had when I lived in Austin. I work varied hours, sometimes not returning home from work until after 11pm. On the days that extend so far into the evening, I need to be certain that I am not awakened at the crack of dawn. I have found that covering the cages is the best way to ensure that I get enough sleep.
However, my selfish need for sleep is not the only reason that I cover the cages. Many years ago I discovered that the solution to a behavioral problem with one of my cockatiels was in ensuring it a peaceful, secure night’s sleep, which came once I began covering the cage at night. The unwanted behaviors simply stopped following this change. I began covering the cage of my daughter’s umbrella cockatoo, and found her to appear more rested as well.  I have covered all my bird’s cages since this time. I know that it offers security to some of the birds and it adds a little more darkness to the morning to allow a good night’s sleep for us all.

There were a couple of things that I should have elaborated on in my last post, one of them is this question.

A preening toy, preener toy, or simply a preener is an object that is made of materials that can be preened by a bird.  Just as a bird will preen its mate’s feathers, or its own, or groom your hair, it will spend hours working on the strands in the many varieties of preener toys.  Pretty much, it is any toy that satisfies that need.

These are preening toys:

But, so is this:

The one thing they all have in common is that they have dangley parts that a bird will sweep its beak over simulating a preening action.  This seems to keep some birds from over-working their own feathers if they are so inclined.

Different birds have different preference when it comes to the materials that they like to preen.

Cloth toys as well as rope toys and perches fray easily and can serve as a preener for your bird.  HOWEVER, it is important to note, and I didn’t say this in my last post, that toes, necks and other body parts get entangled easily in frayed cloth or rope.  Anything frayed is, in fact, dangerous to keep in your bird’s cage without supervision.

Rope perches that have frayed over time can be cut back with scissors to a safe length.  Since a frayed edge of cloth can become dangerously long in just a matter of hours, it should not be left in the cage with a determined bird.  My vet had to amputate her own cockatoo’s toe after in became entangled in fray from her cage cover.

Fabric, however, seems to be a favorite material to many parrots and as long as safety is in the forefront of everyone’s mind it can make an enticing, and inexpensive toy.  A wet, or better yet frozen, facecloth can offer a lot of comfort and fun to a parrot in the summertime.  As always, be smart and think through potential dangers before you give ANY toys to your bird.

When discussing bird toys, there are two very common statements made:  “I don’t give my bird toys anymore, she never plays with them.”  and  “Whenever I get my bird new toys, he just destroys them.”  Do either of these sound familiar?  Read on…

Toys are multi-tasking things. They should be fun, educational, provide challenges and satisfy a bird’s instinctive needs. They are there to fill the void that a caged bird might feel with limited space and social activity. They exist to be chewed on, smacked around, yelled at and reduced to splinters. An utterly annihilated toy, is one that has been most enjoyed.  So, to the guy who laments over his bird’s destroyed toys: well done. You found the perfect toy for your bird!  For the guy whose bird doesn’t play with toys: keep looking!  You just haven’t found what interests her yet.
Toys are there for the use and enjoyment of your bird. While we may think that the giraffe shaped pinata is adorable, your bird may have no interest in that type of toy. I will venture to say that most parrots really don’t care that a toy looks like a monkey or a snowflake. In fact, your bird has no idea what either of those things are. It is the texture and functionality of the toy that interests your bird.  Be careful not to buy the toys that are appealing to only you.
Toys are expensive and it’s hard to be able to afford to experiment with a $40 toy that your bird may not like. Try some things from around the house to test the waters. Here are a few suggestions:

• Offer a paper towel or paper bag. See what she does with toilet paper or paper towel tubes  Your bird might prefer shreddables.
• See how your bird reacts to pieces of an old t shirt or a facecloth. She might like fabric toys .
• Go to Home Depot and buy a couple of small wood scrap pieces from untreated pine 2X4s for the larger birds, and watch the gnawing begin!
• Fold a favorite treat up inside a unwaxed dixie cup to inspire her to learn to forage.  How well she does with this simple forager will tell you if your bird might be ready to try a more sophisticated toy.

Once you get a feel for the types of materials your bird prefers and makes the best use of, look into the different types of toys available that have that composition. Try, also, to get a feel for the activities your bird prefers. My umbrella cockatoo loves to put things inside of other things. Often I find he has jammed bits of wood into any crevices he can find in his cage. I have noticed that he has a longer than typical attention span than most cockatoos when it comes to accomplishing tasks. Puzzle toys are right for him, but he is very particular about the ones he likes.
I had several friends in Austin who own parrots. We had an arrangement for toy swapping so that we could experiment with what our birds liked.  I bought a Rainstick for Linus once. He hated it and actually got angry when he would hear the sounds it made.  I swapped it with an african grey’s owner for a moving parts toy that is now a favorite to Linus.  We would ONLY do this with plastic or metal toys that could be sterilized before passing them from bird to bird. It saved us a ton of money on wasted, unused toys.

Once you decide what your bird’s preferences are, look into these options:

• Foraging toys: Foraging for food is an activity that occupies a great deal of a wild bird’s day. Our companion birds benefit both mentally and physically when we create a foraging environment for them in their cages.
• Puzzle toys:  These are the educational toys. They can keep your bird busy for hours with different tasks.
• Wood/shreddables: Your bird has an innate need to chew. Gouging out a tree cavity or creating materials to line a nest are behaviors performed by your parrot’s wild cousins. This is hard wired into companion parrots as well. Providing toys that satisfy this urge will hopefully make the furniture less appealing.
• Preening toys:  These are great for the bird who would spend hours on your shoulder grooming your hair.  If you suspect your bird is an over-preener, or might be heading in the direction of feather destruction, these types of toys might distract him from that.
• Plastic toys: From pony beads to bullet proof acrylic, things that spin, slide, and speak. These are toys that will last a long time, but are not always the favorite. These are great toys to use in rotation in the cage to offer a variety of activities throughout the month. Since they don’t serve a purpose as far as destructibility goes, they should provide a fun/educational activity instead.

Toys are an essential part to your parrot’s well-being.  Unused toys in the cage are no better than no toys in the cage.  Observation and a little inexpensive experimentation will give the info you need to provide just the perfect ones for your bird.  The pictured toys and more are available at Birdtricks.com.

Consumers have fought a won a small battle with the manufacturers of the products we buy.  We have demanded that products be safe for the environment and safe for us in our homes.  In today’s market, there are a variety of products labeled as “green”. But what does “green” mean exactly? The color green suggests a healthy environment.  A “green” product claims to be ecologically responsible. Green is also the color of money, which is exactly what retailers make using this term.

Regardless, it’s a step forward.  It is now possible to contact a manufacturer about ingredients and processes used to make their products and get an actual answer instead of dead air, followed by “I don’t know”. They understand, and are willing to address our concerns. However, don’t expect anytime soon to see big warning signs telling us that “this product may be hazardous to your future health and might kill your parrots”.  We have to be smart enough to educate ourselves.

Who would think to wonder if something as seemingly harmless as a hairdryer might pollute the air with toxins?  Or the toaster oven?  The new stove?  I know.  It makes you begin to wonder if anything you own is actually safe.
The one thing these products have in common is that they produce heat. Appliances that get hot are sometimes coated with a non-stick teflon surface. Heated teflon surfaces throw dangerous chemical gases into the air called PTFEs (polytetrafluoroethylene). These odorless gases can kill a bird in minutes.  It’s not just cookware coated with this surface that are the enemy.

Photo by top-10-list.org

When buying new appliances, the internal surfaces need to be a serious consideration to parrot owners.  Be sure you contact the manufacturer before you purchase to ask questions and state concerns.  Be certain to ask if there are any non-stick coated surfaces, and will this outgas PTFEs?
Regardless of the answer you receive, take certain safeguards anyways. After you install your new stove, open your windows and doors and take any living things away from the house: your family, your birds and your other pets (feel free to leave the ants behind). Turn all burners on the new stove to high, and turn the oven on to the highest temperature (with the door shut) and leave them running for at least 30 minutes. This will burn off any residues on the burners and inside surfaces from cleaning chemicals or other substances coating them.  Be sure the air is clean before you bring the birds back in.  Because of their dynamic respiratory system, a bird will fall victim to toxic air far quicker that a mammal.
****In case you don’t know this, you should never use the self-cleaning feature on your oven for these same reasons. Self cleaning oven produce such high temperatures that outgasing is a serious concern.