Congo african grey

No bird is perfect – not yours, not mine. Throughout your bird’s lifetime you will encounter many occasions where you will find it necessary to help your bird make behavior modifications that will ultimately make life more satisfying for you both.

Changing a bird’s behavior is never as simple as moving from point A to point B. It requires intricate steps, thoughtfulness and lots of patience. Outlining the procedure ahead of time will help to move through these steps, but without acknowledging the following tips, your job will be much harder.

Blue and gold macaws

1) Understand the nature of the problem

The fact is, you can’t fix something without knowing how it works.You would never open up your computer and start fiddling around with parts without having an understanding of their purpose. It’s much the same when addressing problem behaviors.

Ask yourself these two questions: why would a bird do this? AND, why does MY bird do this? You might think that the answer to those questions would be the same, but they are actually very different questions.

Using property and house destruction as an example of a behavior that needs to be altered, something we all have endured, you will first need to understand why birds do this. Wild birds are hard-wired to chew because of their innate nesting instincts. Likewise with our captive birds. They are compelled to chew, and will find a way to satisfy that need.

When you ask yourself why YOUR bird does this, it requires that you take a look into your bird’s environment. Your bird may destroy your furniture because you aren’t providing enough wood and shreddable materials in his cage and play areas. He may also be suffering from boredom during his out of cage time and find himself headed for the nearest chair leg when left unsupervised.

You will want to take these facts and your observations into account. This knowledge is essential in getting to the root of any problem. The deeper you probe, the more you will be able to fine tune the solution.

Umbrella cockatoo

2) Offer alternative interests

Think for a minute what it would feel like to have a favorite form of entertainment suddenly denied you. If it were something that occupied a lot of your idle time, you would feel a sense of loss.You would feel restless and miserable until you found something to fill that void.

When trying to effect changes in your bird, you will find it necessary to divert their attentions away from the problem behaviors. Always replace the old activities with new alternatives.You will find it unproductive to simply take away object of your bird’s desire or remove the bird from the area.

Stripping something from your bird’s environment does not lead to a change in behavior. You might temporarily stop the activity, but the inclination will remain, and given the first opportunity, the bird will be back at it. It’s up to you to direct your bird towards something new that substitutes for, or minimizes, the loss of the former activity.

Military macaw

3) The Do-Over

Modifying behaviors is challenging, and there will be occasional set backs. It takes time to break habits  Birds, like children, will continually test you to see what they can get away with. Even after you have guided them to new opportunities, it may still occur to them from time to time that the old ones are still available.

If your bird regresses back to his former unwanted behaviors, you will have to correct him accordingly, but be sure to allow him the opportunity to right his wrong. Take your bird away from the situation for a few moments and return him to the scene of the crime without assuming he will repeat the same behavior.This do-over gives him the opportunity to change his OWN behavior and affords him a measure of control in his environment. This is very empowering to a bird, and a very positive experience. You’ll be surprised how many birds CHOOSE to get it right the second time around.

1 cc syringe photo by innovetpet.com

In a perfect world, our birds would remain healthy and avoid injury throughout their entire lifetimes  However, it’s more realistic to assume that at some point we will have to medicate our birds for one reason or another. Without preparation, this can be a trying and stressful event for both bird and owner.

Here’s a scenario to consider: your 10 year old amazon has had watery poops for the past three days.You, being the conscientious bird owner, take him to the vet where it is determined that he has a bacterial infection. The doctor gives you antibiotics with instructions that the bird receive the medication two times a day for two weeks. Later that day, you draw the medication into the syringe, and attempt to administer the first dosage. You bird turns his head and refuses to open his mouth. When you persist, the bird struggles free and evades every attempt you make to capture him.What will you do now?

White bellied caique photo by Siroj12 at avianavenue.com

The medication you bring home with you is meant to be taken in its entirety, at the exact dosage, and at the intervals prescribed in order for it to be effective. When medicating a bird, it isn’t uncommon for parts of one or two dosages to be lost as the bird jerks his head away as you’re depressing the plunger, or when he shakes his head in protest spraying the walls with that morning’s dosage. You can expect this to happen. Still, it can’t be a hit or miss procedure. Your bird needs the his medication, as prescribed, to get well.

Without having your bird syringe trained, that is, trained to accept a syringe that delivers fluids orally, your only recourse is to towel or restrain your bird when he gets rebellious. Remember that your bird is sick, and probably feeling less than cooperative. And now, he must endure physical restraint, which may be considered by him to be frightening, annoying or as a down-right breech of trust.This is followed by his human forcing liquid down his throat. All of this trauma is unnecessary.

The following video was taken by a member of the Austin Parrot Society, my former bird club. Guest speaker Barbara Heidenreich was present to teach the club how to syringe train their birds using a member’s blue and gold macaw, Joey,  as the model. This video only shows the beginning of the session, but will make the technique clear. Please take careful note of Barbara’s assessment of the bird’s body language throughout the session, her slow introduction of the syringe, and her observance that motivation is lost when the bird is no longer hungry.

Video from Austin Parrot Society

The first fluid Barbara introduces is water. I think this is a great idea because it is an innocuous fluid that no bird is going to object to and that makes it an easy introduction to the notion that the syringe holds something inside. The bird will be rewarded for accepting the liquid.

Once you have accomplished this, you can move onto juices, which can can also serve as the reward if your bird enjoys it enough. If your bird likes tea (decaffeinated only!), you can use that in the syringe as well. In fact, once you have taught your bird to drink liquids other than water through a syringe, you might want to ONLY serve them that way so that the behavior is continually strengthened.

Because of a bird’s anatomy, fluids should be delivered into the left side of the bird’s beak (your right, when facing the bird) and aimed towards the back of the mouth. Don’t disperse it directly down the throat to avoid the danger of aspiration (choking) but position the syringe so that the liquid stays inside the mouth and doesn’t shoot out the other side of the open beak.

Photo of quaker parrot by Siroj12 at avianavenue.com

All of the photos in this post show the correct way to deliver juices to your bird using a 1 cc syringe typically used when administering medications. As with the photo of the quaker, and with other small birds, it is advisable to offer medications holding the bird against your chest. This position is comforting to them and allows you some measure of restraint without it actually feeling confining to the bird. Consider that the syringe is a much larger object coming at them in comparison to their small bodies than it is to a larger bird.

When giving medications to my larger birds, I usually place my hand lightly on the back of their head and neck in a way that says affection rather than restraint. Medications are not always eagerly accepted, if only because they taste different. If the bird pulls out of position while I am administering the medication, I can gently reposition their head. I never do this when giving juices, however. It is merely a precaution because of the need for receiving the full dosage.

If your bird is syringe trained, it takes his fear of the unknown and your need to exert force out of the equation when there is an illness. He may not care for his medication, but he will be familiar with the process and therefore more cooperative. It is a simple procedure to teach and I promise it will make a difficult time much easier for everyone.

Photo of african grey by Siroj12 at avianavenue.com

If you want to obtain one of the syringe’s pictured above you can do so by visiting InnovetPet.com

I posted this on the blog a long time ago, but it is relevant, funny and oh so true:

HOW TO MEDICATE A BIRD: (author unknown)

Occasionally, we find it necessary to medicate our feathered friends.
Here are some pointers to help you with this task.

FIRST APPLICATION:

Retrieve the bird from the cage.
Set the bird on a table and hold its head by carefully grasping the neck where it joins the lower jaw, or mandible.

With your other hand, grasp the medicine syringe and place the tip into the left side of the bird’s mouth.

Depress the plunger and squirt the medicine toward the back of the bird’s throat.

Wipe excess medicine from the bird’s beak.
Place the bird back in the cage.

SUBSEQUENT APPLICATIONS:

Attempt to retrieve the bird from the cage.

Apply bandages as necessary to wounds on your hands and arms.

Retrieve the bird from its new hiding place under the coffee table.

Carefully immobilize the bird’s head to prevent further tissue damage to your body.

Attempt to break the “Vulcan Death Grip” and remove the bird’s feet from your hand.

Apply more bandages and a strong analgesic cream to the new wounds on your hands and arms.

Immobilize the bird by carefully wrapping it in a bath towel.

Watch in amazement as the bird “morphs.” Its head and tail will probably swap position,
putting your tender flesh in mortal danger again.

Hold the bird snugly in its terrycloth prison.

Grasp the medicine syringe.

Try to stop trembling in fear and pain.

Place the tip of the syringe into the left side of the bird’s mouth.
Ignore the crushed tip.

Depress the plunger and squirt the medicine toward the back of the bird’s throat.

Wipe excess medicine out of your eyes.

Release the bird and squirt medicine in the general vicinity of its face.
Some medicine may actually go into the mouth.

The rest will be absorbed by osmosis.

Shoo the bird back to the cage.

Spend the rest of the day attempting to regain the bird’s affection with yummy snacks and new toys.

Canary photo by petswelcome.com

Before the Womachs left for their tour with Ringling, Dave handed me a small booklet that he thought I would find interesting. It is a 15 page pamphlet, about 5″X7″ in size, titled: “The Art Of Training Birds” by Signor Giovannis. It was originally published in 1883 and was recently reprinted in 1991. It divulges information as to the “care and treatment” of the canary specifically, but is meant to apply to all birds.

Budgie

The first couple of “chapters” deal with taming and training. It begins: “Although birds are naturally of a timid disposition, very easily alarmed, and from their delicate structure unable to endure any but the most gentle handling, they may be made very tame, and become quite attached to their trainer. We propose to tell our readers how to tame thier birds, but to make these instructions successful, they must be carried out with the greatest gentleness and patience. The utmost pains should be observed not to frighten the bird, as a slight fright may render him so shy as to defeat all your efforts to gain his confidence.”
As I continued to read, I was amazed at his recommendation of using respectful encouragement, treats and praise in his training methodology to gain the best results. We currently term this as positive reinforcement. He talks about what is known today as target training, using a feather as the target in the taming process. This is a guy who gets it.  I was expecting his procedures to be harsh and heartless – perhaps because I have always felt that animals were kept during that age for service to humans, as workers or as food, for purpose instead of pleasure. He has earned some BIG points with me.

Budgies

I got to the general care and diet part of the booklet where the ignorance of the times shone painfully through. Some of the booklet’s more notable faux pas include his recommendation that you seriously limit your bird’s intake of “green foods” because it will cause “diarrhea, generally a fatal disease”. (He has lost a lot of his points with this statement.) He does redeem himself somewhat by alerting us to the fact that birds enjoy sweets but that we should refrain from allowing them any because we are ultimately “killing them with kindness”.
While he recommends that water be clean and plentiful for both drinking and bathing (points go up again), he also suggests putting a RUSTY NAIL(!!) into the drinking water to alleviate the stresses of molting season, which he says is “a very trying time for birds, and some die from it.” (losing nearly all points he gained in the area of compassionate training.) Am I alone in thinking that, just maybe, it’s the rusty nail water and not the molting process that is the cause of death? He earns back a few points with his recommendation of adding hard boiled eggs to the diet during this time.
He states that the best remedy for a bird with a “cold” is to offer stale bread soaked in milk, as well as cutting a red pepper in half and placing it at the bottom of the cage. More points lost, and game over.

Canaries photo by lowcountrygirl.wordpress.com

The random final chapter in the book is titled: “The art of making music from glasses”. You know, where you fill water glasses to different levels and rub your finger around the edge to create different musical notes. I don’t know what to say about the inclusion of this chapter. His second job, I guess. Dave was right. This was an interesting read.
I am assuming that the life expectancy of Senior Giovannis’ canaries was rather short, although they were respectfully treated prior to their untimely deaths. In fairness, though, the life expectancy of humans was much shorter not so long ago. As we have learned more about the body, nutrition and with medical advancement, the duration and quality of life has increased both in humans and our pets. So, the next time I start going on about how little knowledge we have acquired on companion birds, please shake me and remind me of this post. Obviously we have come a long way. And it only took us just over a century to get here.

Thought you’d enjoy this video, and if you want to go see Dave live, click here to see if he’s performing in a city near you

Camelot Macaw, Blue Throated Macaw

I get a lot of questions by email or see questions posted on the Birdtricks facebook page and other parrot forums from people wanting to get help for their bird’s problems: “my bird screams all the time, how do I stop it?” Whether the nature of the problem is behavioral or medical, it is almost impossible to give accurate advice without being able to witness the problem personally. Whether you are seeking the advice of a consultant or are trying to figure out where to begin on your own, certain information is crucial to diagnosing the issue at hand.
When you are seeking help for a problem, remember to consider the following information:

Scarlet Macaw

General info:

• Species – Always be sure to mention the exact species of your bird.  Rather than saying you have a macaw, specify a scarlet macaw, for instance.  The personality distinctions between a scarlet and a blue and gold can be vast and handling recommendations will be different.
• Age - Knowing the approximate age of your bird will help the person advising you to determine whether or not a behavior is relative to the onset of sexual maturity. Parrots go through many phases throughout their long lives. If a bird is older, chances are it has been practicing an undesired behavior for longer, or the environmental causes of the behavior have in place for longer, and it gives a better picture as to how ingrained this behavior in the bird might be.

Your bird’s history:

• Captive bred/handfed vs wild caught – This speaks to the amount of socialization your parrot may have received before entering your home. In the case of the wild caught parrot, there may be long standing trust issues based on his first contact with humans being a traumatic one. Certainly, it would be understandable for this parrot to develop problems down the road.
• Rehomed/rescued – The rehomed parrot, even those coming from an excellent home, could be suffering from abandonment or grief issues due to the loss of his previous owners and may be slow to settle in to your home. The rescued or abused parrot will come with plenty of issues and it takes a special home and owner to cope with their needs. This is very important information to divulge.

Rose Breasted Cockatoo

Your bird’s health:

• Existing medical conditions – When your bird is sick, it will affect how well your bird cooperates with you and reacts to his environment.  When your bird’s behavior is out of the ordinary, a trip to the vet is always the first step.
• Diet – A poor diet will dramatically affect your bird’s behavior as it’s general health deteriorates, or as it suffers loss of energy and vitality. Someone advising you will ask pointed questions about your bird’s diet.
• Sleep schedule – Your parrot needs about 10 hours of undisturbed sleep every night. Think how crabby you get when you’re tired!  This is an important consideration when assessing a problem.

Environment:
This is a broad area to cover as environment pretty much encompasses everything your bird experiences. Some things to be aware of are:

• Cage size/placement
• Household members, their ages and level of interaction with the bird
• Other pets
• Other birds, their ages, species and order of arrival into the flock
• Lifestyle of the owners

Blue Fronted Amazon Parrot

The smallest things can have a huge impact on your bird’s behavior. These things are easily overlooked in the process of conversation. Often things or events have to be pried from the owners because they seem to be inconsequential to them at the time. You must understand that all of these bits and pieces fit together to form the larger picture that your bird sees and reacts to.  Always try to look at the things around you from a parrot’s perspective and be very aware of your bird’s reactions to the people, things and event in its life.

Birdtricks has a great catalog of courses that can guide you through specific problems and Chet recently made a video showing you how to best utilize this catalog: The Better Bird Blueprint. Applying the techniques taught in the Birdtricks.com courses will be more beneficial to you when you know the whys behind your birds behaviors. When you enter into any kind of training, your success rate will increase if you understand the value of background information.

Here’s the links to the resources I mentioned in this video:

Teaching Your Parrot To talk On Cue