Think, for a moment, about all of the life-stages a human being goes through from birth to old age, and the way each stage effects and changes the person that you are:  from the complete dependence of infancy to the confident and very mobile 6 year old; from the hormonal teen years to early adulthood, the child bearing years; from adulthood to middle age; from middle to old age, where health might start to decline.  Then consider the long life span of our companion parrots.  Parrots go through life-stages just as people do.  In 10 years, your parrot will likely be a different bird than the one you have now.

We all know to expect behavior changes as a parrot reaches sexual maturity.  A young bird might start getting nippy and territorial.  You can equate this to the 11-14 year old child that has begun rolling her eyes at everything you say.  Yesterday you were a hero, today you are an idiot that knows nothing about the world.  You will remain an idiot until she reaches 21 and realizes that your claims about “how hard it is out there” were not fabrications and scare tactics designed to gain cooperation and control.  The respectful behavior returns, but you will never again be the hero.  Changes are part of life and we do best when we learn to roll with them.

A parrot’s demeanor, attitude and level of tolerance changes as it ages.   While some changes in your parrot might be a reflection of a changing home environment, this is not always the case.  Any intelligent being has the capacity to change.  Some changes might be welcomed, others frustrating, and you might find it necessary to put new strategies into play as your bird goes through its life.

As I get older, I find I have less patience for things that were once very important to me, things that I now find to be trivial and unworthy of my efforts.  It makes me laugh to think how much time I have spent fussing over my hair, applying make-up, dressing up to go to the supermarket.  Events I once thought were the end of the world are now met with a simple sigh.  I have changed, but the essence of who I am, my morals and ethics, have remained the same.  I’m still me, just different.

Tinky, my 16 year old cockatiel, has gone through several attitude changes in his years.  I have had him since he was a baby.  When he was young, he took everything in stride.  If he wanted to come out and play, he would kick up a fuss and let me know.  After a few minutes, when he realized he wasn’t going to get his way, he would quietly move on to something else to do.  No big deal.

When he was older, about 8, he became much more serious about life.  Things that would normally instigate rowdy play were suddenly annoying to him.  For a while, he preferred to play outside his cage independently, always within sight of me, but less physically interactive. Then, he went through a period where he couldn’t bear to be away from me.

Now, in his golden years, I find he has very little patience for nonsense.  Nonsense being defined as anything that doesn’t suit him that day, anything that doesn’t go his way, and everything else.  He can be quite stubborn, and has no trouble voicing his opinions.  But he is still, and has always been, fun and lovable Tinky at his core, although there have been many versions of him along the way.  I have enjoyed every second of our journey together, whoever he happens to be at any given moment.  I even love the crotchety, old man he has become.

The cutest things on the planet may very well be (and not necessarily in this order): a baby cracking up laughing, kittens doing just about anything, and birds playing.  Some of the very best memories I have of my birds are of them playing, especially when it involves me.  There’s something so precious about watching the determination of a 100 gram bird tug on something twice its size, and the lengths they will go to to accomplish an nearly impossible task.  I am always on the lookout for things that will peak the curiosity of a nosy bird to inspire play.

Here are some things you can make quickly and inexpensively that can change and grow with your imagination, all of which work best with your involvement:

1.  Birdie tunnel (budgies/finches):
You can make this simple toy from a cardboard paper towel roll and two shoeboxes.  Remove the lids from the shoeboxes and place them open side up.  Cut a hole in one short side of each box just large enough for an end of the paper towel roll to fit through.  Connect all the pieces together with the paper towel roll in the center.  It will look like a dumbbell when you’re through.
I have a friend with 3 little budgies that spent hours with this bird toy.  Eventually she raised the height of the tube to the top of the box and created ramps and steps and climbing ropes for her budgies to reach it.  They went to great lengths to get to that tunnel,  they’d race through and start again from the other side.

2.  Birdie Maze:
Thesecan be both fun and interesting for your bird.  If you have smaller birds, budgies to conures, the  walls to the maze are easily constructed from Legos.  At first make the maze more of a winding tunnel and coax him through it with treats.  As he gets better at finding his way, make dead ends and false passageways that cause him to have to evaluate his moves.  If your bird is a cheater, and flies to the top of the wall to find his way, you can cover the top with a towel if he feels comfortable with that.
For the larger bird, you will need taller, more sturdy walls.  You’d have to have A LOT of Legos.  My daughter’s umbrella cockatoo, Abu, actually taught me this game while I was packing for a move.  She created her own maze from the cartons that were slowly overtaking the living room.  She had a ball.  I told a friend about Abu’s game.  This guy had the largest record collection I had ever seen and he used the milk crates he stored his albums in to create a maze for his amazon.  Last I had heard from him, he had still not returned his record collection to it’s original spot.  This game might not work well for some macaws because their tail is always dawdling two feet behind them.
3.  Play Mat:
What bird doesn’t have the time of his life trying to remove the buttons from your clothing?  Or trying to disassemble your jewelry?  The play mat offers all of those opportunities and more…
Take an old blanket and sew beads, buttons, bows and bells to it.  Or you could be a rebel, and use things that don’t start with a “B”.  You could use a towel and sew on plastic rings, keys, leather strips with beads, wooden cutouts and pretty much anything else you can think of that your bird would enjoy.  The fun for the birds seems to be in tugging on the items, just like the buttons on your shirt.  When you are done playing it folds right up for storage.  If  it becomes soiled, you can put it in a lingerie bag and machine wash it, depending on the durability of the items you have sewn on.
I had made one of these for the cockatiels years ago and this post inspired me to make another. I did make one for Linus, my umbrella cockatoo, a short time after he arrived to live with me.  His efforts were spent trying to fold it back up or dragging it around behind him by one of the plastic rings. I wasn’t yet aware of what a tyrant Linus was with toys, always trying to bend them to his will and make them do things they weren’t designed to do.  He had a good time, though, and that’s the point.

4.  “Greyzilla”:
I read about this guy somewhere who made a little city out of appropriately sized Legos for his African grey and made up this game called Greyzilla.  It was the grey’s role to come along to destroy and terrorize the city and all it’s tiny, little people.  It was the human’s job to portray the little Lego people running from Greyzilla and begging for their lives.  As Greyzilla crashed his way through town, he showed little mercy for the Lego-ites.  If I remember correctly, though, this compassionate monster tried to reassemble the city when he was through, although probably not to Legoville building code standards.  I can only imagine how much fun they must have had.

I had two days off in a row this week!!  I know that doesn’t sound like a big deal, but when you work in retail, believe me, it’s rare.  It feels like spring break.  I intended to tackle some projects that needed tackling.  I actually tackled two.  And they were, of course, bird projects.

New cage covers were desperately needed for Linus, my umbrella cockatoo, and the cockatiels, so I moved this to the top of the to-do list.  I went to the quilting section at the fabric store and bought about 2 miles of dark broadcloth.  Linus has a really big cage.  He also has a really big beak and had shredded his cover beyond usefulness.  He has a favorite side to his cage for sleeping, and there was so little fabric remaining on that side that he recently decided to move to the other side for a good night’s sleep.  I know this because his back-end has been positioned over his water bowl all night for about a week now.  I don’t think I need to say more.  I constructed the cover and attached it to the cage using grommets and quick links.

The cockatiels.  My sweet little darlings.  The only thing worse that waking up to the horrors in Linus’s water dish is waking up to the cockatiel’s belting out a tune at 6:30am when I worked late and got to bed at 1 the night before.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love hearing their joyous little voices.  Just not then.  I made them a darker cover to encourage them to sleep a little later.

I was so excited when I went to bed last night, new cage covers in place, knowing I could sleep until I woke up rested.  Well, that was the plan, until I woke up to my alarm clock buzzing at 6:45.  Apparently, I had set it the night before out of habit.  The good news is that I did not hear a peep from the cockatiels at 6:30…if that can be construed as good news.  Oh, and by the way, I came down stairs to find that Linus had torn a hole in his new cover, right at his eye level, and every movement I made was being monitored by a blue eye ring surrounded by black cloth.  Creepy.

Today’s project was toy making for the cockatoos.  Linus was pouting this morning as if to say:  “Mom, I have nothing to do with my beak.”  I was thinking how he found something to do with it earlier that involved his new cage cover, but kept quiet.  I went to the lumber store for a pile of 2X4s and cut enough 1″ pieces to fill a 10 gallon bin.  I drilled holes into each piece so they could be strung onto chains.  I made HUGE toys for both Linus and Theo, my goffins cockatoo, who didn’t even notice the wooden behemoth in her cage.

Linus was thrilled, though, and spent most of the day transporting bitten off chunks of wood to his stainless steel pail for further processing.  I noticed about an hour ago that he has managed to give himself a black eye, something he does several times a year in the course of going to battle with his toys.  Sometimes they hit back.  He has already gone through about 7″ of wood, or the equivalent of 15 boxes of toothpicks (if I were counting, or thinking about going into that business).  I guess we both had a productive day.  Next project on the list:  Easter baskets for the cockatoos, and Easter…boxes for the little guys.

Parrots are instinctively highly attuned to everything around them.  It is this awareness of their environment that keeps them safe from predators.  So it’s easy to understand why parrots are so quick to pick up on the energy levels of their owners and the home they live in. This is something we can use to our advantage and is just one more example of how having an understanding of a wild bird’s nature will help us with the birds we keep in our homes.

Have you ever noticed that when you stand in front of your bird and act silly and animated that he will start bouncing up and down on his perch and become vocal?  Have you observed that when you stand quietly and speak to him in quiet tones that he will turn his head to the side and listen intently to your words?

The energy level present in the home is often responsible for the behavior, or misbehavior, of our parrots.  If things have become too chaotic or noisy, sometimes all it takes to restore peace is a quiet chat.

When Linus, my umbrella cockatoo, decides the time is right for his afternoon vocalizations, I can nearly always quiet him by speaking softly to him.  Even when he is in  full-on scream mode, I can generally stop it by standing in front of him and continuing to speak quietly.  He may not be able to hear me over his own loud voice, but he can see me, and I figure he has to come up for air at some point.  My low energy gradually rubs off on him.

On the other side of that coin is instigating play.  For the parrot that tends to be a perch potato, some music and lively dancing and singing on your part might be just the things to get him moving, and exercising.  Sometimes birds are afraid of, or disinterested in, new things.  Since your bird trusts you, your enthusiasm with new things will make him feel comfortable with, and an excitement about, the things you introduce him to.  Once you tell him something is okay, it will be.

Talking to your parrot serves a number of purposes.  For the new parrot in the home, it is trust building.  Your new parrot can learn to feel relaxed with you as you continue to show him that you are a safe playmate.  As his comfort increases, you can begin to show him that you are fun as well.

Talking to your parrot can prepare him for events coming up in the future as well, such as your trip to Europe and his subsequent trip to the boarding facility, or any other big change that is approaching. Tell your parrot that a change is coming, but that it is a temporary arrangement and that everything will be fine.  Assure him that he is loved, and throw in how beautiful and good he is.  The more time you spend talking to him, explaining and reassuring him, the better prepared he will be for your absence.  I realize this sounds silly, and I can already see some eyes rolling, but this really does help, and I don’t know of a single parrot expert who doesn’t agree.  While they don’t understand your words, they will certainly take your tone to heart.  Somehow, this reaffirms your relationship with them and carries them through what might otherwise be a traumatic event.

In every case where a parrot that has the benefit of an owner that takes the time to talk to him, he will  feel included as a member of the household.  This improves your relationship with him, betters his life and will make him more family friendly.

With springtime fast approaching, we have to be on the lookout for “quirky” behaviors that are related to onset of hormones.  I have often compared hormonal parrots with teenagers.  They both know what is right or wrong in terms of their behavior, but neither seem to be able to control themselves at times when hormones are involved.  Your once placid parrot may overreact to things that he would normally overlook, and he might express himself with aggression.

Linus, my umbrella cockatoo, always seems to be walking a fine line when he is excited.  Throughout the entire year, I have to carefully watch his body language to make sure his play doesn’t escalate into aggression.  He gets to a point of excitement where he seems to lose control, and is quick to bite.  It really appears to be temporary insanity.  Sometimes he seems as shocked by his actions as I am, and he quickly tries to make amends by doing something cute.  Or he walks away grumbling something along the lines of: “Look what you made me do!”

Linus is not a bad bird.  He is typical of a cockatoo in every way, except he has a bit of an edge.  Over-stimulation is something that affects all species of birds.  I bring it up now because it is a behavior that is exaggerated by hormones this time of year.

How much is too much for our parrots?

The signs of an over-stimulated bird look very similar to typical signs of aggression, but they are easy to confuse with a bird that is excited by play. A parrot that is playing hard will have raised feathers, pinned eyes and a fanned tail at times.  Since these are also the signs of an angry bird, the best way to figure out if your bird’s mood is by assessing how it is responding to you at that time.  A playing bird will encourage you to join in the fun, or at least want you as an observer.

For instance, when I get on the floor and roll a ball to Linus, he might grab the ball, throw it over his back and run after it.  He’ll look at me to make sure I’m watching.  He’ll grab the ball, run back and forth with it and then drop it.  He’ll look at me to see that I am watching and cheering him on.  Then he’ll grab the ball, bang it on the floor a few times, maybe smack it into the wall, and then stop to see that I am paying attention.  This is a happy-excited bird, who is behaving in an interactive way with me.

However, the tone can change quickly.  I will retrieve the ball and toss it to him again and he will go through his repertoire of moves.  After doing this several times, he becomes possessive of the ball, and is no longer including me in play.  He is now eying me wearily and is taking the ball in a direction away from me.  If I approach him, he takes on a defensive stance and might hiss at me.  It is a perplexing behavior, and frustrating to say the least.  Playtime comes to an abrupt halt.

What could I have done differently to avoid over-stimulation?

The first and most important thing to remember is that your bird keeps a scorecard.   The card has two categories:  good experiences and bad experiences.  Any time something unpleasant happens, he puts a note under bad experiences.  When that column is full, behavior problems begin, even if there are an overwhelming amount of entries in the good experiences category, and even if the bad experiences are brought on by himself.  Any experience that is perceived as negative, regardless of our level of involvement, can be related back to us, so we want every interaction to have a positive conclusion.

That said, we need to halt the escalation of a potential problem BEFORE we get there.  Knowing Linus has a short window for play, I should have stopped the game while it was still fun and interactive.  There’s nothing really gained by continuing until the bird is tired or bored with the game anyways.  Keeping him wanting more will only make it that much more fun the next time.  I should have stopped after a few tosses of the ball, and moved onto something different.  Once I am able to notice subtle changes in tone and attitude, the game is already over.

How do I handle my bird once he has reached the point of aggression?

Usually, over-stimulation is easy to calm.  Remember that it was just seconds ago that the two of you were having fun.  I find that lowering levels of excitement and speaking in quiet tones gets the job done quickly.  Parrots are quick to match our energy levels.  Since your bird is just high-strung at the moment, and you have not committed an atrocity for which you must be repaid, a parrot will generally relax quickly.  A period of quiet cage time is a good idea at this point, not as punishment because he’s done nothing wrong, but to maintain calm and assure his level of stimulation has lowered.  Playtime can resume, more carefully, in a while.

Studies are showing that parrots bred in captivity are not living as long as they used to.  It seems impossible to me.  With all the advancements in avian sciences and medicine, with the increased numbers of avian certified vets, with all the information available out there on the internet, how can this be??

Up until as late as the early 90’s, the parrot owning general public had only the advice of pet store employees on how to care for their new birds.  All seed diets, with the occasional table scraps, were routinely recommended. Parrots were kept in tiny cages and offered little, if any, mental stimulation.  We had no understanding of the dangers of metal toxicity or the benefits of sunlight, and vets treated birds with medications intended for cats and dogs.  We had virtually no information about the wild habitats and behaviors of commonly kept species.

I understand how some  parrots fared badly in human care during those days.  Some of the longer lived parrots that survived their all seed diets, are paying the price for this ignorance with poor health now.  Some of the sharper owners applied common sense and gave their bird a healthier, more active life than was the norm.  Still, there were no guidelines to follow and there was a lot of “winging it”.  But that is not an excuse today.

So, given the glut of great information available to parrot owners, new and old, how can we be taking such a huge step backwards? I spent quite a while on line trying to find answers, but there really aren’t any at this time.   So I gathered the opinions of some very trusted sources on what might be some causes and these are what made sense to me:

The Pelleted Diet:

This portion of a parrot’s diet is very misunderstood.  People who own other animals will go to the supermarket and buy a 50lb bag of Purina whatever Chow, pour it in a bowl and consider their animals fed.  I wonder how many parrot owners are doing the same thing with their birds.  For the lazy owner, pellets are ideal, no muss, no fuss.  I think, though, that we may be leaning on them to heavily in our parrot’s diet.

I want to point out that I am not anti-pellets.  I offer them everyday.  I do fault the manufacturers who claim their pellets to be a complete diet.  They are not, and the uneducated owner might believe this claim.   Parrots are not at all like cats and dogs in their dietary requirements and MUST have fresh foods, which are the only foods that contain the ingredients that help fight disease and sustain good health in old age, and not just keep a bird alive.  To my way of thinking, pellets are a supplement to a fresh food diet.

For the best and 100% organic pellet that can help your parrot live longer, try Feed Your Flock organic parrot pellets. They come with a homemade recipe from Chet and Dave Womach of birdie bread muffins with the organic pellets incorporated in, that will have your parrot drooling for more!

Poor Breeding Practices:

Disreputable breeders have been around forever.  However, with parrots now being the third most popular pet, they are in a particular hurry to “crank them out”.  Aside from the breeder parents being in poor health, another age old problem is in the practice of in-breeding (mating of parents to sibling or sibling to sibling) and line-breeding (mating of relatives outside the immediate family: uncles, nieces, grandparents etc), which if carried out over a series of generations will lead to health issues and odd characteristics.  Breeders have been doing this for a long time, but with the increase in consumer demand, it may very well be happening in much higher numbers.

Lack of Exercise:

Birds are meant to fly.  Everything in their physiology screams this, from their feathers to the their hollow bones to their uniquely designed respiratory system.  But we discourage this behavior, and often clip their wings.  Sometimes the safety of a bird in the home requires clipping, since so many accidents occur as parrots fail to navigate windows and mirrors.  What are we doing to makeup for the loss of this natural ability in terms of exercise?

Obesity is one of the most common parrot health issues today, and is usually the result of both a poor diet and an unmotivated bird.  If our birds are not flighted, we need to be making every effort to see that they are getting ample exercise both inside and outside of their cage.

Thank you to everyone who offered opinions on this subject, but I still can’t wrap my brain around this.