In my household everything is basically bird proof and I begin to take it for granted. I don’t have any teflon pans, no avacados, chocloate is put away, no ceiling fans, no toxis plants, controlled drafts, bathroom doors always closed, two doors to go outside of the house, no other pets, etc. I have all the necessary precautions for living with a flighted bird safely.

I started to realize the important of remembering what kinds of precautions are necessary again when I started taking my birds to other people’s houses for visits. What really got me thinking about it was when I saw other people using teflon pans. Because I got rid of all of mine, I no longer even think if pans are safe or not for birds. But in other people’s houses I have to make better precautions with my birds like leaving them outside while folks are cooking and watching that the pans are not overheated.

Here are some other concerns to keep in mind if you take your bird to other people’s houses or have other people visit you. For some reason or another it seems like people are obsessed with sneaking food to your pet. They think they are doing it a favor. Yet they don’t know what they are giving it and what kind of diet the bird is on etc. They may have seen you feed food from the table to the bird and try to do that too. Who knows when someone may decide to sneak a chocolate chip cookie over to your bird thinking that polly must love cookies. Or they could just be interrupting your training diet or food regime.

Some people like to try to pet your bird through the bars or when it is out not realizing it will bite them. Some people might decide your bird is lonely in its carrier and let it out only to have it fly all over the place or cause trouble. Other times you might just run into issues like the other person’s house having mirrors that confuse the bird, ceiling fans, or other things that it may not be used to in a “bird safe” environment. The whole point of taking it to the stranger’s house is to socialize it and desensitize it to things like this but it is important to do so slowly and in a controlled manner.

It is not always possible or practical to try to educate everyone that is near your bird so it’s just more important to keep the bird near you at all times. Unlike in your own household you cannot change the environment or lifestyle to suit your birds so it is important to be aware of the dangers and keeping your birds away from them.

If you’re visiting a household with a lot of people or people who are too nosy, you might want to go to the further precaution of putting a lock on the carrier, and putting some signs on your carrier like “Do not feed” and “Don’t stick fingers inside of cage, bird bites.” I just know from some of my outings with my birds that if they weren’t under my immediate attention all the time, the people I was visiting might have messed around them the wrong way too much.

Warning: You should always take your bird outside on a harness or tether unless it has been properly trained for outside un-tethered interaction by a professional.

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If you have a brand new bird that is not accustomed to petting or if yours loves it and is demanding about it, here are some tips for you.

If your bird does not let you pet it doesn’t mean you can’t use a little bit of training to allow you to do it. There is no guarantee whether your bird will like it or not. There is a good chance that it will but needs to give you the chance to do it. If you try to force pet a fearful or aggressive bird, it will only worsen the situation. Of course you may feel that if you just do it, the bird can enjoy it but the fact of the matter is that if you do it in an unpleasant way, the bird will never trust you like that.

One thing to consider is scale. While you may be able to use your entire hand on a macaw, only a few fingers would be more suitable for a Senegal Parrot. On the other hand, with a budgie even one finger can seem large and intimidating. Scale wise a finger might be like getting pet with a first for a budgie. So definitely try to not be too big to the bird when you touch it.

It is likely that the bird does not want to be touched on its wings, legs, or tail. They can preen/scratch all of those areas themselves so they don’t need or want your touch there. However, they cannot reach their own heads and necks. In the wild birds all preen each other as both a convenience and a socialization ritual. Usually birds allow others to preen them as a sign of social acceptance. So of course your bond with the bird can be reinforced by petting its head and neck.

So if you have never pet your bird before, you will want to see how close you can get and try to see if it will accept petting or not. What I often do with a bird I’m unfamiliar with is put my hand about 12 inches over its head and see if it is calm or really agitated. Unless the bird looks like its ready to bite, I will inch in a little at a time and see its comfort level. If it looks more relaxed, I go a bit closer. Within the last few inches is the deciding point. Now it can reach your hand and bite you. If the bird’s head is still down, it is most likely safe to proceed. If it’s beak is practically on your hands then a bite is likely and continuing will only agitate the bird and it won’t be able to enjoy being pet.

One way I’ve taught birds to accept petting initially (to introduce them to it so they could realize they like it) is by cuing them to do a trick. While I am rewarding the bird for doing the trick I hold my hand closer and closer to its head with consecutive rewards. So on the first reward, while the bird is eating out of my left hand, I will put my right hand a certain distance away that the bird does not get distracted and continues eating. If the bird keeps looking at my hand rather then eating, then it is uncomfortable and I back off a little. I continue this until I can get close enough to touch and the first few times I just touch and don’t pet. Finally once I can definitely touch while it is eating, I start gently stroking the feathers. Once the bird seems more comfortable with petting while being fed, I start phasing out the feeding and just offering petting on occasion.

Now on the other side of the spectrum is a parrot the likes getting pet so much that it will bite you until you do it. This is unacceptable behavior and absolutely should not be rewarded with the action the parrot desires. In this case I try to change the petting request language from bite to a trick behavior. For instance cue the parrot to wave and when it does, you reward it with some head petting. Not only does this give you an alternate treat to use to food, it also teaches the parrot to do tricks instead of biting to get pet.

In this video you can also see that I created a pseudo cue for accepting petting for my parrot. I had two issues with her. First off, she would nip my fingers if I didn’t pet her the way she wanted. Second, I often get requests from children to pet her and even if she looks like she will let them, I am worried about her changing her mind and biting them. So what I started to do is to hold her beak whenever I pet her. She wants the petting so she doesn’t mind the beak hold but for me it guarantees that she can’t nip me because I got her. Now when I let others pet her, I hold her beak. This way I know that she can’t bite and if anything it will be me and not a little child petting her.

Usually I either lean the thumb of the same hand I pet her with on top of her beak or I hold her beak between my fingers on the hand she is perches on. This guarantees me that she won’t nip or bite and also it signals to her that enjoyable petting is on its way for her. This way when I want to give other people an opportunity to pet her, I just hold her beak. This signals to the bird that she is going to be pet and takes her mind and worry off that stranger because I just told her that petting is coming and not harm. She lets them pet her and probably won’t bite them because she knows a good thing is coming. And as backup, I got her beak so I know exactly where it is!

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Watch a LIVE video demo of me taming our wild, biting Macaw, “Tiko.” (See how I handle “Tiko” as he lunges at me, screaming and biting — how I lovingly calm him down… and mesmerize him so much that he BEGS me to pet him with my BARE HANDS 5 minutes later!) Click for more »

Cleaning cage bare, removed all toys and perches.

I started by removing absolutely everything from the cage including bowls, toys, and perches. I got a bucket of hot water that I mixed dish soap and a little Clorox into. I cannot endorse this cleaning method in any way and don’t have a strong justification for this over other methods so it isn’t really relevant, tested, or proven. Substitute whatever cleaning agent you choose to use. Because of my own doubts about the validity of any cleaning solution for bird cages, I just try to use something mild and then rinse very thoroughly to leave no trace. I only use soap on the cage this way about quarterly. Other times I just clean with water and wiping.

Thoroughly washing cage out in bathtub.

Once I get started it’s easier to just keep going and clean everything all at once. Taking the time to do it, preparing the solution, getting wet, and working on it just makes more sense to do all bird stuff together. Usually I team up with my girlfriend and we can get things done much quicker by delegating responsibilities. She will soap and rinse everything in the bathtub while I take cages apart, deliver the parts, and dry thing when she finishes washing.

Washing out climbing tree.

We wash all perches, ladders, grates, and cages this way. I even shower out her climbing tree like this once in a while. It may be easier to hose down cages but since I don’t have access to a hose, doing it in the bathtub is the next best way. Since the perches soak in water and the birds chew them actively, I am especially careful at rinsing them out thoroughly and wiping away any trace of chemicals. Since my Senegal parrot’s cage is bulky, I normally wash it on the spot but the budgie cage easily fits in the tub. However, I’ve decided that once a year I will lug that big cage to the bathroom and stick it in the tub and clean it out completely. It was a bit of work but now the cage looks like new so I think it was worth it.

New cage layout after rearranging.

Since I neither remember nor care about restoring the previous cage layout, I use cage cleanings as a reason for rearranging the cage anew every time. I layout all available perches and swings from my small collection and pick the ones I want to use this time. I always try to arrange the cage differently. If the perches ran across last time, I try to run them depth wise this time. If the last time she had a swing, this time I put a spiral rope. By constantly changing the cage layout, it helps relieve territorial aggression, it keeps the bird challenged, and it makes the bird accustomed to changes. I am confident that if I had to replace her cage or move to another home, she would have no trouble adapting.

While I was arranging the new layout, I let my parrot watch from her carrier. I had to put her in there or she would fly over to check it out every 3 seconds and wouldn’t let me work. So she watched intently and when it was finished I put her in. Rather than panicking, biting, or getting shy as many unaccustomed parrots would have been, she was immediately excited. Her eyes lit up and she looked like a little boy on his birthday opening presents. She just had to climb on every perch, check out every toy, chew on every piece of wood. I know many parrots could have a panic attack from these alterations but if next time you get a bird, you keep this in mind and build this kind of relationship with novelty from the start, you can have a parrot that is  very open to change. And instead of causing them grief, you can give them pleasure in getting new toys and an exciting new cage layout.

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