Patagonian Conure Success Story
January 14th, 2009Chet
Sun Conure
>>> 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.
Mitred Conure
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.
Black Cap Conures
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
Dear Chet:
Found the letter from Anita Carey very interesting. Finding another owner of a Patagonian Conure is rare. They are a challenge to say the very least. My family calls ours everything from the “Green Turd” to “Butthead” because of his stubborn & loud nature. Personal challenges have prevented me from spending the time to even review the information you’ve sent, much less work with it. Hopefully, in a few weeks, things should settle down enough that I can spend the time to do just that. I’m hoping to have some of the same success. The reason I’m writing though, is to find out if there is any way that I could connect with any other Patagonian owners out there. They are unique birds and little is printed about them. I’m also curious about how Anita managed to get hers to accept the pellet diet. My bird has adamently refused it and will scream for hours if it is the only food provided. I’ve had to give in to mixing the fruit flavored pellets with seed in order to insure that the neighbors don’t start shooting. (not joking). Meanwhile, thank you for all the encouragement and your dedication to educating us all.
With Aloha, Diana
i must have missed it but what is a food tree and how do you make one
hey. i want to order it but i dont have a credit card. cant i use cash when it gets here? please email me at leo11dude_man@hotmail.com
i loved reading this success story…
since aquiring my moustache parakeet i have learned a lot on how to handle her lil fits and keep her ~enriched~ with activities..
she no longer bites my fingers when i need to do things near her…but now lets me softly touch her beak, steps up, and stays on my shoulder happily…
even though i dont have your tapes chet…your emails have been invaluable..thank you!
bal
Interesting! But what exactly do you mean by “play trees”? My quaker
attacks new things like they are mortal enemies!
Hello Chet,
Sounds like a great success story.
We have a green cheeked conure, JetLi, who is a wonderful creature, of nearly a year old. While she doesn’t have a play tree, she has a lot of dangling toys and she loves to ring the bells in the morning. She greets us in the morning with a few whoops. She knows when we come in the driveway and starts calling to us — nonfamily might call it shreeking, but we know she’s saying hi. We even dealt with her starting to feather pluck by letting her out of her cage more — and voila, now no more plucking. She zooms around the house like a maniac. She has been known to fly outside and scream once she lands in a tree. We walk outside and call to her and she’ll fly down to us — Jet doesn’t want to be without us.
We’ve made more adhoc in-house perches, with ground cover, so that when she flies around the house she most likely will come to a roosting spot that is set up and protected for her. We even keep her small travelling cage on the back landing — and she has been known to fly outside when the door is open and hang out. It seems to be a familiar place. When I work on vehicles in the garage Jet will demand to come out and walk around on the ground checking out what I am working on.
What we need to do is figure out how to train her to return to cage or designated spots for her frequent bodily functions. If we could successfully train her to do that we’d all be much happier. I don’t see such a training video — do you have one?
Another odd thing is that she gets her moods, and at time will puff out her feathers and chase and try to bite/beak any finger or hand that comes near her cage. Specially when we want to give her more food. Tends to be AM, for the rest of the time is fine. The mood will then vanish and she’ll be back to her friendly old self. Kind of like …. ?
But the flying poop machine would benefit from learning where to do her activity without making a mess of the house. Do you have a training on this?
Oh, last comment. We are able often to take her to the toilet and tell her to “poop” in the toilet — and she does. But getting her to hold it until a designated spot is reached is the trick to be sought. She does so during the night, for in the morning she does that chin-up move and it’s evident she’s stored up all night. Plus her sleep sock that she climbs into about 9pm is spotless. She knows HOW to control bodily functions, we just need to figure out how to transfer this.
Thanks Again.
Chet I love your new store! That is so cool.
Will there be an affilate link to the store in our affiliate area?
Thank you.
Have a wonderful day with your birds
Chet,
I also have a wonderful Patagonian – Freddy is now 10 years old. It took us 2 years handling him with gloves to keep from getting fingers amputated. We did not know you at the time – but we did figure on our own to enitce him to be nice with sunflower seeds.
He is so smart it is frightning, you can see the wheels going around when you look into his pretty blue eyes.
He will lure you to the side of the cage with sweet kisses – then put a lip lock on you bad enough to bring tears – never breaking skin – just enough to finally train us to never get lured to the cage for kisses.
His cage is next to my Umbrella Cockatoo – She is madly in love with him – they cage visit – share food – blow kisses and talk to each other all day.
He has been getting very screachey and loud lately. So I have used your method of speaking to him softly to distract him from being obnoxious and talking instead of yelling. It has worked beautifully – my 87 year old mother in law gets him to behave beautifully with this method.
However – being that he is 1 of 9 birds that inhabit the house – I once told my Umbrella to tell freddie to shut up – 3 of them in unison said “SHUT UP FREDDIE” at the same time.
What fun!!
Patagonians are wonderful – he will only come out of his cage when we ask him to, he loves to fly around the house, and will sit for hours on your shoulder and whisper in my ear. He has us perfectly trained. And has now quited down nicely. His main treat is unsalted cashews. He will do anything for a cashew.
Thanks for all your tips, you are invalueable. Keep up the excellent work.
Elizabeth
I have a peach face corure and was told that she could not talk. I got your first
lessons but did not get the one on talking. Sa i have said before I am 83 and not much money but trying to get her to talk. I also have quaker and she is 1 and a half years old and should be talking be now but dosent. I love my birds and hope that some day they will talk.
i hope you have wonderful time at your comference
all my best JOHN
Hi Chet, I have been enjoying the info on your website. I asked my husband for your training tapes for my birthday this Feb. I want the tapes because I would like to get another bird someday. I had a greencheek conure for almost 8 years until she was killed by a dog we were dogsitting for last summer. It was devestating because our bird (Margo) was allowed to fly free outside in the woods where we live. She flew everyday for hours (many times with Walter one of our Budgies) and would return at dusk to come back in the house. It sounds like a joke I know. No one believes me when I tell them about her until they came over and saw for themselves that it was true. My family and I miss her very much (as does Walter who was raised by by her from birth). Someday I hope to have another bird that I can let free who is skilled enough to avoid hawks, owls etc. and be outside playing with my two children near the creek in the woods. She was beautiful inside and out. One year we took her up north and let her fly around the lake there. The other visitors were awestruck that she would come back. Honestly, I never trained her to do that. She one day was on my shoulder and I forgot she was there and I walked out on my deck with a basket of laundry to hang and realized that she was with me. She hopped off me and onto the clothes line. My heart sunk as I thought she would fly away and never come back. The rest is history. One day I will have another bird that is a cool as she was. Thanks for your information and stories, I hope that I will get your tapes for my birthday next month; I will be turning 45. From New Berlin, Wisconsin, thanks again, Lisa Dineen
chet, I would like to know what a play tree is or how to make one. I think my african grey would love to have one. thanks Denise
Hi there Chet and the Team, TrudyVan here
As you know I love African Grey Parrots and my Parrot Penny is a superstar. I have listened and learned from you training and it has been well worth it.
Keep up the great work
Kindest Regards
TrudyVan
P.S. Your affiliate programs and really nop notch and I would encourage anyone to join.
I too would like to know what a food tree is and how to buy or make one. do you have pictures?
Hey guys and Chet
It was me who shared with you all my story about Ruby and it’s lovely to hear so many people commenting!
I notice a lot of you have asked about the parrot tree. It was in one of Chet’s emails entitled 5 ways to entertain bored birds and had this link to a video. I’m sure he won’t mind me placing the link here:
http://www.birdtricks.com/blog/parrot-tower-review/
Hope this helps you all and good luck with your training!
Kind regards
Anita
Do you have any success stories to share regarding Lovebird behavior modification. I love my Peaches and I definitely know the feeling is mutual, but she is quite self-centered and she lacks attention while in training. The poop thing is also a big issue.
Tx, Dawn
Hi everyone,
I have an Alexandrian and an Indian who live out of the cage together – both rescued and both very un-tame. I made a tree – I chopped a huge hunk off our peach tree and then attaced everything I could think of the rang, swang, was food or held food and then tied it up the side of the cage (a big one that is always open). Well, these two who hardly moved all day before went barmy chewing and eating everything, they have changed so much and clearly enjoy life more. The tree is down to a couple of munched branches now and they have happily destroyed or eaten everthinhg else – time to haul in another tree bit I guess! Thanks for the idea Chet, it has really enriched the lives of my two girls Shanti and Alex.
PS – we love the bird song, we have two cocktiels also and we just want them all to be happy and fulfilled, not bored – and to keep singing and talking to us like they do. We handle them but thats not a priority for us. Cheers
Jenny
New Zealand
Chat ,do you have any Info on sexuly frustrated conures, it is spring and he”s turned into Dr Jakle & Hide . Was also very friendly and now very mean and attacts if I come to close to cage. stays on bottom of cage and rub himself on his toy silver spoon . He will take his treats from me and thats all .He has now attact me twice and serious mean bites I am now nervus of him and thinking on finding him a new hame He’s now 10 years and I had him for 9 year and was always bonded to me.
can you help
Cindy
Hi Cindy,
We now have some guest bloggers on here aside from Chet (including myself) and Patty did a great post on this topic that can help you through the Spring with your parrot.
You can find the post here; http://www.birdtricks.com/blog/handling-hormonal-birds/
You can find tons more posts from this blog at the main page here; http://www.birdtricks.com/blog