I know many of you are wondering what happened to Bandit, my male galah who was 11 years old, whom died while we were just a few days into a road trip that would lead to a Freeflight trip at a location he’d never been flying at, that I was so excited to take him.
Day 1: I picked him up from my outdoor aviaries at my parents house in the afternoon and loaded him up with my macaws, doves and project birds into our “bird trailer” (a small trailer we have equipped specifically for the birds with traveling cages, food and water, AC/heat and all the things they need while we are on the road. We traveled 1.5 hours to perform a show that night around 7pm. Bandit wasn’t used in the show, just my macaw Tusa, but everyone seemed great.
We left the show that evening and drove about 2 hours before stopping for 5 hours to sleep. Then we continued on driving for 16 hours.
I didn’t want to bother with fresh food feeding since I knew our trip was going to be a ton of driving and the trailer was jam-packed with things we needed for 3 different variations of trips (two different shows, one flight trip, and one trip Dave would leave to go to solo) so I only brought pellets and treats to feed.
The first sign that escaped me was Bandit’s lack of appetite. Because we were driving 16 hours out of the day the birds were not getting as much sleep as they should, and the driving makes it hard to eat, too. So the fact that he wasn’t eating super awesome wasn’t a red flag to me because:
The night before I noticed something was wrong Dave took care of the birds and specifically said Bandit seemed his “normal” self, saying “night night!” when the lights were turned off for them to sleep. In the morning, I was admittedly in a rush to spend the day with my daughter as I’d promised her and so although I noticed his continued lack of appetite, I gave him fresh food and water, corralled Touche the Indian ringneck who had escaped a food dish and wandered over Bandit’s cage (which he did not appreciate) and left for the day to spend with my daughter.
When I came back that evening is when I noticed something was wrong.
Red flag #1: Bandit didn’t care what I was doing.
Normally, he’s all up in my business when I come in to care for the birds. He talks, tries to get my attention and earn a treat, and follows what I am doing. This time though, he was staring blankly at nothing and was completely uninterested. When I spoke to him, he didn’t respond.
Red flag #2: He hadn’t TOUCHED his food for the entire day.
I slid out his pellet bowl to find the pellets exactly as I had put them that morning… untouched.
Red flag #3: His poop looked abnormal
I immediately slid out his cage tray to confirm he had not eaten anything and examined his poop and DID NOT like what I saw.
I immediately called Dave to come to me. While Dave was on his way, I tried EVERYTHING to get Bandit’s attention and he would not turn to me. I opened the cage and tapped him and he acted like I came out of nowhere - like he could not see or hear me. I full out panicked and starting yelling at Bandit to try to get him to hear me or acknowledge me being there. When Dave showed up, he pretty much found me in hysterics. He grabbed Bandit and put him on the scale in the trailer. Normally Bandit weighs 315 grams, and he was at 250 grams. That’s when I immediately called an exotic avian hospital and rushed him there - it was 20 excruciating minutes away.
We both believed if he was able to just make it through the night, he might survive this.
The vet that met with us was not an avian vet, nor was she the one that was recommended to us by a few locals that I called upon for help… but she consulted with the head avian vet there on Bandit’s case. However, she did try to send us home 4 times with a “critical care feeding pack”. I pushed to have her keep him, incubate him and medicate him ASAP or he wouldn’t make it through the night. I told her my presence was only startling him, not comforting him and I couldn’t take him home knowing that. He surely wouldn’t make it in my care, he needed emergency help now… birds die quickly when you notice the signs like these too late. I refused to take him home.
I got a call in the morning from an avian certified vet who was now on Bandit’s case and informed me he made it through the night. They planned to change from oral medication to injected medication to get it directly into his bloodstream. They also planned to crop feed him which means putting a tube/syringe directly down to his crop to put food there so he does not have to swallow it. I was heading to a local pharmacy for the other meds they needed for him when they called me to tell me he died.
He died 12 hours after I noticed all the signs.
Sadly, without asking me, they canceled many of the tests I’d originally requested when he passed away. They didn’t realize I would still want those answers and information to determine what happened (the vet did say the necropsy would show the results of most of those tests anyway). I immediately ordered a necropsy which the vet performed that afternoon… and told me she could not visually tell that there was any damage with her naked eye, that she would have to send tissues and organs to a pathologist for answers.
I know I got one of two of the best pathologists in the USA working on his case. And still, the cause of death could not be determined. “A possible toxin of some kind” was a thought. The vet told me I could spend thousands of dollars testing against individual toxins and still never know, there were too many out there and no clue as to where to start.
Because we had other birds with us we wanted to be sure it was nothing contagious so those tests were run first to ensure the safety of the rest of our flock. When we got home from our trip, we immediately took all the other birds in for bloodwork and exams and had the results looked over by 3-4 different avian vets for assurance that the current flock is healthy and okay.
Although I don’t have any sort of confirmation on what it was, because of the lack of damage to his organs and no “wounds” that anything could have gotten in through and infected him by, I have picked apart the way I do things in the search of something to change for the better.
I questioned the sand, and I brought it up to numerous vets including the one that performed the necropsy on him. Everyone has said sand in an aviary is not a problem, not even if the birds ingest some, but that it isn’t the most ideal bottom and that cement is better because you can clean it easier and they can’t chew it or ingest it (sand remains in the crop for months as its not easily digested). I was told sand wouldn’t hurt them if ingested, even though parrots should never be provided with grit in their diet, but IF something like heavy metals was found in the sand that that could cause damage over the long-term.
To add more confusion, we use a couple different variations of sand. One of which was high in iron, and one of which was not. Something I never knew how to test until this situation caused me to look closer. Even going back to the people who sell the sand, they swear up and down there’s no heavy metals in the sand… and even though there’s very SMALL amounts, there IS. I let them know this when I discovered it for myself. Even in the white super fine sand that they say is clean because it’s used for sand-blasting… it still reacts to an Earth magnet which means there is some amount of iron in that sand. I could not find a sand free of iron when I looked locally.
I had very good avian vets arguing over iron, but the deal is, I have a toucan who is very sensitive to iron so I don’t want it in any of my aviaries for his health alone.
My galahs are natural ground-foragers and to keep my birds off the sand I always used portion control as much as possible so that they weren’t going down there for leftovers that would have sand possibly stuck to them (not to say it never happened) also Bandit was notorious for going to Rocko’s aviary to scavenge any dropped toucan pellets he could find.
From this point onward though, I will advise against using sand. Although it made clean up quick and seamless, it also created more dust than likely necessary and popped up a ton of questions that no one could agree on answers to and that scares me. Although I don’t have confirmation the sand killed Bandit, it’s something that I feel I could do better and use something that would not come into question in the future.
My immediate solution was to get rid of the sand and replace it with newspaper and unwaxed butcher paper, but this entire situation made me get creative with how to BETTER my system overall.
I told Dave it would be amazing if we could build a metal frame work that held the aviaries just high enough to let toy chunks and paper pass through, but also was on wheels so I could push them around and get underneath them to clean, as well as push them onto our driveway for pressure washing. It would make the entire space much more clean and would mean I could take better care of the enclosures too.
Steam cleaning is amazing but so time consuming and brutal in the summer heat. If I could steam clean in the winter, but pressure wash in the summer, I’d have a much easier time keeping the place looking nice. He agreed and got to work on specs someone could weld together so it’s now in the works.
Here are instructions for sending substances to get heavy metal or pesticide testing:
Fill out this form: https://www.lsu.edu/vetmed/laddl/forms/specimen_submissions.pdf
Send in your sample and payment with your filled out paperwork, I got results in 3 days on lead, zinc and iron for $111.
More resources:
If you need help teaching your birds to talk, we have a talking course available here. Because parrot owners usually want their birds to stop screaming, we have paired these two behaviors together to bring you a more rounded course - not only can you teach talking but you can also use it as a replacement for screaming! Stop Screaming, Start Talking!
]]>Why? Because without fail, that next time is a total bust. And makes it nearly impossible to send on a high, and/or good note.
I'm telling you, when you are feeling so happy and high on how well your bird is doing on all the progress you just made... STOP! End it!
Why you ask? When you watch this next video you will see Patty didn't actually follow the rule in the first...
This is probably one of the top things all parrot owners struggle with when it comes to flight training, and is why most people fail at properly training their birds to RETURN to them.
Our detailed flight training course is available here.
]]>And here is what that looked like:
After some serious time off from YouTube, Patty came back in a whole new light! Check out her and I training with our macaws, flying them back and forth between one another...
How do you think Morgan did on her very first day outside in an aviary? And how do you think Patty did her first day back to YouTube?
]]>It was time for some much needed one-on-one with my macaw, Jinx, for being such a patient guy through this process.
With hormone season here, Patty became nervous of Morgan's hormonal behavior. Her droppings were very wet and watery, and she was shaking a lot so Patty brought her into her RV (she is staying in our RV on our property while she finds a place of her own) into a travel carrier for over a week. She buffet fed her, since she had some weight drop since we began training (remember when flight training you will see a slow weight decline because most pet parrots are overweight and not used to the new form of exercise. Then you will notice an increase of muscle as you work on ascending and stamina.) just to be sure nothing was wrong health-wise.
Due to this, Morgan was anxious to come out and hang out outside of her travel cage. I decided to spend some down time with her not flying in case she did have some sort of health issue. You never want to fly a sick bird as it can quicken the progress of the illness.
So here is what it looked like with Morgan, as she needed a hang out session almost as much as Jinx did:
Plus I'd been asked constantly if all my interactions with Morgan were just formal training or not. So finally I was able to share footage that was non-formal training... even though every interaction is a training session!
Sometimes you need to be reminded of keeping your own personal balance within your flock at home. It's incredibly difficult for me to remember not to prioritize the client's bird over my own sometimes. Because each client bird is "temporary" so I only have "so much time" to complete my tasks which makes me want to go ALL IN. And that causes a severe imbalance with my own birds which isn't really fair to them. In the past, I've always taken on client birds when I'm in a constant show environment which makes it impossible for me to go off balance. But in this current situation it has been really easy for me to get tunnel-vision.
Keep yourself in check! For me, it's through watching video footage and recognizing behavior and things and being able to really analyze what I am watching and doing. Find your tool.
]]>
But your "helping" is not actually helping, it's enabling.
Just like with children, we need to teach and encourage our birds to be brave, to use their minds to figure things out, to trouble-shoot and work through their hardships and to become better birds every single day because of this built up skill and newfound confidence.
I don't know about you, but I tend to learn more from failure than success.
In the above video you're going to see this lesson very much so at play.
And since then, Morgan has been a total rockstar on the "confronting things head-on" front. Check her out in a more recent video:
]]>It's important to look at this training in a certain way: You are simply communicating to your bird through the language of training, what your intention is and that you do not mean harm. Eventually "petting" training becomes fulfilling and rewarding just by how it feels to the bird (those scratches on the head DO feel pleasant after all!) but the first key is to make it not scary.
This is done with a combination of things:
When we bring these animals into our homes to live, there is so much that is crazy to ask them to be OK with: running, screaming children, packed parties, loud music, constant TV noise, things dropping, people arguing, other pets fighting, you name it... it's chaos sometimes and that part is unavoidable. How about those fireworks on the 4th? How about the noisy neighbor who likes to have big parties and fly his drone by your window?
The more adaptable your bird learns to be, the better for his anxiety level! If every little thing is a stressor to your bird, it's going to lead to some pretty undesirable behaviors like screaming, even feather plucking and biting out of fear or mistrust.
With all that said, this video shows you HOW to go about teaching bravery to your bird by taking it in small steps (baby steps, if you will) by introducing ONE DAY THING EVERY DAY.
To be clear, you are looking for signs of SLIGHT discomfort, then you are teaching your bird to overcome that so that you do not see those discomforts with the objects anymore. You can use this technique with noise as well - in fact, I started off playing instrumental music when caring for my birds every morning then moved onto incorporating singer/songwriter/acoustic and moved on from there. Now my playlist has a little of everything and my birds can handle it all. It's a great tool for desensitizing to noise/sounds which is just as essential.
]]>I told myself, this is fine, I don't have to even work with this bird anyway.
... right, self? Right?!
Um, have an entire day with this bird and not TRY to work with it? Yeah, that's not gonna happen! See bird, must train. (Which hopefully most of you have come to realize means, must communicate)
So I did, and here was the result:
]]>In the following video Patty improperly uses the jackpot reward (with an almond) and then properly uses it next with multiple pine nuts. It's honestly great to have live examples of both good and bad usage of the concept.
Jackpot rewarding (and random rewarding) works much like a casino. You get a little, sometimes you lose a little, but it's unpredictable enough that you think maybe this will be the time I get that jackpot and so you keep playing. This is why gambling is so addictive! This is also why this method is so widely used in show environments to create higher motivation and performance from the animal(s).
When you use a jackpot at the right time, you are capturing and rewarding that behavior and increasing the likelihood the bird will present it again. If you use it at the WRONG time, you're going to get the exact behavior you don't want. So this is a very powerful tool and can turn into something you're working hard to "undo" in some cases so be very mindful of when and how you use it.
To this training session as a whole, the 3 things I'd like to see changed for future sessions would be:
In Patty's next session she implements the concept of random rewarding as well as combining the "trick" she's asking to no longer two individual behaviors (fly to me and step off) but now the entire behavior wanted and treated for is "fly to me, step off" then receive reward and she's giving the reward unpredictably.
The second you become predictable in your training - you become boring and the bird can really start training you!
Here are my 3 tips for Patty for her future sessions, what would be yours?
1. Patty did 8 of the same flight IN A ROW. Variety! Keep the sessions fun and challenging for Morgan by changing it up.
2. Review your sessions and do them in reps of 3, then review, rep of 3, review.
3. Morgan ended the session and Patty ended on her favorite flight to be on a good note, but Morgan still ended the session. End wayyy earlier, on a high note like we did on our last session together (when I was there working with Patty even from the other room. I called that session, but I'd like for Patty to learn when to end it herself.)
If you've missed anything within this series, you can view the previous videos on Morgan's playlist.
]]>MANY people fumble or lack coordination in holding treats, a clicker, a target stick, more treats... and then being able to actually use each of those tools successfully and timely!
I've heard of people attaching a clicker permanently to a target stick, or using a rubber band while others use a variety of pockets.
Getting Patty to use the clicker and target stick were struggles of mine. By simply keeping the stick in her back pocket, I was able to get her to consistently implement targeting over luring. But there was still the issue of the clicker...
I decided to get her this training pouch. It made a world of difference once she began using it.
My hard lessons for Patty:
>>>Letting Morgan tell her when she wants to train, and LISTENING to it. <<<
One of the overall harder hurdles we've had between Patty and Morgan is Patty making Morgan do what she wants to do, instead of listening to Morgan's body language and letting her win more often.
The more you let your bird say no, the more it will say yes. Remember?
Adjust, adapt, respect.
Give your bird a CHOICE. The more often you do, the more often it will choose you.
It's more of the same from last time, but I feel like I am finally seeing steps in the right direction to get us there.
]]>This is an incredibly important lesson in parrot ownership. If your bird doesn't want to go on the counter, don't make it. Ask yourself does it HAVE to go on the counter? If the answer is no, then let it go somewhere else.
One of the main struggles I see between Patty and Morgan is Patty not giving Morgan any options. She tends to "work through" getting Morgan to do what she wants her to do, instead of just saying, don't wanna? Ok, what do you wanna do? Lets do that.
The more you bend and respect your bird's wants and needs, the more likely they will do the same for you and go down on the surface YOU want them to when you ask them because they know they have a choice.
Forcing a training session is a real drag. You should be able to tell in that initial interaction whether or not you should continue in a training session. For me, it's a feeling of YES! Or a feeling of a lack. It's all told through the bird's body language and eagerness to interact.
This second video is another forced session (what I refer to as "strike two" being the second forced session in a row.
Now, Patty made the assumption that this session was going this way because of her last one with a lack of making the session fun. Here's the difference in those two sessions:
Session 1. The first session started on a HIGH! High energy/enthusiasm, then it fizzled out as Patty wasn't keeping it interesting enough for Morgan to stay engaged.
Session 2. The session started on a very low note, disinterest, no real engagement.
Sometimes getting a bird in "training mode" by cueing already learned behaviors can change a bird's mind to want to train, or upping the reinforcement but sometimes a bird just doesn't want to train... and guess what? That's OK! Yeah, really, it's OK.
You don't turn your back on your bird, or stop watching your bird outdoors when free flying. So this behavior outside could lead to fly offs or losing track of the bird's flight pattern. Dangerous!
My husband and I have 6 free-flighted parrots, I get how hard this concept is! This is why we have a system - when birds take off, we call out who we "have eyes on". For example: Sending all 6 to fly at the same time... Dave: I've got Tusa, Jinx and Cressi. Me: K! I've got Bondi, Bandit and Comet. Then a literal play by play. Maybe a bird he has eyes on lands on me, then we SWITCH! Me: I've got Tusa! Dave: Ok, I've got Bondi.
There's an understanding that each of us take on equal parts - so each keep eyes on 3 birds at a time, we try to group them together when we have eyes on them. So if they fly in different directions it's not as hard to keep track. And we are able to change and adapt based on what they do. Some behavior is more-so predictable - we each have birds that are more "ours" and are most likely to land on us so we use that to our knowledge too. If a bird lands on the ground right by us, we call it out loud.
Obviously - Patty will only have one free flying bird but sometimes when your one bird is up in the air with several, it can throw you off. It's really important to stay present, in tune and connected with your bird at all times of interaction/training. This is because you want to keep the communication OPEN at all times to receive any messages. If that pathway isn't open, you should not be interacting.
You can feel a lot just from holding a bird's feet. I can feel little adjustments and emotions, uneasiness, excitement, anxiousness, calm, tense, etc. through the feet and grip, and slightest movements. This is being IN TUNE with the bird fully. It's important.
Does everyone else feel the new energy about Patty?!
Patty still struggles with:
You can check it out below...
No one gets it right 100% of the time, not even TRAINERS! Keep that in mind when your failures are getting to you and remember to set yourself up for success.
Even I misread Morgan's intentions. I thought she wanted me. But she really just wanted to TRAIN with me. I should have known because that is the only relationship I have with her. We don't just "hang out". So it only makes sense, right?
Morgan didn’t see me as a reward as much as wanting to train with me when she was bored training with Patty. So that was a huge realization!
Patty worked on the bad habits of:
I’m also able to intro the clicker, and soon I am hoping Patty will be ready to insert the cue “Morgan” as I was when she flies to her.
We are finally incorporating the treat holder (we had failed attempts at this before) and the t-stand (we had failed at this before too) so these two implementations are incredibly powerful in changing the session.
I know many of you have suggested Patty do a session without me, my goal is to have her ready for solo sessions by the first week of March! I go out of the country so she has to be ready by then! (No pressure, ha!)
]]>Sometimes the shorter sessions make it easier to squeeze more positivity into them, and leave the bird and person wanting more next time.
Patty's lessons:
1. Hold foot immediately when Morgan steps up (thumb immediately down on foot.) this makes Morgan feel more secure and stable when she makes that initial step. It's the equivalent to "I got you."
2. Not making it uncomfortable for Morgan on the step off. When Patty wants Morgan to get off of her, she holds her hand at a diagonal slant which makes Morgan uncomfortable so she steps off. But there is a big difference in making it EASY to her to step off and encouraging it to be her decision to step off to earn a reward (not luring, pure TEACHING.)
Make it easy to step off = the bird steps off nicely = click = reward. This behavior then gets repeated so much that it does it automatically because it knows it's a "trick".
When the bird refuses from this, you can re-analyze the situation to make it more likely the bird will want to go OR see if something in the environment is keeping the bird from doing it.
Making it uncomfortable = forcing the bird to make a decision YOU want. Works in the short-term, until it doesn't. Then the bird finds it so uncomfortable that it either hangs on, or starts trying to climb UP the arm to the shoulder. This can often lead to having to force the bird off the shoulder, block the bird in ways that can potentially knock the bird off balance leading to accidental biting or intentional aggression. This all leads to a bird NOT responding to the step off cue at all.
Special Note: Never, ever, ever PULL FOOD AWAY from your bird. If you offer a treat, even accidentally, give it. If you click at the wrong time, still give the treat. If you hold the touch training stick too close and the bird gets it when it isn't suppose to, give a treat. Those are YOUR MISTAKES, not the bird's.
]]>Such is the case in relation to flight with Morgan, the macaw.
Yes, she has a deformed left foot. Yes, she rests differently because of it and lands differently because of it (with her good foot first, her left secondary) but it doesn't actually effect anything... except what you think it effects and compensate for regardless. Sometimes, WE are what is holding the animal back, and not the handicap.
In this training session Patty struggles with the same five issues as before.
At this point, I felt like maybe I was missing something to be able to help Patty more effectively. So I asked my husband, and fellow bird trainer, to watch a session and give any input he might notice.
Luckily, he was able to shed some valuable light.
]]>1. Encouragement placed at the wrong moment.
2. Using the same language/cue for multiple behaviors.
3. Accidental bridging (bridging is marking the exact moment in time with either a clicker or the words "good girl" that the bird did the behavior you want to see repeated.)
4. Not properly catching Morgan, resulting in her becoming easily off balance as well as each catch being so different that there's no consistency (can result in both a lack of trust and interest.)
5. Not properly reading body language and otherwise a lack of communicating and being able to adjust to the bird.
Keep in mind, this video is Patty's second EVER session with Morgan. Yes, she had her for 4-5 months previously, but actually working on changing the way she communicates with her... this is her second time trying.
Here at BirdTricks we believe so strongly in sharing mistakes so that everyone can learn much more effectively. Mistakes are not something to be ashamed of, but something to simply learn from and GROW.
To continue following the progress of Morgan's series, view her playlist!
]]>
The day is finally here - asking Morgan to fly to her current owner over her trainer for the past 2 weeks and 6 days, Jamieleigh.
Her owner, Patty has had Morgan for 4-5 months and in that time had her toe amputated and toweled Morgan to give her meds for two weeks.
Her trainer, Jamieleigh, has had Morgan 2.5 weeks and has become her favorite person in one day, and created a clear language of communication that Morgan has never had before from the basics of stepping up to flight training.
Who will Morgan "choose"? We definitely laid all the ground work, didn't we? If you missed how we prepared for this moment, read the article here: Transferring the Bond of Parrot to Someone Else.
Honestly, the hardest part from here is going to be for Patty to remain as consistent as I have regarding clear communication through training with Morgan.
]]>Although I wish I could write two different articles on one topic each, that's just not how my video went this week! There were two lessons to be gained, at least.
The first?
It was time, after almost 3 weeks of intense, forward-momentum training with Morgan, to re-visit the basics of our training. Go back to the foundation: touch training.
Signs that you should revisit the basics of training:
This was a great question by one of our long-time viewers who noticed Morgan tell me via body language that she WANTED to have a formal, flight training session. And I obliged her.
Is that considered being bossed around by your bird? Telling you when you should train, etc?
If I wasn't open to her telling me that, I would have put her away after our initial touch training session. I was actually hoping she would tell me she wanted to train, because I had felt an overall lack of enthusiasm and fun in our recent sessions because they included a lot of new distractions.
Now, this isn't the case for everyone, and each situation should be analyzed for the particular situation that it is. But in my case, it was wanted and encouraged. It told me she does still, in fact, enjoy training and she still WANTS to take part.
I refer to this often as "opportunistic training" and it's something I am very aware of and like to work with, not against.
]]>Here's how I was ensuring the switch of affections:
What Patty did to EARN the bond:
Daily Care
Patty was 100% in charge of Morgan's daily care after her initial week (or less) with me. She would feed, water and change her enclosure. She would also be the one to give new toys. Because this is a positive interaction, Patty was gaining points for constantly being the one to provide good things (like food and toys). This gained her bonding points.
Tracking Weight
After the initial two weeks with Morgan, Patty began stepping Morgan up out of her cage for a treat, weighing her and putting her back - all for a giant almond. Morgan was stoked about this because when I was doing it, she only earned a pine nut here and there so we made it way more reinforcing when we switched the responsibility to Patty.
Touch Training 1-2x Daily
The biggest benefit came from Patty cuing an already-learned behavior. This way, Morgan could associate Patty with "speaking her language" which so far, NONE of her previous owners knew how to do. So this is a BIG one! Probably the game-changer. It was constant, positive interaction and clear communication.
What I did to ALLOW Patty to earn the bond:
Not Daily Care
I took daily care of my own birds, which are in the same room as Morgan. So she saw me interact and take care of my own birds every single morning and evening, and then her person came and did it for her. I think it was a very important thing for her to constantly witness and be reminded of.
I Remained Her Trainer
It's easy to want all the affections from an animal, but if you do everything for that animal - are its playmate, its caregiver, its trainer, its cuddle-bug, etc... then there's no space for another person to create their own bond. So my bond was strictly on training and fun, interactive mental stimulation.
I did not cuddle Morgan, or play with her in a casual way, I didn't take her out to do anything but train (after our initial days of "hanging out" and establishing that initial bond.)
Because I maintained my "trainer" status, that is leaving all those other avenues wide open for someone else (Patty) to fill. In due time, of course, but they're there for the taking. If I had taken those up, it would be a much harder climb for Patty to earn back Morgan's affections.
Many people don't fully comprehend this lesson. A new person in a bird's life can be doing everything right, but still fail because the "not new" person is making it impossible for them to be "let in" by taking up ALL the roles in the bird's life.
If you want someone else to be able to have a positive relationship with your bird, then LET THEM IN. Give them a role that is THEIRS. Help them both to communicate positively. (Trick training is GREAT for this.)
Because the "scale" of how much Morgan liked me vs Patty was not that far off (we talk about 60/40 a lot... which is about what it was) it was easy to transition the bond over to Patty.
The hard part? For Patty to KEEP it. As you'll see in our journey. View the playlist here.
]]>I've talked about using jealousy in the past to get a quicker response from your bird, and train numerous things (from talking on cue to harness training!) We also show it being used positively in our flight training course as we train our three macaws at once!
So here I am, at it again, this time using camelot macaw Morgan and my blue throated macaw, Jinx. In the first video, it was a very positive, "healthy competition".
But in the video down this page, using my camelot macaw Tusa, I feel even though I got the same result, it was not in a positive way and could have escalated into aggression. It's important to read the body language in each video to really see the difference.
Sometimes training techniques that aren't very good, or positive, can yield instant results that you want. But that doesn't mean that that is the right technique to use. You want the technique that gives you long term results, not instant, short term ones. Now, the good techniques when implied properly, can often give you those instant results too! You just need to know what you're doing before you dive in and start.
Bad techniques that yield immediate desired results (by stopping the current behavior) but ruin your relationship with your bird long term:
Good techniques to use instead:
The last time Morgan spooked and took flight it went a little something like this.
This time, she flew to me for safety which is a huge step in progress. I want Morgan, or any bird I'm training for free-flight to associate me with being their "safe place". If they see potential threats, I want their reaction to be their alarm call and immediate action to me. Although when outdoors we try to manage the many risks to our ability, our birds have better eye sight and instincts than we do about what is threatening to them out there, and how they communicate that to us is key. This is one of the big reasons we never "make" a bird fly when it does not want to - birds are telling you something important when they refuse to take flight. It's often because they know something we don't.
In the above video you're going to see:
What you aren't seeing:
I've come to a crossroads in my training. I need to either stop Patty's interaction in my sessions altogether because it's hindering progress so much and just focus on building Morgan's skill level, OR, I need to solely focus on Patty and Morgan's relationship to the point of trying to make it so Patty is doing the training and I can step back and be the coach.
My next goals based on the progression so far and everyone's feelings involved are: to make Patty's relationship match my own so that she can take over the training.
Patty is ready emotionally. And based off Morgan's reaction to Patty the other night, I believe Morgan might just be ready too. So our new plan for our next video is either going to be a massive success to make us re-think our entire plan. Stay tuned!
Have you missed out on the past blog posts or videos about Morgan? Click here to view her playlist!
]]>To catch up with Morgan's story, please click here.
Lessons from this video:
Morgan is changing throughout this process; she is growing into her own, becoming a confident parrot.. and characteristics and personality traits are evolving with those changes. No one stays the same when they go through a process of growth and evolution.
It ended up being a success with a couple bumps in the road. Although Morgan is fine with Patty standing around in the room to be present for sessions now, she is not ok with her standing NEXT to me yet. That will be my next goal. I'd love for Morgan's behavior not to be altered by Patty's presence when she's next to me for 1 second, or 3 seconds. We will build up from there, but that's the initial next goal.
I'm planning to continue with my previous goals. These are just steps to achieving those.
To help Patty's relationship with Morgan:
Because I am working on the goal with Patty more heavily, I will hold off on the interaction with my own birds in case that could de-rail my current successes and is not as necessary at this point.
]]>Morgan has not been able to speak a common language with her previous owners and I'm determined for this to come to a stop. How?
Clear communication through training.
You've all heard me say, "I don't want your beak first, I want your FOOT first." I will not even present my hand close enough to her until she knows me clear body language (through lifting her foot, or shifting her weight to do so) that her only intention is to STEP UP.
Beak first = I might bite. I might pinch. I might grab you (sometimes hard) to keep my balance. I might be gentle and simply use you to balance and step up nicely without puncture. But it's a gamble.
Foot up = I want to step up on you. Giving a foot first, is a clear "my intention is to step up onto you."
I am not not letting her step up with her beak first for balance to make her life harder. I am doing it to speak the same language. This is something she can use with ANYONE, and communicate the clearest messages.
When someone thinks a bird is going to bite, whether it is or not, they will often pull away quickly, yelp, jump back, change their tone of voice to stern or unfriendly, become uneasy and not committed with their holding of their hand up... and all this often leads to accidental bites from unbalance, misread intentions and often even dropped birds. This is everything I don't want.
What Morgan and others have been doing in the past obviously has not been working, so I am here to change it into something that will be long-lasting and serve everyone involved well.
Here is what clear communication looks like when a bird has every intention of stepping up, and what the "foot first" vs "beak first" look like:
]]>
There are numerous reasons to take breaks from formal training. I was just in a funk that happened to coincide with when I thought Morgan might need a physical break from working muscles that have not been worked on a consistent basis in the past.
Often times I feel like birds need a chance to think on something, or sleep on it. I know if I have a chance to mull something over in my mind, or rehearse in my head, I often come back performing way better.
Taking your bird out and asking NOTHING of it is a great change of pace when you're training for something and need a change of scenery.
I felt like coming back from our day off of training was invaluable. Morgan responded so well and took on so many new challenges. Normally I wouldn't throw so many new things in a single day, but she kept taking all of them on with no issue that I just kept going with it. Until my better half (Dave) suggested I stop... and even then, I pushed another 3 times before doing so. I couldn't conquer my own excitement!
My future plans with Morgan:
First, I've got her making the LONGEST flights possible in my living room space which I am so excited about! Now, repetition will build stamina and muscle, and changing up where she needs to land on me will help build her skill set (so that's the future plan.)
Second, she got SPOOKED and did a very interesting flight involving two turns and a tired but OK landing onto my carpet floor. I was really proud of this because when birds get scared into taking flight, it's often very uncontrolled and panic-y. But Morgan maintained her composure, and did not hit or run into anything. Her landing was because she got tired (she's not conditioned to flying in general so this took everything out of her) and could not maintain her flight-height any longer.
I was really proud of her because of the control she showed for where she is currently at. If my own birds did this flight I wouldn't be as enthusiastic... but for a bird just learning, this was great for a "spooked" flight.
If your bird crashes and you go over and baby-it to death, telling it its okay and sweeping it up in your arms - you are not teaching it that crashing and not getting it right every time is just a part of the learning process (a large part, at that) just as toddlers fall down when they learn to walk. It's completely normal - no babying needed. Lets just try again when the bird is ready. Lets not create a phobia of the activity of flying by making a huge deal out of a natural process.
The other big lesson this week?
I know we say it here at BirdTricks all the time but it's true. And I drive the point often so that people truly understands what that means.
Come out of the cage, take a shower, remain calm in the cage while you roll it to another spot, wait nicely while you fill the water and food fishes without attacking? These are all TRICKS. They are behaviors you can TRAIN. You may see them as something your bird "should do naturally" but guess what? Not all birds do these naturally, and not all associate them positively. That's ok, we can train them.
So when people tell me "I don't want a circus bird, I don't need a pet that does tricks" I know they just don't get it. Training behaviors... training tricks, same thing really. Riding a bicycle is a trick, but all the approximations to get it to eventually ride the bicycle are behaviors (approach the bike, be OK with the bike/not scared, touch the bike, etc) So really, they're the same to me. And if you look at everything as a "trick" that you're asking of your bird, the respect level will change in your mind and therefore physically too. And that's the real key.
Notice when Morgan showed the slightest sign of nervousness about my training t-stand, I trained her to be OK with it. I also work with the bird's natural instincts and for her, she seemed to know where I was going with the training... that I wanted her to stand on it so she just did what she thought I was going for and bam! Way easier. The more you train your bird, the faster and easier the training is down the road. (Literally I trained my galah to wave in 2 MINUTES because she already knew so much stuff she just understands training and we can communicate so clearly.)
I assume Morgan is gonna be sore from all this working out so I am taking the next day off training. (I'm tired too, mentally)
]]>Now, this can be challenging in and of itself!
Here are some avoidance techniques:
Aside from continuing to avoid letting Morgan onto my shoulder, and keeping that a hard limit, I've also been expanding on her flight training.
I was really stuck where I was at with how far of a flight I could ask for; I was already maxed out. So being able to get her to fly in a new direction made all the difference for me in regards to being able to expand on her flight distances (which will build more muscle, skills, stamina, and more confidence!)
]]>If you've missed out on Morgan's previous seven days, then this may not seem as big of a breakthrough as it actually is. So catch yourself up!
I didn't expect it so soon at all but I was excited and hopeful for when it would present itself. I literally left off on my last video saying that this was going to be a big deal, a big breakthrough moment. And it is, it's literally a game changer. This one moment speaks to so many different aspects of the work I've been doing with Morgan.
I think my breakthrough moment came in huge part to implementing the clicker. This really changed the game, so to speak, in Morgan's mind. It was no longer just a means to be with me, it became a trick and something she was engaged in learning. When she realized it was exactly what I wanted from her (even though I assumed saying "good" was getting the same point across) she began to work harder for it. I think it also distracted her attention like the touch training did in regards to the scale...
Instead of being nervous I would not catch her properly, or focusing on trying to fly to my back/shoulder... she began focusing on simply earning the click.
If this does not properly depict how training an animal is literally a way of communicating clearly with them, I do not know what does! Ok, I am sure there are other things that will help you understand but damn, this is a good one.
Aside from my breakthrough - I've also been bitten twice already by Morgan. This is not normal for me. When I worked with Storm the amazon parrot for 45 days, I never got bit once. When I worked with Rasta the alexandrine parakeet for the entire summer, I got bit ONCE! To be bitten twice already in the span of under 7 days is a real disappointment to myself.
And literally, the bites all came at once. It was when I wasn't filming unfortunately (because I'd LOVE to be able to dissect THAT video footage!) ... I was having a session with Morgan when Patty came in and I let her be a part of it. I did not realize at that time how bleak their relationship with one another was, and that Morgan would in turn lash out at me because of it. Limitations understood. Now I am much more aware of how affected she is by Patty's presence during our sessions - some of which I continue to try to work through while others end up being spoiled and concluded.
As much as I'd like to provide the perfect training environment, it's just not realistic because life is, well, unpredictable. So we just gotta roll with it and work through all the nuances of life. Looking forward to sharing those future nuances with you in our next video!
]]>Anytime I see people "leave their bird alone in the cage to adjust for a few days" prior to interacting with it positively, the bird becomes so comfortable in its new space that YOU are the only thing "new and scary" now, after the adjustment period.
Whatever things make the initial first positive impressions, those are the "safe" things. So let it be YOU and not the cage.
Notice I said positive interactions and impressions. It's just as influential if you accidentally end up being negative in those first moments as well so be extra cautious that you're reading body language and allowing interactions to occur on the bird's terms. They will tell you!
After this first day with Morgan (a 7 year old female Camelot macaw with a deformed left foot and who knows how many previous owners... we know of at least 3+ previous ones...) day two I let her hang out in her cage and get used to her surroundings. I didn't want her to become too spoiled right away, and a bird does need time to adjust to the cage environment, it's just on day TWO, not day one.
Days 3-5 I randomly interacted with her. I started making her care part of my normal routine - I would weigh her just like I weigh my other birds (it just took more figuring out for the best way for her to step onto that perch, and it took a jackpot of treats instead of one pine nut since it was new and she overcame!)
I didn't tip toe around her, I went on about my normal business. I used a broom to sweep, I used a shop vac to clean up (which only made her nervous for maybe two days, after which she stopped reacting at all.) and I did not go over and give her attention or talk sweetly if I saw her a little uncomfortable. I simply kept going and let her realize these things were "non-threatening" on her own. And when she did, THEN the attention, talking and praise came. To her credit, she has my flock of 7 to look to for observational learning, too. If they aren't freaking out about it, she likely won't either. And to keep this within reason: if she became flailing upset, or anything over "slightly uncomfortable" (screaming, thrashing, wing flapping, etc.) then I would definitely need to take the desensitizing much, much slower. So keep this in mind if your bird DOES react like this, it means you may need to step over a few egg shells after all.
I also changed her pelleted diet on day two. When she went into her cage for the first time she had her original pellets her current owner was using but ALL the other birds (my birds) got my all natural pellets and dive right into them! It took her two days to do the same. She was receiving her normal veggie morning meal (more than she needed) and again, I was tracking weight. But honestly, it felt like she didn't want to be left out when my other birds got their pellets so it occurred to me that it would be a very easy transition given her new situation and it was! From pellets filled with nasty ingredients and lots of fillers to all natural ones with the best ingredients on the market. BAM!
Now, days 4-5 she showed me she really chose me by regurgitating for me. Ugh! So now I'll need to be careful about our interactions staying within the friend zone no matter how much she tries to convince me to pet her anywhere besides her HEAD... not happening, babe!
I'm still a long way away from my goal: to free fly Morgan with my Camelot macaws outside! But the joy is in the journey, right?
]]>We're often asked to share more of what our actual lives look like - being in the world of entertainment, our world is entirely unpredictable. We often take aspects of it and apply it to our bird ownership.
The first video on this article is what it looks like to prep for and take a 3-day road trip. We knew we had to drive 30 hours total, so we took our time and decided on a 10 hour goal each day. This gig requires less of us than usual, usual being we would ideally include our birds but on this trip I was relieved not to have them with us because of the cold weather temperatures. I like not having to worry about their well-being, as much as I love their constant company.
This next video shows what it takes for us to settle in (ha!), rehearse and actually perform. Each performance is different based on all the factors that create it. For example, we had never worked for the Shriner's before so this gig was a one-off and a first time. However, we did know some of the performers from previous gigs which made some of the transition easier.
Helping our daughter to adapt to each new environment each gig brings us, is the biggest challenge yet because we normally don't have much time TO adapt. She took about 1-2 days, we were there for only four. We try to make it as enjoyable for her as possible within her comfort levels, while still pushing her a bit outside those comfort levels every once in a while in a way that hopefully won't entirely overwhelm.
Then coming home - which did not go anywhere close to planned! That happens too, and luckily our schedule allotted for it to work out ok.
I never wake up our birds to tell them we're home. We got in around 2am or so, and I just do my thing and say hello to them in the morning. This was originally a 10 day trip, but turned into around a 13-14 day trip with breaking down in Montana. Still, the birds seemed to not hold any grudges which is always a welcoming surprise.
We will continue to try to continue Vlogging about our lives in this crazy world of being entertainers, although sometimes it feels like things happen so fast I never had a chance to bring out the camera!
To learn more about what it is we do, check out www.David-DaVinci.com.
]]>