Force Bathing Your Bird

Photo by Dave Location: Holland America Stateroom Shower Wet head: Congo African Grey "Cressi"  Although your bird should be bathing 5-7 times a week, force bathing your bird to do so is not the equivalent to that. No bird should be forced to bathe – if he or she is running in fear from the water, do not make him stay under it. Getting your b...
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A Touch Training Trick I Discovered Using 2 Birds

 Photo by Dave Location: Holland America Cruise Line Theater Pictured: Galahs "Bandit" and "Bondi" I touch trained my 4-5 month old rose breasted cockatoo, Bandit, in two days with three training sessions. It’s the very first thing I taught him (aside from flight training outdoors) and it was actually harder to touch train (or target train) h...
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How to Properly Hold Your Parrot

One of the many reasons it can be hard to introuduce your bird to new people is because new people who don't know birds, don't know how to properly handle or hold them. I've experienced it before - both not knowing what the heck I am doing and witnessing someone else not know for themselves! Neither feels better than the other!   Here are some p...
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The Different Ways Parrots Play

I believe firmly (and from personal experience with MANY birds) that every bird is different and there is no “one size fits all” when it comes to keeping them. Which also makes it fun!   My military macaw plays HARD. And that is why he plays with Dave, and not me! Here is a video of Cash actually playing…   Cash also loves playing hard with h...
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Showering a New Baby Bird

Photo by Dave Location: Sandpoint, Idaho Showerer: Rose Breasted Cockatoo "Bandit" I took Bandit into the shower for the first time while staying at my parents' house in Sandpoint, Idaho. I didn't take a shower perch but he had watched Bondi (a 3 year old of the same species) from a shower perch before. He merely perched on my hand and I covere...
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Flight Train Using Targeting

  To learn what it means to target train your bird, go to my blog entitled Target Training and Clicker Conditioning. The training that happens from your bird already knowing targeting, can be flight training your bird using the target stick. This training is very simple and happens pretty naturally for a flighted bird when just teaching them the...
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