I'm a HUGE believer in working with your bird's NATURAL capabilities and habits. For instance, my cockatoo "Bondi" is most talkative in the car above other places. So, since we were on a road trip from Washington to Arizona, I thought I'd use that to my advantage and grabbed my training bag with me up front. Now, she is mostly talkative with D...
Photo by Mona Location: Daytona Beach, FL Receiving a Kiss: Rose Breasted Cockatoo "Bandit"
While giving a parrot seminar in Daytona Beach, Florida I realized how un-fun many bird owners tend to be. A very common question was, "My bird doesn't want to come out of its cage to be with me, why?"
Now obviously, there can be a list of reasons for t...
Some parrots (like the Sulfphur Crested Cockatoo in the video above) LOVE performing tricks for people like you and me. Others are quite camera and crowd shy, and that's OK, too. But for those parrots that love being the "hams" and center of attention... they should be allowed to show off their skills to all that are willing to watch. These...
Anyone who has more than one parrot has learned pretty fast that parrots learn fastest from other parrots. Even when learning to talk, they learn best from listening to other parrots speak. I've learned both of these things from having a flock of birds compared to just one. Obviously, I had to start with just one at one point in time and progre...
I talk about desensitizing your bird pretty often with different things like dropping books or introducing a new toy, it can be something simple or something really odd (like a giant piñata!)
The purpose of desensitization is to get your bird use to as many different things as possible as a way to reduce the impact of change so it doesn't caus...
Photo by Dave Location: Saipan, MP Cuddling: Blue and Yellow Macaw "Chayko"
Something I have come across a lot in working with parrots is that I’ve noticed their gender tends to determine who they like more out of a couple. For example, the male birds tend to bond more to me while the females bond more to any of my male co-workers or husban...
