Rosie The Galah and parrot care
A blog about my galah and I, as well as parrot care
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This is the time of year when many male Amazons will begin to feel the raising of hormonal signals which prepare them for their breeding cycle. If there doesn’t happen to be an appropriate mate available to them, they may try to entice their favorite human into a poor substitution. While this is perfectly normal, it has a distinctive down side for the humans who share their home with these little feathered Romeos. There aren’t many folks who truely appreciate birdy vomitus, no matter that this is the ultimate form of flattery which can be offered up by their smitten buddy. Nor will many people really appreciate the hormonal bites or screaming fits that can accompany their parrot’s hyped up sex drive. Let’s face it, we just aren’t USED to a companion that can do a Dr. Jekle / Mr. Hyde impersonation!
In order to deal with these spring-time hormonal cycles effectively, we must first realize that they are NORMAL YEARLY CYCLES that are hard-wired to give these little green Don Juan’s the best chance to pass on their genes to the next generation. The male Amazon is the one who seeks out the nest site, cleans it out and evicts any occupants that might have staked a claim to the nesting hole. Once his hen has begun sitting inside their nesting cavity, he takes on the tasks of feeding and protecting her. In order to ensure that a minimum of attention is attracted to their nest site, he will attack and drive away all perceived threats within his self determined territory of about a square mile. So how does this translate into misbehavior in the home? The most common complaints are cage territoriality, hormonal biting, repetitive screaming and a change in behavior to include sudden restless, uneasiness with sudden aggressive mood swings.
In order to address any hormonal related misbehavior, one needs to understand that Amazon’s hormonal activity increases during the spring of each year, when the days slowly become longer. This increased daylight is going to produce the same effect in our companion Amazons, and addressing this one factor will give us a good head start to controlling all of the misbehaviors produced by surging hormones! In fact, many people unknowingly are imitating the long days of spring throughout the year by allowing their feathered companions to stay up far into the night. When their companion is permitted to live in a perpetual state of spring and summer the effect can be a bird in a constant state of hormoniality. Of course this can be remedied through daylight management by reversing the process which released the feathery Mr. Hyde in the first place.
A good rule of thumb would be to monitor the light cycle of your male Amazon to allow for 12 hours of both daylight and nighttime. His sleeping quarters should also be in an area where he can actually sleep. A bird covered with a television blaring nearby isn’t going to receive the full benefit of a good night’s sleep, nor is your companion going to rest well if someone suddenly flips on a bright light. There are many options available and you need only try the ones that seem likely to fit into your situation. Of course the best option is a “bird room” or to press a guest room into service with a small sleeping cage. A sleeping cage can be as simple as a travel crate or as elaborate as second free standing cage. I have used both and they work equally well for the purpose of allowing my two companions to get adequate rest. If you haven’t a spare room, you can press a large walk-in closet, an extra bathroom or any nook or cubby that can be kept dark and quiet into service.
The 12 hour length of night-time can be increased in cases where you are just beginning to make changes, or if you have maintained the 12 hour schedule and it isn’t working. Bumping up the length of night in half hour increments each week will simulate the coming of winter, but I would hesitate to pass the 14 hour mark. At this point, if progress hasn’t been made there is a possiblility that the misbehavior has become habitual misbehavior because it has been allowed to continue for an extended period. In this article we are just discussing the change of schedule to help alleviate hormonal behavior, but there are additional steps that can be taken listed in our Enhancing Behavior section to help with habitual misbehavior and individual misbehaviors.
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by
Ernie Colaizzi (ecolaizzi@aol.com)Keeping birds happy and healthy is the number one concern of most bird owners. What toys will they like? What is his/her favorite foods and treats? Is the paint on its cage safe? What can we do to insure our birds live long, healthy lives? All these questions and more go through our minds on a daily basis. Birds cannot care for themselves, it is up to their human caretakers to do the best job possible. Cleaning cages daily, fresh foods and water, toys, play time and more all go into a ‘normal day ‘of caring for birds. The mistakes most well-intentioned birds owners make are most frequently from ignorance just not knowing - as opposed to stupidity.
Today a serious new health risk is threatening the lives of birds across the country. A very real health risk that has the potential for epidemic proportions. It goes by the simple name of ‘Bird Marts’. Some people call them bird fairs, bird expos, bird shows and more. These innocuous appearing events are being put on by bird clubs, aviculturists and other people for profit and/or fund raising. What can possibly be so dangerous as a diverse groups of birds of varying ages brought together for one or two days? Everything! Anyone who believes these events are safe are not being truthful, or are simply ignorant of the facts.
People talk about quarantine - referring to the U.S.D.A. Bird Quarantine Stations that operated between 1971 and 1993 - how dangerous and awful it was. Thirty (30) days confined to cramped quarters sharing food, water, air, perches and more. Several sick birds could infect many more during the quarantine period resulting in high mortality rates. Many stations were less than honest. (Does anyone remember an honest importer?) And what happened when a station was having a disease outbreak with high mortality? They would have a sale! Drop the price and move them out. Take their problem and spread it around. Yes, it was terrible, but without it we wouldn’t have the breeding stock so necessary for our operations today.
No matter how dangerous quarantine stations were, they still cannot match the dangers of today’s ‘bird marts’! These events have risen to become the single greatest threat to bird health we have ever encountered! How can a simple bird event be so life threatening? Is it nothing more than breeders coming together to sell their birds to the public? An unsuspecting public! At least in the quarantine stations, birds were exposed to other birds from the same areas of the world. The diseases present were also from the same area (indigenous) and many would have some natural immunity to it. In a Bird event’ setting, birds are exposed to many other birds from all over the world (even though they may be domestically bred). These birds, no matter how young, have the potential to bring their specific diseases and problems with them. In essence, any disease from anywhere in the world may conceivably be present and many are! -
Something funny happened the other day when I had Rosie at petsmart. A lady walked up to me, looked a Rosie for a few moments then stated “she’s a African gray right?”. It makes me laugh how many times I’ve been asked this. I can understand their mistake, since she is dark pink/red and gray and many people haven’t seen a African gray in person.For people who have it’s obvious, Galahs have long hawk like wings with a fairly long tail while the African Gray has a short tail and stocky body.
I also did some flying exercises with her today, she has 4 primary’s on her right wing and 3 and a half on her left. Her flying ability has improved dramatically but she still needs more practice. She is supposed to land on a chair but out of the 5 flights she missed 3 times by having too much lift. The first time she made a U-turn and flew to the other side of the room, the second time I managed to get my arm under her after she made another U-turn so she landed on me. The last time she just landed on the floor. I need to find a large room somewhere I can use so she can just fly and not worry about the end of the room.
The last image is a perch my parents bought for me/her. I really like it, it’s nice and simple and easy to clean. I love that she has food and water, this way we can watch movies together and I don’t have to worry about her getting thirsty or hungry.
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Exposing yourself to other parrots without risking your own
It’s always a risk to expose your parrot to other birds. I often bring Rosie with me to certain pet stores if I know they take good care of their birds but I can never be 100% sure they are healthy. Birds are master’s at hiding illness and only a vet can truly know if they are in perfect health. To combat this many people will avoid taking their birds into stores, but being there can bring back germs on your clothing.
I’m bringing this topic up because this weekend is the San Jose bird mart. Many parrots and other exotic finches, soft bills, and fowl are for sale at this event and a small number are not the picture of health. I try not to judge these birds because I don’t know their history, but when it’s a hand raised bird directly from the breeding I am worried.
If you do own a bird and want to go to these types of events don’t worry about exposing germs to your bird. Think of the situation like all the birds at the show are going through a quarantine, a process when you keep new birds separate and sanitize between visits.
three simple steps
- Carpool with a friend who doesn’t have a bird, take public transportation, or walk/ride a bike if it’s close.
- Wash yours clothes and shoes immediately, or place them in a sealed bag until you have a larger load to save water
- take a shower immediately when you get home.
Hopefully this will help anyone who was afraid to take go to these events :)
Photos are by my close friend because I didn’t bring my camera battery.
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Freestyle Flyers Club - Adventure Film Teaser of Freeflighted Parrots (by BirdTricks)
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Great blog entry from Bird tricks
How to train multiple birds at once
There’s a lot of questions that come up when it comes to training more than one bird. There are times when it works for the better to train birds at once (more than one) and there are times where it works against you to do so.
Here is my method for success in training more than one bird…
Scenario: You have two birds in one cage whom are both UNTRAINED.
Method for training success: Have a clicker and your birds’ favorite treat. We’ll use small birds like budgies (parakeets) for this example. Sit in front or on the side of the cage and click the clicker once, offer spray millet through the cage bars just long enough for both birds to get a quick bite.
Repeat.
Do this for 2-5 minutes or until the birds get obviously excited when hearing the click and are anticipating the treat coming. You can pause to really see if they are looking for the treat to be there when they hear the click (think dinner bell and working men running)
Now, based on how your birds react here’s what to do about it…
Both birds are scared, flighty and frantic: Either train when your birds are naturally more calm (most birds calm down around night time but may also not be responsive if they’re roosting already) or make sure you’re slower in your movements. Don’t bring your hand up real fast, keep calm and watch for uneasy body language so you can adjust and make it more comfortable for your birds. Make sure your birds are motivated for the treat and don’t get it every day in their cage, it needs to be special and they need to WANT it.
If making those changes doesn’t work, it’s best to train your birds separately. Take one away from the other and into another room with no distractions to train, once that bird understands you can put him back with the other and try training him inside the cage with the other bird again and he will teach the other one what to do. You only have to remove them from one another when training, not forever.
If one bird is getting it and one is scared: This is when it’s ideal to work with two birds. When one gets it and one doesn’t, observational learning comes into play. The bird who isn’t getting it will watch the one who is and learn from what he’s doing and copy him to get the treat too.
Both birds are getting it and excited about it: Another ideal time to train two birds, unless it turns into aggression towards one another. There’s “healthy competition” and then there’s just plain aggression. When it turns into a race, you can get more repetitions from your birds and they learn faster trying to beat the other bird to the treat. This works especially well when teaching birds to touch train. See the spreecast on touch training here: http://www.spreecast.com/events/tuesday21.
How I train all my birds in one day: I keep my birds in separate aviaries when I am focused on training (one per aviary) and let the others hear and see me working with one bird. I train for about 1-2 minutes and then move to the next aviary to train the next bird. I often do this with my macaws, as I have three.
This makes them anticipate training, get excited and anxious and makes them get into training mode without a warm up. They are eager to train when they see another bird training and I can go from aviary to aviary to work with them individually. This is how I trained all my macaws to “wave” with their foot. It took about 3 days of doing this throughout the day for them to get it. Now I can cue them all at the same time and they all raise their foot for me. Whoever doesn’t get a treat, often looks at the others to see what they did or are doing to get one and they copy to get one as well.
Birds are smart enough to understand when they ARE NOT being trained, and when they are. With that said, it’s not a good idea to let a toddler play with the clicker with your bird in the room or it will lose its meaning or just really piss off an unrewarded bird! Big difference between scenarios there.
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Here’s another blog for a Galah, this one is named Suki. Young and adorable :)
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I found this article about teaching small birds to wave, after reading it I realized my directions aren’t right for a small bird and it can be much harder to teach them this trick
Who said Budgies couldn’t wave? If a budgie can be taught to wave, then I am certain that so can other parakeets, lovebirds, parrotlets, and cockatiels. Here are the top three reasons why it may seem impossible to teach these small birds to wave:
1) Their feet are really small
2) They often hop onto hand rather than step up
3) They aren’t as agile with their feet as larger parrots
I’m not even going to get into people thinking the birds are too dumb to learn tricks or that they are too wild to learn. That is complete rubbish and it’s the owners fault if they actually believe that. While the wave is considered a very elementary entry level trick for larger parrots, it is actually a fairly advanced trick for the smaller birds as you will see here. I would recommend at least teaching a few easy tricks beforehand like target, turn around, and go through tube before attempting to teach the wave. I’m not going to explain teaching the wave trick but rather will focus on how to apply typical techniques for training the trick and modifying them to work for a smaller bird.
Now I will address the issues with training small parrots to wave. Their feet really are small and much harder to get to than even medium sized parrots let alone big ones. While you can hold a macaw’s foot in your entire hand, you have to use just your smallest finger to handle a budgie’s foot. Initially when I began training the trick, I really wanted to use precision about lifting one foot rather than hopping or stepping up, so I used a pen for the bird to place its foot on. Later on I regressed to using my small finger. The issue with hopping can often be solved by using better precision about the foot lifting motion by directing it with a thinner finger or stick.
Finally, the last issue is that they are not so agile with their feet. I know for certain that budgies and cockatiels are ground feeders so they don’t have a need to eat out of their feet as the perching parrots do. Therefore they do not have as developed leg muscles and are not used to picking them up so high. This is probably the biggest problem with training them to wave because they just aren’t strong enough to pick their foot up high enough to make the trick even if they comprehend the cue. For this reason it took a whole month to train the wave trick to satisfaction to Duke.
He got the basics of the trick down within a few days that it had something to do with moving one foot around. The problem was that he just wouldn’t lift it very high. This is where patience and persistent training for over a month came in. We trained him twice daily with a big emphasis on wave trick to exercise his leg so he could lift it higher. It took a while before we started seeing results but it really worked. Training was more like physical therapy than training. He knew what to do but just wasn’t physically fit enough to do it. So the foot lifting exercises he received paid off and he learned to wave. His wave is still very quick and you will miss it if you blink. But hey, budgies do everything faster, it’s how they live.
So if you own a small bird, now you know that it can be taught to wave. You just have to have the patience and persistence to practice with the bird enough that it can strengthen its leg to be able to lift so high. I don’t want to see any more videos on youtube of the so-called “shake hands” trick where the owner basically grabs the bird’s foot and lifts it up and down. I want to see more people take the time to work with their bird so it could do a full wave by itself!
