Parrot Feeding Strategies - Part 1: Free Feed

I was reflecting on my recent workshop day and probably the session that generates the most interest is when I discuss diet management for enrichment and training. One thing I love about this time of year is the abundance of seasonal fruits and vegies on offer for the birds. I thought this might be a good time share a few images and insights into how I feed my flock of birds. Basically I look at managing the daily food intake of my parrots in three different contexts...

1. Free Feed: Where food is freely available in bowls. This feed strategy represents `low behavioural criteria' for access.
2. Enrichment Feed: Where food is presented away from bowls and in contexts such as foraging toys, F&V kebabs, or scatter feed throughout the enclosure. This feed strategy represents `high behavioural criteria' for access.
3. Training Feed: Where food that is isolated from free feed access is offered during hands-on training or handling sessions.

For this post I just wanted to touch on my `Free Feed' approach. A few tips to share...

• I cut all of my fruit and vegetables that are delivered as free feed into pieces no larger than pea size. This is very successful in not only getting the birds to feed for longer durations (rather than the `taste and waste' result when feeding large chunks) but also in being better able to work out exactly how much F&V they are consuming and to work their daily intake down to the point where I am not wasting large amounts of fresh food.
• Chillis are great for parrots! A lot of parrot owners aren't aware that parrots lack the capsaicin receptors in their tongue therefore they feel no heat sensation from eating peppers. Packed with Vitamin A - these are a great addition to the feed out.
• I `shave' the head of broccoli and mix it through the salad as I find it's the only way to get some consumption of broccoli. Most parrots ignore it if you place it in as a chunk with the stem.
• The peas and corn are just from a frozen pack - I thaw them out with warm water for a few seconds and they're good to go.

To make free feed a little more variable always place 4 to 6 different bowl holders in the enclosure to give you options each day to change the position of where they need to go to access their food bowl.

Basically my aim is for my parrots (non-lorikeets) to be consuming about 50% fresh produce, 30% formulated pellets and 20% seeds and nuts as their daily food intake.

The selection for today - Mango, Banana, Kiwi Fruit, Apple, Pear, Pomegranate, Rockmelon, HoneyDew Melon, Watermelon, Lychee, Snow Peas, Brocolli, Chillis, Peas & Corn. My parrots pretty much get this mix each day as part of their Free Feed.

My fruit and vegetable mix is always cut up into `pea' size portions and mixed into a salad for their Free Feed. This helps with monitoring intake, increasing feeding duration and reducing waste.

CWS Companion Parrot Workshop 2011

Long time no post!!! Well - I've been kinda too busy to get some posts up but hopefully over the summer months I'll have time to resume the ramblings here :-) To re-start things I just wanted to give a big thankyou to the participants at the 2011 Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary Companion Parrot Workshop. This is an annual experience that I coordinate each year and last Saturday our 2011 class had an absolutely fantastic day of bird nerd immersion in all things parrot related. This particular class seemed to really take up the opportunity to acquire some enrichment products that we have available on the day courtesy of The Parrot Rescue Centre (www.parrotrescuecentre.com). I took home a few things myself (thanks Zarita ;-) and I think I've finally found the ultimate `lasting' chewable toy for my Macaws. Zarita's partner Jamie Carpenter is the man behind the tools behind the `Natural Toys' that are made by PRC and one particular product - the `Natural Boing Large' has been a hit with Bonita and Maya since I placed it in their aviary on Monday. Nothing overly special about the Macaws getting something to chew up - the difference here is that it's Wednesday and it's still there! My Macaws generally work on the principle of `the more expensive it is - the quicker we can destroy it'. I sometimes kinda feel like I may as well open up my wallet and just give them a few 50's to chew up and get it over and done with (not that I ever really have 50's in my wallet these days). The Natural Boing though has been a winner - both for maintaining their destructive perseverance (a good thing!) and it's longevity thus far. Compared to the $25 bag of various foot toys that they turned into wood chip in less than an hour (seriously) these boings are better bang for the buck. If you are keen to get your parrots some enrichment products for Christmas then definitely go and check out the PRC Shop - they've got everything a parrot wants to see under their tree. Thanks to Zarita and Bella for the set up of the enrichment stand at the workshop!!!

Bonita getting stuck into her PRC Natural Boing Large - a ripper of an enrichment item for large macaws!!!

The Tender Lovin’ Towel Hold

I was going to start this post off with `It never ceases to amaze me…’ but ya know what? When it comes to hearing about really outdated and downright destructive advice given to parrot owners it really doesn’t amaze me - I've heard it all and keep hearing it.  The tragedy is that bad advice is common advice – good advice is still the exception. The following is an excerpt from a recent e-mail I received that demonstrates the point I make fairly regularly here about the perpetuation of bad behaviour management information and improper handling techniques with parrots. The context is a 10-year-old Galah that has completely lost trust in human hands…

`We took him to (location removed – as tempting as it is to name and shame) and the handler there advised that this can be normal behaviour in male birds preferring a female owner. We were also shown how to use a towel to handle him properly and to scratch him on his head while holding him. Unfortunately he won't even let (name removed) scratch him then - he just keeps trying to bite him.’

Ahhh – the good old fashioned `Towel Hold’. That old chestnut. Love the way the parrot owner referred to the person giving the advice (and demonstration!) as the `handler’. Anyone getting visions of a burly kaki clad lion `tamer’/`bird whisperer'. I bet he had a multi-tool in a leather pouch on his belt too. Ahh... maybe that’s just my colourful imagination. Anyways - nothing like a relationship building session that entails wrapping your petrified polly in a towel like a big old carpet python and giving him some tender lovin’ strokes on the head to let him know that it’s all good in the hood eh? And all involved are still surprised at why such a strategy resulted in a parrot that wanted to bite them and still won’t go near them? I’m all for a good cuddle every now and then but I’m pretty sure if that involved being straight-jacketed and patted on the head repeatedly I’d probably develop a wee bit of an aversion to that experience after a while. Wouldn’t matter how many sweet nothings were being whispered in my ear. The above excerpt isn’t unusual. Last month I had another client who had purchased an Alexandrine from a pet store in Logan (Brisbane south) under the assertion that it was eating food fine and only give it some formula if it’s hungry (Huh? It was a 10 week old Alex!) and it would make a fine `friend’ for their existing pet Green-cheeked Conure (Wha?). No prizes for guessing the outcome there.

I want to note that not all bird stores fail in properly educating their staff on non-invasive, trust building approaches to behaviour management and sound husbandry information. Indeed, at my recent seminar day in Sydney, a prominent Brisbane bird retailer had basically their whole bird department team in attendance! Such a commitment to the professional development of retail staff is to be applauded (three cheers to Pet City Mt Gravatt and the staff in attendance – inspirational stuff! I’ll spend my hard earned there thanks). The problem is that proper staff training at bird retailers simply doesn’t happen outside of a few exceptional stores. The retailers can cry all they like about not being able to afford PD for their staff but I’m not sympathetic. It doesn’t cost anything to tell staff that instead of giving crap advice on behaviour and training they should instead refer the client to properly qualified sources. They stand to gain more from that person seeking out and obtaining information that actually `works’ and improves their relationship with their bird than potentially lose that client as a result of them implementing damaging advice and making the situation worse rather than better. With resources such as those produced by Barbara Heidenreich (www.goodbirdinc.com) easily available through multiple sources in Australia there’s a perfect opportunity to sell products that have sound advice rather than attempting to be the source of solutions that are a bad reflection of our past approaches to parrot care. That for my mind is a win-win approach – income generated for the retailer and a sense of responsibility for self-education placed back on the bird owner. 

Got a similar tale to tell? E-mail it to me - keeps me inspired to keep doing what I do.

Regaining trust with parrots - more about relationship building, reinforcement and respect - less about UFC towel holds.

Next ABK – New Series Starting

After 34 issues of ABK magazine featuring the Pet Parrot Pointers column I have covered an immense amount of ground in regards to foundational thinking for change in the way we manage the behaviour of our companion parrots. Reflecting on that scope of information sharing, I decided to put together a series of articles for the next 6 issues that take a specific species or species group focus based on my first-hand experiences in the behaviour clinic. In this series I discuss some of the common problems presented by the focus species and offer some practical advice on why those problems are seen and how to best develop some strategies to help manage them.  The pre-print copy I received this week of the graphic layout for the new series looks fantastic!!! I’m hoping that these are well-received and, over time, build a small library of species-specific information on companion parrot behaviour management. The first focus species is Rainbow Lorikeets. I’ll be looking at Eclectus Parrots for the second, Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos for the third and Aratinga Conures for the fourth. Not sure about the 5th and 6th – that’s a long way off! You can subscribe at http://www.birdkeeper.com.au 

The above image is a snapshot of how each specific species discussion will be summarised in the form of a clinical `case study'. Looks pretty neat! In good news agencies second week of October.

Latest ABK – Correction

If you grabbed the latest issue of Australian Birdkeeper magazine you hopefully had the chance to read my latest Pet Parrot Pointers article. The article compares and contrasts the `Traditional’ model of companion parrot keeping with what I consider to be the `21st Century’ model that we all need to start advocating. It’s the first time (anywhere) that such a clear comparison has been made and I’m hopeful that the underlying philosophical approach to our keeping of parrots as companions within the framework of the 21st Century model will replace the traditional approach set that unfortunately is the most common and persistent mind set applied today. One problem with the final print version in the latest issue of ABK is a significant error in the final summary note on each of the visual models. Each model flows into an `outcome’ – a critical statement. Unfortunately, the same `outcome’ statement was printed for each model – they should be different. For those of you who may have read the article, please consider the following as the `correct’ way it should have been presented…

The `Traditional’ model (built on dominance based approaches and limited application of positive reinforcement based learning) should culminate in the outcome statement `Establishing conditions that lead to dysfunctional behaviour and challenge’. Conversely, The `21st Century’ model culminates in the outcome statement `Establishing conditions that lead to functional behaviour and success’.

If anyone would like a PDF copy of the two models then please e-mail me.

Workshop for Sydney - September 11th

I had planned to only present the one workshop in 2011 - my annual gathering at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in December. However, I received a call a few weeks ago from Dr Stacey Gelis at the new Animal Referral Hospital in Sydney with the offer to put on a set of lectures as part of some opening events for the new clinic. It was too good an opportunity to pass up and we have scheduled a really great set of presentation for the delegates to experience. Registrations will be limited so I would recommend that if anyone is thinking about going to get in touch with ARH asap via seminar@arhvets.com to ensure that you don't miss out. Cost is $95 pp (includes morning tea, lunch and the opportunity to tour the new Hospital). The scope of the day will be as follows...

• A 21st Century Approach to Companion Parrot Keeping
• Diet Management for Training & Enrichment of Companion Parrots
• Behaviour Analysis 101 - An Introduction to How Best to Understand Behaviour and Establish Lifelong Relationships with your Companion Parrot
• Non-behavioural Causes of Feather Plucking

There will also be a focused Q&A opportunity at the end of the day. Lunch and coffee break included!

Look forward to seeing you there :-) 

New FIlm on WA Black Cockatoo Conservation

This is going to be a really important film for generating awareness of the plight of Black Cockatoos in Western Australia. Looking forward to it being released...