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 When it comes to hearing about really outdated and downright destructive advice given to parrot owners it really doesn’t amaze me - I've heard it all and keep hearing it.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.

So...How far have we come?

At the Parrots 2008 Convention I gave a presentation titled `Taking the Next Step: Perspectives on the Keeping of Parrots as Pets’. Pretty darn good presentation I thought. It was one of two presentations being given as concurrent sessions and a few punters stuck around to hear what it was all about. Either that or the other session just happened to lack the after lunch appeal of the worst timeslot of the day so they stayed put to ruminate and catch a few Z’s on the marginally better seating on offer in my room. Besides - why move when staying put means a shorter walk if you win something at the end of day raffle draws? If you ever get asked to do that post-cheap buffet lunch timeslot at a speaking convention do yourself a favour and make up some excuse as to why you can’t do it. It really is a killer. I’ve been stuck there a few times at aviculture conventions that I’ve presented at and I now feel I’ve paid my dues. I want to be upgraded to the post-jam scones and dry biscuits morning tea timeslot if I ever get asked again. At least at that time most of the delegates are looking at you with eyes like a possum caught in headlights thanks to the caffeine hit from the ubiquitous Caterer’s Blend International Roast on offer. Gives you the impression that they’re `into it’ even if they aren’t. Anyway, in that presentation I had a slide that used the question `How far have we come?’ in reference to our management of companion parrots. The slide featured a quote on parrot keeping from one of the early 20th century works on aviculture written by the Marquess of Tavistock, a British aviculturist who was undoubtedly ahead of his time. I have an original printing of his 1929 reference `Parrots and Parrot-like Birds in Aviculture’. It makes for a fascinating read when you consider that it was written almost 100 years ago – particularly when you read it in light of that simple question - `How far have we come?’ The answer, as I tried to give it during my presentation in 2008, is… probably not as far as we think we have. The following might serve as a 2011 example of how/why I think that’s still true.

About two or three times a year I find some time to check out various online parrot discussion forums to see what’s happening out there in the companion bird community – what’s topical, and what advice is being given for working on managing behaviour problems. I always assume that some quantum leaps will have been made concerning the way that both behaviour and the consequences being applied by parrot owners for their bird’s behaviour are being understood, and how the discussion community is approaching/supporting problem issues raised. There has definitely been some really uplifting integration of a lot of `positive reinforcement’ centered advice, thanks largely to the work of people such as Barbara Heidenreich. You can also come across some decent cracks at using behaviour science and operant conditioning terminology – no doubt as part of that wonderful cultural shift generated by the inspirational Dr. Susan Friedman. 

Unfortunately, there is also a lingering lack of progress in either department. That in itself doesn’t usually concern me. Usually the most offensive posts on chat boards come from the person who simply lacks the education and foundational understandings to begin with. Can’t blame them – usually. What does bother me is when posts that demonstrate a very clear lack of understanding about behaviour and how to best manage the behaviour of our parrots following a least intrusive, most positive hierarchy of strategies go unchecked by fellow forum members who are indeed reasonably well-educated and up-to-date with the latest information and teachings. I realize that for the sake of world peace, love, bed-ins etc that we’re all a little hesitant to start our own Middle Eastern conflict at `chataboutyourparrotproblems.com’. But sometimes ya really do shake your head at how some of the absolute crap that some people post is received and responded to. That brings me to the subject of this here Blog post. Here’s a little dialogue I came across from my most recent excursion into the land of such luminaries as `parrotluva78’, `ownedbyaparrot81’ and `IluvConures4eva’ (God I hate aliases. Just use your darn name people. Your parents thought it was a good one and besides, we all know you’ll only `luv’ conures until you become `ekkiegirl4eva’. Sheesh). For the following excerpts the bird name has been removed to protect the innocent parrot. Everything else appears as it was posted (I did fix some of the punctuation and grammar – couldn’t help it folks, teacher thing).

• Post: `My parrot will NOT stop screaming!! He’s been doing it for the past 6 weeks!! We’ve squirted him, screamed at him, comforted him, loved him, gave him food, flicked his beak, said no, covered him up, put him outside, we've tried everything!!! He starts at 8am and doesn't stop till 8pm. I’m going to either throw him out the darn front door or sell the bastard!!!’

Reply: `Well for a start you have reinforced his bad behaviour by doing everything you said you did. When he screamed you did something. To you it was punishment, to him it was attention.

My suggestion would be to put ear plugs in for a while and make your whole family do it and maybe put him somewhere a little out of the way so everytime you come into sight it is not necessarily a reward to him. It might take a few weeks to curb this but honestly you have been reinforcing him without knowing it.

Also if you can ignore him and literally not go near him when he is screaming then when he is quiet you rush over and praise him and give him treats, really lavish him, but you must totally ignore him when he is screaming. If you can do this you will also find his screaming will probably get worse for a while, possibly a few weeks, because he is not getting the attention of you or someone coming to his cage to do something exciting to him. He will almost certainly scream more and louder because it is not working anymore. But really try hard to lavish praise and treats when he is quiet even for a few seconds to start off with. You need to start in small steps and being quiet for say 5 seconds might be your first step and then gradually lengthen the time. It can work but it is going to take some time and patience and it will take for everyone in your house to work together.

Another thing to think about... Has anything new happened, anything?? A new pet?? New furniture? New hair colour?? New nail colour?? Changed furniture around?? New toy/s in his cage?? Look back to when it started. Maybe there is a clue there as to what might have started it off.

But honestly squirting him or yelling at him, or covering his cage, or putting him outside all of these things is "someone coming to him and giving him some sort of attention". Even if to you it is punishment, to him it is attention and it is exciting and he "thinks" his screaming is working. Did that make sense at all???

Well… not to me it didn’t. Obviously the person who wrote the initial post could probably do with some quality time away in rehab if they think that screaming at, flicking, squirting, covering up and sending the bird outside are reasonable responses to an unwanted change in their bird’s behaviour – regardless of how annoying it might be. Actually, rehab’s probably a reasonable proposition for anyone who would type that initial post for everyone on the internet to get a bird’s eye view of their insanity. Sure is a weird world we live in. 

But how is this person supposed to learn just how potentially damaging those consequences for behaviour can be when the responses to such posts fail to properly explain the differences between reinforcement and punishment? Or the critical importance of the trust account between a parrot owner and their bird? Or how behaviour modification strategies with an antecedent arrangement focus are exponentially more effective than those that are too focused on consequences when it comes to our parrots? Or simply that being squirted, flicked, covered and yelled at is actually not the sort of attention a parrot is looking for at all! Can’t imagine I’d get too `excited’ about copping a flick or a squirt to the face every time I opened my mouth. Think I might actually end up pretty pissed off at the person delivering those little `punishers’. Whilst I’m sure the responder had every good intention – they really need to revisit `reinforcement vs punishment 101’. I'm kinda thinking that if I was that parrot that the `out the front door option' would be about the best one on offer. Says parrot to human... `Just make sure you shut it behind you when you crawl back inside won't ya!'

I won’t bother re-inventing the wheel here by going over all the alternative pathways that should be considered by someone dealing with an extreme noise issue with their bird. My advice on how discussion board users can better support one another in these situations was given in an older post (Feb 2010). This time around I really just want us all to reflect on how we can achieve better behaviour management outcomes with our birds when we put aside our culturally ingrained compulsion to solely consider the consequences for unwanted behaviour as our magic, quick-fix strategy and instead really empower ourselves with some reflection on careful antecedent arrangement for achieving alternative behaviour first. Hopefully if the discussion board junkies start chatting in those terms I’ll fell a little better about the answer to that question - `How far have we come?’ 

Latest Issue of ABK – Barbara Heidenrich steps up for Pet Parrot Pointers

If you haven’t picked up the latest issue of Australian Birdkeeper Magazine from your newsagent then you should grab it while it’s there! Barbara Heidenreich has filled in for the Pet Parrot Pointers section of the magazine with an absolute cracker of an article on `Ten Common Training Mistakes’. It’s just such a beautifully put together summary of the things well all tend to do at times and what we need to be mindful of to ensure our training failures don’t become mistakes that break down the relationships we have built with our birds.

I’m hoping that every second or third issue of ABK will feature a guest Pet Parrot Pointers writer so that we can learn from a variety of passionate parrot keepers and trainers. I’m looking forward to this opportunity for sharing and learning with Australia parrot enthusiasts.

Enrichment Aviary Project – Final Update

Well – I made it. Just. For those of you (there might be one out there – hmmm?) who have followed the enrichment aviary project updates, the goal was to have this completed before the Parrots 2010 Convention. As it turned out, I managed to pull it off with the last of the fittings completed and the birds relocated just 5 days before I left for the Convention.

The lecture on enrichment aviary design and construction at Parrots 2010 was really well received and I was stoked with the positive feedback from the delegates. I have just submitted the first part of a two-part article on the process that will feature in the next two issues of Australian Birdkeeper Magazine. Look for the first instalment in the Aug/Sep issue – out mid August. Now onto new projects!

The Enrichment Aviary Complex - Home to my Amazon Parrots.

Pan-Pac Veterinary Conference

Last week I gave a series of lecture presentations, followed by a practical parrot training workshop, at the Pan Pacific Veterinary Conference that was held in Brisbane. Lecturing to veterinarians from a variety of interest groups within that profession can be a challenging task - particularly when it comes to discussing approaches and methodologies of behaviour consulting with parrots. I suspect that many of the traditional paradigms of thinking for the behaviour management of pet birds persist within the veterinary field. However, the group I lectured to really did seem to be wonderfully receptive to a more progressive approach that embraced Applied Behaviour Analysis and Functional Assessment of behaviour. I noticed quite a few `light bulb' moments occur throughout the day that served as great positive reinforcement for me.

Whilst I am certain that the vet group came away from the day with a lot of great, practical, information and advice - I certainly came away with a deeper appreciation for some of the time constraints that our veterinarians face in their clinic consultation work. What blew me away was that for many of the vets I spoke to informally during the day, a standard consult time allocation was just 15 minutes. Not a lot of ground you can cover in that amount of time if we're talking about the complexities of parrot behaviour! There was a strong sense that dealing with discussions on parrot behaviour with clients was too overwhelming and time consuming. It challenged me to come up with ways to support the vets in being able to deliver small, but potent, pieces of information on behaviour to their clients. For most of them, I think the criteria for what they might consider success in working with a client on parrot behaviour issues was too high. Just as we see when we raise the criteria for our birds too high, too soon, with our own expectations of ourselves we often see a loss of behavioural momentum and a diminishing of opportunities for learning if we fail to recognise the small approximations of achievement that we make before the end `goal' is reached. It truly was a great opportunity for me, particularly coming from outside of the veterinary community, to work with such a great group of professionals. My sincere thanks to Dr. Deborah Monks for organising the opportunity and to Dr. Melinda Cowan and Dr. Kim (Sorry Kim - I didn't get your surname!), for helping with all my `gear' and birds. A very special thanks, to Phil Ghamraoui who helped as a second trainer for the practical session. Finally - thanks to my `teachers' for the day - PJ my Black-headed Caique, Lola my Yellow-crowned Amazon, and a gorgeous little Meyer's Parrot that I will talk about in a future post.

Parrots with Gambling Problems...

Undoubtedly the greatest frustration I encounter in working as a behaviour consultant with parrot owners is that when it comes to accessing support and advice, I’m most often seen as the `last resort’ rather than the `first resort’. It’s difficult to explain to people what the potential consequences are when the response pathway for working on problem behaviours follows a whole bunch of old school thinking, homespun remedies, or intervention programs that completely fail to appreciate exactly what behaviour and learning are all about. Let’s be honest though – we live in a society that demands `quick fix’ solutions. I often use the `drive-through, take-away’ approach as the analogy of choice as it encapsulates well how we tend to go through life looking for the most convenient, least hassle, quickest, and cheapest solution to our problems. Hence why the popularity of a range of well-marketed online behaviour and training products and `solutions’ can be so appealing. It’s also why there is a proliferation of chat boards, discussion groups, and online forums for parrot owners – all providing a quick, convenient, and most importantly `free’ access point for the struggling parrot owner to find answers to questions that can be super complex at times. The dilemma for someone like me is that by the time I see the client in the consult room or in their home, I’m trying to clean up a dropped meat pie – it’s just a darn mess! I have a tendency to use a little saying that I learnt from Avian Trainer, Steve Martin - `Set Up for Success’ - in my approach to working with birds and their owners. Problem is, I’m usually the one who is the least set up to succeed. What got me really thinking about this was an article in the latest issue of the IAATE magazine `The Flyer’. The article is titled `Behaviour Fundamentals: Filling the Behaviour Change Toolkit’. It’s an absolute gem, written by one of my great mentors – Susan Friedman PhD. Here’s the final paragraph to ruminate on…

`One mystery that often surrounds problem behaviour is its very persistence. People may have a litany of failed behaviour-change programs by the time they turn to behaviour analysis for help. As they wade through the personal recipes of one Internet charlatan after another, people don’t realise that, with each failed attempt at behaviour change, the window of opportunity closes a little bit more because the problem behaviour is intermittently reinforced. Intermittent schedules of reinforcement build persistent gamblers, willing to behave again and again, without reinforcement, for that one jackpot that inevitably occurs. There should be nothing casual about intervening on an animal’s functional `misbehaviour’. Each intervention should start with a careful functional assessment, and the intervention should be designed to meet the needs of the animal, using the most positive, least intrusive methods. The greater our knowledge of the scientific principles and procedures of learning and behaviour, the more effectively we will meet the needs of the animals in our care.’

Don’t feed your parrot’s gambling habit. When problems start to surface, get support, advice, and a behaviour change plan worked out that uses an approach based on the science of learning, and the art of building a lasting relationship with your bird. Quick fix solutions are for gamblers – effective behaviour change takes work, commitment, and consistency of reinforcement schedules. Most importantly of all - it requires partnerships, between you and your bird, and sometimes, a consultant willing to walk the journey with you - not just serve you at the drive through.

Maya's Training Diary

In the next issue of ABK Magazine I will be introducing readers to a few additions we have made over the past 18 months to our training team - a group of parrots that I use for my consultation work. One very unexpected addition was `Maya' (pronounced `my-a', not `may-a') the Green-winged Macaw. She's not going to be a permanent resident here as I don't actually `own' her but instead she is on loan for a while given her special circumstances. It was an opportunity for me to work with an almost completely parent-raised Macaw that, due to having to be support fed via crop syringe after being abandoned by her parents at fledging age, is very averse to hands and completely unlike a hand raised and imprinted Macaw. I was keen to see what sort of outcomes could be achieved with such a bird. So far it has been a challenge. Besides having almost no real trust in human hands, we are also working on minimising and hopefully eliminating some early onset feather picking behaviour on her legs that she started whilst being weaned offsite. The long-term goal is to get her partnered with at least one other Green-winged Macaw as these birds absolutely thrive in the company of their own kind and flying `solo' is not (in my opinion) the ideal lifetime scenario for a Macaw.

In the short-term however, we're going to work through the process of seeing what sort of relationship we can establish with her and take it from there. She has only been with us for three weeks and although each day is a new page in the relationship building story, I really only started some focus sessions with her 5 days ago. What I have been doing are just short, 15 minute, positive reinforcement sessions each afternoon, gradually building up her tolerance and acceptance of my proximity to her. I plan to detail these sessions in a future Pet Parrot Pointers column in ABK magazine but in the meantime, below are just a few images of the approximation pathway that we were able to achieve in Session 5 with Maya that ended with her actually placing both feet on my arm (not shown) - a huge trust moment for her! To work with birds like this is very special indeed, and humbling as a trainer as it really does challenge you to think fast, problem solve quickly, and above all, tune in to the slightest body language indicators on offer from the bird to know when to raise your criteria and shape the next stage of the behaviour. The images don't give the full reveal as they don't show just how apprehensive this bird is, but they do hopefully give some indication of just how slow good training with a parrot like this needs to be. The end result in the second last image was achieved after five 15 minute sessions over five consecutive days. No magic - no voodoo - no `bird tricks' - just patience, perseverance, keen observation, timely reinforcement delivery and above all - respect.

Image 1: Starting off where we finished the previous session with Maya taking food treats from the hand and maintaining close proximity to me without moving away to eat.

Image 2: An important approximation to consider is the nature in which the treat is taken from the hand - it provides a strong indication of the level of comfort the parrot has in the presence of the hands and trainer. A gentle taking of the treat as opposed to an aggressive `grab' informs you whether or not the parrot is starting to have confidence in its choice, trust in the trainer, and some control over its environment.

Image 3: Looks like something not worth noting but it's a critical indication of where the focus of the parrot is - firmly on the hand delivering the treat and with the confidence to look away from the trainer and towards where the reinforcement is being delivered. Time for a raising of criteria.

Image 4: Gradual desensitisation of a hand grasping her perch. Note that her proximity to me has shifted back spatially on the perch - a result of the introduction of the aversive of the arm to her environment. She is being positively reinforced for gradually moving closer to the arm.

Image 5: The level of desensitisation to the arm has enabled her to have the confidence to lean over the arm to receive a treat.

Image 6: The criteria was raised to her having to place a foot on the arm for reinforcement delivery. This was a slow process and one that had many small approximations before Maya would actually place and hold one foot on the arm. I also had some challenges getting my own body positioning right and dealing with the problem of the Macaw tail, which can be a pain in the butt when training these guys as they react aversively to their tails brushing up against things while they are apprehensive. If you're wondering why the arm is positioned on the perch and not in front of it in a more `classic' step up position, try dumping a carton of milk into your outstretched palm and see what happens. With a bird that weighs close to a kilogram and is very apprehensive towards unstable surfaces, I was relying on using her perch to support my own arm and hence her weight to give her the confidence in using my arm as an extension of her perch.

Image 7: At this stage I am shifting the target of my treat delivery hand to shape her body positioning to better facilitate her getting both feet onto my arm. This was achieved by the end of the session. So much goes into getting to a point like this in terms of considering your reinforcement delivery, setting the bird up to succeed with your own arrangement of the environment, and obviously the detail in shaping the behaviour. The next set of approximations will be working towards being able to lift Maya from the perch she is being trained on here to the one above it. That will actually be a huge leap for this ruby gem.

Image 8: Finishing on a good note with a nice cashew as a jackpot :-)

Dragon Fruit - Does it `Glow'???

I recently picked up some Dragon Fruit at the local supermarket. It's one of those exotic asian fruits that the young register person always has to ask `What is this?' at the checkout. The next question is usually `What does it taste like?' - to which I admittedly have to reply, `I've got no idea - I feed it to my birds'. I then get the look - you know - the one that kinda suggests you must be nuts if you spend that sort of money on a piece of fruit that you don't even eat and instead, feed it to your birds! It does seem crazy but doesn't it feel great to add some new taste sensations into the food bowl of your birds? I'm not sure who gets the most out of it - them or me. If you really want to know though - it tastes awful (I actually tried it this time). One of those fruits that you might suggest - `Oh, it goes great with ice-cream', in other words, it tastes like dirt on its own and needs a good smothering of neopolitan before its edible :-)

Anyway, here's a question that I'd love to know the answer for... `Does dragon fruit glow?' That's probably not the right wording for that question but it's as close as I can get to what I'm thinking. You see, when I placed a chunk of it in the food bowl of my Amazon parrots they both reeled away in obvious horror. If you look at the flesh of dragon fruit it is a brilliant iridescent white (see pic above), the same sort of white you see on iridescent fungi and other things that `glow' in the dark. Given that our parrots can see colours in the ultraviolet spectrum that we can't, it got me thinking - what does dragon fruit look like to them? It obviously had some sort of `stay away' quality to it - they reacted the same way both days in a row that I tried to feed it to them. After a while, their appetites got the better of them but watching them slowly desensitise to their food bowl and finally take the plunge to grab a piece of less offensive food and make a run for it was an interesting study in behaviour - and perhaps the strength of the predatory defence of the humble dragon fruit!

If anyone knows what the ultraviolet or `hidden' colour spectrum of dragon fruit flesh is - please e-mail me! It also served as a good reminder to be observant of our birds responses to new food items in their bowls. Sometimes a change like that can result in an aversion to accessing their food for the day. No point in persisting with expensive fruit if all it achieves is a stressed and hungry parrot! I'll keep it for the Ice-cream ;-)

Bird Retailers & Wing Clipping

OK – here’s a contentious one, but no point in fence sitting from my perspective. I recently stopped in at a major bird retailer in Brisbane to pick up a bunch of bird supplies while I was on my way to my monthly consult sessions. Usually I don’t have much time to stop and look at the birds in retail outlets but this time I did, as it is the time of the year when there are a lot of young baby parrots available and it is always interesting to see what is entering the companion parrot community. Whilst I know that there are many highly responsible bird retailers and very good outlets for acquiring a pet parrot, what I saw in this particular store really bugged me. Every single handraised parrot waiting for sale to a pet home was clipped – not one exception. None of those birds had been offered the opportunity to develop their flight skills, coordination, confidence and independence. All were recently weaned and obviously had more than likely never actually `flown’. Whilst I obviously don’t condone the clipping of a parrot’s wings, I have to accept that there is no law to prevent it or legislative authority to monitor it or set guidelines for it, therefore I have to live with it as a reality of what we see in the bird world. But geez folks – can’t we at least give the new owners of these young birds that are sold in pet stores the option??? How hard is it to keep the young birds fully feathered, provide some informed and responsible point of sale pros and cons on wing clipping, offer advice on training and accessing training resources on managing a flighted bird, encourage the buyer to visit a qualified veterinarian to have any clipping done if it has to be done, and most of all, give the parrot a chance to be a parrot.

I then had the unfortunate experience of standing beside one of the sales assistants as a father and son team came in to buy a budgerigar as a pet. Having no handraised or tame budgies to choose from, a young bird was selected from the flock and promptly clipped. Not a progressive clip method used there either – the good old full primary and secondary chop. The sales assistant justified the procedure as nothing more than a `haircut’ – obviously using the analogy to explain that the clipped wings will be replaced over time by new ones. I just can’t seem to remember not being able to walk out of the salon the last time I had a trim. Mind you – my hairdresser is licensed to sell alcohol so a visit there is perhaps not without the potential for a major modification of my physical capabilities. Hmmm.

I think it’s about time that some guidelines and best practice recommendations for the physical modification of parrots within retail outlets was implemented. Parrots presenting with behaviour management issues that also have clipped wings account for the highest proportion of birds in the demographic of my clients. It’s more of a precursor to behavioural abnormalities arising in companion parrots than having them flighted and presents a significantly more complex set of circumstances to develop successful management strategies for – particular birds that are over-dependent or have established feather picking behaviour.

What we need to be clear on is this – keeping a parrot flighted can be successfully managed. Yes, it’s more work, yes, there may be some challenges to overcome, but let’s at least give these birds a start in life where being clipped is not a fait accompli and they are given the opportunity to learn to adapt to a captive life whilst retaining their full complement of physical capabilities.

One final frustration with this particular retailers approach to the selling of handraised parrots as pets was the lack of suitability of some of the species for sale. It seemed as though their only criteria for having a bird available for sale as a pet was that it was handraised - didn't seem to matter what species it was. The most glaring example of this were Pale-headed Rosellas for sale as pets. Honestly, as much as I dearly love the Platycercus for all of their gaudy beauty, I couldn't think of a species more unsuited to life within the confines of a small indoor cage for most of the day. Not only is their lack of adaptability to close confinement a major concern, they don't tolerate tactile handling in the form of head scratches and mature birds have a strong behavioural tendency towards intense territorial aggression that I have yet to see not hold true. I'm also yet to find a pet parrot owner that doesn't consider head scratches and that sort of close tactile interaction with their birds a very desirable reason for them keeping a companion parrot. It's a little like selling a dog that doesn't tolerate being patted. Now before anyone suggests that `there's a right home for every bird' - do you honestly think the retailer is going to screen buyers that walk in wanting a pet parrot and make the mistake of picking the Rosella because blue and yellow are their favourite colours??? Therein lies the problem folks. Betcha we'll see a couple of Pale-headed Rosellas up for grabs in the Weekend Shopper some time later this year - advertisement might run something like this... (additional info in brackets not supplied in ad)

`Pale-headed Rosella. Handraised and wIll make great pet (didn't for us - but might for you!) Owner moving interstate (to get as far away from nightmare parrot as possible). Comes with cage and bag of seed (hates the cage but loves the seed). Whistles (on..and on...and on.... until you let it out of aforementioned cage that it hates) Make an offer (folks, we're desperate, if you're here by 9am we'll just give it to ya)'. Hmmm.

A young and recently weaned Blue-fronted Amazon. Fully flighted, engaging, challenging - and manageable just as he is!

Internet Chat Groups - Good for ruffling feathers but what else???

I was prompted recently to think about just how helpful the whole Internet chat group scene is for parrot enthusiasts when a friend of mine was explaining to me that she was booted off one. Her experience intrigued me as it often seems to be that many Internet discussion forums within the companion parrot community inevitably head down the path of conflict - much like the cartoon above if you're wondering why it's there ;-) I actually used to have a full discussion forum board linked to my original website and community initiative - `The Companion Parrot Support Network'. The `CPSN' (as we abbreviated it to at the time) website featured a free library full of articles, video clips of parrots in the wild, a page dedicated to working through behaviour management issues - the full deal. We even used to have `gatherings' - just casual opportunities for parrot owners to get together, network, share experiences etc. It was pretty neat for its time (it went online about 8 years ago and finished up in around 2006 or early 2007 maybe - I can't remember now). Anyway, we had a great discussion forum integrated into the site and I still have the odd person (we're all odd if we keep parrots BTW) tell me how much they liked the site and the way the forum operated. I can only remember a single incident where someone posted something on that discussion board that really should have been thought about a little harder (ie - not said at all) in all the years it was running. It was a good bunch of people who were involved in it that's for sure - many of who are still friends to this day. These days, I simply don't have the time to get involved in community forums as my life is beyond full already. It's been quite a few years since I have had anything to do with that side of the companion parrot community so I thought I would go take a look around and see what companion parrot folks talk about these days, what's topical, what's contentious, what's interesting, but most importantly - I was hoping to see that there had been an evolution in the approaches people were taking towards discussing the behaviour of their companion birds.

I realise that there are many discussion forums online that are incredibly supportive and important avenues for the sharing of information and experiences in keeping parrots. I certainly have browsed through a couple that seemed to have a very cool, positive, and family like vibe. Unfortunately, there were a few that, well... kinda sucked (I teach teenagers folks so occasionally I do slip into that mode of describing things). Where most of these forums seem to come unstuck is in the way they approach the discussion of `behaviour'. They can be wonderful little access points for people to share about random experiences, diets, where to go to get the best deal on the latest enrichment toys etc but man, that whole `evolution' hope I had towards the way people are addressing parrot behaviour, on some discussion forums (not all!), just seems to have stalled somewhere in the Cro-Magnon stage of the developmental timeline. Here's what I kinda think on the whole parrot discussion forum concept when it comes to the way these forums approach dealing with both experience sharing and advice giving on behaviour, and perhaps where I would dare venture to suggest areas for improvement...

The most common pathway that some companion parrot discussion forums seem to go down is to create a never ending stream of threads based on `He said...’, `She said...’, second-hand, third-hand, no-hand, advice and suggestions on parrot behaviour that almost always lack a common and definable reference point. These never seem to get anywhere and rarely solve a situation for the person asking the questions, whilst inevitably generating differences of opinion and conflict between those keen to get in on the advice giving race. I'm pretty confident that we have reached a point in our knowledge and understanding about behaviour where we can start to address such questions on forums from a common framework of understanding about how behaviour works, and use a common language to describe behaviour we observe. I think the approach that such forums need to take is to dispense with the traditional, communal paradigm of `let’s all put our 2 cents worth in here and hope that something makes sense’. To me – that’s no different to the John Edward technique of throwing out carefully crafted non-specific scenarios until eventually one sticks and people think he can speak to the dead! When people are desperate for help, the gullibility element is unfortunately always high. Most of the time, that approach is just embarrassingly off the mark and usually just serves to perpetuate myths, give credence to poorly considered generalisations, and continue the lifespan of outdated home spun remedies or supposed `reasons' for why a parrot just behaved the way it did.

In my view, a good, progressive forum will simply address all behaviour issues raised using the same, simple, and logical framework for working through the problem. As an example, let’s say someone asks a question about their parrot, who just bit them a few minutes ago and they've rushed to the keyboard to get an answer from the cyber experts about why and sympathy from those who are always keen to offer it. Instead of going down that `2 cents worth' path, a good forum will start by challenging that person to access the freely available online literature written by the likes of Dr. Susan Friedman, Steve Martin, Barbara Heidenreich (or... me, check my site - I have some freebies too :-), or one of a number of excellent authors who have made their works freely available online. This literature follows the same guiding principles of using an Applied Behaviour Analysis approach to evaluating behaviour and sets a common, scientific ground for everyone to work from. After that, the discussion group will then ask them if they have accessed printed material in the form of Barbara Heidenreich’s `Parrot Problem Solver’ or `Good Bird’. It will then ask them to reconsider their experience with their parrot in the context of the information given to them in those resources. Advice and strategies can still be given, but once again, these should be drawn from the literature we have available so that everyone is working from the same page, and only after the person has identified some possible strategies to work through the issue themselves. When we stick to referring to information that is `in print’ then it becomes less open to the dilution, re-interpretation, or complete misrepresentation that so often happens when we refer to word of mouth advice we hear. I’ve lost count of the number of times people have completely misquoted, taken out of context, or misrepresented what I have said in workshops or privately while trying to regurgitate that information to others. They always mean well but... The example I even set myself is simply `go to the source’, it’s all there in black and white and there’s no confusion in that. Hence why my own website encourages people to read all the `free’ stuff by a range of sources that I have put there for them - before they come see me, 'cause I charge :-). It works best - and there's nothing more satisfying for me than to work with a client who is committed to `self-help' first. They're inevitably the ones who have success.

If we all realise that the laws of behaviour are universal, clearly defined, and easily understood, and when we all work from the same consistent reference point, then we tend to have `real’ success in managing the behaviour of our birds and giving support to others. If we continue to reinforce apathy towards reading the brilliant work that is already out there, and continue to reinforce a lame reluctance to part with 30 bucks or so to buy a book like Barbara’s two volumes, then we will forever continue to have discussion forums where someone is always the `expert’ and there’s a sucker born everyday who will eat up their advice regardless of how valid it is - simply because it’s free, convenient, and in keeping with our cultural divergence towards the quick-fix, `drive-through’ solutions to all of our problems that society is so hell bent on providing. If I can suggest one thing after working with parrots and their behaviour for more than 15 years it's that rarely are there those nice little `quick-fix' moments. I wish it were so.

If you want to be a part of a good internet discussion forum for parrot owners then encourage people seeking support for problem behaviours in their parrots to develop self-help strategies, and don't allow them to develop dependencies on waiting for someone out there in the internet community to just tell them what they want to hear. Internet forums can unfortunately be the best places in the world for reinforcing lazy approaches to education and failing to promote the development of a progressive understanding about how to approach the behaviour of companion parrots. For those of us who know better, we need to make sure that we aren’t inadvertently reinforcing that through our own participation in the whole convoluted process of vague approaches to dealing with behavioural issues. We can do better.

If you are a member of a really good discussion forum that you think manages the handling of giving people advice on the way their parrot behaves using a similar framework to the one above then let me know. Send me a link to thread that is representative of that approach, I'll check it out, and if it rocks then I'll link it here on the blog!

Hobart Companion Parrot Workshop

WOW!!! - What a small but super bird nerd crew we had down there in Hobart, Tasmania this past weekend for a full day of learning about the behaviour, enrichment and training of parrots! I'd like to wholeheartedly thank Lisa Kearney for organising this event - her commitment to providing these opportunities for delivering education on the keeping of parrots to the community is stellar! Thanks also to Lisa's partner Jim (good name that ☺) who was our dedicated `chauffeur' for the weekend and made sure that I got to where I needed to be to teach and have some fun with Hobart's most dedicated parrot keepers - Lisa, Cheryl-Lee, Mark, Michelle, Jill, Joseph, Katherine, Brett & Theresa. Thanks for being such a fantastic and enthusiastic group of students and hanging in there for 7 hours of learning, chatting, networking and fun ☺

Cheryl-Lee and Mark were able to bring 3 of their flock to the workshop for me to do some demonstration work with. `T-Bird' the Blue & Gold Macaw, `Tonka' the Alexandrine, and their newest addition - a gorgeous little Green-cheeked Conure (whose name escapes me - sorry guys!). Some pics of these birds can be seen below this post.

Folks - if you want to experience this day and take your understanding of parrots as companion animals to the next level then please join us at our next workshop event - this time in Melbourne, Victoria! To access details and to register (be quick because we do cap numbers), just get in touch with Lisa Kearney via owner@friendlybirdinn.com.au or drop me an e-mail at jim@pbec.com.au and we'll hopefully see you there. The date set is Saturday April 10th - 9:30am to ~4:00pm. This is the most thorough and comprehensive workshop experience of its kind anywhere in Australia and perhaps the only real `professional development' experience available for parrot owners to enhance their level of knowledge about parrot enrichment and behaviour management.

The very cool `T-Bird' owned by Cheryl-Lee and Mark...

Working with T-Bird on stepping up and down without him using his `beak'...

A very chilled out bird indeed - Tonka the Alexandrine...

Our dedicated workshop participants - hopefully they're all awake in this photo ☺

Welcome to the PBEC Blog...

Time... Don’t we all wish we had a heck of a lot more of it? The fact that I’m only just now writing a `first Blog’ for the PBEC website, more than 6 months after the site went live, is a pretty good indication of just how time poor I am these days. This was actually supposed to be a kind of `take it easy’ year for me – you know how those New Year’s resolutions go, a few drinks and you’re waxing all nostalgic about the days when you took the time to surf more, go birdwatching more, walk the dogs more, hang with the parrots more, sit around and do absolutely nothing more! I had planned from that moment to make a commitment that 2009 would be a year to focus solely on teaching, parenthood, delivering just the one parrot workshop, and finally putting a serious dent in a book project that I am desperate to complete. As the year has unravelled though, it’s turned out to be busier, more demanding, and at times more challenging, than my pathetic little effort at `commitment’ to the simpler life could possibly allow. Through it all though, the first six months of 2009 have offered some of the richest and most positively reinforcing times for what I do as a parrot educator. Right now I’m super inspired to keep the behavioural momentum flowing and share some insights from more than 15 years working with parrots via the words found here. Hopefully from time to time that sharing will be of benefit and interest to you, the reader or casual observer of what’s going on in the parrot world. At times it might also be challenging but hey, if you don’t appreciate a good challenge then you probably wouldn’t own a parrot right?  Even though I’m still getting my head around exactly what a Blog is all about, I plan to use my energies in this forum to cover a fairly diverse range of issues, food for thought, and personal comment related to life working with parrots, bird owners, and doing my best to be an exponent of positive reinforcement principles. Better late than never? I hope so ;-)