blog_oconnor

Falcons More Closely Related to Parrots than to Hawks?

2008-06-29T20:34:00Z

I've trained birds professionally for 15 years, but my affinity has always been for parrots and falcons. I find myself speaking more and more in lectures about how my falconry informs my training style and critical thinking when working with parrots. Now perhaps I can claim the link between the two was always intuitive. Maybe people won't look at me like I'm insane when I explain the training the two families of birds is not so very different. Well, that may be too hopeful, but this is one more fabulous example of why parrot owners should keep reading and learning. Exciting times!

Related??

Getting Bit Is Just Part of Caring for Parrots, Right?

2008-02-11T21:16:00Z

WRONG.

There are many reasons that a parrot might bite. Some may not be as predictable or make as much sense to us as others, but the one thing you can count on is that repetitive biting is rewarding to the parrot somehow. This means that parrots bite because it gets them something they want. It also means that if you can figure out what your parrot gets from the biting behavior, then you can lessen the behavior or quite possibly put a stop to it.

If you reach in your parrot’s cage to pick him up and he doesn’t want to come out he may retreat to the back of the cage or turn his back to you. If you persist, even though he’s tried to let you know he doesn’t want to go with you, then he may resort to biting you. If he bites you and you leave him alone, he may have an “ah ha” moment. “Ah ha! If I want her to know that I don’t want to come out, all I have to do is bite her!” He may stop retreating, turning his back on you or any other variety of more acceptable behaviors that mean “no” and go straight for the bite in the future. Why not? It’s the only thing you seem to understand.

Shouldn’t you just take the bite and pretend like it doesn’t hurt so your parrot doesn’t get what he wants? Absolutely not! You don’t deserve to get bit. How can you have a great relationship with your bird if you’re afraid one on one time will lead to bloodletting? How can your parrot trust you and enjoy your company if he might get dropped, yelled at or worse? Instead, you both need to learn to have a conversation with each other that doesn’t involve biting.

So what do you do?

• Learn to read and be respectful of your parrot’s body language. No means no. Respect that.

• Find ways to get your parrot to say “yes.” Make what you’re asking worth your parrot’s while. Offer a treat, time out on the play stand, some cuddle time or whatever your parrot really enjoys.

• Don’t get bit. Biting begets biting because it almost always rewarding. A behavior that is rewarding will repeat itself.

More positive communicating. Less biting. It’s a great way to thing to strive for in all our relationships!

Share your parrot rescue or foster story!

2007-11-07T18:47:00Z

Do you have a great story about a parrot that you rescued or fostered? Do you run a rescue and have a story that would save parrot owners a lot of potential heartbreak? Rebecca K. O’Connor, author of A Parrot for Life! is looking for stories for her next book, Rescue Me! A Guide to Living with a Re-Homed Parrot.

Rebecca believes that the best way to convince potential parrot owners to adopt and foster is through imparting key information in an easy to read, entertaining manner. Rescue Me!, like the well-received A Parrot for Life! will cover the most up-date-information and resources available, but she wants to add one more thing…true stories. Rebecca fosters and has some stories of her own, but your personal experiences may make the difference in a parrot’s life! If that’s not enough of a reason here’s more incentive:

•Twelve stories will be chosen. Authors will receive a copy of Rescue Me! published by TFH Publications upon its release.

•Authors of the top three stories will also receive a copy of A Parrot for Life!

•The author of the top story will receive a free lecture/workshop presented by Rebecca at the Parrot Rescue of their choice with all proceeds going to the Rescue. (The parrot rescue will need to provide space for the workshop, but will not need to cover travel or pay a presentation fee.)

So what are you waiting for??

Please send your adoption/foster story of 400 words or less to: Rebecca@rebeccakoconnor.com

or even better, post them as comments here on the blog. Let's got a dialogue started about fostering and rescuing and behavior!

Authors will need to provide permission for the use of their stories upon acceptance and agree to editing for style and length. Payment will be in the form of a copy of the book.

Rebecca K. O’Connor on “Calling all Pets”

2007-10-06T07:31:00Z

http://www.wpr.org/PETS/index.htm Check out Rebecca on Patricia McConnell's radio show "Calling All Pets". Rebecca only says one really stupid thing. (along with a lot of ums and a couple of semi-stupid things) Answer the trivia question and win a copy of her book! --but hurry, you have to do it this week!

Friday Feathered Fun- Get Your Parrot ON

2007-08-17T23:18:01Z

Looking for a place to toast to all things pscittacine for your Friday night revelry? Here’s a few suggestions. And for those of you who live outside of North America, I would love for you to share yours as well!

Thirsty Parrot Bar & Grill 32 S Tejon St, Colorado Springs, CO

Blue Parrot Bar & Grill 1934 W 6TH St, Wilmington, DE

Green Parrot Bar 601 Whitehead St., Key West, FL

Barking Parrot Bar 21 Lakeshore Drive West Penticton Canada

Pickled Parrot Bar & Grill 8780 Rivers Ave # 210, North Charleston, SC

Parrot Pub 5010 Louetta Rd., Spring, TX

Desensitizing – Isn’t that what’s happening with violence on TV?

2007-08-15T18:43:01Z

Or was it violins on TV that we’re being desensitized to? Either way, desensitizing can be a good plan for your bird. Taking care to note a bird’s discomfort with a new toy and helping him slowly overcome that discomfort and gain confidence can go a long way toward encouraging play. It is very easy to notice fear in a parrot that is thrashing in his cage or cowering in the back when you present a brightly colored toy and hang it from the center of the cage. I sometimes hear, “just put it in there. He’ll get over it.” True, he will get over it, but at what cost? You can lock me in a closet with a big spider and I’ll stop jumping every time it skitters eventually. I’m certainly not going to touch it or trust any new spiders that appear though. I don’t want my parrots to “get over” their scary toys. I want them to play with them. Desensitizing is a kinder and more effective means of introducing something new and potentially fun.

If you frequently see something and ultimately it is of no threat to you, then you cease to be afraid of it. That is the idea of desensitization. That new toy should remain far enough away from the bird that he shows no signs of fear. Watch for the subtle ones, not just the feather-breaking shrieking variety. If he arches his neck, pulls he feathers tight, shrinks further back in the cage, the toy is too close. When your bird appears comfortable, move it closer a few feet always leaving the toy within the comfort range. You may have to leave it across the room for a day, halfway across the room the next, hang it from the outside of the cage before you put it inside etc. This process my take an hour or it may take weeks, but by the time the toy is inside, you can be certain you parrot is comfortable with it, more likely to explore it rather than cower from it. Even better, you can feel confident that you haven’t been responsible for something undesirable happening to your friend and harmed your relationship in any way. (For the record, if you lock me in a closet with a spider we can no longer be friends.)

Enrichment? Isn’t that what they do to flour?

2007-08-13T16:53:00Z

So why does it matter that Tao won’t play with toys? Sometimes we just don’t know what we don’t know. That goes for animals too. You can give a parrot all the toys in the world, but if he doesn’t know the joy of finding buried treasure, ripping up paper, or peeling pine into tiny chips then the toys are just decoration. And what is it they say…idle hands are the devils playground? A parrot with nothing to do may find behaviors we feel are inappropriate with which to occupy their time instead…screaming and plucking for instance. Parrots, dogs, cats, boyfriends all need enrichment, mental stimulation that gives them the opportunity to use their senses and be the animals that they are. For parrots this means foraging and exploring with their beak. For dogs it might mean using their nose to discover new exciting things in their world. Boyfriends are more complicated, but a sporting event seems to do. Me? I’m easy. Put me in front of a busy bird feeder with a bottle of beer and you won’t hear a peep out of me all day. If Tao learned to explore, engage in and destroy most anything in his cage, I doubt anyone would hear a peep out of him either.

Friday Feathered Fun

2007-08-10T17:07:01Z

Love me. Love my parrot. Quite possibly why all my dates make hasty retreats...

Training to Play (Part II)

2007-08-09T19:52:00Z

Nothing happens instantly when you are training animals. Or at least, things rarely happen instantly. Usually what you get is the overnight success phenomenon. The truth is that people who are “suddenly” successful have been slaving away-- a hopeful rockstar singing in dive bars, an aspiring writer (ahem) laboring over one small book at a time, one success building on other until all of the sudden they are stars. Training parrots often progresses like this too. The progress is so subtle that you take it for granted and then suddenly it looks like everything just comes together. This is what happened with Tao. I kept laying seeds on the egg carton. I thought I saw small nibbles on it, but wasn’t sure. Then one morning I slept in an hour past dawn, wondering why the house was so quiet and woke to this:

Now every egg carton quickly finds itself in the same shape without any provocation. Egg carton = treats inside! Exactly what this lesson was supposed to succeed in doing. However, the other toys in the cage remain untouched. What next?

Training to Play

2007-05-14T17:07:00Z

In my home the most important thing a parrot can learn is how to use their "indoor voice". I work all day in my home office, talk to clients on the phone, transcribe interviews and try to focus on figuring out the perfect word to use. This kind of work requires not silence -- but definitely a lack of repetitious ear-drum busting noises. I simply can't work with screaming parrots in the house. All three of my African parrots certainly vocalize all day, but on the other end of the phone people say, "You have parrots, really? Why can't I hear them?" I've made a concerted effort to teach my parrots that they can get what they want (me to interact with them) without screaming. So they don't.

Let's define this though. All parrots vocalize. Some parrots normal vocalizations have a much higher decibel level than others. This isn't "screaming". In fact, in the way most of us define it, screaming is not a normal behavior. Screaming is learned. Screaming is an extremely loud, repetitious noise that goes on and on and on. I'm guessing this isn't comfortable for any parrot. In fact, as Susan Freidman once said to me, "Imagine a screaming at the top of your lungs for a half an hour in order to get what you want." Yikes!

Certainly I'll talk more about this in another blog entry, but the point of this screaming discussion is that my little rescue mini-macaw can be loud. I don't mind the little guy letting off a little steam now and then, but I've got to make sure it doesn't become a learned behavior. This of course is my responsibility, but I should also make sure that he has more interesting things to do. I believe that parrots often scream as a means to control their environment. In other words, they're bored! Big problem with this little guy because he hasn't played with a single toy I've given him! Believe it or not, he has to learn to play. Quite possibly this will be the most important thing he learns while he lives with me. It is crucial for his mental and physical well-being.

So what have I tried to introduce to him? I've tried chewable wood toys, plastic chains, dispensing toys, shredding toys. No interest. It was time to get proactive. I had recently finished up a carton of eggs and after checking that there had been egg leaks on the carton, cut it up for a little parrot fun. My own guys are familiar with this toy so it went directly in their cages, but Tao is afraid of everything and had to be desensitized first. (More on that in another post) After I was certain he was confident with the odd purple contraption, I filled it with treats and zip-tied it to the cage.

This little guy doesn't know yet that there is much to be gained by investigating new things in his cage. So he wasn't too sure he wanted anything to do with the egg carton. A couple molluca nuts on the top of it gave him a chance to investigate and reward himself. Still, he isn't too sure about ripping it up to get to the goodies inside. So I'll keep putting nuts on the top now and then throughout the day, in different places, shoved in the holes so he can pry them out etc. Every time he investigates and gets a little more adventuresome with his new toy he will get a reward. Let's see if I can finally get him to play with something.

Foster…make a difference!

2007-04-25T13:26:00Z

I know that this fantastic site is going to go live soon and am so excited to be a part of it. As you readers know from my introduction, I'm a parrot behaviourist, but really, I train people. Mostly, the parrots are just fine. However, it doesn't hurt to occasionally help a parrot learn some of the behaviours that people prefer parrots engage in or avoid in their homes.

I have a relationship with an organization called Parrots First in Los Angeles, CA. I have three parrots of my own, but when it's not falconry season (and there's no falcons in the house), there's room for an extra parrot. So I foster whenever I can. Yesterday, I brought home a lovely yellow-collared macaw who is absolutely terrified of hands. I'm hoping I can share the journey of prepping this little guy for his forever home. He will hopefully learn to step up, go into a crate, eat fruits and vegetables and he's already very quiet, so I will make sure I reinforce this fantastic behavior! Then let's cross our fingers that he will find a fantastic home withe a family who already know or are willing to learn how to keep him healthy and well-adjusted throughout his whole life.

Parrots aren't difficult to train. They are simply very different from the domestic animals in our homes. Parrots have different needs from domestic animals and therefore have different responses to situations in our homes. I hope you'll join me for Tao's journey and cheer us on.

Introductory Entry

2006-09-12T18:10:01Z

Welcome readers! I'm really excited to be a part of the World Parrot Trust blogging family. WPT does great work and the parrots surely need our assistance. It's wonderful to have this opportunity to share my rantings and show my support.

As a falconer, I've been blogging the trials and tribulations of training a winged raptor for three years. (http://www.rebeccakoconnor.com/operationdesertdove) However, I've been itching to talk about the flipside of my avian insanity "parronting." Much that goes on in the air working with falcon applies to the parrots in our living rooms, but there's a lot to say specifically to parrot lovers.

As a writer on parrot behavior and a consultant, I ponder the best and the worst of the pet parrot community on a daily basis. I live in Southern California and frequent the problem parrots of the Los Angeles -- Orange County -- Inland Empire area. Actually, I should probably say the problem "parronts." There are no bad parrots, only misguided parrot caretakers. My job isn't to fix parrots, but to help parrot lovers understand how to communicate in the strange language of feathers.

I hope that you pop in now and then to listen to the philosophies of positive reinforcement that I share with some fabulous parrot advocate peers. You'll meet the three parrots that have run my life for the past decade -- my African grey, Ty -- Senegal, Loki -- Red-bellied, Bali (See a trend? I'm fond of African parrots) and you may have the occasional guest appearance from my Brittany pup, Cali and the two falcons, Khan and Anakin. I also foster parrots for a fabulous rescue organization, Parrot's First (http://www.parrotsfirst.org) so there is the possibility of meeting a foster parrot now and again. Check in frequently and love your parrots always!

Rebecca