Ask An Expert: Jim McKendry

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day, Thanks for getting in touch with WPT with your question. Perhaps the first mindset to establish in achieving your long-term goal of building a trusting relationship with your third Budgie is that you can successfully build that relationship in the short-term whilst he is still inside his cage. As you are already aware, once he is out and about with the other two, arranging your environment so that you have opportunities to shape a positively reinforced association with you would be a real challenge. With a bunch of impeding variables that would be difficult, if not impossible, to control in an out of cage environment, let’s focus on what can be achieved while he is still in his cage.

Re-shape your goal set and focus on opportunities for you to put in place the following strategy…
First steps in developing a trusting relationship for you and this Budgie will be achieved by dedicating multiple times during the day when you can sit near his cage and allow him the time to observe you, become comfortable in your presence, and establish a reduced sense of threat from your presence in his environment.

This process is essentially allowing him to `gradually desensitize’ to you. To achieve this, gradually decrease the distance you are sitting from him when you observe that he is becoming more comfortable with you. This distance criterion is gradually shortened through observation of `calm’ indicators from his body language. Comfortable perching position, sitting on one foot, relaxed feathering, preening, feeding, drinking, vocalizing, playing with enrichment items, perching closer to you than moving away. These are all indicators that you can move closer and allow another period of time for him to establish comfort at that new distance.

As an already experienced and savvy Budgie owner, you will no doubt be well equipped to observe him and know when to raise your criteria for closer interaction. Combined with this, set his cage up so that there is a food bowl in a location that enables you to drop in a highly valued food treat as you walk past without having to put a hand in the enclosure itself. Each time you walk past his cage, drop a treat in there for him to hopefully start pairing the presence of you and your hand with the delivery of something of value to him.

Once your Budgie is observably comfortable with you sitting near his cage, start looking for opportunities to deliver those bowl treats for any slight movements towards you. From there the criteria can be raised to offering the food treat between the cage bars. A millet spray is a great reward for this and enables you to position your hand further away initially bolding the millet at the base and the seed head through the bars. If that criteria is achieved you can consider taking the next step and opening the door to deliver access to the millet spray by hand.

To improve your chances of success and to increase his potential motivation to move towards accessing a millet spray or seeds dropped in a bowl, make sure that you present these reinforcement opportunities at times prior to his normal feeding routine. If he has a full belly from his daily free feed then he will be less likely to be motivated to interact with you to receive the same thing that is on offer without the mental hoops to jump through.

Always assess his comfort and level of trust in you before raising your criteria. Sometimes people will suggest that this process is a case of two steps forward and one step back. I disagree. If you work sensitively with your Budgie you won’t be taking backward steps – just moving forward and building behavioural momentum towards your goal of having a trusting relationship with him.

Keep him separate or integrate him into your flock? For now I would definitely work with him on his own, in his own cage. It is much easier to control the variables and distractions that would make achieving your relationship building goals difficult if he were in with the other two. Budgies do thrive in flocks though and being a part of a flock enables a wealth of observational learning. Once you have established an improved level of trust and confiding responses in your presence you can consider co-housing all three of them. That would definitely be the long term goal. If your existing two Budgies are already savvy operators within your home and have regular fly arounds, I'm confident that you will find your guy is watching them and learning where suitable perching positions are. When he finally gets the chance to join them he will likely follow their lead - and then the fun begins

I would also highly recommend accessing the following articles available here at WPT for additional insights and for the `next steps’ once you have your Budgie literally `eating out of your hand’ ☺

http://www.parrots.org/pdfs/all_about_parrots/reference_library/behaviour_and_environmental_enrichment/PS%2019%201%20Feb%2007%20Parrot%20Trust%20SM.pdf

http://www.parrots.org/pdfs/all_about_parrots/reference_library/behaviour_and_environmental_enrichment/empowering_parrots.pdf

Best of luck from Down Under,
Jim McKendry
http://www.pbec.com.au

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day Bruce.
Thanks so much for accessing WPT for some advice and additional food for thought on what is, in my opinion, one of the most significant issues surrounding the keeping of parrots as companion animals. I am a major advocate of maintaining full flight capability of all parrots kept in captivity and I strongly feel that we need to make a fundamental shift away from 19th and 20th century paradigms of thinking about what is acceptable and not acceptable in regards to our expectations of companion parrots and develop a 21st century approach towards their care, training and management. Simply – parrots are `built to behave’ in a range of specific biologically functional ways. The foundation of that functional behaviour is the capability of flight. Indeed, it is when we start to attempt to modify the anatomy of our parrots or create expectations of them that are completely incompatible with the expression of their natural biological tendencies that we then experience `behaviour problems’. It shouldn’t be a surprise to us that when we keep parrots in contexts that afford them opportunities to socialize, fly, vocalize, establish territories, forage, breed and behave in biologically functional ways that we experience very few difficulties with their care. In my nearly 20 years of keeping parrots, and over 10 years of consulting with owners, wing clipping is, from my own anecdotal experience, perhaps the number one precursor to many of the most significant behavioural health issues I encounter and subsequent reasons for their failure in pet homes. I don’t subscribe to the common thought that wing clipping is `a personal choice’. A personal choice for the bird or the owner? If we are genuine and authentic about promoting relationships with parrots as pets built on a foundation of respect, trust and appreciation for accommodating them to the best of our abilities then such decisions should be made in the primary interest of what is ultimately the best for the bird – not simply to cater for the limitations of the owner’s environmental circumstance. A 21st century approach to companion parrot care embraces their flight capability and challenges owners to develop both the appropriate training skills to manage that successfully and to create an appropriate environment to ensure that flight is catered for safely. Ultimately – it’s our expectations of our parrots as pets and the environment that we provide for them that need to be modified – not their wings. The justifications and rationale presented for wing clipping really don’t maintain validity today. Flying into windows, getting stuck in the toilet or the frying pan, escaping out the door are all examples of problems with the management of the flighted bird – not the capability of flight itself. I often use the analogy that if your pet dog ran out of the gate and bit the postman on the leg would you tie his legs up to prevent that from happening again or would you just make sure the gate is locked? Parrots, unfortunately, are just about the last of our companion animals that are subject to socially endorsed physical modification. We no longer tail dock or ear trim dogs (at least not here in Australia) and educated people would consider de-fanging of a captive venomous snake to be safely kept as a pet inhumane. These are practices that were once accepted but are no longer. It’s a shame that some members of the veterinary community still seem to endorse wing-clipping and continue to promote dominance hierarchy based approaches to their handling and training, hence providing much of the social validity for their practice. What we really need to be advocating and striving for is improved education for a modern approach to the keeping of a parrot as a pet and being progressive about our approaches to parrot care.

I wrote a three-part article for Australian Birdkeeper Magazine back in 2008 that provided a very thorough overview of the keeping of flighted parrots. You can access this material via backorder of the Aug/Sep 2008, Oct/Nov 2008 & Dec/Jan 2009 issues of Australian Birdkeeper Magazine at http://www.birdkeeper.com.auu. The second and third articles provide insights into the training and management of flighted companion parrots – definitely well worth reading. Much of the following rationale for maintaining flight in companion parrots is excerpted from the first article in the series…

Let’s Define the Boundaries
Any discussion of `flight’ and `companion parrots’ really needs prefacing with a clear distinction between the concepts of a `flighted parrot’ and a `free-flighted parrot’. The focus of this article is strictly on the philosophy, training and management of `flighted’ parrots, birds allowed full flight capabilities but kept indoors or within a suitable flight enclosure. It is critical for parrot owners to realise that successful and ethical keepers of flighted companion parrots know their limitations, their bird’s limitations, and have a conscious awareness of controlling as many of the potential variables that come into play with the keeping of flighted birds. This is only achieved through the implementation of proper training and the provision of suitable and safe housing. When we choose to keep a flighted parrot we must also accept an essential set of responsibilities and obligations. These are...
• Ensuring the safety and welfare of our birds at all times through careful arrangement of their flight environment and;
• Protecting the biodiversity and biosecurity of our surrounding natural environment by not allowing a flighted parrot outside of a flight enclosure or secure indoor flight space
Adhering to the above will ensure that risks associated with flight are minimised or completely negated.

Why have a flighted pet parrot?
In my experiences as a keeper of flighted companion parrots for many years, working professionally with free-flighted birds at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, and through consulting with pet parrot owners on behaviour management, I have been able to identify and validate the following reasons why maintaining flight is so important for our parrots...

Increase in functional behaviours: Parrots that have retained their flight capabilities can be observed functionally engaging with their environment at higher levels than parrots deprived of flight. We often perceive this enhanced level of engagement as an increase in `confidence’ and I would certainly agree with that. Functional behaviours, such as foraging and exploratory behaviour provide the foundation for improved behavioural outcomes in companion parrots. Flight facilitates a significant enhancement in a parrot’s control over its environment through providing additional scope for decision-making and choice. When empowered with these opportunities, parrots can be seen to cope better and adapt more successfully to the limitations of the captive environment.

Reduction in development of stereotypical behaviours: As an increase in exploration and engagement with their environment is observed, often there is a corresponding decrease in the development of stereotypical behaviour. Whilst flight is not the magic cure for removal of behaviours such as feather picking and other significant behavioural health issues, it is often a critical component of a management plan to avoid their development or reduce their occurrence once established.

Reduction in level of dependency: The next step along a continuum of behavioural development that is supported through flight is a reduction in the level of dependency on the human carer. Parrots deprived of flight often become almost totally reliant upon the human carer for movement around their environment. We can acknowledge that flight is important to a parrot in supporting an enhanced level of physical engagement with its environment. It is reasonable then to suggest that with that comes a degree of independence that may potentially reduce behavioural problems associated with an over-reliance on human carers for social and environmental stimulation.

Enhancement of relationship with owner through improved training and reinforcement schedules: Keeping a parrot that can fly challenges the companion parrot owner to develop their own skills in the training and management of a pet that is empowered with independence and options for greater influence over its environment. In my experience this sets up wonderful learning and relationship development experiences for both the companion parrot and the owner. The relationship that an owner of a flighted pet parrot has with their bird is one that demands a foundation of trust and positive reinforcement history. It can be wonderfully rewarding and enriching to take that next step in supporting a reduction in over-dependence and an increase in your role as a teacher and positively reinforcing presence in your parrots environment.

Therapeutic benefits for behavioural recovery and rehabilitation: I first started working with other companion parrot owners on supporting the behavioural and enrichment needs of their birds back in 1999. Reflecting on the depth of that first-hand experience I can suggest that flight has been critical in the behavioural recovery of many birds I have worked with, particularly those that have developed feather-picking behaviours. Often there has been a need to establish outdoor flight enclosures to further enhance the environmental scope and opportunity for functional behaviour. Outdoor flight space offers immense benefits in reducing or completely avoiding behavioural health issues. I would certainly encourage parrot owners to consider constructing a safe and secure outdoor flight enclosure for their pet parrot. I have worked with a small number of dedicated clients on the design of such enclosures and the shift in experience scope that their parrots now have access has been brilliant to be a part of.

Earlier diagnosis of change in state of physical health: Early diagnosis of the state of health of a pet parrot can be absolutely critical in ensuring that potentially life-threatening illness is treated quickly. There is no argument that a parrot that engages in flight as part of its daily behavioural repertoire will offer a more overt and observable indication of a change in state of health than a wing-clipped or flightless parrot. Parrots that do not fly already present low rates of functional behaviour and may tend to be inactive for longer periods of the day than a flighted bird. Daily food intake may also be less in wing-clipped birds than observed in flighted parrots. Observable resting durations are often longer in wing-clipped birds and some may even present less functional vocal behaviours than might be expected from flighted birds. This can result in a keeper failing to recognise early symptoms of illness that we normally associate with lack of activity, lack of engagement in enrichment, and lack of interest in novel objects in their environment. My morning walk around my aviaries will quickly inform me if one of my parrots is not 100%, simply based on my observations of their activity level, keenness to fly to the hand, and general mobility around their enclosure.

Bruce – the above is really only scratching the surface of developing a full argument for maintaining flight in our pet parrots but it’s hopefully offered a reasonable alternative to much of what you have read elsewhere on the internet. I would encourage all WPT members to access the article series I put together for ABK Magazine to develop a full picture of my own philosophy and approach. A flighted companion is indeed a challenging one. The 21st century companion parrot keeper will embrace that challenge and hopefully leave a legacy for future generations of companion parrot carers that respects and caters for flight in their birds.

Kind Regards, Jim McKendry
http://www.pbec.com.au

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day Zali,
All Australian wildlife is protected under our various Nature Conservation and Environmental Protection Acts at State, Territory and National levels. Wild Galahs are protected by these laws and as such, when found injured in the wild need to be taken to a registered wildlife carer where they can be assessed for re-release potential and provided with any necessary health care. I would encourage you to seek the advice and support of such a carer in your local area rather than to try and tame such a bird to keep as a pet. A `wild’ Galah is exactly that – it needs to be released back into the wild if healthy.

If your local wildlife carer or veterinarian assesses the bird and considers that its injuries or condition make it unsuitable for re-release then you can apply for a permit to keep the bird from the relevant State wildlife management authority. If that’s the situation and you intend to work with the bird to hopefully have some level of interactivity with it then you will find the articles available via the WPT Reference Library the best place to start learning how. Try the following link to get you on that learning journey...
http://www.parrots.org/index.php/referencelibrary/beginnerguidetoparrots/

Kind Regards, Jim McKendry
Parrot Behaviour & Enrichment Consultations
http://www.pbec.com.au

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day Heather,
Thankyou for sending in your questions to the WPT. I have to say that the concept of a large indoor/outdoor flight area for your parrots is one that really gets me excited! I have worked with a few clients down here in Australia on the design of enrichment flights for their pet birds and it’s absolutely one of the most enjoyable and rewarding aspects of the consultancy work that I do. Given that I can’t actually be on-site, and that I haven’t seen the environment that you are talking about, my response will be fairly general but will hopefully set you up with a few ideas to help you stay on track with this project. Even if some of the considerations below do not apply to your specific situation, they may apply for others considering a similar idea so hopefully this can be a relevant posting for other parrot owners as well ☺

Avoiding Neighborly `Issues’...
First up, given that you are considering a significant modification to the home then you should make sure that you have gained any necessary council approvals first. There would be nothing worse than investing a few thousand dollars to make this sort of set up a reality, only to find that your neighbours aren’t sympathetic to Macaws saying `Hello’ to them now that they have access to an outdoor environment. Council authorities can really give you grief over any unapproved modifications to your home if they result in complaints from neighbours. At the very least, talk to your neighbours if they are close and likely to be affected in some way by bird noise. Make sure that they’re cool with the possibility of a bit of colourful parrot action happening over the fence in the future

You have asked a lot of questions about the design aspects so I will attempt to offer some suggestions for each. Ultimately, the choice will be yours so take the following advice onboard where it works for your specific situation and continue to seek advice where my suggestions may not offer the best solution for you ☺

Where to start...
The first stage is to actually draw up some 2D plans of what you want to construct – the same as a top elevation and side elevation on a house plan. Measure up your garage area, plus the additional outdoor extension and draw these plans to scale. Once you have a basic 2D plan you can contact a local sheet metal or metal fabrication business and talk to them about building the extension for the outdoor area. The base materials that you should use should be galvanized steel square tubing for the frame and a combination of galvanized weldmesh and flat steel sheeting for the walls. My advice is to not waste your money on anything other than steel – it simply won’t stand up to the wear, tear and weathering. A metal fabrication business should be able to construct the panels you need for the outdoor extension and hopefully install them onsite.

The exact materials and common dimensions used vary from country to country so talk to your manufacturer/metal fabricator to work out the specifics. With all new weldmesh wire, make sure it is free of small lumps of weld on the joins as these can be picked off by parrots, resulting in heavy metal poisoning. It is also a good idea to scrub down the weldmesh with vinegar and allow it to weather for a week before placing birds in the enclosure, once again to avoid potential hazards with new wire. Avoid using cheap weldmesh as it is inevitably problematic. I also paint all of my outdoor enclosures using a water based low sheen black outdoor paint. It is harmless to the birds, fast drying, and if you use low sheen black you can see straight through the wire – it almost disappears as the black paint reflects very little light.

Flooring Substrate...
For outdoor enclosures it is best, in my opinion, to use a substrate that drains well and can be easily surface raked clean each day or hosed clean on a regular basis. I never use concrete outdoors as it requires a lot of water to clean and inevitably you experience algae and mould build up if it is left damp. Once this happens you’re backed into using chemicals to get it clean again. I prefer to use decomposed granite as a flooring substrate as it is earthy and natural in aesthetic appearance, drains well, compacts down to form a very hard flooring, surface rakes well and only requires a top dressing a few times a year to keep it looking fantastic. You can also use crusher dust, although this is a blue-grey colour, looks less natural and can get dusty when raked if it is very dry. A good alternative though if that's all that is available or if you're on a budget. There are a number of other alternatives but you would need to discuss what is available with your landscape supplier.

Water Systems...
Having a water mister linked to your outdoor tap is fantastic for parrots in outdoor enclosures – especially tropical species such as Conures and Macaws. Once again, your best resource here is a local landscape gardener. You will use standard outdoor black irrigation hosing and you can select from a whole range of nozzles that can be easily added to the length or irrigation tube to offer a variety of sprays from drips to 360 degree misting. Once connected to an outdoor hose, you will be able to run the irrigation pipe above the aviary and offer your birds a misting rain shower `on tap’ ☺ Just make sure that the irrigation pipe is elevated off the wire and out of the reach of beaks. Running a length of additional steel tubing across the roof to facilitate this is something that you can incorporate into the design with your metal fabricator. Personally I would just stick with bowls inside the aviary. Running internal water systems, small ponds etc can really become a maintenance chore and any opportunity for pools of water to become stagnated or neglected will eventually become a hazard. With an overhead mister on the outdoor section of the enclosure you have covered that need well enough for the parrots.

Further Ideas...
There is an excellent reference with loads of pictures and ideas for enrichment in indoor/outdoor areas for parrots called the `The Parrot Enrichment Activity Book’. This has been compiled by Kris Porter and is a free download that is available from the WPT website at http://www.parrots.org/index.php/referencelibrary/behaviourandenviroenrich/ You might also like to check out Kris’s own website for video clips at http://www.parrotenrichment.com
I’ve also attached a couple of images with this posting of a flight area that a friend of mine had constructed for her three African Greys and another enclosure that a client had built for her Macaw. Both are integrated into the existing home design. It is similar in concept to what you are trying to achieve. If you would like to contact her directly then just send me an e-mail and I will pass the details on. Also, you can have a look at some of the images of my aviaries via my gallery page on my website at http://www.pbec.com.au/gallery.html Hopefully there will be some more ideas in there for you as well ☺

There are a huge number of design areas that I haven’t discussed here so perhaps if you get some basic plans worked out for what you want to achieve, the sizes and some of your furnishing ideas then perhaps you can e-mail me and I can give you some feedback on what will work well and what might become an issue.
Good luck with your project – I would love to see some photographs when you have finished!

Kind Regards from Down Under,
Jim McKendry – Parrot Behaviour & Enrichment Consultations
http://www.pbec.com.au

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day Josh, Apologies for the delayed reply but as I haven’t ever observed the behaviour you described I spent some time getting in touch with a buddy of mine, Matt Schmitt from Houston Zoo, and I also checked in with Rosemary Low, one of the world’s most experienced Lory keepers. I asked both if they had ever seen the behaviour you described. Unfortunately, neither Matt nor Rosemary has seen a dusky, or any lory, sitting on the head of another - so that makes 4 of us! Rosemary wondered if the Dusky was handraised, in which case we do tend to see quite a few odd behaviours in handraised lories. My own lories that were handraised present some very strange behaviour from time to time that defies explanation. In any case, I can’t offer any insights based on personal experience for this one. My only suggestion, which I’m certain that as a keeper you’ve already considered anyway, is whether the behaviour is resulting in any stress to the poor lory whose head is being used as a perch ☺ If it’s just random behaviour with no resulting conflict or stress in the flock then it will likely diminish over time.

Thanks for asking!
Kind Regards from Down Under - Jim McKendry
http://www.pbec.com.au

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day Asa, Thought provoking question – I’m glad you asked ☺.

Debate, generalisations and assumptions about the comparative `intelligence’ level of different parrot species has long been an issue that seems to generate some poorly considered discussion amongst parrot keepers. Most of what I read on parrot intelligence has a tendency to set criteria for making judgements on perceived `intelligence’ that has little relevance to what would be considered `intelligent’ for that species in the wild. As a wildlife biologist, if I have to consider the `intelligence’ of different parrot species then it’s in an ecological and environmental context – relevant to the behaviour of the individual in the wild.

Unfortunately, the criterion for intelligence usually set by parrot owners is often highly anthropomorphic and I rarely see any discussion of parrot intelligence accompanied by a suitable and appropriate definition. Perhaps we can consider that here. A quick look at a variety of available definitions for `intelligence' suggest that it can be defined as an ability to comprehend, understand, benefit from experience, solve problems, use language and learn. These are all skills that every parrot, regardless of the species, needs to employ to be successful in their natural environment. When we appreciate the huge variation in ecological contexts that the 350+ different parrots species that we are concerned with come from, we realise that all have learned how to solve the key problem of surviving and succeeding to the next generation. That, for me, is my best indicator of `intelligence’ – success of an animal in its natural environmental state. Drop me off somewhere deep in the jungles of South America, or the arid inland of Australia, and I’m not sure that I’d last more than a couple of days - and I'm supposed to be a fairly intelligent guy.

In captive environments we have a tendency to place demands on parrots and make judgements about their `intelligence’ in contexts that often have a huge set of unrealistic expectations embedded in them. These captive contexts often also fail to provide the most appropriate conditions, stimuli and teaching practices that are required to set the bird up to succeed. What might be best to question is the `intelligence’ of the keeper and whether or not they have provided the environmental conditions required to facilitate their parrot demonstrating its capacity to engage effectively with its surrounds, whether that be in performing a trick, extending their vocabulary or simply flying to the hand on cue. The parrot, whether it’s an African Grey, Lovebird, Budgerigar or Hyacinth Macaw, has the capacity to learn – do we have the capacity to be the good teacher they need and set up the environment they require for their `true’ intelligence to shine?

Kind Regards from `Down Under’
Jim McKendry
http://www.pbec.com.au

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day Keith, It’s great to hear that you are motivated to interact with your African Grey and hopefully achieve some training goals! To set you up on the right pathway to developing some `trick’ training skills I would suggest checking out the following resources already available to you via the WPT website...

Link 1:
http://www.parrots.org/index.php/referencelibrary/beginnerguidetoparrots/

At the link above make sure you download the following two articles...
• New Parrot Owner Behaviour Guidelines by Barbara Heidenreich
• Training a Bird to Turn Around on Cue by Barbara Heidenreich

Link 2:
http://www.parrots.org/index.php/referencelibrary/behaviourandenviroenrich/

At this link try checking out...
• Empowering Parrots by Susan Friedman
• Does Your Parrot Have a Trust Account? by Steve Martin
• Shaping New Behaviours by Susan Friedman

The above articles will offer a huge insight into how you can apply positive reinforcement to achieve any training goal you might set with Jack. I would also highly recommend purchasing two excellent DVD’s from Barbara Heidenreich. These will be a great visual reference for you for developing your trick training skills and have many examples of both novel `tricks’ and practical behaviours that you can start working on with Jack. Check out...
• Parrot Behaviour & Training DVD
• Training Your Bird for the Veterinary Exam DVD

Both of these videos are available from the WPT store so click on the links to get there and get the credit card ready ☺

Lastly – you have asked about `potty training’. There are a number of articles already available on the Internet that do a reasonable job of explaining this training goal. I would suggest simply doing a quick Google search for `Potty Training a Parrot’ and access the information that is readily available. I do have a caution with Potty Training though. In my experience it can result in a parrot that holds out on defecating for excessive periods of time if the behaviour has been placed on a cue and there hasn’t been variable reinforcement also offered for defecating within the cage or on a stand without a cue. You will find in the articles available that there is general advice on how to capture the defecating behaviour and reinforce this, but make sure that you also set up a reinforcement schedule for defecating at other times either in his cage and on any suitable stand away from his cage. This will hopefully ensure that he doesn’t sit around waiting for your cue to relieve himself! Everything that you will learn from the above article links and DVD suggestions will certainly help you out as a master potty trainer ☺

Kind Regards from `Down Under’
Jim McKendry
Parrot Behaviour & Enrichment Consultations
http://www.pbec.com.au

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day Dorothy, Thanks for your e-mail and request for advice on the training and relationship building process with your Orange-winged Amazons. I have also recently acquired a 5-year-old Amazon parrot (a Yellow-naped – Amazona auropalliata) that has been an aviary bird for that time and I am embarking on a similar relationship-building journey. What a privilege it is to be working with such a remarkable genus as the Amazona!

I am aware that you have worked with the Natural Encounters team and Steve Martin as a participant in their training workshops. I was keen to pass your e-mail on to a mutual buddy who you worked with at NEI – Nicholas Bishop. Unfortunately he’s roughing it somewhere in the Pantanal with the Guru watching Hyacinth Macaws ☺ Tough work if you can get it. In Nic’s absence I’ll do my best to help out. The advice that I would impart here is essentially the same as I am sure that you would have received during your training so what I think would be best is to revisit and highlight a few key training and relationship building principles for you to reflect on. I am confident that you can work from there to set some new goals that will hopefully provide the momentum you are seeking in developing your relationship and trust account with your Amazons.

*Goal-setting: Be clear about exactly what behavioural goal you want to set and be conscious of setting goals for each individual bird, as it is obvious from your e-mail that each of your Amazons is at a different level of trust in working with you. Keep in mind that your major goal of having the birds step on to your hand is really only achieved after having reached minor goals that are essential in an effective training and relationship building continuum. That leads into thinking about the next critical part of the picture...

*Map out your Approximations: Once you have established a clear behavioural goal you can work out the approximations you need to be conscious of for reinforcing and shaping the behaviours required for achieving those goals. Perhaps the most common mistake made at this level is by setting up an approximation schedule that makes it too difficult for the parrot to achieve quick and effective learning, or possibly even offering a reinforcement schedule that inadvertently reduces motivation for the parrot to progress further. This requires reflection on the next critical concept for improving training success...

*Criteria Setting for Success: When we reach a point in our relationship building or behaviour-training process where progress is not being achieved its time to consider what our criteria for success has been. In some situations it may help to take a step back in our approximation schedule and lower the criteria for success. However, if you are finding yourself offering reinforcement continually for behaviours you have already captured, you may be inadvertently minimising the motivation for your parrot to progress further in your approximation schedule. In such a situation you may be able to kick-start some forward momentum by actually raising your criteria for success before further reinforcement is offered.

*Size of Reinforcement: One goal you seem to have set is having your Amazons stay in closer proximity to you for longer periods of time. Rearranging your environment will help the shaping of that behaviour. Think about how you might be able to deliver reinforcement treats in contexts that increase the duration of stay near you. One suggestion here is re-think your use of a whole nut and instead place nut fragments in a bowl that you can position where you observe the birds to be secure and confident in their behaviour. Are there possibly other reinforcement treats that you can utilise? You then need to consider your proximity to that bowl as a separate set of approximations to work through. Your daily schedule of feeding and working with the birds can lead you to consider the final training suggestion that I would like to make...

*Maximising Motivation: You should be able to use your feeding schedule to your advantage by ensuring that are attempting to interact with the Amazons at times when their motivation to receive the treats you have on offer is maximised. Combine this strategy with careful arrangement of the environment, consideration of your approximations of proximity of the feeders to you, and consideration of the size of reinforcement treats in the feeders. You can then quickly develop a context whereby you are enhancing the level of desensitisation to you simply through the delivery of their daily feeds. I implement this process daily with my own breeding pair of Galahs to maintain my trust account with a pair of birds who may otherwise have little need for a `human’ in their social spectrum.

Expanding on all of the above – time to have a good read of the following articles from the WPT Reference Library...

• `Does your parrot have a trust account?’ – Steve Martin
• `Empowering Parrots’ – Susan Friedman PhD
• `Step-up – Command or Request?’ – Barbara Heidenreich
• `Shaping new behaviours’ – Susan Friedman PhD

These are all freely downloadable from: http://www.parrots.org/index.php/referencelibrary/behaviourandenviroenrich/

Lastly, I’m not completely confident in the use of a `stick’ as part of your relationship and trust building process but I can’t really envisage how you are using it from your e-mail. Personally, I prefer to challenge myself to arrange the environment of the bird I am working with so that reinforcement delivery can be achieved effectively and possible aversives impeding reinforcement delivery are minimised or removed completely. It might be valuable to revisit some of the excellent resources available on target training to shift the focus of the stick as a `step-up’ prop to one that might have more beneficial applications in shaping approximations to you as a target. Barbara Heidenreich’s DVD is good first port of call for ideas there.

Good luck Dorothy!

Kind Regards from `Down Under’
Jim McKendry
Parrot Behaviour & Enrichment Consultations
http://www.pbec.com.au