Ask An Expert: Jim McKendry

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

Answered by Jim McKendry:

Hi Petra, Your questions certainly highlight just how misleading so much of what is written and discussed about parrots can be. Whenever you read or hear something that doesn’t quite fit with your better logic then question it and challenge the person making those statements, such as the one you described, to qualify their thinking. For all of us it’s still a work in progress, but some obviously have more work to do than others! It’s really frustrating reading some of the generalisations people make about parrots when they obviously haven’t ever spent a minute of their time observing them in the wild. It’s a great leveller out there. Hopefully you can find a little more logic here at the WPT site. Take a holiday from the message boards and make sure you download all of those cool articles in the reference library, as there’s some real gold in there!

First up, housing Rangi and Kea in the same enclosure is most certainly feasible – provided that your two African Greys are compatible and that the enclosure adequately caters for two parrots in terms of enrichment and access to shared resources and perches. Compatibility can be determined through your observations of the interactions that they are obviously already having away from the cages. You need to reflect on the frequency of antagonistic behaviour between them, how they react towards each other in the presence of a shared food bowl or enrichment item, tolerance levels towards each other on the same perch and observable body language indicators that suggest a degree of comfort in close proximity to each other. You mentioned that there is already regurgitation of food from one to another so I’m inclined to think there’s a pretty good situation developing there. Food regurgitation is classic pair solicitation behaviour between Greys so it’s a good guide to compatibility. Do you observe any other good compatibility indicators, such as mutual preening?

You mention that there is some occasional aggression from Rangi towards Kea. This doesn’t immediately mean they are not suitable for cohabitation in the same enclosure, as all of my pairs will at times be aggressive towards each other for a variety of reasons. With a bonded and compatible pair this rarely escalates beyond posturing but it is important to monitor such interactions to ensure that the frequency is not inappropriate or that physical encounters are quickly resolved. It comes down to good observational skills on your part.

Personally, I love the idea of working towards Rangi and Kea sharing an enclosure. It’s achievable but you must make sure that you cater for the transition with sensitivity to their observable level of comfort with each other and ensure that the shared enclosure is adequate in size to properly cater for two African Greys. That’s critical as there are pressures on each bird achieving spatial comfort within small indoor cages that are relieved in larger aviary type enclosures, thus potentially making it more of a challenge. Start with short durations of shared cage time when you are at home to observe the birds. As they become more familiar with the routine, and if it’s `happy families’, then the time can be extended. It’s also another tip to have a complete perch change and furnishing rearrangement if you are using an existing cage as the new, shared environment. This way you can introduce them both into a `new’ environment and give them time to explore it and establish their perching preferences without the variable of pre-existing favourites ☺.

Your next question was about your response to biting or beaking behaviour. Reflect on the function you think that Kea letting out a yelp serves when Rangi bites her. This is a clear and distinct communication between two parrots. We’re humans, not parrots. I’m not keen on setting up consequential responses to the behaviour of our parrots that mimics how we observe two parrots interacting with each other because, for a variety of reasons, it’s unlikely to be effective or appropriate over time as a learning/teaching tool. For starters, the fact that Rangi stops biting you immediately and redirects his focus may indicate that he finds your yelping an aversive stimulus. Effectively you are reverting back to using negative reinforcement in your behaviour management. My advice is to re-evaluate your interactions with Rangi and become more sensitive to indicators that you have by now associated with an impending bite or aggressive encounter and start rearranging your environment or handling criteria with him to avoid the encounters occurring. Time to replace your current response with new strategies based on differential reinforcement. Check out Susan Friedman and Lee McGuire’s ripper of a case study on biting at the WPT reference library in the article `The Success Files’. It’s a beauty. One contributing problem you are dealing with is the use of the beak to lead when stepping onto your hand. In my experience, true use of the beak to lead is done very gently, some large parrots even do so with the front of their upper mandible, not with an open beak grasp. If your `stepping up’ interaction is resulting in an uncomfortable level of beak use then you can start working on training your Greys to step up without leading with the beak. A great visual aid in achieving this can be accessed via Barbara Heidenreich’s DVD `Parrot Training & Behaviour’. It’s also time to have a read of Susan Friedman’s cracker of a `step by step guide’ (no pun intended) to improving step up behaviour titled `Empowering Parrots’, also available at the WPT one stop `free’ shop of good oil advice – the Reference Library ☺

Good luck with Rangi and Kea. I would love to hear how you go with them over the next few months.

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

Answered by Jim McKendry:

G’day and thankyou sincerely for sending your question in to WPT!

Sounds like your Galah has found a very caring and dedicated new home - awesome! Your question raises some really important issues and prompts some great food for thought about how we manage our companion parrots. I’ve pulled out a few key sections of your question and I’ll do my best to offer some insights and advice on each for you ☺

`Garden Liberties & Getting Out and About’
I’m frequently asked about managing `outside’ time for companion parrots – particularly here in Australia, where the weather is enticing and the natural environment is filled with stimulation and opportunities for visual and aural enrichment. It really does tend to encourage a lot of parrot owners to consider affording their companion bird some of the same experiences that the wild parrots flying through the neighbourhood enjoy. The sentiment and thinking behind offering some `backyard adventure time’ is very understandable. However, what we must always consider first is our responsibility in ensuring that whatever experiences we expose our parrots to, their safety is prioritised.

Personally, I would prefer to see thinking shift from pushing the boundaries of certain liberties via the use of harnesses, tethers or restraints, to the creation of a safe and secure outdoor enclosure. The purchase or design and construction of an outdoor enclosure can achieve all of the goals that a companion parrot owner has for extending the enrichment schedule for their pet bird – without the lack of control over all of the potential variables that compromise safety when taking parrots outside. Outdoor enclosures that are thoughtfully designed, even in an area as small as a courtyard, can offer a fantastic richness of experiences and I would certainly encourage all companion parrot owners to consider taking the next step in achieving an additional environment option for their otherwise house bound parrot.

Moving your parrot from indoors to the outdoor enclosure then offers an excellent opportunity to develop some basic training skills with your parrot that will be useful in other facets of companion parrot keeping. Safe transport of our parrots from indoors to an outside enclosure requires `pet pack’ or `crate’ training. To access the best visual learning aid for achieving the training approximations involved in pet pack training I highly recommend checking out Barbara Heidenreich’s DVD, `Training your Parrot for the Veterinary Exam’. This great resource clearly demonstrates what is involved and the steps are achievable for parrot owners of all experience levels. I will add that in my experience it is much easier to train a parrot to enter an open wire `carry cage’ as opposed to a dark pet pack or crate. That’s a bit of a `hot tip’ I guess for potentially achieving the behaviour faster for parrots who normally display an aversive response to attempts to encourage them into a traditional crate. If you’ve ever seen how long it takes a wild pair of parrots to take the plunge and go into a dark nest hole then you’ll understand that there is a significant natural behavioural aversion to overcome in entering a dark enclosure. Once you have trained your parrot to enter your carry cage, crate, pet pack or whatever is achievable, you now have the additional benefit of making trips to the vet, boarding service or friend’s places less stressful and much safer.

`Harness Use with Parrots’
You’re probably still wondering about the harness option right? I’ll have to admit to not being the biggest fan of the use of harnesses on parrots. Although I do not use harnesses with any of my birds, initially I really did have faith in the concept that if people engage in harness training it might lead to less wing clipping – something I am a major vocal advocate for changing in our approach to keeping parrots as pets. Over time though, my experiences have reduced my willingness to embrace the harness option. Different people have different opinions, but as someone who works regularly with the companion parrot community, I’ve now seen more than enough misuse and poor training and application of harness wearing than I’m comfortable with. I’m also aware of some excellent parrot owners who have trained their parrot to wear a harness with a great degree of skill and consideration of the necessary steps in the desensitisation and familiarisation process that is critical in avoiding problem behaviours and undesirable responses to wearing a restraint. I simply don’t have the confidence in the skills of most companion parrot owners I work with in advocating the use of a restraint on their parrot unless they have been guided by an experienced animal trainer.

Aside from the concern that the use of a harness can very easily lead to a false sense of security about the safety of the parrot when then provided with subsequent outdoor liberties, the greater concern for me is the potential for damage to the parrot-carer trust account if the training of accepting a harness is not properly achieved. In the case of our Galah here, this is absolutely critical and a necessary cautionary note for people keen to generalise about applying harnesses to any pet parrot without considering the differences we tend to see between individual birds in their response to potentially intrusive handling. The development of intense over-generalised fear responses or, on the flip-side, aggression, can easily occur as a result of improper training of harness wearing. Such behavioural problems can quickly manifest in parrots who we have observed displaying fear responses towards certain stimuli if we have failed to be considerate of this. Your Galah has already displayed an aversion to the harness and there is a risk of this aversion then extending towards your hands and you yourself in association with the harness if you attempt to place it on your Galah without being extremely careful in your training approximations. Some self-reflection and evaluation of whether you feel confident in achieving your goal without eroding the trust your Galah has in you is required but I’m doubtful whether your Galah is a great candidate for this training goal at this stage. If I haven’t talked you out of it then my best advice is to follow a similar set of training approximations as those that Barbara Heidenreich uses for some of the behaviours shown in her `Training for the Veterinary Exam’ DVD, such as towelling. Barbara also has the only online article on harness training that I am comfortable referring interested people to and this can be located at http://www.parrotchronicles.com/2005/features/harness/harness.htm If you access these resources first and succeed in developing a strong enough association with the harness and delivery of positively reinforcing consequences then hopefully you can avoid the potential pitfalls of failing to make the experience a rewarding one.

My advice – acquire a well designed and safe outdoor enclosure, train your Galah to enter a carry cage so you can safely transport him from inside to outside and keep your trust account full!

Just finally...

`Only bites with excitement or fear’
Those few words set off some alarm bells for me as an experienced keeper of cockatoos because they really do suggest a level of acceptance of being bitten as part of parrot ownership. I would like to challenge you to reflect on the times when you or anyone in your Galah’s environment has experienced a bite. We need to make sure that we accept responsibility for these encounters and arrange the environment and stimuli that may have previously led to such encounters in a different way to avoid a bite occurring in the future. What can start off early in the relationship as minor incidents can quickly develop into behaviours that intensify over time, and when it comes to biting – prevention is most definitely better than cure ☺.

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