Answered by Steve Martin & Staff:

Hello Crystal,
My name is Miranda DeVries and I am an avian trainer with Steve Martin's Natural Encounters, Inc. First, I would like to commend you for seeking help so quickly for Joey and your husband, Evan. It says a lot about your compassion for Joey that you want him to have a positive and reinforcing relationship with everyone in your household.
My first thoughts when reading your question was that any man who enters Joey’s life after the abuse and mistreatment he may have suffered by his previous male owner may have to start his relationship with Joey basically from scratch. The past does not equal the present, however, and despite what may have occurred in the past you and your husband have the power to shape and modify the behavior you’re seeing now. This may sound a little daunting at first but with lots of positive reinforcements and interactions I believe Joey and Evan can have a relationship that they both are happy with.

You are well on your way to helping Evan and Joey build a positive relationship by not forcing Evan on Joey. Forcing a bird to be around someone or do something that makes the bird fearful can lead to more aggressive behaviors, even biting. Any interactions Evan and Joey have right now should be when Joey is in his cage because from your question you say that is the only place Joey will take treats from Evan. I do not recommend that Evan read to Joey because from your question it would seem that the simple presence of Evan is a negative experience for Joey right now since he may not trust Evan. I love your idea of having Evan feed Joey his favorite treats. The treat Evan gives Joey is something positive that he will begin to associate with your husband. You want to make sure, though, that when Evan does this the body language that Joey is presenting is positive and calm, and that he is not displaying possible signs of fear or aggression such as quick, jerking body movements, feathers slicked tightly against his body, or alarm calling. If Joey does present Evan with negative body language Evan should simply walk away from his cage. Walking away from the cage allows Joey to have power over his environment. Evan can simply return later and give Joey a treat when he is presenting positive body language. By giving Joey the power to make Evan leave if he is feeling uncomfortable, and limiting their time together to those instances when Joey’s behavior suggests that he is feeling comfortable about Evan’s presence, this will only help both Evan and your bird decrease the amount of negative interactions they have, therefore making their overall history together a more positive one in total. After the positive interactions of Evan giving Joey his treat have occurred for awhile you and your husband might notice that Joey looks at Evan when he enters the room or moves toward his food bowl before he even gets the treat.

After Evan can give Joey a treat in his bowl (that is both positive and reinforcing to both) he can start to give him treats from his hand while Joey sits nicely on his perch. At first Evan can bait Joey away from his bowl by showing him a treat in his hand over by Joey’s perch. Evan can eventually fade out the bait and just use a hand motion to send Joey to his perch and feed him through the cage. Just remember if Joey shows Evan any negative body language (behavior) Evan should simply walk away and return when Joey’s behavior is more positive – the basic rule that we follow in all our training is to reward behaviors that we like and to ignore the ones that we don’t. We always strive to give our birds the power to choose whether or not to participate in our training sessions. If our birds choose not to participate, by displaying body language such as the examples mentioned above, we simply leave with the treats and try again later when they offer body language that is calm and inviting, such as still body posture with loose feathering, or walking towards the side of the cage where we are standing.

Once Joey is comfortable with Evan coming up to his cage and feeding him, Evan may even try getting some of Joey’s behaviors on cue while still in his cage. The behavior could be simply a pleasing sound that Joey makes or targeting a toy with his beak. When training these behaviors, if Evan finds he cannot give Joey his treat quickly after the correct behavior is performed, he can use a bridge. A bridge is a signal to the animal that what it has just done at that exact moment was good, and that reinforcement is on its way – it gets its name because it “bridges” the gap in time between when the animal has performed the desired behavior and when the rewards is presented to the animal for performing the behavior. We at Natural Encounters, Inc., normally use a quick verbal ‘good’ as a bridge. As was suggested in your question, you can also give a click with a clicker. Evan should keep a handful of treats on him and whenever he hears Joey make the noise or do whatever behavior he decides, he can bridge Joey and give him the treat. When Joey is making the noise (or performing the behavior) consistently Evan can start to cue him for it. A cue can be anything at all (verbal or hand signal) that lets the bird know that you want him to make that noise or perform that behavior. Birds are extremely visual and tend to pick up on hand cues easier than verbal cues. Evan may notice that every time Joey performs the desired noise/behavior, he first flaps his wings or does some sort of behavior just before the noise/behavior is about to occur. When Evan sees that, he can cue Joey for the desired behavior, bridge after it is presented, and then walk over and provide the reinforcement. The behavior itself can be something very simple at first, such as training Joey to touch or hold a toy that is in his cage, and if both Joey and Evan enjoy the interactions it entails then you can move on to more complicated behaviors from there.

Once Evan and Joey have a comfortable relationship within the cage they can start working on their relationship outside of the cage. Depending on their comfort level with one another and Evan’s criteria of what he wants his relationship with Joey to be, he may even choose to work on stepping Joey up out of his cage using either his hand or a more stable tool like a stick or T-perch. While this may seem like a simple behavior at first glance, the process of teaching a bird to do this using positive training methods can actually be quite a detailed and lengthy process that should never be rushed. If you are interested in learning more about the steps involved in training a bird to step up using positive reinforcement, please let us know and we’d be happy to provide you with further details. The key to all this is that Evan should continue to reinforce the behavior that he likes, allow Joey’s body language to shape his own, and in doing so diligently I think you will be amazed at the progress both your bird and your husband will be able to make. In your email you say that Joey is currently fleeing from Evan when he approaches. If Evan can learn to read Joey’s subtle signs of discomfort, Evan can take steps now to make sure it doesn’t get to that point with the two of them again. If Evan slowly approaches Joey with a treat and Joey’s feathers become tight or his posture changes suggesting that he wants to move away, Evan should freeze and take a small step back. If Joey’s feathers soften and his weight shifts to a comfortable low position, Evan can then slowly proceed forward, repeating this process and truly allowing Joey to tell Evan how quickly or slowly (or even whether or not) he can approach. This process gives Joey power by allowing him to make Evan retreat with just the slightest change in body language, and will make Joey much more comfortable with Evan’s presence overall.

Crystal, I hope the above helps Evan and Joey and even yourself build a more positive relationship. If you have any further questions I recommend our website http://www.naturalencounters.com, which features our responses to companion parrot questions such as yours that we have received over the years, articles on bird behavior, training, and enrichment, and information on the companion parrot owner workshops that we offer several times a year at our training facility in Winter Haven, FL. Best of luck to you all!


Sincerely,


Miranda DeVries
Avian Trainer
Natural Encounters, Inc.

Answered by Steve Martin & Staff:

Hello Neka,
Thank you for your question about Charlie. I suspect the tail feather you found on the bottom of his cage is the result of a normal molt pattern.

Most birds loose and replace their feathers once a year. This process usually takes three or four months, and sometimes even longer depending on the species of bird. The feathers are molted, or replaced, a few at a time so the bird does not loose its flight ability, and each feather takes a few weeks to grow back in. You might notice that Charlie has some new feathers growing in at this time, and that there are several small body feathers around the cage as they are replaced with new feathers. You might also notice an increase in small pieces of feather shafts that are discarded as Charlie preens the excess material off the new feathers.

It is important to know that if Charlie’s wing feathers were clipped he will replace those clipped feathers with new complete feathers. Soon, he will have all his flight feathers grown in and he will be capable of flight. Whether or not he has good control of that flight skill or not is partially determined by the amount of flight experience he had when he was young. If Charlie did not learn to fly when he was very young then it is likely that he will have poor control of his flight when the new feathers grow in. This may result in Charlie crashing into things when he is frightened and tries to fly. However, with time, Charlie can learn to control his flight once the new feathers have grown in. It is up to you to decide if you want to have Charlie’s wings clipped again after his molt or not. But, it is important to be aware that once Charlie’s wing feathers have started to grow back his flight abilities will improve to the point he can fly long distances. This is especially important for people who take their parrots outside without any confinement such as a cage or carrier.

Steve

Answered by Steve Martin & Staff:

Hello Cathy,

I believe the best place to start is to simply catch the bird in the act of pooping while on top of its cage. If you see him poop, reinforce the behavior by giving the bird a treat, or something else he likes, such as a scratch on the head, verbal praise and attention, etc. If the bird likes being with you, you might even pick him up just after he poops to reinforce the pooping behavior.

If you are really attentive to your bird’s body language and learn his rate of pooping, or how often he generally poops in a given amount of time, you can anticipate when he feels the urge to go and put him back on the cage then wait for him to go. You might find that you will put him back on his cage every 15 minutes or so. You might also pick him up and put him on the cage when you see him going to one of his current favorite "pooping places." If you wait long enough while he is on the cage, he will eventually poop and you can pick him up, praise him, give him a treat, etc., to reinforce the behavior. At this time you can also start putting in a cue for him to poop. All you have to do is say the word “poop,” or whatever word you want him to associate with the action. It really doesn’t matter what word or sentence you use as a cue, and you can even use a hand gesture or other visual cue. In the beginning you should say the word when you see him beginning to shows signs that he is about to defecate. Gradually you should start saying the cue word before he shows the signs so he can learn to understand the cue is a signal for a specific behavior that you want him to perform. Once he has learned the pooping behavior on cue, you should be able to cue the behavior in other areas, such as when you hold him over a trashcan or when he is sitting on a perch away from his cage.

Remember, behavior is strongly influenced by its consequences. So, whatever happens immediately after a behavior will help determine whether or not the behavior will occur again. The more you reinforce the pooping behavior with experiences the bird likes, the more likely it is that the bird will do the behavior again. Another important point to remember is to ignore unwanted behavior. If he makes a mistake and poops somewhere other than at his cage, just ignore it. The best training involves using positive reinforcement to train behaviors, and avoiding aversives, or things that the bird dislikes, to try and decrease the occurrence of a behavior. This is actually called punishment, and is usually a poor way to train animals. When you arrange the environment and set the bird up to succeed, and focus on positive reinforcement while avoiding negative interactions, I suspect you will be amazed at what your bird can learn.

Best of luck with the “poop training.”

Steve

Answered by Steve Martin & Staff:

Hello Renate,
Thank you for this interesting question. It is obvious that you are a good provider and caregiver for your little ducorps cockatoo (one of my favorite birds years ago was a ducorps). I appreciate that you take the time and effort to provide him with safe enrichment items. However, parrots can sometimes make even the safest enrichment items dangerous.

As you know parrots may chew on almost anything they get their beaks on. There are probably many purposes for this chewing, only some of which we can guess at. Chewing and tearing apart items is a great way for a parrot to play with and investigate an object. Wild parrots often chew on branches, leaves, husks, etc., shredding them into small pieces that they drop to the ground. I believe chewing on wood helps a parrot keep its beak in good shape. I often give my parrots things to chew on for enrichment, exercise, and to help keep their beaks clean and well-coped. In fact, I have never had to cope, or trim, a parrot's beak in over 40 years of keeping parrots.

I think it is very rare for a parrot to eat and pass wooden pieces. As you already know, parrots often chew apart objects such as wood, rope, plastic, etc. Most of the time these items are just chewed into small pieces spread over the bottom of the cage. You mentioned that there is wood in your bird's droppings. Is it possible that tiny pieces of the wood he has chewed have fallen on the bottom of the cage and become mixed with his feces? I have had a few shocking discoveries myself when I found feces mixed in with tiny pieces of wood. At first, I thought the bird had passed the pieces of wood, but on further investigation it became apparent that the feces were deposited on top of the pieces of wood and made it look like the bird passed the wood. However, if your bird is actually passing wood, then I believe it is a serious situation that needs to be addresses quickly before the bird injures itself.

The first step should be a consultation with a veterinarian. You might pose your question to one of the avian veterinarians on this site to get their opinion. However, you can never go wrong taking your bird to a qualified avian veterinarian for an examination.

It is possible that increasing the activity level of your bird can have a positive impact on his wood chewing/eating behavior. I am happy to see you have hemp and sisal rope for your bird. I have not used hemp, but I know my birds do very well with the sisal rope. It is natural and safe for the birds. It gives them lots of exercise and plenty of enrichment. I suggest you try to set up an area where the bird has plenty of room to exercise outside of the cage. Ideally it would be an area where the bird can climb around on natural tree branches, sisal rope, etc. These play areas are great for birds when the owner is there to monitor their behavior. However, if left alone a parrot might get off of this play area and wander around the house and get into trouble. That's why I recommend a very large cage. Most of our parrots are in cages that are about four to six feet wide, by six to eight feet deep, and seven feet high. A cage this size can offer enough room for a parrot to fly from one end to the other and still leave room for plenty of toys, branches and other enrichment items. The cages we use come from a company called Corner's Limited. This company makes cages mostly for zoo animals. Their cages are custom designed and usually less expensive than even smaller sized parrot cages.

Also, I suspect your bird is more likely to chew and eat wood when you are not around. So, the challenge is to find a way to entertain the bird when you are gone. I often recommend to people who have a single bird that they leave alone while they are at work all day that they consider getting a companion parrot for their bird. Even if you do not put the two birds together, they can offer each other some level of comfort just being in adjacent cages. These days there are many parrots available for adoption through various rescue centers, sanctuaries, etc. Wild parrots are rarely seen alone. They are almost always in groups, or with at least with a companion. I suspect a single parrot in someone's house would feel much more comfortable with another bird around. I also suspect a bird that is comfortable will be less likely to exhibit aberrant behavior, like eating wood. If you do decide to get a partner for your parrot and want to house them together, be careful to take out any boxes, or other dark areas that they might want to try and nest in. Also be very careful about how you introduce the birds to one another. It is always best to take it slow and very cautious when introducing new birds to each other. Lastly, keep in mind that there is a chance that two birds together could develop a strong bond that might influence the relationship you currently have with your bird. So, if you do decide to get another bird it will be important to keep your relationship with both birds as strong as possible. You can do this with lots of interactions with the individual birds and plenty of positive reinforcement.

I hope these suggestions have given you some ideas and maybe some strategies to try with your bird.

All my best,

Steve Martin