Coming soon to the flock! February 4, 2010

Saturday we are going to pick up our black-masked lovebird. It will still be on 2 feedings. The reason I am getting an unweaned baby is because I want to wean it onto a healthy diet including natural pellets & fresh fruit, veggies & greens. Most breeders wean their lovebird babies onto just seed. My lovie will get seed but in the form of Nutri-berries. I’ll also use millet bits for training. My flockers enjoy Zupreem all natural, Roudybush & Harrisons pellets.  Since all of them eat the large parrot sized pellets, to keep from having to buy a whole other bag of small sized pellets, I purchased a marble mortar & pestle. I’ll crush the pellets down to a lovebird-friendly size. I like the fact the crushed pellet pieces are all different shapes & sizes. It will make a more interesting meal than all just the same shape & sizes.

I’ll be doing the DNA sexing test myself. Well, getting the sample & sending it in. I still can’t decide whether I want to pluck a feather or get blood.  I don’t want to do it myself but the breeder said she doesn’t bother with testing.

Here is the cage set up for the baby. It was originally a travel cage for my medium-sized parrots. It’ll be just fine for while the baby learns to perch, climb & swing. Eventually I’ll get it a flight cage when it perfects its balance & flight. I plan to keep the little one flighted like all of the other flockers. I asked the breeder not to clip it & she said she wouldn’t end up clipping them for another couple of weeks anyhow so the timing works out.

I’m keeping the cage in my room as I intend on raising this little one to be mainly a companion for me. My other parrots are just wonderful, but I intentionally raised them to be independent & they are exactly as I’ve raised them to be!

As of yet, I am not certain what I am going to name it. I’ll probably toy around with some names until I get its DNA result back. Since these pretty little parrots are rasta colors (which is also fitting because lovies are native to Africa!), I might give it a Jamaican name.

What happened to Jasmine? January 19, 2010

After a ton of thought, I decided to see if I would be able to rehome Jasmine to a home where she might be able to live a more peaceful life. Generally,  eclectus are reclusive birds that like a very calm environment & stable routine. As you might imagine, a life living with 2 noisy & rambunctious large macaws, a noisy & active African grey & a neurotic & VERY LOUD conure, 5 active & curious small dogs & a mum who is trying to balance all of this & keep everyone happy is not a very peaceful. Jasmine started plucking out all of her under-wing feathers & then to her chest feathers. Also, due to her food sensitivities she required a 100% complete fresh/home cooked diet that I honestly did not have time to deal with. Read about eclectus food sensitivities here: Please read the fourth paragraph.

 

 

Anyhow, I asked several of my avian enthusiast friends (individuals who I know are educated in the proper diet & care of the unique eclectus parrot) if they might be interested in taking in a special-needs parrot. Most of them already have special-needs birds of their own already &/or were not in the financial situation or did not have the extra time to take on another. Several offered to ask around for me. One person sent out a message through The Eclectus Connection & I got one good response. The individual, who already had a baby male eclectus, came to visit Jasmine & all went very well. She seemed to accept this person. They came back down a couple weeks later to take her home with them. They took her to their Certified Avian Veterinarian for the whole work up. She was clean of disease, metal toxicities, nutritional deficiencies, etc. That being said, we came to the conclusion that she had started plucking her feathers due to stress in her environment. I have stayed in contact with the individual who adopted Jazzy. He said she is starting to grow her down feathers back in & is actually enjoying some flight recall training sessions! From what I hear, I’m very satisfied in my decision to place her in a new home.

Flockers go green! September 21, 2009

Good for the environment. Good for the budget!

For the longest time I have been accumulating old chewed-up toys & tossing them in a corner of the bird room. My plan: to take them apart & reuse the pieces that were not badly chewed & not horribly pooed on. Also to reuse the leather strands, chains & metal links. Well this past Sunday I finally got to that daunting task & came up with a nice BIG pile of reusable toy parts! All I’ll need to do is purchase some more leather strands & bird-safe rope. The metal & plastic pieces that were in need of sanitizing were put in the dishwasher under the ”pots & pans” setting & heated dry. I this process so clean & sanitize the sand & concrete perches & rope perches/boings as well.

I even took some plastic containers from my office, which were destined to be thrown away, & used them for organizing the parts into material groups – plastic, natural & metal. I use a container that originally held treats for the left-over links. I am always thinking of budget-friendly ways to do things & if it helps the Earth, well that’s always a bonus!

Minus one flocker

Have you ever seen a more gorgeous military macaw!

 

This past Saturday my husband & I took Cash back to live with his original owners. It was quite obvious to me that Cash was becoming very flustered living his week days in a cage in a room (hence the bites). Jamie & Dave (& Dave’s brother Chet) worked with him since he was around 6 months old. He was used to working for his food from foraging toys & other types of training (he has even done freeflight a couple times!). They were very happy to see Cash & he was happy to see them! After we left, we learned they started training with him & he quickly learned many tricks. Cash will be joining Dave, Jamie & the rest of their wonderful & talented flock in November to tour with Ringling circus! I am very excited for all of them & can not wait to see the show when it comes near us!

 

 

It warms my heart to know that in the end, every one (people & bird alike) ended up happy.

 

Cash back at the Womach’s.
In this photo: Cash the military macaw, Tusa the camelot macaw & Bailey the blue & gold macaw (Bailey came along for the ride with his dear friend, Cash)

Anatomy of a parrot bite September 16, 2009

As I am familiar with parrot body language, I knew that it would not have been a good idea to go petting this macaw (this is Sebastian, one of the several b&g macaws at a parrot rescue I used to volunteer at).

 

 

Nor this one (Baby, a hormonal female severe macaw taken in by my friend).

 

 

Parrots bite for many different reaesons, none of which are “just beacause they’re mean”. Before a parrot chomps your flesh, it will give a variety of warnings. It is up to us, the owners, to know our parrot’s body language. Know, read, respond or do not respond. Parrots never bite with out a warning or combination of warnings.

 

 

Some examples of how my hands got this way:

 

Cash, my military macaw, HATES when I wear my glasses. Well for a couple weeks, he was allowing me to handle him while wearing my glasses (I wear my glasses on the weekend when I’m not planning on going out), so I assumed this last time he would allow me to step him up to take him out of his cage for outside time. Well I was in a hurry & not paying attention to his body language & he wasn’t in the mood to see me in glasses & he got me good!

Another time my husband was playing with Cash in a blanket. Cash LOVES to play roughly. He fell off the couch in the middle of their play time. I absent-mindedly offered my hand to step him up, again, not paying attention to his body language, or registering that an excited macaw = nips & bites.

Bailey, my blue & gold macaw, was getting his nails trimmed. I had him wrapped up in a towel. I was focusing more on where his quick was in his black talons, rather than where his beak on his wriggling head was, & he chomped me two good times.

 

I could go on & on with examples. I just need to remember to not rush when I’m with my parrots, do not rush my parrots themselves (afterall, they’re NOT dogs!), keep my energy level under control when in physical contact with them & always ALWAYS read that body language before sticking a hand in their face!

 

I NEVER blame my parrots for the injuries I get from them.

Along came Jamie! September 14, 2009

 

Pleased to announce the newest flock member, Jamie Tiffin! Jamie is an adult male Indian ringneck parrot.  I adopted Jamie from the Florida West Coast Avian Society’s exotic bird rescue. While my friend Lynda was at my house doing my home check (to make certain my house is a bird-safe place for Jamie to live), she trained me to do home checks, myself, so I can help out the rescue!

 

Jamie was taken to the rescue by a man who saw him land, exhausted, in the middle of a busy street. The man’s name was Jamie. In his honor, the little green parrot was also named Jamie. Most of my animals have at least one middle name & I decided it was only fitting to give Jamie an Indian middle name. So Tiffin it was! Tiffin means lunch in Hindi. I use a tiffin tin when I go on my bird outtings. On compartments for the bird snacks, one tin for my snacks & one tin stays empty so the birds have something to drink water from. Tiffin tins are Indian style lunch tins. They’re very fun & VERY handy!

 

 

When I visited Jamie at the rescue a couple weeks ago, he was very hand shy & would only possibly step up to shoulders. With some work, Lynda got him stepping up to her hand. He will VERY nervously step up onto my hand, but I don’t force anything with him. Jamie & I will bond at his pace.

 

I have NO idea of his history. I wish I knew. He & Princess, my Patagonian conure, have started a friendship of sorts. So now when I have him on the table top stand, I bring Prinny along as well. Below is a screen shot of Jamie’s adoption page. You will notice how gorgeous he will be in a few months after all of his new feathers grow in. He is in the middle of a heavy molt right now.

 

Training = Enrichment! August 28, 2009

 

Previously, when I thought of training, I thought it was just to make life easier on the human. However, training, most literally, is enrichment for the parrot! It is also for the owner as well. Think about it. What does your bird do all day? Sits on a perch or climbs in a cage, gnaws on some toys, preens, eats, naps. Sounds good to you, right? Well then think of all the responsibilities a wild parrot has. A captive parrot still has all the intelligence of a wild parrot but is missing out on a lot of those things that would take up the day. Foraging, courting a mate, watching/hiding from predators. It has taken me long enough to realize that parrots also need physical enrichment.

This point was brought to my attention for the very first time yesterday while I was talking with a friend who is a professional parrot (& cat) trainer. Out of all the pro avian trainers, I find she & her husband’s (& her brother-in-law’s as well, I’m sure) techniques to be the easiest to comprehend & put to practice. I have know about their dvd series, etc for some time now but am finally purchasing my own as I am coming across some behavior issues with some of my flock members as they mature. Check out this link: http://www.birdtricks.com/store/tricks.html I am mainly excited to start touch or target training! That will help my birds & I in so many aspects of “communicating” & cooperating together. I actually adopted their military macaw, Cash, who already knew this exercise. He is a whiz at touch training! I know my other birds will be as well!

 

 

P.S. I also want to link to my friend’s parrot help blog, because she puts up some amazing stuff: http://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com