One of my latest reads, ALEX & ME, was over-whelming in terms of my enthusiasm for animal parrot research but it is  also a love story.  I imagine that if you love parrots, you’ve heard of Alex, the African Grey Parrot.  Dr. Pepperburg has painstakingly devoted her entire life to show the world that animals are more intelligent than anyone has EVER imagined. (DONATE HERE)

Dr. Pepperburg’s research is part of a growing mound of evidence that parrots and many other wildlife are intelligent and cognitive creatures with the ability to communicate.

What color?

Go Nuts Foraging Bird Toy

The Go Nuts Bird Toy is a refillable, foraging toy for parrots.  Made from 100% cotton rope, vegetable leather, and peanuts, this 5″ x 4″ bird toy is great for medium to large parrots that love to forage and untie knots. Leather patches have holes that reveal peanuts. But, your parrot has to think and work in order to get at the treats!

To refill, just untie the cotton rope and place nuts inside.

What’s so great about this bird toy, you ask?  It makes your parrot forage!  Foraging is when your parrot has to use it’s natural, inate behaviors to get at a desired item.  In the wild, parrots have to literally problem solve in order to get a meal.  With Go Nuts, your parrot has to problem solve how to get the peanuts.  Untie knots, squeeze peanuts through the holes, etc.  Wanna make it harder?  Get some stainless steel screws and nuts at your local hardware store for your parrot manipulate.   Or, put a larger, harder shelled nut inside!

We suggest that you purchase extra leather strips if your parrot is like Peachy who loves chomping through leather.

Let me introduce you to my flock of talking parrots.  I’ll go from largest to smallest:

Peachy is our 14 year old Moluccan Cockatoo. I got him when he was 3 years old. I had gone into the pet store to look for a Blue and Gold Macaw for my husband, but every time that I walked by Peachy, he’d say, “Hey, come here.” I visited him a couple of times a week over the course of a month while doing a lot of research on Moluccan Cockatoo’s to make sure he’d be a good fit in my family. The bird store personnel told me that he acted much more animated with me than with other customers. I guess he originally picked me. Peachy is a good talking parrot. He says: Hi, whatcha doing (whatcha doing doing!), hey come here, mommy, Max (my son), Hello, step up, and he is always quick to yell out our dogs names to scold them when they bark too much! – The correct name for the dog that’s barking.

Smokey is an 11 year old Congo African Grey. I got him as a young baby and I have to admit, he is pretty spoiled. He is out on his Parrot Tower Bird Stand a lot. When he is around me or others he is a whistler and beeper. He’s also quite the prankster. Several years ago he learned my husband’s cell phone ring. You can imagine how many times Jim answered the phone and no one was there. He also learned that my husband would call me “Hey, Diane!” and I’d answer. One time, I kept hearing my name called from upstairs. I’d answer and get no reply. This happened over and over again until I was starting to get mad! What the H#%** do you want!” Turns out it was Smokey! Other than Hey Diane, Smokey says hello, hi, step up, chow chow, Timmy, Sissy and more.

Timmy and Sierra are 6 year old Timneh African Grey Parrots. I got them both as a young babies and even hand fed Sierra. Sierra is also is a mostly whistler and beeper. She knows a lot of words but prefers to communicate with her people flock  in a series of whistles.  Timmy, on the other hand, is a serious talker.  He says so many things that I don’t have room to list them all. I’ll bet, Timmy can say at least 30 phrases. He also whistles “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.” One of the funniest (and embarrassing) things he often asks the dogs is “Do you have to go pee pee?”  I guess he is determined to keep our carpet smelling fresh!   

Mandolina a.k.a. Mandy is a 6 year old flighted Orange Winged Amazon. I hand fed her from the time she was featherless until she was weaned. The most popular talking Amazon Parrots are the Yellow Napped and Double Yellow Head Amazon’s. Mandy thinks she doesn’t need her cage.  She has an open playtop bird cage and so she goes all over the bird room and the basement.  Mandy does not speak as much parrots of those species, but she knows several phrases. She also has several whistles and coo’s that she uses routinely to determine my whereabouts in the house or to just let me know she loves being out and following me about in flight, as I go about my business. 

Skeeter is a 6 year old Red Bellied Parrot. She is also flighted. She had come from an abusive background but she totally loves me! It’s mutual. Skeeter loves to ride around on my shoulder and preen my hair. Her cage usually has an open door policy as does Mandy’s so they hang out together most of the time. Skeeter loves to explore and can be a little mischievous, too. She has a larger vocabulary than Mandy, probably having about 8 phrases that she says consistently.

  

Mika is a 3 year old Pacific Parrotlet. Unlike the other birds in our flock, who have their own bird room, Mika’s cage is upstairs. I’ve had a lot of customers who tell me that they have talking parrotlet’s, but I’m not sure if Mika talks or not. She tweets a lot, but her little vocal cords are so tiny that I can’t decipher if she is actually talking. Mika loves to ride around on my shoulder. She is pretty feisty and territorial. She’s flighted, too.

 So, how did we get so many talking parrots? One of the earliest things I learned in my friendship with parrots is how important it is to prevent problem behaviors including screaming and biting. Parrots that talk and whistle to communicate with you are much less likely to scream for attention. While not every parrot is a proficient talker, there are a number of things you can do to promote a talking parrot.

1. Develop a training schedule.  Parrots are quick learners with short attention spans.
2. Study Clicker Training techniques.
3. Learn to read Parrot Body Language.
4. Match your parrots voice inflection training in the same tones or vocal capabilities that your parrot has.
5. Teach bird tricks to your parrot.  Each new learning experience adds to the learning momentum.   The more you train your parrot the faster it will learn the next, subsequent trick.

I sell a ton of Pak O Bird Carriers. And, it’s no wonder, because they are really top quality back pack for parrots.   Once your parrot gets accustomed to it, you won’t want another bird carrier!  Available in several size to fit any bird from Lovebird to Macaw, you can even order a customized Pak O Bird Carrier to meet you and your parrots personal needs. 

Here’s what our customer writes:

Here’s Truely in her new Pak O Bird Carrier. It is very well made with (OPTIONAL) stainless steel mesh front and sides. You can wear it as a back pack or …(PURCHASE) an (optional)  stroller. We left it on the floor with one of her favorite toys in it for a week, so she could get used to it before we used it.

Make a fun foraging toy for your parrot in five minutes or less!  We used a gallon milk jug with a screw on cap for our large Moluccan, Peachy.  We have used empty Coke cans and cereal boxes, too.  We’ve found that when our parrot watches us “load” the container, he becomes more interested. 

Peachy played with this toy for over an hour before finally figuring out that he had to chew the bottom to get the treats!  Usually he grabs the container handle and turns it upside down so that the treats fall in his mouth. 

Always supervise your parrots play when you give him items that require chewing but that can’t be digested.  And, only use clean food containers, never containers that have contained chemicals or cleaning products.

We had a fun little outing today at Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Goddard, KS.  About 10 minutes from my home.  We got to see white tigers, Colous Monkeys, Red Panda’s, Clouded Leopards Red Kangaroo’s and a host of other animals, some displayed in interactive exhibits.  Of course, my favorite exhibit was the interactive Lorikeet’s. 

There were 4 species of Lories in the exhibit.  Rainbow, Purple-capped, Blue Mountain and Scarlett.  The kids sure got a kick out of feeding them nectar.  I’m wondering if it is our popular Goldenfeast NectarGold?!

Oh, BTW, Joe has promised to build me an outdoor aviary like this.  OMG.  I think it was about 40′ x 20′.  Definately bigger than my current bird room!  Really, I don’t think I want a permanent structure.  I’ve got my eye on some outdoor aviaries at www.CagesByDesign.com  I like the break down concept so that I can break them down to protect them from winter elements.  Since SpringAir now has Mosquito Traps, I’ll worry less about West Nile Virus.

Training is simply teaching. When we train an animal with positive reinforcement we give it information on what it can do to earn desired outcomes. What behaviors we choose to teach are limitless. In addition to training birds for entertainment, we can use this form of communication to address behavior problems, to manage birds on exhibit, to teach birds to cooperate in their own medical care and/or to allow us to facilitate captive breeding practices.

Training is Science Based
Although training birds in general is not a new concept to avian enthusiasts, understanding the science behind training is just recently gaining momentum. The science behind training is called behavior analysis. This science focuses on how organisms learn. And truly we are all students of this science on a daily basis whether we are conscious of our application of its principles or not. Current trends in animal training choose to focus on using elements of this science that focus on kind and gentle strategies to create desired behavior and reduce undesired behavior. This includes avoiding the use of positive punishment and negative reinforcement. In its place, trainers learn the art and skill of applying positive reinforcement to gain cooperation.

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