THE VERY FIRST STEP

So let’s begin!  The first important thing to
understand is the thinking process your bird will
be going through during the training and how to
take advantage of that process.  So I will do my
best to put you in your bird’s shoes, so to speak.

But getting a parrot to go from letting you touch
him, to letting you pet him, or stepping up for you
is a WHOLE other ballgame.

Remember, your parrot is still fearful of you…

the second you try to reach for his feet to pick
him up, or start scratching behind his head is
probably going to get you nipped or bitten very
quickly… and the trust you’ve just built up
by following the “Power Pause” technique will be

destroyed.

So we need to figure out a way to bridge this gap.

I’ve shown you how to get your parrot comfortable
with letting you come close to him, but now we need
to convince your parrot to cover the next 10% on
his own — that means you can’t force ANYTHING!

This means we need to give your parrot a reward
that is MORE important and enticing than his fear
of being touched by you.

And we need to offer that treat as a reward for
your parrot when he starts to come closer to you.

But here’s the cardinal SIN I used to make when I
first started trying to offer rewards to my parrot
for stepping up or letting me pet him…

I didn’t put him on a training diet… oops

Technorati Tags: Parrot, parrot training, training your parrot

Have you ever noticed now matter how nice you are to your parrot, no matter how much yummy food
you give him, or how sweet you talk to him, that he still doesn’t seem to want you to pick him up
or pet him?

Sure you have, we all have…

I can remember back when I used to think that if I just spent some more time with my birds, and
talked nicely to them that somehow they’d magically start liking me, realize I wasn’t so scary after
all, and they’d turn into well behaved parrots for the rest of their lives.

How TRULY stupid I was to EVER think that would work!

Because parrots usually bite for one reason.  They are afraid of something.  They’re either afraid
of you, someone in your family, someone entering their territory or a hundred other things. 

And when parrots are afraid, the only thing they can do is ‘Fight or Flight’.  And if you’ve clipped
your parrots wings, he’s probably going to think he has better chances of biting something he’s
afraid of then falling to the floor ‘cuz his wings are clipped.

So when you (the scary thing) try to force your parrot to step up, by pushing down on his feet
or up on his chest and trying to pry him off his perch, is that building trust with your parrot?

If every time you open your parrots cage he runs and hides in the back corner, is that a trustbuilding experience for the bird?

STOP YOUR PARROT FROM BITING

Technorati Tags: parrot biting, stop parrot biting, train my parrot, train parrot

Can someone tell me how long can a Hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) live? I have done a research, but I couldn’t find anything.

Thanks in advance.

The exact answer is that there is no exact answer. In captivity it’s possible for these birds to easily live at least 50 years depending on the care they receive. There are reports of birds that may have lived beyond that age but until the past 30 years I would be suspicious re many of the anecdotal stories of these large birds living to 80-90-100 years old. You see, someone could have proved they owned a Hyacinth for 60 years but they usually couldn’t prove if it was a year old or 10 yeas old when they first acquired it.

Until the 1970s or ’80s you seldom heard the term avian vet or avian/medicine. Avian medicine, at least when it came to pet birds, was in it’s embryonic stage. A person who owned a large parrot could assign any age they wanted to their bird, the majority of which were wild-caught imports. They usually came w adult plumage so their age was just a guess. I’m not suggesting owners or breeders (esp zoos) lied—it was just too hard to tell—a semi-educated guess was the best you could get, even by avian biologists. That’s over now thanks to so much captive breeding success we know the hatch dates of the birds & can accurately track their age.

This is due to great strides in the field of avian medicine. Bird nutrition is better understood, owners take sick birds to the vet. That wasn’t so much the case before. If you or someone you know wants one of these birds (or even a smaller parrot) be prepared for it to live 50 years. Very likely longer. At my age (50+) I wouldn’t expect to outlive a newborn macaw of any species LOL.

If you just have to have a specific answer it would be 50 years easy, potentially more. Bird longevity is like human longevity. Allot of people live into their 90′s—most don’t. A very, very few live to over 100. Same w these macaws, potential exists but is determined by many unknown factors.

I’ve had a blue & gold macaw for 30 years but I don’t know if she’s 35, 40 or 32. My trusted vet takes an "educated" guess at closer to 40. My bird was a wild-caught import w adult plumage/eye color. Same w the blue fronted amazon I’ve had for 30 years. Sorry, you prob weren’t exactly looking for this much info but it was the best way I knew to get across why we don’t yet know exactly how long these birds will live but it’s a very long time!! Thanks for reading my answer.

Can someone tell me how long can a Hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) live? I have done a research, but I couldn’t find anything.

Thanks in advance.

The exact answer is that there is no exact answer. In captivity it’s possible for these birds to easily live at least 50 years depending on the care they receive. There are reports of birds that may have lived beyond that age but until the past 30 years I would be suspicious re many of the anecdotal stories of these large birds living to 80-90-100 years old. You see, someone could have proved they owned a Hyacinth for 60 years but they usually couldn’t prove if it was a year old or 10 yeas old when they first acquired it.

Until the 1970s or ’80s you seldom heard the term avian vet or avian/medicine. Avian medicine, at least when it came to pet birds, was in it’s embryonic stage. A person who owned a large parrot could assign any age they wanted to their bird, the majority of which were wild-caught imports. They usually came w adult plumage so their age was just a guess. I’m not suggesting owners or breeders (esp zoos) lied—it was just too hard to tell—a semi-educated guess was the best you could get, even by avian biologists. That’s over now thanks to so much captive breeding success we know the hatch dates of the birds & can accurately track their age.

This is due to great strides in the field of avian medicine. Bird nutrition is better understood, owners take sick birds to the vet. That wasn’t so much the case before. If you or someone you know wants one of these birds (or even a smaller parrot) be prepared for it to live 50 years. Very likely longer. At my age (50+) I wouldn’t expect to outlive a newborn macaw of any species LOL.

If you just have to have a specific answer it would be 50 years easy, potentially more. Bird longevity is like human longevity. Allot of people live into their 90′s—most don’t. A very, very few live to over 100. Same w these macaws, potential exists but is determined by many unknown factors.

I’ve had a blue & gold macaw for 30 years but I don’t know if she’s 35, 40 or 32. My trusted vet takes an "educated" guess at closer to 40. My bird was a wild-caught import w adult plumage/eye color. Same w the blue fronted amazon I’ve had for 30 years. Sorry, you prob weren’t exactly looking for this much info but it was the best way I knew to get across why we don’t yet know exactly how long these birds will live but it’s a very long time!! Thanks for reading my answer.

Cockatiel diet is extremely important and is the key to having a healthy cockatiel – along with exercise.

Give your bird a good-quality cockatiel seed mix from a Pet Store.

Alternatively, you can offer your cockatiel a pelleted diet.

Your cockatiel’s diet must be supplemented with fresh fruit and vegetables on a daily basis.

Cockatiels enjoy spray millet and seed treats such as honey bells or sticks. However, these are fattening and should be offered occasionally as treats only. Pet cockatiels can become overweight very easily so I recommend offering spray millet once a week if your cockatiel is fairly active.

Fresh drinking water is required daily. Also make available of Cuttlebone it gives them calcium

2.) cockatiel diet – are fruit and vegetables necessary ?

A cockatiel diet must be supplemented with fresh fruit and vegetables on a daily basis. An all seed diet often results in an unhealthy or overweight cockatiel.

Try the following:

FRUIT: 
apple, grape, guava, kiwi fruit, mango, melon, nectarine, orange, peach, pear, pomegranate, plum, strawberry, tangerine, watermelon

VEGETABLES: 
bok choy, broccoli, carrot (chopped or grated), celery, chard, lettuce (but small amounts of lettuce and not too often as not a lot of goodness), peas, silverbeet, spinach, sweetcorn, watercress, zucchini.

Favorites with cockatiels tend to be apple, egg, pasta, peas, rice, silverbeet, spinach, sweetcorn.

3.) cockatiel care – what cockatiel food can I not feed ?

Never give your cockatiel alcohol, avocado or chocolate – these can kill your cockatiel.

Also avoid asparagus, aubergine or eggplant, cabbage, caffeine (tea and coffee), junk food, milk and cream, raw potato, and rhubarb (including the leaves).

I hope this has taught you what food you may or may not feed your cockatiel.

Your Welcome!

Here’s a list of safe and toxic plants for birds.

http://www.plannedparrothood.com/plants.html

The only thing that might be a problem here is that keeping him in the cage and not handling him for two weeks is a very long time for his age – I would have been handling him a LOT sooner, if I were you.

Make sure that he comes out for 2-3 hours every day, and allow him to sit on your shoulder while you move around the house. He will probably feel more secure on your shoulder than on your finger.

Finally – double-check and make sure that ALL windows and doors are closed before you take him out – and warn everyone in your family to be extra-careful with doors and windows while he is out!

Good luck with your new friend!

The only thing that might be a problem here is that keeping him in the cage and not handling him for two weeks is a very long time for his age – I would have been handling him a LOT sooner, if I were you.

Make sure that he comes out for 2-3 hours every day, and allow him to sit on your shoulder while you move around the house. He will probably feel more secure on your shoulder than on your finger.

Finally – double-check and make sure that ALL windows and doors are closed before you take him out – and warn everyone in your family to be extra-careful with doors and windows while he is out!

Good luck with your new friend!