Bird Time for Kenny :)

[sonnyjane]

SJ, yes I'd love to talk birds with an expert like you.
Were you thinking here on PS or offline somehow?
If here on PS you can start a new thread answering my questions below so we don't hijack Vera's thread.
ha! I am not an expert in my opinion, but I have done this for three years professionally and work with people I will call experts. You ALWAYS have things to learn!

How can I potty train my four year old Senegal? We don't potty train our birds because it can train them to "hold it" if for some reason they can't access their "potty" or until their owner is in the area. This can obviously create health problems for a bird that should be pooping every 45 minutes or so. What were your goals with potty training? Maybe I can help more if I know what you're trying to avoid.

How can I get her to eat more pellets, or should I not bother since her diet is about 75% fresh food and vary varied? What are you feeding now as far as "fresh foods", and what pellets are you offering? Do you measure the quantities you offer and do you ever weigh her?
How can I train her to not be so obsessed with my SO?Ha! That's one of the wonderful (awful) challenges about parrots. You really, really can't. Once they pair-bond, the only thing that will break that bond is that person "dying" (or leaving). You can't necessarily make her like him any less, but you can work on your relationship with her individually. You can reserve her favorite treats as coming from only you. If she likes baths, you can be the one to give those. Basically you just have to keep your relationship positive, but you can't really make their relationship less so.
I trim her nails and primary feathers myself.
I have to hold her head gently. I don't clip wings because our birds are flighted, but I'm glad you asked about nails! Our birds are trained to do voluntary nail trims. With the bird stationing on a perch inside their enclosure, we hold a treat JUST out of reach until they place a foot on the bars to try to get closer to the treat. Then we bridge and feed the treat. We keep doing this until the bird knows that we want their toes sticking through the bars. Then we teach the other foot (turn the bird facing the other direction and hold treat slightly out of reach as before). We use a cordless Dremel on the lowest speed. First you practice getting close to the bird's nails with the dremel turned off. Then you quickly touch their nail with it off, saying "good" and giving a treat when you touch the tip of the toe. Then you can have the dremel on and near the foot but not touching. If she keeps her foot up, you give a treat. You get closer and closer until you can touch the moving dremel to the tip of the nail and she stays. Eventually she will learn to sit with her foot up so that you can dremel all I her toes, getting treats throughout after you touch her nails. We prefer the dremel to clippers because with clippers it's easier to cut to their quick. If you just dull the edges with a dremel, that's less likely to happen. You'll still have to towel her for wing trims but at least nails can be positive.

As far as videos as chat rooms, there are sooooooo many BAD resources out there. Try www.goodbirdinc.com...... She is highly, highly regarded in my field within the companion parrot world. She actually gave a paper yesterday on all the bird training scams out there... Tread carefully if you're on the net.

I am in SoCal but I'll guess you're more north of me. Not sure how to get your email? Don't mind answering stuff here unless it's not allowed.

 

[kenny]

Thanks so much for the info.

Diet ... I don't measure meals; I just always keep food available.
Is this bad?
Should I ration and weigh food and calculate calories?

I have never trained with treats, which may not even work on a bird who is never hungry.
In fact I really do no formal training, we just live together and "train" each other via daily interactions.
Unlike parrots who preform in shows, Puppy is not an entertainer; she's my buddy.
I don't care if she never talks or learns to ride a skate board or put a tiny basket ball into a basket.
Clearly keeping a bird a little hungry and training with treats is effective and I should consider that.

Her diet:
Edamame, salt free soybeans
Brown rice
grapes, peeled
apples, peeled
banana
orange
celery
carrot
corn on the cob
oatmeal
peas
Hard boiled egg, yolk and white
Egg shells, she loves to chew them up. I have no idea if any is ingested.
string beans
blueberries
sweet potato or yam
pasta with no sauce, salt, butter, or oil
unsalted raw peanuts
Chicken bones, she cracks em open to savor the marrow.
The only seed she gets is safflower, no sunflower.
I used to give her a small hookbill seed mix but she just picked out the safflower.
She rejects the ZuPreem pellets I offer.
I give no vitamin supplements since I think her diet is pretty good and varied
No chocolate, strawberry, or avocado, which I hear are toxic to birds
No sugary, fatty or processed foods
She rejects leafy greens, so after a year I gave up offering them
Rarely she'll get a tiny bite of something I'm eating like a tortilla chip or a bagel crust.
Should I eliminate any of these food or add something?

Should I be monitoring her weight, especially since her wings are clipped to watch for obesity?
I have a little postal scale and now she weighs 136 grams.
I've read one gender is heavier ... but as you say there is so much misinformation on the Internet I don't know what to believe.
Actually I'm not certain of the gender but think of her as female.
Should I do that blood DNA test a local pet shop offers for $35 IIRC.

 

[kenny]

I'm aware there is a controversy over wing clipping.
Birds in a zoo clearly should be flighted and the zoo creates an environment safe for them.
A home is full of hazards I cannot afford to, or am not willing to fix, like eliminating mirrors, stripping old lead paint off walls and window moldings and a zillion painted things in the home, never opening drapes, eliminating all electrical cords or supervising the bird 24/7, etc.
So even if there are psychological benefits to a flighted bird I'm not willing to go there.
It's a compromise.

Okay so I will abandon potty training expectation.
My goal was just to minimize poop everywhere.
I will now accept cleaning my couch, clothing, floor as just part of life.

I'll consider switching from a nail clipper to a dremmel, or maybe an emery board.
Currently I clip only the sharp tip and clip about monthly.
I only got a drop of blood once the first time which quickly stopped after using that Styptic Powder, Gimborn Kwik-Stop.

Thanks for the link to goodbirdinc; I'll check it out.

 

[kenny]

About Puppy obsessively loving my SO ...
I'm already the only one who gives all the food and baths and treats.
I can't imagine how the relationship between me and Puppy could be improved.
She and I get along nearly perfectly when we are alone together.

When home my SO just sits on his butt and watches TV.
Puppy wants to be in his room and just play on her playground.
She just wants to be near him even though he rarely actually handles and plays with her.
When near him she regurgitates for him (a romantic affection thing), which grosses him out.

He acts like he tolerates her just to stop the screaming, but I know he secretly loves her because I can hear the lovey lovey way he talks to her much of the time they are alone.
He did not want a bird in the house and did not even touch Puppy for two years.
Then once he picked her up she became obsessed with him.
BTW, he loves dogs which is why I named the bird Puppy; it worked.

When he's gone Puppy loves me and everything is fine.
When he comes home she'll scream and fuss (but not actually bite me) to get to him.
She'll even jump off me and crawl under doors to get to him.
If he remains silent in the back room for about an hour she will finally chill and go back to being a sweetheart with me.
That's not fair to him.
Sometimes I'll have to give her a nap in her sleeping crate ... a 10-gallon aquarium with a towel on the bottom and a dark towel on top.

Surprisingly I don't need a towel for wing trims, maybe because Senegals fit nicely in the hand.
I hold her head gently but securely with the thumb and index finger.
This leaves 3 fingers to hold the wing open.
It takes just 10 seconds for me to do both wings.
I try to sooth her with her favorite sounds.
I do it in the evening when she's relaxed, but of course she does not like it.

I just took this pic and 10 seconds after subjecting her to this indignity in front of a big camera and bright lights she was back to her sweet old self.
No biting, and not even a squawk.
I hold her up side down to do the other wing.




Again, if you can update or correct me on anything I've written don't be shy.
I'm very grateful.
What's important is the bird, not my feelings.

 

[sonnyjane]

Thanks so much for the info.

Diet ... I don't measure meals; I just always keep food available.
Is this bad?
Should I ration and weigh food and calculate calories?

I have never trained with treats, which may not even work on a bird who is never hungry.
In fact I really do no formal training, we just live together and "train" each other via daily interactions.
Unlike parrots who preform in shows, Puppy is not an entertainer; she's my buddy.
I don't care if she never talks or learns to ride a skate board or put a tiny basket ball into a basket.
Clearly keeping a bird a little hungry and training with treats is effective and I should consider that.

.

Kenny I'm sorry I'll give you longer responses when I have a computer so hang tight. I'm at a conference and only have my phone. Training is definitely not for zoos alone. In fact MOST consulting by trainers is for companion parrots. I very much believe in natural behaviors. Not skateboarding or basketball. One great time to do training would be that voluntary nail trim behavior I told you about. Not all training is about "tricks". In fact most is teaching husbandry behaviors. And regarding treats not working with birds that "aren't hungry", you needn't make her hungry. You just observe what foods she likes best and eats first, then remove those items from her food bowl and use those for the training.

 

[kenny]

Thanx. No hurry.
Have fun. I'm jealous.

 

[sonnyjane]

Regarding food, you really should do pellet. I recommend Harrison's pellets. They are the highest quality out there. It's still good to offer the fresh produce, but pellets are essential to make sure they get complete nutrition. To get her to start eating the pellets you may have to take away a lot of the fresh stuff until she eats the pellets. Try feeding ONLY PELLETS in the morning, leave that with her for a few hours, and if she doesn't eat it, take it away and add some produce on top of the pellets. You are correct about the foods you've heard are toxic so glad you don't feed it. "Real food" is a great addition but it's far from complete for them. Pellets are the best way to ensure that, and Harrison's is best compared to Zupreem (although Zupreem isn't awful and we use it for some birds).

 

[sonnyjane]

Really quickly, the reason I said to restrain her with a towel is two-fold. The first is that it will prevent sweat or oils from your hands from damaging her feathers. The second is that it teachers the bird to associate the towel with the unpleasantness and not YOU. For example, if you pick her up to clip her in the same way you pick her up to cuddle, she will learn not to trust you as much... "Is he picking me up to play or hurt me???" If you grab her with a washcloth or hand towel instead, she will know to only be upset when she sees the towel. Does that make sense? It means she may get more stressed when she sees a towel in your hand, but it's better than her always wondering if you're going to grab her anytime you handle her.

 

[kenny]

Thanks, that makes sense.

 

[sonnyjane]

Just one more thing. In that picture it looks like you're clipping all of her primaries? If you'd like, you can clip the innermost ones but leave the outermost 4 or so intact. That will give her the appearance of full feather while her wings are closed. It's just a cosmetic thing. No need to if you don't want to.