Macaws:
Red Shouldered (Hahn's) Macaw
Severe Macaw
Blue And Gold Macaw
Blue Throated Macaw
Military Macaw
Red Fronted Macaw
Scarlet Macaw
Green Winged Macaw
Hyacinth Macaw
Since the vet confirmed that Truman's pelvic bone has healed, I have begun more intensive physical therapy with him. This involves several things. First off, I hold him on his back and move his leg up and down. I begin by testing on his good leg to check how far it should normally move. Then I repeat the same on his bad leg. I apply mild be definite pressure as it is this that stretches and exercises the muscles. Other exercises include side to side motions of the leg, step ups, and now also wave trick.
I have been doing progressively more and more step ups with Truman every day. Not only am I encouraging him to step up, but I am also alternating between stepping with the good leg first or the bad leg. Either way, at one point he must hold his entire weight on one leg but by alternating which leg goes first, it effects the muscle groups that are being worked. He seems to prefer to step with his bad leg first so I am trying to force more step ups with the good leg first by putting my finger specifically in front of that leg.
Truman's reward for these exercises is predominantly negative reinforcement. I am forcefully applying the exercise upon him but stop at a random time if he is cooperative. Since it requires little positive behavior on his own part, it is mainly a matter of him not resisting. Since he is used to being handled, this is not too stressful for him and he just needs to endure for a little while and then knows I will stop. I am also providing praise and petting as a mild positive reinforcement upon completion. I do fewer repetitions but repeat frequently throughout the day.
Finally, the first major sign of recovery is that I was able to retrain Truman to wave again. For a month and a half he did not wave because it would force him to put all of his weight on his bad leg which he could not do. But with the good news from the vet, I decided to try to get him to wave now. I realized that it may take longer to train it again this time not because he would have forgotten the trick but because he would need to recover strength in his leg to be able to stand this way.
At first the training progress was slow and he wouldn't even so much as try to lift the foot to wave. Clearly he wasn't doing it on cue. I tried to repeat the wave training method in order to reteach him what I want for him to do. I would reward even if he so much as would lift the foot off the perch. Surprisingly though, he was picking things back up very quickly and within 5 tries he had a sort of wave going and by 10 he was already waving on cue as good as ever. This demonstrates much greater strength in his bad leg than previously anticipated.
The recovery progress had probably already been happening but accustomed to the pain, Truman did not try to use his leg in full. But with my encouragement through positive reinforcement training, Truman is regaining function of his leg much more quickly. With today's progress he is back to 90% of his original state and I would guess that at this rate he should be back to 100% within 2 weeks. This was an exciting breakthrough in Truman's recovery progress. You can expect to see more trick training updates soon. Here is a video of the physical therapy exercise and how I retrained Truman to wave again.
I was carrying Truman through the office on the first floor to bring him out to the aviary when suddenly he took flight. He flew to the back but seeing no place to land and the wall coming up awfully quick, he turned around and flew the other way. He zoomed past me and continued toward the front. I wasn't worried and figured he would turn around once more and come back to me. But instead he slammed straight into the large front window at high speed. He bounced off the glass with a loud thud, fell onto the chair below and then resumed flight once more. He flew toward me but quite low this time and landed on my hand while catching his breath.
Truman had never once flown in that space before and I had carried him through on my hand without any restraint or trouble many times. I was surprised that he flew off because there was no loud noise or anything startling that I could think of. Kili on the other hand had flown in the space before and she always avoided the window. I guess Truman learned to avoid windows by seeing the framing of the window rather than generalizing it to the properties of glass. Well hopefully this will be a lesson learned for him that will carry on for life.
I had already been pondering whether or not to bring Truman in for a followup vet visit about his leg injury. His recovery has been a roller coaster the whole way. At times I will notice improvement and then he may get even worse until there is any new improvement. A few weeks back I was seeing a lot of improvement so I decided to move him back to his cage. But for nearly two weeks since moving him to the cage he had not been getting any better. At times he even seemed to be standing worse. I even ended up calling the breeder and telling her that I am worried because he stopped getting better even a month and a half since the injury.
Finally in the recent most days Truman had exhibited a big step in recovery. He was standing better and walking with less of a limp. On occasion I even caught him standing on one leg scratching and that was the bad leg he was putting all the weight on. When he crashed into the window, my absolute biggest concern was about him hurting his leg again but luckily the leg took no impact and was unaffected. I decided that this was as good a time as any to bring him in for a followup exam, not only to check the leg but also to verify no damage from the new crash.
Other than scraped skin between his nostrils, I did not notice any damage or trouble with Truman. Nonetheless, I had already made an appointment and wanted to make sure. I brought Truman to the vet's office by subway and had him examined. He was really upset because they toweled him. He is much more used to hands but I never really bothered toweling him so it was stressing him out. Upon preliminary examination, the vet noticed tightness in the bad leg but said it appeared good otherwise. She recommended an xray and I said to proceed but only as long as they do not put Truman under anesthesia. I do not believe the risk of complications from anesthesia outweigh the importance of a confirmation xray when substantial behavioral improvement had already been observed.
Interestingly, this was the first time that Truman had demonstrated any sort of bond or preference for me. Previously he was always friendly to any people and pretty indifferent to me vs others. However, today he twice flew from people at the vet's office to my hand. Add two points to negative reinforcement based recall training! The previous times I had taken him to the avian vet, he had no even so much as tried to fly. This time he flew once on top of another bird's cage and then twice back to me from other people.
Upon examination of the xrays, the vet stated that the bone has healed and suggested more exercise and physical therapy for the bad leg. Otherwise, there is nothing more that can be done. This third and final vet visit for Truman ended up running $165 which brings the total cost of all of his treatment to $1044 (though $247 was refunded).
On the subway ride back from the vet, Truman was extremely sleepy. Despite all the noise and swinging, Truman slept through the whole ride back. I noticed that every time I take Truman back from the vet that he is abnormally sleepy. Last time I thought it was the result of blood loss from samples and injections, but this time there was no blood work of any kind. At this point I can only suspect that the exhaustion is either from stress or from the fumes. They had rubbed him down with alcohol both times and I'm uncertain if that could be the cause of the sleepiness. So the good news is that Truman's bone has healed and it's just a matter of recovering his muscles back to normal shape. As for the crash into the window, except for a minor scrape he has come out of it unharmed.
Scraped skin as the result of crashing into a large window at high speed
Subsequent vet examination
Truman marveling at himself in his xrays and confirming the healing
Previous xray showing the pelvic fracture on left leg (right side of image)
A lot of people have been asking me about Kili and how come I've been making few posts/videos lately. The truth is, I'm just taking it easy on the birds for now. Truman is finally eating, back in his cage, and moving about but he still limps pretty badly. I maintain the tricks he knows but don't think it's a good idea yet to start working on new ones. Meanwhile Kili is still going through the heavy stages of her second molt. She looks kind of scraggly and she has been nippy lately. With so many wing feathers missing, right now it's more important for me to promote good nutrition and avoid feather breakings so that she could fly again.
I don't make Kili fly much and only practice old tricks with her when she's up for it. Believe it or not, every few days she just really wants to do tricks (even though she isn't hungry) so I give her a chance to run through her routine. Though not in 2 minutes, she does get through all the tricks she knows in under 5 minutes at a leisurely pace. She definitely remembers everything and knows what to do very well.
Kili currently has 2 primaries growing in on her bad wing and one primary on the good one. She also has some secondaries as well as many body feathers coming in now all at once. I'm feeding her a near 100% Roudybush pellet diet in abundance. I'm avoiding feeding her much seeds or fresh foods as they would dilute the high nutrition of the pellets. Between molts I believe the fresh foods help keep the weight in check but right now I really need her to grow back strong healthy feathers.
You can see that Kili is missing a lot of primaries but 2 new ones are growing in.
Kili really likes to get scratches on her head and beak when she's molting
Close up view of a pin feather on Kili's head
When Kili is molting she cycles between phases of being really nippy and really cuddly. It seems that the molt goes on in phases. First she loses a lot of feathers, then stops losing feathers while the previous set grows in, then she begins losing feathers again. She's nippy between the feather loss and pin feathers coming out stage but then she gets super cuddly and is always begging for scratches when the pin feathers have matured. I roll the pin feathers on her head between my fingers to help break them open for her.
In this video you can see a comparison of Kili's good and bad wing, see how her new primaries are growing out, watch me scratching her head and beak, see a pin feather up close, and see how I rub the feather between my fingers so it comes open. If you listen really closely, you can even hear Kili purr in delight.
Last time I brought Kili to the street carnival I discovered that one of her new primary feathers was out of alignment on her bad wing. I kept trying to figure out what was wrong with it and couldn't tell if it was broken. This one had just grown in and was the first feather from her second molt to grow on the wing missing all but one primary. All of the other primaries (except for outer most one) broke off since her first molt.
Later that evening I spotted the new feather completely rotated 180 degrees and essentially connected upside down. I figured it must have broken across the quill but I could not find any damage. I gently pulled and it came right out. The quill was still intact and there was some blood. This feather was just changing from the blood feather to mature feather stage. I was really disappointed because I was really counting on this feather to give support to the one remaining primary and to give protection for when that one molts.
I had been considering bringing Kili to the new vet that I have been using for Truman and had mentioned to them Kili's wing condition previously. At this point with a freshly broken primary I decided it would be a good time to bring her in for analysis. I was also a bit concerned that there could have been some irritation or infection where the new feather broke out from. From my own research and consultations I have received, I figured this was just a case of post-clip regrowth trouble but I was still worried in case there was any kind of actual problem.
You can see recently fallen feather on top, broken feathers in middle, and intact molted feather on bottom
Kili behaved very well and everyone was amazed at how tame she is. They didn't need to towel her, just a normal grab and head restraint did the trick. She showed all signs of being a healthy parrot. I brought in samples of broken primary feathers, intact, and the newly fallen one. The vet examined the feathers and Kili's wings but could not find any abnormalities. My earlier suspicions were confirmed that the lack of support from additional primaries causes the remaining ones to break. There is nothing that can be done about it and no dietary changes are needed.
The vet proposed to take a blood test to check for Polyoma or PBFD as they can cause feather problems. But I pointed out that the other wing is in excellent condition and that the disease should probably apply symmetrically. Nothing else can be done to stimulate or check the feather follicles so it is only a matter of chance and time that Kili mends her wings.
To justify the visit I asked if they could trim Kili's talons. They have become razor sharp and she was really doing damage to my skin by that point. The vet requested her assistant to bring out the dremel. I was shocked that they would apply a tool 3 times the size of the bird and asked if they could use scissors instead. The vet used an ordinary nail clipper and barely removed anything at all. While the groomer at the bird store I bring Kili to can do an outstanding job, even I can trim a lot more than that. The vet barely took 1/32" off and I'm sure they'll be back to where they were in a week. The reason I don't like doing it myself is because I get really stressed out and worried about cutting too far but generally get it spot on. But it takes me an awful long time to do it because I reward each clip and am super careful. I thought the vet would at least trim as much as I do if not even more but this kind of trim job really did not help much at all. This reaffirmed to me that the bird store is the most skilled and practiced when it comes to grooming. I would estimate that the groomer at the store will take about 1/8" off at a cut, I'll go as far as 3/32", but the vet did a mere 1/32". I could do that much in a single session of hand filing but I find that a good cut makes the talons bluntest.
I am relieved to find out that there is nothing wrong with Kili but disappointed that there is absolutely nothing that can be done. It's been hard on her because she still flies with one whole wing but the other wing is pretty helpless. Right now I'm taking it easy with her and avoiding flight training. I'm feeding her abundantly in hopes that this molt will bring fresh primaries and help build her wing up. When she has her wings back, then we can always go back to flight training.
To finish off the vet visit Kili impressed the vet with how smart she is. She did wave, shake, nod, hello, wings, and play dead. There was no need for treats, Kili was just happy to be such a show off.
I often get asked, "what kind of parrot should I buy for my children" or, "is a parakeet a good bird to get for my 10 year old child?" I do not really like getting asked this question because I know the answer I will give is bound to disappoint the questioner. The simple fact is, I do not believe a parrot is a suitable pet for young children. The good news is that I've discovered a fantastic solution. So this article will be presented in two parts. First, why parrots do not make suitable pets for children and then about a fantastic alternative.
Parrots and parakeets are complex social birds. They require daily interaction and extensive care. They are not domesticated and do bite. Even hand fed parrots end up reverting to their wild state if not properly tamed, socialized, and continued for its entire lifespan. Speaking of life span, parrots live for a very long time. Budgerigars can live up to 20 years; many of the other parrot species may live 30-50 and possibly more. Children's interests change rapidly as they are growing up and it is often difficult to look a few years ahead, let alone 20.
Parents often won't take into consideration the lengthy lifespan of a parrot when impulse shopping at a pet store. For any child between 5-15 years old, it is quite likely that even the shortest lived parakeets will still be around by the time they are off to college. Most campuses do not allow pets and a busy college student is hardly in position to take care of a pet anyway. Buying a parrot for the short term with the idea of setting it free or giving it away in time is not a solution. They cannot survive in the wild if captive raised because they lack the skills to survive and often the climate is unsuitable. Rehoming a parrot on the other hand is likely to cause it major trauma and separation anxiety. They have major difficulty adapting to a new home.
Owning a parrot requires daily care and attention. While a very young child may have enough time to do all the daily parrot chores (cleaning cage, washing bowls, providing clean food/water, changing toys/perches), as the child grows older may become busier and unable to care for the bird. High school and college preparation are very time consuming, forget even teenage activities. Since the bird lives inside a cage, it entirely depends on its caretakers to clean and provide for it. It cannot for one day be neglected. It needs to have fresh food and water provided daily.
Cape Parrot chewing my shoe!
Then there are things that only the parent can take care of. The parrot may need occasional vet checks and grooming (trimming nails and possibly wings). Supplies go fairly quickly as parrots are very destructive. New food, toys, and perches need to be purchased regularly. This can get expensive pretty quickly. While a budgie costing a mere $20 may sound appealing, the store is not dumb. They will sell the bird at cost or even a loss because over a hundred dollars in supplies is necessary. Under the most meager estimates, it will cost $100 in supplies for a $20 bird. More realistically it should run $200-$400 in the first year and at least $100 a year thereafter for its entire lifespan. So we're no longer looking at $20 for a cheap little pet. $100 a year for 20 years is $2,000. Let's not forget the $20 for the bird there, so you're looking at $2,020 and up across the lifespan to own a budgerigar. Other parrots are even more costly. $100 a year is the most conservative of estimates as a bag of food for a few months will run $10-$20, toys typically cost $10 each. With a $100 a year budget that is only enough to treat the bird to the most meager of living. Any owner that is more involved will likely be spending a lot more than that.
Parrots are quite difficult pets to own. They are not domesticated and have a lot of personality. Being terrestrial mammals ourselves, birds are quite unfamiliar to us. While it may be a bit more intuitive how to hold or pet a dog, we require much greater knowledge about how to take care of a bird. Parrots require taming and training to maintain handle ability. It is very important not to encourage biting by doing whatever the parrot wants (typically to be left alone) in response to biting. It is difficult for a child to resist a bite and even more so not to be scared in the future. It is actually very likely that after getting bit by the parrot a few times, the child will no longer want to have anything to do with it. In order to understand the basics of handling a parrot, reading some books and online websites is highly advised.
I advise parents only to acquire a parrot if they want one as a pet for themselves. They can allow the child to learn about responsibility and caring for a pet but only under parent supervision. If the child gets older, moves out, or loses interest, it would simply remain the parents' bird.
Now I've learned a fantastic alternative to buying an actual parrot for children that are interested in one. My little sister has been obsessed with Nintendo DS since she got one for her birthday. Recently I had learned that she was playing a parrot game on it called Parrot Pals. She came over to tell me what the game is all about.
I apologize in advance if I make any technical mistakes as I have not actually played the game myself but am just going by what a six year old told me. So apparently the player gets to choose from an African Grey, Lovebird, Budgie, Sun Conure, or Cockatiel as their pet and then has to monitor the bird's status. The player can choose which foods to feed and can even clean the cage. Of course none of this is difficult or time consuming as it is in reality. Also, the player can speak into a built in microphone to teach the parrot to talk.
There are many reasons why I think this game is better for children than a real live parrot. First of all, I think it provides instant gratification. If you push a button to feed the parrot, the parrot goes and eats. Everything happens in the now. Whereas a real parrot has distinctive free will and cannot be forced to eat, talk, or play on demand as the ones in the game can be.
The game can be played on demand but also be abandoned at will. There is no long term commitment and a living animal does not have to face the consequences of a poor decision or neglect. A little effort goes a long ways in the game and can bring happiness to the child with instant feedback. Real parrot training can take weeks or months before any results are visible.
A Nintendo DS runs a little over $100 but can be reused for multiple games. The Parrot Pals game seems to retail for around $20. This is still less than the cost of purchasing the cheapest available parakeets (budgies) and bears no long term costs (besides buying additional games, haha). It's great to give the child a taste of what parrot ownership is about and then when he or she is independent, can make the choice of buying a parrot for him or herself.
Showing parrot game to Truman
Another great alternative is the Webkinz series of stuff animal toys. They come in all different kinds and there are several parrot ones available. They usually cost under $20 and come with a code so that the child can play with them on the internet. These are fantastic for anyone on a tight budget but not as realistic as the Nintendo parrot game.
In conclusion, I believe being brought up around parrots is a fantastic experience for children but only as long as there is a primary adult care taker responsible for the bird. Buying a parrot with the intention of a child taking full responsibility is risky and may be impossible in the long term. The Parrot Pals game made for Nintendo DS is a great way to give children the thrill and experience of owning a parrot without purchasing a live animal. So if you are wondering whether to buy a parrot for a child or are yourself a parrot owner and get asked this question, the line of virtual games has come such a long way that this is the best recommendation to make.
Trained Parrot is a blog about how to train tricks to all parrots and parakeets. Read about how I teach tricks to Truman the Brown Necked Cape Parrot including flight recall, shake, wave, nod, turn around, fetch, wings, and play dead. Learn how you can train tricks to your Parrot, Parrotlet, Parakeet, Lovebird, Cockatiel, Conure, African Grey, Amazon, Cockatoo or Macaw. This blog is better than books or DVDs because the information is real, live, and completely free of charge. If you want to know how to teach your parrot tricks then you will enjoy this free parrot training tutorial.
Trained Parrot site content Copyright 2010-2020 Michael Sazhin. Reproduction of text, images, or videos without prior permission prohibited. All rights reserved.
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