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
In the past few days I have been experimenting extensively with foods to see what he'll eat. Counting on him to eat his pellets himself has been futile. He may nibble on them a little bit but he hardly gets any meaningful amount into his crop though. Normally if I stick a pellet in his beak, he'll at least chew and swallow it but not now. He just spits his pellets right back out. The first time I tried to feed him oatmeal he would not eat it. Later I learned that if I force the oatmeal into his beak, then he'll swallow it but only then. He has made very little independent effort to eat food since Sunday.
With my intervention, luckily his weight has remained fairly stable in the 305-315g range. He is no longer losing any more but it's been a tough fight to get enough food into him to keep him in this weight range. Normally he drinks a lot of water and in the week prior he drank profusely. However, since the medication change he barely drinks a few sips of water a day. And I know exactly how much he drinks because I do not leave water for him in his tub. The last time I did, he knocked it over and the whole tub was flooded. Since then, I just offer him water in a dish every few hours.
Surprisingly, Truman exhibits some interest towards vegetables. I don't know if he's just playing with them as a chew toy or actually ingesting them but I do see them fairly torn up when I offer them to him. While he rejected apple sauce (human baby food) and Lafeber's, he still has a taste for nuts. I've been giving him an entire walnut (partially cracked) and several almonds every day. He's too "tired" to eat his pellets but he can work at those nuts for hours on end.
I believe that I've noticed some improvement with his bad leg. He seems to stand on both legs a bit more of the time rather than on just one alone. He has a stronger grip and I can feel more weight in the bad leg when he is standing on my hand. However, I'm not certain if perhaps this is merely because his good leg is tired so he's just balancing out the pain between the two. When I leave him alone, he squats very low, almost on his belly. He leans over on one leg and a wing. It almost looks as though he is nesting. He used to sit up higher before the medication switch so I'm not sure if this is in any way indicative of his condition or if he has just learned over time the most comfortable way to sit.
For the last few days Truman has been very flighty. He has had at least 5 flights yesterday and about as many today. A week ago I could trust him not to fly but now he takes every opportunity to fly away when I'm not looking. Just yesterday I had Kili and Truman out. I was trying to have Kili fly a recall. She wouldn't come but suddenly I felt something land on my hand as Truman flew from behind me and came to me instead. Behaviorally, Truman has shown some significant improvement in recent days but his appetite seems to have taken more of a dip. I find it strange how he can be so energetic on so little food.
I finally got in contact with Truman's breeder and she gave me recommendations about hand feeding him. I would not have a chance to get to a bird store that would sell hand feeding formula so I had it overnighted to me instead. That cost a good buck but considering how much I've put out on vet care already, this was not so extreme. I wanted to have it on hand as soon as possible in case Truman is eating poorly. If Truman's weight continues dropping, I will have to bring him back to the vet, but with my continuing efforts we have been able to avoid this for now.
The breeder instructed me to mix the formula in a cup with 2 parts water for every 1 part powder. She also suggested throwing a bit of peanut butter and Lafeber's into the mix. I have not had a chance to grab the peanut butter yet but I did add the Lafeber's for some extra nutrition. She explained to me the importance of exact temperature control so I ordered a thermometer along with syringes in that overnight package.
To make the formula, I begin by boiling water and then letting it cool for a little while. Then I pour the water into a mug and mix the powder in until it gets a muckier consistency. I keep mixing with a spoon and begin monitoring the temperature. I wait until the temperature begins dropping below 115 degrees Fahrenheit and then proceed to prepare to feed. By the time it reaches 110F, I suck it up into the syringe and offer it to Truman. Earlier today he had a really big hand fed meal but in the evening he ate much less. Most of it he shook off and it ended up on the floor and on me.
Likewise he's been annoying about taking his medication as well. He used to take it pretty eagerly but now he closes his beak, resists, and then shakes it off or spits it out. Not only does he not eat on his own but he sure makes it difficult to get stuff into him as well. Luckily (for the most part), what I can sneak into his beak, he will consume.
Here is a video of how I prepare the formula, give medication, and then handfeed the baby formula to Truman. Please do not use this video as a reference for hand feeding baby parrots and don't ask me how to. I know next to nothing about hand feeding and this is just the second time I did it on an already weened parrot.
Truman had been taking metacam for the five days since I brought him home. While he did not seem heeled by any means, he was in better spirits and a bit more active. He has been limping and his leg barely improved in a week's course. He gained a little bit of strength back in the leg but no improvement beyond that. In a midweek follow up the nurse said that this was about the progress excepted in this amount of time.
Friday was the last day I gave the medication to Truman. Over the weekend his state began a steady decline. On Saturday he seemed pretty neutral but by Sunday was slowly losing weight. I could still tell that he was eating but yet he was putting out less than he was taking in. By Monday morning his weight was very low and I began contemplating taking him to the vet. However, he did eat a little bit of pellets which was encouraging but not nearly the amount he would eat in a normal meal. I began to suspect that the quick withdrawal of the medication was making Truman feel bad again and not eat.
Thus I called the vets office to find out if this is expected upon termination of the medication. As we were talking about extending Truman's medication, there appeared to be some confusion about dosages. I was being told about lowering Truman's dosage from .1 to .05mL but I had been giving Truman 0.5mL throughout the week. At first it seemed as though I had been measuring the wrong dosage but upon further examination of the medication label, I was able to validate that in fact I was giving him the amount that was recommended to me. It turned out that the medication dosage was wrong and that Truman had been overdosing on metacam for an entire week!
The vet offered a courtesy visit to bring Truman in to check his condition. I was already contemplating whether to bring him to the vet or not so I obliged. The overdose was confirmed so they wanted to run some blood work on him to make sure it was not endangering the kidneys. Luckily it was not. Furthermore the tests showed that he was getting sufficient calcium from his diet for his fracture to heel although no significant progress has been made with that.
I am happy that the office is thoroughly working with Truman but not at all thrilled about this dosage mix up. And it's not even so much the fact that he got a larger dose, because it appears that it did not harm him (and actually he probably didn't overdose as badly as it seems cause he'd spit half the medication out and shake it all over, some landing on the floor and the rest on me), but rather that this ended up costing me big time. So while they didn't charge me for the visit, I still had to shell out a good $250 for this time alone.
The blood work to check that the overdose did not harm his systems ended up costing $112 and would not have happened if someone didn't screw up the dosage recommendations in the first place. Furthermore I had to buy a $45 medication that is supposed to help suppress the effects of the overdose. So while the other stuff I paid for might have been incurred either way, I ended up paying nearly twice as much as a vet visit just to get the whole overdose situation cleared up. While I can forgive the dosage mistake as it had not done any damage, I'm not happy to be paying an extensive bill for amending that mistake.
After the blood work, Truman needed to have a fluids injection as he hadn't been eating sufficiently. After bringing him back from the fluids injection, I took Truman out of his carrier to see how he was doing. He was bleeding profusely from the leg they did the injection to. I had to call a nurse back in to help. They don't use quick stop or anything else to stop this sort of bleeding except wiping it down and applying pressure. She applied a lot of peroxide and worked on stopping the bleeding. She told me that Truman is more sensitive and bleeds more than other birds for these kinds of procedures. Eventually the bleeding was stopped but his leg remained bruised.
On the subway ride back home, I took a peak into Truman's carrier (which I was keeping covered with a towel) and my heart nearly stopped when I saw him laying down on the bottom of the carrier with his eyes shut. He appeared dead! But then I saw an eye open and then the other. Regardless it seemed like he was on his last breath and no longer to hold up the weight of his head. I was having a panic attack and wondering if I should get off the train and catch another one back to the vet's office. I decided that I had just been there and they had given him any injections they'd give him and that they wouldn't be able to do much anyway. I figured the best thing would be to get him home to rest. As the train neared home, I spotted Truman standing up and holding his head higher. As time passed he stood better and better. I have a feeling he was just woozy from the blood loss and injections and resting his head down was the easiest way for him to balance during the turbulent train ride.
After getting him home, I immediately put Truman back in his tub and offered him pellets. He actually ate some which was a tremendous relief to me. I offered him water to drink and then even more pellets. After consuming an almond and some more water, Truman had brought his weight back up to at least his normal low weight so I was much relieved. He has had a difficult and exhausting day so I covered him to go to sleep a little earlier than usual. I just hope this new series of medications makes him better soon.
This article is about how to teach a parrot to fetch. I will only cover the bare basics and get into more advanced object retrieves another time. The basic fetch trick involves giving an object to a parrot, saying fetch, and then the parrot carries the object and drops it into a receptacle. In a later update I will cover how to get the parrot to go to retrieve the object on its own but this most basic version simply involves handing it to the parrot.
Fetch is a basic trick that can be trained to any parrot. Even parakeets can learn how to fetch. The time span for teaching this trick can vary from a few minutes to a few weeks. Typically it should take 3-7 training sessions to get the most basic version of the trick learned. It is beneficial but not absolutely necessary that the parrot knows some basic tricks like target and wave prior to learning the retrieve.
To teach the parrot to fetch is pretty straightforward and simple. You give the parrot an object to hold and then place a bowl underneath and wait for the parrot to drop it. Catch the object in the bowl, click, and reward the parrot. Over many repetitions of this process, the parrot will learn that dropping the object earns it a treat. To teach the parrot specifically to drop the object into the bowl rather than just anywhere, let it miss the bowl when it drops the object from time to time and don't reward. This narrows down the demands specifically to dropping the object into the bowl.
While the first few training sessions simply involve dropping the object straight down or a slight turn of the head, you should eventually work on having the parrot walk across a perch to take the object from you and then to walk some more to drop it. I highly recommend using Parrot Training Perches for the initial training of this trick. By using this kind of stand you can eliminate distractions and alternate paths of travel. The parrot can pay attention to you and since it can only walk in two directions, increases the likelihood that it will bring the object toward the bowl rather than run off with it.
Here is video footage of the original training sessions of how I taught Truman the basics of fetch in just 3 training sessions:
One problem that I encountered while training Truman is that he really enjoyed playing with the objects I gave him. In fact he enjoyed playing with them more than performing the trick. There are several methods for dealing with this kind of situation. First off, let the parrot get it out of its system. Let it play with the objects a bunch so that they become less novel. The parrot still has to be interested enough in the object to grab it but not wanting to play with it all day. Another thing you can do with a parrot that doesn't seem to want to drop the object is to offer it an even better toy to play with in return for dropping it. Often times just showing the parrot a cooler toy will make it drop what it is holding to take the new one. The new one becomes the positive reinforcement reward. The method is differential reinforcement where the new object has more value than the old one so it is worth working harder for the better object.
I did not run into this problem here but I know other people will. On the flip side of a parrot that won't let go of an object is one that won't hold it in the first place. Those parrots require a somewhat different approach. First try to experiment with different objects and see if you can find at least something that the bird will hold on to. If all fails, then try this. Use the target training method to teach the bird to target to the fetching object. Play target with the object a bit and let the parrot get used to going for the object. As the parrot puts its beak on the object, let go a bit and let it pull it out of your fingers. Click and reward this. So at first teach the parrot to pull the object out of your hand. Then start rewarding the times the bird holds the object for longer. At first it might just be a quarter second, then a half. Always reward the best times and ignore the worst ones. If the parrot at least holds the object long enough to fling it, you can use the fetch training method mentioned above (reward falling in bowl, ignore miss). The parrot will begin to learn to hold the object at least long enough to get it to the bowl.
Another issue you may run into is the parrot dropping the objects on purpose. It is important not to reinforce this. Don't immediately bend over to pick up what it dropped and try again. This can turn into a game where the parrot drops the object just to watch you picking it up again. Whenever the parrot drops an object or misses the bowl, turn around and ignore the bird briefly. It is best not to bend over and pick up the object but rather pull out a spare. Pick up the dropped object a bit later.
Once your parrot learns to take the object from you, walk over to the bowl, and drop it, it will have learned the simplest basics of fetch. However, do not stop here. Continue challenging your bird. Use alternative objects for the parrot to fetch as well as alternative receptacles. I recommend starting out with a very large bowl so it's hard to miss but then narrowing down to smaller and smaller ones to develop accuracy. Also change the direction where the parrot has to go to fetch. Don't let it get in a habit of walk left to pick up, right to drop. The parrot might not learn the actual concept then and would just be repeating motions. Instead, keep mixing up the direction but keep the concept of dropping objects into bowl the goal. I begin saying "fetch" from the first time I introduce the trick to the parrot. The earlier you start using the cue, the sooner the bird will pick it up. While it may seem strange to say "fetch" when the bird has no idea what the trick is and just holds the object to play, it just sets the training up and prepares it for hearing that cue once it catches on to the behavior.
This is just the very first stage of teaching the retrieve. Stay tuned for more updates about how to teach a parrot to fetch objects. I have been successful in using this method to train a Budgerigar, Senegal Parrot, and Cape Parrot to learn to fetch. I couldn't see why a Cockatiel, Conure, Amazon, or Macaw couldn't learn to fetch the same exact way. If you have any further questions, feel free to post in the comments or join the discussion on the parrot forum.
On Wednesday morning (August 4th, 2010), Truman and I had a bit of a disagreement. I took him out of his cage for his customary morning poop. For ten minutes he sat around on his perch and didn't do anything. Then he suddenly flew off and landed on my windows shades and released an all nighter. This was much similar to a previous episode of this. Thus I ended up spending all morning cleaning poop out of my blinds again and by the time I finished I was in a rush to get to work. Every time I went to try to get Truman he'd fly off and things turned into a nasty chase. The more he flew away, the more effort I exhibited to get him which in turn made him flee reflexively.
The chase terminated in a exhaustion and a crash. Truman no longer tried to get away. I picked him up, comforted him briefly and put him away in his cage. For the remainder of the day Truman appeared lethargic and was closing one eye much of the time. He did not eat a thing in the morning nor in the evening. I began to worry that he became sick either from too much stress getting chased in the morning or possibly from my bird store visit several days prior. I decided to let him sleep on it and see if he improves over night. By the following morning when he did not touch his food, I decided immediately to take him to the vet.
Instead of going to my local vet, I took him to a specialized avian vet in Manhattan and over an hour away. They had a nurse take a look at him almost immediately to determine that he is in stable enough condition to allow the doctor to finish a previous animal before examining Truman. After a brief wait we entered and I explained the scenario. I told about how I suspected his drastic behavior change to be either illness from bird store, stress from chase, or possibly injury. Truman stood the entire exam on a single foot and limped when trying to move around. The previous day he did not exhibit so much difficulty in the foot so I was not as concerned that it was injury. However, by this time it was much more apparent. The vet determined that Truman had hurt his leg and that if anything, the pain was coming from higher up.
I was in a difficult position with a wedding I had to attend over the weekend and no ability to provide him special care and attention. So I decided to have Truman taken care of by the office until Sunday. I came back to visit Truman Thursday night, Friday morning, Saturday morning, and then picked him up on Sunday night. After an xray it turned out that Truman had a fractured pelvic bone on his left leg. The vet explained that there is really nothing they can do about it but that the good news is that it should heal on its own. The first day they fed Truman soft food and injected him with liquids but by the next day he was already eating pellets on his own. I had brought a bag of his normal pellets with me when I dropped him off and left those so he'd have a familiar food.
On the second day of Truman's stay, I came to visit bringing an almond for him to munch on. He devoured it right down and was looking much more alive than he was the previous days. He was finally a bit more alert looking and making some of his customary sounds. I continued visiting him and noting small signs of improvement. Today I picked him up and brought him home. The office provided me with medication to give to Truman for the next 5 days. It is an anti inflammatory and pain killer which should aid the healing process.
I had to set up a special living area for Truman for the next few weeks. Truman can't go back into his cage for a while because he needs to avoid climbing in order that his hip can heal. So I set up a large plastic bin with a low perch and steep sides. This way he cannot climb up the sides and has little room to walk around. Truman needs a good few weeks of rest so that he can improve. I also made a special lid with a wire mesh for the top. It is as much my fear of Kili getting into Truman's tub as it is for Truman to get out. There is no way Kili/Truman can climb in but they are both flighted and I won't be taking any chances. I leave his tub uncovered when I am home but will cover it when I am not.
So five days and $600+ since Truman's injury, things are starting to return to normal. Truman won't be able to fly around or do tricks for a few weeks but I am glad that his injury should be recoverable. I will be feeding him calcium rich foods like spinach, broccoli, almonds, and yogurt if he accepts in addition to his pellets. If not, he can have lots of almonds. He normally has one a day as it is and the extra fat shouldn't be an issue considering he's under weight now as it is. Surprisingly I've learned that almonds are a great non-dairy source of calcium.
I have learned a few lessons in this whole process. Obviously I learned that you can't take things too far with a bird and it's important to keep a low stress environment so they can think with their head rather than get out of control in an enclosed space. It is my fault for pushing Truman too far and assuming he was as tame as Kili. However, I also learned that good vet care is available (albeit at some distance and expensive cost) and should be used when necessary. I am really happy with the Center for Avian & Exotic Medicine in all regards including their level of expertise, specialization, quality facilities, and friendly staff.
Here is an article for the very beginners. This is not an article about actually teaching a parrot to step up, refer to this one for more information about actually training this. This one is about the actual approach to requesting a trained parrot to step up. This is great for members of a household that has a parrot that steps up but want to know how to hold it, folks who bought a tame baby parrot and want it to step up, and just anyone wondering about good ways to hold them.
I've watched videos online, seen people (who claim to be parrot owners) try to pick my birds up, and watched people at the bird store trying to handle the birds. I have amassed many observations of people approaching parrots the wrong way and it won't step up or even bites. Meanwhile I could reach for the same parrot and it steps right up. It's not because the parrot has a specific thing for me and not them but rather because I've developed a universal approach to picking up parrots whether mine or other. I was very disappointed not to have an article like this available to teach me how to hold a parrot when I bought my first and had no prior experience so I would like to share what I've learned with you.
First and foremost, you don't want to leave a bad first impression on the parrot. Avoid making any sudden moves anywhere in the presence of the parrot. This includes both within sight and earshot. If you slam the door, even though your parrot may not have seen it, it may be in a nervous/jumpy mood and picking it up will be more difficult. Always err on the side of being too cautious because if you succeed in interaction, you can slowly be more and more abrupt/normal and it won't bother the parrot, but if you leave a bad first impression it may develop a fear of you. Give the parrot time to adjust at first sight. Don't go straight for the parrot after entering the room. Go about and do some things on your own and slowly work your way closer to the parrot. Of course if you have an existing relationship this may not be necessary but if you are visiting someone else's parrot or this one is new to you, these are definitely things you'll want to do.
Now, once you have established a calm presence in front of the parrot, you can approach for the step up. At this stage the parrot might be on a stand, in the cage, or on someone's hand. It doesn't particularly matter what it is actually standing on as your approach should be roughly the same. Slowly walk toward the parrot watching for any signs of fear or aggression. Assuming the parrot is calm, proceed closer and closer. Stop and stand at half an arm's length from the parrot and reach your arm (right/left handedness doesn't matter, use what is convenient) away from the parrot at first. For small parrots reach out your index finger and tuck the rest of your fingers down. For a larger parrot use your wrist or entire arm. Aim the back of your hand toward the parrot so there is less available to bite or nip. Now from a distance your parrot will already see the cue for stepping up and it will come as no surprise that it is what you want. If the parrot is adamantly against this, you will know before your fingers are close enough to get chomped because you are taking your time approaching the parrot.
Move the hand toward the parrot at a slow but steady pace. This way the parrot has time to think and act. Aim for just above the legs but don't hold your hand at beak height as that will encourage nipping. Parrots don't step down well so definitely don't aim at the feet or below. Once you are within beak length from the parrot, there is no backing down. Bite or not, at this point you have to bring the hand close enough for it to step up. If you back off at this point, the parrot will learn to bite whenever it doesn't feel like stepping up and you'll have a much bigger problem. The time for changing your mind was before you got close enough if the parrot was showing any aggressive body language. If the parrot does start to bite, keep pressing in toward the parrot and that will force it to step up and stop biting. By leaning into the bite you overwhelm the parrot and it should relax the bite. Assuming the parrot doesn't bite, once your hand is close enough it should step up. If it does not, continue moving your hand toward the parrot and gently press on the belly until it begins to lose its balance and is forced to step up. Once the bird is on your hand, be sure to move your arm slowly and gently the rest of the time because you don't want the parrot to develop a terrible association of being on you.
As for grabbing a parrot, once again assuming the behavior is already learned by the parrot and it is strictly a matter of transferring to another person, use the same approach as for step up except swinging your arm from behind and slightly above the parrot. Keep your hand open with the thumb swung out to form a cradle that the parrot will be grabbed in. When you grab, squeeze from the sides onto the wings/shoulders but never hold by the belly because that will restrict breathing. Alternatively you can grab by the neck by holding your thumb to index finger together just under the beak. Not only does this keep the parrot firmly in your hand, it also prevents biting. This is a good grip to use for maintenance behaviors such as clipping nails or checking the wings. Don't actually squeeze the neck but rather make a circle between the thumb and index finger to keep the parrot from sliding out because the head is thicker than the neck.
In conclusion, it is about having a collected and deliberate approach to holding the parrot. If the parrot is not afraid of you and senses that you will be picking it up no matter what, it is much less likely to refuse to step up than if you are shaky and uncertain. The parrot can tell all of this by how you move and act so be confident in yourself and don't be scared and you will be surprised by how much more cooperative the parrot will actually become.
Here is a video where I demonstrate these methods and different ways of holding small and medium sized parrots:
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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