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
I went out to buy some more perches for Truman because he was having trouble reaching perches in his cage. I bought a comfy rope perch to hang diagonally across the cage to make it a bit easier for him to get up and get around. I added some more intermediate perches to help him get from the bars to the perches. Eventually I should be able to remove this safety perches but for now he is clumsy and these save his butt from falling down an extra time. I also needed to buy perches to use to make special training stands for Truman similar to Kili's.
Since I drove nearly an hour to get to this wholesale place for parrot supplies, I figured I'd make the most of it. I bought a year's worth of toys and some additional swings/perches. I didn't buy any toys for Kili - not only because she has a ton of old toys I can reuse - but also cause when Truman breaks his toys down to smaller pieces, I'll be able to recycle them and make smaller toys for Kili out of those. This way, effectively I can spend one bird's worth on toys and keep a second equally well supplied.
I bought a boing to put in Truman's cage eventually. I got him a large bird kebab, a rope swing, new basketball prop, swinging ladder, comfy perch, and a bunch of other toys. I also got a handful of mounting clasps. Not that I lose them, but somehow certain toys end up coming without them and I always find myself borrowing clasps from other toys. Now I should be set for a long time and will be able to rotate toys for Kili and Truman without having to do any more shopping.
Here is a video showing off Truman's wondrous shopping list worth of toys and then gives you a look inside his cage. You can see the way I changed the set up around to make it a bit easier for him to climb around. He's been having trouble climbing the dome top and the vertical bars. The cage is great for a smarter/older bird but kind of tough for a baby parrot to get used to because there are many aluminum dividers that make getting from one set of bars to the next difficult.
Several outbursts of territorial aggression have already been broke out from Kili against Truman. So I know that this problem exists and will need to be dealt with. Until Truman arrived, I had Kili trained pretty well not to ever land on that cage but since his arrival she has landed on there at least several times and tried to attack through the bars. Whenever I walk by Kili's cage with Truman on my arm, she jumps onto the cage bars and gets really big. She fluffs up her feathers and starts showing her beak, eyes pinning. I have never seen such demonstrations of aggression against any other person from her before but the new bird seems to provoke her more than anything. Finally, there was one instant where I had both birds out at once. It was Kili's time to be out but I just wanted to gauge Truman's weight. Kili was at the far end of the room minding her own business but as soon as I got Truman out of the cage she flew over. She then flew at Truman and I had to deflect her attack by putting my arm in the way and knocking her off her flight path.
Needless to say, quarantine has been violated multiple times already. Truman has landed on Kili's stuff and Kili has landed on Truman's stuff. Living in a single room with flighted parrots makes a successful quarantine nearly impossible. I have been weighing the birds regularly and both seem to be doing just fine. Kili has been healthy for two years and Truman got a full array of blood tests by the breeder's vet. I am not having a strict quarantine anymore but I am keeping the cages apart and only taking one parrot out at a time until this aggression issue is dealt with better.
Luckily Kili really likes training and food. These two things can keep her focused enough often times to ignore other things that are distracting her. So by having her do tricks near Truman's cage and eating treats, it teaches her to "look but don't touch." She is thus developing a habit of not landing on Truman's cage and not attacking Truman. This in effect is an application of differential reinforcement and teaches her what not to do by making an alternative even more rewarding.
I brought over one of Kili's training stands and put up high (about 5ft) to put her at the same height as Truman and just one foot away from him outside his cage. I had her do some tricks and then munch away at her carrot dinner while looking at him. This should also serve as a learning experience for Truman because he refuses to eat carrots. Hopefully watching Kili eat them will make him more likely to eat carrots now as well.
I would like to try something different this time in terms of target training. I have already target trained three different parrots in the past and it was incredibly easy to teach as it is. Anyone that is looking for a demonstration of how to teach target training, you can check out this article. This time, I would like to see if I can teach one parrot the behavior strictly by watching another behavior perform the trick. I am curious if it would be possible to target train Truman without even food rewards but for him to do it merely because he sees the other parrot(s) in the flock doing it. Mimicking behavior may in itself be reinforcing for a young parrot.
At least there is no hurt in trying. The worst case scenario is that it does not work and I target train him using the typical clicker training method. But if it does work, the results may be interesting. To teach him, I will target Kili back and forth on a perch outside Truman's cage so that he can watch without being part of it. I intend to do this for several days to a week and then see if Truman comes to the target stick from some distance consistently on his own.
Another fantastic thing about this exercise is that it is bringing Kili closer to Truman but in a non-aggressive way. She definitely gets very territorial and looks aggressive like never before when I bring Truman past her cage. However, during the target training exercise, Kili wanted to show off so much that she did the exercise and additional tricks flawlessly. Kili was paying more attention to me than Truman and in the process was learning that she can earn treats around Truman by doing tricks which distracts from aggressive thoughts toward him. So not only does this set up the potential for Truman to model the behavior but it also prepares Kili to be introduced to the new parrot.
As a progress update, Truman is eating pellets on his own already and learning to climb around his perch. He's taken a few flights so far and he landed on my arm for the first time. He is getting stronger and more confident and both parrots seem very healthy and happy.
I have never dealt with a remote breeder before so I was uncertain about having a bird flown across the country. I was not only worried about the parrot's safety but also comfort during the long passage. I would like to share some of my thoughts about the concept in general and my personal experience.
First off, the good news is that the United States can be traversed by air north to south in 3 hours, east to west in 6. So if a direct non stop flight can be achieved, it should be possible in 6 hours or less. We must add at least a 1 hour drive to the airport and one hour from upon pickup. Next we can add at least 1 hour for pre-departure processing and 1 hour for post-arrival processing. So without any delays, realistically the bird can be expected to spend between 7-10 hours. However, flights that require transfers can easily add another 2-4 hours to this estimate. What I am trying to demonstrate is that a good chunk of the time the parrot needs to spend in the carrier, it isn't even in an airplane at all. Therefore, whether you are shipping across the country or a few states away, the flight time plays less of a roll.
I would recommend driving to pick up a parrot when possible but only as long as the total drive time is equal to or less than the total time required for air shipping as outlined above. You see, whether the parrot is being flown or driven, when it is bouncing around in a carrier all day, it won't eat or go about its business anyway. So you may as well search for the quickest solution possible. A 24 hour drive is definitely more stressful than a 3 hour flight (totaling about 8 hours of carrier time). Of course driving affords an element of security because you know where your bird is and can monitor its well being. When it is handed over to the airlines you can only guess at what kind of care they take. But this is where I'd like to bring my personal experience forward.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I received the carrier with Truman. I half expected to see a dead parrot nailed to the perch just inside. I was absolutely shocked to find him peering out by the door and looking excited! After being cooped up for 8 hours, I'm sure I'd be more cranky myself. I must say, it was a pleasant surprise to find how smooth everything went. The plane arrived on time (actually a few minutes early), the bird was out and handed to me within an hour of the airplane's arrival. The carrier wasn't tampered with and the bird was in good health and spirit. All and all I find that the air trip had little impact on the parrot.
Some suggestions if you are getting a parrot sent by air to you from a breeder:
-Make sure they send it out on an early flight. Not only does that give more opportunities in the case of a missed flight, earlier flights also tend to be on time. -Have them put your name, phone number, and address on the carrier itself and the identifier for your airport. -Watery foods like fruit are a better bet than water which can spill -Wire tie all the doors shut and anywhere the carrier snaps together should also be zip tied. -Always try to go direct non-stop flight because that reduces the variable of missed connection and the extra time it takes. -Get to the airport early to pick up your bird because the cargo terminal or baggage area where you are to pick up your parrot may be difficult to find. Airports tend to have ring roads so if you miss the turn off, you may have to go all the way around the airport again until you have another chance. I went around LaGuardia 6 times I think before I finally found the proper cargo area. -Have a second person come with you to help and in case you have to split to wait in different areas (like one to baggage and one to cargo) -Make sure you bring ID to the airport and even alternate ID just in case.
I had been contemplating names for quite some time now. In fact, with the help of many online supporters, I had compiled a list of over 250 possible name ideas. The list was broad and had many good names but none of them seemed to really click. Zuce, Zar, Ziz, and Razu were some of the top names but I was having a hard time narrowing down the right name. Then, about a week prior to receiving the bird I thought of Truman as a possible name idea. Somehow I was thinking about how the parrot would be on youtube a lot which made me think of the character Truman in the movie The Truman Show. To me the name immediately stood out both in terms of the allusion and the sound of the name.
The name Truman is really a combination of things to me. While it alludes to the Truman character from the movie, it is also about the literal meaning of the name: true-man. My hopes are to train this parrot to the greatest degree possible and make him appear as human as a feathered football sized little being can be.
I mentioned the name to many people and most agreed that it would be a good name. On the parrot forum the name Truman got the most votes which made me feel even more comfortable using it beyond just my own gut feeling. The name just clicked and seemed right from the moment I had thought of it in a far stronger way than any other name I had come up with or heard from others. This is how picking a name should work though but going through different name ideas definitely helps.
The night before picking up the parrot at the airport, I rented and watched The Truman show to get a stronger feel for the name and allusion. It definitely strengthened my decision and I absolutely adored this line when the director explains about the world Truman lives in and feel it applies to my Truman in much the same way:
We've become bored with watching actors give us phony emotions. We're tired of pyrotechnics and special effects. While the world he inhabits is in some respects counterfeit, there's nothing fake about Truman himself. No scripts, no cue cards...It isn't always Shakespeare but it's genuine. It's a life.
I firmly decided that I would not pick the name until I'd get the parrot in person but everyone around me already assumed I had picked the name. My brother would ask me "so when is Truman coming?" Other people would also assume I had picked the name beforehand. And while I didn't call him by the name until I picked him up in the airport and said "Hi Truman!" it is true that my mind was pretty much made up since I first thought of the name.
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.
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