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 get often asked about leaving parrots home while going on vacation. Well this article is about how going away on vacation ends up being a vacation for the parrots as well! There are many reasons we can't bring our feathered friends with us whether its safety, accommodations, going abroad, or just needing to get away from the squawking and cleaning for a little bit. So this article is about making your absence tolerable for your parrots.
The first and definitely most important thing for preparing your parrots for your absence is getting them used to being without you beforehand. When we hear of stories of an owner leaving a parrot home a week to come back and find it plucked naked, often this is a result of the parrot being completely spoiled with attention and then suddenly deserted. But just like taming, independence also takes some getting used to for our feathered pals. Even if you don't see yourself going on vacation any time soon, it is still important to maintain a controlled relationship. What if someone in your family becomes ill and needs care? What if you get sent some place for work? There are many unexpected scenarios besides just taking a vacation that may require our parrots to cope without our presence. The only way to prepare them for this is by letting them experience this beforehand.
Your parrot needs to be just as capable of spending time alone as with you. Surely many of us are more concerned with taming and getting them to behave with us, but we must not take this too far and make them entirely dependent on us either. This is why (both for training and vacation purposes) I recommend limited out of cage and interaction time daily. There are minimums and they are much discussed, but I also believe there should be maximums. It's impossible to put exact numbers on it but the point is that your parrot needs to spend enough time in its cage on its own every day that it won't entirely freak out when suddenly you aren't around a day.
It is important to provide good cage enrichment and activities. Of course this is much discussed elsewhere and is a good practice all the time. While maintaining routine is convenient and reassuring, it's important to be spontaneous from time to time. Yes, I try to be home to see my parrots on time, feed them at the normal time, etc. But once in a while if I need to be out late or decide to put them to sleep late than usual, it just prepares them for dealing with out of the ordinary scenarios. If I actually end up going a very long time without a natural break in the routine, I may opt to not take them out a certain day despite being home just to simulate this. But normally there are real reasons for this to happen so I generally save it for these occasions.
Don't be scared to leave the parrots home for an entire day or weekend (preferably with someone to keep an eye on them). If you've never done it before, be sure to see how they do a weekend without your presence prior to leaving them for an entire week or more. Try progressively longer durations. If you are leaving the birds alone for 12-48 hours without anyone to check up on them, consider leaving multiple sources of food and water in case any are spoiled or contaminated. A water bottle is preferable. Never leave parrots completely unattended for more than 2 days at a time though because if anything does happen to their food/water supply, they won't be able to make it much longer than this without intervention.
A question that frequently comes up is if it is better to leave parrots at home and have someone come to take care or to bring them along with their cages to someone else's home. Unless it cannot be arranged, I think it is much better and safer for the parrots to stay home. Not only are they familiar at home but they will also feel safer. To take both their favorite person away and the familiarity of their surroundings is more stressful. People worry that they'll get bored without people around, but I think if you make the above mentioned preparations they will be equipped to deal with it. Another thing is that the parrots are significantly safer remaining in your own home. As a parrot owner, you've probably spent years making your home bird safe. It is easy to begin to take this for granted and forget dangers they could face in someone else's home such as teflon fumes, other pets, children, ceiling fans, windows, etc. For all these reasons, it is best to have a sitter come briefly to your home to care for the parrots each day rather than take the birds to their own home.
When having someone birdsit for you, one of the most important considerations is whether or not they will handle the parrots. In most cases, unless the person is both familiar with parrots and specifically familiar with handling yours, it is safer not to have them let the parrots out. As much as it sucks to stay in the cage for two weeks straight, it is safer than being let loose in your home by someone who can't put them back away. Still, discuss a contingency plan with the birdsitter about what to do if they get out and cannot be returned to their cage. The sitter should leave the cage doors open and cage loaded with food so that the parrot can eventually go back inside to feed.
When I am away, I like to leave my parrots more toys than usual to keep them busy. I put in several new toys to provide with more activity and material for the parrots to play with. However, I also like to leave a few old favorite toys for familiarity as well. I make sure not to rearrange the perches just before leaving instead favoring a tried and true cage layout. This is not the time to experiment with new kinds of toys though, so any new toys that are provided should be similar to safe/successful toys in the past.
I usually end up writing a basic manual covering all things that need to be taken care of and possible contingencies for my bird sitter. So not only do I tell about the basic things that need to be done but also what to do in case there are problems and I cannot be reached. This includes biting, escape, illness, vet care, etc. At the same time, I try to reduce unnecessary activities by as much as possible not to burden the sitter too much.
The birds are fed exclusively pellets while I'm gone. Why? This is safest, simplest, and most nutritious. This is the least burden but also least responsibility for the care taker. The parrots are guaranteed to get all the nutrition they require, the food won't spoil, and it's very easy to guarantee that they don't run out of food in any way. Although I normally follow strict food management, I have my birds overfed while I'm gone. A normal pellet meal won't even line the entire bottom of their food bowls but when I'm gone I have the bowls nearly topped off. I make sure the birds are left with enough food to last several days despite the sitter coming daily. This is to ensure that if for any reason the sitter skips a day, the birds have enough food and water to get by. While we are concerned about long term diet and variety in their meals, a 100% unlimited pellet diet for a few weeks won't do any harm for a parrot that is accustomed to eating pellets.
Aritos, Latin American Onion Ring Parrot Chips (Ara + Fritos = Aritos?)
Finally, the reason I called this parrot vacation is because if done right, this can be as much of a relaxing vacation for your parrots as it is for you. Recently I spent a week traveling in Central America while my brother came once a day to take care of Kili and Truman. He is fully qualified to handle them so he would let them out for as much as an hour every day to fly around. They couldn't be more thrilled! I came back to find they had assumed full control of the situation! My computer mouse was destroyed, poop all over the carpets, and the birds helping themselves to places I would never allow them to go. Not only this, but they stuffed their crops to the brink for every day nonstop. No discipline, no food management, no responsibility. It truly was a vacation for them as well. But this is ok. Let them have it easy while you're gone and then work the taming, training, and order back in once you return.
So with all the preparations that were made over time, it was no trouble at all to leave the parrots home for a week. I got to take a vacation and do some traveling. Meanwhile Kili & Truman also got to take a vacation from training and just enjoy being wild for a little bit.
No, I didn't misplace Truman for a Turkey! I just had to fatten him up a little and Kili could use some stuffing. I laid out the biggest variety of yummy foods the parrots ever got in a single meal. They both went straight for the nuts the moment I placed them on the table. No doubt that is their number one most favorite food. Then Kili sampled the mixed veggies and snuck away pieces of Truman's Brazilian nut cause she couldn't crack her almond. The parrots played with bits of pasta while trying a bit of everything.
While Kili devoured a big piece of banana, Truman nibbled some pellets. Kili did not touch a single pellet though. She's more of a vegetarian where she'll go for fresh veggies and fruits any day. Truman on the other hand is more of a nut and pellet kinda guy. He skipped most of the greens and went straight to his pellets. Before long, both their crops were visibly bulging out of their necks.
The parrot duo engaged in the tradition of sharing by putting aside their differences and enjoying their meal side by side. Neither attacked the other or caused any trouble. But you can see in the video that they were still a little cautious around each other. As long as there's plenty of food to go around, it's every bird for himself! Happy Thanksgiving.
Check out the video of Kili and Truman's Thanksgiving Day meal and then leave a comment about what your parrots got for Thanksgiving.
While I still believe that trick training is both the best mental exercise and relationship building for parrot and owner, good foraging toys are a must for when the owner is away. Just an hour or two of trick training and interaction per day simply isn't enough to meet a parrot's intellectual needs. I would argue that a good training session (especially involving flight and complex behaviors) can make up for hours of down time, but still not a complete substitute. This is why stimulating toys are a must.
Parrot toys come in three categories: chewing, playing, and foraging. Ideally a parrot should have at least one of each category in its cage at all times. Chewing toys are usually comprised of a lot of wooden parts that are appropriate for the parrot's size and beak strength. These are the toys that you come home to see bare not long after hanging them. These are important to keep your parrot busy and beak trimmed. Better that they be chewing on that then your furniture when they are out. The play toys are often made of tougher materials and involve the parrot interacting with them in non-destructive ways such as pushing, pulling, swinging, ringing, etc.
Finally, foraging toys are the third category of parrot toys. In a way these are the ultimate toy because they involve both play and destruction. Foraging toys can best be described as toys with goodies inside. In the simplest sense they are toys with food treats inside but I'd like to talk about going beyond just treats. Since I do a lot of formal parrot training, I don't approve of food oriented toys because then the parrot won't be hungry when I get home and want to do training. So instead, I try to focus on non food based foraging toys.
Truman can spend hours trying to get a hold of the toys inside this coconut foraging toy
For a parrot that doesn't know how to play with toys but is treat oriented, hiding food in toys is a great way to get them started. However, for a naturally inquisitive/playful bird like Truman, just having more toys inside is enough. When toy shopping for my parrots, I especially look out for sophisticated toys like this.
Another thing I like to do is to hang toys near swinging perches rather than solid ones. If the parrot is perched on a solid perch, it is all too easy to shred a toy to smithereens in no time. However, if the parrot is standing on an already swinging perch and the toy moves, it really provides a challenge. Not only is it mentally challenging to move the swing and toy to reach, it is also great exercise. The parrot has to use all of its muscles to balance, hold, and play. In the video below you can see how Truman is holding onto his swinging atom with one foot and the coconut foraging toy with the other. It's both an exercise and a challenge to keep him busy while I am away.
Many parrot owners do not realize it but they are often rewarding their parrots for being bad. This is positive reinforcement working against the parrot owner and the reverse of our intentions in parrot training. It is as much, if not more important to avoid rewarding undesired behavior as it is to reward desired behavior. This will become much clearer when I offer some examples I frequently come across:
Example 1: The owner is eating at the kitchen table when the parrot flies over and lands on the kitchen table. The owner figures the parrot is hungry or attracted by his food so he gives some food off the table to the parrot. Now the owner can't keep the parrot off the table both during meals and between. By giving food from the table to the parrot, the owner positively reinforces the behavior of landing on the kitchen table. The owner may even think that this is cute/harmless behavior but it should not be encouraged for many reasons. I won't even get into the fact that I don't want feathers and poopy feat landing in my food. There are often sharp objects such as forks and knives on the table as well as burning hot foods and drinks. The more a parrot is accustomed to landing on a table, the more likely it is to get hurt by one of these at some point.
Solution 1: The best way to discourage landing on the kitchen table is to never encourage it in the first place. Never, ever, ever, ever give food to the parrot after it lands on the kitchen table. Landing on the table never equates to receiving food. But the parrot still wants it so this does not solve its motivation to get that food somehow. This is why if the parrot is not caged during meals (simplest solution), then an alternative method of reinforcement must be permitted. Take a piece of food from the table before the parrot has landed in your soup and step away from the table. Recall the parrot to your hand, reward for flight recall, and then send it back to its perch to eat. This way you are not only sharing food with the parrot, but also keeping it busy for a while from bothering you more. More importantly this rewards recall while at the same time making landing on the table even less worthwhile. Don't flight recall from sitting down at the table because this will encourage the parrot to keep flying to you while you are at the table. So instead, before it has the chance to fly, step away and teach it to fly to your hand while standing up.
Kili pigs out on corn and frozen mixed vegetables for being a good bird
Example 2: The owner wants to relax and use the computer or watch TV but the parrot keeps nipping for attention. So the owner picks up the parrot, says no, then puts the parrot down on its stand and offers a toy to keep the parrot busy. In this case, the parrot is positively reinforced for nipping the owner with both attention and toys. Furthermore, what the "no" which the owner perceives as a scold, in operant terms becomes a secondary reinforcer really meaning "you'll get toys and attention for what you have just done" (similar to a clicker). Doing this simply ensures that the next time the parrot gets bored, the first thing it will do is start nipping. Ignoring the nipping may be futile since variable ratio reinforcement becomes more resistant to extinction.
Solution 2: Instead of rewarding the nip with a reaction, foresee the situation and distract before it can happen. So instead of giving a toy after a nip to alleviate boredom (which is seen as positive reinforcement), give the toy before you sit down to do your own thing. Make sure the parrot is taken care of and occupied so that you don't have to deal with unwanted behavior afterward. This way you are rewarding the parrot for being on its stand and taking care of itself rather than for bothering you. By preventing the nip (whether it is caging when you are busy, giving toys before you do your thing, or not allowing the parrot onto your shoulder in that situation), you guarantee you won't be inadvertently reinforcing it. If the nip happens anyway, such as getting temporarily distracted with parrot on you, ignore the nip and do nothing first. Before it has the chance to nip again, put it down on its stand and ignore for a short while some more. Then cue the parrot to perform a trick and reward with a toy for doing the trick. This way there is no connection between nipping and getting what it wants. The reinforcement is provided in return for cued behavior and not nipping.
Example 3: Whenever the owner leaves the room, the parrot starts screaming. So the owner goes back so that the parrot would stop screaming. Please don't ever do this. The parrot is making a complete fool out of you if you do. This is the parrot training the owner using negative reinforcement. If you walk out and the parrot screams, too bad.
Solution 3: Don't come back until it stops screaming. Just leave, go do what you have to do. The parrot will eventually get tired and stop. You have no obligation to prevent it from screaming when you aren't even home for it to bother you. Of course this is more problematic when you live with other people who remain to hear the screaming. But trust me, this will only get worse if you keep rewarding it. For the sake of the long term, just deal with the screaming for leaving in the short term to reduce it in the long term. If for any reason you need to go back not pertaining to the parrot (like you forgot your keys or something), go in without making eye contact or going near the parrot. Just focus on what you need while pretending the parrot isn't even there to avoid giving any sense of attention in return for screaming.
In conclusion, whenever your parrot does something you don't like, don't do anything your parrot might like in return. If you aren't used to analyzing behavior under a microscope, then a good rule of thumb is not to do anything at all because odds are it will just encourage it anyway. Instead, when you have identified the unwanted behavior, try to prevent it next time all together. Cage the parrot in circumstances where it may be dangerous for it to be out. When it is more of a matter of nuisance, make sure you are either ready to give attention/supervision to the parrot or preemptively devise ways to keep it busy. Provide toys or foraging opportunities to give it something to do instead of bothering you when you don't want it. Don't play with the parrot or give it attention just because it is annoying you in attempt to get it. But also go out of your way to reward your parrot for being quiet and staying on its perch. It is easy to forget about a well behaved parrot (as opposed to the one that won't shut up or stop biting). Get up and reward the well behaved parrot with toys, treats, or attention for doing what you want from it. As a general rule of thumb, try to make sure your parrot is "earning" every good thing you do for it with good behavior as a requisite and not just because you want to be nice/generous. If it earned it, then it is far less likely that you are rewarding it for undesired behavior.
I taught Kili a new trick in just a matter of a few training sessions. I haven't taught her a new trick in a while. The last trick she learned was pressing a lever to initiate the rube goldberg. However, she has not forgotten how to learn new tricks and is as good as ever picking them up. My main problem is running out of good tricks to teach her and a lack of motivation on my part rather than Kili hitting a limit to how much she can learn.
The greatest challenge was to teach Kili to push the puck rather than pick it up and fetch it. Of course naturally she is inclined to pick up whatever she says to fetch it to where it has to go since so many tricks involve fetching something. But nothing the clicker couldn't solve. This is definitely a place where it was make or break to have a clicker to train. So to all the clicker deniers out there, you are missing out on a tool that facilitates learning where difficult behaviors are required.
To teach the trick I started with targeting her to just touch the puck, click, and reward. Once she knew that she had to do something with the puck, she began trying to pick it up. Well I don't want her to pick it up ever. So if she managed to pick it up entirely I would ignore Kili. Instead, I tried to click when she was just beginning to lift it and inadvertently pushing it forward a little in the process. Thus I trained her that for this trick she didn't have to lift but just push. Then we increased the distance further and further until you have the air hockey trick you see here.
The biggest problem is if Kili begins pushing the puck but isn't exactly lined up straight. Then it always ends up being pushed into a corner and she gets stuck there. She has already learned to make small corrections (pay attention for this in the video, it's quite interesting) but still cannot make substantial turns to line up with the goal if not going in a straight line. This I cannot teach her and she simply has to learn herself through trial and error. We'll keep practicing. Ideally the purpose is to have Kili be able to start with the puck anywhere on the board and be able to maneuver it to the goal.
Now check out Kili's Air Hockey Trick video as narrated by Truman in the background:
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.
Aritos, Latin American Onion Ring Parrot Chips (Ara + Fritos = Aritos?)
Truman can spend hours trying to get a hold of the toys inside this coconut foraging toy
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