Playing fetch

Playing fetch is a game that many parrots enjoy but it is not the traditional fetch-game that you may recognize from having played with your dog, for instance. No, this is the fetch-game 1.0  parrot-version, that is the game when you do the fetching and not your parrot. You may not notice it but your parrot is, in secret, training you to be just the obedient toy-fetching, cage-cleaning, snacks-giving human your parrot wants you to be. When your parrot plays fetch it is a simple game. The basic point of the game is simply to drop (no, toss across the entire room) the current foot held toy that your parrot is playing with. You, being the good and kind owner that you are, of course say something similar to: "oh, you poor thing, you dropped your toy!" And then you walk across the room, maybe drop to your knees to scout under the sofa and pick up the toy before walking back to your bird just to hand it over. It will not take many seconds before the toy has, once again, flown across the room like a flightless bird and landed with a thud someplace inconvenient. You might think that being a human you would figure out this evil little scheme that your parrot is enacting but no. As the good, kind human you are you once again follow the bidding of your feathered companion. And this may continue as long as your parrot is enjoying the game which, I can tell you, can be quite some time. Even if, and when, you figure out that you are actually being trained by your parrot you will probably just laugh it off and keep fetching. After all, you are the good, kind human and you still love your parrot to bits!

Upside down

Want to teach your bird how to hang upside down from your hand like a bat? The key element of this trick is one simple word - trust. Do not attempt to turn your bird upside down if it does not trust you, as this is a very vulnerable position for your bird to be in. It has to be totally comfortable in your presence and not feel threatened.

First your bird should be comfortable being touched and stroked on its back and wings by you. You should always talk to your bird, telling it what is going on, for example saying "touch" while you stroke the wings. Then, always saying the command (upside down) a few seconds before doing the action, hold your hand on the birds back and carefully "tip" the birds body backward, being careful to notice the bird's reaction. Continue doing this, a little bit more every time during short intervals (always stop the training session when it is going best, so that your bird gets a positive connection to training and only train for a few minutes each time). Finally your bird should be tipped over on its back, still resting in the palm of your hand. When it has been turned on its back and feels comfortable in this position the hand can be removed, your bird now "hanging in mid-air."

The final step, getting the bird to "stretch its body" toward the ground is something that Sarabi started doing by herself (it is a pose that Grey's often do by themselves, hanging upside down from the cage ceiling for instance) but you can try to make your bird "stretch out" by holding a favorite snack just beneath the bird, so that it has to stretch its body to reach the goodie.

Good luck and have fun with all the bat- and monkey-birds out there!

Feather plucking/mutilation

Photos taken with a few months apart, the photo to the right taken the 23rd of August. Her feathers have since then further improved (see the header photo).

The blog hasn't been updated in quite some time and during this time Sarabi has, unfortunately, developed a feather mutilating behavior (starting in January), which is sadly very common especially among the very sensitive African Grey parrot species. The problem was adressed immediately with a visit to the vet, knowing that the behavior can have very various reasons - anything from a physical change in the environment (like a piece of furniture being moved to a new location in the room) to poor diet, lack of stimulation or parasites. The vet took a sample of a flake from Sarabi's skin, to test for parasites, but the test results showed that it was plain dandruff or simply "dry, flaky and sensitive skin." The days before Sarabi started mutilating the feathers on her chest area, nape and partially her wings I had installed a bird bath to her cage, to enable her to bathe at will and add more moisture. This had of course been introduced days ahead and in small steps and Sarabi did take a liking to the bird bath straight away. My thought was though that the bird bath, i.e. change in environment, could have been a cause of stress - even if it seemed to have been positive stress.

The vet recommended a diet change - a transition the the Harrison's pellets (I use High Potency Coarse, which is recommended for African Grey's that have extra nutritional needs, combined with some Power Treats) as a base plus fruits and greens - from a previous diet of other colorful, non-organic, pellets, seeds, fruits and greens and some "table food." The seeds, and the "table foods", have now been completely excluded from the diet and I have added palm nuts, which is a natural food for African Greys and contains a very nutritious "juice", and the occasional cashew nut as a treat. Besides this a UV-light has been added to the cage, a humidifier and air cleanser to the room and I have started spraying Sarabi daily with the AVIx Soother Spray. Her feathers have now almost completely grown back and recovered and she is happier and more content than ever! I think that having gone through this worrying experience together has, in a way, further strengthened our bond. Thanks to quick action the behavior has, seemingly, not developed into a bad habit - which is of course more difficult to break than behavior that is simply the cause of something else which ceases if the cause is dealt with.

This might have been possible to avert, having taken these necessary steps earlier, but at the same time it has been a learning experience for me as a parrot owner and I hope that our experience can help others to avoid a similar one with their birds with proper information and care from the beginning. Many bird food manufacturers promise that their foods will "cover all the bird's nutritional needs" and seeds, for example, are almost taken for granted as "the" food for birds. Yet they contain large amounts of fat and lack of nutrition. Many pellets also contain non-organic ingredients that your bird may be sensitive to or become allergic to. "Table foods" also often contain chemicals, salts, saturated fats etc.

It is important that your bird receives proper nutrition, stimulation (time out of the cage, cuddle time, foraging toys, word games etc.), enough moisture (showers several times a week and possibly some kind of soother spray - aloe vera, for instance), proper sleep (10-12 hours of non interrupted sleep) and a clean and healthy environment. Even with all of these components your bird might still develop a feather plucking or feather mutilation behavior - go straight to an avian veterinarian if your bird starts plucking or mutilating its feathers and, with your vet's help, go through all of these important areas to see if there is anything missing or that can be improved.