December 3, 2011 – 12:52 pm
As I work on my new parrot training book for TFH, I find myself noticing training for better or for worse all over the Internet. The book includes trick training and training for husbandry and behavior, but I personally think the most important bits of the book are training the day-to-day. Right as I was [...]
October 25, 2011 – 4:28 pm
A snippet of the parrot training book I am working on… Imagine that your parrot is an alien dropped into your home from another world. Actually, this is pretty close to the truth. Parrots don’t have lips and cannot smile. Their strange little pupils expand and contract with their thoughts. Overall, they have strange [...]
September 11, 2011 – 2:35 pm
About once a week I receive a long heartbreaking email from a parrot owner asking for help with a complicated problem. I’ll be honest, I often don’t answer. The truth is the answers would often involve several phone conversations and major problem solving. Even an encouraging email with a few helpful thoughts would take me [...]
August 22, 2010 – 5:23 pm
I do hope everyone is enjoying my more fanciful “Tuesdays with Ty” posts, but I realize I have been neglecting what was initially the core of this blog– training and behavior advice. I need to get back at that as well. I love writing the little essays for Tuesday, pondering what it is that the [...]
From time to time someone who is thinking about getting a parrot asks me what my opinion is. Should I get a cockatoo? Or do you think an African grey? Wow. Those are two very different species. And if I don’t know you, I probably don’t have a very valid opinion. It’s all about your [...]
Making your own toys can be a lot of fun and save you tons of money. These are some parts from Rose’s Pet Emporium Sunday morning is my favorite time to make toys. A cup of coffee, a power drill, what morning could a girl [...]
You think I’m nuts, right? In fact your parrot is screaming right now. A normal serenade, the sort of noises parrots make in the jungle is perfectly acceptable and should be accepted. Not everything is screaming, some noises are natural behavior. Screaming is a learned, not a natural behavior. At least, the sort of screaming that [...]
It’s been a regular avian grumpfest around here lately. The falcons are on an all-you-can-eat diet and the molting has commenced, meaning falcons who have no use for me and are nearly impossible to handle. The pigeons or making ostentatious and impossibly loud overtures to one another. Meanwhile, the parrots are touchy and feathers abound in the house. [...]
Someone asked me the other day, “Do parrots have feelings?” She apologized in case it was a dumb question, but she was curious to know. This makes a difference doesn’t it? Or does it? Of course parrots have feelings. I imagine that all animals have feelings. I simply don’t know what those feelings are at [...]
December 13, 2009 – 5:10 am
I had a dream the other night…a nightmare, really, that I couldn’t take it anymore. The animals were too much. I decided that I had to give up my African grey, Ty and my Brittany spaniel, Booth. Worse. I was desperate. I wanted them out of my life immediately. And so, I left the grey [...]
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