Heckled By Parrots » Squawkin’

Up and Coming

rebecca — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:05:21 +0000

I have a few lectures coming up if any of you parrot folks are out and about Southern California:

I look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones!

Don’t We All Get Tipsy and Talk to Our Parrots?

rebecca — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:49:00 +0000

It's for You, Cockatoo!

I’m looking forward to seeing Iron Man 2 for many reasons, most of them involving Robert Downey, Jr. I have to admit though, that I’m really looking forward seeing Mickey Rourke who has always been one of my faves. Spending a couple of decades getting his face busted up boxing only endeared him to me more. (I also love boxing and didn’t quite make it in the ring either.) Mickey Rourke with a cockatoo though…that really has my interest.

It was Rourke who asked that a cockatoo be added to the movie. He felt his character needed to inspire at least a bit of empathy from the audience. And what inspires more empathy than a man who gets drunk and argues with his parrot? Hey, Mickey …you, me, a bottle of tequila and the parrots? Call me.

Rourke did more than just hire a cockatoo however, he wanted to make a difference in a parrot’s life. You may remember that Rourke was out and about the awards circuit for The Wrestler, frequently quoted thanking his dogs for the difference they have made in his life, for helping him through. Rourke gets the value of a reciprocal relationship with a pet, so he adopted Sunny, a cockatoo on his seventh home from Best Friends. You can read the whole story here. From what I understand, Sunny was actually used in the second half of the movie.

And in case your wondering about a happy ending, Rourke is frequently seen around LA, Sunny on his shoulder. I admit Sunny looks a tiny bit traumatized by the paparrazi, but who wouldn’t be? He will never be a cockatoo lacking for enrichment, that’s for sure, not while he’s exploring Los Angeles with Rourke.

What Say You?

rebecca — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:52:35 +0000

Give it a Grade!

I have often wished there was a place where a parrot lover could go to easily get opinions on what books and magazines to read, what videos to buy, what toys parrots love, who is a great avian veterinarian, what parrot rescues are dependable and all of the other bits and pieces we have to figure out the hard way. There are some great sources for natural history and book learnin’ on our critters like the World Parrot Trust site, but there’s something to be said for peer review.

The thing is– boards and lists suck for that. I don’t want to have a conversation (read: flame war) and I don’t want to search through thread after thread looking for some useful information. I want to pull up five reviews on Phoenix Landing and see what people have to say, like the reviews on Amazon.com. I want to know what real people think, not just fancy pants people like that Rebecca K. O’Connor chick. So how do you find a place like that?

Look no further– check out the Heckled by Parrots Reviews community on Lunch.com. Join! Add your thoughts and help build a resource. You can add your own topics to review, review topics already in the community or just rate them. Don’t have much time? Do a 160 character Twitter-style review. After all, your 2 cents may be priceless to someone who needs to know!

Five Parrot Books that Should be on Your Shelf

rebecca — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:27:02 +0000

These are the five books I think should be on every parrot owner’s bookshelf. Click on the titles to read a lengthier review of the books. (and to add your own review if you agree or disagree!)

Parrots of the World by Joseph M. Forshaw

Everyone should have a book to pull off the shelf when they are wondering what species of parrot that photo on the web might be or when arguing about the name of that lory species over drinks. (It’s Duyvenbodes, by the way. You win some you lose some…)

More importantly perhaps, this book is a wonderful starting point to finding out a bit of natural history about the parrot in your home. The more you know about what your parrot’s kin does in the wild, the better you will understand his needs and habits in your home!

Good Bird by Barbara Heidenreich

Barbara and I worked together for some time in the arena of free flight bird shows. She took much of what we knew and lived by and put it into this easy to understand book for the pet parrot community. It was just the start of many great tools produced by Good Bird Inc!

The Parrot Problem Solver by Barbara Heidenreich

Taking the basics of “Good Bird” to the next level, Barbara breaks down the basics of behavior and training. She gives those unindoctrinated in the world of using proven techniques and terms standardized by psychologists a great intro and many tools to put their new knowledge to work.

Brinker's All Around Grey Book

For the Love of Greys by Bobbi Brinker

The African grey parrot is unarguably one of the most popular species of pet parrot in the world. And few people are more knowledgable about this particular species than Bobbi. Introducing readers to the idea that positive reinforcement and facilitation rather than force is the best way to live with a grey, she also shares just about everything you need to know about keeping your grey healthy and happy.

A Parrot for Life by Rebecca K. O’Connor

I won’t review my own book, but of course I think it should be on your shelf! Decades of both living with parrots and training birds professionally inspired me to write the book I wish I had when I trained my first cockatiel at eight years old. I wanted it to be fun to read and full of up-to-date information. My first birds would have had better nutrition, health and my hands would have suffered a lot fewer bits. I’ll leave it to you to decide if I accomplished my goal.

What are your favorite parrot books?

Fostering! Check out the March issue of Bird Talk

rebecca — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:57:56 +0000

If you haven’t seen my article in the March issue of Bird Talk about giving back through fostering parrots, be sure to pick it up!

Here’s an excerpt explaining why parrots may not be given up for the reasons you think…

There are of course, many horrible stories of abuse and neglect. Sometimes parrots are hoarded and kept in terrible conditions, locked in rooms and fed strange diets with no nutrition or beaten and injured for screaming or biting. Severely neglected birds may injure themselves because of their living environment or even self-mutilate. Of course we all want to help victimized parrots. However, there are also many more parrots that have simply had a bit of bad luck rather than abuse and just need a friendly home.

Some foundations that work to find homes for parrots are reluctant to call their organizations “rescues.” The truth is that most parrots which find their way to parrot welfare organizations were not abused birds that had to be rescued, but rather birds for which the owners could no longer provide homes. The list of reasons a parrot might be placed with a parrot welfare organization is long. Life changes sometimes make it impossible to care for a parrot. Long-term illnesses, job loss, foreclosure and many other tragedies can simply make it impossible to give a parrot care, attention or perhaps even a home. Sometimes people even buy parrots on a whim and discover that they are in completely over their heads and have no desire to do the work to manage the monster in their home. This may seem inexcusable, but it happens just the same and generally the parrots that come from a situation like this are not abused or “broken.”

Birds USA

rebecca — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:45:23 +0000

Check out Rebecca's article!

Every year Bowtie comes out with a BirdsUSA annual. There’s always good stuff in it! Including the occasional contribution by yours truly. This year I had an article in about what you should think about training a new bird and a few things your really ought to avoid training a new bird.

From the opening of the article:

There are hundreds of things you might teach a parrot to prepare him for the future and you have many years to help him with the tools and the skills that he needs. You can train specific things such as to go into a crate or to wave on cue. There are several specific behaviors that you should work on right away. Overall however, training is every interaction you have with your parrot.

Your most important task as a parrot owner is to learn to be mindful when you interact with your parrot. Every time you give your parrot attention or a treat you are saying to your bird, “I like it when you do that. When you do that I will come pay attention to you or give you something you like.” This is probably what gets parrot owners into the most trouble. Who hasn’t walked up to a screaming parrot and said, “hush”? It’s natural. However, all your parrot has to go on is your actions. Your actions are far clearer than your words to a parrot. When you say, “hush” all you parrot understands is that the screaming got you to come pay attention to him.

Shaping good behavior is just as easy as shaping bad behavior and an incredibly important skill to learn. It is not about controlling your parrot, but rather, giving your parrot clear communication about the behavior you do or not appreciate. If you can clearly communicate to your bird what you appreciate the most, he has an opportunity to control his world with behaviors you like. Everybody wins and your relationship stays positive. So what should you start by encouraging?

Next time you’re in PetSmart, PetCo or your favorite local bird store. (Mine is this one. I just saw BirdsUSA there last week) Be sure to grab a copy. It’ll be worth the read!

Out at Phoenix Landing

rebecca — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 13:00:25 +0000

At Phoenix Landing

From www.phoenixlanding.org: The Phoenix Landing Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit all-volunteer organization. It was established to promote and protect the welfare of parrots, especially those with an extensive lifespan.

I had the pleasure of speaking at Phoenix Landing in Virginia last month. It was a whirlwind tour with a jaunt out to talk to the group, a visit to DC and a reading of LIFT in Shirlington. I had a blast!

What really impressed me was the caliber of people and the high level of commitment the Phoenix Landing folks have. They have a great handle on training already and certainly didn’t need my expertise, but they are so committed to continued learning that they were a joy to speak to both during the presentation and casually over a meal.

Look Mom! People really do come to hear me speak!

Even if you aren’t close enough to volunteer, foster or visit the great folks at Phoenix Landing, I highly recommend checking out their website. They have just recently started publishing their own materials which can be purchased on their website here. You’ll find a few old favorites there was well. It’s a great way to support their work. I also highly recommend their calendar. This is the second year a Phoenix Landing calendar has hung in my kitchen. I’m pretty sure that you would love one too!

To thanks to Ann Brooks and team Phoenix! I hope you have me back again sometime.

Have you seen the Jan Issue of Bird Talk?

rebecca — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:29:01 +0000

January Bird Talk

Check out this month’s issue of Bird Talk if you haven’t picked it up yet. It features an article on getting a “do over” when your relationship with your parrot has gone awry.

It is the one thing all parrot owners dread happening. The sweet baby parrot that used to spend hours cuddling in your lap has suddenly turned into a piranha. In fact, this has been coming on slowly with a nip here and a lunge there. Now you are not certain which parrot you are going to get when you open up the cage, Dr. Jeckle or Mr. Hyde. Then one day you cannot get near your parrot at all without blood shed. Your feelings are hurt and you wonder if you have lost your best friend forever. What happened and what can you do to fix it?

Starting Over

The article explains how easy it is to accidentally create a monster. Behavior is learned and we are often reinforcing behaviors that we don’t want.

It discusses how to rebuild your relationship by starting from scratch. It also has reminders about how important it is to be mindful of your training. If you take responsibility for being clear about what behaviors are appreciated, you’ll get a lot more of those behaviors and a lot less of the annoying ones. So check it out!

I loved the art on this!

If you have a subscription, your probably just got your March issue. (hint– I have an article in that one as well).

All About Alex

rebecca — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 00:54:40 +0000

Book Jacket

It took me ages to finally read “Alex and Me.” Last month I finally bought it, read it and lost it in five days.

Honestly, all of this book touring business I’ve got going is dangerous…WAY too much time in bookstores. I’m suddenly constantly surrounded by books I’ve either forgotten I wanted to read or didn’t know I wanted to read. As if I haven’t enough to read and write.

I was doing pretty well with abstaining, then I saw the paperback of Irene Pepperberg’s memoir was out and it was more than I could take. I bought it. I figured I would alternately like it and pick it apart. After all, I’ve been battling the aftermath of Pepperberg’s famous statement, that was something to the effect of African greys have the intelligence of a four year old child and the emotional level of a two year old, for as long as I’ve been helping people with parrot behavior problems. (It’s not that she’s wrong so much as that people seem to interpret it as a license to treat your birds like children. But that is for another post. )

What I didn’t expect was how much I would love this book. A young clever girl grows up an only child with meager social skills and budgies as her dearest friends. I know this girl. I am this girl and suddenly I realized there are probably a lot of us girls.

Then as I read, entranced, I also realized a piece of all of Irene’s work that I had been missing. I’m not quite 40 and I was schooled in training animals from a place where everyone believed animals were intelligent, that birds were not by any stretch of the imagination just “stimulus response” machines. I was trained to use operant conditioning and positive reinforcement not because parrots were automatons, but because it was a clear way to communicate. Pepperberg went through hell, even in recent years struggling for funding, so that I could live in a world where it was a given that an African grey parrot understands zero. I would much rather train people how to manage behaviors because they have forgotten their birds weren’t human, than to have to try to convince blind people to believe that they are exceedingly intelligent and worthy of engaging in a complicated relationship.

And then, despite the fact I knew how the story had to end, I made the foolish decision to finish it in a restaurant before I had a reading in Sonoma. I cried for Irene and for Alex and for myself because my African grey may not be forever either. Then when the waitress approached me with a question in her eyes, I patted the cover of the book. “Oh! I’ve had an African grey for 8 years. We love him,” she said.

“Do you know about Alex?” I asked her and when said answered that she didn’t I said, “Then you must read this book,” and handed it to her. I guess I’ll have to buy another copy.

What Ty Says

rebecca — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:07:48 +0000

What's up, Grey Bird?

I’m feeling a little bad that Ty only has a cameo in my memoir Lift. I know he deserves his own tale, a funny and heartwarming story about how to laugh at yourself and live large.

This wasn’t his book, it was Anakin’s, but maybe another time. I was thinking this morning about all of the things he says that mark our time and joys together and trying to pick my favorites. I think I like it best when he says things that remind me to be happy or make me laugh. So here are my top five:

Mmmmn coffee!
You’re so good.
Why are you so grumpy?
See you later, alligator.
After while crocodile.
I’m a chicken hawk and your a chicken.
Here chick chick chick.

Of course, my absolute favorite is when he laughs and laughs and laughs.

What does your bird say that’s your favorite?