August 29, 2010 – 4:28 am
Sometimes folks shoot me emails and ask me questions about behavior or a specific problem they are having with their parrots. I always ask if I might save the question and answer it on my blog. I haven’t always been very good about it, but I try.
Honestly, my time is very limited. I have a [...]
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 parrots [...]
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 any [...]
January 28, 2010 – 5:45 am
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 [...]
Got a bird that hits the floor and goes for feet? Teach him to station.
An easy thing to train your bird which can keep him out of all kinds of mischief is “stationing.” Training animals to station is a common husbandry technique in zoos. If you need to work with an animal that is dangerous [...]
Several days of thunderstorms have caused my bird’s waterbowls to be suspiciously empty the last few days. I suspect there’s been massive bathing parties while I’m at work, so I’ve left bathpans at the bottoms of their cages…not that they’re being used… Apparently, there’s something irresistable about bathing in the drinking water.
Even the grey, shunner [...]
I have gotten so many great responses from this month’s issue of Bird Talk (May 2009) and my article How to be a Better Trainer with three important things to train your parrots. This is perhaps the seventh or so full length article I’ve written for the magazine, but mostly I figure no one reads [...]
One of the most common problems with parrots that come from previous homes is a fear of hands. I don’t have any studies to verify this, but it has been suggested that the old idea that “all parrot MUST step up” has done much to create a whole generation of captive bred parrots that are skittish [...]
February 22, 2009 – 2:12 pm
A couple of tips to avoid the bite.
Body language is the key to not getting bit, but lets be honest here. We all suck at reading bird body language. It doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense, those fluffing feathers and inscrutible eyes. Sometimes fluffy feathers mean watch out for the beak and sometimes [...]
January 13, 2009 – 8:17 am
In our overly medicated society, when does it make sense for a veterinarian to prescribe a parrot drugs and when does it make far more sense to work closely on a behavior plan? A vet in the UK felt that an Amazon parrot’s aggression, displaced and otherwise, merited a prescription for Parrot Prozac. The thought is [...]
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