Jane08

It's pretty normal at night for them to want more attention in the way of cuddles. Rangi is nearly 3 and every night he perches on the couch behind me and when he is ready he walks down the couch to me and burrows his head under my chin and really pushes himself up against me for some cuddles. Kea also loves her cuddles at night and sits on my boyfriend chest.

Yes you are right negative reinforcement can be used as a training technique as well in certain cases of if you know how to use it correctly. For example with our grey Kea if I ask her to step up on the stick she will because she wants to avoid the stick touching her body. This is negative reinforcement. So negative reinforcement is an adverese stimuli (stick touching her body) which they are trying to avoid which increases the behaviour that you want (stepping up).

Looks like you have the basic idea there. With the bad behaviours you untrain it by positively reinforcing a good behaviour and over time the bad behaviour will decrease when they realise they get treats for doing something good. You can't use positive reinforcement for everything sometimes it's more smart to just rearrange things in the environment. An example is our grey rangi always flies to the open cupboard and throws the glasses out. Now there is no way I could change this with positive reinforcement so it's easier for me to just make sure the cupboard is closed. With the chewing of the clothes it's best to just remove them from you when they start to chew. If they don't chew then they are allowed to stay on you. Over time it will click to them that if they don't chew they are allowed on you and get attention. With the shredding of the paper this is probably one where positive reinforcement is really not an option and the distraction or finding another way where they can't reach the paper is better.

Cheers for the photos they were great, very interesting.

We make most of our own perches, went out just the other weekend into the forest and got some great branches that we put in, we use silver berch. We also leave the bark on as ours love nothing more than to debark the whole branch. We try to change them all every 4 months but lately it's been every 6 months.

I have seen the one from the World parrot trust, well actaully that's a lie I only watched the first part as I got upset with the rest of it and had to turn it off. It shows greys in the wild and then it goes on about illegal catching of them. Another one I have also seen is the life of birds and is a series on all birds around the world and has one section on parrots, no greys though. I think it was done by David Attenborough. It was a great series and really interesting if you love birds in general.

I used to look at our one grey Rangi and feel sorry for him that he was all alone and would be for the rest of his life and out of this guilt we got another grey for him. Kea has been a god send for him. We were lucky they took to each other and I really feel that they give things to each other that us as humans can never give them. When I see what they give to each other I am 100% glad we got another one. The way they preen each other which is totally different to what I could do for them, the mating ritual they have which I could never do for Rangi, the beak clashing, the rolling on top of each other, the way they hold hands (as I call it). The way they chase after each other flying around the house and they way they play together is something Rangi would never have experienced if we had not got Kea. Saying that though there is no guaratee if people get another one that they will get on or as Dan pointed out adopting has it's own problems.

Like the photos. We are also getting ideas for an aviary. The only thing is we don't want a cement bottom but a more natural bottom so we are trying to think of how far into the ground we should place the fencing or what other ways there are to do it. Harmonicaman you say the larger flight have natural ground, but what do they put on the ground to stop other animals from burrowing in under the ground into the cage?

Sounds as though they might make friends, after only a few days that is pretty good going. Chiku has settled in well already. Lol, It is funny when they use their feet on each other. Sometimes if Rangi gets a bit pushy with Kea she will give him a good push in the chest with her foot and give him a good swat in the head with her foot.

Actually putting them back in the cage is another form of training them that the behaviour is unacceptable and you have to do it right away so they know why they are going back in. If you leave it for a few minutes and then put them in they will not understand the link between the bite and going back in the cage. If you use this mehtod correctly it has no effect on them going back in the cage at normal times or biting to go back in the cage.<br><br>Post edited by: Jane08, at: 2009/08/28 11:10

Congrats, this is what it is all about giving your bird choices and empowering them to make the right choice by giving rewards. We have always negotiated with our 2 and constantly talk to them just like you would a person asking them what they want to do, what game they want to play. My boyfriend even asks them what they want for dinner sometimes and they usually reply and then he cooks it for them. We let them make decisions as much as we can and if it is something we really want them to do like go back in the cage we make it so they take the decision to go back in because there is fun stuff happening in the cage. Kea has a weak spot for sausage and I get a bit and say to her Kea I will give you the sausage if you get in the cage. I can see her thinking about it for a minute and then she hops in and of course gets a bit of sausage. For somethings we don't even use food rewards it's enough for them to get a kiss or be told how good they are. You can see the pleasure they get out of this and it makes my heart skip a beat to know they are so happy. I learnt long ago that there is no point doing the battle of the wills it's tiring for everyone.

Our 2 have also tried this sort of thing on and we really have a no tolerance policy on it. If they start to get aggressive and bite hard at any time they are straight back in the cage. Of course we have worked hard to avoid these episodes but all greys try it on at some stage. You really do need to nip it in the butt otherwise they learn that biting is effective and will continue with it. There is no point trying the battle of wills it is pointless and you will always be the loser and your bird will feel run down and this is not positive. Kea knows it so well now that when my boyfriend says "Kea come here, up" she freezes and steps up for him straight away as she knows she has done something wrong and it is cage time.

Training can be done now he is not to young. One thing that is good to train with first is step up, but really it is up to you what you want to teach him depending on what is important to you. With the treats you will just have to keep trying to find one that he likes, it also doesn't have to be food it could be something else that he really will work for, i.e. praise, cuddles, kisses, a favourite toy etc. We use sunflowers seeds and other time we just use praise. Have fun with the training and good luck.

Well Kea's nail is better now and she is even telling us when we come near her to watch the foot. She says "be careful of the foot"...lol makes me laugh. I also now know how she feels as I have just walked up Sweden's highest mountain and lost 2 toe nails in the process and have 2 swollen ankels.

Love it and I love the way he looks around first to make sure no one is looking then smoothly walks over to the tap. What a character.

LOl that was funny I didn't even think to explain it was celcius. I did live in a place once where the pipes would freeze at night and you had to wait in the morning to have a shower until they were unfrozen. We even had icicles on the inside of the windows. Ah those were the student days with no money.

We live in the snow with our 2 and we keep the house constantly heated in the winter to about 21-23 degrees with central heating. We never ever take them outside in the winter except if it is a quick trip to the vet or something. Then we place a blanket over the cage and have the car parked as close to the house as possible. I also use the UV light in winter becuase the day hours here are so short. We also don't vary their diet in the cold months.

What a picture that is so funny they couldn't get any further apart. Glad Keeko is better. Fingers crossed Keeko and Jasper become friends, they look so relaxed.

Cheers, we actually took her to the vet just to make sure everything was alright. She has to be cage bound for 2 days now to rest the foot and it looks like we will have to put Rangi in a separate cage if he starts to annoy her. As I write this though Rangi is in the cage with her giving her some tender loving preening. I really can't believe she came through it ok and is just her normal self. I feel lucky to have 2 birds that seem to take everything in their stride.

Kea had an accident last night and has broken her nail. I was out and my boyfriend called me to ask where the stuff was to stop the bleeding as he couldn't find it so I told him to just grab the flour. Anyway I came home to find Kea in her cage and the bleeding had stopped but she was holding her foot up and making a whimpering noise everytime she put it down. We decided to leave her for the night as she was fluffed and ready to go to sleep. My boyfriend just sat with her until she fell asleep. So this morrning I have just gotten up to inspect the damage and she has lost half of her nail. She seems fine though, asked me straight out where the food was and is talking and whistling. I opened the cage door and as normal she stepped up for me, but did a bit of a dance as the foot seems to be quite sore. I haven't been making a fuss over her just did the morning routine as usual and talking to her like I normally do. She has eaten her breakfast and seems happy sitting on her perch. So do you think the nail will grow back ok or is there anything else I should look for with the nail, like if it is cracked all the way up?

This is very common with babies, ours had a few accidents hitting windows, misjudging a flight and making a crash landing. It's no reason to clip a bird as very shortly Star will learn to control his body and then you will amazed at the things he can do and these accidents will be very rare. One thing is when they have a crash is not to run over to them flapping, upset and grabbing them. This will make things worse. Try to stay calm. This is no problem tempting him with an orange, a reward for stepping up is a good way to teach them.

I have also used clicker training and the only reason I started it was to build a relationship with Kea. She was so good at it and we had so much fun and it really brought a closer. One thing I was proud to teach her was to fetch a ring from the table and bring it back to me and place it in my hand. I would love to buy the little hoop and ball and get her to place the ball through the hoop. The funny thing was that she loves my boyfriend and would do anything for him but when it came to fetch she would only bring the ring to me, hehe, she knew who was giving out the treats.

What we did with Rangi was taught him to lift his wings. Everyday we would just spend a few minutes saying to him "Lift your wing" and gently lift it for him. After awhile he got the idea and then we transfered this to bathing, so that when we misted him we then said "lift your wing" and he let us lift it and spray him. Now he lifts them automatically when I spray him. Bathing for us is a major fun time and we get them all excited before I even bring out the bathing stuff.Then when they see the water they automatically fluff up and leap in. I really think having fun is the key to bathing them, so that they associate it with a good time. If I would just stand there and squirt them and expect them to bath they wouldn't have anything to do with it.

So glad you decided to keep Jasper. Another source that could help you is the world parrot trust. I went to them when we got our 2nd grey as I wanted advice on putting them together and they were so helpful and had heaps of advice for me which worked. Good luck

Here is the link and then I just emailed her. http://www.behaviorworks.org/htm/comp_professional_overview.html