Animalspirit

Finally I have some pics ready. But... in the meantime I have clipped all wings again, since it isn't comfortable for my birds to try to climb trees and get entangled between the branches because of the leash. I have another PC, and so far I haven't succeeded in uploading a pic...<br><br>Post edited by: Animalspirit, at: 2009/07/11 12:14 Asterixtuigje2.bmp

Several months ago I bought two aviator harnesses for my birds: one for the eastern rosella Asterix, and one for one of my amazons. I stopped clipping their wings last winter, because I wanted to train with them unclipped. I was also asked to come to the EAAV conference in Antwerp, to assist in avian vet Brian Speer's workshop. I started training Asterix wearing the harness, by hanging it where he could see it, and later playing with it in his presence. Asterix is fond of showering, and he is very relaxed in the bathroom. So I lifted his wings and stroke his head as a practice. I did this for some time, and then I did the same with the harness over my hand. Later I could put the harness on. The first time I put it on while he was dry, I took him outside immediately. He loves going outside, so he was rewarded for wearing the harness. I also wanted Rico, the OWA, to wear a harness, because he is handbred and attached to people. I thought he would accept the harness better. But in Antwerp Rumi, the YCA, proved to be the better flyer, and so I trained him to wear the harness. I use to train with Rumi almost daily, so he can make a turn around, give a foot etc. I can also easily take his wings and strike his head. So I worked with him on the training stand to get him used to the harness. I went out this week with all the birds, Stud the lovebird in a carrier, Asterix in a pet pocket carrier on my chest, Rumi, Rico and Fernando the TAG on a stroller and Cootje, my BFA, on my shoulder. Rumi was wearing the harness, because Rico didn't want to fly on his own, and wanted to stay with Rumi. Cootje and Fernando can't fly at all. But... Rico started playing with Rumi's harness, and was biting it. I decided to take it off, and take the risk. I live in a very quiet street. While I was handling Rumi's harness, Cootje and Fernando started a fight. Rico suddenly was in the middle of the fight and just wanted to get away from it. So he flew! While he was heavily flapping his wings to get up in the air he was looking around with a little panic in his eyes. About four meter in the air he turned around while I was calling him, and clumsily landed a little lower on the branch of a young tree. There he sat, looking at us. I called him, and I saw him reaching out, his wings spread a little, but nog daring to come down. The others sat together on the stroller, and Rumi called "Come on, yeahhhh, good bird!" Fortunately people were busy working on their home nearby, and I could borrow a long aluminium ladder. Another neighbour held it upright for me, while I climbed ( Asterix still in the carrier on my chest) up the tree, and asked Rico to step on the rope perch. Gladly he did, and with a sigh of relief he later stepped on my shoulder. He was happy to step on the stroller again. Back home I have been thinking a while about this. It wasn't possible to go out with more birds while they were wearing harnesses. Stud and Asterix were confined to carriers instead of having the liberty of climbing trees and walking on the grass. It took a lot more time taking the birds out in carriers and wearing harnesses. I have no aviary in my garden, my neighbours wouldn't accept that. To make sure that they get enough direct sunshine, I need to take them out daily. So... I finally took my scissors and clipped them quickly. Then I put them all on the stroller and my shoulders, and took them out shopping. I will continue practising with the harnesses, maybe in some far away future it will be possible for me to have fully flighted birds again. I love training with flighted birds, because they can fly away if they don't like it. But for now... I made the choice to keep them clipped.<br><br>Post edited by: Animalspirit, at: 2009/04/12 12:30

Yes, they really seem to love that! When I sing opera, Rumi also sings along. But he also sometimes sings "Roxanne!"

I have also only experience with the aviator. But I had several harnesses with buckles for other animals, and it seems the buckles would challenge your bird to open them. The material of the aviator harness is light, and beak-proof. It's also very easy to put on ( though you have to train them of course) With the aviator harness a short leash comes, attached to the harness. I don't need more, because I don't use the harness to fly the birds. I use the harnesses to be able to take flighted birds safely outside for a walk. I want them only flying indoors.

Yes, that's the best way to do it: don't hurry, take your time. A bad experience will spoil everything, and targeting is a good way to make working with the harness a good experience.

Hello! A DYH amazon is certainly a very beautiful parrot. They are intelligent, they mostly love to sing and to talk, but, like most amazons, they can be very loud! If you don't have experience with other parrots ( and I mean: living together with one!) I recommend not to start with an amazon, any amazon parrot! The DYH amazon parrot is one of the so called "Hot three": the other two are the Blue fronted amazon and the yellow naped amazon. These three are well known because of the fierceness of in particular the adult males. In the beginning theycan be sweet, but when they mature, you really have to know how to handle them. A young bird, hand raised by humans, may be very sweet and gentle, especially when you're not living with the bird. But all parrots are intelligent, they have a strong beak, and when they discover that they can manipulate you by biting and screaming, they can become a real problem. Especially when they mature! Many amazons finally end up in an asylum because their former owner didn't think first before buying them. So, what if you still want one? Search for a workshop about handling and training parrots, and learn as much as you can about parrot behavior. If you still want one, search for a good breeder, who socializes his birds, and who is always there to help you, even after you bought the bird. And then... well, I really hope that you will make the right decision. Good luck!

I watched a little of his material out of curiosity. I did see one training session in which a cockatiel was target trained with a millet stalk ( is this the right word?). This was the only useful advice, apart from the fact that there still are a lot of pesticides used by growing millet. I could use this for my hybrid lovebird, who doesn't want to take tiny pieces of nuts out of my hands. I could start holding such a millet stalk in front of him to reward him after touching a target. Later, when his reaction is less fierce, I could have him take treats from my hands. The rest is like many video's available: what you see seems to e very easily to accomplish, but what you don't know is the time a professional bird trainer spends on his birds. You will also not see the amount of patience needed, the skills to observe an analyze bird behavior. I would recommend to do at least the online course LLP with Susan Friedman, or to do a workshop with Barbara Heidenreich, or maybe Steve Martin.

As you might know, I have more parrots in my house. Of course there is my TAG Fernando. He is already over 40 and can't fly. Also my BFA Cootje can't fly, nor can my YCA Rumi. Their flight muscles aren't developed well enough, and Rumi's wings are clipped. I wanted to do free flight with my parrots though. So I have my OWA Rico's wings growing, but he still can't fly. I bought an aviator harness for him and will be training him to wear it, just in case he is able to fly. I have two flighted parrots though: my hybrid lovebird Stud, who will be sitting in a small cage on the buggy when the weather will be fine, and Asterix, my eastern rosella, whom I trained to wear an aviator harness. He is not the easiest bird to work with: he was born in an aviary and raised by his parents. He had been in a cage in a pet shop for a year, before he was sold to a man who didn't know much about parrots. He lived in a cage that was open, but there were only bare perches, a bowl of water and a bowl of seed. There wasn't much to do for the bird, whose owner spent most of the day outside. After two months the rosella started clipping his own feathers, and after four months hardly any colored feather was left over. The bird even clipped his own wings and tail. That's where I got him, to see if I could do anything about the clipping. I had the bird tested and started to train him. I taught him to step up, and because I spent a lot of money on him, the owner gave him to me. I called him Asterix and continued training him. I kept him, after his feathers had grown back, for several years clipped, so that I could take him out for a walk. But after my last course I decided to keep him flighted. And I bought an aviator harness to be able to take him outside. I wonderen if I would succeed, though: Asterix, not being hand-fed, is mostly a nervous, flighty bird. Some time ago the aviator harnesses arrived: one for the OWA, and one for Asterix. I first hung it near the play tree, where he could see it. I did this for several weeks, while I sometimes played with the harness. Since Asterix is very relaxed in the shower I started training him there. I stroke his head, and held his wings by turns, three seconds each. One day I did, the other I didn't. I didn't want to have him make the connection "shower=harness". He remained relaxed, even last week, when one part of the harness was inside out. I tried to fix it, and Asterix jumped off the perch. My BFA started to meddle in it, while sitting on a laundry basket. My TAG didn't approve, and both parrots started bickering until the laundry basket fell over, nearly on top of Asterix. I pulled the leach and saved him. I could release him from the harness while he remained calm again. Today I was outside the living room, while I heard Rumi, my YCA, screeching. I also heard another parrot: Asterx! I went into the room and noticed that Fernando was out of his cage, and on top of Asterix. He was holding Asterix's beak, while the latter was screaming. I got hold of Fernando's tail and lifted him up from the windowsill. It took a while before he let go of Asterix, who, fortunately, was unharmed. I put Fernando back in his cage and decided to take Asterix upstairs to take his mind off the fight. The sun was shining brightly, and I tried to put the harness on. After a while Asterix put his head in the harness, but he also jumped away. During the jump it had proved that also his wings were put through the harness, so he had his harness on! I pulled the strap and took him outside for a little walk. He seemed to like it! he was on my shoulder, while I carefully held the leash end around my wrist. Asterix nibbled on some fresh elder buds, and then I took him home. I took the harness off and brought the bird to the play stand. There he was chirping, he ate his apple and took a nap, completely relaxed. I hope to be able to take some pics of him in the future!

I have a YCA, Rumi, who can sing. His former owner taught him "Poesje Mauw", a dutch children's song. This was the first time I succeeded in having him sing the whole song, with me accompanying at the piano. http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x20/LaSignoraMusica/?action=view&current=MOV00109.flv ( Translation of the song) Pussycat Meaow, come quick I have nice milk for you And for me rice pudding Oh, how are we enjoying our meal!

I hope I will be allowed to take pics, since this is a conference for avian vets. But if I'm allowed to, I will be taking pics, of course!

It's been some time since I wrote on this forum. I have been studying on my "parrot behavior consultant course" and got my module 3 certificate. One of my fellow students is already working as a parrot behavior consultant, and she e-mailed me. She asked me to join her in march at the EAAV Conference in Antwerp, Belgium. The American avian vet B.Speer will be giving a 4 hour workshop in handling and training parrots, and they needed several parrots to do so. Well, I have a group of well-trained parrots that are used to travelling, so we will be part of the American crew! Of course I am looking forward to this, I'm very excited, as you can imagine. On followig link you'll find more about the workshop: http://www.eaavbelgium.be/index2.php?pagina=labs#room3_1<br><br>Post edited by: Animalspirit, at: 2009/01/31 18:27

There was a similar investigation some years ago about the ingedients of several well known brands of parrot-food. Harrisson's came out as the best, being completely organic. I have been feeding Harrisson's HPC for years, but yesterday I visited a parrot asylum where they feed Zupreem. They also sell it, so I bought a pound to try. On the Zupreem website I can't find any ingredients so far, only description of the fruity flavor and coloring. Does anyone know about the Zupreem ingredients? My parrots like it, and it's only half the price of Harrisson's. The parrots in the asylum seemed healthy, their feathers shiny and beautiful.

There are only 7 parrots in my flock: 1-Asterix the eastern rosella 2-Stud the hybrid lovebird 3-Chevvy the personata lovebird 4-Fernando the TAG 5-Rumi the YCA 6-Rico the OWA 7-Cootje the BFA

Thanks for the compliments, and I reply to all of you at once... Well, it was fun figuring out how to do it. First of all, I built that webpage, with a little test-video. The next thing I did was searching for a instrumental version of the carol in a suitable key and tempo, and play it for the parrots. I had to practice a little before they started to whistle and sing along. Then I tried to put all the parrots together, but that wasn't very easy. Fernando the TAG and Cootje the BFA started to fight. Asterix the rosella and Fernando also like to fight if too close to each other. I had to train him to sit close to that christmas tree, because he can fly away if he doesn't like it. The lovebirds can also fly now, their wings grow fast! Chevvy, the personata and Stud, the hybrid lovebird have been playing in the tree this afternoon just to get used to it. Rumi the dancing and singing YCA and Rico the OWA are not that courageous, so I had to train them a little as well. And Cootje, the BFA, jumps on my shoulder when I get too close... So i practiced this afternoon. I couldn't put them all on the buggy or the perch, so I built the christmas tree more or less into the climbing tree. Tomorrow morning, before I take the parrots downstairs I will break it down again and decorate my livingroom...

If you click on the following link, you will see our wishes for the Holidays! http://home.hetnet.nl/~ninahollenberg/Happy%20Holidays.html<br><br>Post edited by: Animalspirit, at: 2008/12/14 23:35