gourdlady247

well I'll figure out how to get the picture on there

George sitting on the play stand

Should I add toys to hang off the play stand the same as I do in the cage.

We got George a used play stand for Christmas. It's almost as tall as his cage.He still won't let us touch him of course but..... We can get him to come out on to the play stand. We put a peanut or a nutra treat out on one of the perches and he will come out and get it. I'm so excited. The play stand isn't the prettiest stand. But I can always improve it.

Well James picked his cockatiel yesterday. He named him/her Tiko. He/she is 3 months old. He and the people he got it from thinks it's a female. s/he seems to be fitting in well here at home. He already has her stepping up. He is all excited. Have not introduced her to george but I think they aready are comunicating from long distance.

Ok I don't know if I'm excited or whinning. But George let my husband scratch him with one of his toys. It's like a whirly gig / frisbee like thing. But he sat there while Doug scratched his chest. Doug has been gone for a week working and not been home, he comes home been here for 3 hours and he gets to scratch him. I think I'm POUTTING and JEALOUS. and excited.{Feel-good-0002006E}

My son James wants to get a cockatiel, but the question I have is with George still being bity. Would there be a chance that they wouldn't get along. Not that they would be in the same cage but just in the same room. And how would it affect George seeing another bird getting attention by being held and he's not, or would it maybe change Georges mind about biting. I am finally able to touch georges beak through the bars and almost the top of his head but not quite. So I don't want any set backs at all.

well Ihave unsubscribed to their emails, And threw their stupid $50 cd in the trash.

I was wondering if this sounds right. Kim kinda touched on this during our conversation, but I didn't understand exactly as to what it ment. I guess I'm confused as to wether give him the food as I always do or when working with him taking his food away. I keep food in his cage at all times. Sould it not be done like that? I didn't mean anything by posting part of the email I got. If I shouldn't have I'm sorry. I was just wondering if what it said was a right or not. I just want to do what is good for George. There is so much conflicting information out there. I just want opinions that I feel I can trust.

WelL I tlked to the kim Bear lady today. And amazingly she pretty much said the same thing everyone on here has said. I guess I wasn't expecting that knowing that she associates with the birdtricks.com people. But she actuall said she didn't agree with some of the things they said. But I would like to share part of an email that I got tonigt from Chet. Hope I do it right it's kinda long Well Marla, I'm excited to write you today because I have some great new stuff that I think can drastically reduce how demanding your parrot might be. It's a new CONCEPT that I'm calling: "The No Free Lunch Plan" And if you'll put this concept into practice in your own birds life, you'll have a more obedient parrot. If you've got a bird who's always screaming for your attention, or a bird who you KNOW likes to hang out with you but is being a bit strong willed when it comes time to pick him up... this plan will help your parrot. In fact when I was putting together my Secrets To Stop Screaming course, this was one of the CORE philosophies that I built that program around. Without a "NO Free Lunch Plan" in place in your parrots life, your bird will tend to become demanding... always screaming for attention... or giving you quick nips to get there way. So what is "The NO Free Lunch Plan"? It's about setting up your parrot's day so that he has to earn EVERYTHING! It's about making him earn: >> every ounce of food >> every drink of water >> play time out of his cage >> and even petting! Why would I recommend something like this? It sounds so demanding and uncompassionate, right? But if you take a look at what makes a happy well behaved being in this world, it almost always involves setting up a structured environment. Look at teenagers for example... What happens to a teenage boy or girl, who you're always transferring more money into their accounts so they can go run up their shopping or food bills, instead of being accountable for their money, and having to earn it. People in life respect money more when they have to earn it, NOT when it's given to them. And the weird part about it, is that if someone is used to always getting money without having to work for it, and then one day you stop giving it, what happens? They throw a fit! They're a spoiled brat, and nobody likes being around them. I'm sure some people reading this are saying, yeah Chet, but that's with humans, it's not the same with pets. Oh contraire, my friend... Let's look at dogs as an example that might paint a clearer picture for you. You may not know this, but if you own a dog, and you never make him sit or stay before you "LET" him eat his food, and instead just keep it full all day long and let him eat whenever he wants to... Or you let your dog up on your bed to sleep with you without giving him permission... Or you play tug of war with a doggie rope toy and your dog is NOT trained to drop the rope even in mid tug... Guess what you're doing? You're showing the dog that he's the one in charge. You're giving him everything he wants, and he doesn't even have to ask for it... he just takes it! And this starts to do weird things like promotes aggression in your dog, territorialism, barking at strangers etc. Basically it creates a BUNCH of issues! All because you let him get his way all the time. Now to be fair, birds aren't necessarily like dogs. They obviously have different genetic backgrounds that don't make ALL the same rules apply. But the fact remains... I've never seen a bird who's been put on a "No Free Lunch Plan" who didn't become easier to handle and more well behaved. Here's an example: A while back I wrote about one thing you can try if your parrot isn't stepping up on your hand to come out of his cage. In that newsletter I talked about how I was able to take my Cockatiel at the time, who liked me, liked coming out, but just didn't want to step onto my hand, to step up in his cage after just 3 days. What did I do? I would put my hand into my birds cage, ask him to step up, and if he didn't step up I'd close the cage door and try again an hour later. I stopped allowing my bird to come outside and play unless he first obeyed me. You see, you want your parrot to see you as a person he has to listen to, if he wants to get things. It's a RULE you want your parrot to start living his life by. It's not that you make him fear the iron fist... just a more gentle way to TEACH him how to respect you. This doesn't always work right away... in fact my cockatiel spent 3 days in his cage without coming out, before he finally gave in, stepped up, and came out to play. Just 3 days and he figured it out, and now all my birds know that they can't just climb out of their cages, they need to step up kindly first, or they don't come out. But, I do need to CLARIFY something... The reason this was effective for my Cockatiel, was because more than anything, he wanted to come out of his cage. Being out of the cage WAS his motivation. Plus, he wasn't afraid of me. He was just being stubborn and thick headed, because I hadn't been a good daddy and taught him in a loving way how being my pet bird was going to work. And as soon as I put some structure in place his behavior got MUCH better in all areas of our relationship, not just stepping up in the cage. So the lesson in this is that if you have a bird who you can tell likes being around you, this is something I'd recommend you start phasing into his life. You'll see some amazing turnarounds. And please email me back at info@birdtricks.com with your success stories about how this works for you, so other readers can benefit from your story. This is also a good example of a philosophy I'll be teaching at our Live Seminars and what I teach inside my new 72 Hours To A Hand Tamed Parrot programs. Because inside those programs I talk about how their are 4 levels of fear that parrots must be TAUGHT how to overcome to ever be nice, hand tamed parrots. And each phase of fear that your parrot may be in, requires a DIFFERENT technique to help him overcome that fear and be a better bird. Use the wrong technique for the wrong type of fear, and you get NO results... push your bird too long and hard with the wrong technique for the wrong issue, you may even damage the relationship. So when I give you a specific technique, I'm trying to show you what type of parrot it will work best on. And in this case of the "No Free Lunch Plan", it won't work well on birds who don't like you. It works well for birds who at least have some affection for you. It doesn't have to be much, but they do need some. That's why I created my Hand Taming course. As a resource to help get people's parrots to the point where they can use some of these higher level techniques to continue to grow deeper more meaningful, respectful bonds with their parrots every day. Here's hoping this was helpful! Chet BirdTricks.com

Well since I stirred up the fire ant pile over Chet and his brother..... Let me ask about Kim Bear? Since I spent the money on the one set of CD's It intitled me to get a 30 minute consultant call with her. I suppose she is a bird behaviorist. I have a time to scheduled for 11 am today. To speak with her.

So when he tears up the paper do I just leave it alone? I feel that it should be cleaned out. Cause he poops all over the cage.

goerge does that. He dips his cracker before eating it. He has also dipped his peanut in the shell in his water.I keep telling him water on the outside isn't getting to the inside. LOL

I hope not. He's acting like nothing happened so maybe. I was working in his cage today getting the blanket out and he came down to the bottom and nothing. He just played with his toys and shredded paper. But I was very cautious about where my hand and arm was and where he was. Not taking any chances. LOL

and the advice about the blanket probably wasn't wrong. I probably just didn't follow the direstions. I haven't heard him fall in a while. But just left it there out of precaution I guess.