Hola Folks!
I must say, I am ASTONISHED! One year ago in July, I purchased an
African red parrot for $120US...and a big rollaround cage for $60. He
was only 4 months old and mean as heck.
Over a period of maybe 3 months and many bites, with many slaps and the
threat of high voltage shocks...<g>...he quit biting, just nips every
now and then but not to break skin or cause pain.
There is something I think wrong in cutting a birds feathers so I have
refrained from doing that all this time. During that time, he had the
run of the house, flying everywhere, crapping on everything and chewing
up whatever strikes his fancy...
In a word, he is in control...<LOL>...I should say dominant....everyone
says I should clip his wings or at least clip one side so he can only
fly in circles, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
He loves to yell and whistle at the kids playing in the street and
people walking by, sitting on iron bars in my living room window or in
the open roofed, chicken wire covered laundry room where he can see what
goes on.
Recently, I posted a news item about behavior among chickens, kept in a
pen versus given freedom to explore...it applies to all animals and
humans apparently..here is the news snippet;
http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/050921-1647.asp
10/13/05 - Bad behavior - Cooped-up chicks grow up to pick on pals
Being deprived of early opportunities to discover ones surroundings can
lead to underdeveloped coping skills and twice as much bullying later in
life, says a new U of T study on animal behaviour. The research,
published in the September issue of Applied Animal Science Behaviour,
suggests access to stimulating environments at a young age is strongly
related to the later ability to avoid using peers as pecking bags.
Over six weeks, Hogan and Chow raised 40 chicks: half were confined
solely to their pens and half were allowed to discover a space that
offered sand, string, bottle caps and sticks to peck at. The cooped-up
chicks turned on their cage mates for stimulation, eventually showing
twice as much feather-pecking behaviour as their environmentally
enriched peers. Coping skills are a reflection of how the nervous
system is organized. Early experience with a varied, stimulating
environment affects how the nervous system develops and likely leads to
better adjusted animals, he says. So yes, kids exposed to a wide
variety of things are probably less likely to show bad behaviour when
they grow up.
------------------
Whats interesting is I don't deprive this parrot of roaming so that he
can sample many things, but he refuses to learn anything but his name
and some whistles at 18 months now.
The last few weeks I've been thinking I should trim his wings, so today,
looked up directions to do that. One page said it should only be done
by 'professional' (read money)...but others were much more forthcoming
and one showed diagrams, explained several techniques so I did clip back
10 feathers on each wing.
The page explained about the psychology of parrots saying they tend to
be dominant or submissive. This one is definitely dominant.
After the trim, with a bit of fighting to get it done, he can now only
hop/fly about 3 feet with soft landings which is exactly what I wanted
but I don't think he is too happy about it.
On a recent trip with a friend to Guadalajara, we stopped at a big open
market which had many caged birds of all varieties as well as African
reds just like mine, most much bigger. Two of them sat on the top of
cages, oblivious to traffic going on around them. No WAY mine would be
like that! I moved my hand up to one and he reared back screaming with
beak wide open.
I'd never seen that behavior in mine before....however, today, after the
wing cut, his ENTIRE DEMEANOR CHANGED! Now he is docile and it seems
much more inquisitive and QUICK TO LEARN!
I took him out to my patio which is about 30 X 30 with a couple of small
trees and a clothes line...he couldn't grab onto the line and hung
upside down cackling.
A few short hop/flights and he had his bearings again. Some
walking/talking and reassuring and he now seems comfortable and very
quiet with this change in both our lives...<LOL>...no bites or attempts
and he nibbles my ear while I'm on the computer.
Went next door to visit a gringa married to a Mexican, with the bird
sitting on my shoulder, quite content. She said 'I TOLD you to clip his
wings and you'd be happier with him!'...we sat outside with her 2 year
old girl playing while we talked...I let him walk around, climb some
tree branches but he insisted on sitting on my shoulder.
Some neighborhood kids walked by and stopped to chat...so I had them
hold him and they had a blast playing with him...he COPIED THEIR
LAUGHS...and was loving all the attention as he had so often heard and
seen these kids playing in the street but never was in contact with them.
What amazed me was how much he interacted with other people and NEVER A
BITE with total strangers. A neighbor and his family drove by, we said
Hola and I took the bird to them to sit on his arm to the amusement of
his children. He nipped the guys finger but no blood, just startled
when he reached for him.
Years ago, I took a couple of semesters of psychology and this behavior
change is so remarkable I had to write about it...all this time, I
didn't want to cut his ability to fly and he could be such a pain, going
where he wanted and when, disobedient, chewing up my antenna cable, any
kind of wire, inkpens leaving ink on his beak and tongue...etc...refuses
to stop when I tell him though responds to stern voice, though he waits
til I'm not watching and is back at it. Loves to sample my electronics
bench but chews up parts, cables, tape, you name it.
But now, after the wing trim, he sits quietly on my shoulder cackling
and laughing at the comedy radio I play on the net when I'm on the
computer.
Of course, such an astonishing change of behavior could be some kind of
shock response, and/or he might just be TIRED from playing with the kids
and all the SENSORY overload from today with so many new experiences and
environments. Before he only stayed in the house, on window bars, in
the laundry room sitting on tree branches I setup for him, on his cage
or in it, etc...but today I took him outside without any cage but not
able to fly more than a few feet.
So now I'm going to finally try to teach him to talk and do some tricks
from a videotape I bought on eBay about that.
An elderly lady friend had told me birds have very short attention spans
and were so easily distracted...she had one and taught him many words
and phrases by putting him in his cage, covering it with a dark cloth
and leaving a small opening so his attention was only focused on
her...with that he learned very fast.
I guess thats enough for now...but since we are essentially animals as
the report above indicates, its an entirely new view for me of how
changes in your abilities can cause RADICAL changes in your
attitude/behavior!!!
--
Jerry Decker - http://www.keelynet.com
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Order out of Chaos - From an Art to a Science
