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October
/ November 2007 |
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Texas
State School Fun Run Fundraiser, Successful Adoption Placement &
Importance of Foraging |
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"Many
have forgotten this truth but you must not forget it. |
We
remain responsible forever for what we have tamed" |
| (Antoine
de Saint-Exupeny) |
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| Texas
School FUN RUN Fundraiser |
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| Texas State Primary School
in QLD have proudly participated in a Fun Run to help the PRC. With
the money they raised they have virtually adopted birds from the PRC.
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| Thank you
to Natasha Vought (bellow) who is the Year 7 teacher from Texas State
Primary School who continues to support and help the PRC birds, with
her fundraising and Paintings. If you are interested in purchasing
her paintings please contact
us. All profits are donated to the PRC to help with the
up keeping of the rescued birds. |
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(Photos by Natasha
Vought) |
| Adoption
Placement |
| Patricia Larsen first
adopted two Galahs from the PRC in August 2006, she owned a sunconure
named Sunny and Jedi an indian ringneck and decided to increase
her flock to help the PRC. She passed the PRC Adoption Process with
flying colours and before she new it she was the proud mum of Birdie
and Gilbert. I have personally been very impressed with Trisha's
dedication to the two galahs. She has come across behaviour challenges
with the birds and has seeked advice and worked through the issues
successfully.
In July this year Trisha asked me if there where
any more birds that I need adopted out, because she was now living
on acreage and had aviaries set up for her conure and ringneck and
wanted some friends for them. The PRC had a few conures that were
surrendered due to noise. They where all originally individually
surrendered at the beginning of 2007 and where housed all together
at the PRC in a large aviary, they all loved each others company,
so the ideal home was to be someone that would want a flock of conures
rather than just a single pet owner. Trisha was excited about this
idea, as she already had a conure named Sunny and knew the demanding
calls and noise that conures can make. So the birds where moved
to their new home and are all very happy.
Trisha is very happy with her new family and continues
to keep us updated on the birds progress. |
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All the conures
together in their new aviary |
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Tango |
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Margo |
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Sunny 2 |
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Birdie |
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Gilbert |
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Birdie
and Giberts Aviary |
(Photos By Patricia
Larsen) |
Importance
of Foraging and Toys- By Zarita Garozzo |
Have
you seen the word foraging around and not understood what this has
to do with parrots in a cage or in captivity? Pet Parrots are not
domesticated animals. They are wild by instinct therefore will respond
to things in their environment based on what their instincts tell
them. In the wild parrots spend most of their day looking for their
food, foraging around the grass and tree tops. Their day consists
of finding food to survive, so they fly for miles a day to find
food, they spend most of their time moving from one tree to another
chewing through gumnuts to get their seed, eating and ripping up
bark and finding bugs to munch on and eating leaves, seed pods or
running around on the ground fossicking for grass seed.
When we look at parrots in captivity we see them
locked in a cage with a food bowl at one end and water at another
and wonder why our parrots have fatty tumours, become screamers,
pluckers or even aggressive. Their natural instinct is to move (flap
those wings) to explore and find food instead we turn them into
couch potatoes who slowly go mentally mad! Parrots have a brain
just like humans, so just like humans without stimulation our minds
start to deteriorate and we slowly go mad.
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Charlie adopted by Lindsay and Kym Addison of Victoria.
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It is easy to help stimulate your parrot’s
life by providing foraging toys and activities. There are many foraging
toys available for parrots today or there are easy cheap ways of
making toys that do the same thing as bought foraging toys. Some
examples of cheap home made foraging toys are:
• Toilet rolls after the toilet paper has been used can be
filled with treats, wood bits and food and then raped in newspaper
like a lolly, your parrot will rip, chew and have a great time trying
to get to the hidden treats.
• You can drill some large holes into a wood log that is about
10cm thick at all different angles and then hide nuts, vegetables
etc in the holes.
• Roll up an old magazine and put some treats in the middle,
then tie the magazine up with natural sisal rope and tie to the
cage, your parrot will throw the magazine around like a bell.
• Open Pine cones can be filled with treats and then wet the
pine cone and it will close with all the treats inside, your parrot
will chew the pine cone up to shreds to get the treats.
• Spreading some safe natural dirt on the bottom of the cage
and sprinkling budgie seed down, so your parrot has to go to the
ground and fossick for their food.
• Providing a large ceramic dish filled with rocks, grass,
sticks etc and hiding treats and food amongst it, so that your parrot
gets in and empties everything out to get to his food.
• Covering your parrot’s food bowl with paper, so they
have to rip through the paper to get to the food- you may have to
demonstrate it to them to get them started.
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A basket filled
with native nuts and flowers is a great way to stimulate your parrots
foraging instincts! |
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| Some examples of retailed
foraging toys that the PRC stock are:
• Treasure Chest
• Turning Learn Logs
• Rings of Fortune
• Barrel of Fun
• Parrot Treasure
• Holey Roller
• Nut Case
• Bird Bopper
• Stainless Steel Treat Holders
• Mazey Munch
• Carousels
• Hide a Treat cups
And the list goes on, so please visit www.parrotrescuecentre.com
for the full range of foraging toys.
Variety is the key! Parrots in the wild do not eat in one spot everyday
and do not eat the same thing day in day out. You need to get your
parrot used to lots of different toys and foods.
Foraging toys and interactive activities are great
but need to be rotated on a regular basis as your parrot will become
bored with the same old toys. Once you start to expand your parrots
mind you will have lots of fun trying to out smart them- it is really
hard to do! Some of the foraging toys that we sell at the PRC take
me a few minutes to work out and sometimes it only takes about that
for the parrot to work out too! They are quiet amazingly intelligent.
So now you know this why keep your feathered friend bored and unstimulated
any longer!
Recent studies have suggested that Parrots enjoy
a challenge. They like the feeling of working for their food rather
then just easily getting it out of a bowl. I have put this to the
test with the PRC boarding parrots. My tests have shown this to
be true, especially with some of the larger parrots (Macaws and
Cockatoo species). I have put nuts and vegetables in their bowls
and nuts and vegetables in their treasure chests and Stainless steel
treat holders and to my surprise every time they go for the ones
in the holders rather than the bowl. I have also found that cockatiels
like their vegetables wedged in the bars of the cage, between branches
or on fruit kabobs rather than in their bowls.
Foraging toys are not the only toys that should
be provided, soft and hard wood hanging and foot toys, with natural
leather, hard plastic, chain and beads strung from them should be
included in your parrot’s toy mix, which allow them to chew
and also keep their beaks busy and stimulated. Parrots love to CHEW
and DESTROY, so do not limit buying them products that are not destructible
as they do love to destroy. A toy destroyed is a toy ENJOYED! A
variety of at least five to ten toys should be provided in your
parrot’s cage. The cage layout should be big enough for your
parrot to move around comfortably amongst their toys and still be
able to flap their wings, as flapping their wings is an important
daily routine that parrots do to stimulate their muscles and release
excess energy.
No parrot toy is 100% safe. Therefore it important
to check and monitor the toys on a regular basis for general deterioration.
Please always monitor your parrot when given new toys, to ensure
there are not dangerous parts. Old toys can be a hazard, so remove
toys that have frayed cotton as this can cause strangulation or
your parrot could be eating the fibre. Toys with sharp edges and
toys that are rusty should be removed as the loose particles of
the metal if digested by your parrot will cause death from metal
toxicity.
Be careful that you do not purchase cheap imitation
parrot toys that are made from treated timber, brittle fine metal
parts and which are not suitable for the size of your parrots beak
and strength. If you are unsure if the toy is suitable get the advice
of a Parrot Behaviour consultant or Avian vet, who are your best
options for correct educated advice, as some retailers may be uneducated
and not provide the correct information. Toys made out of predominantly
rope are not recommended as parrots cannot digest rope fibres, so
if the fibres are eaten they literally sit in your parrot’s
stomach until it begins to make them sick and can eventually cause
death. If your parrot has a tendency to chew rope and you have noticed
with some of your toys that rope is missing or frayed, then please
REMOVE the toy, I can not express enough how detrimental rope fibre
is to your parrots life. This is also the case with parrot toys
that are made from fine and zinc plated metal, many parrots die
due to metal toxicity because they find a fascination with the shinny
metal parts, if the metal is rusty or very fine and zinc plated
and you are noticing your parrot has a fascination with chewing
or licking the metal, please REMOVE the toy. Try to only purchase
toys that are Nickel plated or Stainless steel rings, heavy duty
chain, bells and links.
For more information on parrot toy safety or to
check out the Parrot Rescue Centre’s large range of safe parrot
toy’s and accessories visit www.parrotrescuecentre.com or
please feel free to contact me for advice on toys on 0755692840.
References:
Dr. M. Scott Echols, 2006. Captive Foraging: The Next Best Thing
to Being Free, DVD.
Michelle Karras, 2003. The Importance of Toys: Positive Parrot
Behaviour Series Volume 1, pp. 10-13
Carol S. D’Arezzo & Lauren Shannon-Nunn, 2000. A Practical
Parrot Guide Parrot –Toys and Play Areas: How to put some
fun into your parrot’s life.
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This article
was published in Talking Birds Newspaper September 2007 |
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| ANIMAL
COMMUNICATION- By Leah Peterson |
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Interactive
Energy…..How & why our companion Parrots react to our
own moods!
A few weeks ago I was doing some on-line
research on Parrots, when I came across an article written by an
American Avian Vet. What I found most interesting about this article
was that the vet mentioned the possibility that birds can physically
see & sense the energy fields that surround all living things
– including us!
Besides the red, blue and green cones humans use
to view colours, some birds studied possess extra colour-specific
cones that allow them to see into the shorter wavelengths of the
violet and ultra-violet end of the spectrum. These wavelengths are
invisible to the human eye. By altering the wavelengths of light
in the birds’ environment, scientists have been able to influence
decisions about which mates are selected when breeding, and which
foods are eaten.
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| Many fruit,
flowers, and seeds contrast with their background much more strongly
in Ultra violet light than in human-visible wavelengths. Furthermore,
and of particular interest to research on sexual selection and mate
choice, so do many species of birds' plumage. For example, some
male and female birds look similar to us, but there is a significant
sex difference in the colour of several plumage regions (e.g. the
crest, tail etc) under Ultra violet reflection.
Part of this same range into the ultraviolet was
used to produce the ‘kirilian photography’ so popular
a few decades ago and today it is used in the taking of “Aura
Photos”, when it was discovered that these wavelengths, although
invisible to the human eye, could be captured on film. These photos
showed a distinct ‘glow’ around living or recently living
plants and animals, and none whatsoever around inert materials.
Anyone who has had an “Aura Photo” taken will understand
what this “glow” may look like. Now imagine how your
companion parrot must feel – if they see this (frequently
changing) colourful glow around us all the time!!!
One of the theories is that the birds can visually
read the energy field around a food source, naturally the plant,
seed or vegetation which is healthy and fresh would have a remarkably
more vibrant colour/glow than something which is a day or two old!
This research clearly boosts my own experiences
and observations on birds reactions to certain people, objects and
food!
It is my belief that this is a primary method for
our parrot companions to “pick up on” our very own moods.
It is believed that when we are angry, tense, sick, happy, calm
etc our Aura or “ultra violet” energetic field will
change in colour and size to reflect the exact mood & state
of health we are in.
There are countless stories where our birds react
in fear when approached by one stranger, only to treat another like
a long-lost friend? The stranger who the bird fears may be having
a bad day and be displaying a large glowing dark red energy field
which represents anger and hostility; whereas the stranger favoured
may have a much more pleasant array of colours in their energy field
that the bird is attracted to.
This theory may also explain why when we get angry
and irritated by a screaming bird – the bird tends to scream
louder and harder. The more irritated we get, the bigger and darker
our energy field glows and since the birds can see this growing,
glowing mass of colour, it is only natural the bird would become
more fearful and frightened – thus more screaming. This is
why it is usually recommended to walk away…..calm your own
energy (thus allowing the bird to calm down also) for as long as
you need.
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It is great to keep a diary or journal. On a daily
basis write down how you are feeling and any significant events
that occurred. Also write down your birds behaviour for the day.
After you have done this for a few weeks, you will probably notice
a pattern emerging where your birds behaviour correlates to how
you were feeling or what you were experiencing at that time. One
good example is a client of mine was concerned that her bird started
to avoid her over a two – three week period. Interestingly
enough at the time of our reading the client was terribly ill. I
suggested that the client not be too concerned as I discovered that
the bird had simply been avoiding her knowing that an illness was
in the process of presenting itself. Our energetic bodies will always
display disease and sickness long before we have the physical symptoms.
My client confirmed that toward the end of her sickness the bird
began behaving “normally” like a button had been switched
back on!! And just to solidify the message…..the bird re-enacted
the same pattern of behaviour 8 months later, when the client came
down with a severe bronchial infection!!
The complexities and intricacies of how our animals
perceive us and their environment are endless….I believe the
are many more miracles that we humans can not even conceive of.
The best thing we can do is to remain open to all possibilities
and not be so quick to assume what seems to be a logical answer
to a perplexing problem.
Leah Petersen is a well respected Animal Intuitive
with a client base from around the world. She has successfully facilitated
Animal Communication readings for many pets and their people. Her
unique gift provides you with a glimpse into the sacred innermost
thoughts and feelings of your beloved animal companions.
Consultations are conducted in person or via telephone.
Phone: (07) 5556-0335 or Mobile: 0427-157-156
If you believe your parrot has a physical ailment
or illness please see a qualified Avian Veterinarian before seeking
an Animal Communication session.
Investigate the physical, then explore the spiritual!
For On-Line bookings & further information please visit my web
site at;
www.animalinstincts.com.au
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| New
PRC Toys and Accessories |
Some of the new Parrot Toys and Accessories
are listed below, there are heaps more so please check out the
PRC Shop.
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Please
Click here for our full product range.
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| Spheres covered in colourful wooden disc
and blocks which are wrapped in bright neon paper. Vegetable dyed
leather and cotton rope accent. This toy intrigues every bird by enticing
them to shred the colourful paper, exposing the wooden blocks for
more chewing fun. Connects easily to the top of any cage. Available
in Medium and large sizes. |
Shredmaster bird toy is a perfect foraging toy from
Lucky Bird for your parrots. The Shredmaster bird toys are bird safe
paper dispensers that allows parrots to tear off and shred . And,
we all know what a favourite past time that is for parrots! The Shred
Master is loaded with 100 feet of shreddable paper. Your bird will
love to pull and pull and chew and shred on the paper. This bird toy
is refillable, and durable. |
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| Monthly
Special! FREE TOY |
The PRC would like to offer your Companion
Parrot a special gift
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This
is a multi coloured, Nobbly Wobbly tangled teaser which creates
a fascinating Automic twist. It twists and turns yet rolls like
a ball. Made of durable 100% safe rubber.
Spend a minimum of $50 and recieve
a free Nobbly Wobbly Automic Ball for your parrots toy collection.
One ball with each purchase. Available in small and medium. Please
select your free ball under the Special section of the PRC shop
both sizes will be listed. There are only a limited amount of balls
available, they will be removed when stock runs out.
- Small is 5cm round and has a
bell inside
- Medium is 7cm round with no bell.
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| Parrots
Convention 2008 - By Jim McKendry |
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| G’day Parrot
Enthusiasts!
As some of you may already be aware, the Parrot
Society of Australia Inc will be holding its bienniel `Parrots’
convention next year from July 5th to 7th 2008. This is set to be
the best avicultural convention experience ever held in Australia
and I’d like to make some of my fellow companion parrot enthusiasts
aware of what we have planned for you...
Those of you who attended Parrots 2006 will remember
the brilliant workshops delivered by Barbaara Heidenreich of Good
Bird Inc from the US. I’m pleased to inform you all that we
have invited Barbara back for Parrots 2008. Barbara will deliver
three separate workshops over the weekend, including sessions on
training and managing a `flighted’ parrot and a special demonstration
session with live parrots.
We are also very excited to be bringing out the
world’s leading avian behaviourist, Dr. Susan Friedman. Susan
will be educating us all on the benefits and application of behaviour
analysis when working on behaviour management and creating learning
experiences with our parrots.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg! We have
a total of 8 workshop sessions locked in for companion parrot enthusiasts
to engage in. On top of this will be presentations from two of the
world’s leading avian biologists bringing us insights into
the wild lives of South American parrots, Palm Cockatoos and Eclectus!
Every dedicated parrot enthusiast has a serious
obligation to attend this event, support the initiative of the Parrot
Society of Australia, enagage in the most progressive avian education
in the world and learn more about care, behaviour and training of
these wonderful creatures.
Registrations have opened. A special `Super Early
Bird’ rate is currently on offer at just $235 (for PSOA members
– non-members +$25) for the two days – a discount of
$64 on the final registration fee! Only 4 more Super Early Bird
registrations are available as these have been limited to the first
24 registrants. If you would like to secure one of these final 4
special registrations then please call Stewart Williamson a.s.a.p.
On 07-3289 2523.
If you have any questions about the weekend then
feel free to call me on 07-5442 5342. I’m anticipating a huge
level of support from the companion parrot owning community for
this event! Look forward to seeing you all there :-)
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Jim will be doing
a full coverage article of the Parrots 2008 Convention in the December
/ January PRC Newsletter.
To download the full program of Parrots
2008 please visit www.parrotsociety.org.au |
| Parrot
Behaviour & Enrichment Consultations |
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Hi Folks,
In this issue of the PRC Newsletter I thought I would share a response
to a question I received via my association with the World Parrot
Trust `Ask The Experts’ service. This is a great service for
members of the World Parrot Trust. If you are unfamiliar with the
work of this leading parrot conservation organization then I would
highly recommend that you take the time to visit their new website
at www.parrots.org. As parrot owners, we all have a major obligation
to contribute to the continued conservation efforts of organizations
and individuals working to ensure that the group of birds that we
are dedicated to remain viable in their natural state. Become a
member of the World Parrot Trust today and help support the many
projects coordinated by this wonderful organization.
If
anyone has a question – no matter how small or insignificant
it may seem, please e-mail Zarita and I’ll do what I can to
help you out via this newsletter service. |
| QUESTION? |
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How can I stop
my African Grey viciously biting whenever I go near him? He is hand
reared but has become very nasty. Asked by Liz.
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(Photo By Ann Hoyte)
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| ANSWER! |
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G’day Liz,
Your question represents a real challenge –
for both of us! While I haven’t got a lot of information to
work with, it’s a great opportunity to highlight some key
concepts that any parrot owner in your situation can apply.
Let’s start with what’s actually missing
from your question. When managing encounters that result in an aggressive
behavioural response towards us, we really need to carefully analyse
the `context’. For behaviour as overt as aggression or biting,
there is always a context that we can observe and identify. Being
able to describe this context is going to be the first stage in
developing some strategies to improve your relationship with your
African Grey. So, how do we go about identifying the context for
the biting behaviour?
Using a `behaviour analysis’ approach (sounds
technical – but stick with me), we can easily identify what
might be stimulating the behaviour and how your interactions with
your African Grey may also be influencing the behaviour. This approach
challenges us to focus specifically on what we can observe. The
next time that you encounter aggressive behaviour from your African
Grey, try describing the following...
A: The `antecedent’ – the stimulus in
the environment that sets the behaviour up to occur. Ask yourself
- `What happens immediately before you observe aggression or receive
a bite from your African Grey?’
B: The `behaviour’ – what we observe in direct response
to the antecedent stimulus. Ask yourself - `What does the aggressive
behaviour look like? What are the visual and verbal indicators that
you can observe that help you describe and label the behaviour as
aggression?’
C: The `consequence’ – what occurs in the environment
immediately after the behaviour. Ask yourself - `What has happened
as a result of aggressive encounters with your African Grey in the
past?’
Put those three together - `antecedent’, `behaviour’
and `consequence’ and you’ll be well on your way to
understanding a context for the aggressive behaviour. Aggressive
behaviour always serves a functional purpose, so writing down some
information following the A-B-C guide described above will help
you to clarify the function that the behaviour is serving. The physical
act of biting is usually the end stage of a set of preceding communication
cues that we have failed to respond to. As an example, if the body
language of your African Grey didn’t achieve the function
of removing you from its environment, then the next stage along
that continuum is progressing to a bite. Challenging yourself to
analyse the behaviour from an observable context will help you to
identify the key visual cues that suggest the approach you are taking,
and the expectations you have, may need reworking.
Judging from your question, it seems like you might
be experiencing the behaviour at most times that you try to interact
with your African Grey. This is a situation where a wonderful analogy,
that I first heard used by avian trainer Steve Martin, applies itself
beautifully. Steve refers to a `trust account’ that we build
up with our birds. Deposits are made via interactions with our birds
that are positively reinforcing and build strong associations between
the delivery of reinforcers and ourselves. The more opportunities
we encounter where rewards and interactions that are valued by our
parrot are delivered, the more deposits we can make into that trust
account. The flip side of course is that withdrawals can also be
made. With pet parrots and aggressive behaviour, this often occurs
when we fail to sensitively respond to the visual cues, that we
should know from past experiences, indicate that our feathered friend
isn’t likely to be receptive to stepping onto our hand or
interacting with us. The challenge for you at this initial stage
in your work with your African Grey is to start making some deposits
into that trust account.
Traditional approaches to managing aggression and
biting behaviour relied on attempting to dominate the parrot. Choosing
a dominance approach is not an effective behaviour management solution
for working with aggressive parrots. Attempting to force handling
interactions with an aggressive parrot can result in effectively
teaching your parrot that it needs to bite harder to get the aversive
stimulus (your hand) away from it. In combination with this will
be a breakdown in the relationship between you and your bird. This
represents a major withdrawal from the trust account and can result
in many consequences, the most common being the establishment of
either fear responses, or a further escalation in aggression by
your parrot towards you when you initiate interactions with it.
If you have reached the point where your parrot has inflicted a
bite then you need to take responsibility for the bite and start
focusing on developing your awareness of what you can change in
your behaviour and how you can rearrange the environment to avoid
a bite in the first place.
Where aggressive behaviours get out of control and
become a serious issue is when we have failed to maintain positive
reinforcement based training with the parrot. Consistently implemented
positive reinforcement based interactions help to establish an environment
that increases the potential for the human carer to be viewed as
stimuli in the environment that offers highly valued resources.
Achieving this shift in stimuli association provides an alternative
influence on the behaviour of our pet parrot. As an example, responding
to handling cues such as `step up’, ultimately needs to have
a greater consequential reinforcement value to the parrot than standing
on top of a cage and biting a presented hand. The learning environment
for our parrot needs to be set up to provide clear behavioural alternatives,
so that;
? Our parrot has choice, and therefore is an active participant
in the decision making processes occurring in its environment;
? It develops a relationship between the behavioural choice it makes
and the consequential reinforcement it receives for that behaviour
and;
? We respect the choice that our parrot makes and resist the temptation
to enforce handling when it is obvious that our parrot is not receptive
to us.
If the choices that your parrot is making are not
achieving a behavioural goal that you have set then it is up to
you to re-evaluate your expectations, improve your reinforcement
schedule for the desired behaviour and perhaps most importantly,
re-think how you have arranged the environment to set your parrot
up to succeed with the highest potential to present the behaviours
you seek. Managing the feeding schedules of our parrots obviously
provides opportunities to deliver highly valued primary reinforcers
that can often help to redirect the behaviour of a parrot that has
started to display aggression in specific contexts within the home
environment. Rather than providing all free feed opportunities at
one time, or within a single enclosure, it may be more effective
to deliver different food types, at different times of the day,
in different contexts, and to reinforce different behavioural goals.
This may help to improve the level of motivation required to interact
with you and help you to capture and positively reinforce behaviours
that are alternative to or incompatible with biting.
In general, avoiding and managing aggression can
be achieved via the following...
• Developing a sensitive awareness of non-verbal, visual cues
that may indicate that it is time to step back and away from a potential
confrontation.
• Appreciating that an individual may not be receptive to
the sort of social interactions that we expect from `pets’.
Therefore we may be challenged to help them learn that social interactions
with us can be valued via the delivery of positively reinforcing
consequences for desirable behaviour.
• Minimising handling and preening interactions that promote
the sexual bonding of the parrot with one individual in the household.
• Establishing feeding and enrichment schedules that provide
opportunities for the parrot to present behaviours that are an alternative
to or incompatible with biting and territorial aggression.
• Continually re-evaluating how you have arranged the environment
of the bird so that it is best set up to succeed with behavioural
choices that you desire.
The above only touches on some key behaviour management
principles that might need more elaboration for you to start really
applying well. Check out the incredible articles that the World
Parrot Trust has collated in their Reference Library at www.parrots.org.
If you’re an `armchair’ learner then I would highly
recommend that anyone managing aggression and biting from their
pet parrot purchase `The Parrot Problem Solver: Finding Solutions
to Aggressive Behaviour’ by Barbara Heidenreich. This is an
excellent starting point for learning all about recovering relationships
with aggressive parrots and can be purchased online from the Parrot
Rescue Centre Store!
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Kind Regards, Jim McKendry
BAppSc BTeach
Parrot Behaviour & Enrichment Consultations
http://www.pbec.com.au
E-mail: jim@pbec.com.au
Phone Consultations | Online Support Packages | Professional
Development
Parrot Behaviour Workshops at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary
Call 0421 175 841 to receive a free information pamphlet pack!!!
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| Support
the Parrot Rescue Centre |
The Parrot Rescue Centre
spends a lot of time and resources in doing what is best for the
parrots by ensuring the birds are regularly vet checked, given fresh
food, enrichment, clean aviaries and cages, providing natural habitats
and by building larger enclosures.
The PRC is not a large organisation, it is privately
owned and managed by Zarita, a couple of volunteers and Family.
To help fund the PRC Zarita has created the PRC shop and bird boarding
services and also relies on the generosity of the public. The PRC
does not receive any financial assistance from the government or
other large organisations.
We need your
help and support to continue to provide a high standard of care
to the PRC parrots.
Thankyou for your support.
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| Thankyou to Birdkeeper Magazine
for publishing a help wanted advertisment in the October/November
issue of their Magazine |
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Thankyou to
Talking Birds Newspaper for publishing a help wanted article in
their November Newspaper |
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| PLEASE
HELP NOW |
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How
you can help: |
| 1. Purchase TOYS and ACCESSORIES
from the PRC shop click here. |
| 2. Make a MONETARY donation
click here. |
| 3. SPONSER a PRC Parrot
through Virtual Adoption click
here |
Alternatively contact Zarita directly
by mail or phone on 0755692840 to discuss
how you would like to give your support
Parrot Rescue Centre
Po Box 797
Mudgeeraba, QLD 4213
Thankyou for your kindness.
Yours truly,
Zarita Garozzo
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Story
of the month -
My Story of Valentino by Harvey Anderssen
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Valentino is the winner for
the story of the month for OCTOBER/NOVEMBER.
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Valentino
loves to play on his basket and swing on his rope perch! |
| Hi,
My story is about a Little Corella, named Valentino. We, the “foster
parents” , first saw this eager little fellow on Valentine’s
day 2004, hence the name. Valentino grew up eager for engagement,
loving rough and tumble play, always extremely extrovert, curious,
and not at all timid. So it came as a huge surprise to his wide
circle of admirers, especially his foster parents, to learn, a few
months ago, that our beloved Valentino was a girl.
Valentino is very self assured. She’s rather
spoilt, and knows she’ll be quickly forgiven when is deliberately
naughty by, for example chewing orchids or the skylight frame. I
shout, she flies to me, sits on my shoulder and says “hello
darling” in a sweet corella voice, confident of immediate
forgiveness. Maybe that explains her “attitude” problem.
We’d wanted a bird that could help outside
in the garden. And so eventually, when she was about 18 months,
we introduced her to the freedom of the outdoors. She came on my
shoulder outside to the exposed back porch one cold wet miserable
Canberra winter night. As always, was interested and curious in
the new environment, but also very happy to come back inside to
warmth and companionship. I believe however success at “free
flying” stemmed from the relationship, and mutual confidence
in each other, rather than any training regime. Indeed, the trainers
who taught her to return to us were the currawongs. They didn’t
want her shouting her territorial rights as she flew over the house.
She returned to us for safety when chased.
Her free-flying “lessons” taught us,
the foster parents, much, and were not with angst. Nevertheless,
we persevered. A lesson was held every morning and evening from
Winter to Summer. She quickly learnt the outdoor environment, the
big garden with willow and oak trees, and oval at the back and side
also bordered by trees. As time went on, she’d go further
and further afield, sometimes flying with the galahs, sometimes
the king parrots and sometimes the sulphur-crested cockatoos. We
learned many ways to retrieve a wilful corella who wanted to explore
outdoors when we wanted her back inside. We never dared leave her
outside on her own.
Then, on Saturday, 16th December 2006, at 9 o’clock,
Valentino flew off with a group of cockatoos and galahs but this
time did not return. A response to our lost Ad placed her a couple
of kilometres away participating in a kid’s birthday party
shortly after she’d disappeared. – she was always very
social and liked people and parties. But we couldn’t find
her – she didn’t answer our call. By Sunday we’d
missed her so much that we bought another.
However, we kept looking – hoping to find
her, and on Monday at 4:30pm, finally did. We were calling near
where she’d been seen at the children’s party. We heard
her full-throated corella call, and set up a back and forth shouting
match. This way we tracked her to a house where she’d been
put in a cage. The house owner had not yet taken her to the RSPCA,
and returned her to us – we clearly belonged together.
Living with Valentino has been, and continues to
be, an emotional experience. We now change routines to minimise
risk of further traumatic episodes, not always succeeding, and knowing
some risk is always present. We are lucky in where we live, and
in having neighbours who know and look out for our corella. In talking
to people about lost corellas, we found they were once more common
as children’s pets, but today parrot people often warn against
Corellas as pets – they are just too bitey, too energetic,
and too needing of interaction in busy lives.
Corella’s are energetic and extremely hardy,
able to thrive in Australia’s harsh outback. But above all
they are social, playing together, working together at chewing trees
and crops, watching out for dangerous wedgetails and farmers, and
fighting each other and rival species for habitat. Such social behaviour
is, on reflection, almost human, and perhaps corellas can be forgiven
their vices. One thing’s for sure, owning a corella can sure
be a life-changing experience.
Harvey
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Nice and WET! |
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| How
to Enter Your Member Story: |
How to enter the monthly
draw to win a PRC recommended parrot toy and have your birdies picture
and story part of the PRC Newsletter.
·
Fill out the Parrot Rescue Centre Membership Form
·
Write a story about your feathered friends, whether emotional, funny
or silly
·
Send it to zarita@parrotrescuecentre.com
·
Include a photo of your bird as an attachment on the email.
It’s
that easy! We look forward to hearing your stories!
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| “From
the Avian Vets Desk" |
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Problems
Associated with Toys and Cage Accoutrements for Pet Parrots.
There are a wide variety of toys
and cage furnishings available for pet birds. However, not all
of them are appropriate or suitable for parrots and many of them
can be dangerous and life-threatening. In my surgery, I have a
bag full of inappropriate toys and cage accessories that have
killed parrots. The birds died simply because they were fulfilling
their natural instinct to chew. Unfortunately, they chewed on
the toxic metal, fibre, soft and brittle plastics of their inappropriate,
commercially manufactured toys and cage accoutrements.
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Parrots are “hard-wired” to chew.
When foraging for food in the wild, they chew nuts, seeds, pods,
grasses and fruits. They also chew to keep their beak in top condition.
In captivity, they need appropriate, safe and healthy materials
to chew on such as rough bark perches, green leafy branches, seed
pods and fresh, green, seeding grasses. However, many owners provide
instead poorly constructed and inappropriate, commercially produced
toys and rope perches. I have had many birds presented suffering
from fibre impaction as a result of chewing on tasselly, rope
toys and woven rope perches that have been sold as “bird
friendly”. Birds suffering from fibre impaction show signs
of persistent vomiting and chronic weight loss. Some birds are
close to death when presented and the fibre blockages of the bowel
and stomach are discovered on post mortem examination. Sometimes
fibres can be removed from the crop without surgical intervention.
However, the veterinary costs and suffering to the bird can be
averted by avoiding toys and perches that have the potential for
causing fatal fibre impactions.
Just as pet bird owners need to be aware of the
potential danger from toys containing fibres, they also need to
be aware of the dangers posed by cheap metal and plastic toys.
Plastics are manufactured from many toxic substances and petrochemicals.
Any soft or brittle plactics that can be chewed by birds can cause
serious problems such as blockages, penetrating wounds and poisoning.
A little budgie was presented to me, suffering from apparent central
nervous problems. He was “spaced out” and suffering
from loss of balance. An X-ray revealed numerous, small, semi-circular
shapes in his stomach. On questioning his owner, it was discovered
that these shapes corresponded to “bite marks” in
a new plastic toy she had added to his cage. The toy was removed
from the cage and the bird made an uneventful recovery. Safe plastics
should be “bullet proof” polycarbonate that can withstand
the toughest punishment from any parrot. Metal toys are another
common cause of toxicity in pet parrots. Copper and chrome bells,
lead clappers, rusty metal chains and toys can be the cause of
metal toxicity in pet birds. Stainless steel is the preferred
metal used in the manufacture of “bird safe” toys.
However, it is not just toxic metals in toys that can cause health
problems in pet parrots, any toys with metal hooks or protruding
or sharp angular metal can also be dangerous for your bird. I
remember another case where a sulphur crested cockatoo had a dangling
metal toy with a hook that became skewered through his lower beak
and under his tongue. He was left caught for several hours before
his owner came home and discovered him. He required extensive
surgery to repair the damage caused by his entanglement.
Even something as seemingly harmless as a tennis
ball caused an Alexandrine parrot to come to grief. His owners
gave him the tennis ball to keep him amused. However, he peeled
some of the felt from the surface of the ball and got his head
caught between the peeled felt and the ball. He was almost strangled
by his entanglement and it was several hours before his plight
was discovered. By that time he was suffering from a severe exertional
myopathy and he took several months of intensive nursing and treatment
before he slowly recovered.
To avoid these types of problems, it is necessary
to choose your bird’s toys and cage furnishings very carefully.
Toys made from natural wood, gum nuts and bark provide safe and
healthy chewing opportunities for your bird. Just like rough bark
perches, these toys can be regarded as disposable. When they are
chewed up, replace them. There are many other safe, interesting
and interactive toys available that are made from tried and tested
“bird safe” polycarbonates, stainless steel, naturally
tanned leather and pauli rope. A range of “foraging”
toys are also available that stimulate birds to “problem
solve” in order to find the “treat” hidden within
the toy.
Toys can be beneficial and enrich the life of
a caged bird. However, make sure that you are aware of the dangers
that can occur from the use of poorly constructed toys from inappropriate
materials.
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Written
by Peter Wilson
BVSc MACVSc
Avian and Reptile Practitioner
To contact Peter Wilson
Click Here
This article will be published in Paws and Claws Journal
September/October 2007

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| Bird
Boarding |
| |
Do you need a guilt-free holiday?
Leave your precious
birds with understanding and knowledgeable parrot carers.
We provide quality
care for your pet birds including clean housing, healthy diet, enrichment,
interaction and training (extra fee).
Your bird will not
have time to be bored or sad, so stress and frustration will be
less likely.
All funds made from
bird boarding are directly used by the Parrot Rescue Centre to help
with caring and maintaining the sanctuary birds environment.
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| Bird
Boarding Health Check Requirement |
All Boarding Parrots are required to undergo
a health check by a qualified Veterinarian preferably an avian specialist
or vet that has a special interest in birds, please Click
Here to find your nearest suitable vet.
Health check should include:
- Tested negative to Psittacosis
- Tested negative to PBFD
- Faeces Tested negative for worms
and bacteria
- Examination suggests that the
bird is clinically free of illness or infection and is considered
in sound physical health by the examining veterinarian
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For
more information please contact:
Zarita Garozzo
Ph: 07 5569 2840
Email: zarita@parrotrescuecentre.com
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Please
check out our new Bird Boarding Directory Click
here |
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| Parrot
Rescue Centre Special Supporters |
| This advertising section is for Businesses
who directly support the PRC in some way, either through free or
discounted magazine advertising, services and donations etc.
The PRC is very grateful for your support. THANKYOU |
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| Paws
& Claws is your online resource for everything Pet or Wildlife
related. We are dedicated to bringing you the most informative and
comprehensive editorial in our quarterly Magazine available free
on the Gold Coast or right across Australia 7 days a week on our
web site. We have a wide range of Products & Services available
and our supplier directory continues to grow more interesting by
the day. To date, we have donated over $100,000 of advertising and
article space in Paws & Claws Journal & Online to non-profit
animal organisations. We donate a further 10% of our profits to
the Animal Welfare League of Qld and the RSPCA Qld. Visit us at
www.pawsandclawsjournal.com.au . |
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Is Australias only
newspaper devoted to the care and breeding of birds, including finches,
canaries, parrots, cockatoos, budgies, softbills, pheasants and
waterfowl. It is full of news, information and feature articles
from Australia and around the world. |
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Visit BREEDERS CHOICE SEEDS at 3/5 Cahill Court, Andrews on the
Gold Coast and see the Parrot Rescue Centres TOY and ACCESSORIES
stand. Breeders Choice proudly support the PRC by providing a
space in their show room to display and sell our products. Breeders
Choice stock a large array of seed mixes, nuts- shelled and in
the shell, dried fruit mixes, Lorikeet dry and wet mixes, HAGEN
TROPICAN food in bulk quantities for breeders and KAYTEE Pellets
and handrearing formulas in bulk for breeders. Bulk quantities
are sold at wholesale rates to make it more affordable.
CONTACT them today on 1800 637 039.
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| Pet directory is available online and in
book format all over Australia who links us to every pet industry
available from wholesalers, breeders, pet shops, trainers and more.
Please visit www.petdirectory.com.au. |
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| Profits made from
Ruby Jam jewellery that has been referred from the PRC website is
donated to the PRC, to help cover transport costs, vet bills and
associated adoption costs. www.rubyjam.com |
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| Leah Petersen is a well respected Animal
Intuitive with a client base from around the world. She has successfully
facilitated Animal Communication readings for many pets and their
people. Her unique gift provides you with a glimpse into the sacred
innermost thoughts and feelings of your beloved animal companions.
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| Endsearch is the creator of the PRC website
and helps maintain the PRC website. EndSearch offers a one stop shop.
All creative development including Digital Photography and Print Media
inclusive of Brochures and Business Cards are developed in house.
Of course we can maintain your custom web site and help with your
online marketing. EndSearch creates consistency across your Corporate
Identity. It will all flow together unifying the power of your message.
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Support
those who support PARROTS! |
| |
The World Parrot Trust work to achieve the survival of parrot
species in the wild, and the welfare of captive birds everywhere.
THE CHARITY FUNDING PROJECTS AND PROMOTING
EXCELLENCE IN PARROT CONSERVATION AND WELFARE
For more information please CLICK
HERE
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If you have received this mailing in error, or if you no longer
wish to receive email from
Parrot Rescue Centre, please send a blank email, with:
Remove from Mailing List in the
subject line, to zarita@parrotrescuecentre.com
You will be excluded from future mailings
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All
Rights Reserved Parrot Rescue Centre 2007 ©. |
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