Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Orlando, FL
Weighing in: Goffins Cockatoo “Theo”

There are different weights you can get on your parrot that are all important. Some owners only go for one weight, which is normally an “empty” weight right before the bird is fed.

I like to know all the weights I can. Here are the weights we chart:

• Full weight (after eating)
• AM/empty weight (before eating)
• Average weight (free feeding, usually on pellets, all day and taken in the middle of the day)

I like to know my bird’s full weight because it tells me how much it’s eating. That way I know how much food it will consume for a training session. And I also know how much to feed without unnecessary mess or waste.

Usually my cockatoo Bandit will weigh around 305 grams in the morning and consume around 15 grams of food for training until he’s up to 320-325 grams which is his normally full weight.

However, my birds also have “stuffed full weights” which are always different based on what they have stuffed themselves on. 320-325 grams is a full weight for Bandit, but if he eats mostly carbs like rice, pastas or things he loves like nuts and seeds… then his weight goes up even more because he will stuff himself to the brink! I know I think there’s room in my stomach for a sundae but not that broccoli… birds can be the same. They WILL make room for the stuff they love even if they’re already full.

This is why I like the average weight. I like to know how much they weigh when they are able to fill themselves up whenever they want. And they don’t ever get to that “over stuffed” weight when free feeding, it’s only when they get something real heavy in food or something they don’t usually get (like nuts and seeds, since those are normally ONLY for training and training may not happen every single day).

Over stuffed weights are not anything I go by because they are SO off. I had a parakeet that was only 6 months old who came home from the pet shop and flew around all day. He didn’t like people yet so he stayed far, far away and flew where we couldn’t get to him. So we waited. And by the end of the day he finally came to our others who were perched on us eating a piece of spray millet. When he joined he ate so much he weighed 40 grams! His crop was BULGING and he only ate so much because he hadn’t eaten all day and had been flying around refusing to come down. So when he did eat, he ate like a mad man. However, 40 grams isn’t his “full weight” because when I let him free feed on pellets and veggies he was only around 32 grams and never got himself up to 40 grams again.

I remember watching him all day the next day and he hardly touched his food because he had to wait for all the previous food to digest first. His crop was bulging for a long time!

That is why it’s so important not to let your birds splurge on unhealthy foods. However, it’s good to know that it will fill them up more than usual so you can use those unhealthy foods to put weight on an underweight bird if necessary and in an emergency (ie: metal toxicity)

Photo by Dave
Location: Orlando, FL
Pictured: Travel Cages in Travel Trailer

I guess this entry isn’t as much a “how to” as it is a “how we do it”!

In our travel trailer that is completely devoted to magic props and birds, we just put in a nice floor over the wood so it would clean up much easier and be much more sanitary then things that could soak into the wood and stay there.

We’ve also made sure to test out all the cages on a drive to be sure we have everything secured down so no trays will go sliding or food bowls will fall out and spill. When driving all the time to location to location, you have to be careful about how things can move and foraging toys don’t always work that well (depending on the type) since the drive will spill the food out itself – making them a piece of cake for the birds to get into!

Photo by Dave
Location: Orlando, FL
Pictured: Travel Cages in Travel Trailer

In this set up, every bird has their own cage which is essential when traveling. Because the cages are smaller than their normal cages, they need their own space and when traveling you never know how birds will react so its best if they are alone.

There will be nine birds traveling with us in this trailer; 4 macaws, 3 cockatoos, 1 grey and 1 toucan.

The space is set up with A/C and heat should weather fluctuate too much and we have a generator on the front as well as being able to plug into places we stop at. We also have spare fans and heaters that can be plugged into places or run on a battery “just in case” our A/C and heat unit goes out, as well as in case our generator fails. We want to be prepared for EVERYTHING, as you never know what the world will throw at you!

We keep large containers of food so we’re set for a few weeks and they are air sealed tight so bugs and the like can’t make their way in and spoil the food.

One way you can include your bird in the holiday festivities early on is by letting your bird be apart of the preparation!

Some birds might need some extreme desensitization with the holiday decor; lights, trees, ornaments, noise, music, etc… there’s a lot of things that go into the holiday that we don’t think about but your bird might react badly to. So mine as well make them a part of it so they can enjoy everything too.

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Orlando, FL
Helping: “Military Macaw” Cash

One thing we do is set up the Christmas tree (palm tree) with our birds out and around it. This year we did it with the macaws around. This is their second Christmas, but their first one with the palm Christmas tree. Last year we were at my parents’ house with a pine tree. Most of them hung out on the railing but some of them came down to check it out and some stayed on perches nearby watching. Cash, our military macaw, especially made his presence known for being there for the tree preparation!

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Orlando, FL
Helper: Military Macaw “Cash”

It’s always a fun time with our birds around the holiday.

It helps if your bird is flighted so it can watch from a distance it’s comfortable at. It won’t hurt to have some rewards around to reward your bird if it’s more phobic and might be too scared to get very close. You can also cuddle within view of the Christmas tree if being in the same room as it is too much for your bird. Whatever you can make work is great for your bird.

Photo by Dave
Location: Orlando, FL
Galahs: “Bandit”, “Ace” & “Bondi”

This picture is of Ace on his second day with us. Jason, his previous owner, said he hadn’t bathed in a couple days since being on the road and that he’d probably appreciate a bath. Luckily, Jason took amazing care of Ace before he came to us and so he has settled in really well with our flock already.

Day two he was bathing with Bandit and Bondi and he was able to fit easily into sharing an aviary with all our medium sized birds, including our grey, Cressi.

He already came eating the same pellets ours do, the organic Feed Your Flock parrot pellets. So nutrition has been another easy thing with Ace. He eats and tries everything we give him and is very anxious when in the kitchen and food preparation is going on.

Photo by Dave
Location: Orlando, FL
Galahs: “Bandit”

Because Jason did such a great job raising Ace, he has had a very smooth transition into our home. Yet another amazing reason to work and train with your bird. You never know when something might happen to you, and if it does, you need to be prepared and have something planned for your bird. And you don’t want that move to be traumatic.

Here are some things you can do with your bird that will help your relationship with him/her now and also make a smoothe transition into someone else’s home should something ever happen to you (something none of us want to think about but all of us should be prepared for):

1. Trick training: because Ace knows tricks already he doesn’t feel left out when we work with our birds too, in fact, he knows the cues and behaviors to do and has fun competing with the other birds.
2. A great diet: feed fresh foods even if your bird won’t touch them, do what you can to get them eaten by your bird and get your bird on a healthy organic pellet diet rather than the unhealthy colored ones.
3. Take your bird to meet new people and get social so it is willing to step up onto new people if you ask it to.
4. Get your bird used to travel cages and day trips so it travels easier.

Posted in Galahs, Parrot Bathing Tagged: ace, bath, bathing, cockatoo, galah, rose breasted cockatoo, wet ]]> http://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/new-cockatoo/feed/ 0 Jamieleigh http://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/netflix-the-next-best-parrot-toy/ http://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/netflix-the-next-best-parrot-toy/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:33:13 +0000 Jamieleigh http://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com/?p=1546 ]]>

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Orlando, FL
Thee who tore up the Netflix mailer: Umbrella Too “Linus”

Randomly almost every day I will take a walk with Patty and Linus to the mailbox. It’s something Patty did with him back when she lived in Austin and I always would invite my cat along with me so to have Linus to go with made it even more fun. He loves playing with the keys afterwards.

Well, this time I got some Netflix in and I’m a huge fan of ‘em. As I was anxiously opening them to see what I got, Linus sat himself on a perch watching me. I tore the pieces off the mailers and looked back at him, then crinkled it in my hand a little and handed it over.

Boy did Linus ever get excited!

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Orlando, FL
Thee who tore up the Netflix mailer: Umbrella Too “Linus”

I whipped out the camera as fast as I could but he tore into the packaging faster than I could manage to catch and had a complete ball with it! So if you’ve been pondering about whether or not to start your subscription with Netflix and just need one more reason… here it is! Do it for your bird!

Posted in Parrot Play Tagged: netflix, parrot, toy ]]> http://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com/2009/11/20/netflix-the-next-best-parrot-toy/feed/ 0 Jamieleigh http://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/bathing-cockatoos/ http://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com/2009/11/17/bathing-cockatoos/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:58:47 +0000 Jamieleigh http://jamiesparrothelp.wordpress.com/?p=1542 ]]>

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Orlando, FL
Bathing: Umbrella Cockatoo “Linus”

I believe whole-heartedly that you should bathe your bird as often as it wants a bath. Meaning, that you offer it a bath once a day and if it takes you up on it, GREAT! And if it doesn’t, no biggie, maybe next time.

Out of all my birds, my cockatoos will be the first to take me up on a bath practically every day. If they don’t, it’s usually because they already had one that day via the aviaries and Florida rain. And if it’s cooler outside they usually don’t want to be wet either. So I try to offer baths on hot days when I know they will be most likely to want one.

When Linus lived with me over five years ago for about eight months or so, he would bathe all the time! We would set up his shower perch and run the water and leave him to do his business. We’d come in a few minutes later and peek in from the shower curtain and Linus would be huge and poofy LOVING the shower!

Photo by Patty
Location: Austin, TX
Wet bird: Umbrella Cockatoo “Linus”

I’ve always felt that more bathing = less plucking. Sometimes it’s all a bird needs to stop plucking completely. Birds bathe SO often in the wild, they need that in captivity, especially when they can’t control what is in their environments. They used to constant air flow and freshness of the outdoors. Lord knows they don’t get close to that in most homes where people keep them indoors and put covers over their cages which stops even more air flow than they already had minimal of.

It’s so important to bathe your bird, and here are some sources that back me up on this:

• How to keep your cockatoo healthy by bathing often.
• Remembering where cockatoos come from and why to bathe them a lot.
• Not enough bathing causing plucking in parrots.

Whenever I’m in doubt or looking for an answer, I look at how they act in the wild. These are tropical birds that live in tropical places. Tropical places get A LOT of rain, and I’m grateful to be in Florida where the weather is natural to them and good for their health of being outside year round.

So start bathing your bird daily, or at least as often as you can. You may see a huge difference in your plucker should you have one.

Photo by Glen
Location: Moab, UT
Drinking: Military Macaw “Cash”

I forgot about how much adjustment most parrots need when moving to a warm weather place like Florida. My birds came from Saipan, which is pretty much like Florida but maybe more humid? Not sure. It’s pretty close…

I make sure that my parrots have plenty of water in the summer because it gets so darn hot, that even their water gets warm sometimes and I don’t know about them, but I know I hate drinking warm water. So it’s important to keep it cool for them and try to put it in the shade. I have a huge bowl I will fill and put at the bottom of their aviaries just in case it’s extra hot out.

I also try to keep a spray bottle handy to be able to mist them down if they start looking over heated. In aviaries it’s super important to have lots of water, and lots of shade so the bird isn’t forced to be in direct sunlight. You can also give fruit during the day because it gives the bird extra hydration from the juices in the fruit.

Other than that getting used to the new weather stage, my birds have done great here in Florida and are able to stay outside year round. They love the rain, and the fact that it rains every day really helps them cool down.

Photo by Dave
Location: Sagle, ID
Galahs: “Bondi” and “Ace”

After much consideration and going back and forth for a while now, Dave and I made the decision to adopt Ace, Bandit’s brother from our friends Jason and Janell (and Xander). We’ve had a lot of interaction with Ace as we did a lot of the raising side of things with him when he was a baby and we’ve hung out with him since then and house sitted him and things like that. So we are very confident and excited to bring him into our flock full time.

We have high hopes that he will be an outdoor freestyle flyer with us as he is with his current owners and that he will mix with our flock well, which he has in the past. I am sure it will be quite the experience for him as it will be the biggest change for him aside from his initial move from us to Jason. I think there will be much to document so be on the look out for extra galah related topics from me! I hope Bandit enjoys having a brother again!

You can read about our first time having Ace as a baby here. And we will be getting the little guy tomorrow night!

Photo by Dave
Location: Orlando, FL
Macaws: Blue throat “Jinx”, Camelot macaws “Comet” & “Tusa”

When I moved from Saipan to Florida, I had no idea I needed a permit to own birds there. I never needed one on the west coast, but when I heard that a friend almost had his taken away and now hated Florida, I understood why of course and decided to look into it so I wouldn’t face the same fate.

The permit costs $50/year to have. You can find it here.

Photo by Glen
Location: Moab, UT
My wings: Galah “Bandit”

I was pretty thrilled about Glen catching this shot of me and my galah, Bandit, in Moab, Utah. Everyone says it looks like I have wings and I think I’m lucky enough to say that Bandit is my complete guardian angel… er… bird. He really looks out for me and sticks up for me and I do the same for him, sometimes even if he isn’t always right, hehe! He’s too cute not to have his back like he has mine!