I was obviously trying to be really sneaky when filming this video of my Swainson toucan, Meaka, while she was making noise. So it’s not the most fun video to watch as I wanted footage of her actually crying for people to see how different the body language is from a parrot’s but you can’t really so I failed at obtaining that. However, you can hear it so I at least got that acheived.

The Swainson Toucan is one of two, I believe, types of toucans that is known as a “screamer” the others are all known as “croakers” and do not make the high-pitched sounds that Swainson’s do.

It can overwhelming thinking about how much of your time your pet parrot requires. Is 30 minutes a day enough if I dedicate it all to my bird? Is two hours more likely? What is too much? When it comes to a parrot, to them, there is no such thing as “too much time together”. Heck, if it wasn’t dangerous for my birds to be with me 24/7, they probably would! Thank goodness for my logical half…

Birds don’t always need to have your 100% attention when they are out or need to be trained every time they come out of their cage. Parrots like to just hang out, too, just like people do. So include them when that is what you’re doing.

Here are some things I do in order to spend more time with my pet parrots since I have a rather large flock;

1. Chores - Include Your Parrot.

My birds keep me company while I do things around the house such as put the dishes away, rinse anything in the sink, vaccuum (where desensitizing comes into play), make the bed and fold and put away the laundry. I let my African Grey hang out on my shoulder as I fold and she will become content there and begin to preen herself or practice on her talking skills. My galah does the same thing and they are easy shoulder birds.  

Location: Orlando, Florida
Keeping Me Company: Congo African Grey ”Cressi”
Chore: Laundry

2. Changing Cages - Include Your Bird.

While I change cages, I let the birds out of the cage I am changing and they hang out on a Manzanita tree playing with various toys and working on their whistling skills. This allows them more “out of cage” time to just hang out.

3. Watching a Movie/TV - Include Your Bird.

If you’re simply lounging around watching a movie or a show on TV, invite your pet parrot to join! They appreciate some cuddle time, especially at night before bed time, and are the most mellow then. Many photos seen here and here are taken during movie/TV time!

4. Showering - Include Your Bird.

Invest in a shower perch and shower with your bird! There’s plenty of room and they love catching the mist off your back. More on parrot bathing.

5. Taking a Walk - Include Your Bird.

More in detail about how to take your bird on a walk outdoors safely and how it helps socialize them to new people at my blog entitled Taking Your Bird on Walks. Know the area, know the time of day and the predators. Don’t just stick your bird on your shoulder and go on a walk and think a hungry hawk won’t see it as easy prey.

So think about the every day things you do that might be more entertaining if done with your bird. And think about how much your bird will appreciate it, too. It doesn’t mean you have to do it everytime, but it is a nice surprise for your pet parrot, just like receiving a vase of flowers to your door would be to you.

Photo by Dave
Location: Sandpoint, Idaho
Pictured: Rare Solid White Parakeet “Lexi”

Parakeets make the perfect pets when it comes to owning a pet bird. I started out with owning a blue parakeet named Scuttles (after the Little Mermaid) I was still very young, probably kindergarten and living in Fallbrook, California.

I am now 21 years old and still have parakeets as pets. I have three hand-tamed and hand-fed solid white parakeets. I actually bred their parents, hand fed them and raised them so they can all live together but be tame with me when taken out. Which is nice because I love hearing their chatter during the day among one another!

Parakeets (also known and referred to as budgies) make the perfect pets for any household whether you live alone in your apartment while you attend college or you have a giant family with six kids and the grandparents living downstairs… parakeets can get along with the whole family!

They are small birds which can be both good and bad - the good is that with a small body comes a small beak with a small bite (not to assume it still doesn’t hurt, though!) but with a small creature like a parakeet also comes the fear of easily hurting it so being gentle is important, too.

They make a great pet bird to see if you even have what it takes to really get into birds. They will give you an idea of what it is like to own a bird to see if you ever want to expand your flock or go larger. Depending on the next bird you are thinking about aquiring, look at your current parakeet and double, triple or more the mess, space and noise level to see if you can really handle a medium to larger parrot. Parakeets are some of the easiest maitenance birds you can get and the cheapest! They can be as little as $14.

Parakeets are very fast learners and great for any type of training (target, trick). I have taught a parakeet tricks in as little as one training session. Other tricks have taken two days at most such as tricks like climbing a rope, the spin, kiss, and more. Sometimes they just need to sit on what you taught them the first day and the second day it will make sense during their sleep and rest period and they will just all the sudden have it! This happened with my parakeet Gilligan on a cruise ship. We taught him an entire routine in a week and performed it on stage after the week was over. He performed perfectly! The video of Gilligan can be viewed here.

A trick training course was made out of Gilligan’s routine and you can find various videos on You Tube of other people’s birds doing the exact same routine with their own unique set up such as this:

Many other examples of what parakeets are capable of doing, learning and performing here.

If you start with a parakeet, it will either make you come to the realization you are not a bird person or you will be hooked on birds! Keets are wonderful for kids and family to be around as they aren’t known for behavioral issues, plucking or extreme biting. There are taming and training techniques you can use to keep them motivated and stimulated with their environment and they can be very social and friendly birds to company.

Parakeets, although not specifically known for it, are capable of learning how to talk just like the larger birds. They tend to have funny sounding voices: examples here. However, it is a parakeet who holds the WORLD RECORD for the largest vocabulary ever spoken by a bird! Now, that’s impressive for a little guy!

Photo by Dave
Location: Moab, Utah
Twins: Blue Throated Macaws “Dreadful” and “Gleam”

Thinking about traveling internationally with your blue throated macaw? I was, so like me, think again.

Now, I’m not completely inexperienced with traveling with my parrots. I’ve done it before, but never with a blue throated macaw who is considered an Appendix 1 to CITES. Half way down the page you will see the scientific name for blue throated macaw which is Ara glaucogularis. CITES goes by all scientific lingo and sometimes blue throated macaws can be mistaken for blue and gold macaws which are known as Ara caninde.

It’s important to know the scientific terminology when wanting to travel internationally with your birds.

Also, from easy to hard, appendix III is the easiest, II is the middle ground and I is the hardest to obtain permits for and travel with. The difference between the three is explained more in depth here. If you don’t feel like reading it, it basically states that the most endangered animals are on appendix I (animals such as tigers, etc). African Grey parrots are listed on appendix II and birds such as parakeets and Swainson toucans are not on CITES at all.

Information on how to properly import and export species on appendix I: Text of the Convention.

It’s hard to say what the exact rules are with traveling with an appendix I species as they change very often so if I were to state specifics with what they are today, they could be different in a couple of days and then this wouldn’t be useful at all. Traveling state-to-state is a different story than trying to travel into a different country such as Canada or Mexico, even though they are one the borders of the US (if that is where your residence is).

It can take up to a year to get a permit for your bird to travel with you. For my rose breasted cockatoo it took exactly one year to get her a “pet passport“. A pet passport is strictly for people traveling with their appendix II species as pets and pets only. Because you’re dealing with an appendix one, it can take even longer but hopefully not!

With an appendix one, you would need a CITES Import permit from the foreign country and CITES Export permit from the United States (or country of residence) I only know this from experience from the US to other countries and Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands to the US (keep in mind the CNMI is a US Commonwealth).

Also, it’s good to know where your bird is from and it’s entire family history. CITES Appendix I  species that are not CITES Pre-Convention or certified as captive bred by the Division of Scientific Authority are more difficult to obtain CITES permits for. Proof is a huge requirement for processing permits and any other paperwork you may need from CITES for your travels.

Sadly, I could not get my permits in time for Jinx and I had to contact the breeder to get a different baby from another clutch because I’d be gone for 2.5 months (over this summer) good thing I’m dealing with an amazing breeder who has been understanding of my position as well as how the process for CITES applications work. They are not always meeting our own personal deadlines (keep in mind they get tons of requests daily) and luckily, she had her own experience with that! It was pretty hard on me to not be able to get the permits in time for my leave and have to get a different baby, just because I have seen this one grow up from an egg to 1.5 months old. But I will love whichever baby I end up getting and will still call him or her Jinxi.

Photo by Dave
Location: Sandpoint, Idaho
Showerer: Rose Breasted Cockatoo “Bandit”

I took Bandit into the shower for the first time while staying at my parents’ house in Sandpoint, Idaho. I didn’t take a shower perch but he had watched Bondi (a 3 year old of the same species) from a shower perch before.

He merely perched on my hand and I covered his face and head and let the water mist the rest of his body since he was getting pretty messy looking from all the hand feeding I have been doing! Sometimes with the hand feeding I would miss, or he would move and I would miss and get it all over his face. Also, baby birds can just be messy like that so it’s not a clean process!

Bandit wasn’t excited about the water but he wasn’t intentionally trying to lean out of it, either. Which made it easy to bathe him even though he wasn’t that responsive to it. I have since bathed him and he has been the same way. He just shuts his eyes and sits there - no fluffing up about it but no running to get away either. Since he is a type of cockatoo (also referred to as a galah) he produces quite a bit of dander so he needs his bathes often.

Just wanted to share the differences between how some birds percieve their first bath! Or few baths! In case your bird is the same way as Bandit.

Photo by Dave
Location: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands
Napping: Solid White Parakeet “Lexi”

When I am at home in Florida and my birds are living in either their outside aviary or indoor cages, they do not get cage covers. They go by the natural daylight and night time from outside. But when I am visiting my parents, they cover their cages as habit. It was something my mom learned from the internet and just did.

The bird cage at her home is placed in the center of their house where everything happens. It is also next to a window and any birds in it are birds of mine whom are fully flighted and more likely outdoor fliers. They don’t get phobic from seeing other birds fly outside and are more likely to be excited by it. When my mom or dad covers the cage, they use a thick blanket from my grandmother which only fits over it 3/4 of the way leaving part of the back of the cage (on the window) exposed to the natural light of day.

You can find cage covers anywhere for your bird, here are various sources I found; one, two, three, four, and more.

Parrots need a certain amount of sleep at night and if you go by how they sleep in the wild, you will know they start to prepare for sleep at dusk and wake up at first light. This is why I let my birds go by natural lighting. I figure they know best instead of relying on me to be home at a certain time every night and cover the cage and same for the morning.

Here is a great rescource on determining the amount of sleep your parrot needs: Birds and Sleep. I was always instructed that my toucan would need 12-14 hours of sleep every night, so she actually has a separate “night time cage” when we travel, which I have heard a lot of people do for their birds so they don’t have to be kept up by their owners. A night time cage is simply a smaller cage for sleeping in that is in a different location where it can be dark and uninterrupted for the bird.

I have always gone by 12-14 hours of sleep with my other parrots and if they seem to need less one day and already be up, so be it. I haven’t noticed any change in attitude or behavior by my own birds going by the natural light in Florida. And I always have night time cages ready if I feel one or more needs a bit more sleep.

My birds are also willing to take naps in the daytime (especially after a hot day of flight as the summers can be harsh). You have to be the judge of what your bird needs and receives because no one else knows your lifestyle better than you do.

Just to prove how different birds are and how much you have to recognize their specific needs, I will explain how each of the members of my flock sleeps at night:

3 Year Old Rose Breasted Cockatoo “Bondi” - She sleeps in her cage which is shared with 7 month old “Cressi” an African Grey. The cage is in our Florida room and goes off natural night and day with full spectrum lighting inside the cage for added daytime lighting. All windows are open to screens and if she needs to, she naps in the daytime.

7 Month Old Congo African Grey “Cressi” - Cressi sleeps in the same manner of Bondi, taking naps if she feels she needs them but otherwise going by natural light.

4 Year Old Swainson Toucan “Fiji” - Fiji seems to require more sleep than the rest of the flock and has her own “night time” cage which is located in an extra half bathroom in the house. She is moved into her night time cage and put in there for extra hours of sleep in the dark. She dislikes sleeping with any bit of light shining through (seems to take after me!)

2 Year Old Military Macaw “Cash” - Cash is very low maitenance and sleeps the same way as Cressi and Bondi though he doesn’t seem to need naps and is always up to something.

3.5 Month Old Rose Breasted Cockatoo “Bandit” - Bandit is our newest baby now (Cressi is no longer “the baby” of the flock!) and his cage is not in the Florida room yet. He isn’t old enough to join the others and fend for himself so he has his own cage within the house. His cage gets covered by a cage cover at night so he obtains enough sleep each night since we stay up later than he should.

And my parakeets sleep the same was as Cressi, Bondi and Cash.

So whether you choose to use a cage cover because you don’t have an outside aviary or Florida room for your birds to go by natural light, or if you choose to make sure your bird goes by light naturally, neither is wrong as long as your bird receives the sleep it needs. Cage covers aren’t wrong or right, some people’s lifestyles require them while others do not. And every bird is different in their own preferences.

Photo by Dave
Location: Moab, Utah
Filming: Blue Throated Macaw “Gleam”
Without the help of: Calico Macaw “Siren”

How lucky I am! This is what I do for a living, well, among other things I choose to do on the side but this is my primary passion (although it wasn’t always this way) and I love it to the fullest extent. Though, you know, that probably isn’t true because I haven’t even experienced it all and everytime I experience something new, I fall that much more in love with what I do (and a bit more confused, too!)

Those who know me know I do not claim to be all knowing… in the least! I have been bitten my fair share of times and I am sure they will continue to come. Bites come from intentions, discomfort and even accidents.

I learn constantly and am always going back into my posts every so often and adding things as they come into my head and into my line of vision.

My favorite times in bird training have been with flight training and trick training. I have found (so far) that birds that are flying outside have less of an interest in trick training (as well as less of a need) than birds that do not get that freedom.

Photo by Dave
Location: Reno, Nevada
My Little Helper: Swainson Toucan “Meaka”

Most people in social jobs say they enjoy meeting new people, well, I can happily say I enjoy meeting new birds! I really enjoy raising birds for other people and training them for other people and although it is hard to hand them back over to their real “parronts”, the time comes and you feel proud. You don’t ever “get used to it” because your experience with one bird is completely different than the one you will have with the same species of bird the next time.

The best times I have are traveling with my feathered friends to new places and exploring it along with them. I love experiencing something new with my birds; such as a new place, scenery, or even object. I have a great time “desensitizing” and socializing my birds. It is harder at first, but once they get used to change and start seeing new things as exciting and fun instead of intimidating and scary… it becomes so enjoyable and rewarding.

Two rules I strictly follow with my birds which I believe everyone should try to follow, too;

1. Socialize your bird like crazy. Introduce one new person a day (neighbors, family, friends, kids, spouses, fellow workers, bosses, anyone!) It will do wonders for your bird.

2. Introduce one new thing a day, such as an object. This works well for “desensitizing” your bird to new things so he takes on to new toys in his cage easier and doesn’t spook when someone sets down their homework or drops their pen near them. These can be normal, every day things such as draw strings from your sweater, a pen, your car keys, your husband’s watch, your wife’s lipstick, etc.

PS… this doesn’t mean give your bird the new object and let him “have at it”, just introduce it and make sure it becomes unthreatening to your bird and the job is done. You just don’t want your bird  to fear the new object, once that is accompished, you’re done!

Anyway, I hope those of you that do come across this blog enjoy it as much as I enjoy reliving my experiences while telling about them here!

The easiest treats to train with are sunflower seeds and spray millet. It’s easy to hand your bird a single seed for a job well done or give them a quick bite of a millet stick. Other treats such as peanuts are more time consuming to prepare since you have to break them into small pieces for your bird.

Sunflower seeds, millet and peanut pieces are the most commonly used foods for treats and rewards. But if your bird doesn’t like those, there are ways of finding what your bird does like!

Gather all the known treats that most parrot owners use such as peanuts, millet, sun flower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds, safflower seeds, and even banana chips make some parrots go crazy! Make sure you aren’t using something like cheese or any type of dairy product as a reward for your bird as they are much harder for the bird to digest. So gather all the nuts and seeds that parrots can eat and make a small dish of them all mixed together. Simply set the dish out for your bird to explore whether its outside his cage or inside and come back later to find out what he has eaten and what he hasn’t touched. This will give you a good idea of what your bird likes and what he dislikes.

I’ve never known a bird to not have a favorite treat - even people have favorite treats so make an effort to find our your bird’s preference so you two can work together to make things more fun and move onto some ambitious training sessions!

To learn what it means to target train your bird, go to my blog entitled Target Training and Clicker Conditioning. The training that happens from your bird already knowing targeting, can be flight training your bird using the target stick.

This training is very simple and happens pretty naturally for a flighted bird when just teaching them the behavior of targeting the stick at all.

You can then begin to back up and target your hand so they are encouraged to fly and land on your hand. Click, reward for a job well done.

Photo by Katherine B.
Location: Naples, Florida
Pictured: Two Female Blue Throated Macaws, 1.5 Months Old

I wanted to share the newest photo of the two blue throated macaw babies at a month and a half old of age. I think they look so beautiful and adorable! It’s really neat to see them grow up through images.