Two questions about parakeets

[PercyNYC]

Wow, you guys are feeding your birds gourmet food, amazing. As for jalapenos, I thought too spicy/hot food was no-no for birds.

We cook lentil and most of the stuff you listed in your ingredients all the time, it would be very cool to prepare a batch for the bird and put in one of his cups.

 

[MonicaMc]

Nah, birds love hot foods! They don't have very much saliva in their mouths and they have fewer taste buds than we do... so extreme flavors are occasionally well loved! Spicy, sugary, sour....


Birds that aren't on a varied diet can take a while to warm up to new foods. I really the mash personally, since it has a variety of textures and colors! Most birds take to it! Those that don't take to it on the first day usually start eating it on the second or third days!

Although if you only have a few birds, or even only one bird, it may just be easier to feed your bird whatever you are eating that day... just set aside some for the bird.

 

[PercyNYC]

Nah, birds love hot foods! They don't have very much saliva in their mouths and they have fewer taste buds than we do... so extreme flavors are occasionally well loved! Spicy, sugary, sour....


Birds that aren't on a varied diet can take a while to warm up to new foods. I really the mash personally, since it has a variety of textures and colors! Most birds take to it! Those that don't take to it on the first day usually start eating it on the second or third days!

Although if you only have a few birds, or even only one bird, it may just be easier to feed your bird whatever you are eating that day... just set aside some for the bird.

This is awesome.
Thanks for all the information, I am looking at these beautiful creatures in a whole different way now. So basically whatever we are eating, as long is it not too fatty/greasy, it should be OK. Except anything meat, right? Beef/Fish/Chicken/etc.. I guess they will love left over boiled white rice with some boiled carrots, and all that stuff. Just mash it and put it on her dish, if she doesn't like it she can still go to her other dish and eat the seeds, or do you actually completely replace so she is forced to try the "big bird" (human) food.

 

[MonicaMc]

LOL! Ya, birds can pretty much eat anything we eat! Although it does help to stick to healthier options....

i.e. no candy, no avocados, no chocolate, no caffeine, no soda, no alcohol, no garlic or onions..... feed brown rice or wild rice over white rice. You can feed white rice, but it's just better to feed the healthier alternatives.


You can feed cooked meat to your birds, some medium and large species even enjoy cooked chicken bones! Personally though, I don't feed meat or bones to my birds! I don't see that it's necessary to the diet and too much protein can be a bad thing. That's just me though.


Here's a photo of a CAG with a chicken bone.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5248/5273295206_bfebf55918_z.jpg




When I was first introducing fresh foods, I did remove all their dry food from the cage so they only had fresh food to eat. I later removed the fresh food and gave them their dry food. Now I can feed both and take out the fresh before it goes bad! And they'll still eat it!

 

[Terry57]

I did not remove their seed/pellet food when adding fresh foods and my birds ate the fresh stuff anyway and loved it. With some of them it took a little longer to get them to try it, but eventually they all eat it and enjoy it This goes for my finch size birds all the way up to my zons

 

[PercyNYC]

Thanks Monica, That picture is awesome, must be in a hall of fame somewhere, I have never heard nor seen any type of bird to eat human food (besides the usual green-leaves, carrots, cukes and certain fruits) I am amazed at how much misinformation (or lack of information) when it comes to bird food/feed. The most human-like food we used to feed my 'keets were boiled egg yolks, is that still an option?

This goes for my finch size birds all the way up to my zons

Terry, I am glad you added that last piece above, I was wondering if you all started talking about larger birds like conure and such.

When you all put this type of home-cooked meal in their trays, how long do you keep there before removing them (either after bird does not eat any or after eats some of it an leaves most of it) I believe they will be a lot of trials until we figure out if she eats any at all, or once she makes it obvious what type of meals she actually likes. I am just worried about spoilage, or do you go by "would you eat it?" For example certain cooked foods can stay out for a while, even can be stored out, so will those be OK?

Here she is.
I thought about starting its own thread but I have nothing else to share so I wanted to post the picture here for all friends (everyone who cared enough to reply here) who helped me learn a lot in just few days about birds.



Meet Percy:

 

[veimar]

LOL, I just got two light blue/gray/white untamed baby budgies and they bite like crazy, little monsters! I clipped them yesterday, and now they are MUCH better - they didn't bite me even once today and perched on my fingers! I don't think it depends on color, but just a coincidence. But I really laughed when I read your post.

 

[PercyNYC]

Delfin, thanks for the info. As I said I am not planning to let my little one join the circus or be on "got talent", so normal tricks like flying to me on cue or just simple tricks like rolling over and just a few words would suffice, and I understand even these simple tricks are no easy feat.


veimar, I wouldn't even consider trimming their nails or little feathers, forget about clipping their wings. Luckily mine came clipped so i plan on playing with her after she gets used to her new home, giving her about 2 days to adjust.

Delfin, I told my wife just try to interact a little since she was worried Percy wasn't eating, i told her not to worry just chat with her a little and if you really need to you can just bring some food closer to her see if she takes any. Wife told me she dunked her finger in water and then in the seed tray to see if she can feed the bird that way, something she used to do a lot in the past, she said bird got scared and jumped down, and climbed back up again. I told her to just take it easy for now. I don't want to freak the bird out. Do you have any suggestions to take advantage of the first few days calm period? Or important things we should avoid? For example I left a small light on in the living room I heard birds may not actually enjoy complete darkness when they are getting used to new surroundings.

 

[MonicaMc]

Thanks Monica, That picture is awesome, must be in a hall of fame somewhere, I have never heard nor seen any type of bird to eat human food (besides the usual green-leaves, carrots, cukes and certain fruits) I am amazed at how much misinformation (or lack of information) when it comes to bird food/feed. The most human-like food we used to feed my 'keets were boiled egg yolks, is that still an option?

When you all put this type of home-cooked meal in their trays, how long do you keep there before removing them (either after bird does not eat any or after eats some of it an leaves most of it) I believe they will be a lot of trials until we figure out if she eats any at all, or once she makes it obvious what type of meals she actually likes. I am just worried about spoilage, or do you go by "would you eat it?" For example certain cooked foods can stay out for a while, even can be stored out, so will those be OK?

Here she is.
I thought about starting its own thread but I have nothing else to share so I wanted to post the picture here for all friends (everyone who cared enough to reply here) who helped me learn a lot in just few days about birds.



Meet Percy:

Percy is a pretty male budgie!

Yes, eggs are fine! I don't feed meat, but I do feed cooked eggs!

Cooked foods shouldn't be left in the cage for more than a couple of hours, and if it's not hot, maybe four hours. Fresh foods that haven't been cooked may be ok being left in the cage for longer periods of time - such as carrots. It's not a good idea though to leave fresh or cooked foods in the cage overnight.

I read with interest that a comment was made that 'bird tricks' recommends that you starve you're bird to train it. After reading their training diet it seems that it is a micro-micro-management type system. a lot of weighting and measuring and it only for short time frames. where has Barbara Heidenreich has a more relaxed system. That doesn't mean one system is bad or good. it's up to people to choose what works for them and their birds. I know that a training diet/food management helps in training your bird and it up to the individual how. If you're into the scientific methods then 'bird tricks' would probably suit you. But if you're more relaxed, then Barbara Heidenreich methods would. There is one thing in common and that is food is a great motivator.

Delfin, here's an article written by Sid Price about what Jamieleigh Womach did. After Jamieleigh used weight management (dropped a budgies weight by 35% in a week - vets say to take your bird in if there is a 10% drop in weight!), one of the birds got sick and died. Jamieleigh is married to David Womach. It was Chet Womach who taught them to train birds without getting any training himself. What training Chet did get from professionals, he turned around and marketed the techniques as his own, even going as far as making up new terms to describe certain behaviors.

The Misuse of Weight Management « Bird Training Blog


Michael Sazhin, of The Parrot Wizard, also recommends weight management - of up to 20% and possibly keeps one of his birds underweight.




Birds should not be starved in order to train them. They also use weight management incorrectly, because when used appropriately, the birds are not starving, and once trained, the birds weigh more than their "ad-lib" weight (aka free-fed weight), not less.




Barbara Heidenreich and Lara Joseph do not reduce the amount of food that their birds eat, they merely change the way in which the birds eat through training and foraging.

That's quite a difference to the other trainers who are reducing their birds food intake to lower the bird's weight to create food motivation, and causing undue stress to their birds.

 

[MonicaMc]

Delfin, I hear Bird Tricks new material is better than their old. I don't know if it is or not as I haven't seen it. Bird Tricks are sales people and this is proven by their sales techniques and using a Product Launch Formula to buy an engagement ring.

Sid Price (Avian Ambassadors), Barbara Heidenreich (Good Bird Inc), Chris Biro (Liberty Wings) and Linda Rasmussen (Likambo / Carly Lu's Flight Blog) have all written posts against Bird Tricks. Barbara Heidenreich is the only one who hasn't named them.

And here's one page where Jen (someone I've known for years) had Sid Price expand on one of his posts. (includes interesting comments at the end)

Don?t Fall for Deceptive Bird Training Tricks ? Guest Post by Sid Price of Avian Ambassadors | Best in Flock - Parrot Blog



These trainers are not criticizing their own techniques.... they are criticizing BT for taking terms, renaming them and marketing them off as "training secrets" - when in fact they are not "secrets".

Target Training -> Touch Training
Time Out -> Power Pause



As far as the blogs that were referenced... well, they were deleted. If you were to read through the blog, you can easily see that information is missing.



I do like that you quoted my own post, though! (about Jamie Leigh's blog)




I'll send you a PM so this topic can go to being back on topic, instead of being off topic.

 

[PercyNYC]

I am so happy I wanted to share this with you guys.

Day 4, I was able to get Percy to eat spray millet in my palm. I tried 3 times today, 1st time he did not attempt to perch on my palm at all, 2nd time he attempted and fell down and got discouraged. I took about 3 hour break and came back, stuck my palm in with a piece of spray millet in center, he knew what to do and I kept my palm closer to him and this time he was able to board my palm carefully he sat there and let him have it for a few minute then slowly put him back and moved away.

I haven't had a chance to buy a clicker but I just want him to be comfortable with my hand first, then I will try clicker, but I am not sure if I should be feeding him more millet while getting him used to my palm.

He just discovered the cuttle bone that was there since day one, and he is going at it now. Also I feel he might be warm, is it too early to spray him with some water? I have open water cups he can actually dunk his head in, but I don't think he knows that yet.

 

[MonicaMc]

Sounds like you are making good progress! I hope he's maintaining his weight, too!

Right now, you can train without the clicker, and if you want, introduce it in later on!


Keep it up!

 

[PercyNYC]

Sounds like you are making good progress! I hope he's maintaining his weight, too!

Right now, you can train without the clicker, and if you want, introduce it in later on!

Keep it up!

Thanks Monica. I am not sure how to weigh him, but he seems to be similar, are you worried about losing or gaining weight?

I am really excited about this, so I hope you guys excuse my excitement and over-sharing, if any I got home today (I left the radio on for Percy all day, I was out for about 8 hours and left the local light radio station for him to enjoy) I dropped my bags and sat next to him a little, checking my mail, and then went to millet bag, cut a little piece put it in my palm holding with my thumb, and with very little hesitation at first he jumped on my palm and had a good amount of it. To avoid spoiling him I just cut about 1 inch piece.

I think I need to buy some toys for him next. I think he is trying to get out, I saw him gnawing on the door latches. Fast one, he is!



I think I will start a new thread for any new discussion, I don't want to drag you all back to this thread every time I have something to share! Maybe a new diary of percy thread in order?

 

[MonicaMc]

It's fine by me wherever you post!

Mostly I'm concerned about him maintaining weight. You can train him to stand on a kitchen/gram/postal scale the same as teaching him to sit on your hand! A shiny scale might be a bit scary, so it may help to cover it in paper towels or something else to give him grip, put some treats on top, zero the scale out and allow Percy to make his way over to the scale.



Bet he'd enjoy some toys to chew up or toys that made noise!

 

[PercyNYC]

He is already chewing on his ladder and edges of her perches (plastic) as well as the metal holder of his cuddle bone. So yeah, toys are on the way.

Here is our first near-outside-cage experience. He was really curious and wanted to get out the but I put him back in because I really didn't want to chase him and grab him if he wandered or panicked. Still working on hopping on my finger, sometimes he freaks sometimes he hops on. Until that is perfected, no outside just yet.
He knows now "finger/hand in the cage = millet!"

 

[MonicaMc]

Great progress! The more comfortable he gets with you and his environment, the less likely he is to freak out! If he does freak out, it would be best to try and allow him to calm down (as long as he's not hurting himself) before going over to him. If you chase him (and you don't *need* to), then you could undo the work you've been doing.

 

[PercyNYC]

Great progress! The more comfortable he gets with you and his environment, the less likely he is to freak out! If he does freak out, it would be best to try and allow him to calm down (as long as he's not hurting himself) before going over to him. If you chase him (and you don't *need* to), then you could undo the work you've been doing.

I chased him today on the floor, I kind of had a feeling he knew we were playing, the moment I stopped chasing him (I was crawling throughout) he went about 10 feet away and then he slowly came back to me and hopped on my finger when he saw the millet piece I was holding. I was also able to keep him on my finger longer.

It was 85*F inside my apartment today, even with windows open. I picked up sprayer and sprayed him, did not even flinch one bit, I think he didn't realize where that mist was coming from. I guess he needed that.

 

[PercyNYC]

A year later, Percy says hello. I attached his most recent pics.

He has about 25 words in his vocabulary but he could have done a lot more but I just didn't have time to train him for new words, I've been just letting him enjoy his treats. He is very fluent in all words he says, and time to time he switches them around, instead of "Who is a good bird", he will go Who is a good Percy.


He has a plastic ball in his cage, he loves that ball so much, instead of going to sleep in his swing, he goes down to the grill and sleeps next to his ball, this is really breaking my heart, I was thinking of getting him a partner but I am afraid he would be too territorial at this moment. He spends at least 1 hour with us almost every night, if not 5 out of 7 nights, and he goes nuts if we don't let him out whenever we are snacking, he actually rushes to us when we smack our lips as if we are eating something. At first I thought he was starving or something but his cups were sufficiently full.

He loves my bald head, almost like all parakeets seem to love, and he loves it when I scratch sides of his head.

We love Percy.

 

[Allee]

Yayyyy Percy! What an adorable budgie, I love his colors. It's hard to find something cuter than a talking budgie. His language skills are pretty advanced, changing the order of words in his phrases, very impressive. Thanks for the sweet update.

 

[RavensGryf]

Percy is adorable! I'd love to hear a budgie talk. I've never heard one in person, just in video.
So cute that he sleeps next to his ball. Unless a budgie is bonded to a human, I'd recommend a friend in a separate cage, but I think Percy will be fine a a spoiled only bird .