Parrot Education & Adoption Center

Common Sources of Household Lead

Carrier Birds

What's In a Name?

What's the Matter with Oliver?

Are You Preparing Your Bird for the Future?

Can Birds Catch Colds from Humans?

Parrots As Pets: A Brief History

Who Needs the "Up" Command?

What's An Expert?

Zinc

People Who Love Their Birds Too Much

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• Lead weights - both curtain weights as well as fishing weights
• Weighted bird toys - Plastic penguins, leaded bell clappers, etc.
• Leaded paints - including cage and household paints
• Backs of some mirrors
• Solder
• Some forms of putty or plaster
• Some types of linoleum
• Stained glass, including tiffany lamps, window, and ornaments
• Leaded foil from champagne and wine bottles
• Costume jewelry
• Some ceramic glazes
• Galvanized wire and some welds from wrought iron cages
• Hardware cloth
• Batteries

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Several years ago, before importation was stopped, wild caught conures were considered to be carriers of disease, particularly Pacheco's. But just what is a carrier and how does a bird get to be one?

Over a period of months and years a bird may have been exposed to a constant low-level dose of disease-causing germs which stimulated the bird's immune system to produce antibodies that probably destroyed most of the foreign invaders. The carrier state allows some of these germs to escape destruction and live in the bird's body in numbers too low to cause full-blown illness. When the bird becomes stressed, its immune system becomes less efficient and antibody production drops, permitting the germs to multiply unhindered. In this way, the bird may come down with disease after having appeared healthy for years.

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If you're anything like me, you enjoy reading about what interests you. Well, those new to the world of aviculture can sometimes find confusing information about this field especially when it comes to identifying the birds. Depending on what part of the world you're from, you may call a bird one thing and someone from Europe may call the same bird an entirely different name. To add to this confusion, some birds look very similar and only subtle differences distinguish, say a half-moon conure from a peach-fronted conure. I've compiled a list of birds that have two or more names and one of birds that look alike but really are different species.

Birds that have two or more names:

Cockatoos

• Galah or Rosebreasted
• Major Mitchell's or Leadbeater's
• Salmon-crested or Moluccan
• White or Umbrella
• Little Corella or Bare-eyed

• Blue and Yellow, or Blue and Gold
• Caninde or Blue Throated
• Chestnut-fronted or Severe
• Greenwing or red and green

• Golden or Queen of Bavaria
• Orange-fronted or Half-Moon or Petz's

• White-fronted or Spectacled
• Green-cheeked or Mexican Red Head or Red Headed
• Red-lored or Yellow cheeked

Cockatoos

• Yellow faced and White tailed
• Citron crested and Lesser sulfur-crested
• Greater sulfur-crested and Blue-eyed
• Goffin's, Little Corella (Bare-eyed) and Long-billed Corella

• Congo Grey and Timneh Grey
• Meyer's, Brown-headed and Senegals
• Redbellied and Ruppell's

• Hyacinth and Lears
• Buffons and Military
• Caninde (Blue-throated) and Blue & Yellow (Blue & Gold)
• Scarlet and Greenwing

• Mitred and Cherry-headed
• Jenday and Sun
• Orange-front (Half-moon) and Peach-fronted

• Orange-chinned, grey-cheeked and canary wing

• Lilac-crowned and Green-cheeked (Mexican Redhead)
• Blue-fronted, Double Yellowhead and Orange-wing
• Yellow-naped and Yellow-crowned

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Oliver is a 5 year old male (macho!) Umbrella Cockatoo that has been with PEAC since May of 1996.

Oliver is currently working on his 4th home. His early life in his first two homes is somewhat of a mystery. We can only guess from his behavior (or lack of it) what went on there. He spent 3 months in his last home in the company of two teenage boys and their mother. He was allowed to come and go as he pleased and followed one of the boys around "like a little puppy dog." The oldest boy, he attacked with a vengeance. Unfortunately, this boy also teased him unmercifully, as I witnessed when I went to pick him up. Due to the fact that he was forced to defend himself, he was donated to PEAC.

He was in my home for approximately one week. During that week he screamed non-stop. At first my only reaction was one of amazement that any creature God put on this earth could occupy so much of his time verbally. I swore that he would eventually get laryngitis. He didn't and his screaming rapidly became like nails on a chalkboard.

Fortunately, Jean Peters has the patience of a saint, and she offered to take Oliver to work with him.

Oliver started out on a somewhat even keel when he first went to live with Jean. Her main problem was getting him to go to bed at night. He would scream for about an hour after he was covered, so Jean would sit and hold his foot until he fell asleep.

Not only is Oliver loud but he is unpredictable. He can change from a sweet, loving, cuddly bird to a chainsaw with wings in a moment's notice. Oliver is also a feather-picker. Fortunately, this is the least of his behavior problems because it's usually the hardest one to solve.

Jean and I have brainstormed and tried every trick in the book to get Oliver to behave. Jean calls him "willful"; I call him frightening. Not knowing what his early life was like, we can only assume that he was brought up like most cockatoos who are owned by people that have no idea what they are getting into (and don't care to learn). Baby cockatoos are so cuddly and loving that they are very easy to spoil and usually are to the point of being totally dependent on humans. After a while, the humans either can't continue to devote as much time to the bird as they had in the beginning, or they don't care to. This is when the problem behavior usually starts. The bird begins to scream for attention or starts picking its feathers. When attention is not forthcoming, the bird can become confused and may start to become aggressive due to its confusion.

Jean and I finally decided that Oliver was beyond our expertise and decided to call in the big guns. A phone consultation with Sally Blanchard was what we needed to help us understand Oliver's behavior. Sally informed Jean that there is an exception to every rule and Oliver was definitely the exception. Unfortunately, it is too late for Oliver to be trained to respond to nurturing guidance. He is in charge of his life and considers himself the most dominant in his household and always will. He will not respond to the "UP" command and sees it as a challenge to his dominance. The trick to helping Oliver behave is to manipulate him to do the things he doesn't want to do.

Just knowing this has helped Jean tremendously in working with Oliver. We couldn't figure out why all our efforts seemed to fail. Now we understand. Thanks, Sally! Where would we be without you?

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Under the right conditions, i.e., good nutrition, good lighting, lots of entertaining activities and lots of love, parrots are very long-lived creatures. Let's face it, unless you got your bird when you were a small child, it will probably outlive you. Are you preparing your bird now to live in someone else's home?

As most of you know, PEAC takes in several birds monthly that have come from "dysfunctional" home environments. Some of these birds adapt readily to life in a strange home. Most do not. Not only are they depressed, but most are extremely unhappy when they find out that what worked for them in their dysfunctional home isn't gonna cut it anymore.

One bird in particular prompted this article. He lived with someone for 14 years. In his 15th year of life, he was sold to a family with small children. Because he wasn't properly prepared to live in a strange home, he ended up biting one of the children and eventually was turned over to PEAC. This bird was obviously allowed to have the run of his house for the first 14 years. He was extremely territorial around his cage and would only come out on his own. Any hand placed in or near the cage while he was in it was promptly bitten.

His first owner wrote 12 pages of instructions on his likes and dislikes. Her instructions are almost impossible to duplicate. Her lifestyle was such that it was conducive to his "needs." Most people could not provide for him in the manner he was accustomed to. Therefore, he became a biting, screaming maniac.

At this point we should discuss the difference between being predictable and being consistency. I recently had a conversation on this topic which caused me to consider the difference. With pet birds, actually any pet for that matter, you DO NOT want to become predictable, however, you MUST be consistent.

You are predictable when you get up at exactly 5:30 each and every morning to feed your bird. You are consistent when you get up around 5:30 each and every morning to feed your bird. You are predictable when you get up at exactly 5:30 each and every morning, feed your bird, then take him out and place him on his perch at exactly 6:00. You are consistent when you get up around 5:30 each morning, feed your bird then place him on his perch between 6:00 and 6:30. You are predictable when you walk in the door from work and immediately take your bird out of his cage and place him on his perch. You are consistent when you walk in the door from work, greet your bird verbally, go about your business, then take him out and place him on his perch. One more example...You are predictable when you place your hand in your bird's cage, say UP, the bird gets on your hand, you say DOWN, and he is placed in the exact same place at the exact same time each day. You are consistent when you place your hand in the cage, say UP, the bird gets on your hand, and you take a walk with him, or put him in the kitchen while you fix his food for tomorrow or some other such activity. You are consistent; not predictable when you say UP each and every time you pick your bird up and DOWN each and every time that you put your bird down. Enough. I think you get the idea.

Can you see how being predictable is probably not a good way to prepare your bird for the future in a different home? For some of us (me included), it's easier to be predictable. If you do the same thing at the same time each day, you won't forget to do it. Predictability simplifies life. I used to be the most predictable person I knew. When I worked, my fellow workers teased me because you could set your watch by my actions. When I fell in love with African Greys, it took me years before I actually acquired one. I just knew that I was the type of owner who would create a feather-picking maniac. And, you know what? I probably was. But I so badly wanted a grey that didn't feather pick that I decided to change. So, I became less and less predictable until today, you can no longer set your watch by me. I actually find I can accomplish much more with my day without the strict time lines to follow. And my 5-year-old, Moe has never even considered picking a feather.

To put it in a nutshell, what I'm trying to say is, it's not wise to structure your day around your bird. Sure, you always need to attend to his needs, which include time out of his cage with his human(s). Just don't do it according to a strict time schedule. Birds need consistency, not predictability. Prepare him for the time when you're no longer around and he has to cope with life with another human. If you do this now, his transition to another home will be oh so much easier.

It is a good breeder's responsibility to properly socialize baby parrots in order to prepare them for life in our homes. It is a parent's responsibility to prepare human children for life as adults. And it is our responsibility to prepare our parrots for life without us.

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Birds do not get what we refer to as a simple cold. Any signs that are similar to our colds are symptoms of a more serious problem and are termed Upper Respiratory Infection or Upper Respiratory Disease.

Since the respiratory apparatus of birds is complex and vastly different from mammals respiratory systems, signs and symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, nasal discharge, abnormal breathing, tail bobbing, swollen or runny eyes or a voice change should be checked out by your avian vet as soon as possible.

Fortunately, most viruses are species specific meaning that human viruses usually only affect primates. Human chlamydial infections cannot be transmitted to our birds. Unfortunately the reverse is not true. Psittacosis in birds, a type of chlamydial infection, is contagious to humans.

When you're ill, to be on the safe side, be extra careful around your birds.

Sources:
  Ewing, Dean E., D.V.M. "Bird Notes"
  Wissman, Margaret A., D.V.M. "Causes and Cures." Bird Talk, January 1997.

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Parrots have been part of human domestic life for at least 2,500 years. A pet plum-headed parakeet was described in an account that survives from 401 BC. Parrots were introduced to Europe by Alexander the Great, and a description of parrots by the Greek philosopher Aristotle was probably based on these. Talking birds were considered a mark of status by the Romans.

Parrots have long been associated with seafaring men, and voyages to Asia and the Americas during the 15th and 16th centuries led to the introduction of a variety of species of parrots in Europe. The trade in parrots developed a momentum at that time that has never ceased.

In a volume dating back to the early nineteenth century titled Natural History of Africa, a passage notes the arrival in Europe of the Alexandrine Parrot and describes how these highly valued birds were kept in cages made of silver, ivory and tortoise-shell. The price of the parrot often exceeded that of a slave.

Christopher Columbus noted that West Indies natives raised macaws for food in addition to keeping them for pets. A pair of Cuban Amazons accompanied him on his return trip to Spain and was given to Queen Isabella.

A 19th century explorer, Alexander von Humboldt, came upon an old parrot who had lived among the extinct tribe of Atures. The parrot still spoke phrases in Ature and thus was apparently the last living being to speak the language.

King George V, grandfather of Queen Elizabeth II, had what was probably a Rose-Breasted Cockatoo named Charlotte. She traveled with him and had a perch next to his desk in his office where he did his paper work.

The Victorians loved their parrots. Coco, an African Grey resident of the royal household was taught to greet Queen Victoria with "God save the Queen." The Duchess of Lennox also had an African Grey who is interred with an effigy of his mistress next to her tomb in Westminster Abbey. The bird survived his mistress by only a few days when she died in 1702. They had been together for over forty years.

Another royal African Grey lived with the sixteenth century king, Henry VIII. The bird was reputed to have a temper that matched his owner's.

Eli, a Hyacinth Macaw was the pet of Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Two Scarlet Macaws and a Blue and Gold Macaw once lived in the Pan American Union Building in Washington, D.C. President Eisenhower's niece named the birds Paz, Chapina and Pancho Villa. Young Caroline Kennedy would frequently visit the birds after hours when the employees had gone home.

As you can see, parrots have enriched the lives of millions of people, famous and not so famous for a very long time. It is surprising that only recently has there been studies into nutrition and behavior problems.

We owe them so much. They didn't ask to be taken from their trees and jungles to live in cages in our living rooms. We made that decision for them. The very least we can do is to learn to care for them properly.

Bibliography:
  Freud, Arthur. All About Parrots,1980; The Complete Parrot, 1995.
  Temple, Philip. The Book of The Kea, 1996

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We recently "lost" our blue-crowned conure, Elmo, in the canyon next to our home. His wings ARE clipped, but conures are very aerodynamic and something startled him and he took off.

After a day and half of having him call to us and not being able to find him in the heavy brush, we decided to blaze a trail. On the hottest day of the year so far, two of my friends and I went into the canyon with hedge clippers and followed his calls. We finally found him (in a clearing no less), but he was frightened and disoriented and would not come to us. He was so frightened that he was able to fly back to a tree in our yard. (He couldn't have done this on his own?!) He lodged himself on one of the highest branches and refused to budge.

Fortunately, Elmo is trained to the "UP" command. So, I just stood there with my arm as far outstretched as possible and said "Up." Elmo immediately started down the tree and ended up on my outstretched hand.

I don't think we would have recovered him without the use of "Up."

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Merriam-Webster defines expert as "one with the special skill or knowledge representing mastery of a particular subject." (Italics, mine.)

That's all well and good, but who do we consider experts to be? Is an expert someone who is published? Is he or she someone we seek advice from because they work in the field?

Just because someone is published, whether in a magazine OR through writing their own book does NOT make them an expert. I'm not sure (not being an expert in the field) just how people go about being published. I assume they make themselves known in the community of the field they're interested in and after a while, if they haven't made too many mistakes, they start writing articles. I think it may be that since they're "known," they become published just on their name alone. The content of their articles sometimes doesn't make a bit of difference.

Is someone an expert because they work in the field? It depends. Someone may have worked in the field for years without really mastering it. I know myself, I worked in an Investment Department for 8 years and I still really don't understand how the stock market works. People were constantly asking me for stock tips because I worked in that field. I couldn't advise them and didn't pretend to be able to.

So...what is all this leading up to, you ask? Recently, PEAC very reluctantly started to use the Internet as a form of advertising. I have been very hesitant to use this vehicle simply because ANYONE can be an expert on the Internet. And there are a lot of people out there that truly believe that just because someone takes the time to answer their question, they must know what they're talking about. So how do we weed these people out?

Before we answer that question, let me just say I DO NOT CONSIDER MYSELF AN EXPERT!!! PEAC's monthly seminars, which I teach, are researched extensively through material written by what I consider to be experts in the field. The only thing you will be getting out of our seminars (besides a good time) is the benefit of my research and some anecdotal information on the mistakes and successes that we've had throughout the years.

There is an extremely popular book that has been around for several years on teaching your parrot to behave. Several people have told me that they use this book as their "bible" for behavior problems. As a parrot owner novice, I too, consulted this book extensively. Since I didn't know anything at the time about caring for birds, I believed that the advice in the book was accurate. My brand new baby parrot was starting to go through what I now know is a "teething" stage. Baby parrots like to explore things with their mouths, and if you don't understand this, you may think they are going to start biting. The advice in this book for biting is to throw or drop the bird to the floor when it bites you. So, being the good parrot owner that I thought I was, I dropped the bird to the floor and ended up with a semi-conscious bird. That was the last time I ever dropped any bird to any floor for any reason. Fortunately, this action did not have the detrimental effect on my relationship with my bird that it should have.

So how do we find experts? Are they the authors in the bird magazines? Not usually. A few weeks ago, I received an email message about a pet carrier made of wood and galvanized steel. A woman bought it because it was profiled in an article in one of the major bird magazines. The woman's conure allegedly suffered zinc poisoning from extensive use of the carrier. All other areas of her home were checked for other toxicities and came up zero. This woman then learned that the magazine does not actually submit toys, carriers, cages, etc. to independent review. It only uses manufacturer's information to prepare the articles. The most frightening aspect of this story is the fact that most people in the country use this magazine as their number one source of information on bird care.

If you have a medical problem with your bird, where do you turn? A lot of people turn to pet stores. They sell birds; they must know what they're talking about. Right? WRONG! Most bird stores (especially the chains) hire people off the streets who are not required to have knowledge of the animals they are selling. They're trained on the job by employees just like them who also applied for the job and may or may not have any knowledge of the animals and were trained by previous employees who were hired... Well, you get the idea.

There is now something called Certified Avian Specialist. A person wishing to become a Certified Avian Specialist is required to take an open book test and a four-hour course and another open book test. I am a Certified Avian Specialist. Does this mean that I know everything there is to know about Aviculture? Of course not! I'm constantly learning. Do not EVER let this certification fool you. Just about anyone who applies to become certified, will become certified. The courses are geared to the retail industry. And while the designation doesn't mean a hill of beans, it's at least better than the employee getting his training from another employee who got their training from a previous employee and so on and so forth.

So whom DO you seek medical advice from? The correct answer is "My Avian Vet." They can usually be considered experts in their field. Notice we said AVIAN vet. So, what qualifies a veterinarian to be an avian vet? Twenty-five percent or more of an avian vet's practice should consist of clients with birds. An avian vet should also be a member of AAV (Association of Avian Veterinarians) and attend their conferences to keep abreast of the latest developments in the world of avian medicine. Don't assume that because a vet sees a few birds every once in a while or is listed in the yellow pages as a bird vet, that they are experienced avian vets.

Who do you consult if you have a behavior problem with your bird? The correct answer is "An Avian Behavior Consultant." The answer is not, "My Avian Vet." While your first step in working with behavior problems SHOULD be to consult your avian vet, if the problem is found to be of a psychological cause and not a physical cause, your avian vet should then turn you over to a competent behaviorist. Avian vets may be very knowledgeable about birds in general; however, they may not be able to give you good behavior advice. Their expertise is medicine. Another incorrect answer is "My pet store." Your pet store can be one of the worst places to seek advice for behavior problems. Beware of any advice that could be financially motivated.

Chris Davis once defined an avian behavior consultant as one with knowledge of "birds and human companions in domestic environments." The operative words here are "domestic environments". Pet stores are not "domestic environments", therefore, not good places to seek behavior information. Besides that, remember the employee teaching the employee teaching the employee...? Your vet may have birds of his or her own, but that makes them as much of an expert in avian behavior as it makes you.

Should you consult a bird trainer for help with behavior problems? I wouldn't! Bird trainers teach birds tricks. They can be knowledgeable about certain aspects of keeping pet birds and can be very helpful with trick training, but behavior information? I wouldn't trust it.

So how do you know an "expert" in avian behavior when you see one? My feeling is that an "expert" is someone who you feel you can believe 99.9% of the time (after all nobody's perfect) and who's methods work for you and make sense. If you consult an avian behavior consultant and something he or she tells you doesn't feel right, don't follow their advice. Layne Dicker says that an "expert" in avian behavior should "base their advice on strong understanding of wild bird behavior, companion bird behavior, experience and logic." If you ask they why they suggest something and their answer is "Because I said so," run for the hills.

A quick fix is usually what you'll get if your behavior consultant is a pet store. Quick fixes do not work. They only treat symptoms, and you want to cure the disease. And some of them are just downright detrimental to your relationship with your bird. Behavior problems do not develop overnight. I know it may seem that way, but believe me, they were worked up to. Parrots are very long-lived creatures. It took time to develop the problem; it will take time to correct it properly.

There's a lot of advice floating around out there. Some of it's good, a lot of it's bad. You can't believe everything you read. Hell, you usually can't believe 90% of it. So don't get fooled. Go with your best instincts. If it doesn't feel right, don't do it.

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Zinc is extremely toxic to birds. Sources include galvanized cage wire, quick links, clips or staples, zippers, keys, nails, plumbing nuts, nuts on older animal transport cages, hardware cloth, padlocks, some antirust paints, shampoos and skin preparations.

Padlocks are frequently used on birdcages. Other types of locking devices should be considered on cages of large birds who may attempt to chew on the padlock. Chrome-plated cages should not be used for larger birds.

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Recently, we've been barraged with a flood of people who love their birds TOO much. How, you ask, can you possibly love your bird too much? Some people love their parrots so much that they become incapable of making safe, intelligent choices for them. Read on.

The Owner of the Untrimmed Wings

"I would never clip my bird's wings. These creatures were meant to fly and I don't want to take that privilege away from them."

The response to this argument was best put by Layne Dicker when he said, "Yes, but we put them in a cage and in a house thousands of miles from their natural habitat. So why are these transgressions acceptable and clipping is not?"

Layne explains, "The truth is that clipping a captive bird better emulates the basic social structure of wild birds. In the wild birds have rules and limits and are always aware of their place in the flock. It is virtually impossible to maintain this dynamic in captivity with a flighted bird. Also, non dominant birds in the wild depend on the flock for decision making, all birds depend on the flock for protection and young birds are taught what is safe and what is dangerous. We don't do this or can't do it with flighted birds. A flighted bird is too autonomous and will either become dominant/aggressive or may become phobic as his independence makes him feel unprotected by you."

"Making a bird's captive existence as close to 'natural' as possible is a laudable goal, but from a psychological perspective it is best to put content over form."

Not to mention the fact that a great deal of the people who are against wing clipping end up losing their birds to the great outdoors.

If you honestly love your bird, you'll not endanger their daily existence by allowing them flight.

The Wimpy "UP" Command Owner

People who love their birds too much tend to either not give a command when they pick their bird up, or give a wimpy one at best.

My husband, Bill, is a prime example of this. He has a poicephalus who worships the ground he walks on. Bill is so flattered by this adoration, that he doesn't want to "mess" up the relationship by possibly scaring the birds with a command. So, when he picks the bird up he says, "UUUUp? UUUUp? Come on, UUUUp? Why won't you get up? I'm in a hurry and I'm running out of time. UP!" At which point, the bird gets onto his hand. Unfortunately, it takes Bill getting angry to get the right inflection in his voice so the bird understands that he is being told to get on Bill's hand, not asked.

UP is a command. It is not a question; it is not a request. You don't ask the bird to get up; you don't give the bird a choice in the matter. UP is a command. And as a command, it establishes your role as leader of the flock.

At a recent PEAC seminar, Kathy Johns explained that in the wild each member of the flock is very well aware of their place or status in the flock. This makes it easy for the flock to stay together. So, don't be afraid to use the UP command with your bird because this establishes YOU as flock leader which decreases your bird's stress level. If you are not the established leader of the flock, your bird will be forced to vie daily for its position, which increases his stress level.

Three Case Studies

1. Ariel The Much-Too-Loved 'Too

Ariel, my Moluccan cockatoo is a self-mutilator. I don't profess to know the dynamics that make most birds mutilate or even feather pick, but I have a real good idea what caused Ariel's problem.

"You'd never know you had birds here. All your furniture is still in tact, and your base boards are still whole," said Ariel's previous owners as they brought her to my house to be placed in our adoption program. Apparently, Ariel had her own room, and her cage door was opened in the morning when her owners awoke and closed at night when Ariel decided it was bedtime. She had complete free roam of the house and was allowed to come and go as she pleased. Her owners purchased her as a weaned baby and became so enamored of her that they just couldn't bear to keep her caged during the day.

She had been in her previous home 8 years when her owner became disabled and lost his job. The couple was also going through severe marital problems at this time, so there was a great deal of stress in the house. To top it all off, Ariel, their much beloved baby bird, starting ripping out huge chunks of flesh from her chest.

Poor Ariel was too stressed out to handle all that was going on in her house and just didn't know how to take it, so she started mutilating herself. I honestly do believe that if she had been prepared for the problems taking place by being taught rules and guidelines from the beginning, she may not have been forced to mutilate herself.

When she came to my home, she didn't know how to play with toys and she was extremely depressed for about her first six months with us. She finally started doing her cockatoo song and dance after a while and that's when I knew she was on her way to recovery.

Not only does she not mutilate any more, but also for the past year or so, she has feathers in places that were previously naked. She is an excellent example of what happens when people love their birds too much.

2. The Umbrella Cockatoo Electrician

One day my phone rang and a woman at the other end said, "My bird has a behavior problem and I'd like you to do a home visit to see what we can do about it. When we're gone during the day, he chews all the electric cords in the house."

I thought, Oh boy, this is an easy one. I won't even have to get in my car, use my gas and take up precious time. We can solve this over the phone. After explaining how dangerous it is for her bird to be chewing electrical cords, I said, "Keep him in his cage when you're gone during the day." "I can't," she says, "he knows how to open it." "Buy a lock," says I. To which she replied "And recently he's been waking me up in the morning by biting my face. He used to just very gently tickle my face, but not he's biting." "Lock the bird in the he cage and don't let him out unsupervised," says I, again. Says she, "But that's his only privilege and I just can't deprive him of it." "No," I said, "his privilege is being 100% in charge of his life. Believe me, he'll be much happier if you start establishing rules and guidelines for him. We can work with you, but you'll need to follow my advice. Do you think you can do that?" "I don't know. I'll think about it and let you know." I never heard back from her.

This woman is jeopardizing her parrot's life by loving him so much that she refuses to keep him safe.

3. The Green-wing Carpenter

A message was left on my phone. "Hi, my name is Janet and I have a Green-wing Macaw that I've had for 15 years. I'll be more than happy to give him to someone that will keep him in an aviary and treat him the way he deserves to be treated. He's never been locked in a cage and he's a beautiful bird."

When I returned her call she said that her bird has his own room with a cage that is open 24 hours a day and a sliding glass door that is also opened 24 hours a day. The bird is free to come and go as he pleases and spends 75% of his time outside while she's at work. The problem is that recently he's been taking the siding off the house and last week he turned up missing and was found 8 houses away. The bird store couldn't believe that he flew there with his clipped wings, so he must have walked. Janet didn't have a problem with his dismantling her house, but her mother, who also lived in the house, was having a difficult time dealing with it. Therefore, even though the bird was extremely bonded to Janet, she was now forced to find him a new home.

I asked Janet if she could keep her bird, would she be willing to work with him. She didn't think her mother would allow that to happen. So, since Janet loved her bird TOO much, she couldn't bare to enforce rules and guidelines on him. So she is now forced to find him a new home.

If you haven't heard it before, let me say it now, most of our birds are going to outlive us. It is our responsibility, if we love our birds, to prepare them for life in a home besides our own. Don't love your bird TOO much. Love him just enough to be able to take that responsibility. Don't set him up to be shuffled from home to home until he finally ends up in an organization like PEAC. Do the best you can for him right now, by loving him just enough to prepare him for life without you. He'll be happy you did.