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ADOPTING AN OLDER PARROT:
The ULTIMATE In Recycling
Liz Wilson
Parrot Behavior Consultant
A woman in my area was planning to buy an African grey, and we'd talked extensively on the phone about good local breeders, local pet stores, what to look for, what to ask, etc., etc.. I enjoyed talking with Anne a great deal -- she was trying to make an educated decision, and was carefully learning everything she could before she bought her first parrot. This is really refreshing, since most beginning parrot people (including myself when I got my first bird) seek help only AFTER they've screwed up. (She also had a very funny black sense of humor which didn't hurt either!)
Fruitless Search
However, when Anne contacted one of the better local aviculturists, she discovered to her dismay that the lady had no more babies. There wouldn't be babies in the future, either, since the lady had unfortunately burned out and was discontinuing her breeding operation. After talking to Anne for a while, the (ex)breeder did comment that she had one bird that needed a home -- a sweet little 1� year old Congo grey named Timmy who had been kept as a personal pet.
Anne remembered what she'd read and been told by various sources --"You have to get a parrot as a young baby so it'll bond to you" or worse yet, "You have to hand feed a parrot so it will bond to you." Obviously, at eighteen months this individual was totally weaned and no longer a young baby.
Old Wives Tales
The old wives' tales are rampant about parrots and bonding and most, from my experience, are simply not true. So let's look at this stuff about bonding and hand feeding, and bonding and young birds.
The fact is, hand feeding is a dangerous process when done by a novice. This needs to be said over and over -- I don't think that it can be said too much. In the 20 years I worked with avian veterinarians, I have seen too many times how easy it is for an inexperienced hand feeder to do serious physical and psychological damage to an unweaned parrot chick -- indeed, many parrot babies do not survive the human's learning process.
Aviculturist Bobbi Brinker told me an amazing story the other day. Dr. Branson Richie is the veterinary microbiologist who has made stupendous breakthroughs in the field of avian virology, such as the tests for the Beak and Feather virus and the polyoma virus, as well as the polyoma vaccine. However, he commented to Bobbi that these achievements would pale in comparison to convincing people not to sell or buy unweaned parrot chicks. Rather strong statement, don't you think?
Incredible Responsibilities…
The process of hand feeding a baby parrot is an extremely complex matter, with tremendous potential for disaster. The training a novice hand feeder requires simply cannot be covered in a couple of minutes prior to the purchase of an unweaned chick.
So why, you ask, is the inexperienced parrot buying public so willing to take on that kind of incredible responsibility? From my own experience, they aren't. In my VERY short career of working in a pet store, I was not comfortable selling unweaned bappies,
but I was not in a position to change store policy. Consequently, I could not refuse to sell an unweaned chick. However, I was delighted to find I didn't have to -- once the possible dangers were clearly and unemotionally explained, people quickly changed their minds about wanting to hand feed. They were delighted to have experienced personnel finish off the process.
So if hand feeding is so potentially dangerous, why is it that so many people are encouraged to take home an unweaned chick after minimal teaching? Simple, really -- it has to do with "The Bottom Line." Hand feeding is incredibly labor intensive. The sooner a parrot chick is sold, the higher the profit ratio for the store or breeder. So it behooves the seller to convince the buyer that hand feeding is safe and easy.
Does "Let the buyer beware" sound familiar, anyone?
Bonding, Garbage and Hogwash
The garbage about parrots only bonding to the person who hand feeds is simply that: GARBAGE. As to the stuff about parrots only bonding as a baby, that's also hogwash. The subject of bonding is a complex one, worthy of an article in itself. Suffice it to say, you do not need to be the one holding the syringe to have a parrot learn to bond to you -- in the long run, bappies don't care who is holding the syringe. For a parrot to bond to you, you need to be the one that nurtures and teaches and protects... and the one the bird learns to trust.
After all, people have kept parrots as pets for thousands of years, and those birds were wild animals who were captured and tamed, NOT babies that were hand fed by humans. Hand fed parrot chicks only appeared routinely in the pet trade about twenty years ago. I've said this before and I'll say it again -- Do you actually think that no human ever had a bonded relationship with a parrot prior to twenty years ago?
What About Older Birds?
So, what about giving an adolescent or adult parrot a chance? As always, there are variables. For example, there is the apparently nice bird on consignment in a pet store? This not a hard and fast rule, but I would suggest caution. From my own experience, most parrots on consignment in pet stores have behavior problems. (Please, guys, before you start writing letters -- please note the use of the word "most".) The people in the store tell you a really sad story about how it is a wonderful bird, but the owner MUST get rid of it. Reasons given generally include things like the owner is moving or pregnant or "got a new job and doesn't have the time." In my opinion, this makes no sense. After all, does a person put their kids up for adoption when they move, or become pregnant with the next kid?
The REAL Reason
From my experience, when the bond between a parrot and a human is not strong, then any major life change can become a good excuse for getting rid of a bird. These excuses generally cover the fact that (whether the owners admit it to themselves or not), there is a problem with the bird.
Now, that problem could be the humans, NOT the bird's. Often, the beauty and potential talking ability of parrots will lead people to an impulse buy, and unfortunately many pet stores do their best to capitalize on that. Later, these people may decide they don't really like cohabiting with a parrot. After all, parrots can be a real pain at times. You may have noticed that. So the bird goes up for sale.
This is not because the parrot did anything wrong -- parrot's can't be anything but parrots. So if a person with really sensitive hearing or an allergy to feathers can't live with them, that is not the bird's fault.
Prefab Behavior Problems
However, many of the parrots on consignment in pet stores are there because they are screamers, or because they are aggressive. Now that does NOT mean they will never make a good pet, or that they don't deserve a chance -- far from it. But the subject of rehabilitating parrots with behavior problems is not an issue I'm going to tangle here. That should be done in a whole separate article. However, I will stick in a quote, here -- to give everyone a jolt of reality regarding some of these birds and some of the stores that sell them. There is a pet store owner in my area who supposedly made the following comment: "I love selling parrots, because I get to sell them over and over and over….." Food for thought.
However…..
If the bird needing a home is a parrot who was raised by someone who values socialization and behavioral limits, then as far as I am concerned, go for it! These animals can make excellent pets, and they deserve every chance to prove it.
True, these birds are no longer babies and may be more reserved at first. Bappies love just about everyone -- they would probably love an ax murderer just as much as they would love you -- when they are bappies, anyway. An older bird may take a little while to warm up to you -- but so what? No, we are not talking about instant gratification, here -- we are actually talking about having to work for something, just a little bit. But oh, the rewards!
Ann's Choice
So back to Ann and the choice she had to make… Having spoken with people like me, she remembered being warned about the potential dangers of hand feeding. She had never owned a parrot, and thought that would not be a great way to start. She decided that getting an older bird was a great idea. So home she came with Timmy, the year and a half old African grey. His breeder had an excellent reputation for nurturing and socializing her chicks, and he had been her pet.
The Honeymoon or Break-In Period
When a parrot changes environment, often it also changes some behaviors. Its established behavior patterns of the past were centered around the bird's territory. When a parrot changes homes, then, there is a window in time during which it is settling in, before it has established its new territory. During that time, everything is neutral territory. That window is open for around 10-14 days. During that time, new rules and behaviors are much more easily implemented. After that magic two weeks, the parrot has reestablished old patterns in its new home.
People call me all the time about this wonderful bird they found on consignment. They brought it home from the shop and the bird was fabulous….for a couple of weeks. Then the parrot started biting/screaming/what ever. They thought the bird had changed and didn't understand why. I would explain that in reality, the bird had changed back.
Oddly enough, many sources of information about parrots tell a new owner to leave the bird alone in the cage for the first couple of weeks, to let the animal "settle in." In my opinion, this is exactly what the new owner DOES NOT want to do. After all, the bird doesn't have its own agenda established, yet. Once that agenda is established, it won't be impossible to change him -- it is rarely impossible to change a parrot's behavior -- but it will be more difficult.
Ann and Timmy -- We Meet
Ann scheduled a consultation with me before the end of the first week of her new life with Timmy. This was excellent timing -- it was before the window had closed, and before she had made any serious mistakes. Timmy was already trying out some new behaviors that were going to mean trouble. In an effort to control her new environment, Timmy had become cage bound. She hadn't been out of the cage in three days and Ann was worried. Timmy would scream and growl and throw herself around the cage on Ann's approach, and Ann was afraid the little bird would hurt herself.
Following my usual pattern for consultations, Ann and I sat on the couch in Timmy's room (what used to be the living room) and I watched Timmy while Ann and I talked about the importance of bathing, unfiltered light, rotating toys, diet, etc., etc., etc.. Timmy relaxed after a couple of minutes and started beating up a toy in her cage. It was a very good sign that she relaxed so quickly with a stranger in the room. This bird was going to be just fine.
The Training Begins
Then, much to her horror, I captured Timmy in a towel and removed her from her cage, transferring her to the neutral territory and perch we had already set up. I proceeded to teach Ann (and Timmy) all about what Layne Dicker called The Two Commandments For Parrots: Thou shalt Up and Thou shalt Down. Ann really needed more training than Timmy did, since she was new to the ways of these intelligent and manipulative creatures. (Timmy had dealt with humans before!) However, she had common sense (something that is very UNCOMMON these days) and she learned fast.
Timmy had already bitten her a couple of times, so Ann was a tad beak shy. She would pull away when Timmy lunged. Timmy tried that with me and I didn't react at all, so the bird stopped. No fun if it doesn't work, right? So Ann and I talked about how it wasn't fun to be bitten. I pointed out that I'd never heard of anyone dying from a parrot bite. I also pointed out that Timmy weighed a bit less than a pound.
"That makes her smaller than a dressed down Cornish hen, doesn't it, Ann?" She thought about that for a minute, then giggled.
"But SHE thinks she's bigger than that," she pointed out. I agreed, and added that Timmy had convinced Ann of that, too. However, the reality was that Timmy STILL weighed less than a pound. She laughed again, and approached the little bird with more confidence. After all, the bird weighed less than a pound.
Follow-ups
Follow-ups are important to me. As a human trains a parrot (as opposed to visa versa), questions and problems come up that need to be addressed. I also need to be sure that my teaching was effective. So follow-ups are a indispensable and educational part of my work. To encourage people to call back with updates, there is no additional charge for them -- except to the phone company if they are long distance. They are a essential part of the process so they're included in the initial fee. When Ann called back, she and Timmy were doing much better than she'd expected. I wasn't surprised, however -- I knew they would be fine.
Conclusions…..
Timmy has boarded with me several times since then, and she has blossomed into one of the sweetest parrots I know. Ann has done an excellent joy with her. Consequently, I thoroughly enjoy it when Timmy stays here. Actually, I have to admit that I wouldn't mind having this bird permanently -- and that is not a usual reaction for me. After all these years of working with other people’s parrots, few of them really get under my skin. (Actually, there is only one other parrot that I feel that way about -- another African grey that was also adopted as an adult, interestingly enough.)
So the moral of the story is obvious. If you are looking for a baby parrot but find a well recommended older bird instead, don't simply walk away. Ann didn't, and she ended up with one of the most special birds I know. There are some fabulous "older" birds out there that will make excellent life long companions.
This article was first printed in THE PET BIRD REPORT, Issue #29.
Liz Wilson, Certified Veterinary Technician, has been assisting pet bird owners with parrot behavior problems for over a decade through lectures, seminars, phone and in-home consultations.
She can be reached at (215) 946-5964 9AM - 9PM M-F
Website: http://www.upatsix.com/liz
Copyright Elizabeth H. Wilson, April, 1998-2008.
All rights reserved. Parts or whole may be reprinted, but not distributed without express written permission of the author.
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