The Adventures of Kacy The Conure Parrot

Kermit Stoned

Ever thought why your parrots stoned at times? To my knowledge and experiences, parrot stoned when they were alarmed (e.g. other noise or any other threats) or even out of fear.

During the late afternoon when I was in the kitchen doing some household cleaning and leaving Kermit on his playstand. It’s an unusual afternoon, usually Kermit will established contact calls with me whenever I’m out of sight. Strangly enough he was totally quiet. I tried initiating a contact call by whistling to Kermit, he didn’t response any of my calls. I didn’t feel quite comfortable about this, thus I went to the living room to check whether Kermit was alright.

Kermit was on the play-stand but he looked really stoned. He was completely stoned with a pine nut shell in his beak and not doing anything. I observed the surroundings whether there’s any things, wild birds or insects that triggered him to going to this state. Apparently there wasn’t! This went on for nearly 15 minutes, I immediately reached for my camera phone to capture this rare moment.

I’m still wondering whether was there really things that caught his attention which resulted him to stone, or was he really indulging to the classical music that I played in the background?

I think only he has the answers to the questions.

Posted in Kermit's Daily, Youtube | Comments Off on Why Do Parrots Stoned At Times?

Bryan’s Angels in Singapore Blog Awards

Howdy everyone, I’m back with a good news. Bryan’s Angels is one of the Top 10 Finalists in the Best Blog Design Category of Singapore Blog Awards 2008!

Kiki, Kermit and I are excited and honoured to make it through as the Final 10 in the Singapore Blog Awards. Can our blog be crowned as the Best Blog Design Category?

Posted in Blog Awards | Comments Off on Bryan’s Angels in Singapore Blog Awards

Kiki’s One Year Old Birthday

Kiki's Opening Her Gift

Last Friday was Kiki’s one year old birthday. Although I wasn’t really sure about Kiki’s actual hatch day, even the breeder who I got Kiki from wasn’t sure too, but I decided to make 27th June as an official date for Kiki’s birthday.

Neither did I throw a party for her nor invite other feathered friends to the celebration, but a simple one.

Posted in Kiki's Daily, Youtube | Comments Off on Kiki’s One Year Old Birthday

Kiki undergoing molting

Kiki's Feather

For past few days when replacing the Kiki’s cage linings, I noticed quite a number of feathers (mainly primary and secondary) lying at the bottom of the cage. The feathers are complete with no sign of any plucking and picking. Kiki seems to be going through a serious feather molting process, definitely a tough period for Kiki.

Furthermore, many of Kiki’s flight feathers were fully regrown. She definitely in for another grooming session to have her flight feathers trimmed.

By the way this coming Friday will be her one year birthday. Three more days to the big day, I’m still deciding what treat I’m going to prepare for her. Everyone in the family is truly excited, especially my mum.

Related Post:
To Wing Clipped or Not To?

Posted in Kiki's Daily | Comments Off on Kiki undergoing molting

Are Punishments Accepted in Parrot Training – Part 2

Last Sunday after I posted the article titled “Are Punishments Accepted in Parrot Training?”, I received a few emails about their honest opinions on negative punishment.

Rick, one of my reader brought up some points. He indicated he also uses negative punishment in parrot training with his lovebird, and found that using punishment did eliminate unwanted behavior effectively and almost instantly. Furthermore, he indicated he had yet to see any behavior problem arise from his lovebird. He felt that since negative punishment seems to work out pretty well in his training routine why consider stopping this technique?

Well true, I do admit negative punishment can be effective at a stage and it does eliminate the unwanted behavior instantly. I saw the effectiveness when I conducted negative punishments on Kermit and Kiki before, but I also see other problems start to surface like increase in excessive vocalization (i.e Screaming Problem).

What we see are just the surface, a temporary remedy to the problem. In a long run, we are bound to see numbers of behavior problems arising. I will still insist don’t take the risk, try making all trainings positive will be ideal.

I’m sure many readers might be asking isn’t there any workaround for the negative punishment? There is a workaround which is to enforce the punishment without your presence. That means giving the punishment where your parrot cannot see you giving the punishment. By doing so, the parrot will link you up with all the hatred and fear caused by the punishment, thus this will not put the relationship and bond at risk.

» Read More…

Tags: Positive Reinforcement

Posted in Behavior Problems & Trainings | Comments (1)

Kermit’s Somersault Trick

I’m back again to share with everyone a new trick from Kermit. I’m proud to present to everyone Kermit’s very own Somersault Trick.

As Senegal Parrots are very acrobatic by nature, thus the trick shouldn’t post much difficulty to these african queens. Kermit learned the trick almost instantly.

Posted in Kermit's Tricks, Youtube | Comments Off on Kermit’s Somersault Trick

Kermit’s Baby-Like Mimicry

On my previous post, I shared about Kermit uttered the word “Peek-a-Boo”. Till now Kermit has been trying very hard to learn new words, and he has been constantly mumbling.

Yesterday when I was giving Kermit some nice head rub and massage, he mimics some funny sound. Below is the sound clip that I captured:

Kermit’s Baby-Like Mimicry

He does sound like a human baby uttering some noise. At one part of the sound clip, my mum thought it was a human baby giggling away! Well done Kermit!

Tags: Bird, Companion Parrot, Kermit, Mimicry, Parrot, Parrot Talking, Pet Bird, Poicephalus, Senegal Parrot, Talking Bird

Posted in Talking Kermit | Comments Off on Kermit’s Baby-Like Mimicry

Are Punishments Accepted in Parrot Training

Most of us including myself, regard our parrots as our kids. Like any other kids, they sometimes get nasty and cranky at times and many resorted to punishments to stop the unwanted or negative behaviors immediately.

Are these punishments accepted in parrot training? Are they really that effective?

I’ve identified some common punishments adopted by majority of parrot owners (including myself in the past) whenever their parrots misbehaved:

Jail the parrot into a cage with no toys and isolate him whenever he/she misbehave.
Squirt water on his/her face.
Whenever the parrot misbehave (like biting your finger) while perching on your hand, giving him/her a strong firm shake also known as earthquake to stop the negative behavior.
Yelling back at the parrot.
Throwing things at the parrot.

Some owners might see effectiveness in the beginning but in actual fact it’s not going to help in the long run. Why is it so? Punishment is a form of negative reinforcement, and taking note that negative reinforcement is never recommended in parrot training.

No one likes to be punished, including ourselves we never like to be punished by others. Not only it may affect us physically, but the damage done emotionally can be difficult to remedy then after. Emotional damage are usually permanent, especially parrots are highly intelligent animals they can clear remember the negative punishment conducted on them, thus affecting the parrot and owner’s bond and relationship.

Posted in Behavior Problems & Trainings, Recommended Books | Comments (1)

« Newer Posts — Previous Posts »