I brought Kermit back to Dr Kenneth’s clinic for medical review. I was glad that Dr Kenneth told me that Kermit’s discharge within the beak was all cleared. Kermit passed his poop test, all the physical examinations. It was great to get a clean bill of Kermit’s health.

Before leaving the clinic, I requested Dr Kenneth to conduct a round de-worming session for Kermit as a precautionary measure. Doing once and for all!

I’m sure Kermit is now the fittest and in pink of health!

Related Post:
Kermit’s Visit to the Vet

I’ve to admit Kermit’s vocabulary is increasing day by day.  What I can really say about Senegal Parrots, they pretty talented talkers. So far I had already recorded Kermit saying word like “Peek-a-Boo” and mimic funny sound like the human laughter and the baby-like mumbling.

To be honest, he knows other words but I lacked the chance in capturing them. This morning when I was preparing breakfast for Kermit and Kiki, Kermit replied with his own name “Kermit”. The word “Kermit” was clear and distinctive. Below is the short sound clip that I recorded:

Sound Clip of Kermit saying his own name

It’s great to see that Kermit has learned his own name. I am really hope that one day he will learn to call my name, Bryan.

Related Posts:
Kermit’s Mimicry: Laughters
Kermit’s Baby-Like Mimicry
Kermit’s Addiction to Peek-a-Boo
Kermit’s Mimicry: Peek-a-Boo

Kermit may not be the best talker compared to any African Greys or Amazons, but he has his own great talents of mimicking sounds. Lately, Kermit managed to pick up mimicking laughter from me. Do take note the first and third laughs were from me, whereas the second, fourth and fifth laughs belong to Kermit.

Sound Clip of Kermit’s Laughter

I’ve to admit that his laughter sounds abit fake and rather low in pitch. I’m very certain that Kermit already did his very best. Furthermore, Senegal Parrots are not known for their mimic abilities.

Many must have read about Kermit’s visit to the vet last Saturday. Thanks to everyone for your concerns about Kermit’s condition. He’s doing perfectly well and I’m confident that his current condition will improve.

Although Kermit is still undergoing medication, he still remain active and positive. Everyday seems like a new day of adventure and he is full of surprises.

Indeed, he did surprise me again yesterday with his new mischievous act.

Notice the blue and yellow colored rings on the playstand in the picture (By the way can you spot Kiki in the picture?) on the left?

Those are actually meant to be foot toys for Kermit and Kiki. Apparently, Kermit had devised a new way of playing them. I truly adore his innovation of “Play Hard 101″. So for now, let me unveil Kermit’s new innovating way of playing the toys rings - “Splash-O-Slam Dunk”.

It’s Kermit’s own verse of Slam Dunk - removing the rings and dunk them in the water bowl. It’s fun watching him doing it and he enjoys doing it, but hard on me! He created a whole lot mess and splashes around the playstand!

Today I brought Kermit over to the vet for consultation. Don’t worry folks, Kermit is alright and he is not seriously ill.

Just that I noticed some slight symptoms on Kermit which I found disturbing, thus I decided not to wait and bring him over to the vet immediately.

Kermit seems to be having bad breathes lately and having protruding breast bone. I can feel the keel is sharp. These are not good signs.

Bad breathes can be a sign of Yeast Infection also known as Candida, and this is what I fear most as candida is contagious and can be spread to other birds that get in contact with Kermit.

Next, the issue on protruding breast bone simply signifies that Kermit can be severely underweight. I’ve a kitchen scale and I do regularly keep weight records of Kermit. Kermit weighs an average weight of 130 grams and this indicates that Kermit is of an acceptable weight.

Based on Parrot Average Weight Chart provided on Avianweb.com, a healthy Senegal weighs around 110 -130 grams. I’m totally clueless about Kermit’s protruding breast bone when he falls in between the acceptable weight range.

I brought Kermit to Dr Kenneth Tong from Animal & Avian Veterinary Clinic located at Yishun Street 71, Singapore. It’s my first visit to the Animal & Avian Veterinary Clinic, but I’m really impressed with Dr Kenneth and his team’s friendliness and professionalism.

Back about Kermit’s check-up, Dr Kenneth did a few Q&A with me to find out more details and situation of Kermit. First, he did a weight test for Kermit, apparently Kermit weighs 130 grams. Kermit indeed seems fine from the readings on the weighing scale, but the protruding breast bone did drew Dr Kenneth’s attention. Dr Kenneth observed the feces samples, appearing that Kermit’s poops are okay without any abnormalities.

As for the issue on bad breath, Dr Kenneth did a close examination in within the beak. He noticed some mild discharge appear in within, but he added that it’s actually a small issue and not to be too worry of.

After several examinations and tests, Dr Kenneth indicated that Kermit seems to be alright and he’s also totally clueless about the protruding breast bone (weight loss) issue. He added it might be the result of stress, as Kermit is undergoing his first molting.

Kermit was provided with Multi-vitamins and Antibiotics to assist him in improving his current physical condition. In three weeks time, Kermit will be coming back for a medical review before making any diagnosis and treatment if his condition doesn’t improve.

Let’s pray and hope Kermit’s condition will gradually improve!

During this evening, I was lucky to capture a funny video of Kermit. He never fails to make people laugh at his silly acts.

Lately I just bought Kermit a toy ball. I took nearly a week for him completely get use to it and not fear of it. This evening, I was lured by ear-splitting rings from the toy ball and I decided to take a look at what Kermit was messing about.

For a moment, he was lying on his back enjoying and playing with the ball. He did look like a seal juggling with a ball at that moment. Few minutes later, I saw him tossing madly and forcing the toy ball out of his territory.

So is that Love or Hate? Perhaps you shall be the judge.

Previously I wrote about ethoxyquin found on some of the commercial seed mixes that can posed dangers to parrots’ health. Although there are some commercial seed mixes are free from ethoxyquin, naturally preserved and truly organic, but they still have one thing in common that I hated most.

Sunflower Seeds! Well not the sunflower seeds that rose the hatred but just that commercial seed mixes are flooded with too many sunflower seeds. The picture of the big pack of sunflower seeds, are actually sunflower seeds extracted from 1.5kg of quality commercial seed mixes and I stored them in Zip-lock bags as treats for future training purposes.

Reasonably amount of sunflower seeds can be healthy in providing the required vitamin E and fatty acids that are essential to parrots. Anything that are excessive or too much can be unhealthy. We all know that parrots are programmed to love seeds especially SUNFLOWER seeds. Parrots just “worship” them.

Whenever sunflower seeds are abundant, parrots have the tendency to be engrossed, enjoying sunflower seeds and ignoring other healthy grains. In fact, they will be just too full (crop totally filled up by sunflower seeds) and lazy to try other foods. This can be one reason why most parrots are overweight or malnutrition. In the long run, this can be a potential health hazard.

In fact I’m planning to prepare my own seed mixes. This way I have to the option to restrict the amount of sunflower seeds or safflower seeds, creating a healthier seed mixes. It can be lots of work, but I think it’s worth investing the time and money. It can be cost effective in a way as I won’t have to throw away the excess sunflower seeds anymore. Furthermore, I won’t have to spend time extracting out the excess sunflower seeds.

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.

Howdy everyone, I’m back with a good news. Bryan’s Angels is one of the TOP 10 FINALISTS in the BEST DESIGN CATEGORY of OMY.SG’s 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 DESIGN BLOG?

We need supports from everyone and make this dream comes true.

Please vote for us at:
http://sgblogawards.omy.sg/finalists/?blogCat=design

Do take note my voting avatar is actually parrot, a picture of the Senegal Parrot and that is Kermit. Ensure you are voting for Bryan’s Angels - http://bryansangels.ohitsuji.com.

Voters also stand to win travel packages to Bangkok, Vietnam and a luxurious resort accommodation package in Phuket. So hurry and cast your votes!

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.

In fact, I shared this technique on previous post labeled “Curb that Kermit Scream“, I highlighted on the steps how i carry out the workaround method in the post under section labeled “Method 2 - With Negative Reinforcement”.

Just to summarize, in the post I was trying to use negative punishment to reduce Kermit’s arising screaming problem. I tried a technique to enforce the punishment with a negative reinforcer without my presence, by doing so it will not put my relationship with Kermit at risk. In this technique, I use a desk bell (as Kermit is very afraid of the distinctive sound from the bell) as a negative reinforcer. Whenever Kermit start to scream, I will sound the bell from the other room. He will stop almost instantly, he understands that everytime he screams the bell will sound off. That’s the workaround I’m trying to emphasize.

Every technique come with pros and cons including this workaround. The benefits of this technique is that it remedy the problem instantly with a negative reinforcer without putting the relationship bond at risk, so you don’t have to worry that he will hate you for ringing the bell. In fact, he even didn’t know that you are the one ringing the bell. The disadvantage is that the technique can only be used in certain situations (e.g. you can’t be running back to your room and ring the bell when your parrot is already biting you). Next, using the technique in long run can result in a more fearful and less confident parrot.

The constant fear instilled in the parrot, will result in anxiety. Worst still, instead of improving the behavior problem this might lead to a screaming problem due to stress and anxiety.

Remember there’s no 100% fool proof method where you can remedy a problem almost immediately and instantly. The only best recommended by animal trainers and effective way to remedy a behavior problem permanently is to use proper positive techniques with time, effort, love and care, this way will bring you a more well behaved, lovable and a happy parrot!

Related Posts:
Are Punishments Accepted in Parrot Training?
Curb that Kermit Scream