Photo by Dave
Location: Sandpoint, Idaho
Showerer: Rose Breasted Cockatoo “Bandit”

I took Bandit into the shower for the first time while staying at my parents’ house in Sandpoint, Idaho. I didn’t take a shower perch but he had watched Bondi (a 3 year old of the same species) from a shower perch before.

He merely perched on my hand and I covered his face and head and let the water mist the rest of his body since he was getting pretty messy looking from all the hand feeding I have been doing! Sometimes with the hand feeding I would miss, or he would move and I would miss and get it all over his face. Also, baby birds can just be messy like that so it’s not a clean process!

Bandit wasn’t excited about the water but he wasn’t intentionally trying to lean out of it, either. Which made it easy to bathe him even though he wasn’t that responsive to it. I have since bathed him and he has been the same way. He just shuts his eyes and sits there - no fluffing up about it but no running to get away either. Since he is a type of cockatoo (also referred to as a galah) he produces quite a bit of dander so he needs his bathes often.

Just wanted to share the differences between how some birds percieve their first bath! Or few baths! In case your bird is the same way as Bandit.

Photo by Dave
Location: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands
Napping: Solid White Parakeet “Lexi”

When I am at home in Florida and my birds are living in either their outside aviary or indoor cages, they do not get cage covers. They go by the natural daylight and night time from outside. But when I am visiting my parents, they cover their cages as habit. It was something my mom learned from the internet and just did.

The bird cage at her home is placed in the center of their house where everything happens. It is also next to a window and any birds in it are birds of mine whom are fully flighted and more likely outdoor fliers. They don’t get phobic from seeing other birds fly outside and are more likely to be excited by it. When my mom or dad covers the cage, they use a thick blanket from my grandmother which only fits over it 3/4 of the way leaving part of the back of the cage (on the window) exposed to the natural light of day.

You can find cage covers anywhere for your bird, here are various sources I found; one, two, three, four, and more.

Parrots need a certain amount of sleep at night and if you go by how they sleep in the wild, you will know they start to prepare for sleep at dusk and wake up at first light. This is why I let my birds go by natural lighting. I figure they know best instead of relying on me to be home at a certain time every night and cover the cage and same for the morning.

Here is a great rescource on determining the amount of sleep your parrot needs: Birds and Sleep. I was always instructed that my toucan would need 12-14 hours of sleep every night, so she actually has a separate “night time cage” when we travel, which I have heard a lot of people do for their birds so they don’t have to be kept up by their owners. A night time cage is simply a smaller cage for sleeping in that is in a different location where it can be dark and uninterrupted for the bird.

I have always gone by 12-14 hours of sleep with my other parrots and if they seem to need less one day and already be up, so be it. I haven’t noticed any change in attitude or behavior by my own birds going by the natural light in Florida. And I always have night time cages ready if I feel one or more needs a bit more sleep.

My birds are also willing to take naps in the daytime (especially after a hot day of flight as the summers can be harsh). You have to be the judge of what your bird needs and receives because no one else knows your lifestyle better than you do.

Just to prove how different birds are and how much you have to recognize their specific needs, I will explain how each of the members of my flock sleeps at night:

3 Year Old Rose Breasted Cockatoo “Bondi” - She sleeps in her cage which is shared with 7 month old “Cressi” an African Grey. The cage is in our Florida room and goes off natural night and day with full spectrum lighting inside the cage for added daytime lighting. All windows are open to screens and if she needs to, she naps in the daytime.

7 Month Old Congo African Grey “Cressi” - Cressi sleeps in the same manner of Bondi, taking naps if she feels she needs them but otherwise going by natural light.

4 Year Old Swainson Toucan “Fiji” - Fiji seems to require more sleep than the rest of the flock and has her own “night time” cage which is located in an extra half bathroom in the house. She is moved into her night time cage and put in there for extra hours of sleep in the dark. She dislikes sleeping with any bit of light shining through (seems to take after me!)

2 Year Old Military Macaw “Cash” - Cash is very low maitenance and sleeps the same way as Cressi and Bondi though he doesn’t seem to need naps and is always up to something.

3.5 Month Old Rose Breasted Cockatoo “Bandit” - Bandit is our newest baby now (Cressi is no longer “the baby” of the flock!) and his cage is not in the Florida room yet. He isn’t old enough to join the others and fend for himself so he has his own cage within the house. His cage gets covered by a cage cover at night so he obtains enough sleep each night since we stay up later than he should.

And my parakeets sleep the same was as Cressi, Bondi and Cash.

So whether you choose to use a cage cover because you don’t have an outside aviary or Florida room for your birds to go by natural light, or if you choose to make sure your bird goes by light naturally, neither is wrong as long as your bird receives the sleep it needs. Cage covers aren’t wrong or right, some people’s lifestyles require them while others do not. And every bird is different in their own preferences.

Photo by Dave
Location: Moab, Utah
Filming: Blue Throated Macaw “Gleam”
Without the help of: Calico Macaw “Siren”

How lucky I am! This is what I do for a living, well, among other things I choose to do on the side but this is my primary passion (although it wasn’t always this way) and I love it to the fullest extent. Though, you know, that probably isn’t true because I haven’t even experienced it all and everytime I experience something new, I fall that much more in love with what I do (and a bit more confused, too!)

Those who know me know I do not claim to be all knowing… in the least! I have been bitten my fair share of times and I am sure they will continue to come. Bites come from intentions, discomfort and even accidents.

I learn constantly and am always going back into my posts every so often and adding things as they come into my head and into my line of vision.

My favorite times in bird training have been with flight training and trick training. I have found (so far) that birds that are flying outside have less of an interest in trick training (as well as less of a need) than birds that do not get that freedom.

Photo by Dave
Location: Reno, Nevada
My Little Helper: Swainson Toucan “Meaka”

Most people in social jobs say they enjoy meeting new people, well, I can happily say I enjoy meeting new birds! I really enjoy raising birds for other people and training them for other people and although it is hard to hand them back over to their real “parronts”, the time comes and you feel proud. You don’t ever “get used to it” because your experience with one bird is completely different than the one you will have with the same species of bird the next time.

The best times I have are traveling with my feathered friends to new places and exploring it along with them. I love experiencing something new with my birds; such as a new place, scenery, or even object. I have a great time “desensitizing” and socializing my birds. It is harder at first, but once they get used to change and start seeing new things as exciting and fun instead of intimidating and scary… it becomes so enjoyable and rewarding.

Two rules I strictly follow with my birds which I believe everyone should try to follow, too;

1. Socialize your bird like crazy. Introduce one new person a day (neighbors, family, friends, kids, spouses, fellow workers, bosses, anyone!) It will do wonders for your bird.

2. Introduce one new thing a day, such as an object. This works well for “desensitizing” your bird to new things so he takes on to new toys in his cage easier and doesn’t spook when someone sets down their homework or drops their pen near them. These can be normal, every day things such as draw strings from your sweater, a pen, your car keys, your husband’s watch, your wife’s lipstick, etc.

PS… this doesn’t mean give your bird the new object and let him “have at it”, just introduce it and make sure it becomes unthreatening to your bird and the job is done. You just don’t want your bird  to fear the new object, once that is accompished, you’re done!

Anyway, I hope those of you that do come across this blog enjoy it as much as I enjoy reliving my experiences while telling about them here!

The easiest treats to train with are sunflower seeds and spray millet. It’s easy to hand your bird a single seed for a job well done or give them a quick bite of a millet stick. Other treats such as peanuts are more time consuming to prepare since you have to break them into small pieces for your bird.

Sunflower seeds, millet and peanut pieces are the most commonly used foods for treats and rewards. But if your bird doesn’t like those, there are ways of finding what your bird does like!

Gather all the known treats that most parrot owners use such as peanuts, millet, sun flower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds, safflower seeds, and even banana chips make some parrots go crazy! Make sure you aren’t using something like cheese or any type of dairy product as a reward for your bird as they are much harder for the bird to digest. So gather all the nuts and seeds that parrots can eat and make a small dish of them all mixed together. Simply set the dish out for your bird to explore whether its outside his cage or inside and come back later to find out what he has eaten and what he hasn’t touched. This will give you a good idea of what your bird likes and what he dislikes.

I’ve never known a bird to not have a favorite treat - even people have favorite treats so make an effort to find our your bird’s preference so you two can work together to make things more fun and move onto some ambitious training sessions!

To learn what it means to target train your bird, go to my blog entitled Target Training and Clicker Conditioning. The training that happens from your bird already knowing targeting, can be flight training your bird using the target stick.

This training is very simple and happens pretty naturally for a flighted bird when just teaching them the behavior of targeting the stick at all.

You can then begin to back up and target your hand so they are encouraged to fly and land on your hand. Click, reward for a job well done.

Photo by Katherine B.
Location: Naples, Florida
Pictured: Two Female Blue Throated Macaws, 1.5 Months Old

I wanted to share the newest photo of the two blue throated macaw babies at a month and a half old of age. I think they look so beautiful and adorable! It’s really neat to see them grow up through images.

Photos by Katherine B.
Location: Naples, Florida
Twins: Female Blue Throat Macaws

My 5 week old blue throated macaw, Jinxi, is on the left in each of these photos. Both babies are female as they were just DNA tested. I should be picking her up at the end of this month! Oh the anticipation of getting a new member of the family…

Above is a video of my rose breasted cockatoo (commonly known as a galah) named Bondi performing some tricks she knows. The only one I left out was the bat but you can find that trick on my other video blogs.

Here is a link to a complete parrot training guide.

 Photo by Dave
Location: Lacey, Washington
Racing with: Congo African Grey “Cressi”

It’s amazing to see how many people are getting more and more into outdoor flying with their pet parrots as the days progress forward. I, for one, am happy to see so many people making the effort to learn what’s needed for them and their birds to do it safely and successfully.

I’m so proud to be one of those people whose birds can fly freely outside and really enjoy what it means for them to be a bird. To know their bodies are completely constructed around flight just makes the purpose right. They really are supposed to be flying (whether it’s indoors or outdoors).

I have read, seen and heard that people from everywhere around the world are flying their pet parrots outside freely! From Saudi Arabia to Mexico, from the Netherlands to Taiwan, China and the Philippines and especially in Australia, Brazil and the USA. My African Grey alone has flown in Washington, Idaho, Florida, Nevada and Utah to date and she is just over seven months old (all links will take you to a video of her flying in each state). People fly their birds in not only the above states mentioned but in Colorado and Georgia among others. It’s truly amazing to see how wide-spread it really is. More and more breeding facilities are offering their birds space to fly outdoors, too. One such example is Tropical Bird Land and their free flying birds.

There is also much more information about it out there for people to read and the information is actually starting to get to people now (even though some has been offered for years on end before). And I have seen a broad variety of freestyle flying parrots out there from lovebirds to macaws, cockatoos to African Greys and even different types of conures among others.

You can go on You Tube and find tons of videos in one search of various people flying their birds outside. There are groups such as the Colorado Fly Week that get together and fly their birds, there are Yahoo! Groups where you can go and join to speak to people who are interested in it or doing it currently and learn what is involved before getting your feet wet (such as freeflight, recall training and active fliers). And people like Dave, who document everything about how they went about doing it, too. So that outsiders can really see the step-by-step process that goes into all this (not everyone always uses the same methods).

If you search hard enough, you can find various individuals offering to teach it to you and your bird such as this person here. Even offering free consultations to see if you’re suited for outdoor flight with your bird at all.

It truly is a fantastic and eye opening experience to share with your pet parrot - and it’s addicting, so watch out! This is one band wagon I hope every parrot owner jumps on!

 Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Orlando, Florida
Of: Rose Breasted Cockatoos/Galahs “Bandit” and “Ace”

This picture was taken on my phone (hence the quality) of our two newest baby cockatoos named Bandit (ours) and Ace (a friend’s). We picked up Ace and delivered him for our friends. Ace is in the forefront of his photo while Bandit is the one behind (Bandit has more grey).

Bandit and Ace are from the same breeder we got Bondi from (same place, different parents).

Here is a short video clip of them flying in our house: