Priceless Parrots.com Web Blog

POTM Vote NOW!!

Paul - Website Owner — Mon, 26 May 2008 07:52:26 +0000

Hi all, just wanted to let you all know that voting has now started for this months Pic of the Month Competition. You must be a Priceless Parrots forum member to vote.

All picture entries can be found on our POTM page on our main website.

Once you have chosen your favourite picture you have choice to vote or not.

If you wish to vote you must join our parrot forum, If you are already a member then please just log in as normal and find the Pic of the Month Forum and enter your vote via our Poll. If you are not a current member then please do take time to register and vote.

This month we have 17 entries from around the world, all parrot related.

Good luck to all that have entered.

Pic of the Month Competition May 2008

Paul - Website Owner — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:48:05 +0000

First of all I must say a big welcome to all of our newest members and guests to the Priceless Parrots Forums and Website. So a big ‘Hello’ from me Paul (Admin) and all the staff at Priceless Parrots.Its always great to see and share your pictures with our community of parrot owners within the forums so as a great incentive to see your parrot related pictures we have our monthly Pic of the Month Competition to enter.

If you have a Photograph you would like to share with us all at Priceless Parrots then why not enter our POTM competition. Just click on the link above to visit our Competition Page.

“Why should I?” I hear you say, well if you enter the competition you will be in the running for a great prize. Its up to you of course but as they say If your not in it, you cannot WIN it.

Prizes have been sent all over the world so if you live in the outback of Australia, don’t panick, you will get your prize. Just may take a little longer for delivery than say someone in the UK. Thats if you WIN of course…

There are however some rules and they are as follows.

Pictures must be sent to me via email by 20th May 2008.
Pictures must be in JPEG or GIF Format.
Emails MUST have the picture attatched as a file and not embedded.
You MUST be a forum member to enter. (Important)
Emails must contain FORUM USERNAME, TITLE and DESCRIPTION of Picture and COUNTRY.
Only ONE picture entry per forum member.

The above rules have to be applied to all entry’s.

Any entry’s that do not have all the criteria as above will not be entered, this sounds mean but I receive so many emails with no information at all in them. I then find myself spending all my time emailing back to ask for more info.. Please do follow the above..It would save me alot of time..

Please remember you also have to be a forum member to enter, this is because as a forum member you then have a right to vote for your favourite entry after the closing date for entry’s.

Voting will take place from 22nd May right up to 31st May via our forum. You will all be notified when voting starts.

Well good luck to you all, If you have not already then please do send me your favourite picture via email to the following email address.

Email:- paul@pricelessparrots.com

All pictures will be available to see on the main website in the Pic of the Month page on the 21st May.

Remember you don’t have long to send me those pictures.

ONLY 2 DAYS LEFT

Good Luck to you all,

Paul (Admin)

Step Up / Down Training

Paul - Website Owner — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 08:19:25 +0000

The Step up and Step down Training is probably the most important part of any Parrots training and all owners should consider doing this as part of homing a new bird.
Step up and down training will benefit both you and your bird in the long run. You will need to keep to a strict regime and be quite strict with your routine.
Of course if your bird already attempts to step and down this will make the training all the easier. I have found that new born hand reared parrots are the easiest to train.
While flying birds may be allowed to land on your shoulder, you should not allow the bird to remain there but tell it to step on to your hand, and carry it around on your hand not your shoulder. Most shoulder birds will reject training, bite their owner and/or be lost as the owner forgets about the bird and walks outdoors with the bird on the shoulder. The bird then flies away.
You should always appear calm and confident throughout any training sessions. This is the key to the bird learning new things from you.
Lesson One
If the cage is portable you can take this, with the bird in it, to the training room and let the bird out. Otherwise you may need to remove the bird from its cage using a towel to catch it in if it is inclined to bit. It is vital that the bird¹s cage is removed from the training room before any training is started. A small spare bedroom makes a good training room. However you must remove anything that the bird may perch on that is hither than your chest height, such as pictures, ornaments and tall furniture. You will need a chair in the room for the bird to perch on and the floor should be carpeted. All perching places should be lower than human chest height, so that YOU always LOOK DOWN ON the bird. Birds should not have free access to your shoulder. Flying birds can land there but must be taken down immediately with the “Step up” command. On no account should any bird be allowed to walk up your arm on to your shoulder. This is simply the bird¹s challenge to your position. You will not be able to train birds which treat you as an inferior. Ío once in the training room, open the cage door and take the bird out or wait until it comes out, then remove the cage from the room.

The first command is “Step up” which tells the bird to get on to your finger or hand. Put your finger or hand very close to the bird¹s lower belly, gently touching it there and say “Step up.” The bird may refuse to step up, or fly to another perch or bite. If it refuses, repeat the command, pushing the bird gently on its lower belly. If it bites, try to show NO REACTION to this and repeat the command immediately.
If the bird goes to the floor, wait a few moments so it is calm, then approach it, place your hand so that you are almost touching it in the same place and repeat the command. If you react to being bitten, this will only stimulate the bird to bite again. The bird has no defence against a person who remains calm and unflustered. Usually after three or four attempts at Step up the bird will step up on to your hand.
When it does, it is vital that you praise the bird enthusiastically. Your TONE of voice is more important than what you actually say. Don¹t let it stay on you for more than a few seconds. Then say “Go Down” and return the bird to the chair back.

Every time the bird obeys a command, you must reward him with something you know it really likes. This can be verbal praise, having a head scratch or even a small food treat.

Training should not last more than five minutes can be done twice a day, each day, until the bird is good with taking the commands.
For the first three or four days keep your bird in its cage except for the lessons. When the bird is stepping on and off your hand easily, move on to the next lesson.
The first command is “Step up” which tells the bird to get on to your finger or hand. Put your finger or hand very close to the bird¹s lower belly, gently touching it there and say “Step up.” The bird may refuse to step up, or fly to another perch or bite. If it refuses, repeat the command, pushing the bird gently on its lower belly. If it bites, try to show NO REACTION to this and repeat the command immediately.

If the bird goes to the floor, wait a few moments so it is calm, then approach it, place your hand so that you are almost touching it in the same place and repeat the command. If you react to being bitten, this will only stimulate the bird to bite again. The bird has no defence against a person who remains calm and unflustered. Usually after three or four attempts at Step up the bird will step up on to your hand.
When it does, it is vital that you praise the bird enthusiastically. Your TONE of voice is more important than what you actually say. Don¹t let it stay on you for more than a few seconds. Then say “Go Down” and return the bird to the chair back.

Every time the bird obeys a command, you must reward him with something you know it really likes. This can be verbal praise, having a head scratch or even a small food treat. Training should not last more than five minutes can be done twice a day, each day, until the bird is good with taking the commands.
For the first three or four days keep your bird in its cage except for the lessons. When the bird is stepping on and off your hand easily, move on to the next lesson.

Lesson Two
This is the same as lesson one, in the same room, except that there should be two chairs in the room. Tell the bird “Step up” on to your finger/hand, then transfer it from one chair to another. Then when this is established without difficulty, transfer it from the chair, or to the windowsill. All these transfers should be from one piece of furniture to another, in the training room, always to furniture which is lower than your chest. It will help the bird if you touch any new place you are asking the bird to go down on to with your other free hand first, then say “Go down or Step down”.

For more training ideas please visit the following link.

Volunteers Wanted

Paul - Website Owner — Sat, 12 May 2007 12:21:23 +0000

As Owner and Admin of Priceless Parrots.com, My baby up to the present day has been an exciting project for me in all aspects. As with anything in this life website design especially the research side of things takes alot of my time to complete. Even after 2 years of design the website is still not complete. We have alot of pages still not complete within the main website. News features are always a nice touch for guests to view when browsing the main site. This should always change with the times and contain up to date news features and information keeping visitors interested and hopefully keep them coming back.

With this in mind and bearing in mind I dont have the spare time on my hands that I did a year ago I am interested to know if there would be any volunteers on the forum or visitors to the main website that may just have a small amount of time on there hands to browse the net and and send me links to News Articles, Keep up to date with Defra, Bird Flu, Parrot Conservation and lots more.

If you would be interested and think you may have a little time on your hands then do let me know. You may contact me by email at the address below.

paul@pricelessparrots.com

This will of course be a voluntary role as Priceless Parrots does not make any money so wouldnt be able to pay you in anyway. Please bare this in mind when contacting me.

Well I thank you for your time.

Regards

Paul Hallissey

Website Owner