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Antoine Silvere posted:Good to know! I definitely plan on letting him chill out with me at my desk and will give him lots of love and attention. Bites don't really worry me, although I've heard (in this thread and other places) that you should "discipline" your GCC if they bite you by placing them on the ground? I know that hitting and screaming at them is a big no no (and I couldn't if I wanted to, look at that face), but does the ground thing work? Won't they just fly/climb up your leg or something? Conures are not ground foragers, so most times they don't like being set on the floor: it makes them uncomfortable and anxious (unless you are my bird, who grew up around a cockatiel and constantly flies onto the ground to find snacks). It's a good disciplinary method because some alternatives (putting them in their cage, yelling at them) may have unintended associations (getting time alone, getting attention). However, with biting specifically, just ignoring/powering through their bites is usually the best way to go. If you flinch or pull away, the bird's going to realize that he can hold power over you. If you don't respond to his bites, he will learn other, better ways to communicate with you: expressive body language, a phrase or a sound, ringing a bell or doing a trick. When a bird bites you he's trying to say something, and it's best to teach him to say those things different ways.
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Apr 29, 2015 02:00
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:Conures are not ground foragers, so most times they don't like being set on the floor: it makes them uncomfortable and anxious (unless you are my bird, who grew up around a cockatiel and constantly flies onto the ground to find snacks). It's a good disciplinary method because some alternatives (putting them in their cage, yelling at them) may have unintended associations (getting time alone, getting attention). However, with biting specifically, just ignoring/powering through their bites is usually the best way to go. If you flinch or pull away, the bird's going to realize that he can hold power over you. If you don't respond to his bites, he will learn other, better ways to communicate with you: expressive body language, a phrase or a sound, ringing a bell or doing a trick. When a bird bites you he's trying to say something, and it's best to teach him to say those things different ways. Ah, I see. When you put it that way it makes a lot of sense, thanks! Looking forward to bringing my new friend home 
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Apr 29, 2015 02:29
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Serious question to those that have velcro birds, how do you deal with it pooping on you all the time? Do you just wear a shirt you consider the "poop shirt"? Are GCC's smart enough to train them to fly to their cage to do their business? Knifegrab fucked around with this message at 02:49 on Apr 29, 2015 |
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Apr 29, 2015 02:46
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Knifegrab posted:Serious question to those that have velcro birds, how do you deal with it pooping on you all the time? Do you just wear a shirt you consider the "poop shirt"? I'm sure I could train my budgie to go to the bathroom on command but she's so small, and poops so frequently (speedy, metabolism and tiny holding tank!) I'm too lazy to bother. I wear a towel around my shoulders and clip it together with a clothes peg because I'm super stylish like that. Then I just chuck it in the wash at the end of the day.. My friends mom has a lovebird and when she comes home from work she actually does change into her " poop clothes".
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Apr 29, 2015 02:54
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Knifegrab posted:Serious question to those that have velcro birds, how do you deal with it pooping on you all the time? Do you just wear a shirt you consider the "poop shirt"? You can train them, depending on the bird it can take a while. Alexis (a dusky, not gcc, but similar enough) rarely poops on me anymore, but it took me learning what motions she'd make before pooping and then watching very carefully. As soon as she started making any motion to poop I'd move her to a nearby perch and say "go poop!". She eventually learned that I didn't want her doing her business on me, so she usually lets me know with specific sounds and motions. Often these days she'll just fly off my shoulder and do it.
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Apr 29, 2015 02:57
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Knifegrab posted:Serious question to those that have velcro birds, how do you deal with it pooping on you all the time? Do you just wear a shirt you consider the "poop shirt"? Quaker poop doesnt stain
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Apr 29, 2015 03:00
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:
Angry teen and a baby, no problemo Knifegrab posted:Serious question to those that have velcro birds, how do you deal with it pooping on you all the time? Do you just wear a shirt you consider the "poop shirt"? Fry 99% of the time does not/will not poop on me zbeezy fucked around with this message at 03:10 on Apr 29, 2015 |
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Apr 29, 2015 03:04
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spring season ended for me (finally), 5 Cockatiels laid 4 eggs, mum dropped 1  , birbs broke 2 themselves  , lets see how long the last one lasts.well, we won't let it hatch anyway because they are siblings.......
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Apr 29, 2015 03:19
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Zakrello posted:spring season ended for me (finally), 5 Cockatiels laid 4 eggs, mum dropped 1 So much happening 
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Apr 29, 2015 03:44
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Knifegrab posted:Serious question to those that have velcro birds, how do you deal with it pooping on you all the time? Do you just wear a shirt you consider the "poop shirt"? GCCs are smart enough to potty-train, and you'll learn to recognize their body language when they need to go. Holding them over a trashcan and telling them to "go poop" when you see the "I need to go" fidgets is enough most of the time, and in extended cuddle sessions they're really good about holding it for a more appropriate moment.
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Apr 29, 2015 04:10
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Knifegrab posted:Serious question to those that have velcro birds, how do you deal with it pooping on you all the time? Do you just wear a shirt you consider the "poop shirt"? You kinda get used to the bird's poop schedule. Roughly every 30-40 minutes for Pie, depending on whether he's had a lot of water or fruits/veg that day. Pie's also working on potty training, so he'll go in a trash can or on a paper on command if he has to go. We've had other conures in my store that responded very quickly to this kind of training as well; essentially all we did was when we took them out we wouldn't let them onto our shoulder unless they'd already gone poop in the cage or in the trash can, and then praise them heartily with kisses and exclamations of GOOD POOP GOOD BIRD. If I miss his cues though Pie tries his best to not poop on me and will attempt to squat off the side. Not always successful.
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Apr 29, 2015 04:25
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Ritz, a sun conure, is fully flighted. When he wants to poop he starts making a lot of honking sounds which means take me to my cage so I can poop. If we don't, he flies over to his cage, poops and comes back after a bit. Haven't been pooped on in close to three years!
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Apr 29, 2015 04:41
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+1 for seeing the poop dance, putting over trash can/papers, and praising. Slight trick: tuck the tail underneath the bird: usually the bird is smart enough not to poop on self and it also inhibits the natural motions of pooping.LITERALLY A BIRD posted:Conures are not ground foragers, so most times they don't like being set on the floor: it makes them uncomfortable and anxious (unless you are my bird, who grew up around a cockatiel and constantly flies onto the ground to find snacks). It's a good disciplinary method because some alternatives (putting them in their cage, yelling at them) may have unintended associations (getting time alone, getting attention). However, with biting specifically, just ignoring/powering through their bites is usually the best way to go. If you flinch or pull away, the bird's going to realize that he can hold power over you. If you don't respond to his bites, he will learn other, better ways to communicate with you: expressive body language, a phrase or a sound, ringing a bell or doing a trick. When a bird bites you he's trying to say something, and it's best to teach him to say those things different ways. Two things to add to this good post. 1. Bites are communication, and the best way to avoid being bitten is to analyze what the bird was doing before it bit you. Bites are part of a narrative of body language and most of the time birds communicate when they're going to bite. Try to start to recognize the body language that says, "I'm going to bite you," as well as what situations you get bitten in. With Teeka, if I am petting him in a way that he does not like, he will make his eyes very round, stand up sort of tall with his head a bit forward, and puff up the feathers near his cere. If I don't put him on the cage or stop petting him, I'm going to get it. I also know that he sometimes bites to get away when scared, and I know the body language that indicates his flight reflex is kicking in and that in the course of his escape he may bite me to let him go. And so on. Basically, just use bites as a learning experience. Learn the bird's body language, analyze in which situations you get bitten, and try and figure out what he's trying to tell you. 2. I cannot stress the value of behavioral reshaping. This basically amounts to figuring out the cause and situation of the bites and developing an alternate behavior and rewarding the bird for performing the alternate behavior that communicates the same thing. So like LAB said, if bird bites for attention, start teaching it to do tricks for attention instead. If bird gets bitey at mealtimes or other specific times of day, develop a literal song and dance for you and the bird that you do just before these troublesome times of the day so that the bird gets in the routine of doing a show instead of biting at that time. And finally, I would definitely agree with LAB that you need to ensure that the bird does not feel like it can bully you with bites. This is why birds can be so problematic for children--they can't really control their reaction to a bite and so the bird goes power crazy. As an adult, you need to just endure the bird testing its limits and teach it that biting doesn't get it anything and very seriously resit the urge to punish the bird. Remember that almost all forms of punishment (negative stimulus) are wasted on birds. e: The floor as punishment is generally a decent idea, but as LAB points out sometimes it doesn't work. That pretty much rules out all forms of punishment in terms of behavioral modification for your bird. You've got to be creative in figuring out how to change the bird's behavior through positive reinforcement. ee: The hardest part of this all though is teaching the bird how much strength is appropriate. Birds use their beaks to climb and they also wrestle you with their beaks. They sometimes do these behaviors too hard much like how dogs mouth play a lot and need to be taught what is appropriate amount of force for play. The key is to always reward appropriate behavior. If the bird climbs on to your finger using its beak without biting hard, reward it. If it clamps too hard, put it down and make it start again so that it has the opportunity to do it right and get a reward. Same thing for wrestling (if your bird does it): the play is reward enough for appropriate strength and stopping play when you get bit for real will teach the bird boundaries. Feel free to resume after a few minutes. eee: Sorry for rambling, but finally remember that your bird is about as smart as a two year old. If a two year old can understand something, so can you bird and that's really drat impressive. But it serves as a reasonable litmus test in determining if a potential course of action is going to work with your bird.
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Apr 29, 2015 06:14
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Eejit posted:+1 for seeing the poop dance, putting over trash can/papers, and praising. Slight trick: tuck the tail underneath the bird: usually the bird is smart enough not to poop on self and it also inhibits the natural motions of pooping. This is very informative and helpful!
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Apr 29, 2015 07:55
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blackflare posted:The longer I hang out here the more I want a bird :c Or someone who owns a bird to live near me and let me visit frequently that would be ideal. this year I am going to
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Apr 29, 2015 08:51
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zbeezy posted:This is very informative and helpful! Ditto, thanks for the info Eejit!
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Apr 29, 2015 09:55
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Shirec posted:Sammy was the same way for the first few weeks. He's calmed down a bunch, even though he still doesn't like it when he can't see me. He also always immediately runs towards me if I approach his cage I feed the budgies Roudybush pellets (along with parrot chop and seed mix). They're pretty good. Make sure to get the right size - I feed the smallest, since, well, budgies.
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Apr 29, 2015 11:44
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On poop training: I have the world's jerkiest conure and it took us nearly a year to get to the point where she associated "go potty" with pooping, and then months after that to give her the idea that we preferred her to poop not on us. I had a GCC before her, so I know the little wiggle and fluff they do right before pooping. I would wait for her body signals, and then right before she pooped, I'd say "go potty". She'd loving stop. Stare at me. And walk off. I thought there was a point of no return! I swear I saw a little poop come out once and get sucked back in when I said "go potty". This meant she started associating the signal with NOT pooping. Eventually we sorted it out, but it did take a lot of stubbornness on my part. I'm still flabbergasted by her fortitude. Anyway, we've gotten her to where she'll generally (80% of the time) wander off to poop, but we can't convince her that her cage is the best place for pooping. She's just too goddamn stubborn and I'm too lazy. I count myself lucky we got this far. Oh, she also figured out how to projectile poop on a birdsitter from inside her cage. I guess she liked the reaction she got when she did it.
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Apr 29, 2015 12:15
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My rear end in a top hat mostly-untamed conure who needs to hold on to something to take a poo poo doesn't even poo on people (or the desk actually) if he can help it. The cockatiel tries not to but seems to just forget a lot of the time Ohtori, who is the best, will poo on you deliberately if you do the bird phone thing with him and are stupid enough to put him on your shoulder afterwards. Pile of Kittens posted:On poop training: I have the world's jerkiest conure and it took us nearly a year to get to the point where she associated "go potty" with pooping, and then months after that to give her the idea that we preferred her to poop not on us. I had a GCC before her, so I know the little wiggle and fluff they do right before pooping. I would wait for her body signals, and then right before she pooped, I'd say "go potty". She'd loving stop. Stare at me. And walk off. I thought there was a point of no return! I swear I saw a little poop come out once and get sucked back in when I said "go potty". This meant she started associating the signal with NOT pooping. Eventually we sorted it out, but it did take a lot of stubbornness on my part. I'm still flabbergasted by her fortitude. Haha, Ohtori is similar. He will do it, but whatever he's doing, he'll just stop and narrow his eyes at you and just seem so disgusted with you for asking
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Apr 29, 2015 12:55
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Loki's cere still looks bad but his weight loss has stopped, he isn't as tired as before and he isn't poofy. We're starting to get our hopes up that he miraculously beat the testicular cancer. Fingers crossed that he got himself a few more months or even a year. He also absolutely loves Donkey Kong 64. I was playing the other day while my wife was making some pasta, which is one of the only times we lock him when we're home, and he absolutely screamed with indignation that he was not allowed to stand on the controller and make me lose for his favorite video game. He is completely confused by the melody for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme, but he has taken to whistling along with it, just the same. He's been in a spectacularly good mood.
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Apr 29, 2015 13:55
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Ozzy is the best trained pooper ever. He ALWAYS poops on command and if he doesn't have to go he still does that little squat thing so I will understand that he doesn't have to  He learned within a couple weeks of bringing him home as a baby. 6 years and he's only had a couple accidents Nugget has like a 60% success rate about not pooping on people. Some days she is great and some days she poops on me 4 times. 
Pip pip pip fucked around with this message at 14:03 on Apr 29, 2015 |
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Apr 29, 2015 13:57
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    E: Really. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOUM4rhT0ME Battle Pigeon fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Apr 29, 2015 |
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Apr 29, 2015 14:22
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Came back from vacation last night and went to pick up Burt only to find out that he had died that morning! He was only a young Parrotlet not even 2 years old. Was really sad to come home to as he kept both me and my wife company when the other was away working. So weird as we were checking in and he seemed to be enjoying himself was chirping away and had all his needs met where we brought him for the week. Makes me feel like a bad pet owner to know that they can live so long and he died so young but I guess it's important he had a good life while he was here. 
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Apr 29, 2015 14:38
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I'm so sorry for your loss. That's a terrible thing to come home to.
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Apr 29, 2015 16:07
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Sometimes there's just nothing you can do. Condolences, flashman.
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Apr 29, 2015 16:13
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Sorry to hear about Burt, flashman. Sort of reminds me of how one of my last birds went. Chirping and jumping along as usual, sudden silence for a bit. Looked into his cage and he was just laying there on the bottom, dead. He was only 2 or 3 years old as well.
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Apr 29, 2015 16:24
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Eejit posted:Two things to add to this good post. When Pie's getting into his nasty-bite-mode all of the feathers circling his neck/edge of his head will stand up but his face feathers will stay flat. Thankfully he only usually gets that way if you're antagonizing him, though I don't think he's hit puberty yet so I'm not very excited for that stage in his life. Should be relatively soon.
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Apr 29, 2015 17:22
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flashman posted:Came back from vacation last night and went to pick up Burt only to find out that he had died that morning! He was only a young Parrotlet not even 2 years old. Was really sad to come home to as he kept both me and my wife company when the other was away working. So weird as we were checking in and he seemed to be enjoying himself was chirping away and had all his needs met where we brought him for the week. Makes me feel like a bad pet owner to know that they can live so long and he died so young but I guess it's important he had a good life while he was here. Are you going to bring it up with the caregiver? Did you have Burt boarded or was he with a friend? Either way, sorry for your loss, flashman
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Apr 29, 2015 17:35
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Antoine Silvere posted:I took another trip to Omar's so here are some more birb pics (sorry they aren't very well-shot): Didn't see this until this morning. I don't immediately remember her having a bare spot in the back, so it could be a molt? We are having some weird weather shenanigans right now. She seems pretty happy and I am not too worried about her. Glad you got to enjoy cuddle time! On the other end of the emotional spectrum, I'm really sorry to hear about that Flashman. Don't beat yourself up over it - birds can have some wonky stuff going on that aren't noticable until it's too late. I suspect that since Burt was so young (2 out of how many? I know many birds are just getting to be 'adults' around that age) that something was weird internally, and if that's the case nothing short of turning him into a birdy-cyborg would have saved him. You and your wife gave him a good home and good company, and that's more than what many critters get.
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Apr 29, 2015 17:37
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Sort of want to show you guys this cute camera of this bird named Tora. I've been watching her camera for awhile, she is very cute. http://scorpius.jp:8484/CgiStart?page=Single&Mode=Motion&Language=0
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Apr 30, 2015 03:31
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Also, I sort of need to know some lovebird bonding tips. I have two birds who are best friends and they barely look at me. They are happy together though and not "scared" of me.
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Apr 30, 2015 03:32
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Haha whoops I woke Tora up from a nap when I moved the camera!
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Apr 30, 2015 05:17
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mikerock posted:Haha whoops I woke Tora up from a nap when I moved the camera! Yes. She does move when you move the camera but, she quickly goes back to sleep. However I've seen her have a staring contest with the camera.
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Apr 30, 2015 07:11
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So Zapp's over grown beak of great concern has finally seemed to resolve itself. The over grown section on his lower beak that the vet didn't want to trim out of concern of causing damage has seemed to have chipped away over night. It's still a little uneven, but I'm thinking his normal cuttlebone and perch usage will even it out. How relieving. Edit: The schmutz on his beak is from the Worldly Delights I made up for him this morning. BlueDiablo fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Apr 30, 2015 |
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Apr 30, 2015 21:43
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flashman posted:Came back from vacation last night and went to pick up Burt only to find out that he had died that morning! He was only a young Parrotlet not even 2 years old. Really sorry to hear about Burt. Mapparu posted:Sort of want to show you guys this cute camera of this bird named Tora. I've been watching her camera for awhile, she is very cute. She is cute! I got to see her do the perch dance before being let out earlier. From potato to parrot in 5 seconds or less. BlueDiablo posted:So Zapp's over grown beak of great concern has finally seemed to resolve itself. The over grown section on his lower beak that the vet didn't want to trim out of concern of causing damage has seemed to have chipped away over night. It's still a little uneven, but I'm thinking his normal cuttlebone and perch usage will even it out. How relieving. Looking good! IIRC you said before he was eating mostly/only pellets, and now he gets other things too, so maybe that was the reason. It's a lot better than before!
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Apr 30, 2015 22:06
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LITERALLY A BIRD posted:conures make me happier than anything else in this thread  MORE FRUIT! I DEMAND MORE! I'm almost out you idiot!
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Apr 30, 2015 22:26
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Knifegrab posted:how do you deal with it pooping on you all the time? You can't ever do this. Bird cloacas are magnetically attracted to humans and their clean clothes.
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Apr 30, 2015 22:31
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BloodWulfe posted:
I love Ammy's little red paint splatters so much
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Apr 30, 2015 23:23
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I went back to the bird store today! I was walking around when suddenly a cockatoo jumped on my arm, climbed up my shoulder, and stuffed her head in my hand for scratches Then she threw my glasses on the floor and ran back and forth on my shoulders just being a butt in general. How do you get larger birds off of you if they don't willingly step onto your fingers? I think she figured out really quick that I didn't know how to get her down and started being an rear end in a top hat because of it.
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May 1, 2015 02:16
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Smettbo posted:I went back to the bird store today! I was walking around when suddenly a cockatoo jumped on my arm, climbed up my shoulder, and stuffed her head in my hand for scratches Basically gently apply pressure with your hand/arm around their feet/legs/belly depending on the bird. Most big cockatoos(especially young ones) in my experience generally won't angryfuss too much if you have to grab feet and lift but they will make the worst noises in order to lure you back because you're BREAKING THEIR HEART, CAN'T YOU SEE?
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May 1, 2015 02:28
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