Beaky Bytes

Willie’s Story

Three years ago, I adopted a cat from a rescue organization.  The cat, Willie, was about 8 months old.  The rescue had no background on him.  He had been found, injured.  His physical injuries had healed but he wasn’t a cuddly kitty.  Willie didn’t “like” people.  Not quite feral but not socialized.  The rescue tries to operate on a nokill basis but if animals are deemed unadoptable, they are put to sleep.  Willie was on his way to being declared unadoptable.

Willie joined our little family and I won’t say life was great from the start but it didn’t go too badly.   He stuck like glue to me, so socializing him with the rest of the family was a priority.  I have an advantage that, unfortunately, many people don’t have.  While I’m careful how I introduce a new member of the family, I seldom have any acceptance problems from my existing critters.   They have all been subjected to so many strays from so many species being fostered over the years, they are usually quite supportive of new additions.

A few days after bringing Willie home, Marconi Umbrella Cockatoo and I enjoyed one of our extremely loud songfests.  She was on her playgym and I was standing next to her.  We compete to see who can make the strangest sounds. Sound for sound and often even including body language,  I’ll mimic her, she’ll mimic me.  We both really get into it.  We’re loud enough to drown out a 747 and we probably sound like we’re in excruciating agony!

In the midst of one particularly piercing yodel, I felt something hit my leg and almost simultaneous pain.  Willie had launched himself at my leg, he was biting, tearing and clawing.  His eyes were wide and glazed.  Not normal for a cat who is fighting.  This was a cat who appeared “out of his mind” for lack of a better description.  It only took a few painful seconds to recognize that screaming was increasing his behavior.  I started whispering to him……not easy when the pain is blinding and you’re both rapidly becoming covered in blood.  Fortunately, when I started whispering, Coni apparently thought it was still part of our game so she started whispering, too.  Willie eased up and lay on the floor, spitting and hissing.  Decades of working with feral cats and I’d never seen this particular behavior.

I sat there on the floor, whispering his new name (we had no way to know if he’d ever had another name).  In only a couple of minutes, he came to me, curled next to me and appeared to crave affection.  After a little soothing stroking, quiet sounds and attention diverted to a toy, I could finally get a good look at my wounds.

Parts of my leg were meatloaf.  I will always have scars.  Willie was a kitty who seemingly lost his mind, attacking viciously, at loud noises.  A home with parrots was, obviously, one of  the worst placements for Willie.  I agonized over the decision to take him back to the shelter.  Had I known that Willie would react that way, I would have known our home was not the best fit for him or him for us.  Frankly, had the rescue known his behavioral history, he would have been euthanized…..not adopted.

I do not know what happened in his background to cause such terror.  I will probably never know.  I don’t need to know his history.  Maybe some drunk, yelling and screaming kicked him.  Maybe a car honking it’s horn is the last thing he remembers before his injury.  I don’t know.  I don’t need know.   Over the years, I’ve heard too many people refuse to offer their home to a “second-hand” pet because those people don’t know what may have happened to the animal in the past.  They think they need to know “WHY” an animal is behaving the way it does.  As long as that thought is stuck in their brain, they can’t accept that the animal’s behavior can be modified without knowing the “why”.   Even if the rescue had been told that Willie was an “attack cat”, “biter”, “insanely aggressive” or whatever label some past owner might have applied, knowing that the behavior had been exhibited in the past would not have necessarily prepared me for it to happen when it did (immediately preceded by loud noise).  The rescue had him for a couple months but the conditions had never been just right to trigger the behavior.

In the end, I decided to keep Willie in our home and attempt to work with his behavior.  It wasn’t an easy decision. I wasn’t sure we could save Willie but  I was pretty sure we were his last chance.   Another home with children, loud dogs, arguing adults…….in short, any home with loud, sudden noises would not be in Willie’s best interest and if he attacked a child as he did me…..mentally, I don’t even want to go there.

How we worked with Willie is too long and involved for this too long post.  In essence, after ruling out any medical cause of the behavior, the plan was a combination of giving him a quiet spot, reinforcing him when he took himself to his quiet spot and gradual desensitization.

Christmas before last, we were rewarded by a sight that would have seemed a miracle only a year earlier.   As 30+ Amish Carolers, dressed all in black circled our living room, Willie crept in and sat in the middle of the living room floor.  Perfectly at ease, seemingly lost in the enjoyment of the music.  As I watched the carolers fight the urge to smile at their adorable kitty audience…..I fought tears of joy.

Willie will probably always be a “special needs” kitty but he is also a very special kitty.  :-))

When Coni began to learn to fly, she had been clipped all of her 19 years. She had a long history of fright flights and painful crashes. In the beginning, we were both clumsy amateurs. I’d had lots of flighted birds come to me. I’d never had a large parrot using my arm as her very first official landing strip.

Initially, I tried lots of different “positions”. Her very first “hops” were to my right hand. I would treat with the left. As the flights became longer but still lacking “brakes” or control, I switched arms. She landed on my left forearm. In this way, I could use my right hand to help prevent overflights and crashes. This position worked well while she was at shorter distances. Unfortunately, it took me a while to realize that the use of the left arm was actually inhibiting her ability to gain the confidence for longer flight distances. I had developed the habit of holding my arm across my body. She wasn’t comfortable launching herself at my body. When I switched to the right arm, held out horizontally, we went back to little bitty one foot jumps but we bypassed the furthest left-arm distance very, very rapidly.

She maxed everything she could do in the house……flying about 50 ft, flying down from doors and ceilings, flying down stairs, flying up, flying from stable perches and flying from flimsy ropes, flying from skinny branches hung from the ceiling, flying around corners and even flying into the wind on a very, very windy day when I opened the dining room window all the way and let the wind blow in. (You know you’re seriously into the training stuff when you actually “invite” storm winds into your home!)

We went into a “maintenance mode” for a while. We still did recalls but they were lacking the new challenges. I like to think we both enjoyed the challenges, I know I did. Some of her most responsive flying is immediately after the light bulb goes off and she nails a new experience.

During all of our flight training, I had used the verbal cue, “jump”. I liked that I could hold my arm up and she would stay in that anticipatory position until I said, “jump”. She’d then launch herself into the air. I didn’t want to lose that behavior but I wanted to add a flight behavior based on a non-verbal cue, too. I gave it a lot of thought but really didn’t come up with an idea I liked.

It was Coni who showed me the way to a new flight cue. One day, as I was lifting my arm to let her know to get ready, I noticed how intent her concentration was on my arm. As my arm slowly raised, she slowly positioned herself. All those months, hundreds of cues…and I’d never realized how slowly I raised my arm! My own behavior had been shaped ever so gradually……I hadn’t noticed! But that was the answer! The new non-verbal flight cue would be…….ta da…….I raise my arm very quickly!!! (And keep my mouth shut! :-)))

Coni caught on to the new game so quickly, it blew my mind. I had worried that the two cues would be too similar. Apparently they weren’t at all similar in her mind…..and that was the only mind that mattered! I can even mix them up during the same training session. It’s a joy to watch her expression as I stand with my arm to my side. You can almost see the wheels turn…….is the arm going to raise slowly or is it going to come flying up! I’ve noticed she is less likely to show latency with the new cue. I don’t know if that is because it is still a new cue or if there is a different reason.

I guess it’s time to wrap this up and explain how I know you shouldn’t offer a cue unless you mean it. Of course, the end of the story will also betray how foolish I can sometimes be….oh well.

Last week, I decided to scan the living room ceiling for electrical wiring behind the plaster. Being too lazy to go get the ladder and convincing myself I really didn’t need it to scan just that little area I cared about………I decided to stand on the wooden chest. Coni was busy on her gym about 10 ft away. I was aware her interest shifted to me as I started climbing on top of the chest. As I reached the top, the footing was a bit awkward but I was pretty sure I could balance for a couple of minutes. I decided to try running the scanner across the plaster with my left hand, leaving my right dangling at my side but free to help me balance or break my fall….whichever came first.

The need to balance came first! As I felt my footing slip, I threw my arm up to balance my weight. I was only vaguely aware of the simultaneous sound of wings. I recovered my balance at very nearly the same second Coni, responding to her “cue”, landed on my outstretched arm. I looked at her in astonishment. She looked at me, turned one eye towards the distant floor, looked back at me and said, “sorry”. :-)))

So, the moral of the story is …use a ladder. <jk> The moral of the story is…….don’t cue unless you mean it. But if you do….. it helps to have a “return to perch” behavior trained.

Wow! I’m finally getting back to this blog. Not that I haven’t tried writing a few posts…..quite a few posts. <ugh> My drafts folder is full of partly written ideas. Let’s see…..there is a post on one of my very favorite subjects, Applied Behavior Analysis. So important. There is one on the importance of understanding body language. One I started titled “Why Live With a Parrot”. I even have a tidy little introduction to my feathered family stuffed into that folder along with about a half dozen other half-baked…..er….half written ideas. Sometime in the near future, I also hope to have a special guest writer share stories and pics of her beautiful birds and aviary.

Tonight, all those partly conceived thoughts are staying in their folder. I’ve decided to share one of Marconi’s stories instead. I often try to catch Marconi’s antics in story form. I’m hoping to have a binder full of her history which can accompany her throughout her life after I’m gone. So many rehomed parrots lose their past and often even their name. I don’t think I have to worry about the latter with Marconi. Even without her binder full of stories, she’s quick to tell everyone her name. “Hi, I Marconi Gooood Chicken” is one of her most frequent phrases. Of course, she sounds like she has gravel in her beak! Maybe it’s best if I keep writing her stories. <grin>

I wrote this story in Oct of 2007. Hope you enjoy!

Marconi’s Story

Marconi Umbrella Cockatoo is now 20 years old. She was 13 1/2 when she came to live with us. If you’ll pardon the construct, she was what is unaffectionately referred to as a “screamer”. Let me put that a bit more precisely.

She SCREAMED.

I should try to explain. If you haven’t heard an Umbrella Cockatoo scream, you may not understand. Imagine living with a bird in a well insulated brick home with all the windows and doors shut tightly. Imagine your neighbor half a block away hearing your bird scream.

Uh huh….that’s what I mean…….. she SCREAMED!!!!!!

She would occasionally eat, she would occasionally sleep. The rest of the time she screamed. Or so it seemed.

That was then. Now… she hardly ever screams. Months go by without a scream. True, we do have special times for her to “let it all out” like when we are “singing” together. LOL! But she is no longer a “screamer”.

Now, she spends her days playing on her gym. She loves her foot toys and can spend hours trying to stuff things into other things which then get stuffed into bigger things. It’s very complicated work.

For the past several months, she has been learning flighted recall. After being clipped for 19 years, she now has “wings”. She can fly up to 30 feet and land on my arm when cued.

Marconi has a pretty incredible vocabulary. She frequently amazes us. We try to encourage the talking and we always try to acknowledge her presence and respect her intelligence. When we leave the room or walk outside she will yell at us, “come back” or “come back here”. If we tell her where we are going and that we’ll “be right back” she is usually content to let us come and go.

She has always been referred to as “The Chicken” even in her first home. She will tell people, “Hi, I Marconi gooood chicken”. I frequently refer aloud to our time together as “taking care of The Chicken” or “playing with The Chicken” etc.

Not long ago, we moved across country to be closer to my husband’s family. We moved 2 birds, 2 cats, 3 dogs, 2 turtles and 2 old sheep….but that’s another story (or two!)

Back to Coni’s story….Last month, my wonderful father-in-law (Pop) came for a visit. Pop is 88 and someday his visits might be of a more permanent nature. With that in mind, we spend a lot of time trying to help him understand and appreciate all the feathered and furred members of our family. He has never lived around birds or cats (I think I’ve seen a slight shudder at the sight of the turtles). He is more familiar with dogs but not with 120 pounds of dog who insist on being as familiar as our guys! LOL

Unfortunately, I discovered early in the visit that I would have to keep Marconi caged during much of his time with us. My newly flighted chicken really wanted to fly to her new best friend. He really didn’t want her near him!!! As a consequence, she lost much of her normal freedom. Joining us in the dining room for dinner was no longer on the menu.

One evening, I had given the birds their dinner in the living room. Dogs and cats had their dinners and we humans sat down to a peaceful, quiet dinner at the dining room table.

Yeah, right!

From her cage in the living room, Marconi started tapping. Beak on cage bars….Tap, tap, tap…. Pause…Is mom listening? … Tap, tap, tap, pause. This continued for several annoying minutes as I ignored her.

Ed explained to Pop that the tapping is considered an “acceptable” communication. When she came to live with us as a “screamer”, we would ignore the screaming and only respond to the “acceptable” forms of communication. Our consistency helped her learn what was & wasn’t considered “acceptable”. As he was explaining this, she was tapping.

Finally, after a pause, she started whistling. A cute little tune of her own composition I guess. Whistle, whistle, pause…..Is mom listening? Whistle, whistle, pause. I ignored her. It wasn’t easy. By that time, I’m thinking Pop will never want to live in our crazy home. Heck, at this rate, we’ll probably have to drag him back for another visit!

As the whistle crescendoed, Ed explained that whistling was also an acceptable form of communication and in the beginning I always responded to Coni’s whistling. Pop looked dubious.

Ed patiently explained that Marconi will probably start to get a little frustrated now. I have to admit….Pop was starting to look a bit frustrated, too!

No sooner had Ed foretold the change…. those cute whistles changed to little baby cockatoo whines. Whine, pause. Whine, pause. Is mom listening? Louder whine, pause. LOUDER WHINE, pause.

Now, you are probably wondering what I was doing through all this. I was sitting there like a lump on a log… totally stunned because I had NO idea my wonderful husband had been actually listening to my explanations *why* we were doing all these strange things with Marconi for the past six years!!!! I was in shock as he continued explaining that Marconi may scream really loudly once or twice but it won’t continue because she knows it won’t get her what she wants. He assured Pop, if Marconi talks, I will jump up and go take care of her because I’m still encouraging the talking. As he’s telling Pop this, the whining has turned to loud moans. Not quite screams but definitely NOT acceptable.

Suddenly…….. there was total silence.

Then a deep, croaky voice shouted from the living room,

“Come back here!” “Take care of The Chicken!”

I only had a moment to absorb the awesome looks coming from my two special guys. Ed was looking stunned, like “WOW! It really DID work!” Pop was staring at me with something like “awe”. I could have basked in that personally “reinforcing” moment for a long time but……

….. I had to go take care of The Goood Chicken. <smile>

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To learn more about parrot behavior: http://behaviorworks.org

SOS!

Hi! Welcome!

This is a blog about parrot issues. I’m not a professional parrot trainer. I’m not a parrot behaviorist. I am a parrot owner who happens to have great admiration and respect for honorable, gifted and knowledgeable avian experts. My goal is to add my voice to the growing but still relatively small chorus of bird owners and trainers who are disgusted by the large influx of “snake oil salesmen (SOS)” deceiving innocent bird owners both online and in print.

We’ve all seen our share of snake oil salesmen. It may be easier to recognize them if they are dressed in polyester and working at Fast Eddie’s Used Cars but they can also be found online and in some of our favorite bird magazines, too. Hint: If they call themselves by some anal title, i.e. “the parrot man”, “the avian lady”, the “the sailor dude” OR they tout the ability to teach your parrot to talk, stop screaming or whatever in 3 easy lessons/10 minutes, whichever comes first run… don’t walk…to the nearest exit! If they tell you the best and/or only way to train a bird is to go get a fledged, unweaned baby bird or withhold your bird’s food for 48 hours/or until the bird is hungry enough to do anything you ask …….yep……SOS!

Legitimate avian husbandry, training and behavior experts can be found online. Some of the very, very best are listed in my links. Visit their sites. In turn, they will link you to other reputable sources. If you are considering the expertise of someone not found on any of their recommendations……chances are, that person’s knowledge is marginalized at best and possibly downright fraudulent.

Don’t buy snake oil. It’s bad for you and even worse for your bird.