Phoebe Linden Behavioral Development: Stages principles and Practices
In companion parrots, we need to
not only understand the parrot, but the
Humans also
There are two kinds of Instinct:
Closed: such as insects have
Open: this kind of instinct augments learning
Information accumulates and social experience guides learning.
Birds have Optimal Learning periods
Learning leads to Behavioral Success
The first Vet visit can be a stress free or a stress-ful experience
The Developmental Stages
Neonate
This is the time for
comfort
While in the nest, the babies are being catered to by their parents.
A friend put a video camera in the nestbox of a Moluccan pair.
The parents were always in physical contact with the baby.
The neonate loves to be touched and wants to be held
This is the time for Abundant Weaning.
Always feed on demand
Neophyte
This stage is the development of curiosity
The birds need their privacy and a place to retreat
Parrots do not learn in a linear way like we are used to.
Their learning style is more like 1 step forward, 1 step back,
and 2 steps forward, 1 step back, etc
They need to develop their visual skills at this time
Abundance Weaning
Feed, feed, feed
We can replicate parrot parents by feeding warm moist food
Neophyte to Fledging
This stage is called curiosity in motion
They are starting to think in multi levels
There is a lot out there to see and experience
Let babies sleep in a box for as long as they want
Provide perches, toys, crocks, etc
Help them accept changes more readily
It is important to teach them about windows, ledges, mirrors at this
time for their safety
Place perches in front of these dangers to help the bird learn to land on them, not crash into them
Abundance Weaning.
They don't eat in a consistent manner at this point
Hunger does NOT motivate eating
They eat best and eat new foods more readily when they are
Not hungry
Fledging
They use their wings in different ways:
Playing, bathing, flirting, etc
We need to learn how to balance Dependence and Independence
In the flock, everyone participates in flight
This is a social activity
Learning to land is very important
It is not normal to cage a fledgling
This is the time that they need to be learning about flight
Let them fly until we know that they are using their thinking
skills
Trust is very important at this stage
Abundance Weaning
Keep feeding!
Coordination and Confidence are
also very important
You can't have a confident bird without coordination
Exercise >>> Coordination >>> Confidence >>>
Companionship
At this stage their brains are in active development
Thinkling
This stage is where they start to practice the lessons they have learned so
far
In the wild, if they don't learn..they die
They are developing skills by understanding the flock
Abundance weaning..
Keep on feeding warm moist food s to older birds.
In observing the wild flock of Amazons that frequent Phoebe's back yard,
there is no food depravation
Adolescence
This is the stage of sexual immaturity
They are preparing for long lasting adulthood
Birds act inconsistently, so they need us to be consistent.
They challenge us to remain consistent
Abundance Weaning
They don't make good food choices
This is the time to give a diverse diet in order to keep encouraging
them to eat good foods.Adults
Abundance Weaning
Continue to feed warm moist foods
Helps to cement the bonds
If you want to modify behavior, make sure the bird is fed
Results of Deliberate Development
They can live in our alien environment
and still be a bird
Neo-cortex thinking
This is Complex thinking
This involves analysis between real and artificial
This kind of thinking strengthens our bond with our birds
Birds have complex relationships
Comfort = Self Soothing
This is very important to the bird
They learn how to sooth themselves which then supports psychological
soundness
Curiosity needs to be a life long thing with birds.
Encourage exploration and other
athletic skills
If not, need to encourage curiosity
Eye contact with humans is also important
Athletic birds can properly expend
their calories
An athletic bird is a happy bird
In a flock, learning is a variety
of things
They learn how to act in a flock environment
They learn about inappropriate behavior and the consequences
Results of Improper Development = Emotionally Unhealthy Birds
Remedial Programs
Treating and training the Human Caregiver
Human dynamics are very important
Human behavior affects the parrot behavior
A one person bird does not understand flock behavior
We should be teachers and caregivers
Taking a History
Try to access early developmental stages
How curious is the bird?
Need to see a demonstration of the skills the bird has
Need to build progress
Biting..
Is he biting because he is not thinking?
Is he reacting instead of thinking?
Need to calculate the balance between Dependence and independence
Can the bird be comforted?
Is he edgy and high strung?
Is he prone to the startle response?
Does he have excessive fear?
Does he react and blow everything out of proportion?
Does the bird resist touching?
Assess
Does the bird have self-soothing skills?
How long is his recovery time?
when he lacks comfort?
Only tell them they are okay WHEN they are okay..don't lie to
them
When you sooth them, you are letting them know that you won't
abandon
them.
Birds know the difference between toweling at home and at the
vet office.
Don't lie to your birds
Provide Privacy for your birds in their space.
Use high perches, boxes, covered areas, etc
In order to get to the brain, they need to be well fed so that
they aren't
worrying about where the food is coming from
No Curiosity or Visual Skills
This is a sigh of overdependence
Does not like variety and is very picky
Developing Curiosity
This can be difficult with adults
You need to develop visual skills
This can be done by taking a tour thru the house and showing the
bird where he lives.
After you have taken the tour and the bird is comfortable with that,
allow the bird to touch things that he sees
Then teach the bird motion..flying, flapping etc.
Curious birds find ways to amuse themselves
Activate the Eyes
Teach colors by using different pieces of construction paper.
Turn it into a game
This activates neo-cortex thinking
Birds have the ability to look far away ( looking for hawks)
and close up ( looking at a flower)
Use this ability to have the bird "find a lost item" game
Eye Contact is very important when relating to a bird
In the nestbox, the parent birds are always in eye contact when
feeding a baby
Birds need to be able to accept our "alien" faceNo Exploration or Athletic Skills
Step Up / Step Down command
When birds don't use that command, they are losing an opportunity
for praise.
Birds need to know how to enter and exit the cage with compliance.
This means they need to learn the social structure of the flock
The Step up /Down command is best learned away from the cage in a
Neutral room.
Stick training is very important and does not have to be a
physical stick.. it can be anything that you use to transport the bird to another location
Increase Activity for birds
Consider a partial clip ( except with aggressive birds)
Full wings burn up more calories
You may have to teach your bird how to flap his/her wings
Signs of a bird with lack of confidence
Afraid.....Lazy........Fearful ......Shy
In trying to replicate the Flight
Experience..
Take your bird thru the house on a tour
Travel with your bird
Give him choices
Give them complicated play areas
Have them sleep in a different area than where they usually are
during
the day
Increase Activity
Shower them!
With an increase in activity you will have a well adjusted bird.
Good Coordination Augments Confidence
Encourage practicing.don't concentrate on just gaining results
You must Encourage the PROCESS
Bird suffers from a short attention
span
This shows he has no concentration skills
He is not able to amuse himself
May do a repetitive motion
Does not thinkjust reacts
Problem Solving
Start simple
Do you want a peanut or a pine nut?
Increase complexity
Find the missing object game
Give him a box to chew up
Actively Thinking Birds are Challenged
Birds
When you have a lack of decision-making skills you have a bird
that is
Reactive and may be prone to repetitive actions
Stress Hierarchy
The birds need to know who is who in his life
Sally Blanchard......... Defining Companion Parrot Behavior
This is a relationship between Parrot
and owner.
The word Dominance is defined in the dictionary as:
"with Authority"
It is not an aggressive word
The concept of height dominance..........
does it matter?
this can become an issue with companion parrots..
and seems to me more true with Companion Parrots
If you choose clicker training,
it may benefit your relationship due to
focused attention and Your focused attention
Your attention is the most important behavioral tool that you have.
In any action, you must determine
if it is
Trust building or Trust destroying
WE need to focus on the relationship
between person and parrot/
In most cases we need to Teach the Person...
In order to let the bird think it ( the behavior) was his idea, we need to "cajole" him/
Birds do become more intelligent due to the more we interact with them..
Be silly with them..
Comfort Behaviors......... satisfy
a need
beak grinding
toe in nose
preening
If there is not enough stimulation,
you may see the start of repetitive behaviors
They may use comfort behaviors to
excess
We need to be in tune and know when to stimulate our parrots
thru toys, more attention, etc
Focused attention is very different from casual attention/
it is a "in your face" kind of stimulation.
When your bird bites, just say "ow!!"
no unnecessary drama.
They need to know that they hurt you and you don't like it
When a parrot goes bad, they are reflecting their owner and / or environment, not `them, the parrot.....
Greys will become "one person birds" only if WE let
them
A good way to encourage biting is to invade a bird's space before we have become a part of their space.
Q & A about Toos....
When a too bites a dog........
re direct the behavior
Toos vs another pet... a Cat
Toos are taking their athleticism
out in aggression as they are not able to do Birdy Athletics like
their wild cousins.
Give the bird more... activity
If a too is not doing well with
a New Person, do ups in the presence of the new person.
This establishes to the NP that the bird knows these commands
and also lets the bird know that the NP also knows this
A comment was made regarding the
use of Ibuprofen for treating a bird.
It is known that this drug is very hard on the liver.
Find out what makes the toos happy
and let them do it alot.
And then praise them for doing it.
Toos come into the world with a deficit in affection.
In order to gain control of step
up command, have your too step up on a variety of items:
basket handle, food crock, etc......
Grey Q & A....
Fledging is very important as it
allows curiosity.
The flock is very important to Greys as they seem to operate as
a single unit
They are very secretive birds i the wild
Cages should be wider & deeper
, not higher
Since Greys spend alot of time on the ground in their natural
habitat, they may do better without grates in their cages.
To avoid power struggles, if you
do not want your buttons to disappear, just don't wear shirts
with buttons.
Avoid those struggles.....
Phoebe Linden on Fledging
Two questions to ask ones self
How would wild birds act?
What is normal flock behavior?
We need to replicate their learning
as well as teach them how to live in our world.
There are several stages that parrots go thru based upon Phoebe's
observation.
Neonate.
snuggle comfort needed, feed on demand,
Neophyte
development of curiosity,
Neo fledge ( my term)
curiosity in motion
Fledgling
threshold to life long athleticism
Thinkling
knows to come, follow and obey
learns decision-making capabilities
longer attention span in order to solve problems
understands flock dynamics
Adolescent
hormones influence behavior
Adult
Before a parrot fledges, he must
be comfortable and curious.
In our environment they must learn about doors, windows, ledges.
etc
The physical benefits to fledging
are:
They can land on their feet
They have increased coordination
They experience exploration
The antidote to aggression is exercise
The psychological benefit is confidence
Coordination and confidence are very important in a fledging bird
Mental benefits of fledging
decision making
intentionality
"how do I get there?"
Decision making capabilities
allows the physical and mental aspects of the parrot to combine
Social benefits
praise and reinforcement
Flock learning
Requires dependence and independence
needs a proper balance
When they understand the flock hierarchy, they are beginning to
understand authority
as well as social rules.
When fledging occurs, and you want to clip, use a gradual wing clip
A combination of things to have
a parrot do to replace the experience of flight are:
climbing
swinging
preening
showering
There are benefits of partial flight : coordination confidence exercise
Or, teach your bird to get used to a harness
You can teach an older bird to fly,
but it won't be as easy as a younger one.
You must have reasonable expectations with your older adult bird.
One thing that is important is curiosity.
We must stimulate them to fly
Liz Wilson on case studies
When she does a consult, first she has a list of questions that she asks to get a background.
The list of questions include:
sex ( according to Liz, this is a very important piece of information to have. We always seem to know what the sex is with dogs and cats, but not birds....This has important implications when we look at behaviors)
housing where does the bird live?
previous birds in the home? if they are no longer there, why aren't they?
where did you get this bird? pet store, breeder, second hand?
was the bird weaned? by who?
Has the household changed lately?
people in and out? new baby? remodeling going on?
Where is the cage in relation to the room?
What is the flow of people in that room?
has client make a floor plan of the room the bird is in and mark out the flow pattern
What is the Diet?
And the most important question to ask is How MUCH does the bird eat?
It doesn't matter how great the diet if the bird isn't eating it.
Case Studies
4 yr old Blue & Gold Macaw...
has been screaming for one year.
the people had moved from a rural area to suburbia
The cage was right next to a window.
the bird had no room to hide form the perceived predators that he saw out the window almost constantly
The owner was miserable living in the city and the bird was picking up on her unhappy vibes also
The "flock leader" is the mirror of emotions and attitudes... the bird takes clues from us.
The owner moved the cage so that the bird had a place to hide.
And she changed her attitude.....
3 year old Rose breasted cockatoo
female
plucker
It was determined that the bird was not getting enough sleep
The diet also was high in Phosphorous
Bird was not bathing
The owner was uptight about the birds plucking
Would give negative attention every time the bird touched her
feathers
The owner stopped rewarding the bird for just touching her feathers
Lady was having problems with her
new grey
She had three Amazons and did well with them.
She just needed to understand that greys have different body language.
She learned how to read her new bird's body language
Grey that was showing aggression
towards hubby and was plucking
Mr. was not a grey person
The bird was not caged and would stalk the husband
Mr. was very phobic about birds
( phobic = unreasonable fear)
The bird was caged and was happier
The Mr. was learning to overcome his fears
5 year old Moluccan cockatoo male
The bird was flighted and had no discipline
He was out of control
Any suggestions given to the family were obviously not followed:
the bird bit the son
The bird lost his home
1 year old CAG
biting family members
there were 4 children of the ages 7, 5, 3, 1
The children were out of control
The bird needed more sleep
Liz suggested a barrier around the bottom of the cage to prevent
the children from bothering the bird
She never heard back
5 year old male CAG
plucker
The owners were obsessive/compulsive people
The cage was in the path of the people who would get up at all
hours of the night.
This meant that the bird was not getting enough sleep
The people would also argue around the bird
The owners were banished to their room from 9 pm on ......
Dr.Brandon Ritchie
Advances in the Control of Common Infectious Diseases
Polyomavirus infections are the #1 cause of disease related deaths.
Adult birds can die from this disease.
This virus is now found in Europe in falcons and hawks.
This vaccine has had a 5 year field use with good statistical
status
PBFD
The vaccine is a Plasmid- mediated vaccine
This means that it doesn't contain the entire "germ."
Chlamidiacide ( psittacosis)
There are several different kinds of this disease
Chlamydiosis is the bird variety
It is treatable
Mammals are susceptible to this
We can eradicate this disease by checking our chicks and giving
them the vaccine.
This way there would be no more transmission to older birds...
We need the vaccine as there is such a large free range reservoir
of wild birds who carry it:
pigeons, sparrows.
Smaller birds are rarely tested..Why?
PDD......is now known as Epornitic .......epidemic outbreak
More than 50 species have now contracted
it
This includes geese, spoonbills, toucans, finches, canaries.....
Age susceptibility is from 28 days to 17 years......
but realistically any age can get it.
Neural disease as messages don't get to the muscle
Central nervous system signs
A crop biopsy is at this time is 60 - 75% successful
Tammy Jenkins DMV Physical Causes of Feather Picking
In addition to the paper that she gave out that was about 17 pages long, these are my written notes in addition to her outline.
Histories are very important
This information gives us clues as to the cause of the problem
Seasonal patterns may cause allergies
The evening part of the day is the time of day that allergies may emerge
The physical exam may help determine
a cause
as well as create a baseline for future visits
Check the condition of the feet
A minimum diagnostic should in include:
Cytology
fecal for parasites
oral and fecal culture
these will give you a general screen of the health of the bird
General Management of your bird
Daily bathing
dirty down feathers loose their insulating ability
birds are collectors of all that falls down on them from the air
dust , mold, pollen, etc
This is a technique that can help with separation anxiety
spray the bird right before you leave for the day and he will be busy preening as you leave the house
This gives them something to do.
Smoking
children of smokers have more ear infections
how will this affect our birds.
Keep daily records of feather attention
Causes of Feather Picking
1) Infectious diseases
PBFD seems to affect old world birds
this is abnormal feather development that gets worse with each
molt
PDD we see weight loss, undigested seeds in droppings, neurological
problems, feather picking
Aspergillosis
picking and wheezing
2) Allergies
is nothing more than an organism responding to it's environment
Foods that are the most allergenic are:
Corn, wheat, processed foods
3) Endocrine/reproductive
greys need more selenium
Chris Shank of Cockatoo Downs
Birds need to know where they live
Take them around the house and show them where home is .
Then take then outside and show that to them. If you can, go on
the roof so they can see their world from that view.
Familiarize them by taking them all around.
Understand the flock dynamics
Chris does not believe in the alpha bird concept
She feels that there are submissive and dominant members of the
flock
This can change from season to season and other changes within
the flock
Her inside birds all know how to
fly and land.
She has ropes strung all over the house. When they land or walk
on it, it sways as a tree branch may.
Each bird has a flock contact call.
Chris keeps in touch with each bird when they are out side.
Q & A with Sally Blanchard and Phoebe Linden with help from the audience
In order to understand birds, we
need to get out of our own logic.
Birds do not think like we do
In any situation where you need details it is best to keep a diary of all that you observe
There may be three kinds of male
cockatoos
female, male and Super male
A comment was make that these Super males seem to come out of
the egg that way......
Toos are very reactive
Macaws may not like the color yellow
Vision.....
Birds perceive the world differently from us as they see in UV
If they see UV light, what do they
see when they see us?
Do we have auras?
Does this affect the way they react to us?
Do different moods create different reactions to those moods?
We need to show parrots how to play with toys........
Preemptive measures are those that
anticipate the behavior you want to change and
then use appropriate re direction
Beaks are not used as weapons in
the wild
They are used for many other things: eating, climbing, feeding,
rubbing, etc.....
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