Spare No Expense
I first recognized the gravity of behavior
problems in parrots when I still worked full-time with avian
veterinarians. I saw the following scenario over and over again: a
desperately ill parrot is brought in by its distraught owner. The
veterinary staff is assured that the owner would do ANYTHING to have
his/ her bird back: "Spare no expense. Money is no object. Do
whatever you need to do. Save my parrot!!!!" And we would do
everything we could, staying up nights with the bird, spending hours
treating and nursing it, even dreaming about it when we did finally
sleep. And often we would win the battle, and proudly send the little
guy home with its tearfully grateful owner.…only to find in a few months
that the same beloved parrot had ended up being sold or given away
because "He bites" or "He screams" or "He doesn’t like my boyfriend."
Obviously, something is seriously wrong here.
I’m going to start off this article with a little
historical perspective because I think it is very important. As a
veterinary technician working with some of the top avian veterinarians
in north-eastern US, I vividly remember the first domestic bred,
hand-fed parrot babies I encountered as patients in our hospital. That
was in 1983, I repeat – 1983 – just fourteen years ago.
The point I am making for those of you who have just become parrot
people in the last few years (which, incidentally, includes most of
you), is that aviculture in this country only started routinely breeding
the larger parrots domestically in the last fifteen to twenty years.
(The west coast started sooner than the Northeast.)
Old Sources of Information
So what, you ask? So
the point is that, even though we humans have been keeping parrots as
pets for thousands of years, those parrots were captured in the wild and
tamed. We have only been dealing routinely with baby parrots, or bappies,
for the last couple of decades at most. Therefore, most of the
parrot behavior information we have is based on our experiences with
wild-caught or imported parrots, and an import is a very different
animal in an extremely important way. The imported parrot has been
socialized, at least to some degree, by other parrots.
Now, let me stop a minute and define "socialize" as I
mean it here. What I mean by "to socialize" is to teach to animal
to adapt to the society in which it lives. So an imported parrot has
been taught by its parents and peers how to adapt to the society of
their flock. And once taught, the bird then has the basic tools to
adapt, to a degree, to the society of their human flock. This is
critical, because these domestic babies are generally not socialized by
other parrots. And if they are incubator-raised by breeders who have so
many babies in their care that individual birds are handled only when
being fed (if even then), then they are essentially not socialized by
anyone. They have been basically left to figure things out on
their own. And this is a real problem, because just how are they
supposed to do this? These are basically wild animals born in captivity,
with no genetic information as to how to cope with this captivity. So we
are just beginning to catch on to the fact that bappies are
really different from adult parrots and have very different needs.
We humans like to consider our-selves to be a "higher"
life form (and personally, I am skeptical), but in retrospect we sure
have not shown a lot of intelligence and common sense when it comes to
baby parrots. Sure, we know that a puppy is going to grow up to
be a dog, and that a puppy generally acts different from a dog,
and a puppy has to be taught stuff or socialized so it becomes a
good pet and happy member of the family. And we know that a
kitten grows up to be a cat, and that kittens usually act
differently from cats, and that you need to teach a kitten the rules of
the house (at least to SOME degree) so it can learn how to be a good
pet.
But for some reason, we were not that smart with
parrots. We suddenly had these deliciously tame, fabulously cuddly and
soft little parrot babies who thought we humans were WONDERFUL. We
brought them home from breeders and pet stores in what I like to call
"The Bassinet and Goo Stage" – and for some idiotic reason (wishful
thinking?), we apparently assumed that they were going to stay that way
FOREVER. There was nothing we needed do but feed them a well-balanced
diet, get a competent avian vet to look after their health, and
love them. Nature had given us the Perfect Pet! (Which is only fair,
since we are all such Perfect Owners, right?)
Pets For Sale In The Newspaper
Then those cute
babies started to grow up and we started learning how wrong we were. All
you have to do is read the Pets For Sale sections in your local
newspapers to see this in black and white. If you look, you will notice
that many (most?) of the birds for sale are between the ages of six
months and two years. This is not a coincidence. From my experience,
most of these adolescent birds have behavior problems of some sort or
other. And the people who are selling them could possibly be the ones
who unknowingly created the behavior problem to begin with. And these
well-meaning but uneducated people will probably get another baby parrot
and start the same process over again. You know the old saying about
history repeating itself unless we learn from it, right? Ultimately, it
is always the parrot who pays dearly for the mistakes of the human. We
don’t socialize them, or teach them HOW to be good pets. Then we get
rid of them when they are not good pets.
People tell me their birds don’t like, for example,
broccoli – so they do not offer it anymore. But one of the few
guarantees in life is that if your bappy (or for that matter, your human
child) does not like broccoli so you never offer it again, well then, I
will give you my personal guarantee that he NEVER WILL like broccoli.
Human parents know that they have to keep exposing their human children
to things that are "good for them." And parrot parents most likely have
to do the same thing in the wild. After all, what makes us think that
bappies in the wild automatically eat what is good for them?
Isn’t it feasible that par-rot parents might go through the same
struggles we go through with our own kids regarding consuming a good
diet?
Easy Cop Out
A lot of the behavior information
written by breeders often tells the pet parrot owner to put their birds
in breeding situations, or "get it a mate" when the animal starts acting
up (i.e., screaming, biting, feather plucking, etc.). As far as I am
concerned, this is generally a copout. It may be tempting for a human
parent of a human child to respond to negative behavior – especially the
horrific behaviors associated with the onset of puberty – by putting
said child up for adoption. After all, as far as I can tell, puberty is
that wonderful time that changes the definition of "child abuse" into
"justifiable homicide." However, society frowns on parents who get rid
of their kids at this time.
But this is exactly what many breeders recommend the
pet bird owner do when negative behaviors are seen. No suggestion is
made regarding fixing the problem – the owner is simply told to
get it a mate, breed it, and keep one of the babies.
Experts On Everything?
So there are lots of
theories about parrot behavior, but most of them are out-dated or
simply incorrect. Some are sweeping generalizations based on the
behaviors of a very small population of individuals. And from my
experience, some of the worst information I have seen has been put
forward by a small number of animal trainers who teach birds to perform
tricks in shows – which apparently leads them to believe they are
experts on ALL forms of parrot ownership. (I’ll talk more about them
later.)
And the various conclusions drawn by these various
sources can be fallacious when applied to individual pet birds,
especially domestic bred birds, often leading to glaringly incorrect
information being perpetuated as fact.
Basing behavior theories on sweeping generalizations is
the method used when you hear broad statements about specific species of
parrots, like "All African greys are good talkers." Now, most of
us happen to know a non-talking African grey. This isn’t surprising,
since a number of them simply don’t talk. And these unfortunate
individuals are often "gotten rid of" because of that – I guess because
their reputed talking ability is the only reason their owners bought
them, instead of because of their intelligence and complex
personalities. To my mind, this is like a woman deciding to get pregnant
because she really likes baby clothes. As far as I am concerned, if the
only reason someone wants a parrot is because of its potential talking
ability, (s)he should buy a radio instead.
Another fallacy I hear all the time is that "All
cockatoos are sweet and cuddly." Well, yes, a lot of cockatoos are
sweet and cuddly. And a lot of African greys are sweet and cuddly. And a
lot of macaws are sweet and cuddly. Why don’t we hear about them? But
let me tell you, I also know SEVERAL cockatoos that I would NOT
categorize as "sweet and cuddly," if you know what I mean. (After all,
male ‘toos are famous for killing their mates, right? Why is it that
humans never seem to think that violence could possibly be turned on
them?)
Another example of parrot behavior myths is the one
that states that "Lovebirds must be kept in pairs, because they don’t
make good pets." This, of course, completely ignores the pet
potential of a hand-raised lovebird – which is from my experience one of
the most delightful and reasonably-priced of all the small parrots. I
have a very dear friend whose name is Hamlin. Hamlin happens to be a
peach-faced lovebird who has been boarding with me for the last several
years, and he is truly delightful – an animated Easter egg, if there
ever was one! Hamlin would dearly like to meet the person who proclaimed
that lovebirds don’t make good pets, and he would also like every-one to
understand that he wants his PERSON – NOT another lovebird! And he is
only one of many lovebirds that I know who were raised with a firm and
loving hand by humans who understand how necessary that is – and he is
the norm, not the exception.
The Dreaded Sexual Maturity Thing
"Many
parrots (especially Amazons) don’t make good pets
after they reach sexual maturity, and need to be put in a breeding
situation." This is a behavior myth that is repeated all the time,
and from my experience, this is not necessarily true at all. I am a
female human who suffers from PMS. My husband ALSO suffers from my PMS.
And there have been times when he comes home to find me in the kitchen
slamming cabinet doors. Now, if he should choose that moment to try to
pick a fight with me, then that would be HIS problem, right? He would
simply get his head ripped off.
But if from then on he never acted the same with me, if
he acted unsure of me, then we would not still be together. And in a
nutshell, I think that is what has happened with a lot of Amazons. The
owner does not understand the bird’s body language and does not know
what it means when an Amazon has its tail feathers fanned, its neck
feathers up and it’s eyes flashing wildly. Now, anyone that knows
anything about Amazons knows THAT bird is the avian equivalent to me
slamming cabinet doors. In other words, this is NOT the time to try to
start any meaningful exchanges. So, DON’T REACH FOR THAT BIRD!
But inexperienced owners might do just that, then not
understand why quite suddenly they are bleeding. And because they didn’t
recognize and understand the blatant warning signs the bird was
displaying, they then decide that their bird is unpredictable and
dangerous. From then on, they are afraid and hesitant with the parrot –
and as we all know, people who are afraid and hesitant with parrots do
not get along well with parrots. End result, the bird becomes cage-bound
due to a lack of handling, and really does lose a lot of pet potential.
But not so much due to the bird changing its behavior towards the human,
but due to the human’s changing his/her response to the bird.
Bird Show Trainers
On the subject of people who
make a living training birds to perform tricks in shows, I have nothing
against that if the birds are properly handled and cared for. If a show
is well done, I will enjoy it as much as the next person. But what
does bother me is when a small number of these people then
consider themselves expert in fields other than training birds to
perform tricks in shows. As far as I am concerned, asking a bird trainer
advice about pet birds is roughly equivalent to asking a circus
lion tamer advice on how to litterbox train my cat.
Finding Good Information
To conclude and
summarize all this: Many bappies are raised with absolutely no limits,
and given no instruction (socialization) as to acceptable behaviors and
their position within their human flock. If they then are allowed to sit
above eye level on shoulders and on the tops of cages, allowed to make
all of their own decisions (such as whether or not they wish to
come out of their cage, or whether or not they want to get off a
human’s shoulder) and allowed unsupervised reign outside of a cage, then
this is a parrot that has inadvertently been given the nonverbal message
that it is head of the flock. And their genetic information tells them
that the head of the flock is supposed to tell their flock members
(human or otherwise) what to do. So when their human flock doesn’t
follow orders, then the frustrated parrot often screams and bites and
sometimes even plucks. Not a happy picture, is it?
Well, don’t despair, because behavior problems aren’t
necessarily permanent. And along with all the reams of misinformation
out there, there is some good information, too. THE PET BIRD REPORT, for
example, is an excellent source of information about pet birds. And
good, up-to-date information on pet parrot behavior is useful to all of
us. If you’re a breeder, you can learn how to properly socialize these
marvelous bappies from the very beginning, so they understand where they
belong in the flock. If you’re a veterinarian or veterinary technician,
you can learn how to give good advice to your bird-owning clients. And
if you’re a pet parrot person, then you can gain insight into the
mysterious behaviors of your little feathered kids and learn how to
establish a loving, firmly-guided relationship with your parrot that
will enable decades and decades of enjoyable cohabitation.
Whichever you are, my best advice on parrots is to
enjoy them and love them – and most importantly, to quote Chris Davis,
love them for what they are – NOT for what you think they should
be.