- So we've had all of the birds since they were babies
or gotten them very young, you know?
And,
but that bird our fifth was a recent addition.
She belongs to an elderly couple that we know,
and they both got ill.
- So what we're trying to do is get her to get better habits
and she would eat nothing but nuts.
And I mean junk food,
I mean turkey, chicken, ham, bacon.
You name it she ate it.
And matter of fact I had a pretzel in my hand
and I never thought about she was on my shoulder.
And I just picked up a piece of a pretzel
and without thinking she reached around and snatched
it right out of my mouth.
And grabbed it from me wouldn't give it back to me.
I mean she would not give it back to me.
She's pretty strong.
So, we've had to change her diet.
And we've finally got her off of that crap
and on pellets.
- We have your hands full,
let's see what we-- - Yeah.
- Let's see what this
guys look like. - Let's go meet the flock.
(upbeat music)
- [David] So if every time you gave a treat
you said good boy,
now that term it's going to associate with,
he did something right.
So be careful because you might say,
well he's freaking out in the cage
you're a good boy, you're a good boy.
You're telling him you're doing it right,
you're doing it right, you're doing it right.
- [Jamie] A lot of people try to use it
as like a calming effect when the birds just anxious
and totally stressed out.
And that's the wrong time to use it.
Okay, will he take a treat from somebody else?
- Yeah.
- Your so skittish.
- (indistinct) prior to that, just click
and I give him a treat.
- He's not really interested in that.
- [woman] I was wondering if the stick
was going to scare him away.
'Cause they...
Not all of them but he seems especially like he's--
- [Man] Skittish.
- Yeah he is definitely one of those.
It's okay buddy unless you can hear this.
(parrot talking)
- [David] Is there a different item that
he wouldn't be afraid of?
- [Man] Do you think we can target him to?
- Maybe like put something on the end of it?
- [Woman] He may not be afraid of anything--
- I can tell you it's from this distance.
- [David] Yeah, he's very afraid.
- [Jamie] So while everybody is looking for an alternative
target to use I decided to try luring,
but it backfires because this bird is
fearful of abrupt noises.
Which happens more than once.
And one of those noises happens to be the clicker,
which actually terrifies him.
(clicker clicks)
For those of you wondering,
I'm using a pine nut to do some of the luring.
And here I wish I would have just handed him the nut
and then either tried another repetition
or just stopped completely.
Because he earned it and he never got it
because he was so scared.
So that's something that in hindsight watching the video,
I definitely wish I would have done.
And then in the video it takes me a little bit longer,
but then I realized he never actually consumed a treat.
So I go back trying to kiss him or deliver that treat.
But the opportunity's gone.
He's no longer interested.
He's overly terrified of the situation.
And doesn't even, not even interested
in just taking a treat for free.
- He's so scared that like, nothing's really valuable.
There's not--
- This isn't a foreign object to him
but I don't know if this is gonna help at all.
- Okay.
- But I don't know what else.
- Yeah we can see if he'll touch it, use that.
- So what's up with him fluffing his feathers like that?
- Well that was better, that was a little bit more content.
- What's the matter buddy, what's the matter?
What's the matter, you nervous?
- You can definitely see if you wanna offer it
and see if he'll touch the end.
- No it's a big feather.
(bird shrieks)
- No?
- That's all right now,
he's not happy I know he's not happy.
- [Jamie] So I would love to know
what did you see in that interaction?
And what did you learn?
Because although that interaction wasn't great for the bird,
obviously he was scared by the perch coming in there.
It gave us a glimpse at who this bird
prefers in that interaction.
So who was it?
I'm going to play that clip again a little bit shorter
of a version and see if you guys can pick up on
who this bird prefers.
- So what's up with him fluffing his feathers like that?
- Well that was better that was a little bit for content.
- What's the matter buddy?
What's the matter?
What's the matter you nervous?
- You can definitely see if you wanna offer it
and see if he'll touch the end.
- Nope it's a big feather.
(bird shrieks)
- That's all right now he's not happy
I know he's not happy.
- [David] Can you give him a treat?
- Sure.
Want some?
- [David] Why don't you step up on to you.
- How's that?
- [David] He's definitely creaking, you know
it's a treat.
- Okay if you can tell him how to hold it and--
- So no.
- [Jamie] Well, in case any of us needed confirmation
that Scott is the bird's favorite person.
Scott was saying no to the bird because it was about to
escalate to regurgitation.
So obviously that little head bob and dance was where that
was going.
But there we got our confirmation that Scott's our guy.
- [David] So you're going to slowly approach with the stick.
And we're trying to get him to touch the stick.
Now the stick, when you slowly approach
see if he wants to touch it.
Slowly, slowly, slowly, raise the stick.
And
You're gonna hear a click.
- [Jamie] The click should have come
right at this exact moment,
but we miss it because then we have to explain exactly what
we're doing and looking forward to Scott.
And we miss that opportunity completely and have to wait for
it to present itself all over again.
- [David] You're gonna hear a click
in a second when that happens,
I want you to lower the stick and hand him a treat.
- Okay.
- So we're looking for signs of calm.
Disinterest.
0kay lower the stick hand him treat.
- [Jamie] One treat.
- And then step out of the bottle.
And you are up to a loud part it's just like.
(laughing)
- We are giving him his space.
(laughing)
- [Scott] If he wants space I give him space.
I can take a hint.
- [David] So go on and take one big step forward
towards him.
Slowly raise the stick.
Slowly slowly slowly slowly slowly slowly.
Keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going
keep going, keep going, keep going to about head level.
And stop there.
(bird shrieks)
And then give him a treat.
And stay where you are.
Go on lower the stick.
Don't eating and I have you slowly raise
it to that same spot.
And you guys are gonna have a lot of questions about why
we're doing this.
We'll answer that after the session.
Yes, we'll go a little bit closer to the stick
a little bit closer.
Keep going, keep going, Keep going,
keep going a little bit.
Keep going, keep going, keep going.
(bird clicks)
Stay where you are.
Go on lower the stick, lower the stick.
For various repetition.
Just drop it by your side.
- Let him eat that treat first before we startle him.
- So I just want him calm back down
- [David] Yep.
- Relax.
- So what we're training to get him to do is
understand the barely to touch the stick.
We don't necessarily want his lower mandible be able to
crunch down.
Like they could just touch with the top of his upper
mandible, totally fine.
We just want him to learn to touch it.
Not necessarily bite it.
So go ahead and do the same thing.
Slowly raising the stick,
going to get a little bit closer to her.
A little closer and pause there.
Forward one inch,
half an inch.
Hands going reset by lowering the stick down all the way.
He lost way his chance on that one.
- Try again.
- [David] So we're gonna let him think about it for a sec.
Wait a sec, how come I didn't get a treat?
And as you see him thinking.
So failure is critical for these guys.
They're smart enough to actually learn more from failing
than only succeeding.
All right, so we're going to slowly raise the stick again
where you last had it.
And go in slightly more.
(bird clicks)
Good.
That's excellent. - Good
nice job.
- All right.
- [David] Do you guys see an improvement there?
- Yeah, so we are using that hormonal bond that
he has with you to get this.
You can see it completely distracted him
and he is not anywhere near hysteria
or gurgitation in this setting.
Because you now turned it into a training session.
So that's a really good way to get out of hormones
when you're here is to completely distract them
and do something else.
- [David] So let's maybe do two or three more repetitions.
So I'm gonna have you walk back in,
try do exact same thing.
Slowly raising it pause there.
Go slightly closer.
And pause.
(bird clicks)
Okay, now you can stay in this ruble 'cause you're still.
- It's awesome.
That didn't take long to get him over his fear of sticks.
- I don't want to give him any negative reinforcement but--
- [David] He's interested, go on raise the stick.
Keep that question we'll answer that after this game.
Move a little closer.
(bird clicks)
And next one's the last one.
- I'm a get you something to play a game.
- [David] Guess you'll just stand by.
So yeah talking to him is okay.
Except right now we don't really wanna
add anything that might have fear.
So that's why we're all kind of,
you feel the energy right now is calm.
That's what we need for this particular bird.
All right go on raise it.
Right there hold it there.
It's gonna probably move a little bit.
That's cool.
- This one.
- And step back.
So that's an awesome session.
We ended it where we wanted.
One of the hardest things we're targeting is you saw how
the progress really moved forward.
But when you get him to move a little bit,
that means you starting to understand it.
That last repetition,
and what I mean by move a little bit, he moved his feet.
Hold it over the metal outright.
Lower this hand cause he knows there's chums there.
A little closer, okay.
(bird clicks)
And step back.
The reason i had to bring it closer is
he we lost his attention.
He was like, "Oh hey good looking."
But we wanted to...
Did you see how it turned from training to hormones
we wanna bring it back to training?
- Gotcha.
- So we're having you move the stick slightly closer,
he was like, "Oh yeah this."
- Okay.
- So we're right on the balance between hormones
and training.
And so we're using that to our advantage
but again, you wanna discourage those hormones
from the start to rise
and that can be done through training.
(cheerful music)