- [Narrator] Madeline and her husband
have both been sent multiple times to the ER
based on the wounds they have received
from their two Amazon parrots, Cho and Gizmo.
Gizmo was previously a breeder bird,
while Cho is around 16 years old,
and Gizmo's around 20 years old.
The main issue that they have had
have stemmed from hormones.
So those of you that continue to do hormonal behaviors
with your birds claiming it's natural,
this is a sight into your future.
They can no longer handle these birds,
and have to do so with perches now.
- And we didn't get any pictures I think,
of when I got this one.
- I've just got you in the ER sitting but there's no
(bird caws)
- [Narrator Off camera] And that's all from the Amazon
or is that from?
- [Madeline] That's all from the Amazon
- [Narrator Off Camera] Just one of them?
- [Madeline] His on his tongue is from Gizmo,
and both of mine are from him,
you see he starts getting that like lunging?
He starts to do that and I'm like something is wrong,
he's gonna go at me.
- [Narrator Off Camera] I love this,
you guys were watching us.
(laughs)
(bird caws)
(upbeat music)
- [Narrator Off Camera] Now we start our in home
consultations off
by always seeing what kind of training the owner
has already done with the bird.
Here he's getting a little bit of a response from
the Amazon, but this Amazon is very distracted by
being taken out in front of the other Amazon
and the Grey that's in the room.
They have this funky dynamic between their two
male Amazons and their one female
African Grey.
The two Amazons seem to be kind of fighting over
attention for the African Grey, so it causes
this dynamic between the two males
where they're calling back and forth.
So this one seems so distracted and we can't
hear each other over their calling, that we
move to another room to see if this will
lessen the effect that the other Amazon's having
on this one coming out.
To our disappointment, they just call louder
to each other from this room.
So as you can see by the body language alone,
I've muted it for you guys' ears,
but you can tell by the tail fanning that it's
about to happen and just those raised feathers
you can tell that this bird is
being very vocal, that it's communicating
with the other one,
getting very worked up about about it.
We just can't get any sort of training response.
So we try a few different things.
We try changing the treat.
We try changing the trainer.
We try bringing in the African Grey to see if that
will calm the Amazon down, but that just
serves as a distraction and ultimately it ends
up turning on the Grey who goes to try
to find a nesting spot.
All of the things that we try to figure out as
solutions backfired in our faces.
If you're wondering why we didn't just take out
both Amazons so they would stop calling back and
forth, the reason is is that the owners have told us
that they do not get along and they will
physically fight each other.
All the birds are fully flighted,
which has led to some of those attack photos
you saw in the very beginning of this video,
where some of those were flighted attacks.
So we trust them and based on the photos
we really don't want to be breaking up a
physical altercation between two Amazons.
So that's why we didn't try bringing out
both Amazon's at the same time and
having that dynamic happen.
When we sit down to brainstorm some solutions,
Dave and I just kind of come to the realization that
because the overall diet of these birds is so
junky and full of fillers and sugars and crap
we are left with no treat value that is bigger
than the dynamic of, or the reinforcement of,
being able to call back and forth.
So we realized we really need to conquer the diet.
We ask these owners
hey why didn't you change over the diet?
They bought all the products, they have all the tools
to do so, but they were unsuccessful in actually
doing it.
They just said they got discouraged when they wouldn't
take the pellets and they didn't even try
with the fresh food,
even though they had bought all the ingredients.
So, normally our fresh recipe which I call our
seasonal feeding recipe because there are
different recipes that go based on
what season you are in.
We just go to the store, we grab the ingredients
that we needed for it and we whip it up.
Normally it takes me around 6 hours,
not including the day before of soaking the beans.
So we do cut some corners to make this happen.
But I go through and I teach them how to make my
seasonal feeding system
and we make that the new priority.
Getting these birds onto a healthy diet so we
actually have a high value treat to
work with in the future.
- [Narrator On Screen] They hard boil eggs
I think that will really really help,
I'm not going to do too many if these sprouts
because I'm scared it'll look too healthy to them.
So, if you find they really love the
sweet potato, here's how you're going to use it.
You're going to take some of your
seasonal feeding system and you're
going to mix it together and what's
(bird caws)
going to happen is that sweet potato acts as like
the binding ingredient.
So instead of looking like this where it's
a little bit more apart
(bird caws)
now it's the thing that binds all the
ingredients together.
(bird caws)
So when they eat the sweet potato,
they're gonna get a little bit of everything.
And they are going to have to taste that
other food in order to get the food that they want.
Does that make sense?
- Yeah
- So when they start to eat that sweet potato
they're going to taste carrot, they're going to taste
the spinach doesn't even change the flavor of this
which is why I chose to go with that
(bird caws)
so I can get greens in them without them
being affected, it's kind of like when you put
spinach into a smoothie, it doesn't change the flavor.
So that's what you do,
so then you would use less and less each time.
(bird caws)
We are going to mix this in.
Let's say your initial thing starts like this,
where it looks like it's mostly
comprised of sweet potato, the next one would be
more like this.
Where you can see that it's not quite as
densely sweet potato and it's just less
and less and less.
So they're getting more and more veggies,
and less and less sweet potato.
It's the same with the eggs.
So you're going to use the eggs in the same texture
where you mash them up really good
and then you'll do the same mixing.
(microwave beeps)
- Okay, so kind of make that the binding ingredient.
- Alright cool so we have the one with hard boiled eggs
and then we have the one with the yam
so we can see which one.
And she was saying that Cho would probably respond
better to the one with the eggs.
- [Man] Okay.
- So we can try that.
- [Man] Nice.
- And then I also have one that has some pellets
incorporated in it.
So I was just saying like as you understand
that the birds like the sweet potato,
you can mix the pellets in and in here it's
powdered and whole so you can see that's like
a whole pellet.
(bird caws)
And if they take the whole pellets out,
you can still see that there's powder in this.
So in that piece, lots of powder.
So they are still getting a flavor for what they like
with that addition of a new flavor.
(dishes clanking)
- Okay, I'll do that, and we'll see what he goes for?
- [Man] Yeah.
- Okay, so I decided to try both.
We'll see.
(drum music)
- You want to try some food?
(bird caws)
Hey buddy.
Good boy.
Yummy.
- One of the things that I
could have done that I didn't is that I didn't
incorporate any seeds or nuts into it.
So it's impressive that he's trying it
without any of those.
- Come on, Cho, let's eat man.
- Maybe if you pretend to eat it?
- Just actually eat it. Serve it up man.
- Eggs and veggies.
(laughing)
- Why not?
Mmm.
(laughing)
- It's actually good.
It's sweet.
- Right?
- All right. I got him to eat it.
- Is he eating it?
- Good boy. Good stuff, man.
- He's like hey man don't eat my breakfast.
(music)
- I think for me it was a sense of relief
because I was really concerned with Cho, as far as his
eating and his pickiness, and actually seeing
that he accepted the chow, kinda like I said,
it made the day for me. If anything, that was,
you know, my biggest fear, that he was, you know,
going to go backwards or not eat or get sick
or starve to death. And I would never be able
to get ahead with him. But now seeing
that he did that, I feel a lot better.
- Cool.
- I think for me that was it too. The food.
Just knowing that there was a way to incorporate
the healthier food without him starving,
because he was interested in it and I didn't think
he was ever going to do that. So that was a success.
- [Man] See, I thought he would be the hardest,
so if he's going to do it, then the other two
will definitely do it once the food gets figured out,
the diet, then I think everything else that you guys
have showed us today should fall into place,
and as long as we stay consistent,
then we should be all right.
- [Interviewer] Do you feel like, once the diet's in place,
the value of the treat will be higher?
- [Both] Absolutely, yes.
- [Interviewer] And you could see today
how it didn't really have a lot of value
because the diet's been off. It also shows you
why so many people in the past have just said
let's make the bird hungrier. And how that
doesn't actually work. It just damages the relationship
but by only giving fresh, healthy stuff,
all of a sudden the one opportunity they ever get
to get pine nuts is by being around you,
it gets really really powerful.
(laughing)
- Just don't want to be bit anymore.
- [Interviewer] Yeah. So, yeah, eliminating hormones
is like number one. Pay attention to all the things
that could be potential triggers, starting with sleep,
big focus on diet, eliminating cage covers,
finding that like sleeper room, sleeper cage, timers.
(upbeat music)