- Hey everybody, Jamie Lee here with Birdtricks,
and today I wanna talk about my biggest advice
and most important advice to new bird owners,
so if you're new to birds,
you've just got your first bird, this video is for you.
(upbeat music)
Though it may be a good reminder to people
who've had birds. (kisses)
Today with me are my three sun conures.
And yes, I can count the other one is Detka
I'm looking at her. (laughing)
So I'm sure you'll see her flying in and out of the scene.
Just a big disclaimer my birds are free flight trained,
which means I've trained them to come back outside.
So just a little disclaimer there don't go taking
your clipped parrot or untrained parrot outside with you,
it can be really dangerous and even the slightest
wind can make a clipped bird be able to fly miles.
All right so the first thing that I wanna say
to you new bird owners and people new
to the avian community in general
is that it is totally normal to feel
confused and overwhelmed.
There's a lot of contradictory info out there,
depending on where you're getting your information.
So it's really just best to stick to your intuition
and what feels right to you to do with your bird
and who you relate best to.
People are gonna say different things based
on their experiences, and you just kinda have to pick
and choose which path you wanna go down and just stick
to that path.
Sometimes choosing things from a variety of sources
will just confuse and clutter what you're actually
trying to accomplish with your bird.
So be really mindful of that and always trust
your intuition, if it doesn't feel right,
it probably isn't right.
Hi, Phoebe. Hi Detka.
Ooh, so cute.
Now a less extreme example might be a really old way
of taming birds.
Hi, oh my goodness, you girls are all over the place.
(beeping)
Now a less extreme example,
what I was gonna say, is probably
doing something where people will often say to tame
a bird, you just hold it in your hands until it gives
up trying to get out of your hands, and it calms down.
Basically just a form of surrender,
and if that comes across to you like, wow,
that seems really cruel,
seems like longterm that wouldn't build
a good relationship with the bird,
you're right, it doesn't.
So just knowing, you've got a big old chunk
and she got nothing,
just knowing the difference with that and being able
to really trust your heart on those sorts of situations.
All right so as a bird owner, or I should say,
companion of your bird,
your number one priority is always the health
of your bird, and that to me,
really includes diet and sleep.
Now, when it comes to diet, you guys,
the easiest thing is to just avoid creating bad habits.
One of the things that I'm really against
is offering table food scraps to your bird,
like a lot of people do with dogs,
and I know people look down upon it with dogs as well.
It's just something where you want to avoid creating
that bad habit, so make it so that they never
even know what table foods taste like.
Now there's a difference between social eating
to get your bird onto a healthy diet
and just sharing human foods with your bird.
I'm currently working with a project bird named
Bean who is an African grey, and I can just tell
that his previous owners used to share all sorts
of their food with him because any sign of preparing
food or getting a plate ready for myself,
and he is nuts about it, he's just all in my business.
So making it so that you never create (laughing)
a bird that has this infatuation with human food
is really the ideal way to go, so think about it.
A lot of people will say to me,
well if I don't give him this food every time,
and it's only sometimes,
he won't expect it every time it's actually
the opposite, that builds anticipation.
So if I said that every time I come to your house,
only sometimes, I'd hand you a thousand bucks cash,
you would be anticipating every single time I come
to your home as in,
is this the time she's going to give me the reward?
Is this the time?
And you'd be more and more excited and enthusiastic
about me coming over than not.
So just keep that in mind that those sorts of things
can really work against you and build anticipation
when you think that you are doing a different thing.
What are you doing?
How come you guys are so sweet right now?
He just fluffed, fluffed and not even eating your nuts.
What's going on?
Don't even care. (kisses)
When you guys will, baby mode,
you guys are acting like babies.
But everybody is gonna be like, how old are those girls?
These girls are like 10 years old this year.
You're acting like babies.
All right so, whenever I talk about diet
and sleeping habits, people tend to tune out,
but it's some of the most important foundational
aspects of having a bird,
making sure they get adequate sleep that's uninterrupted,
not just with a cage cover in a room that a lot
of chaos in like fun is going on in,
but making sure that that sleep is actually adequate
and really good healthy sleep.
And then also that your bird's diet is key,
and that it's a really healthy diet.
So I will say a lot of the times when you start
seeing behavioral problems or those sorts of aspects,
it always goes back to diet.
What are you doing?
Good girl. (kisses)
All right, I decided to add my Galah, Bondi
to the mix because the conures are
just free flying all around the garden right now so,
just so there's always a bird in the shot,
we got little Bondi out here.
So the third thing that I wanna mention is hormones,
it's something that every bird owner should be aware
of exists, but not something that you should
always immediately blame everything on.
So you never wanna have the mentality
of it's hormone season, I'm just gonna ignore it,
let it pass, and then it'll be over.
Because a lot of the times what happens
is we accidentally reinforce those hormonal behaviors
and then they become a year round habit.
So always be aware of hormonal triggers
and hormonal tendencies, and what time of the year,
spring and fall hormonal tendencies tend to show up.
But don't just automatically blame everything
during those time periods on hormones.
(parrot squawking)
And there goes Phoebe.
The other thing is don't be afraid to ask for advice.
I know that avian forums can be super daunting, judgey,
(parrots squawking)
Hey girly girl it's Detka.
It was Detka that whole time.
Did you see her go?
What are you doing?
You're not doing much of anything,
but if you can find some good ones,
some safe places to ask your questions,
don't be afraid to admit that you have a lack
of knowledge when it comes to this stuff.
And people are usually less judgey when you're able
to just admit like,
hey, I don't really know what I'm doing
or what I'm talking about, this is a first time for me.
And they can be a little bit more understanding.
Hey, is that right?
Yeah.
Did you just poop?
(beeping)
The other thing I wanna encourage the new bird owner
to do, did you drop your net?
Is to set small achievable goals for yourself.
Don't let the whole thing of this being brand
new completely overwhelm you and to making no
progress at all.
(laughing) I'm sorry, I'm super distracted because my sun
conures are just flying,
free flying all around the garden.
So a great example of setting small,
achievable goals would be for you to have a diet goal
for your bird and say, you want your bird to eat a carrot.
That's the ultimate goal is for your bird to like
an eat carrots. (laughing)
And I would set that goal date for giving yourself
30 days, because that's a very achievable amount of time,
even if life happens and you become busier than normal,
you have 30 days to get your bird, to eat a carrot.
Now, to set small achievable steps to accomplish that,
you are super distracting, Bondi boo. (laughing)
You could make steps where each day you try
something different or every few days
you try something different.
You could serve a carrot warm, you could serve it frozen,
you could serve it cut, diced, pureed,
you could serve it whole as a foraging toy.
Ah, where are you going?
You could serve it pureed in birdie bread,
you could do social eating where you're serving
yourself carrots, and you're letting your bird eat
some of the food off your plate.
You guys see anything?
Keep an eye out, you got good eyes,
you got better eyes than me.
You could make up carrot popsicle,
you could do carrot juice,
you could make a foraging toy out of carrots,
you could hide it or disguise it in other foods,
you could make a carrot soup,
you could make a carrot smoothie,
you could serve it dried.
You know, there's all these different ways to serve
your bird a carrot,
and to find a way to get your bird to like it.
Excuse me, Pacey McPacerton, what is going on with you?
All right let's have you do a little something
because you're anxious to earn a nut.
Do this one?
Good.
I'm gonna wave? Good.
How about this one? You spin?
Oh, it's this, sorry.
You have a different cue.
My bad.
(parrot squawking)
Serve you a nut down there.
Can you say-- (parrot talking)
Good girl.
But basically you're giving yourself ways and ideas
and creative ideas to get your bird to try a carrot.
And that's through play, that's through training,
that's through fun.
You could formally train it and just clicker train
your bird to shred up a carrot.
There's a lot of different ways,
one of my favorites is making my seasonal feeding
system because it takes hours and hours,
letting my birds be a part of that,
whether it's hanging out nearby on a foraging stand
or, yeah, hey cutie. (parrot squawking)
(laughing) Or being part of the fun and taste testing
and quality control as I call it,
I'm just inspecting all the different foods
that I'm using.
That's a great way to get your bird involved
in trying new foods.
So there's a lot of different ways to accomplish it,
just set small achievable goals so that you can
actually reach it and you feel good about making progress.
Now, remember it's progress, not perfection.
None of us are ever gonna be 100% amazing at all
aspects of parrot care.
Something that you're always gonna be improving upon
and working on and trying to improve
because these guys are a little bit complicated
to have in captivity.
By a little bit I mean a lot.
The other thing for new bird owners is to make sure
that you include everybody in your household,
in the overall care and just everything about your bird.
So remember our 60/40 rule that we talk about,
birds tend to naturally pick their person
and like somebody 60% more than everybody else.
That's okay as long as you can keep the 60/40 balance,
and it doesn't become 80/20, or 100/0 for the rest
of the people in the household.
So we talk about that
on my Family Friendly Parrot formula course, which is part
of my beginner course and where I believe
everybody should start and get started
in understanding parrot behavior and how human behavior
influences parrot's behavior, correct?
Because it's really what we're doing
that's anticipating or interpreting what they're doing.
I don't think either of those words are really
fitting right there, but you know what I'm saying?
Dictates. Dictates our behavior, dictates their behavior.
Yeah yeah yeah.
That's what I was looking for.
You wanna do another trick?
Oh, you're so cute.
You're just the cutest. (kisses)
Phoebe? I heard you.
Oops! Sorry.
Your little pin feather.
Oh, did you poop on me again?
How full are you?
(beeping)
And the main thing I thought that I'm gonna leave
you guys with, if you are brand new to birds,
is that parrots are fairly self serving creatures.
They're kind of like a what's in it for me
sort of animal.
So they do things to either gain pleasure or avoid pain,
and that will really help you analyze what's going
on in your home and why they prefer one person
over the other, or why they're constantly getting
into certain things, or whatever what have you,
whatever behavior that you're experiencing,
it always goes back to that.
So just make sure that you're constantly keeping
that in mind and not falling into the trap
of they're doing this to appease me or make me happy
or make me smile, no.
Our birds of course, make us smile,
and we emotionally connect with these guys all the time,
there's so much fun,
but you need to keep in mind that they are
a what's in it for me mentality and,
Oh, you just put your tail in poop.
Oh, wait.
Now I just put my hand in poop.
Failing.
You guys are pooping machines this morning.
Hey, I'm actually in the poop zone right now,
this is part of the problem.
Well, do you see that cute little butt? There it is.
(parrot squawking)
(laughing) Yeah.
I'm in a poop zone.
Chose a wrong place to film today. (laughing)
Yeah.
But anyways, so distracting.
I know you guys like seeing birds in my video,
but starting to think they just need to be
the B roll after the fact.
Anyways, if this video helped you or you got some
insight from it, please let me know which tip was
most valuable to you.
A lot of the times we are soaking up a lot of information,
but none of it really resonates until we're ready
to hear it.
So that's why I structure my training courses the way
I do with beginner, advanced and then my entire collection.
That way that you can take in the most
important foundational information first, you can watch,
rematch it, apply it and really settle that foundation
so that it's solid before moving onto the next
steps because the foundation is the most important part.
That's what you're building your entire relationship
with your bird upon.
What do you feel, you want nuts? (kisses)
(laughing) So go ahead and visit Birdtricks store
or birdtricks.com for more information
on parrot training and companionship
and how to give these guys the best life.
The best life, the best life, (kisses) so cute.
(beeping)
Good girl. Good...
(beeping)
Hey, I have all the birds in the video at the same time,
almost, two up there. (laughing)
That was rude, that was rude.
(beeping)
(parrots flapping)
(beeping)
(parrots flapping)
(beeping)
(parrots flapping)
(parrots squawking)
Oh, baby girls.
(beeping)
(parrots flapping)
(beeping)
(parrots squawking)
(beeping)
(parrots flapping)
(beeping)
(parrots squawking)
(beeping)
(parrots squawking)
Bondi boo.
(parrots squawking)
(beeping)
(parrots flapping)
(parrots squawking)
(beeping)
(parrots flapping)
(parrots squawking) Bondi.
What are you doing?
(beeping)
(parrots squawking)
(beeping) Bondi boo!
(beeping)
(laughing) She's having a good time.
Bondi boo!
(gentle music)