So I work at a petstore. We have 3 "store" birds: an 18 year old harlequin macaw raised by the store, a ~15 (I think) Hahns minimacaw also raised by the store, and a ~48 year old Moluccan cockatoo that lived at a different pet store for about 40 years before they had to shut down, and Peaches the 'Too moved in with us.
Einstein, the harlequin, and Apple, the Hahns, are both always on play stands (both of their wings are clipped) that have a variety of platforms and toys, as well as their water/food bowls. They're given treats every once in a while but not much more than that can be done for enrichment/mental stimulation. This is because they each trust only EXTREMELY specific people. I think Einstein steps up and lets his head be scratched by only 3 or 4 people in this world, and Apple doesn't step up for anyone. She actually lunges at me whenever I'm near her play stand replacing her food/water- very aggressive. Einstein has let me pat his head once but usually doesn't let me get too close. Both of them take treats from my hands.
While Einstein and Apple are in relatively similar situations, Peaches is a TOTALLY different story. He was kept in a very small "umbrella-top" cage for most of his life that he was just moved out of a few months ago, and into a larger rectangular cage. Unfortunately him regularly coming out of the cage or being on a play stand isn't possible because of a few things which I will get to later.
Peaches LOVES attention and will do anything for someone to scratch his head when he's in the mood for it. Something he likes to do as I'm cleaning their areas for the night is scoop up big mouthfuls of pellets and drop them on the ground, to make me spend more time near him cleaning them up. His cage is close enough to customers that they can reach through the fairly widely-spaced bars to scratch his head which he likes a lot.
However, he's not an angel bird by any means. We think at his old home where we think a variety of negative punishment behaviors were done to him, i.e. spraying him when he got too loud, other things like yelling at him to shut up, etc. We don't do any of that now (obviously) but the effects are pretty obvious; he can be a big screamer and hurt my ears from halfway across the store sometimes. He also makes a "fshhh fshhh" sound whenever I clean his area with a hose (all 3 birds are in a great easily-washable area covered with tiles) because he still remembers when he was sprayed. He'll also try to grab the hose and puncture it with his beak so I can't let it get too close to his cage.
So he is a bit of a screamer and has some history. Those are fine. The reason why he is in the cage and the other 2 birds aren't is because he FLIPS from loving whatever you are doing and loving you and loving everything, to a psycho killer bird in less time than it takes to blink. I've watched for any antecedents or causes for this and I think he's kind of like a serial killer, he can be loving everything but as soon as you do one little tiny thing wrong he will FLIP and start screaming, bobbing, and if you were scratching his head when this happened you better get your hand out of there FAST. This isn't really a problem because he's in a cage, so we can just let him be to cool off, but if he was on a perch there's really no telling what he could do. I would love to be able to take him out or even set him on a perch, as we have a pretty good bond and he's always happy to see me, but sadly it's not something I can change at this point.
He has a pretty big vocabulary (favorites are "hi", "cracker" actually meaning sunflower seed, "polly want a cracker" meaning GIVE ME SUNFLOWER SEED NOW HUMAN, and "how ya doin'?") and is usually pretty friendly with everyone (letting anyone scratch his head if he's in the mood for it) when he's not in psycho serial killer mode.
Treats that he likes are sunflower seeds and peanuts. He actually has access to sunflower seeds all day right in his cage, but he likes it a lot more when people give them to him, just for the attention.
My question is this: What are some good enrichment activities that I could do with him through the cage in my limited breaks throughout the day where I get to play with him for a few minutes? Right now he has a small variety of toys in his cage that he likes to play with: he has a plastic chain of shapes that he grabs with his beak and puts through the cage's bars, trying to give them to people or get them to play tug-of-war with him. He has a mop toy with a bunch of small strings that he likes pulling apart (very thin strings so not really a hazard of him hanging himself). His bowls with food/water/etc are also in special holders because he would flip them over and spill everything if he could.
I feel like although he gets a lot of attention all day from people browsing the store, he is lacking in mental stimulation right now and could definitely use a little more.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! When I get home I'll try to find a few pics of all 3 of the guys
Einstein, the harlequin, and Apple, the Hahns, are both always on play stands (both of their wings are clipped) that have a variety of platforms and toys, as well as their water/food bowls. They're given treats every once in a while but not much more than that can be done for enrichment/mental stimulation. This is because they each trust only EXTREMELY specific people. I think Einstein steps up and lets his head be scratched by only 3 or 4 people in this world, and Apple doesn't step up for anyone. She actually lunges at me whenever I'm near her play stand replacing her food/water- very aggressive. Einstein has let me pat his head once but usually doesn't let me get too close. Both of them take treats from my hands.
While Einstein and Apple are in relatively similar situations, Peaches is a TOTALLY different story. He was kept in a very small "umbrella-top" cage for most of his life that he was just moved out of a few months ago, and into a larger rectangular cage. Unfortunately him regularly coming out of the cage or being on a play stand isn't possible because of a few things which I will get to later.
Peaches LOVES attention and will do anything for someone to scratch his head when he's in the mood for it. Something he likes to do as I'm cleaning their areas for the night is scoop up big mouthfuls of pellets and drop them on the ground, to make me spend more time near him cleaning them up. His cage is close enough to customers that they can reach through the fairly widely-spaced bars to scratch his head which he likes a lot.
However, he's not an angel bird by any means. We think at his old home where we think a variety of negative punishment behaviors were done to him, i.e. spraying him when he got too loud, other things like yelling at him to shut up, etc. We don't do any of that now (obviously) but the effects are pretty obvious; he can be a big screamer and hurt my ears from halfway across the store sometimes. He also makes a "fshhh fshhh" sound whenever I clean his area with a hose (all 3 birds are in a great easily-washable area covered with tiles) because he still remembers when he was sprayed. He'll also try to grab the hose and puncture it with his beak so I can't let it get too close to his cage.
So he is a bit of a screamer and has some history. Those are fine. The reason why he is in the cage and the other 2 birds aren't is because he FLIPS from loving whatever you are doing and loving you and loving everything, to a psycho killer bird in less time than it takes to blink. I've watched for any antecedents or causes for this and I think he's kind of like a serial killer, he can be loving everything but as soon as you do one little tiny thing wrong he will FLIP and start screaming, bobbing, and if you were scratching his head when this happened you better get your hand out of there FAST. This isn't really a problem because he's in a cage, so we can just let him be to cool off, but if he was on a perch there's really no telling what he could do. I would love to be able to take him out or even set him on a perch, as we have a pretty good bond and he's always happy to see me, but sadly it's not something I can change at this point.
He has a pretty big vocabulary (favorites are "hi", "cracker" actually meaning sunflower seed, "polly want a cracker" meaning GIVE ME SUNFLOWER SEED NOW HUMAN, and "how ya doin'?") and is usually pretty friendly with everyone (letting anyone scratch his head if he's in the mood for it) when he's not in psycho serial killer mode.
Treats that he likes are sunflower seeds and peanuts. He actually has access to sunflower seeds all day right in his cage, but he likes it a lot more when people give them to him, just for the attention.
My question is this: What are some good enrichment activities that I could do with him through the cage in my limited breaks throughout the day where I get to play with him for a few minutes? Right now he has a small variety of toys in his cage that he likes to play with: he has a plastic chain of shapes that he grabs with his beak and puts through the cage's bars, trying to give them to people or get them to play tug-of-war with him. He has a mop toy with a bunch of small strings that he likes pulling apart (very thin strings so not really a hazard of him hanging himself). His bowls with food/water/etc are also in special holders because he would flip them over and spill everything if he could.
I feel like although he gets a lot of attention all day from people browsing the store, he is lacking in mental stimulation right now and could definitely use a little more.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions! When I get home I'll try to find a few pics of all 3 of the guys
