I'm not quite sure where to even begin. I agree with you philosophically on some things, but not in practice. So, I read through all your posts and have to make an analogy. I noticed you said you were a martial artist. Well, Thursday night I was at hapkido and taekwondo and this morning I was at hapkido again. Yes, there is a reason I'm mentioning this and it relates back to my bird philosophy to. And that is the concept of balance.
When I was first looking for a new taekwondo school when I got out of college, I went to various schools looking for one that seemed to match my personality. I went to one that taught very good martial arts, but the attitude of the school was more dominant and aggressive. The men sat around discussing how fun it would be to go to a bar and start fights just to win them. Not my place. Eventually I found a school that teaches it more as self defense, a little military tactical stuff, some sport. You can get out of it what you want basically while still learning. I looked around at my fellow classmates this morning and we have a teacher, a pastor, librarian, and optometrist. Not really a bunch of tough guys/gals. I used to do it to learn some self defense. But now its become more of a search for more of an academic or philosophical knowledge of the connection of mind and body. If the mind is in balance, the body tends to follow and vice versa. Control of the body through the mind and the mind through the body. I found your Jedi comment amusing in light of that.
I enjoy parrot keeping for the academic knowledge of gaining a greater depth of understanding of a species by seeing it full cycle and also for the intrinsic rewards of nurturing a new life. From hatch to maturity, the pair dynamics and the learning and shaping of chick behavior and adult behavior. As you pointed out, enjoying a life with birds, doesn't necessarily have to include living with them. I think its neat when I'm out mowing my lawn and the local fly catchers and even the peaceful sparrows when feeding chicks will follow me around snatching up the bugs I reveal or force into the air. To me this is a natural partnership and I can see how the idea of falconry and partnership with birds could have begun. My point being that its not unnatural for birds to make use of people or for people to enjoy the relationship.
I first brought up falconry as an example of that partnership with people but also because it relates to an opportunity to domesticate them. Harris hawks have proved themselves above average hunting partners with humans and already there are people that are selectively breeding for certain physical and behavioral traits that make an especially good game hawk. The word domesticate is already circulating in the falconry community. I don't think we should limit ourselves to the wolf as a model for human/animal plant interaction. Look at the number of species we have that we have domesticated: horse, cattle, chicken, numerous crops. All of that has changed our civilization, probably our social structure in terms of looking for different resources, becoming less nomadic based on wild herds etc. Its probably even changed the nature of our digestive anatomy. I don't really go around the internet keeping track of all the sites I learn something interesting from, so I can't cite sources. You can fact check on your own, and we all know there are multiple ways to interpret the same bit of information.
What I see going on with parrots is an inevitable move in the direction toward domestication. I'm lukewarm on this. I think parrots just the way they are make phenomenal life companions for the right person. And not every species is right for everyone. Just because my macaw isn't a perfect match for my home doesn't mean macaws aren't a perfect match for someone else. I love parrots as they are now, partly because of their wildness. However, despite their wildness, they do as you know have many behavioral traits that make them capable of being human companions. Social flock structure, capability of bonding to both humans and their own kind, speech, physical displays of affection and to some extent, loyalty to a mate which tends to be a trait people value. And yes, the flip side of all those traits in the wrong home, with poor training, a bad personality match etc can become irritating. To be quite honest, if I met the man of my dreams and decided to have a kid, the macaw might need to find another home. Although a very qualified one. However, the amazon and the cockatoos aren't going anywhere. They are my personality matches. I would not say that just because I have trouble with my macaw today, that people 50 years from now should not be given the freedom to live with a macaw too. I do wish people would have more tolerance for species not exhibiting the typical dog type pet behaviors. I think we could grow as a people in terms of a new appreciation for life dissimilar to ourselves. How limiting to just associate with things that are like us or that we created by artificial selection.
I think that is the direction we are going. A push toward more academic achievements and understanding. And because of that, I'm not too worried that birds don't model the same utilitarian relationship that started between humans and wolves. Humans have changed since wolves were domesticated, they will continue to change. That is the nature of evolution, continuous change and adaptation. It just so happens that people can manipulate their own environment in such a way that we may alter our own biology too. Unfortunately, it means we also alter the biology of the species around us. Which realistically, there isn't any escaping people. We are all over the place. However, just as we destroy habitat which is truly a shame, we also create habitat. Just a different kind and create a different niche that certain species are able to exploit and some are not. Coopers hawks are rarely seen because they are so quick, but seem to be having a population explosion in certain urban areas where bird feeders, and non-native french fry scavengers(starlings) in parking lots make for easy meals. So this is good for the coops, maybe not so good for kestrels that would live in the same area and end up being eaten by the coopers. Again, you have your ups and downs. Good for one but bad for the other. Unfortunately, there isn't really any going back. We can't say the last hundred years of medicine and the lives it has saved has been bad. Many of the good people on this board would not be hear without modern medicine. I don't wish my own death due to appendicitis. Without modern medicine, I would have died at age 23. However, my existence as a consumer negatively affects some species, somewhere.
I breed parrots because I like seeing the cycle. It brings me fulfillment. I also do it because I don'd like what I see as the current direction in domestication of parrots. Things that you touched on, selection for a specific trait. Selecting for color instead of health or temperament. If anything I worry that we are selecting against temperament for the sake of novel colors. Taking birds that are maybe innately on the aggressive side of normal for their species and breeding them, thereby leading to another generation of increased aggression. I believe the Russians have had an ongoing experiment with foxes and selective breeding for temperament and also studying the domestication process. A couple things I already see happening in parrots. Color changes and changes in the reproductive cycles. I've had cockatiels as pets and bred them at various points for nearly 30 years. In that time, compulsive egg laying and various body type changes have taken place. So in just 30 years, you've got color changes and sexual changes that were also noted in the domestication of foxes. However, because the unique colors fetch a higher price tag, maintaining fit wild type body, health and temperament are taking second place. One of the reasons I breed is to hopefully put quality birds into the pet and breeding population and hopefully have a slight counter to our tendency to select for the wrong traits. I have a pair of parrotlets sitting on eggs right now that will probably just give me cheap green birds. Mom is a blue, dad I think(hard to tell with all the recessive mutations around) is a normal green. The male has a compact body, nice coloration and matches the wild type for the species. I've had both of his parents and both have been long lived. This pairing won't make me a lot of money, but it will hopefully ad some strength to the mutations lines. I would also like to see more people putting good quality pets into breeding situations. I'm not going so far as to say that I'd like to domesticate them at this point, just act as a counter to prevent increasing aggression from becoming the norm. Especially in already aggressive species like amazons. I have to admit to being a hypocrite hear. My breeding male is pretty aggressive, however his mate is not and I chose to breed her because I'd like there to be more like her. If I breed one of their chicks, I will probably specifically select one of their less aggressive males that I think is a good physical representative to the species.
My life with birds goes something like this. I have have a rehomed goffins' that is a little nuts but we are working on it, and I accept her for what I can't change in her. Probably a result of her early life before me. I have my pet cockatoo that I've gone through some pretty major phobic behavior stuff with and come out the other side better for it. She taught me patience to a depth I didn't have before and to re-evaluate the way I handle animals. To give them the opportunity to come to me first. Not to force and be willing to let go of my own expectations and just be happy with allowing the bird to be happy. To recognize my own tendency toward dominance as a human trait, not a bird trait and to back off when I see myself behaving in such a way. She has made me a better person and no doubt a better bird owner. I have my group of amazons that I've raised from my own pair. I'm watching Gremlin become an adult and going through all the stuff young male amazons go through. Its a learning experience in dealing with aggression in a non-dominant manner while still not letting the bird's aggression escalate by getting the uperhand. I think he will teach me a lot and if he's not showing major aggression beyond normal amazon spice by the time he's 9 years old, I might pair him with a mate because physically he is a really good example of his kind and thus far he's been really low to moderate of what you'd expect of a male amazon with regard to aggression while still being a ladies man and interacting well with females of his own kind.
I've also got Cosmo my problem child hyacinth. I'm convinced she was force weaned. I think a lot of what we see with parrots being overly needy is related to handling food poorly during weaning. I'm early(first year apprentice) in my life of falconry, but I already know that lot of screaming and aggression toward the keeper from imprinted hawks is related to food. People who imprint goshawks in order to fly them less stressed and at a higher hunting weight go to great lengths not to associate themselves with food while raising their eyeass. There are different "recipes" for imprinting accipters but many find taking the bird to food or feeding the bird on the lure rather than on the glove decreases A LOT of the frustrated screaming around the mews, fly at your face and free hand aggression. Some people that imprint hawks take them everywhere with them. Car, office, drive through etc to decrease the fear reactions to unfamiliar things. They have the dog sitting close by while the bird eats so the bird learns a positive association between food and hunting dogs as partners rather than competitors. Its difficult to draw too many parallels between parrots and raptors. You can decrease food association in raptors easier than a parrot. Raptors if provided with a dish of food can self feed fairly early making it possible to bring the bird to the food rather than feeding by hand. I have a lot more reading to do on imprinting and i'm not sure I ever want to fly an imprinted hawk. However, I want to learn more about it for the sake of seeing if I can make any conclusions about how to use some of those methods in parrot keeping.
Also wanted to point out that imprinting in some species isn't nearly the "hardwired" thing many make it out to be. Just as with parrots, there have been cases of imprinted accipters willingly accepting a mate of their own kind and producing chicks. Its not a common thing and I'm not sure its even "googleable". However, I know some claim that British falconer's have achieved it with accipters but not maybe not falcons. I think I even remember Frank Beebe in one of his books hypothesizing than an imprint accipiter can be released back to the wild and sooner or later go back to its natural state. So even among species that are known for a more hardwired imprint, there are exceptions to the rule and as you pointed out a huge grey area. Basically, I think that with parrots, even in cases were the bird is overly obsessed with people, in MANY cases if flocked with its own kind, with minimal human interaction, you will start to see more "normal" wild type behaviors and even pair bonding. I think its possible to reset them or at least partially reset them. I don't think parrot species do a hard imprint as in the classical definition. Some species(male cockatoos and male greys) seem to have sexual problems sometimes/many times, if kept as a single pet for too many years. I still say, its not the hand-feeding itself that causes bad behaviors. Its rushing the weaning process and creating a bird that feels desperate for food and gets separation anxiety(what I think I have going on with Cosmo.) Or as with some cockatoos, unnecessarily dragging out the process past when the bird would biology be ready to wean then following it up with possibly selling too early, causing it to regress, getting that desperate hungry and separation fear thing going on, having to re-wean it, all in the absence of birds of its own kind. I'd like to see problem species like cockatoos and greys either kept in a nursery with birds of their own kind or flocked in an aviary for at least a few months post weaning. Birds that might be destined for breeding might need to stay flocked(especially male greys and cockatoos).
Then, its still up to the owner to do basic training. My parents had a wild caught LSC2 when I was growing up. Despite being parent raised, he still screamed when we left the room, still bit on occasion. Those aren't behaviors that are only made worse by the evils of imprinting, hand-feeding etc. Somewhere in there, you have to be willing to accept some of those innate behaviors and do some training to keep it from becoming out of control. As I think we'll both agree, one of the reasons not everyone should have a cockatoo. I also dont' think that the parents actually teach them to be gentle toward fingers. So letting them parent raise isn't going to get you a bird more likely not to break your fingers. If anything, amazons I've raise in the presence of other amazons go through a MUCH longer beak testing phase than amazons raised alone. My gentlest amazon ever was my first that was an only chick with no other amazons around to be raised with. My next best bird had a younger sibling that was injured in the nest so he was effectively raised an only bird after being moved out of the brooder.
I'm against setting standards for care. I admit that I wrestle with it, I've even made comments in the past that I wish we could require people to take a test before getting a parrot. I hate that I have that thought. I don't' think its a good idea for multiple reasons. Who would proctor the test? Who would write the test? I had a terrible time studying for my state's falconry test. All the study guides were written almost as trick questions. Multiple ways to interpret the same question. There's a way to answer it academically, then there is also a hypothetical answer that might be true in certain situations or that pertains to ethics. Also, by the time I took the test, some of the medical questions were already outdated and had to be crossed off. So much is a matter of opinion and it doesn't even necessarily relate to just good husbandry.
I'm against minimal standards for care based mostly on the fact that we have such a huge diversity in opinion right now with all the AR people and I'm not sure who would catch the ear of the politicians. With falconry, in most states, the falconers themselves worked with the DNR to make their own laws. With such division among the pet owning community, can you imagine what our laws would be for proper care of a cockatiel? That could be anything from, "while your at legislation lets make it illegal to keep them since they're suffering and there are so many in rescues anyway." To, "they need a 12' X 12' aviary with a mate to encourage their god given right to flight and flock." Or, it could be an acceptable cage size to live in an average person's home comfortably with some other guidelines written in as ideals but not requirements. If a huge cage is written into legislation, then what of the person who does rescue a bird with medical issues or psychological issues requiring a smaller enclosure. Should that person keep the bird under illegal conditions for the good of the bird? Euthanize the bird so as not to deal with the whole fiasco? Or put the bird in less than ideal but legally acceptable conditions? If someone says they need an aviary and the ability to fly, well I've got a cockatoo with half a wing missing and I don't want to see her 12 feet high on a perch where there isn't an adjoining wall or something to hold on to. She just does better in a cage.
And finally to learn more about the nature of predators and predation, I have my hawk. A big learning curve there to deal with how to train without eliciting food related aggression and talons buried in your flesh issues. However, its a beautiful thing to see your bird that you've trained from trap to first free flight drop out of a tree 200 yards away and land on my glove. I also have to say and maybe its just me, that even though I feel bad for the bunny, there is a certain degree of spiritual rightness with the world when she catches one, and I help her open it up and feast on her hard earned meal. Its a beautiful, primitive, visceral, tragic and peaceful thing if that makes any sense.
And in justification for parrots as pets in good homes, if you look at the people most concerned about wildlife and that actually move to get things done for them, look to the hunters and the people that live alongside those species. They are the first to send out the warning when populations are dropping, when something isn't right. The first to help plant new habitat. If you want to know about deer biology, talk to a big game hunter. People that don't own parrots see them as this expensive, exotic, weird high maintenance thing that some crazy people choose to live with. They watch nature programs to see what these animals look like and they naively agree with whatever is on that program because they don't know any better. Some programs on Animal Planet and other shows just give bad information, or the bad idea about things. One show might be overly AR motivated, another might be a documentary about parrots in the wild in which half the video clearly comes from computer generated images or parrots in captivity. The average person wouldn't know any difference because they haven't lived it. They haven't seen it in the wild, or they haven't lived with it in their own home. They have never laid hands on the animal and if we don't breed them, they never will be able to. They will never be able to learn beyond what someone else tells them. I don't take anything any one says as indisputable fact. I run it through my experience and intuition based on experience before deciding if I agree with that person or not. If I was never given the opportunity to have those experiences, how would I grow as a person or even have enough knowledge on the topic to know who to agree with?
If someone had never been to a martial arts class, they might watch a testosterone driven movie about beat downs or learn that one of the Boston bombers did martial arts training and decide its bad and nobody should do it. You can do martial arts to learn how to kill people, or you do it to learn more about yourself, your abilities and control of mind and body.
You can keep and breed parrots to acquire something flashy and new, you can acquire multiple birds out of an uncontrolled desire to get new and better things and become a hoarder. Or tell yourself you are rescuing but never adopt anything out until you also are a hoarder. Or you can breed indiscriminately out of desire to raise a cute baby with no regard for the genetics of the parents or the life it will live after. Or you can keep animals to learn more about them, more about yourself, to improve or preserve the species and share that joy with others.
Okay, I think I'm done. I might go back through and re-read some of what you posted and make more specific comments later. Hope it makes sense and isn't too fragmented. My key board key board keeps doubling my letters and I have go back and fix it and lose my train of thought.
