Paco is progressing! Still need advice...

[Snowghost]

It's been months since I have checked in. I'm keeping up with Tinker! New job has crazy schedule but with everything going on in the world today, I'm thankful I'm still working.

Paco's vocabulary is getting quite interesting. He now screams out a word, RANT, it is so random and hysterical. I have taught him the Andy Griffith theme song, he mastered it in a few weeks, he was forgetting the last note until a few days ago.

Question, we are coming up to our one year anniversary. He is not plucking. I think he is over preening. He has fuzz under his chin? Beak? The bald patch is still on his chest, I would think by now it would be covered in feathers. I have found piece of feathers at the bottom of his cage. Small ones

His left wing feathers are growing in, and his red tail feathers are coming in, but they look ratty.

Work schedule is sporadic and I try to keep a routine as much as possible.

Diet continues to improve, he is nibbling on pellets now. He is now a carrot and broccoli addict. I mix it up with Jasmine rice, however he is not touch fresh apples, maybe a nibble, some sweet potato, corn once in a while.

I shower him with a mister once a week, is there anything else I can try to improve his feather condition?

He does chew up his paper at the bottom of his cage if I am gone for long periods, some days I work 7:30am to 2:30pm or 12 noon til 8:00pm I can't change that. I've tried introducing new chew toys, soft wood blocks and hanging toy with rope and wooded shapes, he is still to scared to play with them. I handle them and call them toy.

My time is limited, this is the first weekend I've had off in 3 months. I am open to suggestions.

 

[expressmailtome]

Bump.

 

[jh81]

Do you leave on a radio hen you work, or maybe the TV so he can be kept busy looking at the action intead of beeing busy with himself? Its good to hear you make progress a good diet will be good for his health, and in extension his feathers

 

[Snowghost]

Do you leave on a radio hen you work, or maybe the TV so he can be kept busy looking at the action intead of beeing busy with himself? Its good to hear you make progress a good diet will be good for his health, and in extension his feathers

Yes I do leave a radio on, I don't have a tv. He is eating pelletsand a variety of veggies, he is hoojed on broccoli right now. He has stepped up twice with no bites, I guess its a longer process then I expected.

 

[sunnysmom]

It sounds like you are doing well with him. Some birds just take longer. If he likes newspaper can you just roll or fold some newspaper up and hang it in his cage to play with?

 

[Snowghost]

@sunnysmom I haven't thought of that since he is scared of new things and toys, no matter how long I keep them on the back of his cage. I thought of putting a paper towel roll on the bottom for him to chew, I don't want his beak to get over grown. I was worried that if I did that he would be afraid to chew the paper. I know I stress over him too much. He was cage bound most of his life, so he is basically afraid of everything.

 

[Rain Bow]

I'm not sure if she's gotten any this month, @calibird ? but for soft woods Buddy loves the Balsa & bare (non-colored) Yucca from California Bird Nerds. I'm not trying to throw another bad vendor @ you. I order from them regularly sometimes more than 1 time a month.

They're the round discs & if Paco starts w/ them later you can build around the Yucca like I did for Buddy. He's been working on this toy for a week.

Here's how it started...



This is what's left. Pls excuse my non-cage cleaning abilities tonight!

 

[Snowghost]

@Rain Bow I'm not trying to be difficult, he has one of those toys, its a bit faded. There are old chew marks on it. He also has some red pieces like to flaps hanging together, he hits them and they swing a little, he just doesn't chew on them. He does enjoy playing with his bell and he screams at it sometimes. Scares the ba heebie jeezes out of me when he does. I read so much about how Greys' love to chew and play and he doesn't do any of that. I want to make sure he is a happy bird.

 

[Pyropus]

Use shaping, either with a clicker or just a short word or click of tounge if he is scared of loud sounds.

Get whatever he likes a lot, make sound and offer treat. Wait make sound and offer treat. Basically teaching him first the sound means he is geting a treat. Then lay down a toy as close to him as he is comfortable with, when he relax, make sound and treat. Then wait untill he accidently moves closer to toy, make sound and treat.

Yes it takes patience, in the begining he will be confused and maybe try out different things. Dont train too long so he get bored either, in the end he will realize as you do training after training sesion that moving closer gets him a treat.

Once you however long it takes (you just have to see how he progress and slowly increase your demands for when he gets a treat) has moved all the way to the toy, then start demanding that he touches it in one way or another to get the treat.

The more you progress, the more you want him to touch the toy, however he prefer.

And dont botter with the word, that comes later if you want it to, when shaping the time to put on a command is when you done something successfully say a 1000 times. That way dont put on a command for faulty behaviour. Ex you could call it play.

Sometimes it goes fast, but your better planing for it taking months and be pleasantly surprised if it does not. The more you shape the quicker it goes as the animal learns to understand the training method.

 

[calibird]

I'm not sure if she's gotten any this month, @calibird ? but for soft woods Buddy loves the Balsa & bare (non-colored) Yucca from California Bird Nerds. I'm not trying to throw another bad vendor @ you. I order from them regularly sometimes more than 1 time a month.

I have some balsa in stock and more balsa is scheduled for delivery today. I do have some yucca. I have a bunch of the Yucca Chunks and a few of the Yucca(20 Assorted Pieces) left.

 

[Snowghost]

@calibird Yucca is a cactus? Do parrots like that?

 

[Snowghost]

@Pyropus I can't thank you enough. I guess that was what I am looking for. A way to communicate with him. Well I am off work for the next 30 days and I will be spending more time with my boy. I do love him soo.

 

[BertAllen]

l I am off work for the next 30 days and I will be spending more time with my boy. I do love him soo.

Try to keep him on his routine. I found Tinker and my Zon like routines.
I have been letting Tinker out only 30 minutes longer in the morning but otherwise he is on his regular time frame.
When things get back to normal is when they get all out of control if you don't. Been there done that.

 

[Pyropus]

NP, I was gonna take a course to become an instructor in a competion field which base training on shaping. The course was canceled, but I already had goten the book on the subject which was part of the curriculum.

Almost anything can be done with shaping, its just about breaking it down in small enough pieces and start with one before building on with the next. Or in other cases teach each element on its own and then combine them all into a bigger trick.

The main thing is we tend to get too excited as humans (me included) and try to do too much at once, it ends up with us using longer time to get results, then if we rush slowly step by step.

 

[Snowghost]

@BertAllen Oh I agree completely with the routine. I try to, however as I have state before, my current job is not routine. I can work two days 12 to 9pm off one day and then work 7:30am to 4 pm for 3 days. I do try to do the same things each day just different times. I thought he was chewing the paper at the bottom of the cage if I came home late but he does it if I'm off early. The last few days he has not chewed up paper. With more day light hours that seems to be helping. My next worry is he will get used to me being home for the next 30 days and then I have to go back to work again. One step at a time. I guess I'm just trying to understand is the paper shredding stress? Boredom? Both? His tail feathers look tatty so I don't know what is going on with that. I'm just happy they are growing back in, he had none when I got him. I am finding pieces of feathers at the bottom of his cage, not a lot but they are there. That's what made me decide to try and get him to play with his toys to relieve stress.

 

[Snowghost]

@Pyropus How interesting you found a class to take. Too bad it was cancelled. My only experience with birds is keets, tiels, love birds and my last parrot was an Amazon, she was wild caught. Paco's intelligence is amazing and I want to do the right things for him.

He did step up for the previous owner and he would touch his beak to her lip when she asked for a kiss. We aren't ready for that step yet.

A little background that I do know about him is that his last owner worked 70 hours a week and he was left in his cage a lot. When I adopted him, his cage was filthy, he even smelled. He had a water bottle that had brown water in it and he was not fed pellets or fresh foods.

I cleaned him up, took out the bottle and he now has 3 bowls, fresh water, fresh food and we are progressing to more pellets. I am really happy with our success.

He would step up at first and then started to chomp my arm. I figured out he did this when I asked him to step up from his open door. If I asked for him to step up from the top of his cage he did not seem to bite. He was also biting if I reached in his cage.

I stopped asking him to step up and now with the same routine, I have to go to take a shower, go to work, time to go bye bye and bribe him with a treat he gets in his cage on his own. Now I have gotten him to step up on my arm three times and I slowly walk him to my bed and sit down with him. I am trying to take these steps a little at a time, no rushing. So far so good.

As for learning how to train him I really appreciate your post. I have tried you tube vids but Paco is not that calm and the presenter talks more then teaching.

I now am able to reach in the cage and change out his veggie bowl, and a few times he has let me get his water bowl, I had to switch to a screw in type bowl as he learned how to flip the bowls out. Funny he doesn't flip his veggie bowl, keeping my fingers crossed.

What are good training treats? Sunflower seed is fattening, he does like cheerios, sometimes an almond.

He is hooked on broccoli and carrots to the point he won't eat anything else and I'm worried he isn't getting a range of vitamins.

 

[BertAllen]

Some days I'm home while he is in his cage some days I'm gone all day. Tinker seems to accept that.
Tinker shreds his papers up in his cage often, it's something they just do.
Tinker is also moulting right now and losing tail feathers as well.
Give us a picture of those pieces of feathers.

 

[calibird]

@calibird Yucca is a cactus? Do parrots like that?

The birds love yucca. It is part of the succulent family. It is on the softer side like Balsa and Sola.

 

[Pyropus]

Whatever thats safe for that species that he likes, if thats carrots and brocoli then reduce or remove it from his food and use the amount of these he should have for training.

I dont have birds yet, but got knowledge of animals in general and learning about parrots before geting one. However stuff like shaping can really be adjusted to just about any trainable mamal or bird at least. I am sure you can even adapt it to others as well if you just learn enough of species to see how tp adapt it. Its basically just about finding a signal that the animal learns means treat, and then consistantly wait till the animal in some way does something in direction of what you want before giving signal, and then as the animal catch on increase the demand on how much before giving the signal and then treat.

 

[Snowghost]

A few feathers I took pic with cell phone.