Week 6

Chick number 1 has a new name.   She will be called Sweetie.

* Our March 2007 hatch chicks have come out of the nest for hand raising today! *

The babies are now in the human world and living in a 6 foot brooder in our lower level family room.  Our lower level gets less traffic than upstairs and is usually very dimly lit, so the chicks have the advantage of gradually getting used to the world of light that they will live in. 

For the first week, we provide a covered nest box within the enclosure.  The babies will spend most of their time in the nest within the enclosure.  They can view the  enriched environment of the larger enclosure from the safety of the open door of the nestbox.  We keep one end of the brooder covered with dark beach towels to provide a corner of security for them to retreat into if needed.  The brooder is embellished with many colorful toys to stimulate curiosity and encourage play behavior.  The chicks spend most of their day napping, but each week they are more active and alert.  They are already patterned to recognize my footsteps when I enter the family room with a feeding.  They coo and call to me in an endearing "baby bird" fashion and relish the warm feedings that they get 4 to 5 times per day.   

The 6 week old chicks are still growing rapidly.  Contour feathers on the head are open.  Flight and tail feathers are opening and growing.  Contour feathers are opening on the body.  Claude, our little boy baby has darker feather color than his two sisters.  Weights continue to rise.   Our little boy has passed our two girls in weight and size.  This is typical growth for a male bird.  Sweetie and Gloria are growing steadily.  All are thriving.  

Handling, hand feeding, towel training, grooming training, harness training and environmental desensitization continues. 

The babies will remain in the relative quiet and dimness of our lower level family room for at least a week.  As they become more and more comfortable in the human world, I will bring them upstairs in the brooder to spend the rest of the hand raising time with our family.  After the chicks have graduated to  living upstairs and have settled securely into a pattern of human activities and handling, we will welcome visitors to see our beautiful babies!

  The babies express their moods through  body postures and vocalizations.  This is  the "language" of the Congo.  It is vitally important that we humans learn to understand the language of our birds if we are to humanely and effectively shape them as desired human companions.   We must become experts at observation to learn to see the subtle cues that our birds are continually giving us.

There are many approaches to shaping behavior in parrots.  The spectrum ranges from heavy handed domination to purely positive reinforcement. 

I urge every parrot owner to search their heart and look  closely at the role models they choose to embrace when they read about methods of working with their birds.  Closely examine the  training and handling techniques that each "expert" presents.  While many of the published experts will use "positive" terminology to label the handling techniques that they propose, is the action REALLY positively reinforcing the bird?  Do the handing methods truly represent gentle and positive techniques or is force, coercion, domination at work?   Ask yourself "Is my bird responding or "behaving" because something I am doing is rewarding him, or is he responding (behaving) to escape a negative consequence?"

This is not to say that some mild forms of negative reinforcers may have merit in working with parrots.  To illustrate this point, consider the  technique of  the "time out".  A "time out" is the process of decreasing unwanted behavior by temporarily withholding access to positive reinforcement.  Removing positive reinforcers that serve to decrease and supress unwanted behavior is, by definition, a type of punishment.  Yet it is ultimately less adverse to take something good away rather than to add something bad when handling our parrots.

There is no doubt that punishment can be a powerful motivater.  It is the "quick fix" in many cases.  It works.  The problem with punishment is that there will be multifaceted negative fallout in your relationship with your bird.  Punishment techniques have many detrimental side effects in parrots, including increased aggression, escape/avoidance behaviors, generalized fears and apathy. 

My own approach to working with my birds has evolved over the years based on my extensive  observations, experience and deep love of these animals.  I have moved away from the notion that we humans must never let our birds make a choice or else we risk some sort of "bird anarchy" in our households.  That notion is really rather rediculous.   I have learned that it is far better to empower our birds to make good choices in their behavior by rewarding the behavior that we want to see repeated.

Which type of relationship sounds better to you?  Would you rather have your bird respond to you because he has no choice or because it is a postivie experience for him?   

Your relationship with your bird will be much more harmonious when you are respectful of the bird's choices and allow him to have control over his choices.   Through positive reinforcement training, you will be empowering the bird to making good choices in his behavior.

Below, the 6 week old March 2007 hatch babies!

 

Below, L to R, Sweetie, Gloria, Claude.