FEATURE


Food Management Palmer’s diet during the workshop week was Harrison’s pellets and fruit twice a day. Sunflower seeds and peanuts were the rewards given in the training sessions. As these birds are not at liberty and free flying, it is no great worry if they refuse or fly off. The regime of pellets and fruit and work for treats appears to be suitable for training the majority of behaviours we want from companion parrots.


Developing a relationship


While walking the 20 yards or so down the corridor and back and I had to give him a seed every few paces to keep his interest and keep him from flying off. On our third occasion I hesitated for a fraction of a second while we were


bang in front of the pair of vultures’ aviary. Palmer flew off my hand and onto an adjacent flight roof. Another highpoint of my week was that Palmer then stepped back onto my hand for a nut instead of like Betsey taking a morning off. The lofty aviary in which I worked Palmer was about 100 foot long with two high fixed perches and a grassed floor. On our first entrance Palmer took off before I had even reached the spot where I was going to ask him to fly off. He reached the far perch and needed some persuasion to return. However with Rob’s help each morning and another trainer in the afternoon, I managed to get Palmer to fly from my hand to the perch and return to me. And toward the end of the week we cued Palmer to


34 BIRD SCENE


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