FEATURE
whose weight rose from 1700 grams to 1730 grams. We also participated in training of 4 mini macaws destined to perform the dollar bill trick at Disneyland. (The bird takes a dollar bill from a spectator and returns it to the trainer during the show.) These were young birds well under a year old. Mason the Harris hawk also in our programme went from 689 grams to 686 grams.
All birds that we trained were weighed daily. Then Karen and I weighed our own birds. A good exercise in smooth steady movements. Laverne could lunge if not handled right. But Karen managed the smooth movements required.
Cassie made up diets each day dependent
on previous day’s weight and
performance. She planned different feeding regimes depending on which bird. • Bird worked for complete diet • Bird given much as wanted • Bird worked for treats
I saw that the amounts given were far less than I would use at home. All birds were in good feather. No plucking, screaming, biting or stereotypical behaviour. Parrot nutrition and its role in training is a complex subject watching Cassie decide on diets for each bird underlines that theory needs to be supported by years of experience. With companion birds the simple expedient of withdrawing the favourite food and
letting the bird work for that in each training session is a simple method that anyone can understand. This is a method that trainers at NEI recommended to me and which I can easily follow at home. NEI trainers stress that weight loss of more than 10% is not advisable. If you need to drop a bird’s weight considerably to obtain compliance then something probably is wrong with your relationship with the bird. Individual birds: working with Palmer, Skittles Laverne and Samson We were allowed to choose what behaviour we wanted to teach our individual birds. I started out training Palmer to enter a crate but then decided since my birds at home do that readily, it would be more useful for me to fly him in a larger space. In the large flight, the task was to get Palmer to fly round a loop around a pole. Cassie fixed the amount that he was fed twice daily and he worked for treats. (shelled pieces of peanut.) The pole was placed in the centre.
Perches at either end. The helper, Karen or Cassie moved gradually further round the pole and the trainer (me) called the bird back. Palmer learned after a few tries to fly around rather than straight. But when his attention wandered he flew to another perch. Palmer was taken for each session from his small flight in a wheeled crate. Good experience for me to put him in that crate without knocking his tail. As the week progressed, I grew smoother in executing the movement.
BIRD SCENE 37
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