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Troubling Twos (Hitting Puberty)

Discuss the methods and techniques of clicker training, target training and bonding. These are usually the first steps in training a young parrot.

Troubling Twos (Hitting Puberty)

Postby ParrotMan82 » Tue Aug 30, 2016 7:52 pm

Hello,

I have a Meyer's Parrot. He's more like four years old but he's been really wild lately. Something happened last week, not exactly sure what he saw as a problem. He REFUSED to step up or go in to his cage. He refused to let us come near. He refused to be touched.

We've had him for about two years now, and there was just this sudden change where he no longer wanted anything to do with us. I tried to get him back in to his cage that first night, but he panicked and clipped a corner of a wall...he fell and chipped his beak.

After that I refused to try to do anything to him that he felt uncomfortable with and felt as though I may have traumatized him from the experience. Again...all I was doing was approaching him and gently asking him to step up.

After a week of being out of his cage, because he refused to step up or even go near his cage, we were able to get him in there. Now that he is in his cage, I hate to say, it but I'm uncomfortable with taking him out again. If he spooked during the night he might hit a wall and we wouldn't be there to save him.

So what I have been doing is going back to basics with touch training through the cage bars. At first he has been reluctant but he started to respond to the "touch" command again. I'm hoping in time he will be confident and trusting enough to come back out.

I believe what may have caused the issue is that about a week before this (maybe less?) my standard poodle got a hair cut and it was his first time seeing the birds fly. As a result he was bouncing around the hallway (French doors so there are windows) and he may have spooked the birds. We have since remedied that situation.
ParrotMan82
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 32
Number of Birds Owned: 7
Types of Birds Owned: Illiger's Macaw, White capped Pionus, Jardine's Parrot, Meyer's Parrot, 2x Quakers, Nanday Conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Troubling Twos (Hitting Puberty)

Postby Wolf » Wed Aug 31, 2016 7:07 am

While your dog jumping around may have traumatized your bird to some degree, I mean like why would having a huge predator jumping at you, not scare the Well out of you? I think that there is more going on than just that. Your bird is very intelligent and it knows that you are not the dog, although if it does not think that you were trying to protect it then it might have gotten mad at you for a few hours or even for a dat or two, but then that would be over.

Given the age of your bird, the time of the year, and factoring in some common mistakes that most parrot owners tend to make ( which you may or may not be making) I would say that your bird is hormonal.

I do not have any Meyers parrots, however, I do have a Senegal, which is a related species of parrot. Most of these birds go into puberty at around 2 years of age, but are often not sexually mature until 5 or even 6 years of age. To me, this means that their puberty may be more like ours ( humans) than what we realise. Puberty is a process and actually lasts longer than the initial first effects that we most often see, and I think that it lasts until they are sexually mature, although I do not have any scientific evidence to back me up on this.

Still if your bird is on a human light schedule as opposed to the natural light schedule that they would have in the wild, and if your bird is eating a diet that is high in proteins, fats and/or carbohydrates, then it is very likely that it is hormonal, regardless of the puberty thing.

Now a more detailed description of what you did when you tried to get your bird into its cage would be helpful in working out what happened and why it may have affected the bird the way that you described and then what you might be able to do to correct it. If I am reading your post correctly then you tried to get your bird back in its cage shortly after the dog event, while the bird was still upset and afraid and then you ended up chasing the bird. If that is accurate then your actions only served to scare the bird more which accounts for it flying frantically enough to hit the wall and chip its beak. which also scared it more. I would not have done that, I would have fixed the dog part of this event and then gone back to the bird and just sit down and talked the bird down and waited for it to come to me. The sound of your voice can be very calming to your bird, just for future reference.

I have both large dogs and cats that tend to get excited now and then and my birds will either remain where they are and watch me calm these other animals or they will fly to a higher place for safety, while I deal with the drama below and then after things have calmed down a bit they will all come to me to make sure all is well and for reassurance.

These are all of my current thoughts about this from what I got out of your post, I hope that they will help you.
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
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Flight: Yes

Re: Troubling Twos (Hitting Puberty)

Postby Pajarita » Wed Aug 31, 2016 12:22 pm

OK, just a comment that is more a clarification than anything else. Parrots become sexually mature when they go through puberty and a Meyer's would do this at around 18 to 24 months of age BUT they don't become sexually active until they are around four years of age. The difference is that they are able to procreate as soon as they go through puberty (same as a boy who can actually impregnate a woman at 15 or even 14 years of age) but they don't mate and nest until they are older. Now, in captivity, given the very unnatural diet (like pellets made with soy, for example, and the constant high protein intake) and people's manipulation of the number of daylight hours, they often will be able and willing to procreate as soon as they go through puberty (there are reports of macaws breeding at only 1.5 years of age, for example, when, in the wild, this doesn't happen until they are 5 years old).
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
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Flight: Yes

Re: Troubling Twos (Hitting Puberty)

Postby ParrotMan82 » Wed Aug 31, 2016 1:22 pm

I agree. I feel as though I may have scared him after the dog incident. I was chasing him in the sense that I was following him, but I was trying to be as gentle and slow as possible. I didn't want to leave him out because of environmental dangers (low lying power cords, walls and night frights, other parrots biting, etc.) while we weren't there to observe him.

I may have done more damage than good.

Do you think I'm doing the right thing by keeping him temporarily caged and doing touch training? I keep him with me while in the cage maybe a foot or two away. So, he does get social interaction.
ParrotMan82
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 32
Number of Birds Owned: 7
Types of Birds Owned: Illiger's Macaw, White capped Pionus, Jardine's Parrot, Meyer's Parrot, 2x Quakers, Nanday Conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Troubling Twos (Hitting Puberty)

Postby ParrotMan82 » Wed Aug 31, 2016 1:23 pm

I was trying to figure out a way to build trust again and keep him safe.
ParrotMan82
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 32
Number of Birds Owned: 7
Types of Birds Owned: Illiger's Macaw, White capped Pionus, Jardine's Parrot, Meyer's Parrot, 2x Quakers, Nanday Conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Troubling Twos (Hitting Puberty)

Postby ParrotMan82 » Wed Aug 31, 2016 1:38 pm

I also admit that he has a well balanced but moderately high protein and fat diet. I opted to give him more protein and fat because he loves to fly. Hes a good weight, not sure what would happen if I cut back on fat.
ParrotMan82
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 32
Number of Birds Owned: 7
Types of Birds Owned: Illiger's Macaw, White capped Pionus, Jardine's Parrot, Meyer's Parrot, 2x Quakers, Nanday Conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Troubling Twos (Hitting Puberty)

Postby Wolf » Wed Aug 31, 2016 5:37 pm

High protein and high fat can lead to liver disease, heart disease, kidney failure and diabetes in birds. This is the reason that feeding an all seed diet or all pellet diet is not recommended. The fact that our parrots were dying young from these diseases was the reason that pellets were first invented and then the manufactures claimed that the only food that our birds needed was their pellets. We soon discovered that this did not change how young they were dying or the reasons for the deaths. For this reason neither seeds nor pellets are recommended to comprise more than 30% of their daily diet.

Carbohydrates are somewhat better but they break down into sugars in the birds body and if there is too high of a level of these sugars they are converted into fats that are primarily stored in the liver.

Parrots in the wild are accustomed to flying long distances foraging for food ( up to 50 miles one way) and there is no parrot in captivity that flies any where near that distance so they really do not need the increase in any of these food ingredients. They simply do not get enough exercise to warrant it.
Wolf
Macaw
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 8679
Location: Lansing, NC
Number of Birds Owned: 6
Types of Birds Owned: Senegal
African Grey (CAG)
Yellow Naped Amazon
2Celestial Parrotlet
Budgie
Flight: Yes

Re: Troubling Twos (Hitting Puberty)

Postby Pajarita » Thu Sep 01, 2016 11:26 am

ParrotMan82 wrote:I agree. I feel as though I may have scared him after the dog incident. I was chasing him in the sense that I was following him, but I was trying to be as gentle and slow as possible. I didn't want to leave him out because of environmental dangers (low lying power cords, walls and night frights, other parrots biting, etc.) while we weren't there to observe him.

I may have done more damage than good.

Do you think I'm doing the right thing by keeping him temporarily caged and doing touch training? I keep him with me while in the cage maybe a foot or two away. So, he does get social interaction.


I don't know what you mean by 'touch training'. I know what it means with dogs but I don't know what it means with birds... what is it, exactly, that you do?
Pajarita
Norwegian Blue
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 18701
Location: NW Pa
Number of Birds Owned: 30
Types of Birds Owned: RoseBreasted too, CAG, DoubleYellowHead Amazon, BlueFront Amazon, YellowNape Amazon, Senegal, African Redbelly, Quaker, Sun Conure, Nanday, BlackCap Caique, WhiteBelly Caique, PeachFace lovebird, budgies,
Flight: Yes

Re: Troubling Twos (Hitting Puberty)

Postby ParrotMan82 » Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:14 am

ParrotMan82
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 32
Number of Birds Owned: 7
Types of Birds Owned: Illiger's Macaw, White capped Pionus, Jardine's Parrot, Meyer's Parrot, 2x Quakers, Nanday Conure
Flight: Yes

Re: Troubling Twos (Hitting Puberty)

Postby ParrotMan82 » Fri Sep 02, 2016 10:16 am

As for food they probably get 50% pellets and nuts and 50% veggies, grains, and fruits.
ParrotMan82
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is male
Posts: 32
Number of Birds Owned: 7
Types of Birds Owned: Illiger's Macaw, White capped Pionus, Jardine's Parrot, Meyer's Parrot, 2x Quakers, Nanday Conure
Flight: Yes

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