Socializing my baby bird

[Strawfrawg]

I had a big group of friends and family over this past weekend for a cookout, partly for a first real chance to socialize Marvin (11.5 weeks old) with strangers. I was a little worried he'd be overwhelmed, but to my surprise he loved flying from person to person and everyone could pet him anywhere. I swear so far I think the Bird Gods have blessed me with the most easy-going bird ever. I don't mean to brag...I'm just thrilled that he's been so easy.

What was your experience socializing your birds with others for the first time? How do they do with strangers now?

Marvin also (finally) took his own head-to-tail bath this weekend. The only part he missed was under his wings, but he let me extend them and splash him. Yay! Another milestone met.

[KimberlyAnn]

If we take Emmi out of our home, she will greet everyone! Inside our home...different story lol sometimes! Most of the time she's very friendly and curious. But she has her moods. We just have to put her down in a neutral spot and then she will go to our guests. Or we just let her be for a bit and she will go investigate. But she's a pretty easy bird too. Just loves and protects her favorite humans...My husband and I.

Also, brag away! You are one of the lucky ones!

And that's great about the bath! Mine decided last Thursday that she no longer wants to get fully wet. I'm sure that will change again this week lol

[marie83]

Thats great, keep up the good work and keep interactions nice and positive

Sometimes it takes Ollie a short while to want to spend time with strangers but he will generally say a quick hello. When I get more time its definitely something I want to work on more with him.

[Strawfrawg]

Marie, my 'tiel was a bit picky about strangers. He never quite got over it. Certain colors, smells, hairstyles...some things just made him averse to certain people sometimes. Does Ollie ever fake people out, acting friendly and then charging or biting? Weebo used to do that quite a bit. I think he was just territorial. And he was very rigid about routines. I always feel like as a bird owner, my bird and I are kind of like ambassadors when we are around people who have never owned one. It used to bug me when Weebo would act up around somebody. I really like people to think well of birds as pets. Of course if they were thinking of getting one, maybe it's better to know what they are in for...!

Hahaha, KimberlyAnn...I don't think my house has any "neutral spots"! I get what you mean about the moods. I guess I'm the same way...sometimes I'm not in the mood for company either.

[Pajarita]

I don't socialize my parrots. Parrots are all prey animals and, as such, they do not like unfamiliar anything, it stresses them out as they need to be in high alert which makes them produce stress hormones and that's not good for them. I believe they do much better when not exposed to strange environments/people or changes in their routines.

[marie83]

I don't socialize my parrots. Parrots are all prey animals and, as such, they do not like unfamiliar anything, it stresses them out as they need to be in high alert which makes them produce stress hormones and that's not good for them. I believe they do much better when not exposed to strange environments/people or changes in their routines.

You sound alot like Greg Glendal when you say this. Whilst I agree to a point about the prey thing change in a birds life is going to happen with the longer lived species and is unavoidable for 99% of them. Surely it is better to condition them to be adaptable than to just suddenly throw a new situation at them and hope for the best? Mine have varied routines for this reason, they are also gradually introduced to new situations to avoid overloading them with loads of periods of stress.

[marie83]

Marie, my 'tiel was a bit picky about strangers. He never quite got over it. Certain colors, smells, hairstyles...some things just made him averse to certain people sometimes. Does Ollie ever fake people out, acting friendly and then charging or biting?

Not really, theres nobody he has taken an instant dislike to as such. We let him decide at the moment if he wants to be on/near them or not so the situation doesn't really arise where he needs to pretend to be all friendly then go on the attack. If he does bite theres usually another reason for it- generally after he knows them a little bit more and he wants to see if he can manipulate them the same way he can my boyfriend or the person isn't listening to me and does something he doesn't like at that time but again thats something I don't tend to let happen. People do things my way with my birds or not at all.

[Pajarita]

I don't socialize my parrots. Parrots are all prey animals and, as such, they do not like unfamiliar anything, it stresses them out as they need to be in high alert which makes them produce stress hormones and that's not good for them. I believe they do much better when not exposed to strange environments/people or changes in their routines.

You sound alot like Greg Glendal when you say this. Whilst I agree to a point about the prey thing change in a birds life is going to happen with the longer lived species and is unavoidable for 99% of them. Surely it is better to condition them to be adaptable than to just suddenly throw a new situation at them and hope for the best? Mine have varied routines for this reason, they are also gradually introduced to new situations to avoid overloading them with loads of periods of stress.

First of all, thank you for the compliment. And, although I do agree with you that change is unavoidable for the larger species that will not live out their entire lives in the same household, the longer the bird lives without stress, the healthier, stronger and better-adjusted he will be when he needs to adjust to a new situation (as in rehoming). Stress (both physical and emotional) is one of the reason why pet parrots don't live as long as they should and should be avoided at all costs, in my personal opinion. As to socializing/conditioning them, it works real well with domesticated animals (mostly mammals) but it doesn't really work at all with undomesticated species because you can't condition an animal to accept something that is not part of their psychological/physiological make-up. That would involve a phenotypic mutation. It's like saying that you can make a territorial animal adjust to living happily in a social situation or a herbivore to digest animal protein as easily as plant material. You can't.

[marie83]

quote]

First of all, thank you for the compliment.

Believe me, having had personal dealings with the man I really wouldn't treat it as a compliment. That said I wouldn't take it as an insult either as it certainly wasn't meant as one.

As to socializing/conditioning them, it works real well with domesticated animals (mostly mammals) but it doesn't really work at all with undomesticated species because you can't condition an animal to accept something that is not part of their psychological/physiological make-up

That include us then? Technically we are predators to these birds that share our lives, yet even the parent reared ones may show no fear of us or be caused no stress from our presence, why then can they not be conditioned to other things in a way that causes minimal stress?

Believe me when I say I believe very very strongly in welfare issues as if you read back through my posts you will discover, hell I have birds in my care that I believe should never have been captive animals in the first place, doesn't matter to me that they were born in captivity but they are with me because they cannot be released.

Then of course there are those birds that will always fear humans and their actions to some extent, My Harlie girl is one of those but I can tell you now thanks to my hard work she is a hell of alot less stressed and more adaptable than she used to be. When i first got her I couldn't even walk in the opposite side of my 18 foot living room without her throwing herself around the cage blindly. No sorry I dont think I will ever ever believe that deliberately putting them in a position where the unknown may scare them so much will ever be a good thing. Of course a parrot who is already used to humans will be slightly more adaptable to a new owner and lifestyle, say if the previous one dies, but its still going to be a great big massive trauma than it needs to be. Gentle conditioning at a young age and older can help that bird imo. Its took 6 long years to even get Harlie to begin to trust me in a way I could handle her I moved so slow and didn't want to stress her too much, any change freaked her, I think its more important to avoid that if possible. She takes to new stuff with much less freaking out now, we had a visitor here tonight that she had never met before but she went and sat right up close to him, that seems much better for the long term imo.

[KimberlyAnn]

I don't know much about all this, but I can say...I would rather see everyone in my home comfortable, curious, and calm. Strangers to my bird will have to enter my home at some point. I would rather Emmi get used to that and see it as a normal thing instead of hiding in one of the back rooms hearing sounds, wondering what's going on.

If friends come over, I like to see her curiosity. I like to see her greet people and ask them to play. I like to see her ask for head scratches from them. I like to see her enjoy car rides. Just the mention of them now gets her so excited! I've given in twice since we took our big road trip and taken her around the block. lol

I know what Emmi looks and feels like when she's scared. She runs to us and shivers every time the ice cream man comes down the street in the evenings, blasting loudly, "Pop goes the weasel." How could I shelter her from that? I can't, so I do my best to make it ok and familiar. We watch out the window together as he goes by and someday she won't be scared. She's already shaking less and getting over it quicker, so I must be doing something right.