My Meyers Parrot Training Progress

[Wolf]

I know that you are very careful with Corsair, but with her getting this much refined sugar in her diet, I would pay close attention to her blood sugar levels when she has her checkups as birds can also get diabetes, Just thought that you should know, if you didn't already.

[Pajarita]

And, actually, as birds do not taste sweet, the only thing sugar does for them is give them insulin spikes, make them fat and create an addiction so it's not as if they get any benefit from enjoying the taste the way we do. Why not ask your son to give her half a peanut instead? She will like it just as much.

[seagoatdeb]

I am busy training a Meyers too. I purchased him at 4 months old from a breeder who had bought him from another breeder and was going to show him. She decided she did not have enough time to be ready for the show and I was able to purchase him. I have a 17 year old Red Belly who is missing a toe and was a biting attacking 4 month old bird when I got her. In spite of the fact she was biting the person who held her, I felt no fear of her and saw love in her eyes and spoke to her until she pointed at me and I held out my finger and she stepped on me and it has been a love affair ever since. She has never bitten me. I already had birds at home, so my Red Belly, Gaugan was used to having bird around. Now at 17 she was the only remanining bird and was gettign overbonded to me, so I knew it was time to get a another bird. i was going to get a rescue bird but the Meyers became available so I got him. I named him Sunny. The breeder told me that he was housed with a Red Belly and once the red belly was sold that he had bonded to a Senegal. Sunny was terrified on the ride home and panted the entire trip. He knew how to step up and you could take him to his cage, but he did not want any human interaction, he only wanted the attention of birds. He was obsessed with wanting to be close to my Red Belly, but she was equally obsessed with wanting her own space. It has been a lot of slow patient work to get him to bond with me. I am at the point now where he will sit on my lap, allow me to pet him, and I can walk a short distance with him on my shoulder. He calls for me now when I leave the room. It has been 3 weeks now, and he is coming along well. The one thing that is puzzling to me is his deep fear with being outside. he is even afraid if I open a window and he can hear the outside. I have never seen a bird with this fear. I have tried having him outside in a cage surrounded by a red belly, another Meyers and a conure in their own cages with dishes full of veggies and fruits and he has been very afraid most of the time even though the other birds showed no fear. I have put off his first vet visit, because I dont want him to be traumatized by going outside and then the vet exam. He is a very happy bird at home, He flys from hanging toy to hanging toy, and plays hard and is very acrobatic. He makes sweet songs for an hour or more every day. He is sweetly affectionate, and peppers my cheek with sweet kisses. Has anyone heard of this fear of the outdoors in a Poi? Every bird I have ever had has loved the outdoors so it is very puzzling.

[Wolf]

Actually this is not as uncommon as it would appear as most birds who live indoors are actually frightened of being outdoors, though many of them do not respond in as an extreme manner as yours. Often the bird owner is inexperienced enough that they misread the birds body language and reactions to being outside to mean that the bird enjoys it when in fact the bird is on high alert and very fearful of the new environment. I would suggest that in order for you to take the bird to the vet that you cover the transport cage to prevent the bird from seeing where he is and hopefully reduce its level of fear and stress.

[Pajarita]

All birds are afraid when in an unfamiliar environment. As Wolf said, people usually misread the bird's reaction for excitement but it takes them a looooong time (and a lot of stress in the process) to get used to going outside. Personally, I avoid stressing them out as I avoid the plague so my birds don't go outside. If I were you, I would leave the bird alone and not take it outside. There is actually no need or benefit to the bird in any case...

[seagoatdeb]

Its the first time I have ever seen this level of fear in any hand raised bird. The other Meyers that my daughter who lives next door got was 2 months younger and was not afraid of anything. i believe mine was traumatized by something before I got him, but if it is more common maybe I have not run into it. I am going to work on getting him to be unafraid outside because I do go away for the weekends sometimes and I have always taken my birds with me, so he would need to come or be left home alone wth my daughter checking in or taken next door to her house. He is making such fast progress everyday, and I think I have my Red Belly to thank for some of it. I usually have some fun foot toys and I move them to a farther place in the house and take my redbelly with me to play with them. Sunny watches. Then he is excited to l go that far and play with the foot toys. We are getting close to the doorway to the car park, so I am hoping in the next few days her will be able to be in the car after watching Gaugan play in there. I will make sure he is comfortble in the car before we ever drive it anywhere. Gaugans favorite thing in the world is riding in the car, so she will be a good teacher. I am what people call a whisperer and have always been very close with animals from the time I was little. I can tell when he gets afraid, and some fear is okay for new things. I dont ever want to see that panting he had during the trip to bring him home again it was heart breaking to see that level of fear.

[Wolf]

Again the fear of being outdoors is fairly common in birds that have been raised and live indoors, but it is not generally to the degree that you have described with this one, This could be indicative of some trauma or it could just be a quirk of its personality. The same as some people are afraid of the dark, but most are not afraid of it to an extreme while others are afraid to the extreme, so there is no way of knowing for certain.
Birds rely on each other for a big portion of their feelings of safety and security so being with other birds at the time of exposure to the feared thing, being outdoors, may help you to slowly acclimate the bird to being moved from indoors to the outdoors, but since simply covering the birds cage should achieve the same goal, that of being able to transport the bird from one place to the other, without the need for the added stress, I would question the value of causing this bird the degree of stress required to modify the behavior.

[Pajarita]

Yes, obviously, there is something different about this little guy, poor baby! And whatever caused it falls square on the breeder's head. I have to agree with Wolf 100%, if he is that terribly distressed by the experience, I would not try to get him used to it. Stress is, without a doubt, the underlying cause of more pet birds deaths than anything else and completely unavoidable in captivity so why make things worse than they already are?

[seagoatdeb]

It is fall so not many warm days left to bring the birds out. so I wont even try to have him outside with the others untill next year. i only want him to be comfortable in the car before his vet appoinment, so will keep working on that. Watching My redbelly do things has really given him confidence to try new things. Everyday his progress is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Today when I let him out of the cage, he was dancing around and giving sweet litttle chirps...lol...he began singing and I wasnt sure until today, but he is saying pekka, pretty bird and laughing. My redbelly who isnt the morning bird the Meyers is, is making sweet cockatiel chirps that remindme of my sweet female cocatiel, she will live on forever in the sounds these parrots make. He is the sweetest bird, he has such serious eyes and he is so independant and points at me when he wants attention and gives the sweetest little peeps. I am going to be making an atom toy today, and the parrots will be watching. Will be interesting to see his reaction to this. He really loves atom toys so he should be happy to watch.

[Pajarita]

Waiting until he is older and more comfortable with you, his new home and feeling more self-assured is a good plan! Kudos to you for realizing the problem and been willing to wait for him to set the pace.