My Meyers Parrot Training Progress

[Pajarita]

I think that you might be misunderstanding what I wrote. Chronic stress for captive parrots is not my 'jumping to conclusions', it's a scientific fact. It has nothing to do with whether we give them or not a good diet, good home, love, etc. It has to do with not been able to reproduce the same conditions they evolved to live under. All pet parrots live under stress. All of them - some more and some less but they all have it. And, I don't know how many other parrots you've had or for how many years (you only mention the 17 year old ARB) but I've been taking in parrots since 1992, had a parrot rescue for 6 years and have cared for hundreds and, of all of them, I've had the sum total of one that did the panting out of fear (Slim, an adult male lovie that had been starved on purpose and had ended up with internal organ damage and a permanent head tilt so pronounced it couldn't eat enough on its own) so, in my personal experience, this is an extreme reaction and highly unusual and, as such, very worrisome.

I am very sorry you are peeved by my comments but I would not be doing your bird a favor if I did not mention my concerns...

[seagoatdeb]

I have no problem wth you mentioning your concerns, in fact I think that is a good thing. It was your constant repeating of the info and not listening to what I said that was over board. I had mentioned I had lots of experience, I already had rehomed parrots and baby parrots long before I got Gaugan 17 years ago. You had already said you had very little experience with baby birds. They are not the same as rehomed adults. Of course chronic stress is not good for parrots or anything else. but there is no chronic stress here. parrots are a not a predator species so they are subject to stress. if something happens to a baby bird in the wild to traumatize them they learn to avoid it, through fear. if enough adults show them it is not someting to be afraid of they loose their fear. Babys have a window with each species where they are very adaptable and can recover well.

If I told you how my redbelly was when I got her after being shipped, getting her legband caught in the crate, then having her toe amputated and being bound and covered in a recovery cage, then attacking everyone out of fear, you would be telling me the same info and it would NOT APPLY there either. She was panicked about certain things too, when I first got her, she could not be covered, she would run and flap in panic, and then freeze in terror. She was afraid of towels. Men scared her. But she was calm the majority of the time. I carefully resocialized her and she is a very happy bird with lots of character now and for the last 17 years too. Babys do not react like rehomed adults, and you need lots of experience with babys to be able to see what they need to become well adjusted adults. You can not assertain that with statistics. Babies can get over lots in a relatively short time, if its approached correctly. They need to feel secure and then their baby wanting to learn everything self comes forward. Sunny is in the baby wanting to learn everything phase. He is interested in all people, especially if they are eating...lol and loves to be pet and is riding around on my shoulder now. He dances back and forth and points his body when he wants to be pet, and when you go over to him he puts his head down. Sometimes he comes looking for you to get his pets. He is happy to go in the car now, although I havent driven it anywhere yet, but he confidently sits on the steering wheel and looks out the window making little sweet sounds and preens while he is sitting there. Gaugan is an amazing teacher. I have the vet appointment for next week, I am hoping that wont be too scary for him. Time will show us how he does, if he turns out even half as well as Gaugan that will be something.

[Pajarita]

The only reason I kept on repeating it was because you kept on dismissing it even though it's based on scientific studies. But I now see the futility of it so I won't mention it any longer.

[seagoatdeb]

I never dismissed it and I even believe the theory. It just doesnt apply in this situation. So right theory, wrong application. You are trying to see a certain kind of problem in a baby based on your experiences with a rescue bird. Apples and oranges. You are trying to say baby panic episodes to only certain stimulae that are less than 1 percent of his total time with me, in a happy bird, are the same as living in too much fear and stress....That is wrong application of the theory. I do believe the theory though and its valuable info to have.

[seagoatdeb]

I found out my Meyers sub species is a saturatus, according to the breeder. My daughter bought a Meyers from the same breeder and travelled with me to pick him up when I picked mine up. They look like very different birds even though their colouring is roughly the same. I cant find very good descriptions ot the diferences in sub Species,, they only go over the yellow markings basically. My daughters Meyers is mixed sub species. But my daughters is larger than mine and larger than my Red Belly. Mine is smaller than my Red Belly. My meyers has a much bigger head and much bigger feet than hers. My Meyers has pinkinish feet with a pattern similar to my redbelly. Her Meyers has very dark black feet. My Meyers beak is at least twice the size of her Meyers. He was able to crack open hard almonds before he was 5 months old and he can snap pine blocks very easily. Both our birds were dna sexed as males. It is easy to tell the two Meyers apart from their very different body shapes and head and beak sizes from quite a distance away.

[Wolf]

The color difference of the feet and so on suggest to me that the one belonging with your daughter may not be a sub species but rather a hybrid between the Meyers and something similar.

http://www.parrots.org/encyclopedia/meyers-parrot
Maybe this will be helpful.

[Pajarita]

For what I understand, all Meyers have dark legs and the difference in the saturatus is that their brown is darker and their belly and rump is green (the others having blue-green, blue or turquoise) but yours has not gone through the juvenile molt so you don't yet know what the adult plumage will look like.

[seagoatdeb]

Thanks for the link but it doesnt say the beak size or foot color and the diferences between the their feet is a lot. Sunnys feet are light skin pink color with a little mottling, they look very much like my red bellys but are very large, much bigger than both my red belly and my daughters Meyers. Karas Meyers are very dark, black looking. Sunnys beak and head are much bigger than the other two birds too. The coloring of the two birds is the same. The belly is a mix of blue and yelllow and green feathers, giving it a greenish look.They both have bright blue on the rump. They both have yellow shoulders except Sunnys yellow patch is bigger. the both have the odd yellow feathers on the head. My daughters Meyer has the smallest beak of all three birds, but the biggest body,of all three. We will see more yellow marking after the moult but I dont believe foot colour changes. i was just surprised to see such a difference in beak size, and foot size and colour. i have made sure Sunny has a real variety of perches with those big feet of his...lol I have heard of differences in head and beak size between the sexes but my daughters bird was dna sexed and it is a male too. Geez i slept in a little this morning, sore from digging sweet potatoes and these birds acted like they were starving, I did leave some seed mix in last night. they both exploded out of their cages. I made their breakfast through bleary eyes...lol

[Pajarita]

Well, the rump and belly might change after the juvenile molt because blue-green is not saturatus, it's the nominate according to what I've read (see here: http://www.wingscc.com/aps/m-desc.htm)

And, going by the descriptions, they all have dark grey beaks but I can't find anything on the legs except pictures and they all have dark ones... Here are a few of the sites I've kept as reference for this species:

http://www.petinfospot.com/bird/meyers-parrot-792/

https://companionparrotonline.com/Meyers_Tale.html

http://beautyofbirds.com/meyersparrots.html

[seagoatdeb]

I dont believe any of those greenish, blue green, turqouise descriptions, what the heck are those colors anyway. Everyone will see it different. So i am just saying there belly colors are similar, There are so many individual feather colors on both of them on their bellys i dont know what the heck color it is, so I just say greenish, because from a distance it looks more green than anything. Depending on the light, It can look turqouise too. His feet color is very similar to Gaugans. pinkish with a reptilian looking mottling of a darker color. Piper, my daughters bird has dark solid color looking feet. much darker. Those are all the references i have seen too. I hope someone writes a better reference. The pics are somewhat helpfull, but color in a picture and at a distance is not that helpfull. But of course the breeder could be not telling me the truth as well. But it will be interesting to see how these birds look after their first moult. I saw a bunch of postings in other formums i am in of people that said their Meyers did not get the yellow head for years and others that said it happened the first moult.