Category: Animal House
I have a lovebird and 2 finches. The finches peeep peeep all day while the
lovebird likes to screech, but he's playful and goofy. How is taking care of
birds when your blind, anyhow? I wouldn't be the person to ask. I love birds
and I love taking care of the goofballs.
Not as hard as you might think, but it is tedious at times.
Lovebirds and finches both require totally different care, as you already know. The thing I used to do was be sure and align the perches so that the birds couldn't shit on things I didn't want them shitting on. Like their food. Blind or sighted you should do that.
One thing that gets tricky is feed. Most bird books recommend you examine their seed and make sure they're eating all the types you put in, especially smaller birds. Make sure there's not too much hard millet that they can't crack.
I can attest that with patience and stealth, anyone can switch birds, even canaries, to a pelleted diet. And that is what I did in later years to all my birds: parakeets, lovebirds, finches, even canaries.
With finches and canaries I used crumble.
I just practiced all the safeguards most people do, with just a bit of extra care when cleaning the cages.
Birds are fun. The part about being blind and keeping birds, at least with finches and canaries. I felt that for us, birds are what fish often are for sighted people: a way to relax while they forage, chirp, sing, etc.
The only thing about being blind and keeping birds, some of the prettiest birds are the least pleasant to listen to. The really pretty canaries have next to no song at all. And instead of Zebra finches I kept Societies. Societies are the longest-domesticated species, probably over 5,000 years in the Orient. And they chirp quite a bit and have little songs. Of course nothing beats the song of a German Roller or a Spanish Timbrado canary.
i don't own any birds but they sound like a nice animal, smiles.
I really wanted societies but I settled on zebras. My little girls are so sweet.
One is really perky and loud and the other is really quiet. I can tell them apart
by sound, even, because they have slightly different pitched voices. The
quiet one seems so pensive and just sits while the other bounces back and
forth. Don't worry though, she's healthy.
My lovebird is such a prankster though. Needs tons of attention and toys.
Loves to chirp really loud and cause trouble but he's cute and sweet.
My personal problem with Zebras is they only make one call, that beep beep beep sound.
Societies are more plain looking but their song is, in my opinion, nicer. It is fuller and more dialectic.
Yeah lovebirds can be a real handful, and they do go through their toys pretty regularly - chewing them up or just plain getting bored with them.
Boredom causes psychosis in parrot species of which lovebirds are one. They are indeed a handful to look after.
I have a kacatiel. Nothing more. I'm not planning to get any more birds at the moment. Not so nice to listen to at times, but is almost always read to come out of her cage and hang out with me. Just wish I had something like a smock to wear so she doesn't crap on my shirt and the like.
ugh, bird crap!
I grew up with birds, my mom loves them! I've had cockatoos, sun conyers and a noble mackall.. sorry, not sure on spelling. The macall, named Alex, would do nothing but scream constantly! Now my mom has a little farm with chickens, roosters, 2 big dogs, 3 cats and fish. Chickens are cute, never really looked at one until she got them and she gets the real pretty ones! Silkies, marins..others that I can't think of at the moment. Very neat though! Bigger than I thought.
I have a Cockatiel. He's a lot of fun. I've had him for five years. I gues I don't care about bird crap. I'd rather clean it off myself, than clean up dog crap. If I'm worried about Jiminy crapping on me, which most of the time I dont' care, I put a towel on my shoulders and down my back. That way, I simply throw the towel in the laundry. He's on Harrisons pellets as well as fruits, veggies, and the occasional millet. He loves it if I make birdie bread for him and put peppers, sweet potatoes, and all sorts of yummy things in it. He's an amazing little guy.
Take care,
Dawnielle
Ah yes, birdy bread.
I meant, I really enjoyed making birdy bread. And thos epellets are great. Lafeber makes NutriBerries your cockatiel will worship you for. Lafeber does a great job with pellets.
nice learning about the different types of birds and I must say some of the sounds they make are nice to listen to, smiles.
When we were growing up we had a pet parakeet called Charlie and we tried to teach him to talk but we had no luck, smiles.
Teaching a parakeet to talk - any parrot to talk - has its chanllenges and its mythology.
First, repeating the same sound over and over and over is not the best way. What you need is to associate words with scenarios and meaning. Birds are extremely verbal communicators. So if a parrot hears a door slam shut, and then, "Mom, I'm home!", and then sees you, it associates "Mom, I'm home!" as the return of one of it's flock mates -- you.
If you use certain words and phrases all the time, before or during cage cleaning or feeding, the bird associates that language and those words with that activity. I always told my birds to find their place when I was going to clean their cages, for instance. I was using their default behavior -- to fly to a top perch when they see the door approaching and the normal commotion that goes along with what we call cage cleaning, what they call disturbance of their environment.
So it makes no practical sense that a bird would start to say "Find your place," in my household. Because birds don't clean their own, or each other's cages. A particularly intelligent bird, like an African Grey, might do so, as amusement, directing a less intelligent bird like a parakeet. That would only work until the parakeet realized who it was that said so, and why.
In short, the term "parroting" for just repeating information, is entirely inaccurate. I've used these techniques on canaries too, and canaries do not have the vocal equipment to talk. They are extremely smart birds, learning a new song every time they molt, growing new neurons in their brains in the process. But they can't talk.
However, they can respond to environmental factors.
That's why it bothers me when people in pet stores try to get birds to "say night night" or other phrases that are cue-sensitive. When someone thinks it's cute to make their bird "say night night," for instance, that is confusing: they are extremely photosensitive, and so they will be expecting that you are going to perform a night ritual, or at least cover their cage, such as for transport.
Now, even if you are a high-pitched, very tonally varied human, here is what you sound like to a bird: Imagine one of those giant monster voices from an old science fiction movie, or someone's voice slowed way down deep on tape, and imagine your ears were full of water when you heard it. Muddy, low, garbled, almost unintelligible. And, slow, dreadfully slow.
When we slow down bird sounds, and I mean hundreds of times slower, we hear variation and cadence we can't hear at normal speed. But they can. So the bird is trying to figure out what part of the mumble and guck is actual speech or communication. To them, human voices just don't carry very far. I'm anthropomorphizing just a bit by saying this, but to a bird, our speech is very much inferior. So just like if you were laying in a bathtub full of water, and listening to your German or French lesson on a tape slowed way down, you wouldn't catch on very quickly, this is how it is for a bird. Plus, the bird is associating what you're saying with what you're actually doing. I've seen birds get frustrated very quickly, when there's not a match. It's not like dogs, where you're providing orders, although I'm out of my element with dogs. You're teaching language. The smart birds realize when you're trying to make them put on a show, and they don't like it. I was helping someone with a Macaw once, and this lady walked up and told him, "Say night night!" The bird said, "Fuck off, you fuckin' prick!" He knew we were preparing to take him outside for a bit of sun, which takes a lot of preparation. And "night night" would mean his cage was supposed to be covered. And yes, he knew what he was saying: he'd been living with a biker for years. In his mind, here's what was happening, at least to the best of my ability to understand:
Two humans were preparing the "going outside for sun" ritual. One of these humans - my friend - was his current caretaker but a bit nervous around him. The other, - me, - was cautious and a total stranger. Then another stranger comes along and wants him to get ready for sleep, when the sun is bright outside, which might mean he's going to wake up in another strange place or be bumped around in a carrier for awhile and can't really sleep anyway. Something like that.
I'm just saying, getting birds to talk is often very much misunderstood. When you see people who are extremely successful getting birds to talk, they're not making them parrot things. They're usually appealing to the bird's desire for amusement, making a game out of it. Watch videos on Alex the African Grey for stunning examples. You don't see professional bird handlers randomly having birds say night night, or goodbye. Only when the bird is going to be covered for some reason, and birds usually "role call" to one another before they go to sleep and when they wake up They role call before sleeping, in order to take inventory of who is there. They role call when they wake up, in order to see who made it through the night and who was eaten by a predator, or died in some other way.
While birds do have a flock leader, they are not as hierarchical as predatory species like canines. The flock leader's job is to find food, and be a sentry, sound the alarm when danger strikes. So the flock leader may have the highest point, and many bird books will say that's a position of dominance and privilege. Yes it is, but it's also one of responsibility: you can see everything from up there and you have to sound the alarm.
Giving your birds cues before you do anything they don't like is one way to "sound the alarm".
Another verbal characteristic of birds: when a bird finds food, the first thing it does if call to its flock mates that there is food. So feeding time is a great time for you tu make human feeding calls, whatever that may be. Whatever words, phrases and sounds you use when feeding, the bird will note that as a call telling them there's fresh food.
You may also notice your birds settling down to feed when you settle down to feed. I can't think of a bird I've owned who did not do so on a regular basis, even if it's just a bit of picking around in the bowl. Feeding is a very social time for birds.
So I realize my post is pretty disjointed. Just a few thoughts, I don't own birds now, haven't for almost 7 years, but did for years.
But if I could stress anything, it would be the following: The bird is learning your communication as a way to determine what you're going to do, or how you're going to modify the environment. It's not learning the words for the purpose of repeating them. In order for that to happen, you need to make sure the bird understands the meaning of the words, and that it would make sense for the bird to communicate that to you. Even nontalking birds like canaries, or even lovebirds who almost never talk, learn by association and understand the sounds you're making. All your calls are language to them, understood or otherwise.
very interesting information which is very informative and I enjoyed hearing of your knowledge about the birds, smiles.
This is a somewhat old board topic now, but I found it as I am contemplating getting a parrot - probably an African Grey at this stage.
Anyone else own one as a totally blind person?
With any birds, how do you handle the pooing outside of the cage if you live on your own?
Thanks guys.
An African Grey would be an extremely difficult first bird to keep. They are the most intelligent, some studies say with the intelligence of a five-year-old child and the emotional development of a two-year-old.
As to poop, with any bird, they only poop where they sit. So wherever they are going to perch, put paper under it. And where you don't want them pooping, make a shaky, unreliable perche above it: they don't care for sitting on a rod that tips and tries to dump them off.
African Gray and other parots like that are extremely emotionally needy. In the wild, they travel in sizeable flocks and are never solitary. So living solitary in a cage is a real difficulty. They want to touch, groom, pick out mites from each other, all as part of bonding. That means they might nip your earlobe, definitely would pull at a shiny
The user Sugarbaby on here, who hasn't been here in awhile, has one of these.
Note that these and Macaws make up the largest number of rescue birds in bird rescue sanctuaries and shelters. Depending on your age, that bird may well outlive you. And they have a very difficult time readjusting earring. to a new owner. I'll be honest, I'm pretty good with caring for birds, and I would not choose to own one of these. We had one in college, it was an experience for my friend and I. We rescued it from a neurotic girl who was always yelling at it to sit down and be quiet. Consequently, that bird could not handle women being around it, raising their voice, moving fast, etc. Everything you hear about dogs and their reactions to abuse is magnified with these birds. And a lot of people get these birds from abusive situations, from someone else who didn't know how to manage them, and they suffer from psychological problems related to institutional living -- in a cage -- by themselves. Wild parrots never pull out their feathers, but isolated, unhappy, and bored parrots in cages do.
To keep one of these from becoming bord, you need to constantly change its environment. Remember, these birds in the wild live a more varied life than you or I can imagine. Unlike wolves that became dogs, they have no "dens" and even their nest is only for when they have baby birds. Their days are spent pulling things apart for food, socializing with each other, climbing, and generally doing things that we humans in our habitats would find very destructive. Also, never mind what you've been taught about birds and their excellent vision: they are primarily auditory creatures. So when they can't hear you, they start calling. That's how they locate each other in the wild. Bigger birds like the large parrots have louder voices.
Just some things to think about when you decide to get into this.
I appreciate your post Leo; thank you.
I think after everything I've researched, I might be better off with a smaller bird to start with.
thanks for your educating post leo and it is interesting how each individual creature have different personalities like we do as humans and it is quite neat to see, smiles.