For the most part, The Houston Parrot Festival 2012 was a smaller, quieter and more subdued event than in past years. I think it’s primarily for two reasons:

1.) The economy blows.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s getting better, but it still blows and people are spending their time trying to make house payments and getting their kids through school rather than picking up and flying off to Houston to attend this amazing event.

It’s a shame, but you can see it and feel it everywhere, so it is going to be palpable and obvious in Houston as well. It has hit this industry like a sledgehammer. Suffice it to say, it’s a bit difficult to keep your parrot when you’re living in a car.

 2.) We’re getting older.

This whole “keeping parrots” business is waning in popularity with the younger generations because it’s expensive and they simply don’t have the money. (see #1…) The younger generation has witnessed firsthand what many members of the baby boomers did to screw themselves financially. They have no intention of making the same mistakes and this begins with embarking on an expensive lifestyle choice.

With the way things are going, the “Party in Parrot-dise” should probably start at about four of five in the afternoon just when the “Early Bird Specials” hit their busy times in Palm Beach and should wind down about ten p.m.

As it is, I for one had to go upstairs for a quick “lie down” before gearing up for a party after wandering around and talking with people all day.

So trust me, I’m not exempt from this whining desire that the party start earlier. Now that that has been stated, we can move on…

As you can see, I had a blast:

 Despite the fact that I had a cold, I managed to uhhh, medicate myself with aspirin, nasal spray, naps and a bloody mary or two to keep the nasty symptoms at bay.  There were of course familiar faces and people I knew very well, but we also had new people. And among those new faces a at the Festival were a few good friends of mine who had never before attended. With a little incessant whining, I managed to convince Jacque Johnson of the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary Parrot Garden and Janet Holt Hilton to come to the Festival.

Jacque and Janet. Great jacket on Janet she picked up from the Antique Beak!

I also had a riot getting together with Jessica Pineda, my Editor at BIRD TALK Magazine.

I just love saying that: “…my editor…” It’s like having a net when you’re on a trapeze. You might not need it, but it sure as hell makes you feel better.

Anyway, hanging with Jessica and ripping ideas around is always fun. And of course I dragged my feather scarves along to see if they could raise a little cash for the cause:

And they did. My feather work raised 380.00 for the NPRPF. I wish it was more but it’s a respectable amount.

Here’s a shot of me with Concetta DellaRocco-Ferragamo and the third scarf fabricated from African Grey feathers:

And toys. Did I mention the vendors had toys all over the place? And food? And samples? And artwork? God the artwork was amazing this year! While the entire event was smaller and more intimate, it certainly didn’t lack in the quality of items being sold.

The speakers were excellent and Susan Friedman was on hand to give her presentation of “P-A-R-R-O-T Do Tell” Six principles of effective teaching strategies and behavior management.

Jacque Johnson on the left, Starbird Toys Owner, Bonnie Jay on the right and Susan and I in the middle.

I didn’t get much of a chance to talk with Susan. Susan turns nearly every encounter into a learning opportunity so she was extremely busy answering questions and discussing the power of positive reinforcement. Susan’s agenda is education and she takes every opportunity to help people understand Applied Behavior Analysis. Here is her Training and education Facebook Page: “Behavior Works” I can tell you this much; if you haven’t read her work, attended one of her conferences or training sessions or signed up for “LLP: Living and Learning with Parrots,”   you are missing out. She has some really cool ways of teaching. This for instance: Check out this rap song! Just click on the Banner and get ready to rock. It’s really clever and I just love the thing, but then, I love education with some entertainment thrown in:

The cool people at Chirping Central were there. Chirping Central endeavors to inform and raise awareness on a number of levels, but most of all they are about avian conservation. Well! You should some of the freakin’ artwork they had! Janet Hilton won the 400.00 shopping spree drawing sponsored by BIRD TALK  and she selected this wonderful huge print of a Lear’s Macaw by artist, Mark McDowell:

You really need to check out their website and see the prints they have available. I’m not to much into avian art, but what they have available is gorgeous! All in all it was a raucous and fun festival. Granted, it was smaller, but it was a ton of fun as usual. I really hope we can “reboot and reboost” the attendance on this event. It’s really so much fun and with the new products and educational forums available, I simply feel that the Festival is an event you shouldn’t miss. I hope to see you next year.

I got Heidi’s photo Here.

I watched the show Prostitutes to Parrots on Animal Planet last night. It seems that Heidi Fleiss has a new gig. After adopting 20 macaws, Heidi has to figure out how to efficiently care for them while trying to make enough money to support herself and her flock. Now this is a problem. All of her macaws are free-flighted and have the run of the house. From what I’ve been able to observe, the house isn’t sufficiently parrot-proofed to cope with the onslaught of such massive beaks.

There is a way to handle this. She has the space. And if she’d knock off the runs to Whole Foods for pre-made butternut squash soup, she’d be able to afford them. I like the show, but until she gets a staff together and trained to look after her flock, there’s going to be hell to pay. There’s tons of things she could do to make the situation easier for her and better for her flock. It doesn’t have to be hard. And she doesn’t have to be as anxious about the situation as she is. I’d simply love to see this work for her. Her heart’s in the right place and she appears to absolutely adore her flock. And if she changed some things, and improved the environment for them, it could work. The trick isn’t to be critical, but constructive.

Now here is the rub: Does Animal Planet want to see her succeed? Or does AP think the inherent drama of the situation makes for better T.V.? I don’t know, but I’m staying tuned.

Photo from this Website: The Old Telephone Company

It happens on occasion. I get a phone call from someone about their bird. They need help. They need to re-home their bird. They need to know about training.

The latest call was Friday morning. I knew it was coming because Deb at “Chippy the Pirate,” a local bird store in Fort Lauderdale had called me a couple days before and wanted to know if it was okay if she gave my number out to a woman who needed help with her Cockatoo.

Wendy at Best Friends With a Cockatoo

Of course I said it was okay, but there is only so much I can do over the phone. The lady called me. It was the usual biting at unexpected times and aggression. But she did say, “The screaming I can put up with.”

I found out she used to allow her ‘Too to sleep in her bed, which scared me to death, but she said she had stopped that two years ago. Whew!

Sobering story really: She’s elderly, she lives with her son in a mobile home, she’s had a stroke, multiple surgeries, and she’s a nail technician. I got a feeling for the situation by asking a few questions; diet, housing etc. It turns out that her bird is doing pretty well. I suggested she knock out the seed and the colored pellets but applauded the rest of the diet that included lots of vegetables. Her son has two cats and consequently, she doesn’t let him out much anymore. I suggested the obvious: put the cats in another room in the evening so the bird could come out and be with her. She said she hadn’t thought of that and would do that. (Huh?)

I explained that the bird was most likely in breeding condition which might account for some of the aggression. However she said this began a while back and it’s all of the time now. It was apparent that she loves this bird but is over her head.

Again, there isn’t much I can do on a short conversation over the phone except to recommend she read, Don’t Shoot the Dog by Karen Pryor as an introduction. I also noted the diet, the fact that the bird has a play gym and I asked her to call me with questions once she had read the book. I then gave her a short course on positive reinforcement training gave her a few suggestions and called it a day, because there really isn’t anything I can do until she reads the book.

One other problem: she doesn’t have a computer. Now, this is indeed an issue because I was all set to give her my email address so she could contact me and I could send her all kinds of links. Umm, not going to happen. Now, I have been trained by Susan Friedman, Steve Martin and Barbara Heidenreich. But I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I know applied behavior analysis and positive reinforcement training, but not well enough to actually give an in-depth training session to another person over a course of weeks. And I’m a little rusty.

I’m also not too thrilled about the idea of marching over there, only to get carved up by a cockatoo who has never met me, doesn’t really give a damn about me and could care less about anything I might have to say about his behavior. I suppose I could do it, but I’d feel guilty about charging her and then there is that little matter of finding the time. At this rate I might have some time this coming September.

I’ve never gotten used to these phone calls. They make me feel helpless because I know I will never really be able to give her the help she wants. I’m sure she would prefer that I fix the bird, when it is indeed her that requires the training. And I simply don’t see that happening. But I can hope. And I can help as much as I can.

Parker

I‘m of the belief that either you’re a “Grey” person or you’re not. Some “Grey” people like Greys and other species. And some, like me, really prefer just Greys. There is something about them that simply enchants me. I like other species of birds, but African Greys attract me like a magnet. I didn’t know I was that way until I began working with other birds. I’ve worked with numerous species, but so far I’ve either boarded or rehabbed and rehomed Cockatiels, Quakers, a Solomon Islands Eclectus, lovebirds, and other Greys. Not much really, but enough to know what I like.

I find Greys to have more expression, personality, and “soul”, if you will. They seem more 3-dimensional to me and I find I can read them far easier than other species. They have a quiet dignity that I admire and a nobility about them that I respect. I don’t find them aloof. Rather, I find them introspective and thoughtful.

I’ve read a lot about them through the hundreds and hundreds of articles and books by almost all of the leading writers in the field.

One thing became clear to me while reading their work: Raising a companion bird is not so much a science, or a pastime as it is an art. It is a creative work always in progress and it changes every minute. There are two participants in this work of art, the human and the bird, and sometimes the collaborators don’t always agree. But this is where it becomes a work of art. Both participants must come up with a viable solution or one of them loses out in the experience. The experience is the art, as well as the outcome, and both of the participants change as time passes. It is a fluid, moving entity.

Working that all out is a daily discipline and it takes a lot of time and thoughtful effort to get it right. And the more we learn, the better we get at it.

Jason Crean’s Mousebird

When it comes to parrots, the phrase, “A little goes a long way.” has numerous applications.

A little bit of everything good in their meal makes for a better and more balanced diet.

I think a little bit of attention here and there, scattered throughout the day is more valuable to the parrot than no attention at all followed by a big one-on-one sit down with them.

Lisa Licare With Buddy and Skittles

A few little toys strategically placed in their cages is most likely more fun and more enriching than one big honkin’’ toy.

A few small treats throughout the afternoon goes further and means more to them than one big “Pigfest.”

A few short training sessions works better than one big long one.

Irena Schulz with Snowball

A few short, but thorough showers throughout the week keeps their feathers in better condition than one big drenching once a month.

I know there are others, but this might get you thinking about how “A little goes a long way.” can work for your birds. Got any ideas?

The Enrichment Genius: Kris Porter

Kris Porter put together an absolutely incredible book and website about parrot enrichment. There are enough ideas in both to keep your birds busy for years. The book is free and downloadable and it’s absolutely packed with cool ideas to keep your birds happy and busy. You can download the book at her website and you can also watch videos with other great ideas on ways to entertain your parrots.

Click on the photo of Zorba to get to the Parrot Enrichment Website:

The Parrot Enrichment Website! Click on the image of Zorba above.

If you don’t quite understand what “enrichment” is, it’s simply anything that enhances your bird’s life. It’s toys, music, places for climbing, foraging for treats, hanging out with you, sunshine, just anything that is fun and engaging. Kris has found photos, made videos, and explains in depth some of the items you can find in thrift stores, dollar stores and around the house to arrange your bird’s environment for for fun, play and interest.

Something as simple as a cardboard bottle carrier can be enriching!

Buddy, pictured above is foraging around in a cardboard beer bottle carrier that has been stuffed with “Stuff.” Looks like he’s intrigued.

You can sew buttons onto some kid’s used overalls you might find at the thrift store, fill the pockets with bird safe items and hang plastic toys from the straps. Bingo! An engaging activity for next to nothing.

Working to get at the Vegetables

Leigh Ann Hartsfield sent Kris a photo of her Grey Franco climbing up to investigate a basket of vegetables. This Munchkin Basket was zip-tied right to the cage door.

These are just small samples of the incredible array of stuff you can do to enrich your parrot’s environment. It’s a wonderful website and I thank Kris for putting it together for the rest of us.

Kris states, “My goal with this website is to cover all areas of parrot enrichment; foraging, training, nutrition, etc.  Also provide video instruction on how you might encourage your own parrot to learn to forage or engage in enrichment activities both inside and outside the cage.”

Kris? I think you accomplished all of that and more!

I am sooo guilty of this! When Parker was a baby, I was shooting photos of him every time he so much as sprouted a new feather or even blinked. In my own defense, I knew that when he matured, he was going to look precisely the same or the rest of his life and I’d better shake a leg and take the photos now or it’d be the same African Grey shot over and over again. albeit in different environments and poses. So I shot:

Parker’s First Baby Picture

And shot:

And shot.

Until he grew into his “Adult-like” feathering:

And now I’m not only taking photos of him and Pepper, I acquired a video camera and take video as well. I think most bird people are much the same.

Nikki McDaniel Laurent’s Cockatoo “Lyric” playing with Piglet

Early on in my quest for making some sense of this “Having a parrot in the family” business, meaning I was learning everything I could about nutrition, husbandry, Vet care, avian diseases, behavior training and every other little thing I felt I needed to learn about aviculture.  I felt I needed to read and learn absolutely everything to make up for the boneheaded move I made by getting a parrot before I got the education.  Guilt is an amazing reinforcer!

I was zipping around the internet one morning and found an advertisement for a weekend course in Orlando offered by Natural Encounters Inc. on behavior training. It was called “Companion Parrot Training 1″ and it was being taught by Dr. Susan Friedman (I had never heard of her at the time) and Steve Martin. (I had his training tapes.) Now, never having been to a Parrot-themed shindig before, I had now idea how to dress, or what to bring.  According to the schedule I was sent, on the last night of the seminar there was a “Banquet” the students were to attend. Banquet? Uh-oh. More wardrobe complications.

I emailed Natural Encounters with my questions and concerns and sent them this. It was dated August 18th 2004:

“What is the dress code for the weekend? I would think that the lectures would be casual business, but what about the banquet dinner? Are we talking about a nice dress here, or is this an evening gown competition? I’m just joking but I’ve never attended anything even remotely resembling this sort of thing and I have no idea what to expect.”

Debbie Huckaby’s Macaws after a bath

They were quite helpul and answered all of my idiot questions. I packed as best I could, drove to Orlando and attended the “Ice-breaker” happy hour on the first night. And I don’t know how to explain this, but the outfit I selected to wear, (blue oxford button-down shirt, khaki pants and brown suede shoes) was so dead on, it was precisely the same outfit Steve Martin was wearing. We looked like twins. I wanted to fall through the floor.

But I noticed, (aside from all of the Parrot themed clothing) was the fact that all of the other attendees had photo albums and were showing their photos to anyone who would look. And of course, Steve had to be shown all of these photos of their parrots. I not only had no photos, I had no parrot-themed clothes. But I was dressed identically to Steve, so you know, I had that going for me…

I forged ahead and introduced myself to Steve.

After complimenting me on my attire, Steve said, “Don’t you have any photos of your birds you want to show me?”

I replied, “Steve, I have an African Grey. Do you know what they look like?”

He laughed and said, “Of course I do!”

I simply said, “Well, mine looks just like one of those.” and I smiled. I think he was relieved as he’d been practically going blind looking at parrot pictures all evening.

To me, my African Greys, Parker and Pepper are very special birds. But to be honest, they look like African Greys and they pretty much look like every other African Grey. So I usually spare people the exercise of having to look at photos of my African Greys. Especially if they have one of their own. But it doesn’t stop me from taking photos of them.

My Literary Agent, Bully Buffett

Do you remember that for the last two years I worked at the Cincinnati Zoo as a “Guest Keeper?”

Well, that was all well and good and I had a blast, (I also worked my keester off…) but I have that chapter of my book written and it’s time to move on to the next one. I miss the Zoo something awful, but I have other things I have to do, other places I have to go and other adventures I have to experience. I don’t know if you recall, but the reason I began this blog and call it “Parrot Nation” is because I am currently, (and perpetually it seems,) working on completing a manuscript by the same name. This is harder than it looks. While I enjoy writing, I also enjoy eating and keeping a roof over my head which, in my case, involves putting on a uniform more often than not, getting on an airplane and flying around making sure that our flights are safe, people are happy and my company makes a profit for our shareholders.

Me With Miss Vicki, the "Texas Twister"

And I’m happy to do that. Really. I mean it. But that takes up a lot of time. And so does writing for “BIRD TALK” Magazine. We won’t even go into the time it takes to keep up with three rambunctious African Greys, one of which is Parker. And if you’ve read my column, you know how he is.

See? Not all of my readers at BT are Birds. Perhaps Gabby thinks the magazine is a menu...

And of course there’s Mattie, who is little or no bother at all, but she does need some care and attention.

Mattie, the "Wonder Doorstop"

So it’s no wonder that this flippin’ book is taking me longer than the Vietnam War. But it’s coming along. The problem is always time. Oh, and the travel. Oh and the money. And did I mention the travel? Did I mention that when you spend close to a hundred hours a month on an airplane, the last thing you want to do on your time off is get on an airplane?

Perhaps now you can understand why I really don’t like moving around very much when I’m not flying. But fly I must and I have to climb onto a few airplanes to complete this manuscript. Which brings me to my next trip: Best Friends Animal Society.

According to their website, “Best Friends Animal Society is guided by a simple philosophy: kindness to animals builds a better world for all of us. In the late 1980s, when Best Friends was in its early days, roughly 17 million dogs and cats were being killed in shelters every year. Despite the commitment of shelter workers to the animal in their care, the conventional belief was that little could be done to lower that terrible number.”

Best Friends was also featured on the Nat Geo Channel in a series called “Dogtown” which ran for four seasons and had enormous popularity. This in turn boosted the notoriety of “Best Friends,” and they still have the title, (as far as I know) as the largest, non-profit, no-kill sanctuary in the world. And of course there was that little matter of the Michael Vick dogs. They performed miracles there.

Good stuff as far as I”m concerned. Most people are aware that they have dogs and cats. But did you know that they have a large variety of animals? Yup. Besides dogs and cats, they also have rabbits, horses, ducks, sheep, raptors and pigs. Yes, pigs. They also have, umm, wait a second, it slipped my mind…wait a second…

Oh yeah! Parrots! BF has parrots. A lot of parrots. A plethora of parrots that all need homes. Here is one of my favorite photos of all time. It’s Rick Van Tuyl, who works at the BF “Parrot Garden” with a few of his buddies:

Photo courtesy Rick Van Tuyl

Well! Now you might ask what my interest is in BF. BF is big. Real big. And they are an “in place” shelter. Unlike many fabulous adoption and rescues which foster out their charges, BF is a brick and mortar rescue and they have a way of doing things that I think I would be remiss in not including in my book. And to be honest with you, lots of people are interested in the place. Which obviously isn’t going to hurt people’s interest in the manuscript. But most of all, I want to raise the public’s awareness of areas at the Sanctuary that isn’t about cats and dogs. I had an email conversation with Parrot Garden Manager, Steve Scheurich a while back about coming out to work and writing it up here. He thought it was a marvelous idea and began putting things into motion for that to happen. When I was able to nail down the dates and get ready to work on the particulars, things just fell into place.

For the last week, I have been gathering, packing, checking lists, filling out forms, making phone calls, writing emails, arranging for rides to and from airports,  getting computer stuff done and generally running around like a fool. But it’s been fun.

It’s my vacation. And as usual, I’ll be spending it working. But I have found over the past years that:

1. Change of work is rest.

2. If you can do something really cool that adds to and improves the world, you can head home knowing that you contributed  to an effort where you actually made a difference, as opposed to simply consuming. This is profound. And I guarantee that you will talk about it for the rest of your life.

3. Going on vacation at a place like Best Friends will not only change your life, it will have a profound effect on what they are trying to accomplish. You will be helping in a way that only one person can: One moment at a time.

I used to do “lie down vacations.” The sort where you go somewhere and do nothing. I loved it. But once  I came back I didn’t really feel as though I had accomplished anything. I was the same person. I felt empty. But when I first went to the Cincinnati Zoo and spent three weeks working my tail off,  I came home a different person. I had changed for the better. And that made all the difference. Because as small as my little contribution to them was, it wasn’t about the free labor they received. It was about the difference it made in me. Did it make a difference to them? I like to think so. I mean, after all, they invited me back. Perhaps in my small way, I somehow made a scratch on the surface of this huge world. I made a difference. I helped make things better.

Not everyone gets to the some of the extraordinary things I have been privileged to do. But Best Friends? They welcome everyone who has a love of animals. You may not think taking a dog for a walk to be a big deal. But it is for that dog. Because that dog might have come from a puppy mill and this is an introduction to a wonderful experience that is Disney World to that dog. You will do honest work that isn’t that demanding. How tough is it to rake a yard or wash some food dishes? But at the end of the day you will have contributed something that will have made a difference to those animals. And I haven’t been there, but having worked at the Cincinnati Zoo, I can tell you it will make a profound difference to those who work there. And your presence will be felt by the animals.  I leave soon for Kanab. I’ll be writing about it almost daily. Please check back as I get ready for a trip that is going to rock my world. I can’t wait. And while you’re at it, check out Best Friends: