http://journals.aol.com/eweporium/featheredfriends/
introduction: who we are, what we do, why we do it.
photo gallery of our feathered friends.
quiz- are you realy ready for a pet parrot?
Article: How to Trim a Bird's Wing Feathers
Training you to train your bird - the UP command
http://journals.aol.com/featheredcastle/1
http://journals.aol.com/eweporium/featheredfriends/readphobic birds part I & II,
winning your bird's trust
General bird Care
So you want a parrot as a pet????
http://www.aimpages.com/featheredcastle/profile.html
http://journals.aol.com/featheredcastle/adoptablebirds/
http://journals.aol.com/eweporium/featheredfriends/read
http://journals.aol.com/featheredcastle/1/
Tips for Training, Taming and Teaching!
Following are some of our thoughts on birds and the best ways to teach and train them. Please remember that not all birds are alike, just like humans, so what works well with one bird may not work as well with another.
1. Believe it or not, one of the worst places that you can allow your bird to "hang out" too much is on your shoulder. Due to the fact that, in the wild, a bird enforces its dominance by being above everyone else, this allows the bird to think that it is the boss. Keeping it below eye level is best to help it learn that you are the dominant member of the relationship. Be sure that it spends some, if not most, of its time spent on you lower than your shoulders.
2. While you may be inclined to use gloves in handling your bird, this is actually not something that will help your relationship. Gloves have a tendency to scare many birds. Due to the fact that our birds are hand-fed, you should not need to use any form of protection. If this is not the case with your bird, for whatever reason, a perch or a towel is better for training.
3. Always be sure that your birds wings are clipped. This is very important for your bird’s safety. You don’t want him to get out when a door is opened, nor do you want him flying into a window or uncovered mirror. In addition, allowing him to fly freely, even inside the house, may allow him to begin to think that he is the "flock leader," thereby thinking that he is dominant over you.
4. Birds have hollow bones and can be injured very easily. It is very important to remember to NEVER hit your bird. This is not a way to train your birdand will bring about more negative results than positive! This will only teach them to be afraid of you, which may result in them biting you. Remember that your bird may be able to speak to you, but he is not human and cannot think like you. He doesn’t know what makes you angry.
5. When your bird is behaving badly (like biting or screaming), your best approach is to treat it like you might a small child. Start by saying, (firmly, but not screaming) "No!" and redirecting its attention. If the bad behavior continues, that is when you can use a "time-out." Birds, being very social, will respond to this, when it is used properly. Put the bird back into his cage properly and cover it for a short period of time (but never more than fifteen minutes or so). The bird should soon learn that negative behavior will only have him removed from social activity, with no further attention.
6. Don’t forget to use positive reinforcement! When you bird is behaving well, take it out of the cage and give it a good scratch (if it likes that kind of thing). Again, like you might treat a child, positive reinforcement works well!
7. In light of the above note, DON’T accidentally reward negative behavior. For example, if your bird is in the cage screaming, removing it from the cage at that time will only teach him that screaming is his way out. This will cause him to scream more. In addition to that, many birds actually are amused by seeing us get worked up. If you scream at your bird to be quiet when he is screaming, you are only showing him that he can get this kind of attention from you by acting this way. It will not help him learn to be quiet! Always remember to make sure that your bird is not screaming because he needs food or water before you try to "fix" this behavior though!
8. Again, like children, birds have the ability to sense our emotions. If you handle your bird while you are upset or uptight, you may notice that he doesn’t respond well to you. He may even be afraid of you. For this reason, it is best not to take them out at this time, waiting until you are more relaxed and have calmed down.
9. The "up" command is a very useful tool when handling your bird. Place your finger against the birds belly and use very gentle pressureto encourage him to step up onto your finger. While he does, you can say the word "up" and he should learn to associate the word with the action. You can also do this when placing him back into his cage, using the perch against his belly. Always remember to use GENTLE pressure. This will also come in handy if you need to correct your bird’s behavior and should be the way you put him back into his cage – the correct way to put him in.
10. Again, just like a small child or any other animal that we train, birds do not learn things overnight. Patience is needed on your end, as well as persistence, but you will, most likely, be rewarded in the end. This applies to both training your bird to behave well, but also for the birds that are being trained to speak or whistle. Patience and persistence are the keys. After a time, you will have a wonderful companion!
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Recipes
Birdie Bread
I developed this for my flock. I hate how crumbly those other breads that people "created" because they are based on a basic corn bread recipe.
My birds like to hold their food, and a crumbly corn bread does not cut it with them. More ended up on the bottom of the cage than in their beaks. -
1 C. Wheat Flour
½ C. Corn Meal
½ C. Bread Flour
1/3 C. Flax seed ground
1/3 C. Amaranth
1/3 C. Quinoa
1/3 C. Oat Groats
2 tsp Sea Salt
1 C Nut Butter
½ C. Red Palm Oil
½ C. unsweetened Applesauce
4 Egg Whites
1 ½ C. finely cut fruits or veggies
Spices as desired
Notes: 1) Use fruits and vegetables that will compliment each other.
Only use about 3-4 different ingredients.
2) Many spices are very beneficial to our bird’s health. Garlic helps kill bad bacteria and ginger helps upset stomachs.
Make sure to match the spices to the fruits and veggies used. If you use hot peppers don’t use sweet spices like sage,
cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg. And if you use sweet fruits like bananas or cantaloupe then you don’t want to use bitter spices like oregano, rosemary, or thyme.
3) Try to get most of these items in the natural grocer, look for organic, and check ingredients,
you don't want ingredients that are full of preservatives, salt, or sugar. 4) The nut butters should be non-hydrogenated.
Instructions:
Cream butter and flours in mixer till well blended. This will make a very crumbly dry mix. Add egg whites, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar and blend well.
This will make a very thick dough. Save the egg shells; put them in a microwave safe dish and microwave for 1 minute, then add them to the batter. Add remaining ingredients.
Line a 9x6-baking pan with tin foil. Spray very lightly with cooking spray (spray outside so that the fumes don't harm your birds). Pour batter into pan. Bake at 425 for 40 minutes.
Remove from oven, and turn over on wire rack to cool. Remove tin foil and cut into ½ " squares.
When cool place squares in airtight container or zip lock bag and freeze.
Defrost bread on an as need basis in the microwave for about 30 seconds and then serve to your birds.
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1 C Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp stevia extract powder
1/2 C milk
1/4 C raisins (I'd substitute grated carrots)
1 C rolled oats
3 tsp baking powder (non aluminum)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1/4 C oil or 1/4 C applesauce
Preheat oven to 400, mix first seven ingredients thoroughly.
Mix remaining ingredients in separate bowl, gradually mix dry into moist ingredients.
Spoon into greased muffin tins, bake 15 to 20 min.
Treat Sticks
Preheat oven to 300 degrees and place a foil lined cookie sheet inside it.
1 cup mixed seed/pellets
1 tsp. honey (I used corn syrup, worked just as good. KG)
2 tsp. smooth peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp. unflavored gelatin (knox)
Put honey, egg, and peanut butter in a bowl and mix very well.
A wire whisk works best. WHILE STIRRING (important, otherwise you will have lumps) sprinkle gelatin over the mix.
Stir well again. Add the seed/pellets to the mix and stir to coat. Let the mixture set up for a minute or so,
then pack into the wooden spoons or around a stickit takes some patience to get it to stick to the stick but it will work.
Put them in the oven as you make them. If you use large eggs you can put in a little more seeds.
Measurements do not have to be exact.
Experiment with the seed mixture; add chopped dried fruits, vegetables, nuts,
chili peppers, or bits of cuttle bone without the shell. Bake for about 45 minutes they will just be a little brown. Enjoy
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High Protein Mix
1 hardboiled egg...take the shell off.
1 Tbsp handfeeding formula
1 Tbsp Universal food (or bread crumbs, etc)
Put the above in a Lil' Oskar type of chopper. Chop. The product will be a fluffy but drier egg stuff. It keeps better than just "eggs."
You can give microwaved shells as well for added calcium.
1 1/2 cups mashed banana
3 cups oats
1/4 cup applesauce
3 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts
Combine all ingredients and stir thoroughly. Drop by small spoonfuls onto an un-greased cookie sheet. Press until very flat with back of a spoon.
Bake at 350F for fifteen minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Store in airtight container or freeze. Freezing is a good option if you don't have very many fids, so they can stay fresh.
Options:
There are several options you could add to this. When I made them I added pureed sweet potatoes to the banana picture to make 1 1/2 cups.
The sweet potato doesn't have to be pureed; it can just be cooked and mashed with the banana. I also didn't have any applesauce
so I peeled an apple and put it in my Vitamix and made some chucky applesauce.
happy eating!
