Some goodies I bought at the CPC

Here are a few of the goodies I brought back from the CPC.

These are made by the owners of Birds-n-stuff. I had bought some last year and they were a raging success so I knew I had to get more. An absolute favorite with my guys - it's a long birdie bagel filled with all sorts of goodies and they are very reasonably priced.



The following was the "hot item" of the year (I find there is always one item that is particularly popular each year). Unfortunately, only one of the vendors had any and he had only one of each size (small - medium - large). This is the small - I had wanted the medium for my mom but it was already sold...very early Saturday morning.



These aren't toys but I just love them. (Fridge) magnets. I got one for each parrot species I own and while I know that the female Red-bellied looks different enough from the male to warrant her own magnet - I'm not sure the person who made them ever made one of those...They were from Tickle Tickle Designs.

CPC - More pictures

These pictures have their own post since they were taken by someone else...since I'm on them. My boyfriend was nice enough to handle the camera while I held a few of the birds.

First off, Shorty. So hilarious. Would go to anyone and say "Oui oui oui oui" when asked if he spoke French (in French of course).


The next two are of Jazz and I. Jazz was the female Hyacinth Macaw. She was on me for a good half hour. We started with her on my arm and she got her head scratched for quite a bit.



Not sure if the picture truly shows how much she just laid her head in my hand. At one point she did wrap her beak around my hand, which had me a bit nervous, but she was very gentle and quickly just went back at resting her head in my hand.

Eventually though..she decided to go up my arm and rest on my shoulder. I NEVER had a macaw on my shoulder before - and this was rather intimidating. Not being a fan of having birds I don't know up there, much less some how hold that much power in their beak...I do have to say I relaxed a bit when it was obvious that she was just perching there with no other intent.

The Canadian Parrot Conference - the Aftermath

Last week-end, as mentioned in previous posts, I was at the Canadian Parrot Conference. I had gone the two previous years and had always enjoyed myself. This year was also interesting.

The biggest draw this year was Dr. Irene Pepperberg. I believe anyone who remotely starts plunging in the parrot world knows who she is, or at least knows who Alex the African Grey is. Out of all the talks I attended this year, hers were the most interesting and I barely saw both 45 minutes session go by. Her seminars were about Number Concepts in Grey Parrots and Speech Production in Grey Parrots.

And while I enjoyed Sally Blanchard's seminar entitled "Winning the Trust of a Rehome Parrot", and laughed wholeheartedly at all her stories about Bongo-Marie, a African Grey she once owned, I would have enjoyed it a bit more had there been more information about the actual topic.

As far as the Tradeshow portion of it...compared to the previous years there wasn't much. The room itself in which the Tradeshow is held was cut by half (the other half serving as the conference room) and there were really only two vendors that had a wider selection of toys and the more interesting ones were sold (really) early on. I won't dwell on it, but let's say I didn't spend nearly as much on stuff as I did last year.

There were also a few birds present, amongst them two Hyacinth Macaws that seem to be the biggest draw for the crowd.

Here are a few pictures of the birds present.


The Caique on the sign happened to be this one...


His name was Shorty, he belonged to the couple who owned the Hyacinth Macaws, as well as a Moluccan Cockatoo. Shorty said "Piggy piggy" in the cutest voice. He was also the best behaved Caique I've met in person.


A Brown-head parrot - the only Poi I saw at the Conference.


Parrotlet


Greenwing Macaw


Yellow collard Macaw

And everyone is back home!

As I've mentioned before, I was gone this week-end at the Canadian Parrot Conference, which meant my birds were being watched by other people. I brought them over on Thursday and I have to say it was weird not having them around later that evening nor on the Friday morning. The apartment was definitively lacking something.

We came back last night so went to get the birds today. We've been all reunited for about 20 minutes and I have to say I enjoy having everyone together again.

Posts with pictures from the Conference will follow..

Meet Lucy!

Lucy is a female Red-bellied parrot who happens to be Joey and Pixel's sister.
No I did not add to my flock...Lucy lives in Guelph with Laura, someone I met on a bird forum. Laura and Lucy are in Guelph and since I was there over the week-end for the Canadian Parrot Conference, I got to meet Lucy, as well as Laura's Senegal, Jessie, and Meyer's, Kylie.

The three of them were a little shy, but I got Lucy to dance with me and eventually she came out of her cage. Jessie and Kylie didn't want to come out, but I still got to convince Jessie that I can do a good job at scratching a bird's head and got the privilege to scratch his, which apparently is a feat done by few so I do feel a honoured that he let me do it.

I got a few pictures of Lucy while she was out of her cage...

The Trick Training Diaries - Jan. 31st, 2010

I decided to do another short session of trick training today.

The first 10 minutes were only with Shade since Zuri was busy in the birdroom but she eventually joined in the fun as well.

Shade picked up turn around fairly easy this time around. It definitively took less approximations to get to the final "product" as it did yesterday. Since she mastered it pretty well, I wanted to start teaching her the wave; I would use the step up command and the moment she would lift her food in the air, I would reward her. However, she would sometimes refer to turning around when I asked her to wave; I assumed she thought she would get a treat just by performing a trick. Since it was not the tricked I asked, I didn't give her anything. If she would just turn around, I would wait until she was still, asked her to turn around and then reward her - trying to make it clear that she will get the reward ONLY if she performed what I asked. The wave will definitively need more work but I stopped when it was obvious she wanted to do something else and had enough. I also had to take some steps back (to targeting and turning) whilst trying to teach the wave.

Zuri also remembered the turn around quite well. Once it was obvious she knew the turning trick, I actually started chaining it with something else; I would ask her to target to my hand (it would involve moving along the tree to find me) and then to turn before giving her the treat. She did fairly well with this.

I need a device which can take decent video and start to record these sessions...

The play stands in my living room

The birds are not confined to their room. I also like to have them out in the living room with me so for this reason, I have a few stands in there.

I have four substantial gyms, one metal and three made of Java (coffee) wood and two small "foraging" trays, which are basically a cafeteria tray and a "u" shaped PVC perch. Of course, any human limb is good enough to stand on and they seem to have taken a liking to perching on my dining room chairs as well as the table.

Here are some pictures of the 4 "big" play stands.

A Super Pet EZ Care Activity Playground for small birds and the first Java table stand I purchased (at Critter Jungle in Ottawa).


The second Java table stand I purchased (at Pet Circus, also in Ottawa).


Finally, the Java tree (which I purchased at the Canadian Parrot Conference in Guelph last year)