Something on a Stick Day?

March 28th is Something On A Stick Day!  I can't imagine a day more fun for a bird, can you?  They love sticks and they love just about anything I can think of to put on a stick!  So, I created this little birdie bouquet for Sophia with all sorts of lovely things on a stick, just for this special day!

 

 

I used popsicle sticks and regular bird-safe natural sticks and used food and pieces of her bird toys, a cat toy, buttons, etc.  Peanut butter makes a great birdie "glue" to hold them all together.  Boy, did she have FUN!

 

Birdie craft month!

March is Create a Craft Month!  Yay!  If you are like me and enjoy making crafts, you don’t need a special month for permission to make fun things!  But if you aren’t normally a crafter, I will attempt to persuade you with my easy and fun crafts this month! 

 Our first birdie craft is a TP goodie kabob!  I cut a toilet paper (or paper towel) tube into three sections and put a slit in the top and bottom of each section so I could string them together.  I used a long stainless steel birdie kabob to string our toy together, but you can also use a long bird-safe leather strip, or natural twine or a bird-safe chain. 

 

Then gather all sorts of things that can be strung – I used veggies that I could poke a hole through (snap peas, greens, grapes, apples, etc), cheerios, dried tortellini pasta, and some toy pieces from broken bird toys.  Begin by putting one tube piece onto your skewer, but don’t push it all the way through the second hole.  Add some other goodies to the skewer so they end up in between the two sides of the tube.  That way your bird has to work harder to get those goodies out!  Then put the skewer (or twine) through the second hole.  Add the next two tube pieces and other goodies in the same way.

 

 

I also spread a thin layer of peanut butter on the inside of one of the tube pieces and pressed a seed mixture into the peanut butter to get it to stick.  To finish it off, I put a paper “ribbon” on the top – do NOT use regular ribbon, as it will easily shred and your bird can become tangled in it very quickly – and I stuffed some shredded paper into the holes of the tube pieces.  Voila!

Then hang it in your bird’s cage or play area and enjoy watching her have lots of birdie fun!!  Birds love to pick things apart and destroy them.  You can feel good that you are giving your bird something she likes to do, and you didn’t spend much money on a toy that wasn’t going to last too long anyway!

 

If you are using anything flexible to make your kabob (leather, twine, or chain), do not leave your bird unattended with the toy.  Always watch her when she’s playing with it and remove it as she tears it apart.  Eventually all that will be left is the string or chain and it will be long enough that your bird could become entangled in it while she plays.  Be on the safe side! 

If you use a stainless kabob, you can leave it in your bird’s cage until she’s finished picking it apart, and then you can use the kabob to make more craft toys!  These are available in various pet supply stores and online bird supply sites.  They are well worth the money, as they have many  uses!

Sophia Pictures!

Wow, I haven't posted much lately, but Sophia is now about 8 months old.  It's a full time job to keep her busy, and I'm often found making new toys and foraging challenges for her.  I change her toys and the layout of her cage every week or so. 

 

I thought I'd post some pictures to keep everybody happy!

 

Sophia enjoys her treasure boxes.

 

Her favorite toy and her favorite pose.

 



Sophia's First Christmas!

I'm a little behind on posting, but Sophia celebrated her first Christmas recently.  She got a birdie stocking filled with everything a birdie would love - foot toys galore, peanuts in shells, straws, wicker, shredded paper, millet and other tasty food goodies!  I was not able to find a teeny tiny Santa hat for her to wear, but I will be on the lookout earlier next season and may find one for her then. 

 

 



Tunnel Shaping Steps

Continuing on from my last post, here are some pictures showing our third shaping lesson with the tunnel.  Each session is only a few minutes long, but we have made a lot of progress.  Our first session, Sophia spent most of her time running and playing on the bed, and I spent a lot of my time waiting silently for her to interact with the tunnel.  I was able to click a couple completed tunnels and some other play behaviors with the tunnel.  The second session went better with only a moment or two of playing before she started noticing the tunnel.  The second session had Sophia offering a lot of behaviors with the tunnel - pushing it, biting it, tossing it.  By the end she was going through the tunnel on her own.  Here is our third shaping session ...

 

Remember to have your prop already in place before you bring your bird to the training area.  Here, as I put Sophia down, you can see she is already interested in and is orienting herself to the tunnel.  My clicker is in my hand and ready to use.  I don't want to miss an opportunity to reinforce her.

 

At first, click even for your bird approaching or looking at the prop. With shaping, it is important to get your bird interacting in any way with the prop and to continue rewarding that interest.  After awhile, you will begin to see certain patterns of behavior emerge.  Then you can start to narrow down which behaviors you will click. 

 

At first, I would click Sophia for approaching the tunnel from any angle, even if she ended up facing the middle where there was no opening.  But I slowly began to withhold my click until she got a little closer to the opening, and then a little closer, until she was finally poking her head to look into the opening.  She is already past that stage here, but I was able to stop the tape to make it look like she is peeking in. 

 

Then I stopped clicking for any other behaviors.  I only clicked for behaviors that brought her head to the opening of the tunnel. Sometimes that meant I clicked her for nibbling on the tunnel opening, but I wanted to keep her focused on that tunnel opening. 

 

During this process, I am not saying anything to Sophia except to praise her after the click and while I am feeding her.  I am standing far enough away from the training area that she is not distracted and coming to see me.  I am not luring her with my hand or a treat.  I am just allowing her to figure out on her own what gets the click.  Here are some various click points ...

 

 

Looking into the tunnel, poking head farther and farther into tunnel.

 

Walking farther into tunnel.  When you click at this point, the bird can either keep going through the rest of the way, or she may pop back out backwards.  Either way is correct and should be rewarded because you clicked. 

 

A little bit further through ... actually I clicked during the last photo and she is continuing through the tunnel to get her seed.  You can see my hand already coming in to her with the reward. 

 

Make sure to click for going in both ends of the tunnel.  Otherwise your bird will learn to only go in from one direction.  I am also turning the tunnel during our session so it is at different angles to me.

 

Here she comes ...

 

And gets her reward!  Good bird, Sophia!

 

Isn't she just too darn cute??  She is a ham for the camera. 

Next steps?  I am probably getting close to being able to add a cue, but first I want to take the tunnel to different areas in the house and do some shaping there too, so she knows that whenever she sees the tunnel I want her to go through it.  Once I know she can do it in other places and with some distractions, I will come back to her quiet training area and add the cue to the behavior. 









Clicker Shaping

Sophia and I have been doing shaping exercises with the clicker and her tunnel.  I saved a couple cardboard Pringles containers, cleaned them well, and cut off the closed end.  The first tunnel we used was only 3 inches long.  I wanted to make the tunnel inviting for her to investigate and easy for her to go through.  With it being so short, by the time she had poked her head through, her body was most of the way through.  I didn't want her to get inside and then feel trapped.  If she did, she wouldn't want to go back inside.

 

In the very beginning, we just played together with the tunnel.  I didn't really use the clicker at all.  I just wanted her to get used to it and see that it was a fun thing to play with.  I let her try different behaviors with it, like picking it up and tossing it, rolling it, etc.  I helped her go through it a few times.  But I wasn't trying to get her to do anything in particular with it. 

 

Then I moved to a slightly longer tunnel, about 6 inches long this time, and I taped it to a cardboard base so when she was walking inside it, the tube would not roll around.  This is the tunnel we use for training.  When she's really good at the trick, I will use a full size Pringles can and decorate it so it looks more fancy. 

 

 

 

I clicker train with UNSALTED de-shelled sunflower seeds that I break into two or three pieces.  I started with the seeds in their shell, but it took too long for her to break it open and eat the seed.  You don't want there to be too much time lapse between repetitions.  Plus, one seed is equal to 2-3 treats, so I was letting her get filled up on sunflower seeds, and I was missing out on opportunities to reward her.

 

In order for shaping to work, you need to do some advanced planning.  I enjoy using props for shaping exercises, because there are so many behaviors that a bird will offer you just with one prop.  You can pick what you want to reward.  Shaping with a prop also take the bird's attention off of me and the idea that I have the treat.  I don't want her to constantly be looking at me.  She needs to be interacting with the prop. 

 

Make sure your prop is already in place in the training area and reduce any distractions in the area.  Have the clicker and rewards handy and already broken into pieces.  Your bird should already know what the click noise means - that a reward is coming.

 

Be ready!  When you bring your bird to the area, have your clicker in your hand and ready.  As soon as you put your bird down, she is likely to want to go investigate the prop.  At first, you will click and treat for anything your bird does with the prop.  I do mean anything!  Don't let there be a lot of down time between clicks.  You want to keep your bird's interest in the prop, so keep those clicks and treats coming! 

 

Always end the session before your bird loses interest.  It's tempting to keep going when you're on a roll and your bird is making progress.  But always end on a good note, click the behavior, feed the bird and quickly remove the prop while your bird is eating.  Then you can remove your bird from the training area. 

 

 

 



Making Sprouts

Sophia enjoys the benefits of sprouted seeds a few times a week.  They are very easy to make, and she enjoys biting off the fresh shoots while shelling the seeds.  There are many health benefits to sprouting seeds too, because as they start to grow, they become a fresh green food!  Here's how we make them ...

 

You can use many different types of seed to sprout, but we just use a small scoop of her regular daily seed mix.  Put a scoop of seed in the bottom of a glass jar.  Then cover the seed with plenty of water.  Some of the seed will float, but that's ok, it will settle to the bottom as it gets saturated with water.  Leave the seed to soak in the water for roughly 24 hours in a spot that's not in direct sunlight. 

 

 

 

 

You can use a fancy sprout jar with a lid to drain the water away but leave the seeds in the jar.  You can strain the seed in a small strainer.  You can have a brilliant mother to recommend that you use a piece of plastic canvas from the craft store to cut a strainer lid for your jar!  Thanks, Mom!  Cut the plastic canvas to fit the lid size you are working with.  It works perfectly.  Sometimes a few of the very small seeds will fall through the lid, but most of them stay inside.

 

 

 

 

After soaking the seed for 24 hours, drain the water away and rinse the seeds thoroughly.  If you're using a jar, just strain the water off through the lid, then add water and flush the seeds, draining them whenever the jar is full - a few times. 

 

Drain the seeds well so there is no excess water left in the jar.  Now turn the jar sideways and roll it gently so the seeds stick to the sides of the jar.  This will spread the seeds out instead of them being in one big clump!  Air is important for the seeds to begin to sprout.  Leave the jar on its side where it's not in direct sunlight.  A shady spot in the kitchen is perfect. 

 

 

The next day, flush and drain the seeds again several times.  Repeat the rolling of the jar to spread out the seed, and let it sit on its side again.

 

On the next day, flush and drain the seeds again.  Now they are ready to feed to your lucky bird!  You should see that the seeds are well sprouted.  The sprouts will last a couple more days.  I put mine in a small container in the refrigerator.  If you leave them out, be sure to flush and rinse them daily and you may notice that the tips start to turn brown. 

 

It's very easy to make a batch weekly, and I make enough for Sophia to have 3-4 days each week of sprouts.  She loves them and will pick them out of her fruit and veggie dish first every time! 

 

Happy Sprouting!