I am writing to you under the stress of deep frustration. On June 21, 2001 my beloved wife gifted me a Congo African grey. The salesman gave me very bad advice, things that made me an enemy of my lovely bird. They told me to be stronger with him and to yell at him and to strike him with a soft stick as a disciplinary action. As a result it is now about 18 months and my bird never even whistles in my presence. He refuses to have any kind of food but the sunflower. I try talking to him but it still has very negative results. He takes home tours when no one is around. He never plays with the toys. I am willing to do anything to make it up with my bird.

-- Abdallah Adlan

I AM SO SORRY for the difficulties that you and your bird have been through! Your question is an important one for me. Each situation may be different, but households with an unhappy relationship between humans and their parrots are what lead to so many unwanted birds out there. People get frustrated by whatever the problem is, and pass the bird on to someone who claims they have experience with the problem. They in turn pass the bird on in a couple years, and so on.

What you are doing now is breaking that chain before it continues. Unfortunately, you were given some very bad advice. Also unfortunately, when it comes to companion animal behavior, bad advice is the most common type given.

Right now your bird probably fears people and for good reason. However, you can fix this. You need to help him understand that you are a positive part of his environment. It sounds like he readily eats sunflower seeds; you can use this to your advantage.

First of all, reduce the number of seeds in his diet, if not totally eliminate them. Find a certified avian veterinarian in your area and ask about your bird's nutritional needs. While he may not accept them readily at first, he needs to start eating fresh fruits and vegetables and be switched to a pelleted diet. Your vet will be able to help guide you through this process.

Once the sunflower seeds are no longer a diet staple, you have an invaluable training tool. You become the only source of those wonderful seeds and you can use them to help make your bird look forward to seeing you.

Keep a handful of seeds in your pocket and whenever you walk by the cage, drop one in the bowl. He may not eat it when you are there - but he will eat it. Eventually, he will think, "Hey, here comes that guy again. I'll bet he has a seed for me!" And he will start to look forward to you passing by.

As your bird learns that your presence is a good thing, he will pick up the seed and eat it while you are there. Once he is comfortably eating in front of you, hand him the seed through the cage bars. If that frightens him, drop it in the bowl and relax back to the previous step in your training, where he was still comfortable.

The key is to slowly acclimate your bird to having you around. It's a lot of baby steps, and it will take time. How much depends on how frightened your bird is. But eventually you will have a bird that looks forward to seeing you and you can move on to training him to step up on your hand! Good luck on rebuilding your relationship. The results will be worth the effort.

ParrotChronicles.com

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