Mercury's First Year of Training
and now
After the First Year
Last Updated: 09/15/2003
Mercury is a Congo African Grey parrot. She hatched on ValentineÂ’s Day of 2001 in Atlanta, Georgia. I brought her home to Birmingham, Alabama on July 28th of 2001. She was five and a half months old to the day. After a couple weeks of adjustment and getting acquainted, my boyfriend, Steven, and I started on the quest to train Mercury. We were first time bird owners, so this first year has been an interesting one. The three of us have worked together for Mercury to potty train, change her diet completely, be introduced to foods, wear a harness, go on walks, ride bikes, car travel, spend the night away from home, visit and learn to like new people, talk, respond both verbally and physically to certain phrases, take showers, and many more. Potty training was our first venture. |
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| Going Potty | Changing Diet | Wearing a Harness | Traveling in the Car | Exploring New Surroundings |
| Meeting New People | Communicating | Showering | Keeping the Flock Together | Deciding on a Pet |
The 1st Year Has Passed |
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| Clipped Wings or Full Flight | Learning Colors | |||
Going Potty |
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I must preface this section with a little gender confusion. We waited a year before doing a gender analysis. Therefore, for an entire year, we thought she was a he. So, her first words involved "boy," not "girl". However, we all have it straight now...
We quickly learned she would go potty every 15 to 20 minutes on the average. So, we would watch and wait. As soon as she would go, we would say, “Go potty, Mercury,” which was immediately followed by “good boy”. Then we would take her off of her perch and play with her, hoping to associate potty with time away from her perches, cage, stands, etc. After 5 to 10 minutes, she would be returned to her perch. Then we would repeat this. After about a month of that, when it was about time for her to go again, we would pick her up and tell her, “Go potty, Mercury, go potty, go potty” until she would go. That took about another month for her to understand and willingly respond. And, within a couple weeks of that, she started saying “good boy” on her own after she would go, regardless of where she was. It is sooo cute when she does that. Following all of this, we noticed that if she was out and about and needed to go potty, she would lift her wings a single time or two and do a small flap, which was usually followed by a side step or two. This was her signal that she needed to go, and if we did not take her to an appropriate location within about 10 seconds, she would go right there. I must admit that I am very proud of her for letting us know. We really appreciate it, as we tell her. |
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Changing Diet | |||
| Shortly after we brought her home and visited the vet, we learned that Mercury needed a well-rounded diet. Yes, we had already been feeding her the fresh food, and at the time, several others told us that the allseed diet she was raised on was the best for her. Well, we quickly learned from the vet and others that this was not the best diet for her. So, we had to go through the dreaded change of diet. I was just really glad that Mercury was still young. We would put the pellets in with her seed mix, trying to wean her off of seeds. We started with a few pellets and would slowly change the ratio. After a week, we started trying different brands of pellets, because she was not touching the others at all. As luck had it, trying different brands did help. She finally started nibbling on a particular brand. Whenever she was in her cage, it was strictly seed mix and the fresh food that she would eat. Whenever we were home, we put her on top of her cage or on her stand. Those food bowls had only pellets. We noticed she quickly took to eating them when she was out of her cage, and it was not soon after that she had only pellets – no seed – in her food bowl in her cage. All was well. The complete change from all seed mix to all pellets was approximately 3 weeks. I feel that we were lucky, as I have heard others talk about their parrots starving themselves instead of switching. | |||
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Wearing a Harness | |||
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Two months after bringing her home, I bought a harness. I decided that I wanted to do as many things as possible with her. Since walking outside is an easy way to exercise, and we had a small park with a pond nearby, I thought it would be good to expose her to the great out-of-doors. This was the most difficult venture so far. Of course, we laid it around for her to get used to, let her touch it, gave her a treat for touching it, and such. This went on for a week or two. Then, we started laying it on her and eventually buckling it. She was not a happy parrot. Getting it on her was quite a battle for some time. It was the head bob game. Now, it is not so bad. She usually stays pretty still. We tried giving her treats for wearing it, but she could not be distracted enough to consume even the most favorite of treats. We would go outside and try to occupy her. It took several trips outside before she would stop chewing on her harness for any length of time. The harness has held up unbelievably well. When we started going outside, it was for five minutes, then ten minutes, then fifteen minutes, and then more like thirty minutes or more. After hours of trips outside, she decided it was not so bad. I would say it was about three months later. Eventually, I started riding my bike around the neighborhood with her on my shoulder. She just loves it.
It was a slow process introducing the harness. The younger they are, the easier and better it will be for the parrot. When your parrot is young, introduce him/her to as much as possible. The first couple years are the easiest years to introduce greys to different things. Of course, this is a whole ‘nother subject. There are 2 types of harnesses that I have found. http://www.fredbird.net/products.asp has the one I don’t use, but that is only because I found mine before this one. This one (yellow on the web site) looks like it might work very well. One reason I say that is because it has much less shiny metal on it, unlike mine. Parrots love jewelry and most anything that shines. They like to bite it. My type of harness is the Feather Tether, I think it’s called. http://www.naturechest.com/feattetbirha.html has info about it. They even give you the grams of the parrot that best wears that size. Very helpful, especially if yours is small and very young. Also, my harness, at least, is made to be worn 2 ways. 1 is for flying the parrot and the leash attaches to the back. The second way is like Mercury wears hers, and the leash attaches to the chest area. This is more for perching, which she does most of the time when in her harness. You just put it on a different way for each use. Mine has 3 buckles, or clasps. I buckle the one that goes around the neck and get Mercury to put her head through the circle. Then, the other 2 lay on the back, and I pull them under her wings to the front to buckle them. Then, I attach the leash, and we are set. Do you read parrotchronicles.com? Mercury and I were in a summer '03 article about harness training and traveling with your parrot. http://www.parrotchronicles.com/julyaugust2003/portable.htm is the link to the article. Of course, the writer gives the short version. The 1st 2 pictures are Mercury. The second one is where I talk about the harness. I get a bit long-winded below, so I don’t know if the article might sum it up for you... To get to the point of putting the harness on can take a while. Like I said, the younger, the better, but it's never too late. First, I brought it in like a toy. I held it, played with it and rubbed it on my face while smiling and saying nice things about the harness. Then, I layed it in the room away from her and when I walked by, I might pick it up for a minute and play with it. After a few days, I moved it closer, so if she wanted to, she could walk over to touch it. Any advancement towards it was rewarded with seed and she was praised a lot. I left it there, played with it myself and encouraged her to come over for several days. Then, I slowly approached her with it and encouraged her to touch it. If she did, she got a sunflower seed, and we tried again. If she didn’t touch it and got scared, I told her it was OK and she was a good bird for not flying away. Then, I took it very slow. You have to be able to read your bird’s body language, so you know when it is too much. I like to stop before she becomes agitated and when things are still pleasant but could change at any moment. That way we end on a positive note, which is always very important in anything you do with your parrot. This part goes on for a while, maybe weeks. Start trying to touch it to your parrot’s most comfortable part of his/her body. Mercury’s feet and chest were easiest to touch, so I started there. At this point, the training becomes very important, cause you do not want your parrot to have a bad experience, feel pressured or you may end up reverting back to where you started. Then, the parrot is less likely to accept the harness. After getting the parrot to play with the harness a little or not get upset when you touch the harness to him/her, you can start trying to touch the parrot’s back. After the parrot tolerating/accepting the harness touching the back, get the harness sized to your best guess and get it ready for the 1st step. It is better for the harness to be too big in the beginning, rather than too small. For us, the first step was over the head. I did not get it on the first time I tried. I had to show her she had something very small to put her head through. We played a lot of head-bobbing games, and she even let out these yelps. That is when I would stop and touch her feet with it, reward and praise her for that and quit. We did those kinds of sessions many times. Then, one day we took the plunge and got it over her head. I laid the rest on her back and got it under her wings. Then, I took it off, touched her feet or chest, rewarded and praised and quit. After a few more times of that, I buckled all 3, and told her how proud I was of her. All along, I tried to get her to eat when in her harness, even partially, using her favorite treats, but she could not be distracted. I immediately went outside with her and talked about wearing the harness and going outside, hoping to associate the 2. We went for a few minutes, came in, took it off and I rewarded her with a small bowl of seed and praised her a whole lot!! Every time we went outside, we would stay a little longer. If I did not keep her busy looking around and just sat there instead, she would just chew and chew on her harness. It’s very, very durable, in my opinion. After being outside as long as 30 minutes in her harness, she was great. I think that at that point, she gets tired of dealing with it, accepts it and enjoys being outside. Now, we can go outside for really long periods of time. Sometimes she bites it, but she is always rewarded and praised when we take it off. All of your sessions should be regular. Starting out in the beginning, a few times a day is good. Trying to put on the harness should be done about every day or 2, depending on the parrot. If the parrot really hates it, mix it up with the beginning steps and putting the harness on. When you get to the point of taking the parrot outside, try to do that every day or 2. I got where I would just leave the harness out in her sight most of the time. After she was comfortable in it, I started putting it away, like all her other toys and things not in use. Be enthusiastic, always!! Be patient. I know reading all of this might make it sound like more effort than it’s worth, but that is not how I felt at all. I am thankful for the harness. It has given Mercury a chance to be outside and explore with me. If I go for a walk, she does too, on my shoulder. I let her hang out on fences, low branches or whatever might be around if I stop or sit down. We used to take regular walks over to the nearby pond at my previous residence. There were geese, ducks, frogs, trees, children, families and all sorts of things. We would feed the ducks and stuff like that, but it was good to just get out and be in a different environment. We had to walk through a neighborhood that had light traffic. So, that helped get her used to cars and their noises and huge sizes. |
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Traveling in the Car | |||
| Car travel was easy. She had a long ride home on our first full day together. We bought the cage she was in from the owner to help with her transition. We ended up with most all of her toys and perches, too. The owner who raised her treated her as a pet, hence her excellent behavior, in my opinion. So, she offered to throw in the cage for a few extra dollars. I was really thankful for that. We still use it as her travel cage. It is just short enough to fit in the seat of a car and takes up a descent size seat. I think that because this is where she slept from the time she was 3 weeks until we brought her home, she did not mind in the least bit to get in so we could go. We just strap the cage in with the seatbelt and hit the road. If we are ever in the car for any length of time, we pull over and get her out to stretch and play a little. So far, so good. I always try to tell her to hold on if we have to go over a bump. She always makes sure that she has 2 feet down and is facing either forward or backward. After the bump, she picks up where she left off. | |||
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Exploring New Surroundings | |||
| Spending the night away from home has been another easy one. We took her to my motherÂ’s house, which is about one and half hours away within a few weeks of bringing her home. I introduced her to the house, allowing her to hang out on her travel cage for however long she wanted. After giving her the tour and relaxing around the house for a while, she was as normal as at home but less vocal for the first several trips. Then, she decided she was no longer shy. Before we travel most anywhere, I pack her birdy bag, which is the equivalent of a baby bag. It always has water, pellets, seed mix, treats, Nutriberries, snacks, and usually fresh food. Then, there are her toys, harness, travel perch, towels, paper towels or newspaper and bird rags for when a trashcan is not around or when others are holding her. I think that about sums up her travel bag. A tablecloth lives in my car, too. I use this in the seat to cut down on the mess of flung food and such. It makes a big difference and does not take up much room at all. It is also convenient to put under her cage when she is at friendsÂ’ houses. It is the no-mess method. | |||
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Meeting New People | |||
| If someone wants to interact with Mercury, we go through a simple introduction first. We start with the basic name intro followed by who this person is. After talking for a bit, we get closer to that person. In time, I allow her to step up onto that person’s fingers. She is excellent to stay there until she is comfortable. From there, she is fine if you want to pet her a little, put her on the shoulder or move her from one place to another. Her only requirement is that she goes to that person from my hand. After she gets to know you, then she will step up to you most every time and anywhere. If she is not interested in going to someone else, when that person reaches toward her, she ever so gently grasps that person’s finger with either her beak or with her foot and pushes it away from her. It is seldom that she is different from this. Introductions to new people have been fairly easy, also. | |||
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Communicating | |||
| As far as talking, that has been up to her, but I have learned a few tricks to encourage her to expand her vocabulary and to respond correctly. We noticed some of her first words with us were the words with the most inflection. So, we started using more inflection in our voices and she picked up those words and phrases rather quickly. Some words she chose to say were words that we said to her regularly. Before too long, she started putting various words and phrases together. And, as luck would have it, most all of them made sense. That was pretty amazing. Then, we started asking her questions that we would follow with the answer and praise ourselves. She learned that if she answered correctly, she would be praised with a couple phrases and would often times receive a sunflower seed. Motivation, motivation, motivation… After a while, we were used to that. Furthering this constant learning experience (for all of us), I started reading to her from a book Mom gave her for Christmas. It is all about birds and is tall and colorful. It has lots of questions and facts. Well, she would sit and sit and listen and watch. I decided that maybe I would spice it up for her by asking her questions about the colors and objects. That is what we are still doing. I was amazed when she started nudging towards the correct object or color. This began the reward program of a seed for every right answer without multiple tries. For those, she gets a smaller seed. She started acing the questions from this book. That is when I decided to mix up the page order and the question order on the pages. This started showing what she could actually recognize. Again, truly amazing. She does know what some of the objects are every single time. Her colors are coming along nicely, as well. Sometimes, she identifies the correct color, but it might be on a different object than I was asking about; however, most all of my questions involve a color and an object. So, she demonstrates progress. | |||
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Showering | |||
| Starting into the showering task did not begin for a while. I suppose she was with us for about 3 months before we tried showering her. We had purchased a shower perch, which I dearly love. When I would brush my teeth, I would put her on her shower perch. She loved being in the same room. So, after she was used to being on her perch (a week or 2), which was at the back of the shower, I decided to turn on the faucet. After doing that a lot (another week), I let her sit on the shower rod while I took a shower and talked to her. Eventually, I put her on her shower perch and let her continue to watch me shower (a week or 2). Then, I put her on my shoulder after I had showered and stood near the water. We worked up to getting the spray on her feet, her chest and her tail feathers and then we took the plunge. I guess we did all of that for a week or 2 before the plunge. I always turned the water way down when I put her near it. The less water pressure, the better for her. She would wiggle a bit, but then she did not mind. Pretty soon, she started staying still while I would sing to her and dip her in and out of the shower. All in all, it worked well. She took weekly showers after that and had daily mists. Since the year has passed, she is now in the shower 5-7 times a week and has at least a mist most every day. | |||
| Back To Top | Keeping the Flock Together | ||
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Steven and I agreed when Mercury came home, she was my parrot. I was the one who wanted a parrot. Of course, we both love her and share a lot with her, but when it comes down to it, she is my responsibility. So, starting out, I did a lot of the cage type work. I put her in her cage on my way to work, I cut the fresh foods for her, I cleaned the water dishes, I changed the cage lining, etc. I also sat with her every night for about 20 minutes. While she perched on my shoulder, I would pet her and give her extra attention. She would settle down, give us kisses and go to her cage for the night. Before too long, we started switching up. Sometimes he put her in her cage, cut her food, cleaned the water dishes, sat with her, etc. And that is how it has stayed. Whoever happens to be around or have the extra time does whatever is needed. It helped her associate us both as her caregivers. In the evenings, we sit together for 10 to 45 minutes. She perches on one of us and usually we both pet her. She knows we both take care of her. Of course, we both play with her, take her with us around the house and talk to her. That has never been something we needed to divide for her well-being. We just love to do all of that. And, we do much of it together. With everything we do for or with her, she knows either of us can do it and doesn't mind who it is. When friends and family come over, I even encourage them to feed her, play with her, put her in her cage or other random things. She is laid back and allows most anyone to care for her. We all are a flock. We all accept one another, and most importantly, Mercury accepts both of us and our friends and family.
For her own sake, I believe it should always be this way. You never know what tomorrow brings, and as sweet as people think it is for their parrots to want them and only them, it is a shame that one day those very same parrots may be forced into a situation without those special people. The adjustment is often times so difficult, the parrots end up with yet another home. Thinking about your parrot's future is as important as thinking about your child's future. |
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Deciding on a Pet | |||
| Lastly, I want to share with you a bit about coming to have a parrot in my home. I was on my own shortly after graduating from college. When I started looking for a pet, my apartment said no cats or dogs. That started me on the search for a different kind of pet. I visited pet store after pet store looking for the right kind of pet – one that would fit into my life. My favorite to visit was always the birds. In my town where I lived until college, there were never any real pet stores and most everybody had the traditional pets with an occasional reptile. If I ever saw a pet store when we would go elsewhere, it was always too sad to visit animals you could not help or take home. So, here I was living in the city looking for my new pet. I started reading books and researching on the Internet about parrots. My boyfriend helped me get started with a cockatiel, but she died shortly after. I had that happen one more time. I began thinking that I could never have a bird. Well, after another year of reading about every species of parrot and visiting every pet store and contacting breeder after breeder, I went to a bird show. That is where we met Mercury. Of course, when we brought her home, she was already talking a bit and said pretty bird all of the time. The owner said that is what she called her until her next owner could give her an official name. That worked out very well. From the moment we held her, our lives changed. She was our baby. I never thought that she could be so much like a toddler. Now I have a toddler for life. When making my decision to bring home a parrot, I had to consider a lot of things: could I take on this responsibility, do I have time for her, do I have enough money to care for her, do I have space for her, will we be bothersome to our neighbors, will my family accept her more as a child and not as a pet, can I keep her social, what happens when I travel, who will care for her if I die, is my house safe enough, what if I have to move, what if I have a life-altering event in my life, and the list could probably go on forever. I never thought that a bird could bring me so much joy. We love to just sit and watch her. She is a life commitment. I do not regret my decision to bring her home, but I strongly suggest that others do a lot of research. They can be wonderful but not all are. They depend on us for their well-being. It is our responsibility to raise them, teach them, keep them safe and expose them to life. They are so much like children. If you cannot care for a child, do not think you can care for a bird, especially a parrot. | |||
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The 1st Year Has Passed | |||
Clipped Wings or Full Flight | |||
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Well, after our 1st year of living together, Mercury’s wings began to grow. Now I had a new dilemma. I have watched her for a year and really wish she could fly; however, the responsibility and risks made me think about it for quite some time. I knew that I would need to make a decision before her wings and confidence had her flying. So, I thought about how our everyday life was. We are home with her a good bit. We seldom have other people going in and out of our house. She tends to be in the same room with us, so we watch her constantly.
I was a candle collector until she came to live with us. When we moved, only a few carefully chosen candles were unpacked. All the rest remain boxed to prevent accidents and eliminate scents in the air. In our new home, we have a mirror wall in our dining room, which is open to our living room. And, we have 2 sliding glass doors. So, I began to prepare for Mercury to fly. I hung shear curtains over the mirror and keep the blinds open but covering the glass doors. Most of my surfaces are much simpler now. Where I would have lots of picture frames and various odds and ends, I don’t. Instead, maybe a decorative box is there or nothing at all. I admit that my house is by no means a maximized bird safe home, but I am trying and make adjustments and changes regularly. Sinks of water are always drained when I walk away, and toilet lids are absolute musts to have closed. One area I am battling with is the kitchen. It is one of our most open areas, so we are always extra, extra careful. The stove is the scary part. I have considered building some sort of isolating screen around the stove to prevent accidents. I think it would be a rare case for something to happen, but you never know. I have been contemplating the design of the screen for quite some time. We have reacquainted ourselves with the harness. Now it is absolutely vital she wears it if she is not in a closed space. Also, I have been working on my own little system of reenforcing holding onto the leash in case she was to suddenly fly. I think I prefer to use a clip to attach the leash to my beltloop (as backup). I always hold onto it, but now I am so fearful of her taking off and me dropping her leash. And, what can I say; death grips on the leash are purely exhausting and create undo stress. As it is right now, after about 2 or 3 months of practiced flight, she still uses it only for a means of escape. Her navigation improves drastically each time she flies. For now, Mercury still prefers the good ole human transportation system; however, we have seen her do everything but take off several times. We are counting the days to when she will fly just because she can. I suppose she is like a baby who prefers to crawl but can walk when she needs to. Through all of my thoughts, ideas and struggles, sometimes I wonder which is better – clipped or not. For now, this is our decision. I am taking each day as a new day with new possibilities. |
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Learning Colors | |||
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Since Mercury was 9 months, I have been reading to her and asking her if she can find things like the pink bird. I did this a lot until she was about 18 months. After that, it became more sporadic. Right before Christmas break of 2002, I began asking her if she could find the certain colored toy. I had gathered several types of solid-colored toys, such as plastic keys and different types of links. After about 2 weeks, she correctly identified yellow about 90% of the time. Right after that, she was correctly identifying red.
I think that reading to her and asking her questions from her books has been helpful. In my opinion, it may have made it easier and more fun once I started using actual objects, especially toys. If she answers the question correctly, she can play with the toy. If not, I gently take it back and try again. Sometimes we try the same color and sometimes we switch. It depends on her attention span. I think she loves choosing the correct color just so she can throw her toy as far as possible. Well, in my opinion, she definitely deserves to do whatever she wants with the toy. And, lately, she even comes over to me as if she is asking to play one of our educational games. I know it is stimulating, and she loves to be around us and loves to hear that she is a good girl. It is mid January of 2003 (almost a month since I started using toys for her colors and almost 100% of the time, she identifies yellow, red, blue and purple correctly. Those are the only 4 colors we have been working with. I guess it is time to expand her skills. |
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