Bird Tricks Saved my Sanity

Want to stop the screaming?  Is your feathered friend a biter?  Don't give up, there is help out there for you.

The best online resource for me as a parrot owner has been Bird Tricks.  Their blog answers many everyday questions that a bird owner may have.  Did you know birds get dry skin like we do in the winter?  

I first became introduced to this website after we rescued Mezmo our African Grey Parrot.   Mezmo was a victim of the poor economy.  His previous owner, a hypnotist or magician in Las Vegas, lost his home to foreclosure and Mezmo was the bird that he didn't take with. sad right? A friend of the family was left to feed him.  They knew we were bird lovers and we took him in right before Christmas of 09.

Their DVDs are an invaluable tool for any bird owner.  Since buying their DVD's I better understand my parrot's behavior.  I thank the training we learned from the DVD's for how fast Mezmo came to trust us.  Going from a bird that would fly around in it's huge cage when you walked into the room, to flying to you and taking food off your fork as you eat.  The clicker training made a huge difference in his response to step up in a few weeks.  The screaming took longer but more due to my response.  Telling your bird to "Stop it" will just lead to them screaming then saying "Stop it" as if to mock you even more.
 
We still have some more work to do with Mezmo, but training never stops when you own any animal.

Clicker Training Hamsters

I am a sucker for animals that need a home. Our African Grey parrot Mezmo is a rescue bird. (He came to us just last December) Mezmo had some behavior problems but after serious clicker training he has changed drastically. It took some work with great guidance from a set of Bird Tricks DVD's I purchased. My only regret was not buying the DVD's sooner.

My youngest sister is moving out-of-state soon and I guess her friend thought it would be the perfect chance to pawn some angry hamsters off on someone. (someone she may never see ever again.) After accepting them my sister realized that there was no way she could take the hamsters on the long move.

In turn our family recently acquired 2 dwarf hamsters with cage and supplies, from my little sister. They are two girl Dwarf hamsters, one is white with pink eyes and the other looks just like the picture. Her friend's kids had stopped handling them as often as they should due to other newer pets in the house, which was why their mom got rid of them. The hamsters are not very well socialized and they will bite. They are very aggressive when treats are given. I think they had also been teased. We are going to try to do clicker training with them. Clicker training is a great trust building activity. It has worked very well with our parrot.

I learned what I know about clicker training from the DVD's we purchased from Bird Tricks. After some research on the web I found someone using clicker training for hamsters as well. Rodents being a food reward type animal clicker training the hamsters will be very similar to the bird. I will just use what I learned from the DVD's and adapt the training for small animals and not a bird.

My goal is to get the hamsters to the point that my kid's can hold them without the hamsters attempting to bite them. As a family, we plan to go visit the nearby pet store this weekend and pick out some new accessories for the hamsters' cage. Our oldest two daughters want to name the hamsters as a family this weekend as well.

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