Pickles The Parrot: A Humorous Look At Life With An African Grey by Georgi Abbott Page A

right.
    Fortunately, we live in an arid area of the
BC Interior and have no problem with mold or mildew. We can leave
fruits or vegetables in Pickles’ bowl for longer periods of time
than someone living in a humid climate—everything just sort of
dries up, like sun drying a tomato. We don’t have to worry about
mold on his cage however, things can dry to a dust and cause
respiratory problems.
    On the other hand, humidity would be good for
Pickles because he hates to bathe and he’s a dirty, dirty little
birdie. He freaks out if we use a spray bottle and mostly he just
gets his feet and beak wet on the odd occasion that he takes a bath
in a bowl. The only humidity he gets, is from taking showers with
Neil. He likes to perch on the shower rod and watch but doesn’t
like to be splashed. Sometimes we’ll bend over the kitchen sink and
Pickles will run up and down our arms to get a little wet under the
tap.
    At some point, it became difficult to keep
Pickles aloft. He was insisting on climbing down his cage to
explore, or to be with us. Often, he was almost stepped on when he
suddenly appeared at our feet while we were off doing something. It
was becoming dangerous in the shop with customers walking around
and it seemed there was no way to make him stay put.
    I won’t go into many details or the
complications of this and other behavioral problems but what it
boiled down to was finding the PBAS (Parrot Behavior Analysis
Solutions) Group where they pair you with someone to help and
interact with you on a forum or through email. They teach Positive
Reinforcement which has become a way of life for us with Pickles.
Pickles is never punished, parrots don’t understand punishment, it
just causes dislike, distrust or fear. He is rewarded for good
behavior and bad behavior is ignored. All it takes is a little
creative thinking to make a parrot feel that he is in control, and
reinforcers such as food or toys are used as encouragement.
    PBAS taught us the importance of enrichment
and foraging so Neil got busy making play stands for Pickles. He
started by building a wooden base with 4-inch lip all the way
around, which gave Pickles something to sit on, and attached legs
like you find on a computer chair in the center so that Pickles
couldn’t reach and climb down. To the base, he attached a few thick
branches with thinner branches shooting off the main branch,
providing him a variety of perches and climbing material. From
these, we hung various toys. Neil built several stands so that
Pickles would have an area in each room to hang out on while we did
dishes or ate dinner etc. Each one was different and he was happy
to be moved from room to room to be with us. The main play stand
was placed next to Pickles’ cage in the livingroom so that he had
access to it whenever he wanted.
    Our lovely home became one big birdcage,
still void of paintings or knick knacks that we felt needed
protection from Pickles. We may as well have replaced the couches
with stick furniture and the carpets with cement flooring and put
in a drain so that we could hose the house down to clean all the
spattered poop and food as needed.
    It took a couple of weeks of working with
PBAS but various plans were implemented, success was achieved and
it has stuck with him for the most part. There is still the very,
very odd time that Pickles, if left alone too long, will climb down
and go searching for us. Sometimes he might be startled into flying
down but he has become uncomfortable on the floor so he will
quickly scramble back up his cage.
    Pickles has always been afforded a lot of
freedom, meaning a lot of time out of his cage. About the only time
he was required to be caged was at bedtime or if we had to go out.
He started refusing to go in the cage when we needed to go out and
as I said earlier, we don’t like to force him into anything. To
make matters worse, he was now deciding which days he wanted to go
to work with us. Some days, he preferred to stay home and