Sunday, July 12, 2009

Preschool - Taming

Notice: The perch in this cage of German rollers is near the top to encourage them to lay parallel with the perch and their bread is close to the perch.


Contrast the German roller picture above to the Border in this picture who is stretching to reach the bread and their perch is placed much lower in the cage. The second bird is Houdini, the German roller escape artist! Notice how the bread is placed too high for Houdini. And he would likely hang on the wire, damaging his tail, to get to the bread if he is housed in this cage.

A young Stafford going for the bread. Notice the height of the bred placement is between the distance of a roller and border, higher than the roller but lower than the border. The other bird, who in spite of getting the same color food is creme colored, is a very promising mosaic Stafford young hen who will likely be very white after the molt.


Another Stafford has just gotten a bite of bread and is off about their business. Looks like this one will need smaller pieces, less frequently and perches far apart to slim her down a bit!


Developing a Trusting Relationship - Third Principle

Canaries are easily tamed if you just work with them a bit. My favorite way to tame them is putting a piece of bread in the same spot between the cage wire every day. The birds quickly learn that bread is coming and will come near the wire to get the first bite. When training any animal, you get them to trained by mini steps. As soon as the master the first step you up the requirements for the same reward. In this case, once they are anxious for a bit of bread, I slow down a bit until they are approaching me from behind the wire and taking the bread as I put it between the wire.

Not only does this get them ready for more training but it is a good trick to prevent weight loss after being shown. After competition, I put the bread between the wire of the show cage and they will readily eat it even in the dark box on their journey home.

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