Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!ima!cfisun!susans
From: susans@cfi.COM (susans)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: Re: Behavioral Problems - Macaws
Message-ID: <936@cfiprod.UUCP>
Date: 1 Nov 90 14:05:41 GMT
References: <1990Oct31.174425.13520@cs.ucla.edu>
Reply-To: susans@cfiprod.UUCP (Susan Scheide -CFI-)
Distribution: na
Organization: Consumer Financial Institute, Waltham, Mass.
Lines: 33

In article <1990Oct31.174425.13520@cs.ucla.edu> ramsey@kona.cs.ucla.edu (Brenda Ramsey) writes:
>Big-Bird is a 1 year old Hyacinth Macaw with a LOUD voice.
>His normal babbling is tolerable, but when he screeches it
>is enough to wake the dead.

	That's the nature of the bird!  Didn't she do any research
	before buying such a huge and expensive bird?  If she
	wanted quiet, she had many, many choices of birds quieter.


>Patti brought him to *bird school* over the weekend and the
>*teacher*, who has been training birds of all types for years,
>suggested "THE BLACK BOX" routine for him.  A wooden box, painted
>black on the inside, no holes, large enough to deposit the bird
>so he cannot turn around, was recommended.  When the screeching
>starts, pick him up, deposit in the box and leave him for

	This sounds cruel to me.  The nature of birds is to
	signal their "joy of living" through their voice.  They
	"talk" to their human friends too.  Ridding a pet of
	a vice, such as biting, is desireable, but trying to
	squelch the bird's natural means of communication through
	a torture system of solitary confinement seems, to me,
	to be wrong.

	She should sell the bird to someone who knows what they're
	dealing with--or do a lot of reading and talking to
	other macaw owners.  Bird Talk magazine has lots of articles
	on such "problems."
-- 
                        Susan S. (susans@cfi.com)

                        Another Friend of Bill's