| Welcome
to birdy boot camp
Pet owners flocking to Lockport for Parrot's Perch Playschool
As seen in The Daily Southtown
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
By Vickie Snow
 Sherbert
is one spoiled pet.
The
Moluccan cockatoo has full rein of the house and
a special perch in every room. He gets to have his
favorite foods — garlic bread, giardenara and
stir-fried rice — whenever he wants.
"He
also loves angel food cake and dips his whole face
in the whipped
cream," owner Jan Duncker said. "He eats
out of my dish every night and sits at the table."
But
Sherbert, 3, lacks some social skills when it comes
to his feathered friends.
"Sherbert's
not used to other birds. That's why I brought him
here," Duncker said on a recent Sunday at Parrot's
Perch Playschool, a so-called "boot camp" for
birds and their owners.
Once
a month, an indoor building at K-9 Guardians, a dog
obedience-training facility at Bruce and Farrell
roads in Lockport, goes to the birds.
 During
a four-hour session, Tina Usher, a certified avian
specialist from Evergreen Park, discusses bird behavior,
socialization, exercise, training, grooming and nutrition.
The cost to attend is $100. "People buy a parrot,
put it in a cage and think it knows how to act," Usher
said. "But, like a dog, it needs training. That's
the reason I started the workshop."
Usher
has been an avian breeder, groomer and behavioral
consultant for 20 years. She also is certified in
falconry and wildlife rehabilitation. So, when it
comes to birds — and there is one in every
seven homes, according to the American Pet Products
Manufacturing Association — Usher knows her
stuff.
And
like any other play date, where parents swap helpful
tips, new bird lovers and old are quick to offer
bits of advice.
Don't
swear around your bird because he will copy you.
Be
careful about window screens, warned Duncker, who
lives near U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago. Birds
can bite through them and escape.
They
also can undo key and combination locks, and open
childproof bottle caps.
"Try
to baby-proof your house when the baby can fly!" Julie
Volpert said, with Zoey, an umbrella cockatoo, sitting
on her head and Daphne, a Moluccan, on her shoulder.
 The
workshop largely focuses on behavior and health,
and is divided into play sessions and discussion.
The atmosphere quickly changes from raucous rounds
of birds squawking, flying, swinging, flapping and
climbing to complete calm with tired birds swaying
to sleep on perches or their owners.
During
play time, Daphne danced, bopping up and down and
violently thrashing from side to side on a hoop swing.
Sammy,
a small African gray parrot only 7 months old, timidly
tried walking along a ladder but seemed to prefer
posing for a camera at eye level. Sherbert didn't
want much to do with the two baby birds Usher placed
on the net with him, especially when one flew up
the net rather than climbing.
The
social aspect is key for birds because they are flock
creatures.
"I
wanted to make a little Disneyland for birdies," Usher
said.
During
the quiet time of the workshop, Usher focuses on
nutrition, grooming and behavior. Birds need a variety
of food, seeds, nuts and greens, and can get a sugar
rush just like kids.
 They
need to have daily showers, inside an actual shower
or with a spray bottle.
And
their owners need to learn how to recognize unusual
behavior.
"If
you get bit," Usher said, "it's always
your fault. You didn't pick up on the bird's body
language." If a bird's eyes are dilated, for
example, it can be happy, excited or aggressive.
If a bird puffs up, it may be relaxed, ill or scared.
If it lifts its feathers, he may just be drying off
rather than shivering. Flapping of wings usually
signals a desire for exercise.
If
a bird sneezes, it may just be mimicking someone.
If a bird regurgitates, it means "I love you … because
that's how they feed their mates and babies," Usher
said.
When
the young ones are clumsy and fly into walls and
other structures, let them be, she says, because
in the wild no one will come to their rescue. They'll
regroup on their own.
Usher
also shows workshop participants how to handle their
birds, including swaddling them in a towel like a
little papoose for transporting them from home to
a cat-size carrier.
 Birds
have the intelligence of a 5-year-old child — "up
there with apes and dolphins," Usher said, and
the emotional level of a 2- or 3-year-old. "They
never grow up."
They
learn quickly, though.
When
Usher repeated the commands "step up" and "down," young
Sammy quickly learned to move from the perch to hand
and back.
Peanuts
can be used as guides to teach the bird to turn around
or motion "yes" and "no," and
are good as rewards for proper training.
"Sammy's
at the teenager stage and we need to set boundaries," Usher
told his owner, Mary Kumke, of Worth. "Positive
reinforcement is the only way to go. Punishment never
works with a bird because you lose that trust. Every
time you interact with your bird, training is going
on."
Yet
while birds may be smart, they're also stubborn.
"Dogs
want to please you. This guy doesn't," Duncker
said, nodding toward Sherbert, who has bursts of
orange, pink and yellow on his white feathers.
Because
so much knowledge, care and training go into having
a bird for a pet, some people may be discouraged.
But Usher and her fellow bird lovers say birds are
worth the effort — they're extremely intuitive
creatures.
"They
can sense emotions," Usher said.
Volpert,
who owns a big dog and four birds in addition to
Daphne and Zoey, said she didn't want to eat after
she had abdominal surgery. "Daphne would feed
me," she said, bringing her pieces of food.
"Sherbert
knows when I'm too tired to play," Duncker said,
leading him around on his little leash like the new
kid in school. "If I cry, he's licking the tears
off my cheek. If I laugh, he laughs with me."
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