April was a very busy month for us all. Classes were well attended and several birds found new homes.  But sadly, the number of calls for birds needing to join us went up dramatically.  Currently we have a waiting list of NINE MONTHS for a bird to enter quarantine. Recently, several birds in emergency situations had to be moved to the top of the list. One bird's owner was threatening to release it outdoors. Another was living in his car after losing his home. A third's mom was hospitalized and would be unable to care for her bird upon returning home.

A plea was sent out to increase our number of quarantine homes to handle these emergencies. Thank you to those of you who offered to assist.  Qualified quarantine homes are always in great need, so if you feel you might be interested PLEASE contact us.  The bird will spend a minimum of 30 days with you. Sometimes we may ask that he/she stay an extra week or two if we don't have room at Parrot U. Here are the basic criteria to qualify:

You must either have no other birds in the home or have a separate air system to house the quarantine bird(s). This is to protect both your birds and the new bird from possible disease. Your birds must have received a wellness exam from a CPR approved avian vet within the last year. Again all of this is to protect the birds.

Attendance at a Parrot 101 class is required. The class is free and held monthly at Parrot U. Sometimes we add a second class or are able to do an individual class with you.

If at all possible, we request you be able to take the quarantine bird for its wellness exam if CPR is unable to do so prior to joining your home.  CPR covers this expense. We also will provide a cage and basic setup for your use.

We are available to answer any questions or concerns you may have while the bird is with you. Sometimes we may ask that you assist in making dietary changes. You do not have to handle the bird if you do not feel comfortable doing so.

While we're always thrilled for one of our guys to find a new home, it often is the quarantine home! This is extremely wonderful, but often we then lose that home as a quarantine home due to lack of separate air systems.  Please be assured we are delighted for the new family.  It just means that we're constantly in need of new quarantine and foster homes.

Currently we have over 30 parrots on the waiting list. CPR receives an average of three calls/emails a day from people seeking homes for their birds. Many do not choose to get on the waiting list after hearing about the wait.  We can never have too many quarantine homes and NEVER, NEVER, NEVER have enough adoption homes.  We hope you will consider either or both options to assist the many parrots needing a new home.

Thanks to all of you.

While thinking what to write about for this month I decided we'd talk about a challenge we face at CPR and Parrot University. Last month I noted that you should ignore the behaviors you don't want and reinforce the behaviors you do want. Sounds straightforward, doesn't it? Well......the answer is -- not exactly!

So, here's a question for you. Can you ignore the behavior you don't want 100% of the time? Can you guarantee that every other person in your home will do the same? How about the other animals? In order to extinguish a behavior, you must be able to ignore it absolutely every time it occurs until it is gone.

By now you probably see where I'm going with this. Sometimes it's just not possible. Which brings us to the next question -- what happens if I don't ignore the behavior every single time? Answer is: trouble!

If a bird is reinforced even once in awhile it's called intermittent reinforcement and it's a powerful thing. The bird figures "Hey, I just got what I wanted so I'll keep going until I get it again." But it also teaches the bird that it takes that level of the behavior to get the reinforcement so it starts at that level going forward. In bird talk "I screamed this loud and got that result, so next time I'll scream that loud to begin with." Of course, if the bird doesn't get the desired result, it will rev up the volume to see how that works. You can see that intermittent reinforcement makes extinguishing a behavior even harder. So what's the answer?

How about teaching a desired behavior or an incompatible behavior? Train your bird to call in a pleasant tone of voice and reinforce it when it occurs. Or train a bird to whistle or whisper on cue. Then when the offending behavior occurs you cue the acceptable one and reinforce that. Let's face it -- you can't scream AND whisper or whistle at the same time, right?

How does this factor in at CPR? Our birds get hundreds of visitors each month, making it impossible for us to make absolutely sure that screaming is not reinforced at times. Buddy, our bold and beautiful umbrella cockatoo, is a prime example. Instead of focusing on trying to extinguish the screaming, we decided to teach and reinforce a different behavior.

When we approach Buddy we say, "Hello" in a voice which mimics a voice he uses. When he gives us a similar response he gets a nut. Buddy's no 'dodo', so he quickly figured out that he should be using that voice a lot!

What about your flock? Can you think of a behavior that you'd like to change? How would you go about it?

[Editor's note: Reserve your seat now for the next Positive Reinforcement Training Class -- free at Parrot University on Sunday, May 22 at 2 pm]