My Umbrella Cockatoo wouldn’t touch a vegetable most of the time if it were covered in gold.  I’ve tried all the standards—carrots, peas, snow peas, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potato and every other vegetable I could think of.  I’ve tried raw, steamed, boiled, cooked, mashed, peeled, unpeeled and every way I could think of.

You would think from the look I get from her that I was trying desperately to poison her.  I put the vegetables in her fresh food dish every morning and she looks in the dish, then up at me, then back in the dish, and finally back up at me and the look in her eyes is saying “Hey, what are you trying to do to me?  You think I’m eating that?  Well lady, think again.”

I have read articles, books, tips on the internet and asked countless people how do I get her to eat them. None of the answers worked for her.

So, I found a great recipe for birdy bread.  I discovered that I can put the fresh vegetables through the food processor with the eggs and peanut butter so that they become almost nonexistent.  I usually add broccoli, squash, beans of some kind, carrots and then the recipe calls for 2 jars of vegetable baby food, I use the mixed green vegetables.

Now she loves the birdy bread.  I just heat it a little in the microwave and she thinks it’s the best thing since sunflower seeds. She will eat it morning and night.  She looks at me when I give it to her like I’m a goddess or something.

So, my little picky Cockatoo is now eating her vegetables even if she has no idea she is.  I still offer her fresh vegetables daily but, with the birdy bread, at least I know she’s getting vegetables every day. It makes us both happy and my vet said the benefits of the vegetables and other ingredients tend to outweigh the not so great cornbread base.

It’s true, most parrots don’t like change.  Not a new cage, the location of the cage or new toys.  Not at first anyway.  I rescued an African Grey that was in a cage that was much too small but he seemed to like it.  I bought a larger cage and just moved him in, toys, food dishes and all.  He absolutely hated it.  For 2 days he seemed to just sit on 1 perch and not move.  I’m not sure he was eating or drinking except when I held the dishes right in front of him so he didn’t have to try to climb down to get them.

He just looked at me with the most sad and pitiful look you can imagine. Well, that was in between the looks of pure hatred that I could dare to put him in this huge jail.  The door was of course open all day so he had the option to come out and play on top but oh no, that would have been admitting defeat for him.

After 2 days I moved him back to the smaller cage and started researching.  Why would he not want the larger cage?  To me it would have been like moving out of a 1 room apartment into a 3 bedroom house. I couldn’t imagine that he wouldn’t want all that room to play in.

That’s when I discovered you can’t just push new things, especially with African Grays.  So I put the large cage right next to the small cage he was in.  I kept both doors open and hung a ton of toys in the new cage.  For the next week and a half he would look over at that new cage and then at me like it was a hated enemy. He just sat and stared at it like a condemned man might stare at a prison cell.  He wasn't going near that place.  No how, no way.

Slowly he started to venture over to the new cage.  Just onto the door at first.  Only for a couple of minutes and then back to the safety of his cage.  After a few days of this I found him on top of the new cage.  Just sitting there and looking longingly at the small cage.  He didn’t go inside or touch a toy. Just sat there. But, the time he sat on the new cage increased over the next week or so. 

Eventually, he chose the larger cage and is now very happy in it. 

Sometimes we don't realize that new things can be overwhelming to a parrot. Going from a smaller cage to a larger one or from a cage he/she has been in to a new one is like you going into a new home. It takes time to get used to it. 

Believe it or not, there are parrots who prefer a smaller cage. I'm not sure if it's a feeling of security or what exactly. You should always provide the largest cage you can afford, BUT, if your parrot is out of the cage the majority of the time, and seems to prefer a smaller cage, then you shouldn't have a problem.

I've been working on recall training with my Blue & Gold Macaw, Eli.  It's much easier than I thought it would be.

He's gotten to the point that is he's on top of his cage, or the door, or the door frame, I can hold my arm out and call him and he will fly to me.

We started slowly. When he was on his cage, I would call him and hold my arm out.  About 1 in 10 times he would fly to me and I would praise him like crazy.  The more we work the more times he will fly to me. Now, it's almost every time. 

He's a baby so sometimes he overshoots me and circles the room and back to the cage but on the next pass, he lands on my arm.

If your bird is older, you can use his favorite treat.  Just call and hold out your arm.  When he fly's over to you give him the treat and make a big fuss out of how great he did. Just keep working and soon you'll have your parrot recall trained.

Please understand, I have done this in the house, NOT outside. I would never take any of my birds, even the ones that can't fly due to feather issues, outside without a carrier or a harness. 

It only takes 1 time, 1 gust of wind, and your bird is gone. All too often the wind catches them and they don't know how to get back down. Use every precaution when you take your bird outdoors. Never take a flighted bird out and assume that he will stay with you or come to you. It takes a long time to train a bird to come each and every time and they have to know how to fly well enough to be able to navigate the wind gusts.