Parrot Care: Territory and LocationSpending too much time in one place can lead to the development of aggression. Monitor and modify the development of territorial aggression with a well-planned captive environment, including a "roost" and multiple "foraging" areas. In the wild, most parrots sleep in approximately the same place every night (unless they are actually nesting). Every day they forage in several areas where there might be a newly maturing food source; a past-its-prime field to be scoured for leftovers; a known dependable source of minerals or insects; a shallow pool for bathing; a cool, shady place for an afternoon nap; or a couple of potential new haunts for investigation. A "home bird" forced to remain in exactly the same place day after day will often come to guard that space so aggressively that no one can service the cage or even walk by without a feigned, attempted, or successful attack. The provision of multiple "foraging" areas within the home will minimize this behavior by enlarging the perceived "territory." One might provide several parrot care fixed-location birdproof areas or one portable play area to be moved from room to room. A bird who enjoys multiple play or foraging areas requires less sleeping cage space than a bird who remains in or on the cage most of the time. For optimal result, the sleeping cage is placed far from foraging areas. Just as a bird who spends too much time in one place becomes possessively defensive of that territory, a bird who spends too much time with one human possessively defends that "human territory." Occasional visits outside the home, particularly with less-than-favorite humans, lessen the ill effects of immoderate bonds to perceived territory, including "human territory." Since a young bird may bond—at least initially—to a favorite human in a territorial manner, excursions out of the home with less-than-favorite humans will support a balanced relationship between the companion bird and all humans in the home (the flock). Parrot Care: Location
In addition to the influences of height, space, and territory, the location of a companion parrot's space plays a role in social adjustment. Common and predictable screaming behaviors can easily be stimulated by actual or perceived isolation from "the flock" or the flock's activities. Perceived isolation might be something as simple as the bird's inability to see people when they go around a corner (add a mirror, possibly one of those convex "shoplifter" mirrors) or inability to see what everyone else is watching (be sure the bird can see the television, or it might go crazy trying to figure out what everyone else is watching). Of course, actual isolation in a basement or back room is the worst thing to do to a bird screaming from a feeling of isolation. I also see biting behaviors in quite a few birds who must be frequently rushed past because of a cage located in the eye of what might be a daily "hurricane"—the fixing of breakfast and hustling children off to school or the home-protection efforts of a couple of boisterous dogs. Sometimes moving a cage only a few feet can minimize this effect. For example, a bird area that must, because of space limitations, be on either side of a busy doorway might elicit better bird behavior on one side of the doorway rather than the other. Parrot care behavioral benefits from the move might be derived because the people or dogs customarily rush in what is now a relatively different direction or because the bird has better near vision on one side than the other. |
