Pet Therapy with the flock.

One of the really neat things we do is take some of our birds out to nursing homes and schools. We have been doing it for years,and I don't know who enjoys it more,the residents or the birds. Anyway, today we went out on our monthly visit.

Usually, we can take 5 birds with us, but since we have some car troubles, only 3 went today. Igor,the tiel, and Titan,the IRN, sat on the resident's shoulders, and went around the room,chatting with anyone and everyone.We had to keep up with the capes we made,to make sure no one gets pooped on!

Milton ,the U2, usually hangs on to me, but when I get the empty pop bottle out, he starts playing fetch with the residents.He throws the bottle, and he gets somone to toss it back to him.He will continue to do this until we have to leave.

It's quite a production to get everyone to and from, but it is well worth the effort. AND the best part of the deal is everyone is quiet for the rest of the day! TIRED LITTLE BIDIES...

we take ours to the nursing home where my wife works, it is well worth the effort and very rewarding...good show


dusty

cassiesdad wrote:

One of the really neat things we do is take some of our birds out to nursing homes and schools. We have been doing it for years,and I don't know who enjoys it more,the residents or the birds. Anyway, today we went out on our monthly visit.

Usually, we can take 5 birds with us, but since we have some car troubles, only 3 went today. Igor,the tiel, and Titan,the IRN, sat on the resident's shoulders, and went around the room,chatting with anyone and everyone.We had to keep up with the capes we made,to make sure no one gets pooped on!

Milton ,the U2, usually hangs on to me, but when I get the empty pop bottle out, he starts playing fetch with the residents.He throws the bottle, and he gets somone to toss it back to him.He will continue to do this until we have to leave.

I've been wanting to do something like this. I wasn't sure if there's some sort of "certification" required in my area like that's needed for therapy dogs. I'll have to look into it.

cassiesdad wrote:

It's quite a production to get everyone to and from, but it is well worth the effort. AND the best part of the deal is everyone is quiet for the rest of the day! TIRED LITTLE BIDIES...

Yes! The best part of getting them out and about! Tired birds are good birds. . .

Hey Bob., i think it's great that you can do things like this with your fids and great for the people you visit.My amazons are pretty tame but they are still very opinionated , most like most people but not every one.{ not so much an issue with young birds ,but the older ones don't like some people} Do you encounter this in your fids? i know i could carry several of the tiels around, they like everyone, but the zons are different.How do you handle this and is it a problem for you.I know i would have to be vigilant and keep them away from people that they don't like, but do those people feel bad because the bird won't allow pets from them? The last thing i'd want to do is make someone unhappy, but i can read the birds and know to keep them apart.

henpecked wrote:

Hey Bob., i think it's great that you can do things like this with your fids and great for the people you visit.My amazons are pretty tame but they are still very opinionated , most like most people but not every one.{ not so much an issue with young birds ,but the older ones don't like some people} Do you encounter this in your fids? i know i could carry several of the tiels around, they like everyone, but the zons are different.How do you handle this and is it a problem for you.I know i would have to be vigilant and keep them away from people that they don't like, but do those people feel bad because the bird won't allow pets from them? The last thing i'd want to do is make someone unhappy, but i can read the birds and know to keep them apart.

Henpecked-I hear where you're coming from. We have taken our birds out for over 20 years, and there are some who don't like to interact with people.The Cockatoos do not really like much physical contact with people, but they WANT to be around them. Milton is the perfect example of this. He'll play fetch with them,but other than that, he stays with me.

When Milty sees the people looking at him , he does become a ham. He squawks and displays, which is quite impressive. The residents respond and Milty is happy.,he'll flip himself upside down and turn his head round and round and yell "WOW,WOW,WOW.But he doesn't want contact with anybody but me.

We do realize that not all residents want to interact with the birds. That's OK. We always ask every person if they want to hold the bird,before handing the bird off to them. We always let them know it's alright just to watch us interact with the birds. We realize we are guests in their home, and we respect that.

I guess that we are lucky that our birds have always liked to interact with other people. Our two newest tiels are not interested in going to others, and of course, we won't force them to. If ,in the future,any of the others start to show signs they don't want to interact with others, we will respect that.

I'm not sure if I answered your questions or not. If I didn't, feel free to respond and ask me again.Sometimes ,you got to hit me on the head a few times get it through my thick skull...

0I think i understand better now. i thought everyone handled your birds, something i'm a bit afraid of.I have some young tiels that evryonre could handle but was worried about the zons. When ever i have them out in public people always want to pet them and sometimes they don't like someone. I can hand them off but reaching to take them away from me (they're closely bonded) doesn't always work.Yes several of them are real showoffs and love to interact with people but want to stay close to dad. Do you have an act or just let them do their thing? Are you or management worried about someone getting bit? How do those discussions go? We have several zons that love to sing and dance and carry on., But have never tried doing something like this.Maybe we should.

henpecked wrote:

0I think i understand better now. i thought everyone handled your birds, something i'm a bit afraid of.I have some young tiels that evryonre could handle but was worried about the zons. When ever i have them out in public people always want to pet them and sometimes they don't like someone. I can hand them off but reaching to take them away from me (they're closely bonded) doesn't always work.Yes several of them are real showoffs and love to interact with people but want to stay close to dad. Do you have an act or just let them do their thing? Are you or management worried about someone getting bit? How do those discussions go? We have several zons that love to sing and dance and carry on., But have never tried doing something like this.Maybe we should.

Henpecked- good questions. No, we don't have an act or anything like that.I always say at the beginning of our visits that ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN and it usually does! Every time we visit is different than the time before.

As I said before,Milton is a showoff, but stays with me when we visit. The other birds really do like to be with people-sometimes it is a lot of trouble making sure the birds don't go to the residents who prefer not to interact with them!

As for management-it's interesting. They are skeptical, of course, the first time we visit a new facility. I know that they want to know there's no danger to the residents when we visit. When we contact the facility, we stongly encourage management to be there when we visit for the first time.

We get the usual questions-"Do they bite?", "Do they carry disease?",that sort of thing. We try to answer all their questions. After we answer them,I talk about our number one rule-We run under a 100% rule-NO ONE GETS HURT-NOT THE RESIDENTS- NOT THE BIRDS-NOT US-100% of the time,everytime. Then I like to get a member of management to volunteer to have a bird put on their shoulder to see what it's like.

We bring out a cape and have Titan,our IRN, come over. It's really something to watch this little bird peek around to someone's face and say "KISS,KISS"! After that happens, management usually doesn't have much of a problem with us.

I consider our visits to be successful, if we are invited back to visit again. We always are. We have almost 75 thank you notes that have been sent to us,so I think we're doing something right.

Sorry I ramble on. I see you're thinking about trying something like this youself.Fantastic! I could tell you so much more about visiting with your birds. Feel free to PM me, and we'll give you some pointers on how to get started...

Shoot. Forget PMing you. Do tell all the details. I'd like to hear.

patdbunny wrote:

Shoot. Forget PMing you. Do tell all the details. I'd like to hear.

When I get a chance this week,I'll give you some info...

...Standing by....

pictures pictures pictures...saves a lot of writing....lol


dusty