Put Your Birds to Work

Due to my work with the SPCA, my college education in Agricultue/Poultry Science, my rescue work, and just being "that crazy guy with all those birds", I consider myself an Ambassador between Human & Avian Beings. To that end, I see my major function as educating people about, and exposing them to, birds. In the past, I have done demonstrations & lectures about birds to boy & girl scouts, 4-H clubs, and grade school kids. I've also used my calmer, more well behaved birds as Therapy Birds in Assisted Living Facilities & Chilrens Hospitals. This morning, I took my birds to a local school to a friends first grade class for Show & Tell. I brought a cockatiel, a lovebird and a parrotlet. The kids were so enthusiastic and enchanted that what was supposed to be a 15 or 20 minute talk, turned into almost an hour! The kids did things like eating a cookie from a paper plate with their hands behind their backs (like a birds folded wings), to each one wanting to hold, or pet, a bird, to telling stories of their own birds. What a great morning! We are invited back sometime to other classes now! The point of telling you all of this is...every bird owner can do this. If you have friendly, calm birds, you can help educate "non bird" people about your birds. You should do this! It is rewarding to you, fun for the birds, and spreads the word about how great our feathered friends are.

I've thought about getting Puck therapy certified. He can be moody though, so I don't know if he would be the best candidate. He's also very friendly and outgoing though, which would make him a good candidate.

I know, I would love to do this, the local nursing home has asked us to bring him. Merlins free flighted & it would be scary to try this.

Rowdy would probably love it, but she is free flighted and, under stress, has been known to say a cuss word I probably couldn't trust Pete, who is not so loving and gentle with strangers as he is with me. Merlin might enjoy it, but a group of loud kids might be too much for her. She's never been with kids. Rowdy thinks little kids are a whole lot of fun and will dance and jump around and yell with them, but as mentioned above, things could get ugly, lol!

I did used to take my big male goat to the residential facility for people with disabilities and the kids and adults who lived there loved him.

That's great! I used to do the same thing but with reptiles and amphibians. It was always so much fun, but boy can fifty excited kids really be exhausting! I've gone to elementary schools, birthday parties and even a retirement home for their family fun day. At the retirement home, there was even a guy with birds doing the same thing as me on the other side of their parking lot, unfortunately, I was so busy with the reptiles I didn't really get a chance to speak with him.

It's such a great feeling when I would go into a classroom and I would have 3-4 teachers, deathly afraid of snakes, standing the whole way in the back of the classroom "hiding" since they were required to be there. By the end of my 45 minute to an hour presentation, I would have them up at the front, not only close to the snakes, but actually holding them!

I've always wanted to do the same with birds but I've really never had enough birds that were friendly enough to allow children and others with no parrot experience to handle

I have a bunch of pictures here from some of my reptile shows if anyone wants to take a gander: Facebook
one of my favorite ones is the elderly lady in the wheelchair, petting our burmese python that's being held by an 11 year old

Yes, my goat was perfect for mentally disabled people. They couldn't hurt him by grabbing instead of petting. He was huge and super friendly, and they got such a kick out of seeing a farm animal that walked on a leash. And he never in his life bit anyone or anything like that.

When I said every bird, I meant every friendly bird. I have a few birds that I wouldn't think of using for this. Couldn't, in fact. It takes a certain temperment of bird. I guess that I was just excited because I had just come home from there, and haven't been around kids with my birds in a long time. My cockatiels & lovebird are used as Therapy Birds with older & disabled people lately. It really is a fun experience. The birds seem to enjoy it as much as I do.

That's so good of you to do this for the kids and everyone else! I'm sure they will always remember the experience. This makes me think about the friend that gave me Amigo. Long before she'd even thought about having a cockatoo, my son was in first grade and she had a miniature pig. I asked her if she would be willing to bring her to my son's class so's the kids could experience her. The kid's LOVED it! My son is going on 20yrs. old next month and the pig is still kicking!