Is Your Bird Really Overstimulated?
When our parrots are being crazy like screaming, pacing, biting, and other similar behaviors, we usually think the bird is overstimulated and needs to calm down. Overstimulation is the biggest word thrown around with cockatoos especially. But, is this really overstimulation, or under-stimulation? Another added complexity to parrot’s already complex behaviors. With parrots, body language interpretation can mean a lot of different things depending on other factors. For example, my cockatoo’s crest goes up. Well, that could mean he’s happy, excited, pissed off, or frightened. You have to use other context clues to connect the dots like environmental factors, other body language cues that are also being shown, and history of behavior. The same things are needed to be used to determine if your bird needs less or more stimulation.
To start off, let’s define overstimulation. Overstimulation can be defined as when the animal is mentally or physically (or both) stimulated to an excessive degree. So then under-stimulation would be the opposite; the animal is not being stimulated mentally, physically, or both enough. So, overstimulated is your animal has had enough, generally showing stressed behaviors, and seeking a way to calm down or let out their frustrations. This can be shown in screaming, pacing, flapping, biting if you try to interact or on toys or perches, flying around, etc. With under-stimulation, you’ll see an animal seeking stimulation in some way. This can include ways like screaming, pacing, flapping, biting toys or perches, flying around, etc. No, I didn’t just copy and paste those behavioral cues, that is just how it is shown, continuing to add to the complexities of parrots.
On that note, we know what these terms are, yet there isn’t a clear way to determine what my bird needs. Does it need to calm down, or get more stimulation? Well, that is a hard question to answer generally. Every bird is an individual, and every situation is also unique, so to say these are the cues to look for or things to do for every parrot wouldn’t be safe advice to give. It’s hard to say “if your parrot is screaming, then they’re overstimulated” because I have a cockatoo right in front of me that does it for both. What I can do is give you education about the topic so you can apply it to your situation. Of course, if you have difficulty doing this, we can work together through an online session, or you can contact us to get help that way.
One way that you can determine what your bird is communicating is by listing off what activities the bird did that day. Some ideas include:
Physical Stimulation
· Did the bird get a bath that day? This is physical stimulation allowing for the flapping. It can make a bird feel better and good to have the humidity, hydration of their skin, and that extra feather down dust taken off. It can encourage good grooming behaviors; grooming is a dearousal activity that birds will do after flight or foraging to calm down, and of course they do it after bathing to keep their feathers in top condition!
· Did the bird fly that day? This is only applicable for birds who are not clipped or can fly. Even just encouraging flapping can be a lot of exercise for our lazier companion parrots. If they will not flap on a perch or on cue, try using bathing as a means to get your bird to flap.
· Has your bird walked a lot? This is more for non-flighted birds or birds who cannot fly. Having your bird walk around can still bring that physical stimulation they need. Either having your bird walk around on furniture, the floor (watch those hormones), from person to person, or just in their cage or play stand. If you are having difficulty encouraging your bird to move around, try learning Target Training or utilizing one of our Target Sticks.
· Does your bird have access to moving perches? Moving perches are great physical challenges for birds. Generally, these are rope-type perches like boings, or even a perch with chain attached. These moving perches move in all directions, and your bird must balance on them. Birds generally start to have some fun with these perches once they’re comfortable often flapping, dancing, and other fun activities that continue to increase the complexity of the physical stimulation
· Have you arranged enrichment items to increase the physical need to complete them? Usually with enrichment with parrots, we think foraging and toys that engage them mentally. But why not kill two… Wait… Why not include both with one activity? Arranging where your enrichment items are can increase the physical need for the task. Once your bird is good at foraging, and they are physically able to, stop making it so easy for them and move the toys away from the perches. Have them hold onto the side of the cage, hang upside down, and move around to get their activities. We usually put foraging in when we won’t be around, so why not include both needs?
Mental Stimulation
· Following the last point, foraging and other forms of enrichment will be the biggest conversation with this category. First off, do you offer foraging? If you don’t the best place to start is with our Enrichment and Foraging Webinar because it will give you all the education you’ll need to get started with it. Offering foraging will allow your bird to rehearse species-specific behaviors to fulfil their biological needs.
· Do you train with your bird regularly? Studies have shown that training is an animal’s most preferred form of enrichment when using fear and force-free methods. Working on undesirable behaviors, trick training, flight training, speech training, whatever you want training, training for at least once a day for about 5 minutes will help give your bird the mental stimulation they’re desiring. If you are having difficulty with training, don’t know where to start, or want a mentor to help guide you, we offer online training sessions catered to you and your bird.
· Has your bird seen new environments recently? Birds are designed to not sit still. They never land on the same perch twice in the wild. Having the same 4 walls surrounding them everyday is boring. Safely taking your bird outside when weather is nice, going to pet-friendly stores or areas, or even taking them to friend’s or relatives houses can be a nice change for them. Even just having your bird in an outdoor cage or aviary when the weather is nice offers a lot of change for them.
· Has your bird been introduced to new items? Desensitization, as well as exploration of new things, can be very rewarding mentally. Get creative! Has your bird ever interacted with one of your parrot-safe cookware like a pot or pan? Have they ever stepped up on your desk or bed?
I think that was a really good starting list of things to consider daily of what your bird has or has not done. If your bird has not done these things recently, or ever, it may be that your bird is searching for stimulation.
Continuing with the complexity of this topic, most birds aren’t just showing these behaviors all the time. Or if they are, please seek professional advice. Usually there is a thing that triggers it, whether that be a moment, a person, a time of day, a location, etc. These situations are where it gets really individualized, but there are a few ideas I can give generally:
· Did it start when you walked into your bird’s environment? This could be seeking of stimulation, since you are the one that provides the care. Attention screaming, pacing because of frustration that you’re not immediately over to them, and even misplaced aggression onto near by toys or perches could be a good indicator that your bird needs more stimulation. An off-topic note but these behaviors could also be stress from fear of a person, so that’s why it’s so hard to give this generalized advise, but I think you understand where I am coming from.
· Was the environment super hectic before the behaviors started? This could be a sign of overstimulation. Hectic environments could look different per bird. For some fearful birds, having more than 1 or 2 people in the environment, or within close proximity to the them could be enough, for others, 50 people during holidays or parties. Were you just having a dance-off with your bird, or a sing-along session? This could also be a very common busy environment for a bird.
· Are you giving your bird a lot of tactile touch? For some birds that don’t love a lot of attention, this could be overly stimulating.
· Is your bird pacing or other forms of stereotypical behaviors in their cage including abnormal repetitive behaviors? This is likely the case of under-stimulation. But I need to give another off-topic note about this behavior because this could also be signs of stress for a variety of reasons. I trust again that you knew what I was getting at here with this one.
· As mentioned above, boings can be really great physical stimulation, but some birds can wing themselves up on the boing, which could result to overstimulation behaviors like vocalizing, long bursts of flapping, flipping or other fun to watch behaviors that really show overstimulation stress.
The list truly could go on and on about this topic. It really is a complex one. The reason I wanted to write about it was to help educate people that when there is overstimulation, there is also under-stimulation. Similar to hormones being a label placed on specific behaviors like biting and screaming (even when hormones aren’t even the culprit), a lot of behaviors are described to be because of overstimulation when a lot of the times, it’s opposite.
This is important to note and keep in mind because under-stimulation means the bird’s needs are not being met. They need more, but that doesn’t mean their needs are met when they’re overstimulated because that is also a negative state to be in. We need them to be adequately stimulated. Finding that sweet spot with your individual bird can be challenging at the start. You may find yourselves in the extremes on both sides depending on the day until you understand how each activity affects your bird. Also, keep in mind the bird’s species generalized traits. These include amazons are “lazier” parrots, cockatoos have a lot of energy, etc. So, for an amazon, their needs will be met faster than a cockatoo. On the other hand, since Amazons are a lazier species, they need to be pushed more physically to be more active, as their species is the more prone to physical-related and diet-related health issues. With a cockatoo, I would focus a lot on physical stimulation following it up my mental. Get that brain and body moving!
Parrots are a very complex species and so are their needs. Understanding your individual bird is important to success. If you ever need help with finding that idea stimulation level for your specific bird, it’s best to contact us so you can get more catered advice!