Case Study: Pepe

This is Pepe a 43 year old amazon at Feathered Sanctuary in Lancaster, PA. I have been told he is very aggressive. Many fosters have failed to help him. He has no chance at being adopted.

I have been working with this organization for a bit now and started with him day 1. I first started off contact training through the cage bars, then through the cage door. He takes treats so nicely. But he is VERY fearful. I see a lot of fear-based aggression, especially in amazons. He learned that aggression is a VERY effective form of communication. It gets us to move away when he is uncomfortable.

I don’t want him to feel the need to aggress with me. By respecting his boundaries, and slowly building his confidence, we have started to create an effective form of communication where he can use subtle body language to communicate instead of dramatic aggression.

The clip where was from a 8 minute training session. I want to teach him to step up on a towel. The reason is because then anyone can handle him with confidence, in hopes he has a better chance of being adopted. This is similar to stick training, but on a towel there is more control. When we started, he was fearful of the towel. He flew away when I got within a foot of him. So, I started where he was comfortable using force-free and positive training techniques. After 8 minutes, including desensitization, he did his third successful step up on the towel.

His beak being open shows some fear still, this is all brand new, but when using the food lure, he chose to step forward onto the towel perch willingly. I don’t push on his chest or touch him at all with the towel, treating this as if it was my hand. Again, first session teaching this, never done this before. I’m really proud at how fast he learns!

I’m excited to keep working with him and help train him to get a home! He stayed on the tree for a hour without moving or launching at me while I deep cleaned his cage. What a perfect bird! He also loves head scratches through the bars!

After this repetition, I put him back in his clean cage, and he held his walnut and enjoyed it when he got back in.