 Guys, do you remember what I said? That if Blue is comfortable, she'll fall asleep next to me. Whether she is sleeping. She's going when I open those. Hello, my fellow Snippers and Flighters. My name is Marlene McQuinn, and this is Leo. Leo's very excited today because he's on my shirt. For those of you who are new here, welcome. I want to tell you a little bit about my channel. I am the creator and the promoter of Engage Not Cage, which means I want to make sure that no birds are forgotten about and locked in cages. So through my channel with both education and entertainment, I show young kids and anybody else who knows anybody with a bird how life with birds should be out hanging out about we have birds all over this place. How cute is the Leo shirt right now? And I got matching nails and here's the funny thing. I forgot I made the Leo shirt. It is up on my store already. But I got blue nails for Isis. Then I was like, oh, I don't have a blue shirt. And then I remembered my Leo shirt. I was wearing my mini shirt today because it's a very nice sunny day. So I was able to wear the Leo beatboxing and not the vinegar. All right, guys, Marlene, did you guys hear that? That's Marlene this morning. I want to show you the progress we are making with both of the birds here. So Marlene is over here and he's waiting for his breakfast. He has been doing really well. Just the way he inserts himself in everything that we're doing, I'm extremely impressed. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, follow the Marlene story and you could go way back to the first time I met Marlene or you could go to the day that I got Marlene. But I was expecting working with Marlene to be difficult. Okay, here's what I expected with Marlene. I thought Marlene was going to be a really shy bird. He's cage territorial, which means that he gets aggressive when you go over to his cage. I thought that was never going to change. I thought that it was going to be hard to get him back in his cage, but all of this has really improved. I don't get bit when I put him in his cage, which is amazing. And we have been able to take him off his cage and he's completely inserted himself in everything as you guys have saw. So here's Marlene. He literally flew over here, ready and waiting for George to make him some breakfast because they know about he's pretty demanding. You know, like, I might be busy. I might have things to do. I can't just always make stuff for these guys. They have to be nice to me and like treat me like with respect. You look so opposite of yourself right now. I'm just kidding around. What the heck? Guess what? You're in time for George's breakfast. Yeah. That's amazing. Okay, your girlfriend. Show everyone what you have to do when you first see Jersey. Hello, beautiful. How are you? Did you miss me? Give me a kiss. Come on, step up. Maddie is one of Jersey's boyfriends, but sometimes she plays hard to get. She's jealous. Why is she jealous now? You really ask me why does a woman jealous and why does she have moods? I think you are the better for that. I don't know. Oh, you're so cute. Your boyfriend is here. How did you guys leave off in your relationship last time? It's kind of a mess. I don't want to talk about it. Okay, so... How are you? Did you guys hear him? He's telling George. He's like, Merlin. It's like, George, what do you have to do? What does George have to do today? Have breakfast. Yeah. Did you hear Leo? I'm going to get your breakfast in a second. I'm going to give you some updates on Merlin. So far in talking, whenever he sees food, he says want some, which I'll probably be able to show you. He always says it when I go away, but I'm going to go get ISIS now. And I want to show you the progress I've made with ISIS, which is honestly not much because it hasn't been a very long time. And that's why I want to show you guys because it's important for you to know how it can take some birds a while to really just feel comfortable. So ISIS has been feeling really comfortable downstairs. And ISIS has also begun to understand that when I come up and I offer her to come on my hand, that's her chance to come down and be included. But that doesn't mean she's fully comfortable with being on me. It just means she understands that I'm transport. But when birds start beginning to understand that you are transport, that's a very big deal. Oh my God, going up steps. Okay. And you can use that to your advantage because think about it, you start getting conditioned to do things. So if this bird learns that I'm going to take her downstairs and when I take her downstairs, that's her access to food and not being caged and sitting on a tree, then she's going to jump on me willingly after a while. Now, after many times of me not giving up and transporting her even if she flies off, even if she climbs to my head, even if she acts like she doesn't want to be on me, then eventually she's just going to give up and go, oh, okay. Well, at least I get from point A to B where I want to be. And then you make the same moves with food rewards and things like that. And eventually the bird will just get used to you carrying her around. She's first going to try to bite me. Okay, but she jumped on me. Now, I don't need to make any sudden moves. Let her just come up, okay? She's obviously a little scared of hands. That's okay. That's fine if she's scared of hands. So I just give her time to get used to the fact that I will still be her transport. But look who's followed me here, guys. And then this is me right now. See? You have to also give these birds the benefit of the doubt and realize that if they really loved who they were with, then it has changed for them. And they can really put on a strong bluffing face to show you like, you're not my person. I don't know what you're trying to do. So that's important to know. So I'm going to go downstairs. Me getting down there, once she senses the spot she wants to go to, she may start lying to it. This is fine if you don't think there's any other dangers around. So for example, if Rocky was down there in the way, I would make sure that he's out of the way. You have to always really plan for everything. What I'm trying to use ISIS for, there she goes to fly to a safe spot, a cage. So ISIS is more comfortable up there right now. And because Merlin's not there, I can totally leave ISIS there because I want ISIS to know that I got her from point A to point B. Later on, I'm going to come back and move her onto a stand. Also, I want you guys to keep in mind the more birds you have, the longer it's going to take to tame certain birds. So for example, if this is like the 10th bird in the house right now and there's a pecking order, then it's going to take ISIS a lot longer to adjust than if I only had ISIS in the house. But the main thing here is I really want you guys to see how much patience and time it can take with birds, especially with ring necks. Don't be discouraged. This is the whole importance of this video. What's Merlin doing? He's watching me cook. He's like making sure that he's right. Yeah. Right Merlin? Jersey? Where are you up there? Come to mommy. Yeah. Oh, okay. Another thing, like if your bird likes to walk up railings, you always want to make sure it's very safe. Jersey's always been talented at this, but you wouldn't want someone to approach your bird that the bird is scared of or might not step on while your bird is up there. Your boyfriend's here. You're playing hard to get, huh? All the way up there like Rapunzel. Oh my God, ISIS. Look what ISIS did. ISIS flew over here. ISIS is on the stand. At this point because ISIS is getting very comfortable flying around and feeling like this is her territory. That's good, but I got to move in fast with some training so that she doesn't take to this place like it's her wild atmosphere. Okay guys, I just want to show you a little bit of my day. Obviously we just fed Merlin and all the rest of the birds. All the birds are loose right now. I'm working downstairs so that they can all be included. Jersey's right here next to me. I'm about to put some subtitles in a video with Vinnie. Vinnie flew over to me and landed like, my hand was here and he just like landed right here. This is how I work. ISIS is over there on the stand. There's ISIS. There's Cody. That's the finches cage. There's Nellie and Monty. You can't see Leo, I guess, and Merlin. Rocky's actually outside right now because it's a nice day and he also gets really upset just like he wants to watch his TV show. He wants to be outside. I just want to show you how even with having to get work done, I still include all of the birds engaged and not caged. You have to find ways to be able to manage not only alone time with them but training time with them and also bonding time and a certain amount of engagement. I'd love to get up and show you what Nellie and Monty are doing but I can't because I have to get this done. They have to have active engagement too which is really important which means like later on they're all really full right now so they're all just like chilling and in their element but later on we're going to play some games and do some different things with them because that's what they're going to want to happen later. Last night George was up beatboxing and dancing with Vinny for hours. Vinny and him love that. Vinny? Come here. No, I'm not coming there. You come here. Maybe I want you to come here. I know you're a pretty bird that doesn't I'm not falling for your fake birdie talk when I know how smart you are. Come on. You're sorry? Come here. Vinny, come here. Vinny. I'm not going to show you. I want you to come here. Vinny. Come here now. Really? Vinny, come here. Uh-oh. You're in trouble. Vinny. Jersey likes that. I think it's Jersey excited. Are you excited about that, Jersey? Guys, guess who came to visit me? Not only did Leo walk his little self over but I had another little visitor, Monty. And I'm still working on all my stuff. I finished the subtitles and now I got to get that video ready for upload right now and tomorrow's video ready for upload. And uploading literally takes like, it can take an hour and a half just to get like everything right. Oh, my little headless. So Monty's going to help me now with all of the posting. And by helping, I mean just sitting here and giving me moral support. He's my little de boo boo. He walked himself all the way over here and then George came. George literally went to a client meeting and came back in all the time that I have been doing this. Okay, guys, I tried to show you a little bit of my schedule with them today. We went out to eat. Now it's time for the nighttime routine. Hi. Hi. That's Jersey. She's like, come get me. I'm calling her blue. I didn't change her name. I wouldn't disrespect her like that and change her name. But for the channel, it's better if I called her blue because I don't want to get demonetized talking about ISIS and stuff. All right, guys. So now George and I are going to do our night routine, which consists of getting the birds ready for bed, which consists of a little bit of a dance party and a lot of getting all their food bowls ready and cleans up and just a lot of fun. And then they'll be ready for bed, but that doesn't mean they have to go to bed. Yeah! They're all excited. I'm going to put on some music and we probably can't use this music in the video. Alexa! Guys, I want to show you something. Merlin's talking. Rocky's screaming. I'm not going to sing to you right now. This means sing. I'm going to come back and sing to you in a second, okay? You know how ISIS has been on that tree all day and hasn't moved and hasn't really gotten comfortable in the house moving around. So I just saw her do two things. She came down off of the stand and then she walked over. I couldn't film it because I knew it would disturb her and I just wanted to give her the quiet to walk around and she went and drank some water herself. I wanted to see if she'd come to me, but let me show you what she's doing. That's so cute. She's getting so comfortable. She'll start to realize now she likes toys and hanging out. Then that means that I can offer her toys. It also means that she's getting much more comfortable than feeling free. Now I told you this is a really good time for training. Tamara will probably start some serious training, but right now it's all about taming and getting this bird to feel safe in this environment. When she feels safe, like she could get off of her territory that she felt comfortable on, that means that she'll start exploring other areas. When she starts to explore other areas, it means that she's more willing and open to exploring us. I know Vinny's being weird too. Vinny, what are you doing? Looking out the window? Are you checking yourself? He loves himself. He loves his mirror. Who's the good-looking guy in there? Do you see a gangsta? You want to do beats, Vinny? Let's do beats. Show, do you mind? So demand these birds. If you are thinking about getting a bird and you think it's going to be an easy life, it's not easy. We spend a good hour in the morning and a good hour at night just to get things situated. And then it's all day long and chasing after them and getting to know them and figuring out what makes them do what. It's crazy. These guys are crazy. You're still figuring it all out? Every day is a new situation. Right? Yeah, see? I love it. They drive me crazy, but I love it. Who's your favorite? Jersey. That's it. She's my baby. I love her. But I do love him too. I love him more. I can't say who's my favorite. Guys, I have blue here. She's not biting or anything. It's okay, baby. It's okay. I don't want her to fly anywhere. That's dangerous. Who's following me? Vinny is literally ready to hang out. I thought I'd let blue just sit here. Let's see if she just sits. No. You want to just sit with me, blue? Get her used to like being next to me but not on me. Good progress if she'll just sit there. So another training thing that you guys probably need to learn around a scared bird is like, do you see my right arm right now? I wouldn't want to abruptly move it. So even me going to get my computer, work on my computer, got to do it with my right hand. Any kind of sharp movements, like you don't want to move fast, could get her to jump off. It's really crucial in these moments that I just kind of get myself busy and not make any fast movements. So even like me leaning forward to put the camera down, all that. Be very aware of your mannerisms. Don't make them wide. Don't make them jumpy. Just kind of chill and relax. Okay, so another tip for you guys. The fact that she's preening right now means that she's getting really comfortable being two feet away from me. So again, I don't have to be holding her. I don't have to be forcing her to do anything but I did kind of force her to come over here but it was kind of essential in getting her used to being where I am. So after a while, she'll get comfortable being two feet away from me consistently because she'll know that she has some sort of a flock member even if she's not on me but she will be eventually. So what I need to do is not accept just five minutes of this. I need to sit here, go about my work which right now is posting a thumbnail for the first video in the Merlin series. Yeah, that'll just kind of show you how in advance this is and this will probably, let's say I work on this for another hour even if I'm done and I'm ready to go do something else. It's better to stay with her next to me as much as I possibly can. See the value of just putting them next to you and not needing them to be on you and not giving up on them just because you think they bite you. Guys, do you remember what I said? That if Blue is comfortable she'll fall asleep next to me. So there she is sleeping. She's got one eye open though. I don't think she wants to see the camera but this is progress. Nelly and Monty had a little rumble right now. I could see it from here. They're all gonna go to bed. They're overtired. They've actually, they're all ready for bed. I just let them out longer. They have been kissing all day so I know they're just overtired. What's the matter, Monty? Wanna go to bed? Go to bed. You're not gonna go to bed. Watch. I wanna show you guys how he does everything in his power to not go to bed. Hold on. Show everyone how you don't go to bed. Show everyone. He won't. Step up. He won't. He doesn't care. Even if I gently push him he won't go to bed. Monty does he won't bed time. He's holding on to me so tight. But you have to go to bed. You're a tired bird. I just wanna teach you a trick when I can't get them to go. I will put him down. There you go. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. Nellie's a little bit easier because she has a shore front property if you know what I mean. Check it out. She sits right there. Yeah, she's still holding on. Oh, the goobless face. I can't hold this face. Who's gonna sit right here and she's gonna look through here and make you feel bad that you put her away? She's gonna blink all slowly. Like, I'm the cutest bird. I don't know how you could do this to me. Who else is ready? Dear, did you tell everyone that you chewed up my camera lens cap? Yeah. I love getting cloud face. So how I decide who goes to bed next is literally who's causing the most trouble. So Vinny isn't causing too much trouble. He's just zipping the couch, but it's still alarming. He's just making beats. I'll get you some almonds if daddy didn't give you any. I'll get you some, okay? He's a pretty mature bird, actually. He doesn't mind bedtime. He's a smart one. You're a good bird. You're a good bird. Go in there with all your toys. Who's next? Where's Leo? Leo? I love to bed. He put his own shelf to bed. My little sweetie. Some of them are adults, and they're very realistic about bedtime. Some are not. Look, Monty's already tired. He's got his footsie up. See, he's just in denial. You're just in denial, but you know you was tired. This one has complete FOMO. She knows she gets tired, which she'd rather sleep out here looking at everybody than get into bed. Especially if Jenna's here. If Jenna's here, it's a nightmare. But she does get excited about her warm water. Oh, look how cute she is. These are cute. Rocky gets to stay up and watch his TV show. Hi, Rocky. Hi, beautiful. Hi, blue. I'm blue that we beat up the girls. And Merlin is ready to be covered. Right, Merlin? All right, guys. I hope you had a good night. I'm about to cover the birds, but I need both of my hands to do so. I hope you enjoyed seeing a lot of my day with the birds. I just kind of wanted to show you what it looks like with a lot of birds, two new birds, and how I kind of split up taming and a little bit of training. Just a little bit today. Today, I mostly hung out with them all and got some work done. But at least you could see that they're all engaged, not caged. Jersey's now caged because she's going to bed. Hey! You can't tell me that's not cute. Again, if you guys wanted to be in on all of this, way ahead of everybody else, check out my Patreon and become a flyer. If you guys want any special shoutouts or messages to anyone you love, yourself, for your birthday, just need a break, want to be entertained by Vinny, then check out Cameo. It's a really cool app. Okay, I love you guys so much. I got to cover them and give them some peace and quiet. Bye!