 Hello Snifers, my name is Marlene McCohen, this is Rocky Waving and of course this is Jenna McCohen, my sister. Now before we go on with this Parrot Tip Tuesday, I want to show you something that Jenna has made for Rocky to keep him entertained during this video. Do you want to say what you've made here? Yeah, we know that Rocky loves toilet paper, paper towel to tear. I don't know if you guys can see. He also likes towels to kind of chew and I know this is gross but throw up on. While we're doing this video, I want him to be entertained, stay with us, not get distracted by anything else. So I decided to take some paper towels and I wrapped in them his favorite easel. This is what it is, not a easel. I think that's a walnut. Yeah, walnut. I don't know my nuts. So I put them in this tissue so he can one tear it to kind of have like a hunting, orging kind of play. I don't think he knows that his treats are in there yet because there are easel nuts in one of them. It's just a way to keep him entertained. These are colorful and fun and he can tear like really quickly but it's something again to keep him going. He weirdly likes plastic so I figured that could be fun for him and so I just brought a few things real quick so he could focus on playing and be with us in the video without getting bored or walk away or get distracted by anything else. Guys it took her only like five minutes to come up with these foraging ideas for Rocky. We are outside and since we're focused on the video we wanted to give him a lot of activity. He's pretty happy right now. Foraging toys is not the topic of our video so it's a great surprise that she made this for him so I'm pretty excited about that. But today we are going to be talking about how to hang out with your bird outside safely. Right? Right. Rocky loves to be outside. The first thing I want to let you guys know about having your bird outside is that anything can spook your bird. Whether your bird is flighted or not flighted once wind gets under their wings they can take flight farther than you would have ever imagined. We have so much experience with that don't we brat? We do. It's nerve wracking. It's nerve wracking is exactly what it is. So it's very important that whether your birds are flighted or not you take all of the same precautions because birds can get spooked. If you have a great relationship with your bird you're probably gonna think well my bird won't fly away. Of course they won't fly away from you. That's never what they fly away from. They fly away for other reasons. Something frightened them. Something flew above them. Something excited them. Somebody moved something. These are the reasons that birds could fly. A piece of furniture going across them you know like if you were just to carry a piece of wood or anything that can scare your bird. Those are usually the reasons the unplanned for reasons that spook your bird and you lose him right? Right. Oh he found one let's see if he finds what's excited. He has no idea because he threw the other one on the floor. Oh that's what he threw? Yeah. What Rocky? You're throwing things on the floor. He's always gonna find it right now. Oh this is exciting. I think he was like what is that? He's like God oh Rocky this is some exciting stuff in here. He loves tissue so much that like the thought that there's tissue like this because you see now it's heavy so he's like why can I throw it? Let's talk about having your birds outside. A lot of people ask me things about how to take care of your bird outside and as far as I know here are some of the best ways to handle your bird outside. Oh god no. The first thing that a lot of people do which I think is a great idea is they harness their bird but you have to really get your bird used to harness from the time that you get him or when he's a baby or practice getting your bird adjusted to the harness because you don't want to freak your bird out scaring your bird and causing him distress can cause birds heart attacks so you really want to introduce the harness really slowly get your bird used to it and then when your bird is used to it you could take your bird anywhere you just got to make sure that they're really connected properly and then you could take your bird for walks let him enjoy the neighborhood and speaking of walks how does Jersey love some walks? Oh she loves walks. When I take the dogs son of walk I kind of have to whisper it because I don't want them to think I'm taking you know one with them taking them now but she loves it but you have to be careful with her. She's not the biggest fan of harnesses and I think it would traumatize her at this point although she does like wearing sweaters it takes her a little time to get used to the whole sweater idea when we switch it out so we have to be careful of other dogs or like if Harry sees something and like kind of pushes me real quick like oh I want to go there the jolting could scare her or like even a car driving by a motorcycle skateboards people on rollerblades all that hits the getting excited other dogs when you're walking by a neighbor's house in the gate and like there's a gate there and the dog barking that could be traumatizing for her so we always try to like one keep an eye out on her and then anytime we cross the street or we hear a car coming we kind of like interlock our hands by her feet so her feet are here and we kind of press down and hold her feet down to us so even if she starts flapping it's going to be uncomfortable but she's not going to fall down she's not going to catch wind she's not going to like catch wind and fall to anywhere so like we kind of have control over her but it's really rewarding for her it gives her the ability to feel good and see something different and smell something different and be used to the sun and she loves it she does and it's important if you guys know anything about jersey she's kind of one of those birds that'd be very hard for her to take flight because she plucks so she has like nothing to really give her flight she has kind of destroyed those feathers I mean we're working on growing them back there's been a lot of improvement but one thing you should note is that these kind of walks that jersey goes on with Jenna they're great for like dusk time like before it gets dark in nature birds love to scout the area before they go to bed so kind of goes in tune with their natural body rhythms to take them for a walk at night so that's a really good thing you can do for your bird to get them healthy and calm and happy if you want to hang out in your backyard with your bird you'll notice that Rocky is right here he is flighted he is under an umbrella with us which you guys probably can't see I would never leave him outside like this unsupervised that's why I have Jenna in the video we are both here focused on Rocky and we gave him a lot of entertainment but I always recommend if you're gonna bring your parrot outside with you it's a great idea to have his cage outside and keep him locked up so that he is always safe and we're gonna speak about that in a second because there's other hazards that you do have to worry about even if your bird is locked up we're gonna talk about those in a minute but I just wanted to go over that second way of bringing your bird outside which is making sure that he is locked up and you can add wheels to your bird's cage if there aren't already with Rocky I think his cage had small wheels but he's got a very large cage so we went to Home Depot and we got bigger wheels and put them on so that we could move the cage in and out of the house a lot easier because Rocky demands to be outside every day he loves it the third way you bring your bird outside went over the harness and then your cage the third way is of course outside with you hanging out it's best to do that with a harness but if your bird refuses to wear a harness just make sure that he is 100% supervised with you and safe at all times don't take your eyes off of him don't bring another activity that you are doing I think it's best that the activity is you and your bird hanging out because believe me any bird can get flighted by the way Jersey is out here right now that's why we keep looking over there I probably should say that she's very safe she's in an enclosed area I'll show you guys a video of that if she stays there after this I'll film something for you and put it in let's talk about hazards there's some hazards you may not know about with birds Rocky's very busy over here the first thing is animals outside let's talk about the number one hazard for parrots outside that is do you know what that is uh is it cat yes it's cats cats are the number one killer of parrots hanging out outside because you don't know who has a cat like everyone has cats roaming around or there's random cats roaming around they can be very dangerous to your birds Rocky's kind of a huge bird but any bird could be in danger when it comes to a cat so that's something really important to think about for you to supervise your bird and keep your eye on him now a cat probably can't do much damage to your bird if he is in the cage but do you know what could raccoons a lot of people don't know this but raccoons gang up on birds in cages you could have a bird in a cage and what the raccoons will do is they'll stick their long fingers in the cage and the bird will get scared and go to one side and then the other raccoon will come to that side until they tear the bird apart and I've heard of that happening way too many times so it's always important that even if your bird is locked up in a cage you probably don't want your bird to be unsupervised but I do have a great idea for that who supervises our birds when they're outside in the cage Jenna the dogs the dogs the dogs are not going to let no cat no raccoon no squirrel nothing next to the backyard what's great about the dogs is that the dogs won't let anyone on the vicinity of this property so cats in the neighborhood get used to knowing they cannot enter here there is no way none of my dogs are gonna let anybody come close to the backyard let alone the bird cage so if you do have dogs and you have your parrot outside enjoying the cage locked up safely it's a good idea to always keep them outside together that's something that we do and it's been really really amazing for us because dogs will let you know about any single thing that's on your property our dogs are like great babysitters I'm like you cannot be inside if Rocky's outside locked up like you're outside babysitting Rocky you know what I see happening I see half people that you convinced or like wanted to get a bird like now be motivated to get a bird now they're gonna be like okay I need a dog we need a guardian for my bird we need to make dog videos yeah let's make some dog videos there's something I wanted to add about attacks like with birds or raccoons I don't know much about raccoons but I'm assuming I think they can carry rabies let's pretend your bird is attacked by a cat or a raccoon or any sort of rodent cats also unfortunately carry a lot of diseases in their mouths okay so if your bird let's say gets bitten by a cat and fortunately you know it's not as bad it may be just like one little puncture the bird's wings seems like it's gonna survive still take him to a vet because there's a lot of bacteria and bad bacteria that could be going through his blood system and him just unfortunately ending his life not of a wound or broken bone or loss of a leg it's because now he's infected never be too safe with birds because as we all know birds can literally be okay one day and then the next day completely show 100% of like what's wrong with them because they've been hiding it so if your bird does get bit by a cat or attacked by something take him to the vet not hesitate whether it's midnight you know in places or clothes it's expensive but even maybe from today you have one or two birds it could be a good idea to get insurance because a lot of places take insurance but i'm getting into the vet stuff and maybe i should make a video about all this vet stuff okay for those of you who don't know or haven't seen some of my videos where i explain this jenna is a vet tech she's studying to be a vet and uh we're gonna make sure that she's an avian specialist right brat hopefully yeah we'll see it's a hard road because there's not enough great avian specialists in this world so jenna's going to be one of those back to animal hazards we have another animal hazard that is very dangerous for birds and they will keep coming back do you know what it is hawks hawks it depends on where you live but you have to be really careful of hawks they fly around and even if your birds are supervised hawks have i i've seen a video of a bird in a bird show a cockatoo and a hawk coming down to the lady holding the cockatoo and she went down like this and saved the cockatoo but the hawk tried to bite her head and guys we have seen a hawk live eating a squirrel and i got some good pictures of it and how big was that hawk how tall was he he was huge he was he was like this big uh yeah he was too of rocky i think he was too of rocky and in one second there's nothing you can do so your birds cages even if they're outside need to be under an awning awnings umbrellas every time we move to a house we make sure that there's an awning situation so that a hawk doesn't get wind of the fact that even a bird lives there because if they don't get your bird today they will keep flying around for the one time that your bird is unsupervised so that's very important to be aware of if they see your bird even in a cage they shouldn't know that there's birds here because they're smart and what they will do is they will hide in a tree where you can't see them and then they will dive for your bird when they think that they can so that's something to be careful of yeah well i've seen it with jersey she was under our awning but like she was kind of at the edge and she was on a chair sitting just relaxing i was right there like it says if jersey was right here and i was here and like you know you think you're supervising her and you think you're being a good like bird parent out of nowhere i see like something like swoop down and like we're i'm gonna use him as an example sorry buddy he came down like this jersey noticed the hawk or whatever type of bird it was it was so fast i couldn't like say a hundred percent was a hawk jersey turned around puffed up screamed and raised up her arms and then the thing just like went here she screamed and like zoomed back up and fortunately jersey did like was like oh this is nothing and then went back to like playing with herself and being normal how close was that bird close like look look in the look in the camera there and then she screamed and then flew away like where he is so like was it big and yeah because like it was like so fast she she didn't even care look she went back to that she screamed at it and then went back to that like nothing happened i do notice that jersey has a great detector for these things because she can spot a hawk far away and she'll start screaming and i'll be like okay we're all going inside right now because i don't even want the hawks to hear the bird's voices because it alerts the hawks that the the birds are there so that's something really really important to know now those are the animal hazards those are the major ones let's talk about other hazards that could be outside can you guess any more hazards the pool oh my god you're like so telepathic i swear we didn't go over anything you're like so good the pool no matter what you have to be really careful if you have a pool birds can drown you do not want your bird to accidentally get spooked and fly in the pool another reason for the harnesses and being locked in cages because they can land anywhere including the pool sometimes birds can't see the pool as water for whatever reason so that's something really really important to be careful of right what else barbecues barbecues dang your barbecues not only the fire but the smoke right because you know birds should not have smoke cigarettes you shouldn't be smoking outside with your birds a lot of people that smoke like to chill outside smoke with your birds these things are hazard for your bird's feathers when the smoke attaches itself to the bird's feathers and when he goes supreme himself he's essentially ingesting all of that so that's really really important to be careful of there's other hazards outside like weather for example like overheating overheating so what should we do if our birds are outside and it's overheating spray them down you can bring them in misters yeah misters yeah you could do some great things with misters you can go to home depot they have like these amazing misters i'll put them oh look at the ducks yeah i saw that that's so cute i'll put a link to those in my products i love store below in my link some good misters that we use you could turn your hose into a mister like let it come out a little bit and you could also have a spray bottle nearby which you cool your bird down every so often with and like jenna said you just bring your bird inside you really don't want your bird unsupervised in how do you know that your bird is suffering in the heat he like opens his mouth see that his tongue going up and down and like his wings tend to be like away kind of down or just down or just apart like kind of like he pants yeah kind of like a panty they're usually fine right after like if you notice it and then you bring them in to cool down or you put water on them they tend to like recover very quickly in any situation even if you take them into a shower if you take them outside and it's hot you have to make sure that you do not let your birds overheat it's very very important if it's cold i would not let your birds outside you can have heating situations for those of you who have aviaries and you want to build something then you have to really take your time to invest in make sure that there's proper heating situations but if your bird is an indoor house bird and you don't have that set up drafts are very dangerous for birds they do not take drafts well you can't leave a door open you can't have too much air conditioning on them rocky is nodding he does not like it to be cold if you hear your birds sneezing make sure to get a humidifier and maybe keep it a little bit warmer in the house i know what i was going to say on that note every african gray i had has no tolerance for heat like outdoor heat i have no idea why it's it's like they are generally african but they just do not tolerate the outdoors as well so i would keep a very close eye on any african grays that you have rocky deals with the outdoors much better sodas jersey so that's something to be aware of as well now if you really want to include your bird let's say you're a gardener and you like to be out outside planting flowers with the birds and the bees what is another thing that could be potentially dangerous to your bird fertilizer dang you're good yeah fertilizer things like that if you're doing any sprays bug sprays anything you want to really keep your bird away from that make sure make sure your bird is safe make sure your bird is safe from all toxins in the air those are the really the major hazards that i can think of and the only other thing that i can say to be really important for your bird is to keep him busy outside just because he's outside doesn't mean you can forget about him i think it's really important to do what jenna did today for rocky bring him his treats bring him his toys create something entertaining for your bird to play with don't think he's entertained by the fresh air itself let him have things to do to enjoy himself because this is gonna be a great day for rocky him hanging out with us right now with all of these toys making a video he is so well behaved right now and he's very very happy is there anything else you would want to add to that yeah um so when we first got rocky it was around the same time we got harry or a few months after we got harry so we had like a crate a dog crate rocky kind of like like going in there nesting and chewing on it i think it was fun for him like when you were kid and you'd make out of the blankets like a little fort we have like a fort so sometimes if we have like an old laundry basket like they go in and they can chew the basket and they can chew the toys in it or put towels or whatever treats in there so like it's kind of like a little playground with rocky like that is really cool like that's what i like doing with rocky outside because i'm not his favorite person but if i need to watch him and like want to entertain him i don't necessarily need to interact with him i could be the like babysitter or the bird sitter so i don't know like if your bird's into little baskets or crates or burrowing and stuff or towels but you could definitely do something like that yeah it really keeps them contained and entertained but i mean again if you have issues with an aggressive bird it can encourage breeding behavior so if they're too hormonal be careful with that but at the same time if you are not the bird's favorite person and you want to keep him kind of safe and busy then i think there's nothing wrong with that i let my birds play with boxes for the most part they're all pretty they're all pretty amazing with them um they don't really get more aggressive next to their boxes but that is something to look out for right yeah yeah so that is it guys we want to thank you for tuning in to this episode of parrot tuesday and we hope that you will follow us on social media my links are below i will put jenna's links below if you're a snapchatter follow jenna because she is the snapchat professional and if you love instagram and instagram story we are on instagram we're also loving parrot station parrot station is our members group on facebook and i loves parrot station she brings me videos every day that you guys are posting i love it i love watching your birds please come on parrot station and show us your birds and of course please subscribe like share and comment on this video and give it a what jenna a thumbs up a thumbs up so that we can make more content for you guys oh and one more thing if you guys like to see jenna in my videos help me convince her to come on more by writing in the comments we want jenna oh yeah right jenna i think she has fun doing it but like when she's not she's like i'm so busy i have such a light i think she enjoys doing it right jenna i do it it's very fun she enjoys doing it so help me convince her i love doing videos with her this video is probably late but i think it's a good one thank you guys so much for tuning in yay bye bird sitting right now cats coming on this property