The story begins before it began. Really to be honest, Ken and I both enjoy watching animal related entertainment. With satellite and cable costing money, we have went almost 100% Youtube. Two channels we always watch when new episodes are published by Dav Kaufman.
We enjoy the channels because neither are boring and both are educational.
Click to check out Dav Kaufman’s Animal Adventures.
Click to check out Dav Kaufman’s Reptile Adventures.
Last year, we invited Dav out to the animal facility and he shared an idea that we found very interesting. The idea included teaching some of the birds here at the facility to paint.
I guess the fact that I love to paint helped me want to take the challenge on.
Added, I created an art program that helped raise money for the youth music programs in my area for a few years.
It is not about raising money when it comes to painting with the macaws. Instead, earning trust.
There are 5 types of enrichment that can be provided to your pet bird.
- Sensory
- Sensory enrichment is anything that stimulates an animal’s senses, such as scratch boards, new smells, moving toys, or different sounds.
- Nutritional
- Can be an item or toy that will provide mental stimulation by encouraging natural foraging behavior.
- Food enrichment is the practice of adding micronutrients back to a food product that were lost during processing
- Fortification adds additional micronutrients not present (or present in small amounts) prior to processing.
- Manipulative
- These are enrichment items that can be manipulated in some way via hands, mouth, legs, or head simply for investigation and exploratory play. A few examples are: balls, boxes, bags and barrels.
- Environmental
- Refers to modifications that act to enhance the level of physical and social stimulation provided by the captive environment.
- Behavioral
- Is an animal husbandry principle that seeks to enhance the quality of captive animal care by identifying and providing the environmental stimuli necessary for optimal psychological and physiological well-being.
Click to watch how we began to teach Hunter the Blue and Gold Macaw to paint.
Okay, first can I explain why Ken and I look a wreck in this video?
See… Jo-Jo the Crow was supposed to be the start of the show. You may or may not know Jo-Jo but we rescued him a while back with the intention to release him.
However, FWC declined our rehab permit this year making it illegal to release him so we allow Jo to fly around the yard and he goes where he wants when he wants. Normally keeping a tight schedule and coming back to sleep with the iguanas.
Check Jo-Jo out in a previous video….
The day before Dav came out to Crazy Critters, Jo began to act funny. I know it sounds made-up but you could tell he did not want to be a Youtube star.
Then all at one time Jo-Jo the Crow disappeared. In came this huge murder of crows and we could not tell if he became a part it or if a predator swooped from the sky to eat him.
It had never happened before and we found ourselves looking for him.
Hours later we realized we had missed the hair appointment we had scheduled with our good friend.
Even though it had been over ten years since either of us had a haircut, we just stood her up because of the importance of Jo.
Not to creating the show but to Ken and I because we have grown to love him so much.
That night all the iguanas slept alone because Jo did not come home and Ken and I did not sleep at all thinking about him.
The next morning Ken and I did not say a word to each other. Silent because tears may come if there were noise.
As we began our daily chores wondering what we would do when Dav pulled up, you could hear Jo in the distance flying in landing on the iguana cage. What? Where? How?
So there you go. A stressful night, no haircut, and no time to worry about it. In the life full of animal care, it is not important to look your best, instead just doing your best is good enough.
And you know what? Jo-Jo did not want to be on film this day so we have invited Dav Kaufman back to try again!
Click to see the post we made from the day Jo flew off…
What do you think about our bird enrichment?
