Hello Everybody

Welcome to the My Parrot Shop Newsletter for September 2008!

In this newsletter we'll be looking at some very exciting new metal toys, new books and dvds, gallery updates, and a blog about living with a large parrot and a baby human.

Frasier Toys - For birds that like to screw around!

Excitement on the toy front is for the new range of stainless steel and aluminium toys we’ve imported from the United States. Frasier toys are perfect for the big birds, the super destructive birds, and even the super destructive big birds!

Constructed out of stainless steel and really thick, super-tough colourful aluminium, these toys are mechanical marvels that fear no parrot. Wing nuts, bolts, boxes and antennae offer things to chew on, forage in and climb over, and unlike most toys these ones will last for a really, really long time.

Marcus, who wrote up the descriptions, had a ball playing with them (he went ga-ga for the Treasure Box and the Busy Box) and then coming up with superlatives and ridiculous metaphors to describe them. Caroline went silly for the Play Strip which offered Keiko a bunch of really big wingnuts to unscrew, surely one of her favourite activities. Perfect for offering lots of fun, but nice and big so they don't get lost in the rubble at the bottom of the cage (also some of the Frasier toys come in versions without removable parts).

» Check out all the new Frasier Products . . .

Gallery Updated

We've added another page or two to the Gallery over the last few months, including some great photos from those who responded to our free DVD offer in the last newsletter.

Keep sending them to us, we love getting them!

» Gallery Updates . . .

New Books and DVDs

Featured Book - The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots (Paperback) by Irene M. Pepperberg

Can a parrot understand complex concepts and mean what it says?

Twenty years ago Irene Pepperberg set out to discover whether a male Grey parrot named Alex could. This book represents the long-awaited synthesis of the studies constituting one of the landmark experiments in modern comparative psychology.

My Parrot Shop review: Having read several books on animal consciousness the thing we particularly enjoyed about this book (aside from the fact that it’s all about parrots) is that it goes into a lot of detail about HOW the experiments were conducted, rather than just discussing the results. This allows you to judge the merits of the experiments yourself and leads you to a greater understanding of the study of animal consciousness. And if the mood takes you - you have instructions for emulating the studies with your own bird!

This book can at times be a dry read and can get quite technical, but not only will you learn a great deal about the cognitive potential of your own feathered friend you will also learn heaps about how the human brain develops and functions from birth. Well worth it!

More New Books and DVDs:
Good Bird, The Parrot Problem Solver, Where the Wild Greys Are, PollyVision Strictly for Parrots

Newsletter Blog: Danger Parrot

Hi, I’m Caroline and I manage the front end of My Parrot Shop. I've decided to add a personal blog to the My Parrot Shop newsletter. Why? Recently I encountered an issue that I suspect many of you have or will encounter yourselves and that's how to raise a baby with a large parrot in the house. Since the only advice I could find on the subject was "Don't" I figured that recording my experiences for posterity might be of interest to some.

I can't help but think that I make an excellent case study because whilst I may know a thing or two about parrot toys, as a parrot owner I’m fairly run of the mill. My beautiful Keiko is not the paragon of virtue and when it comes to her training and neither am I.

This newsletter I’m just going to focus on giving you a little background.

Keiko (pronounced kay ko), a blue and gold macaw, is nearing four years of age and is smack bang in the middle of puberty. To exacerbate the situation she has a bit of a “hurt them before they hurt me” temperament, much like a teenager with low self-esteem. She doesn’t attack out of the blue but one does have to be careful when making even the friendliest of advances. She’ll take a long time getting to know someone before she’ll lift a friendly set of head feathers to them. Once she does, however, she’s a devoted fan with pinning eyes and a big pink blush.

Keiko’s fully flighted and quite adept at zooming through doorways and doing crazy turns mid air. She enjoys trick training, but the best I can say about her behavioural training, unfortunately, is that it is a work in progress. My husband gets on reasonably well with her and can move her about between aviary and cage, share nuts with her on the couch, but if she’s being unruly it gets a little difficult. For when the baby came my main fear was Keiko would end up festering in her cage because it was too difficult, dangerous and/or tiring to have her out at the same time as the baby.

To be continued in the next newsletter blog: Keiko & the Baby Blob