Yesterday was a day of improvement, but due to the late evening and poor photo conditions, I didn't record her lesson. She did however make her first step towards the fist and food. She also made improvements in her reaction to my hands. She did not foot me at all, and the bites were merely grasping my finger and moving it out of the way. No serious reaction to my hands at all.
One of my friends emailed me with questions about her actions, which indicates to me that I haven't explained things as fully as I should have. His question and my reply follows.
"I find it interesting that Pud bites you so much. I was always under the assumption that raptors didn't use their beaks too much as an offensive weapon as to break it would mean CERTAIN trouble for their survival. Maybe this is not so true in captivity though. As you noted, the talons are razor sharp and I would think this would be the weapon of choice all the time. Have most of your birds in the past shown aggressive biting as a norm or is Pud's activity unusual, or as you mention, normal as Harris' go?"
"It is a bit unusual for a "hawk" to bite. In fact it surprised me. Let me digress a bit for some more explanation. I bred Harris Hawks for perhaps ten years, maybe more. The pair that I had always produced two females, and one male offspring. One of those females was bigger, more aggressive, and a better hunter. The other female was just fine, but not an over achiever. Now, when I contracted for this hawk, I asked for the bigger one, knowing that she would be exceptional if handled right. I expected to have to deal with a Beta female. You can see it because when first threatened, she stood her ground rather than try to fly. There is nothing abnormal about the way she has been acting."
"What Puddy is doing will stop when she learns that only good things come from my hands. Her first defense was her feet, and that is normal. Hawks kill with their feet, Falcons kill with their beaks, therefore a bite is more normal for a falcon. However Jessie doesn't hesitate to grab me with her foot and drag me close enough for a bite. :-) Therefore when Puddy's feet didn't do the trick, a bite was next. Since her feet were not working, the only thing left was to bite. The reason that hawks use their feet is due to fact that their feet are their primary weapon. Gos and Coopers incidentally just grab their prospective meal and start eating. The prey rarely dies from anything other than blood loss. As for other birds biting, yes they all will defend their selves until they learn to trust you. Pud biting me was an indication of how frustrated she was at my violations of her space. You must remember that their reaction if positions were reversed, would be to kill and eat you. They expect the same treatment."
Pud gained weight again, but I will not reduce her weight until she shows me that she doesn't want to eat, by trying to fly and refusing to come to the fist. She weighed 889 grams tonite. If you remember she was at least an ounce lower in weight when we started outside. I want to keep her as high in weight as I can, because with a Harris, response does not depend entirely on hunger. If I can get her used to responding when she is heavier I will be able to fly her when she is at maximum strength. That way when I do have to turn the screws to get her to chase and kill, she will still be strong. ( This would not work on any other Raptor, you would only prolong your misery.) Of course there is always the possibility that I am full of it. We will see.
I was able to pick her up off her perch with only one bate, and was able to weigh her with no adverse reaction. We sat for a while, and she remained calm and interested in her surroundings, turning her head around looking at the Nighthawks and Swallows.
I put her on a cable spool, and tossed her a chunk of meat.
She didn't know at first what was going on, and really didn't recognize it as food. I let her sit and look around, she made no attempt to fly away. ( that would have ended the lesson) I gave her a couple of tidbits, and got her to to stretch for tidbits.
Little by little getting her to move towards the fist rather than away.
Then when she began to look for the tidbits, I offered a large enough chunk to finish her meal.
She began by pulling pieces off the food. I then allowed my fist to go with her pull, so that she was having trouble getting enough leverage to pull off pieces. That caused her to put one foot on the fist to hold it still.
I then slowly started lifting my fist until she stepped up with both feet.
All of this so slowly that she was not aware of any of it occurring. I then moved over to the chair to be comfortable while she finished her meal.
Betsy jumped up on the spool to clean up what ever scraps she left, while Josie was checking for mice.
I prefer to allow the birds to train me to feed them. It is nicer when it is their idea.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment