As the busy holiday season approaches and we start prepping for presents, get-togethers, and festive traditions, it’s also important to look to those in need. Many animals in our community are relying on our help to receive behavior and medical care and find their forever homes. Consider adding the Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation (SASF) to your gift giving list this season to support our vital work with animals – animals like Rio.
Rio, a small yellow canary, came into the shelter displaying several behaviors in a repetitive fashion. The Seattle Animal Shelter (SAS) Behaviorist Tina provided Rio with some options to begin practicing alternate behaviors to break up her repetitive behaviors. She started by moving Rio to her office so that she could observe her throughout the day and track how often Rio was performing these behaviors.
Tina found that Rio spent almost all her waking hours stuck in a loop. Fly to water, dip head in water, fly to perch, rub head and beak on perch, fly to second perch, rub beak and head on perch, fly to food bowl, pick up and drop food without ingestion, repeat.
Tina explains that many people might not think that these subtle behaviors are concerning, often because our experience with birds is restricted to captive birds. We may not understand the scope of their natural behaviors because we have altered their environment.
Ultimately Tina concluded that Rio was trying to cope. She was likely experiencing social pain from not having other conspecifics around. Mirrors can be helpful to some bird species and individuals (not all), but in Rio’s case it made all the difference. By altering her environment (her birdcage) to include daily novel toys, a mirror, and playing canary songs for her, SAS was able to see a reduction in the frequency of these repetitive behaviors within just a few days. Rio was much happier!
Thanks to Tina’s dedication and SAS resources, Rio was adopted and is now called Bi Bi.
Please consider giving a gift online at https://www.seattleanimalshelterfoundation.org/how-to-help/donate/ and give an animal like Rio a new chance at life. With your support, Seattle Animal Shelter Foundation can continue to fund ongoing and new programs at Seattle Animal Shelter to rescue, heal, and adopt out animals in need.