Training Days

I've started Operant Conditioning with the birds. This came about when a certain bird who will remain nameless (let's say, Bird B) starting flying outside despite an explicit understanding to the contrary. "No wings outside" was always the rule! To be fair, he was startled into flying when a small flock of wild birds took off, and he just went with the fly and flapped upwards. A panicked bird flies pretty hard so he quickly ended up in a tree, probably 20 m up. Then B couldn't get back down; he'd try to fly down and instead would end up in other, higher trees. Flying down at a steep angle is apparently much harder than flying up at the same angle. We were finally reunited after much coaxing and roof-climbing, and I thought he had learned his lesson from all the screaming panic and stress. But, nope, it soon happened again, and each time he seemed to enjoy winging about a bit more. I've posted a picture -- see if you can spot the flyaway cockatiel stranded in this idyllic scene.

I decided to start the clicker conditioning with B, in hopes of training him into coming when called. We also started flight training with steeper descents. The clicker training's been going well so far. Bird C has taken a surprising interest in it, to the point where he was surpassing Bird B, and B would fidget and look jealously on as C was getting all the treats! I now have the natural Model/Rival situation which has worked so well for Dr. Irene Pepperberg and her genius Grays like Alex, without even needing a human dummy!

At this point, I'm not sure who is being trained better: the birds at touching the target as I intend, or me at dutifully feeding them treats whenever they deign to humour me.

Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.
- Mark Twain

Weather

The weather's been bizarre lately. It's been vacillating from warm sunny days to cold nights, from suffocatingly hot afternoons to freak storms in the evening. I planted out some of my seedlings and the last survivors got killed in a freak hail storm yesterday. I don't have a picture of the mangled plants, but here's one of the birds enjoying the weather.

I realized another side effect of my Palate Experiment. Afterwards, it occurred to me that after eating raw things for a week, I hadn't had to do any dishes! Just had to rinse the occasional knife and cutting board. It's almost worth it just for that.

Palate Experiment

Day 1 ends fairly uneventfully. I'm eating a lot more fruits and veggies than I usually do. I forget to keep good notes, but I ingest at least 5 celery stalk, 2 mushroom, baby carrots, 1 pear, and probably more of the same.

Day 2: I think my palate and body are really starting to get cleaned up today, and it feels good to eat lots of healthy fibrous foods. Ingested: carrots, 2 celery stalk, grapes, 1 fig, 1/4 orange pepper, 1 tomato, 1 mushroom, 2 pears, 1 apple.

Day 3: I'm feeling more hungry and eating small meals or snacks about every 90-120 minutes. I suppose I don't really think of a piece of fruit as a meal. Ingested: 2 celery stalk, baby carrots, 1/4 orange pepper, grapes, 1 pear, 1 tangerine, more grapes, 1/4 red pepper.

Day 4: Today is tougher, more hunger. Starting to lose my concentration to fantasies about other foods. I stick with the raw fruits and veggies for most of the day -- and I'm happy to get both birds into the baby carrots! -- but I weigh myself and appear to have lost 5 pounds. Losing about a pound a day sounds a bit scary, and I realize that a week might be too long for me to go on just fruits and veggies. I figure that if I'm fantasizing about food, my body probably needs something it's missing. So I break my raw plant diet that night // and add some protein and fat. Brown rice never tasted so good!

Ingested: 2 celery stalk, baby carrots, 1/4 red pepper, 1/3 orange pepper, 3 tomato, 1 mushroom, 1 grapefruit, 1 fig? // brown rice, mixed salad greens, carrots, 1 mushroom, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, walnuts, 1 pear, apple cider vinegar, black pepper.

Day 5: I wake up feeling full and satisfied instead of hungry, so the oils and brown rice protein were a good idea. Much happier today, no longer consumed with food fantasies. I get hungry while I'm out with the birds, and I have a granola bar on me, but I don't want to break into the sugars too hard, so I'm sticking to the fairly whole foods. Ingested: carrots, 2 mushroom, 1 normal carrot, brown rice, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, black pepper, 1 celery stalk, mixed salad greens, 1 tangerine, walnuts, 1 pear, red wine vinegar.

Day 6: Today is Day 6 of My Palate Experiment, and I have lost about 7 pounds since before the experiment started. This is a bit much, even if it's mostly water. Ingested so far: baby carrots, 1 celery stalk, 1/2 orange pepper.

After talking to my friend who's a dietician, I realize my body probably needs a lot more protein than I've been giving it, so I decide to visit her for dinner and stop the experiment today intead of tomorrow. Not quite a week. I think my palate is pretty clean, since celery, mushrooms and peppers taste good and juicy to me. Fruits are just scrumptious!

Results: Palate feels clean. Weight lost. Muscle lost, probably. Body a bit hungry for different foods, but mostly craving healthy flavourful foods with spices, rather than utter processed crap. Probably lacking in protein, B12, Calcium.

Positive Side Effects: Birds are eating much better! They now attack organic baby carrots and celery (sometimes) with gusto. Take a look at the photo: Celery is today, Day 6, and carrot attack on the right is Day 4.