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Editorial Director Melissa Kauffman
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OK, I have a confession to make. I’m not a big fan of enrichment articles. I cringe at writing this. I can’t even bring myself to say it out loud. I know that enrichment is the hot “in” word throughout the pet behavior community, and saying I am tired of reading about it will make people want to burn me at the stake. I am so evil, so selfish, so uncaring about my birds that I don’t live and breathe enrichment.
When Laura Doering and Jessica Pineda told me they were running a whole series of enrichment articles, I responded unkindly. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of enriching my birds’ environment. Heck, I would love to enrich my own environment. But reading one more article on it ... long words, passive phrases, philosophical discussions. I just want to read: “Do this. Your bird will thrive.”
So this is what we are going to do with our enrichment series. Short articles, to the point of how and why, plus we will have worksheets online so you create the plan and work the plan. Just get it done. How many times have you read an article on behavior, training or enrichment and thought, “Wow, I should do that with my bird,” and then it never happened? We don’t want this to happen. We don’t want you, too, to skip over the enrichment articles and go straight to the cute bird pictures at the end of the magazine.
Let us know about your experiences with enrichment, what works, what doesn’t, if you, too, secretly groan at enrichment articles or if they are your favorite bedtime reading. Let us know what your birds think, too.
**Check out more in the July 2010 issue of BIRD TALK**
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