Bird Treats for Training: Finding Yours July 1, 2008

 

The easiest treats to train with are sunflower seeds and spray millet. It’s easy to hand your bird a single seed for a job well done or give them a quick bite of a millet stick. Other treats such as peanuts are more time consuming to prepare since you have to break them into small pieces for your bird.

 

Sunflower seeds, millet and peanut pieces are the most commonly used foods for treats and rewards. But if your bird doesn’t like those, there are ways of finding what your bird does like!

 

Gather all the known treats that most parrot owners use such as peanuts, millet, sun flower seeds, almonds, pumpkin seeds, safflower seeds, and even banana chips make some parrots go crazy! Make sure you aren’t using something like cheese or any type of dairy product as a reward for your bird as they are much harder for the bird to digest. So gather all the nuts and seeds that parrots can eat and make a small dish of them all mixed together. Simply set the dish out for your bird to explore whether its outside his cage or inside and come back later to find out what he has eaten and what he hasn’t touched. This will give you a good idea of what your bird likes and what he dislikes.

 

I’ve never known a bird to not have a favorite treat - even people have favorite treats so make an effort to find our your bird’s preference so you two can work together to make things more fun and move onto some ambitious training sessions!

Flight Train Using Targeting June 24, 2008

 

To learn what it means to target train your bird, go to my blog entitled Target Training and Clicker Conditioning. The training that happens from your bird already knowing targeting, can be flight training your bird using the target stick.

 

This training is very simple and happens pretty naturally for a flighted bird when just teaching them the behavior of targeting the stick at all.

 

You can then begin to back up and target your hand so they are encouraged to fly and land on your hand. Click, reward for a job well done.

 

Parrot Tricks: Flight, Spin, Shake, and Yes June 13, 2008

 

Above is a video of my rose breasted cockatoo (commonly known as a galah) named Bondi performing some tricks she knows. The only one I left out was the bat but you can find that trick on my other video blogs.

 

Here is a link to a complete parrot training guide.

Bird on Back: Video June 2, 2008

After leaving the Happy Birdy forum (forums are not for me), I had a few people constantly keeping in touch with me to exchange information and experiences. Well, it was so asked upon that I decided to create my own video blogs on parrot training (or my own experiences with it, really). One girl in particular really inspired me to do so, so really, the videos are for her but I wanted to make them as general as possible so everyone could benefit from them.

 

By request, I went more in depth on how to train your bird to go on its back in your hands. Here is the video I created and explains in a visual way how I went about this:

 

Negative Reinforcement: Leaving Your Bird Alone April 21, 2008

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Henderson, Nevada
Shown: Military Macaw “Cash”

 

Back in January 2006, we bought three macaws; two blue and gold macaws and one military macaw. They were all around the age of 6 months old and were shipped to us while in Henderson, Nevada. We were preparing for the show we would perform for 13 months straight on the island of Saipan with them entitled Magical Flight.

 

Jersey and Chayko, the two blue and golds that were brother and sister, were quickly willing to spend every moment with us and wanted nothing more than to be close. Cash, the military macaw, on the other hand, was fast to be aggressive and wanted nothing to do with us. You would never be able to tell from the photo above.

 

The shipping process proved hard on him and especially on his plummage. He seemed like he was handled roughly through the process as his tail came broken and his feathers ruffled. He had just been clipped by the breeder so the ends of his wings didn’t look so pretty either. I remember my family thinking he wasn’t a very handsome looking bird but boy are they taking that back now!

 

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands
Pictured: Military Macaw “Cash”

 

Because of my experience with Cash, it really bothers me when people say how they want to buy a “nice bird”. Birds don’t come as nice or mean - it’s their owners who make them who they are. If you teach or reinforce aggressive behavior, you’re going to raise an aggressive bird.

 

Dave was the first person to ever put any time into working with Cash. We easily figured out that Cash did not care about food rewards and the only thing that acted as a reward to him at all was us leaving him alone. Because of this, we used negative reinforcement to tame him. His “reward” was Dave backing up and giving him his space.

 

 

After 15 minutes of clicker conditioning Cash and working what is also called “the power pause” shown here among other birds, Cash was in Dave’s arms loving being showed affection and attention. He has been Dave’s baby ever since and we have since trained him with his reward being Dave’s love and attention. We have socialized him this way and flight trained him this way - with his reward being going to Dave. Amazing how much a bird’s perspective, as well as ours, can change through some basic training.

Earning Trust for Behaviors: Bird on Back April 18, 2008

Photo by Dave
Location: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands
Hugging: Blue and Gold Macaw “Chayko”

 

Earning your bird’s trust can be hard depending on your bird’s situation. One of my favorite behaviors to train is based on trust and that is getting your parrot to lay on its back; whether it’s on a hard surface or in your arms.

 

It’s important to get your bird used to being touched all over when you first get it. Handling it in all sorts of different ways and touching all over its body is a great way to get your bird used to being handled and touched. Some birds don’t like their tails being touched, or their backs, but if you get your bird accustomed to being touched everywhere, they will think nothing of it and it will become easier to handle your bird yourself as well as allow others to handle your bird, too.

 

The first steps to getting your bird to lay on its back comfortably and willingly is to create a bond with your bird to where he enjoys being loved and showed affection from you. Once you have this relationship and your bird is comfortable with being touched all over, you start by getting it used to your hand being placed on its back. I hold the bird close to my chest and slowly tilt forward with one hand holding his feet and acting like a perch and the other supporting his back.

 

It’s important not to just fling yourself forward with your bird as this will startle him and most likely result in you getting bit. You want to make sure to ease into it very slowly and at the pace of your bird. I always use the reward of being cuddled and held, but a food reward can also be given if that is what your bird responds best to.

 

Eventually, you get to the point where you are completely parallel with the floor and your bird is comfortable as he is close to your body. When your bird is comfortable with this stage, this is when you begin slowly moving your body away the same way you eased down to become parallel.

 

Slowly but surely your bird will become comfortable laying on its back in your arms without your chest having to be there for support.

 

Photo by Dave
Location: Saipan, Mariana Islands
On back: Blue and Gold Macaw “Chayko”

This process needs to be worked over days and days. I did little by little with my blue and gold macaw, Chayko. I worked it every day until it morphed into the behavior I was looking for.

 

It’s also a process of finding out which position is most relaxing for your bird. Some want to be facing you straight forward, others want to be to the side, others need to be cradled like a baby.

 

The last step is removing your hands which are playing the role of your bird’s perch. This can be difficult as sometimes hanging onto your hand is the only reason your bird is comfortable on his back in the first place. This must be done very slow! I’ve found that taking away one finger at a time works best with getting the bird use to holding onto less and less. The last finger will be the hardest but if you can get him down a finger every training session, you’re doing amazingly well. Remember to always go at the pace of your bird and do not force him into moving too fast. This needs to be a positive experience and turn into a behavior he enjoys doing. Praise and affection are great rewards for this type of behavior.

 

Photo by Dave
Location: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands
On back: Blue and Gold Macaw “Chayko”

 

Eventually, your bird will easily ease into this. When I went to visit Chayko at David’s place, I handled him and talked to him. It had been months upon months since I had seen Chayko last and I was nervous he wouldn’t remember me. Sure enough, after about 5 minutes of reuniting with him, he went on his back for me and laid in my arms. It meant the world to me to know he still loved and trusted me as he always did.

Behavior Shaping April 3, 2008

 

My favorite type of training is behavior shaping. It can also be the hardest because it requires finding a natural behavior your bird already does and having a clicker on hand to let the bird know it’s a good thing to continue to do for a reward.

 

I trained my galah, Bondi, (featured in the video above with Dave Womach) to do what is called “The Rock Out”. I call it the rock out because she spins her head in circles like a rockstar. The story to how I ended up training this behavior is kind of funny as you hear it come together. Bondi use to become very aggressive when put in front of a mirror. She’d nod her head every which way quickly and end up biting my hand if I kept her there long enough. She was constantly challenging “the other bird in the mirror”. In my parents’ house, my old bedroom has a huge closet and the doors are mirrors. It was really hard for me to have Bondi in there and I became frustrated with it (and being bit in the process). So I decided to shape her natural aggressive behavior into a trick.

 

I began by holding her in front of the mirror and waiting for her to spin her head around. When she did, I clicked and gave her a reward. This really sparked Bondi’s attention as she is well clicker conditioned and gets into “training mode” when she hears it. Immediately, the aggressive behavior turned fun and challenging for her. Everytime she spun her head, I would reward her with a click and sunflower seed. Being the complete ham she is (as most cockatoos are) she began offering me more exaggerated movements of her head by really throwing it around. Once she got rewarded for this exaggerated movement, I stopped rewarding for the simple spinning of the head and only for the exaggerated movement.

 

Not only did I reward her with a sunflower seed, but I spoke excitedly to her in a high pitched voice, too. This paired the behavior with a verbal acknowledgment and eventually a verbal cue of “Rock Out”. It only took the one training session to shape this previously aggressive behavior. When I showed it off to my friends and family, everyone loved it! Bondi became happily excited by the response it was getting her and easily did it on cue anytime someone asked it of her. The catch was that they had to say it in a really high pitched voice which was hilarious when a man tried to cue her!

 

The next trick I tried to train Bondi was the “stick em up” which is when they put their wings in the air. I taught her this in a hotel room directly after teaching her the Rock Out. Well, she combined the two tricks together because I did not space them well enough apart! So the Rock Out got extended to a huge movement of her head going in circles plus her wings being out in the air. I loved it so I let it stay that way instead of separating the two tricks.

 

Bondi gets such a positive reaction to this behavior that it is no longer on a verbal cue. She now does the rock out whenever she becomes excited. This meant a lot to me because I had turned a naturally aggressive behavior into what now appears to be her new natural response to excitment.

Target Training and Clicker Conditioning March 27, 2008

Photo by Dave
Location: Orlando, Florida
Trainee: Congo African Grey “Cressi”

 

I just began target training our new Congo African Grey, Cressi. She caught on super fast to it and is learning the clicker more and more at the same time. She’s still hand feeding but should be fully weaned soon enough. She’s so smart and it’s neat to watch her learn and grow. She is already mimicking the parakeets and Bondi, our galah.

 

For those of you that may be unfamiliar with target training, it’s a really great behavior to teach to birds who may be nippy and bite a lot. It gives them something to bite in the training process and saves you from being the one to get bit in the process.

 

It’s best to “clicker condition” your bird before target training. Here is what a variety of what clickers can look like! If your bird is scared of the noise a clicker makes (as some birds aren’t properly desensitized) you can also use a verbal cue or a whistle as your event marker. It is, however, best and more efficient for your bird to use a clicker so it’s best to get your bird used to the sound it makes. Even if you have to have someone else click it from another room and work their way closer, click and reward until your bird associates that clicker’s noise positively.

 

 

To clicker condition your parrot, simply set your bird on a perch and click and reward. All you are trying to do is teach your bird that when he or she hears the click of the clicker, he or she gets a reward. A clicker is an event marker to signify the exact moment when your bird does something correctly. Once your bird starts looking and anticipating his reward (whether it’s a sunflower seed or small part of a peanut, the reward should be your bird’s favorite treat) then you know he understands the click. This when you can move on to incorporating the target stick.

 

My personal preference of a target stick is a brand new set of chopsticks!

 

 

However, a target stick can be a number of things. I’ve seen videos where people use the eraser part of a pencil, the cap of a pen, or even a laser pointer. Anything that won’t be harmful to your bird, you can use as your targetting stick.

 

Target training is so much easier than people think. It’s almost so simple that it becomes over analyzed. Simply hold the target stick in the proximity of your bird; do not poke your bird or bring it too close. Simply just have it within reach. When your bird leans forward towards it or even comes close, click and reward. Eventually he will come closer and closer and once he touches the end of the target stick with his beak, click and reward. This is the behavior you want.

 

Larger birds tend to try to break the target stick so be careful not to reinforce destroying it if you have a larger bird (such as a macaw or cockatoo) you just want them to touch the end of the stick.

 

Targetting is used on a lot of different types of animals. People use this method of training to get horses to go into trailers and such things. The purpose of teaching your bird to target is so that you can tame and train your bird. Targetting can happen while your bird is INSIDE his cage! You can start by targetting your bird around his cage first, and eventually out onto your hand.

 

Photo by Dave
Location: Orlando, Florida
Trainee: Galah “Bondi”

 

This is my rose breasted cockatoo (also known as a galah from Australia) being targetted onto my hand. Birds will be a little resistant the first time, but eventually you can get them to comfortably stand on your hand via targetting. Make sure to target them OFF your hand as well, so all is safe to them and they realize they can do both. Eventually, you can lift your hand and click and they will slowly get used to being held up on your hand.

 

If you bird is fully flighted, you can flight train your bird using targetting.