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Dancing Senegal Parrot

Kili

Type: Senegal Parrot
Genus: Poicephalus
Species: Senegalus
Subspecies: Mesotypus
Sex: Female
Weight: 120 grams
Height: 9 inches
Age: 16 years, 3 months
Caped Cape Parrot

Truman

Type: Cape Parrot
Genus: Poicephalus
Species:Robustus
Subspecies: Fuscicollis
Sex: Male
Weight: 330 grams
Height: 13 inches
Age: 14 years, 7 months
Blue and Gold Macaw

Rachel

Type: Blue & Gold Macaw
Genus: Ara
Species:ararauna
Sex: Female
Weight: 850 grams
Height: 26 inches
Age: 12 years, 3 months
Trick Training Guides
Taming & Training Guide
Flight Recall
Target
Wave
Fetch
Shake
Bat
Wings
Go through Tube
Turn Around
Flighted Fetch
Slide
Basketball
Play Dead
Piggy Bank
Nod
Bowling
Darts
Climb Rope
Ring Toss
Flip
Puzzle
Additional Top Articles
Stop Parrot Biting
Getting Your First Parrot
Treat Selection
Evolution of Flight
Clipping Wings
How to Put Parrot In Cage
Kili's Stroller Trick
Camping Parrots
Socialization
Truman's Tree
Parrot Wizard Seminar
Kili on David Letterman
Cape Parrot Review
Roudybush Pellets

List of Common Parrots:

Parakeets:
Budgerigar (Budgie)
Alexandrine Parakeet
African Ringneck
Indian Ringneck
Monk Parakeet (Quaker Parrot)

Parrotlets:
Mexican Parrotlet
Green Rumped Parrotlet
Blue Winged Parrotlet
Spectacled Parrotlet
Dusky Billed Parrotlet
Pacific Parrotlet
Yellow Faced Parrotlet

Lovebirds:
Peach Faced Lovebird
Masked Lovebird
Fischer's Lovebird
Lilian's (Nyasa) Lovebird
Black Cheeked Lovebird
Madagascar Lovebird
Abyssinian Lovebird
Red Faced Lovebird
Swindern's Lovebird

Lories and Lorikeets:
Rainbow Lorikeet

Conures:
Sun Conure
Jenday Conure
Cherry Headed Conure
Blue Crowned Conure
Mitred Conure
Patagonian Conure
Green Cheeked Conure
Nanday Conure

Caiques:
Black Headed Caique
White Bellied Caique

Poicephalus Parrots:
Senegal Parrot
Meyer's Parrot
Red Bellied Parrot
Brown Headed Parrot
Jardine's Parrot
Cape Parrot
Ruppell's Parrot

Eclectus:
Eclectus Parrot

African Greys:
Congo African Grey (CAG)
Timneh African Grey (TAG)

Amazons:
Blue Fronted Amazon
Yellow Naped Amazon
Yellow Headed Amazon
Orange Winged Amazon
Yellow Crowned Amazon

Cockatoos:
Cockatiel
Galah (Rose Breasted) Cockatoo
Sulphur Crested Cockatoo
Umbrella Cockatoo
Moluccan Cockatoo
Bare Eyed Cockatoo
Goffin's Cockatoo

Macaws:
Red Shouldered (Hahn's) Macaw
Severe Macaw
Blue And Gold Macaw
Blue Throated Macaw
Military Macaw
Red Fronted Macaw
Scarlet Macaw
Green Winged Macaw
Hyacinth Macaw

Glossary of Common Parrot Terms

Goals for Cape Parrot and the Trained Parrot Blog

Comments (0)

By Michael Sazhin

Thursday June 10th, 2010

As I await the arrival of my new Cape Parrot, I would like to outline some of my goals with the new bird. The order is ballpark of how it would go but not a rigid sorting:

-Get parrot, let it get used to me and new surroundings
-Develop strong flock mate/trainer relationship bond
-Encourage independent play as well as social time
-Develop a daily routine that sets feeding regimes, flight time, out of cage time, and outdoor time
-Desensitize to wide array of household objects while naming each object
-Configure clicker as bridge and eventually a strong secondary reinforcement
-Teach target training through modeling rather than trial/error if possible
-Develop strongest flight recall possible (recall by visual, whistle, and name)
-Minimum dependence on food for reinforcement
-Develop strong alternative reinforcements
-Progressive taming to allow uninhibited touch of entire body
-Make minimum intrusion introduction between Kili and Cape
-Maximum comfort harness training
-Outdoor desensitization while wearing short harness
-Begin training outdoor harnessed recall
-Socialize parrot to as many people as possible both indoors and out
-Differentiate social time and focused training time
-Develop safe petting cue and method
-Reduce beaking, biting, and nipping by ignoring
-Ignore all unpleasant vocalizations and present acceptable alternative ones
-Train necessary maintenance behaviors through positive reinforcement
-Voluntary carrier training through empowerment
-Start training full trick routine
-Goal is to train each trick in the shortest and most effective manner possible
-Develop visual and verbal cues for every trick
-Take parrot on social outings, car drives, and airplane flights while still young
-Begin implementing variable ratio reinforcement on cued behaviors
-Say same words to encourage talking
-Develop special (not annoying) contact call specific for this parrot
-Combine flight and cued tricks
-Train highly complex trick behaviors to challenge parrot
-Test cognitive capabilities through challenging puzzle tricks
-Provide occasional foraging opportunities in/out of cage
-Continue flight training optimized toward outdoor freeflight
-Perfect each trick to develop best trained parrot role model

Having extensively learned trick training on Kili and Duke, I think I will be able to train the Cape more quickly and efficiently. At the same time, I would like to experiment with alternative training methods like modeling, empowerment, and differential reinforcement. I am going to make the strongest possible effort to do all training through positive reinforcement and avoid resorting to flooding, negative reinforcement, or punishment. I do know that these methods can be effective but I am curious to accept the challenge of trying to train without them.

Here are some my goals for the trainedparrot blog:

-Provide regular updates about the Cape's progress
-Post photographs/videos of every step of training the new Cape Parrot
-Write step by step articles about how I train every single trick/behavior
-Present my thoughts/opinions about parrot ownership and care
-Develop the training blog as an alternative to costly training products
-Write objectively about the good, the bad, and the ugly
-Cite outside sources where applicable
-Lead the parrot community by example
-Make all information public and hold nothing back
-Create a definitive source of parrot training knowledge from my own experience
-Eventually open the blog up to additional willing writers
-Turn training blog posts into a complete/organized training guide

Here is a progress update about the upcoming Cape Parrot. Originally I was supposed to get the older of the two babies. Jean expected the older one to end up bigger because it was born from a larger set of wild caught parents. However, as time progressed, it turned out that the younger baby not only caught up but grew bigger than the older one. The younger Cape comes from a domestic pair named Angie and Magnum. Jean said this baby not only turned out larger but also has a sweeter disposition. The older is now 295g but the younger is 315g. They are somewhere from one to two weeks apart. Jean has done the same extensive efforts with both parrots and I am currently the only paid buyer so I have the option of choosing either one. She taught both parrots to drink from a water bottle, eat the same pellets, and to wear an aviator harness. So based on everything Jean advised, as well as all the good things I've heard from someone else that bought a Cape Baby from the same breeding pair, I decided to go with the younger/larger Cape.

This Friday, Jean will be taking the Cape to her vet on my behalf. I asked her to get the vet checks for me because she has a very good vet and I don't like the one I worked with in my area. If the parrot checks out healthy before being shipped, I don't really see any need in duplicating the check afterwards. The visual inspection the vet did when I bought Kili I can so easily do myself now at this point. I'm quite confident in Jean as a breeder so the vet check is only precautionary. The vet will also take care of some final grooming and place an open band on the parrot's left (non-dominant) foot. Pending all results being good from the vet check, Jean should be shipping the Cape Parrot to me early Tuesday morning to avoid the Florida heat. Thursday is the back up day.

Here are more pictures that I just received from the breeder:
















Part of: Parrot Trick Training, Blog Announcements, Cape Parrots
Baby Cape Parrot Pictures Photos Training Blog Goals Poicephalus Fuscicollis Brown Necked Parrot
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Trained Parrot is a blog about how to train tricks to all parrots and parakeets. Read about how I teach tricks to Truman the Brown Necked Cape Parrot including flight recall, shake, wave, nod, turn around, fetch, wings, and play dead. Learn how you can train tricks to your Parrot, Parrotlet, Parakeet, Lovebird, Cockatiel, Conure, African Grey, Amazon, Cockatoo or Macaw. This blog is better than books or DVDs because the information is real, live, and completely free of charge. If you want to know how to teach your parrot tricks then you will enjoy this free parrot training tutorial.
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