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
The new line of I ♥ Parrots merchandise is now available for purchase on the Parrot Wizard website.Kili and Truman are featured on this special release on a TShirt (available in S-XXXXL adult unisex sizes), Hat (one size fits all), and Mug. Collect all three for the complete line of I Heart Parrots memorabilia and I'll throw in a free I ♥ Parrots mousepad. These items make a great gift for parrot lovers.
Feel free to share the I Heart Parrots cartoon below and purchase your memorabilia from http://ParrotWizard.com
"It's just a parakeet" is an expression I hear to often and yet is so untrue. Budgerigars, often referred to simply as parakeets, are the most underrated of parrot species. I would like to share some of the experiences I had with one and provide some tips to owners of these wonderful birds. If you don't remember, I had a Dark Eyed Clear mutation Budgerigar named Duke who was a wonderful trick performer. Unfortunately he died young so I never learned his true potential. Still I would like to share some of what I learned about parakeets with you.
While the Melopsittacus undulatus is the most commonly kept companion parrot, it is also the most underrated and misunderstood. From name, to diet, to capabilities, owners are clueless. This of course is not surprising considering the ways in which these miniscule parrots come to be owned. Some are bought window shopping, others as gifts, many as toys for children, others found, a few taken off someone's hands who no longer wants them, etc. Whatever the means that budgies are acquired, it is usually so easy that they are often seen as cheap, incapable, and unimportant pets. When people spend thousands of dollars on a parrot, they have some kind of commitment to the bird in that they were at least serious enough to put that kind of money on the line. However, with a $10 budgie, the cage it inhabits often costs 5-10 times as much as the bird itself! Unfortunately many people see these birds as expendable.
Budgerigars are easy to breed and can be cranked out in all sorts of color mutations. When choosing a parakeet, most people are more concerned with the color than its suitability as a pet. All too often people buy these parrots for children as a pet for them to have while growing up without any concern for the complexity of the creature or its longevity.
Despite their low price tag or reputation, Budgies are more alike their big parrot cousins than different. They share the same characteristics but in a smaller size. They have the same characteristic zygodactyl feet, hook bill, vocalization capabilities, and atypical bird intelligence as do larger parrots. While parakeets are not the smartest of parrots, they are leaps and bounds ahead of your typical song bird, rodents, and other animals of their size. Heck, don't be surprised if the worthless little parakeet is more intelligent than your cat/dog! Scientific studies continue to find greater cognitive capabilities in Psittacines than ever imagined.
Don't forget that budgies are birds and birds fly! Even a budgie with clipped wings will try to fly away so it is important to use positive reinforcement to make the parakeet want to be around you instead of relying on clipping. Budgies are speedy fliers and require flight to feel secure and healthy. Using a target stick, millet, and some patience, you can teach a budgie to fly to you.
Please do not purchase parakeets for children as pets. The amount of care and responsibility that these birds require to be raised properly are beyond the capabilities of most children. Inevitably the birds don't receive enough interaction and are entirely neglected when the child grows up. Instead, there are plenty of games to simulate the excitement of owning a parrot without the long term responsibility. Just because a budgie is small and cheap should in no way signify that they are suitable pets for children.
There is way too much confusion about what these birds are called. It is really quite simple though so I will state the correct name. It is called a Budgerigar, Budgie for short. It is one of many kinds of parakeets but not specifically called Parakeet. Parakeets include all small long tailed parrots such as conures, cockatiels, and ring necks. Finally, Budgerigars are true parrots and in fact more closely related to a Macaw than a Cockatiel. So there you have it, Budgerigar is the exact species, Parakeet the category, and Parrot the family of these remarkable little birds.
So if you have a budgie, don't value it based on the price you've paid but on its abilities. Don't assume it can't do something cause it's a cheap bird but instead challenge it and you'll be surprised by what it can do. You will realize that you got the best price to capability ratio parrot in existence!
If you don't have a budgerigar but are considering one, please give it the respect it deserves as a parrot and not for its price. Evaluate this species as you would any larger parrot and realize that this is a serious lifelong commitment. They may be small, but they can be similarly difficult like other parrot species. If you do buy one, make sure you spend adequate money on toys, perches, food, vet, and supplies and not treat it any lesser because the bird was cheap. Just consider yourself lucky to get such a deal on such a wonderful pet.
Share this picture and page with everyone you know who owns budgies or parrots so together we could spread awareness and respect for these wonderful little parrots! http://TrainedParrot.com/Parakeet
Here is your chance to win a free set of ParrotWizard Bird Show & Seminar DVDs or a Kili & Truman I<3 Parrots TShirt! The DVDs recently went on sale but the TShirt won't even be available for purchase until after the contest is over so be the first to get one!
I would like to hear what my viewers have learned about parrot keeping from my articles, videos, products, and websites. So I'm giving away a set of DVDs and TShirt for this contest. Here's how to participate:
1) Submit your feedback about how trainedparrot.com, parrotwizard.com, theparrotforum.com, and my youtube channel have helped you train your parrot. To encourage people to take the time to write more and avoid pointless posts, submissions will be given a score of 1-10 and that is how many times they will count toward the random drawing at the end to select a winner for the DVD prize. Tell us everything you learned, what tricks this helped you teach your parrot, some tips that stuck in your head, if it convinced you to keep parrot flighted, etc.
2) Get the most "likes" on your feedback by writing the most compelling story and by getting other parrot owners to like your post. The feedback post with the most likes will win the TShirt prize. This is why it's extra important to have some extensive feedback because it directly improves your chances of winning in both categories. There is a like button under each participant's feedback, so all you gotta do is encourage others to press yours. You can share the link by email and other means by using the link on the title of your submission.
Contest ends August 15 so the sooner you get your entries in, the more time it has to accumulate "likes" for a TShirt. Just keep in mind that you can only write one post and you cannot edit/remove it later so make sure you are finished before hitting submit. Good luck! Can't wait to find out what people have been able to achieve.
The seminar was an outstanding chance to present to parrot owners the application of taming/training to have well behaved companion parrots. I was able to discuss and demonstrate endless interesting topics without constraint.
The 5 hour seminar opened with a bird show. Dressed as the Parrot Wizard, I entered from the back of the room and paced around the anxious crowd with a Senegal Parrot on my hand. I made a few laps of the room showing off this bird before setting it down and calling Kili and Truman to the front of the room. They swooped over everyone's heads and landed on my outstretched arms. The birds performed their extensive repertoire of tricks without much hesitation and Truman thrilled everyone with his Boomerang flights. I walked around the audience with the parrots so they could see some of the tricks close up or volunteer to assist with them.
After the parrot tricks show, I disrobed and began the seminar. I talked about a lot of advanced trick training and answered questions specific to trick training. I explained the process of teaching many tricks that I haven't made online tutorials for such as play dead, ring toss, slide, and boomerang. Then I went on to demonstrate how easily I can harness my parrots and explained the entire training process. I finished the first half of the seminar by explaining why taming/training is so important for companion parrots beyond just amusement.
During the intermission, audience members got to meet Kili & Truman in person. I was not prepared for such a flood of fans and couldn't control the endless outreach of hands toward the birds. Yet they were unbothered and just dealt with it. Their extensive socialization was really paying off. The parrots stepped on hands and posed for pictures while I answered numerous questions.
The second half began with a special introduction by avian veterinarian Dr. Todd Driggers. He discussed the importance of training for a parrot's psychological well being and compared the idle parrot's life to unemployment. I was very pleased to have the full support of a highly respected vet in the Phoenix Valley. I hope this helped convince people of the necessity to follow my training approach. And if for no other reason, then for the health of their companion parrots.
Then came the best part of the Seminar. I went back to basics, using rescue parrots for the demonstrations. While I had sufficient confidence in my guys to perform, it was entirely unknown how the inexperienced rescue parrots would behave. Luckily, they were very cooperative and were able to demonstrate a week's worth of training progress in front of a live audience for the first time ever.
I worked with an untrained rescue Cockatiel. By the time of the seminar, the only experience he had was a week's worth of target training in the cage. I had never taken him out of his cage until the Seminar. In front of a huge live audience I targeted him around in his cage, then eventually onto my hand, and then out of the cage entirely. This was the first time he had come out of the cage in his known history. I showed everyone how I was teaching him to target for anyone and not just me by having audience members come up and succeed in doing the same.
Next I worked with two rescue Senegal Parrots (a male and a female). Again, only demonstrating a week's worth of training progress, I was able to show how I taught one of them to turn around and the other to be grabbed. Audience members got to interact with these recently wild rescue birds as well as see training improvement before their very eyes. I wrapped up the seminar with a discussion about motivation and how to get parrots to willingly cooperate with us.
What you may find interesting is that I performed the entire seminar without planning it out. All I had was a basic idea of the general topics I wanted to cover and the performance but otherwise I winged it entirely. Even the opening show was chosen at random as I went. The only thing that was previously choreographed was the opening entrance and flight recalls. This keeps my birds on their zygodactyl toes and presents a genuine presentation of their skills. They don't just remember a routine, they can perform any of their tricks as requested.
The biggest reason I could not plan my talk in advance was because, the week leading up to the show was so extensive that I could not predict how much the rescue birds would learn nor what I would learn from them. I wanted to give my audience my freshest and most complete outlook on parrot behavior so I let the experience of training 8 rescue parrots during the preceding week drive my seminar. Being unprepared worked in my favor. It gave me the chance to jump around from topic to topic without constraint. I allowed the audience to help me steer the course of discussion and make sure their curiosities were foremost answered. I was able to get audience participation, answer questions, and share countless anecdotes about specific parrot themes. I think this collective mayhem will just keep you captivated and entertained despite the substantial duration of this video series.
It may seem strange that the seminar and DVDs begin with the most advanced stuff and then work their way back. However, this was mainly done to maintain the order of the parrots involved. You see, Kili & Truman were the highlight of the opening act so I wanted to make the most use of them in the first segment. This is why we focused on demonstrating flight, harness, and advanced trick training in the first half. Since the rescue parrots weren't used until the second half, I saved all the basics and fundamentals for then. For the same reasons, the DVDs begin with advanced results and then return to how to teach them.
I hope you can buy a set of DVDs from the Seminar so you too can feel like you were there and learn everything the audience got to experience. While you don't get the same interactive experience as a live seminar, a major benefit of the DVD is that you can watch it in smaller spans and rewatch parts of interest.
Like the seminar, the DVDs are really meant to be purchased in a 2 part series. However, for people who only want a specific disc, they are also available separately. It is possible to watch the 2nd video alone for learning basics of parrot taming & training or to watch the 1st video alone to enjoy the show and discussion of advanced tricks, flight, and harness. However, I would really like to encourage everyone to just buy the 2 disc set to see the entire Seminar start to finish. Individual DVDs can be purchased for $19.99 + s/h or the entire set for $29.99 plus the same price of shipping as a single DVD. The combo is like buying one DVD and getting the second for half price and free shipping.
I flew to Phoenix Arizona to present the Parrot Wizard Bird Show & Seminar (which you'll get to hear more about later). Airline travel would have been too restrictive, expensive, and difficult so I opted to make the 2 day trip to Arizona myself by airplane. I loaded Truman into his travel cage and Kili into her carrier and we were on our way with over 250 pounds of merchandise for the event.
Jamie, my girlfriend, accompanied us for the first day. We spent the night with her in St Louis but continued to Phoenix without her (but picked her up on the way back). In the beginning of the trip flights were short. Because of the weight of all the baggage and two people, I was restricted on how much fuel I could bring. It was just a 3 hour flight from NJ to OH and then another 3 to St Louis.
I realized that I forgot the food bowls for the travel cages at home when it came time to feed the birds. Worse yet, I realized that I forgot their pellets in the airplane as well. I had to scramble and find people foods to feed them instead to get them through the night. I got a hold of some corn, bread, and grapes. Kili pigged out and had no problem with this arrangement. Truman on the other hand had a few bites but eventually boycotted. He refused to eat anything but his pellets but they were not available till the next day. Here's a great example why it's important that birds be accustomed to people food as well as bird food so that they could still be fed in a pinch.
After spending the night in St Louis, the long part of the journey began. I flew 3.5 hours to Oklahoma and took advantage of some of the cheapest gas in the country. Then it was a long 5.5 hour flight to Phoenix over inhospitable terrain. I diverted around thunderstorms and flew high to stay over the mountains. I had to use an oxygen system for part of the flight due to altitude. The birds were alright but it sure made them sleepy. It was so cute to see Kili & Truman fall asleep on the same perch together. Getting high is a great way to mellow out the little buggers.
Finally I had to perform a steep descent into Phoenix after clearing the mountains and was greeted by a dust storm blowing through the area. It was difficult to find the airport in low visibility and I had to close the air vents cause it felt like my face was being sandblasted.
After landing I was met by Ginger who helped run the event and played host to the birds. Luckily because the dust storm blocked out the sun and moved the air around it wasn't too hot and we were able to unload the plane quickly. We headed back to her house and got the birds situated and fed. Here is a video of the flight there. More videos and stories from the trip coming soon.
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.
Trained Parrot site content Copyright 2010-2020 Michael Sazhin. Reproduction of text, images, or videos without prior permission prohibited. All rights reserved.
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