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
Fortunately Truman is quite tame from the breeder. He already steps up and allows touching. However, there are some additional taming exercises that I must do with him in order to prepare him for some tricks that I would like to teach him down the line. Furthermore these taming behaviors make maintenance easier as well. The two things I am working on are laying on his back in my hand and letting me pull his wings open.
I have been using a combination of modeling, flooding, positive, and negative reinforcement to begin taming these behaviors. The modeling involves having Truman watch me hold Kili on her back and open her wings. Kili doesn't mind these at all and I don't have to give her treats but I do just so Truman can see he can get treats for it too. Flooding involves the fact that I just do it. I flip him on his back or open his wings whether he wants to or not. He just has to get used to it happening to him. The negative reinforcement is that I flip him back up or let go of his wing when he relaxes and stops resisting me. The positive reinforcement is that I give him a treat upon completion of each behavior.
By using all methods of training in combination, not only can I catalyze learning but also prevent over use of any one method. While I don't want to be too forceful by using flooding and make him phobic, I also do not want him to be overly treat dependent and refuse otherwise. Here is a step by step guide for how to tame a parrot to let you roll it on its back or open its wings:
Rolling parrot on back:
1) The parrot must already know how to step up and be comfortable with you touching it 2) Put your hand on its back and slowly roll it back 3) Stop when the bird starts getting uncomfortable (even if it is not full reclined) 4) Hold that position briefly 5) Upright the parrot and reward 6) Repeat with incremental increase of angle and duration
Opening parrot's wings:
1) The parrot must already know how to step up and be comfortable with you touching it 2) Put your hand under the parrot's wing and press it up slightly to raise the wing under armpit 3) Hold briefly, release and reward 4) Pull gently by the solid front part of the tip of the wing and hold open briefly, release and reward 5) Repeat and progressively open further and hold longer
Here is a video of a taming session with Truman. The video is quite long but I recommend watching it through entirely because I demonstrate different things throughout the video and provide helpful tips as I go. This is a real training session in progress. There are no final results yet but even by the end of the taming session Truman is less resistant to the exercises.
Taming your parrot to lay on its back is not only useful for teaching the play dead trick but also to be able to hold it to trim its nails and to be able to carry it from place to place. Taming the parrot to open its wings is not only useful for training the wings trick but also can be used to inspect wings for broken feathers, clipping, and putting on a harness. Remember that this can be a long gradual process that requires a lot of patience and practice. It can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks or months before you see results. However, if you practice these taming behaviors a few times a day over a long period of time, the parrot will get used to this and allow you to do it even without treats. Once your taming is complete, be sure to practice these behaviors on occasion so that the tameness is not lost.
Finally I'd like to mention that Kili and Truman are beginning to get along much better to the point that they were sitting together on a 12 inch perch and not even fighting.
The relationship between Kili and Truman is definitely improving. They are becoming more used to each other's presence and aggressive outbursts are becoming fewer. Kili is even starting to like this "Truman Trick." She is learning that she has to not attack Truman and then she gets treats for it.
This time I gave an almond to each parrot (although I had them do a recall each to earn it first). This was again one of those two in one sessions where Truman can model some handy skills from Kili and meanwhile she can learn to tolerate Truman. Truman got to watch Kili skillfully work her almond and perhaps pick up a few tips. Kili got to enjoy an almond in its entirety just for being near Truman. Mind you, I do not feed an entire almond to Kili very often.
Truman is not yet adept at working open an almond but he is definitely learning. This was the first time he had actually successfully broke it on his own after watching Kili. While it did take him twice as long, he had the patience and perseverance to work at it till he could finally get some tasty nut out of the shell.
I was not too concerned about getting Truman to eat fresh foods when I got him. His weight was low as it is and I put all of my effort toward first getting him to eat his colored pellets and then eventually to switch him to his long term pellet diet. The few times I tried to offer him fresh foods he wouldn't even taste them so for a few weeks I didn't even bother. However, the time has come that he start eating other things so I just put him on a stand next to Kili and started feeding her vegetables.
Kili zealously ate her cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots which strongly encourage Truman to try as well. I could tell just by looking at him that he wanted a bite because as soon as I would give something to Kili he would start learning in and looking anxious. Sure enough, this time whatever I gave Kili he happily ate as well. These are the same things he wouldn't even try when I tried to give them to him previously.
Finally I put Truman in his cage and gave him a cup of these veggies. He ate them well and then had some of his pellets as well. He's been doing great and this parrot to parrot modeling thing works great. I definitely suggest anyone who is getting a second parrot to let it learn off the first one. If you just have one, you can try to get it to learn from you. If you start eating a certain new food, quite likely the parrot will want to try it as well.
The winnings of the first day of simultaneous training were short lived and things turned ugly on the second day. As Kili gained more confidence in herself around Truman, she decided to plant some more attacks. It is partly my fault as I began closing in the distance between the two parrots out of the cage, but this was to have controlled interaction rather than when I cannot intervene.
Luckily there was no damage done to either bird so I did not feel the need to intervene. To a certain extent I can encourage alternative behavior but on the other other hand they must solve their differences themselves. No matter how much I keep Kili away from Truman, ultimately she is going to want to show him who's boss. So I figure it is better to give her a controlled opportunity to do so rather than elsewhere.
One problem is that when I have both parrots out of the cage, out of nowhere Kili will just fly at Truman and knock him off his perch. This will send both birds flying but really achieve nothing. Sometimes Kili or Truman will get too close to the other and that will set off a beak sparring battle. Mostly they just point their beaks at each other but don't actually touch. They really don't bite each other so I don't see much harm in this. These little fights usually end with someone flying away or I target Kili away from the fight. I don't think I've had to break up a single fight though and I much prefer to cue more acceptable behavior than force the fight to stop.
Although it may seem that the rivalry has increased, in reality this is not so. It is merely that I reduced the restraints that prevented it previously. Instead, I am working on creating peaceful interaction and alternatives to aggressive behavior. I want the parrots to choose not to fight or at least not hurt each other rather than to continuously monitor them or keep them physically separated. Ultimately I'd like to be able to just open both of their cages and go about my own business without the fear of them injuring each other.
Part of the reason that I chose a Cape Parrot was strategic in terms of flock dynamics. Although a small bird, Kili has a large personality so acquiring another parrot smaller in size would be dangerous. I already had problems with Kili trying to attack Duke when she had just began to fly. Kili would be older than the parrot I would acquire so I had to find a baby that would have some pre-existing advantage for self preservation from her. Thus a larger and better flighted baby was the answer. Although Kili is more aggressive and better at flight, Truman is larger and can stand his own ground. Furthermore he has a more complete set of flight feathers and can ultimately outfly her. By having these pre-existing advantages, I think Truman is a fair and equal rival for Kili and this will keep both parrots in place. In theory, as Truman matures he should be able to dominate over Kili, however, because of early establishment of flock dynamics and Cape Parrot temperament, I expect the parrots to remain evenly matched with neither one being superior or more dominant.
Previously, I had shared a video of holding Kili outside of Truman's cage. I also began doing the reverse which is a bit more challenging because Kili is more likely to be aggressive in defense of her own territory rather than around Truman's cage. In the Truman Recall Training article I mentioned that I started rewarding Kili whenever Truman would come near her area. Now I had taken this a step further and would bring Truman right up next to Kili's cage. Usually this would result in her dashing across the cage, jumping onto the bars, getting really fluffy and big, showing her beak, eyes pinning, and making threatening poses and Truman. I had never seen Kili get this aggressive toward any human but clearly Truman was really really pissing her off
To diminish Kili's aggression toward Truman, I began rewarding her whenever Truman approaches her. I carry Truman up to her cage and before she gets a chance to start getting aggressive, I give her a treat through the bars. Truman just sits on my hand and watches; he doesn't need a reward. Also, I cue Kili to perform tricks which she does with zeal because she is such a show off. I hold Truman but I divert all my attention to her so that she doesn't feel jealous and thinks she is the center of all attention. I had been doing this process for the last few days and here is a video of how this looks:
Initially I planned to quarantine the two parrots for an entire month but I have long given this up as they had both landed on each other's cages when out. Kili has been healthy for two years straight and Truman had good results on all his blood work so I was not too worried about the parrots coming in contact already. At this point, I figured the gradual introduction and interaction would be more beneficial than harmful. There is much that Truman can learn from Kili.
I was trying to make the out of cage introduction to be very informal. I was going to put Truman on a stand at one end of the room and Kili on the other. Both parrots are flighted and I couldn't keep track of both so I quickly gave up on this idea as Kili was flying by and knocking Truman off his perch! I decided to try the time-tested method of training with positive reinforcement instead. I put Truman on his training perch and brought over Kili's training perch and put it a few feet away. I lined the perches in more of an L to make it more difficult for either parrot to fly at the other or land on the other's perch. I adjusted the height to make the perches approximately equal height but below my own eye level.
I had to immediately grab Kili's attention because she looked ready to pounce on Truman. I began cuing her tricks and providing hefty treats to keep her busy eating. After all, she can't bite if her beak is full. I figured I'd target Kili back and forth a bit to continue my behavior modeling attempt from the previous time. This was only the second or third session where I let Truman watch Kili perform the target touch behavior. This time it was up close and personal because both parrots were out of the cage and close together for the first time. Truman watched eagerly and I saw a certain anxiousness in his posture so I figured, heck why not let him try? I had never so much as shown him the target stick up close previously let alone train him the behavior. So I brought the target stick toward Truman for the first time ever and held it about 5 inches away. Knowingly, he made a few steps over to touch the stick like he'd seen Kili do just moments ago!
You may note that I had successfully target trained three parrots previously with relative ease, but never off the first try like this. Even Duke who picked up the target behavior after 5-10 times, wasn't walking over to touch the target stick until some more practice. Quite clearly Truman had learned the behavior to walk to touch the target stick simply by watching Kili. To test whether he understood the behavior by modeling rather than just touching the stick out of curiosity, I purposefully held it far enough that he'd have to walk over to it and surely enough he did. The three other parrots I target trained would only touch the stick if it was within immediate reach prior to learning to walk over to it.
To further test that Truman had actually learned the targeting trick rather than just one lucky shot, I had him do it many more times during this training session and he was consistently touching the stick. His attention varied but when I had his attention, he was very consistent about walking over and reaching to touch the target stick. I took this even a step further and had Kili target fly to my hand be showing her the stick over my hand. Then I had Truman do the same. It took a bit more encouragement but he caught onto this in this same first target training session. He picked up target training and target flying in approximately 20 minutes of training based on modeling when this same skill level would have normally taken several weeks to teach an unfamiliar parrot. Clearly this modeling method has much potential to offer and should make teaching tricks to Truman significantly easier than the first time around when I taught them to Kili with no model to show her what to do.
By keeping both parrots focused on training or eating their treats, I was able to prevent aggression almost completely. There were just two incidents in the half hour they were both out and neither bird came close to getting hurt. Once Kili flew at Truman and another time Truman tried to fly onto Kili's perch. On both occasions the parrots flew off their separate ways. I would fetch Truman but Kili would eventually come back on her own or I would recall her. Overall this was an extremely productive training session and the progress quite valuable. Truman learned a trick and Kili learned that she can earn treats by doing tricks around Truman but not attacking. Here is a video that shows all of this training progress as I videoed the entire training session and then picked out the good bits for you to enjoy.
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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