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
Many parrot owners do not realize it but they are often rewarding their parrots for being bad. This is positive reinforcement working against the parrot owner and the reverse of our intentions in parrot training. It is as much, if not more important to avoid rewarding undesired behavior as it is to reward desired behavior. This will become much clearer when I offer some examples I frequently come across:
Example 1: The owner is eating at the kitchen table when the parrot flies over and lands on the kitchen table. The owner figures the parrot is hungry or attracted by his food so he gives some food off the table to the parrot. Now the owner can't keep the parrot off the table both during meals and between. By giving food from the table to the parrot, the owner positively reinforces the behavior of landing on the kitchen table. The owner may even think that this is cute/harmless behavior but it should not be encouraged for many reasons. I won't even get into the fact that I don't want feathers and poopy feat landing in my food. There are often sharp objects such as forks and knives on the table as well as burning hot foods and drinks. The more a parrot is accustomed to landing on a table, the more likely it is to get hurt by one of these at some point.
Solution 1: The best way to discourage landing on the kitchen table is to never encourage it in the first place. Never, ever, ever, ever give food to the parrot after it lands on the kitchen table. Landing on the table never equates to receiving food. But the parrot still wants it so this does not solve its motivation to get that food somehow. This is why if the parrot is not caged during meals (simplest solution), then an alternative method of reinforcement must be permitted. Take a piece of food from the table before the parrot has landed in your soup and step away from the table. Recall the parrot to your hand, reward for flight recall, and then send it back to its perch to eat. This way you are not only sharing food with the parrot, but also keeping it busy for a while from bothering you more. More importantly this rewards recall while at the same time making landing on the table even less worthwhile. Don't flight recall from sitting down at the table because this will encourage the parrot to keep flying to you while you are at the table. So instead, before it has the chance to fly, step away and teach it to fly to your hand while standing up.
Kili pigs out on corn and frozen mixed vegetables for being a good bird
Example 2: The owner wants to relax and use the computer or watch TV but the parrot keeps nipping for attention. So the owner picks up the parrot, says no, then puts the parrot down on its stand and offers a toy to keep the parrot busy. In this case, the parrot is positively reinforced for nipping the owner with both attention and toys. Furthermore, what the "no" which the owner perceives as a scold, in operant terms becomes a secondary reinforcer really meaning "you'll get toys and attention for what you have just done" (similar to a clicker). Doing this simply ensures that the next time the parrot gets bored, the first thing it will do is start nipping. Ignoring the nipping may be futile since variable ratio reinforcement becomes more resistant to extinction.
Solution 2: Instead of rewarding the nip with a reaction, foresee the situation and distract before it can happen. So instead of giving a toy after a nip to alleviate boredom (which is seen as positive reinforcement), give the toy before you sit down to do your own thing. Make sure the parrot is taken care of and occupied so that you don't have to deal with unwanted behavior afterward. This way you are rewarding the parrot for being on its stand and taking care of itself rather than for bothering you. By preventing the nip (whether it is caging when you are busy, giving toys before you do your thing, or not allowing the parrot onto your shoulder in that situation), you guarantee you won't be inadvertently reinforcing it. If the nip happens anyway, such as getting temporarily distracted with parrot on you, ignore the nip and do nothing first. Before it has the chance to nip again, put it down on its stand and ignore for a short while some more. Then cue the parrot to perform a trick and reward with a toy for doing the trick. This way there is no connection between nipping and getting what it wants. The reinforcement is provided in return for cued behavior and not nipping.
Example 3: Whenever the owner leaves the room, the parrot starts screaming. So the owner goes back so that the parrot would stop screaming. Please don't ever do this. The parrot is making a complete fool out of you if you do. This is the parrot training the owner using negative reinforcement. If you walk out and the parrot screams, too bad.
Solution 3: Don't come back until it stops screaming. Just leave, go do what you have to do. The parrot will eventually get tired and stop. You have no obligation to prevent it from screaming when you aren't even home for it to bother you. Of course this is more problematic when you live with other people who remain to hear the screaming. But trust me, this will only get worse if you keep rewarding it. For the sake of the long term, just deal with the screaming for leaving in the short term to reduce it in the long term. If for any reason you need to go back not pertaining to the parrot (like you forgot your keys or something), go in without making eye contact or going near the parrot. Just focus on what you need while pretending the parrot isn't even there to avoid giving any sense of attention in return for screaming.
In conclusion, whenever your parrot does something you don't like, don't do anything your parrot might like in return. If you aren't used to analyzing behavior under a microscope, then a good rule of thumb is not to do anything at all because odds are it will just encourage it anyway. Instead, when you have identified the unwanted behavior, try to prevent it next time all together. Cage the parrot in circumstances where it may be dangerous for it to be out. When it is more of a matter of nuisance, make sure you are either ready to give attention/supervision to the parrot or preemptively devise ways to keep it busy. Provide toys or foraging opportunities to give it something to do instead of bothering you when you don't want it. Don't play with the parrot or give it attention just because it is annoying you in attempt to get it. But also go out of your way to reward your parrot for being quiet and staying on its perch. It is easy to forget about a well behaved parrot (as opposed to the one that won't shut up or stop biting). Get up and reward the well behaved parrot with toys, treats, or attention for doing what you want from it. As a general rule of thumb, try to make sure your parrot is "earning" every good thing you do for it with good behavior as a requisite and not just because you want to be nice/generous. If it earned it, then it is far less likely that you are rewarding it for undesired behavior.
You don't need to wait till Black Friday to get a fantastic holiday gift sale this year. Give your parrot the gift of training with a set of Parrot Training Perches. These stands come in a variety of perch sizes and the height is instantly adjustable.
Uses for Parrot Training Perches are endless. You can teach your parrot tricks like wave, shake, nod, turn around, and wings. Use a training perch for target stick practice and focusing your parrot on step up. Parrot Training Perches are best used for parrot flight training. You can teach your parrot to fly from stand to stand and eventually to your hand. Potty train your parrot to return to its training perch whenever it needs to poop. Parrot Training Perches make a convenient place for your parrots to hang out with you without going on "people places." They are portable and you can bring them with you if you travel with your birds.
As a bonus holiday incentive to promote my Parrot Training Perches, I am including a free 2011 Parrots and Parakeets 16 Month Calendar. It is a beautiful full color calendar featuring some of your favorite parrot species. All you Poicephalus lovers will especially appreciate the Jardine's Parrot cover shot.
Something is abuzz with Kili and Truman. My brother came by and flew a remote controlled helicopter past the parrots. They both started intently but held somewhat different intentions. Kili was being aggressive and defensive of her perch. She did not wish to have her space impeded by some buzzing black whirly bird. Truman on the other hand had completely different intentions. You could tell that he wanted nothing more than the opportunity to play with the toy. Nothing would please him more than to be able to shred that plastic helicopter into unrecognizable pieces.
The parrots definitely were not scared of the flying toy. They are both flighted and could fly away at any time. Instead they stood their ground and gazed with pinning eyes at their aerial competitor.
I bought some new toys and swings for the aviary and a large water bowl for the parrot's to take baths in. Truman dove right in and enjoyed a bath outside. Kili on the other hand preferred to explore the new swings. I added a circular rope swing to their extended collection of aviary perching places. While I have to put Truman on each toy individually, Kili hops fearlessly from toy to toy.
After receiving much interest in the stands I use for all my parrot training, I have finally decided to release these on sale to the general public. Originally I designed a simple set of stands for the purpose of teaching Kili to target back and forth between them so that she could learn to fly as I would increase the distance. Since then I have made numerous improvements to the design and have found countless uses for these stands. Just to mention a few:
· Target training · Perch to perch flight training · Recall flight training to your hand · Training parrot tricks such as wave, shake, nod, turn around, wings · Advanced and variable height flight recall · Potty training parrot to poop from stand onto newspaper · Socializing parrots to each other · Place for parrot to hang out and play with toys
They are lightweight and portable so they can easily be moved from place to place. Yet they are heavy enough to be durable and support a small to medium parrot landing on them at speed. Some of mine I keep in a permanent location so the parrots know where they are and can fly there for safety (or toilet). The other stands I move around depending on what I am training. Typically I keep the height a bit below my head but sometimes I raise them for video or special training. If I'd like to sit in a chair, I can bring the training stands down to remain at a convenient height for training.
Parrot training perches eliminate the distraction that colorful play gyms and multi-branched climbing trees can create, keeping your parrot's attention on you for training. Since the two stands are independent, the ways you can line them up are numerous. Set them up parallel to each other to teach the parrot to fly between the two stands. Set the perches up perpendicular to each other to keep two parrots on them but not fight with each other. It is easy to add a newspaper at the base to collect any mess.
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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