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
Truman is really looking forward to the Superbowl now that he thinks he's a star quarterback. Not only is he good at passing the ball around by flinging it with his beak, he can also hold the ball for kicking a field goal. Check out these photos, cartoon, and video of my Cape Parrot playing with his football!
Then Truman becomes the football himself! He's just about the right size come to think of it. I can play the role of both quaterback and receiver! We started playing a game with Truman where I hold him like a football and throw him and he turns around and comes back to me. Originally this started out as me just trying to get rid of him when he was being annoying not letting me get things done but he'd just turn around and come back to keep bugging me. But then we realized the trick potential and I began encouraging these boomerang flights with treats.
Truman the Cape Parrot lining up to play some football. Set...
...Hut! Truman snaps the football
It's a fumble! Quick, recover the ball!
Ok, let's play it safe and go for the field goal! Cartoon of parrots kicking a field goal.
I heard that February is National Pet Dental Health Month so I bought a toothbrush for Kili and Truman to brush their beaks with. I knew that Kili wouldn't care but that Truman would go bonkers for it. I took Truman to the pharmacy with me and picked out the cheapest/simplest toothbrush they had. Truman was already wide eyed over the selection so you can only imagine how he felt when he could get his beak on one!
I didn't even have to open the package, Truman lost no time figuring out this toy within a toy! With exquisite dexterity, Truman eagerly chewed the package open and got his prized toothbrush out. I showed Truman how to brush his beak but he grabbed the toothbrush away from me to do it his own way. He felt the bristles with his tongue and chewed the toothbrush from all sides. This must be the greatest one dollar parrot toy he has ever played with!
I came across a Parrot Foraging Tower at the bird store while shopping for some supplies. It was very expensive but the store owner seemed fairly eager to get rid of it by lowering the price to just expensive. Thus I brought the tower home for Kili and Truman to play with.
Kili being the trained parrot that she is was ready to learn the trick but only with my guidance. She would not just play with the tabs and figure it out on her own despite the treat being in plain sight. She waited for me to show/tell her what to do but then mastered the basic task very quickly through clicker training. She already knew the pull command from the magic drawer trick so it was mainly a matter of clicker training her to apply it to the tower. But the tower is much bigger than she is, so she couldn't go beyond two tabs to pull on.
Truman on the other hand became master of the parrot foraging tower. Not only is he tall enough to reach the top tab if he stands on his tippy toes, but his hooked beak is perfect for pulling the tabs open. Truman had a slight advantage in that he watched me train the trick to Kili. However, I never worked with him and the only rewards he got for attempting the trick were from the tower itself. After just a handful of almonds and sessions, Truman learned that pulling all the tabs out was key to getting the nut to fall out. Still, he does not follow any logical sequence for pulling the tabs. However, from a reinforcement standpoint, the sequence is irrelevant and the nut will only come out when all tabs are pulled out.
All advantages are on the side of Truman with this one. Not only on size and strength but also perseverance. Kili is more focused on following commands and doing tricks to earn treats from me. If the toy isn't rewarding her quickly enough, she'll turn to me and say hello or show her wings for a treat rather than keep working at it. On the other hand Truman is slower and more thoughtful. He'll approach the tower from different sides and keep working for 10 minutes if he has to until the nut is his. Then he'll spend a few more minutes still, working the nut out of its shell. Quite the entertainment package for a brainy Cape Parrot. In the video you can see Truman step away and think before approaching the tower again. He takes many breaks but he doesn't give up. His persistence pays off with a large tasty nut.
What treats are you giving your parrot for tricks is the question I am asked time and time again. I'm not sure why people are so fascinated by this. Perhaps they think I have invented some special magic treat that has the power to make my parrots succumb to my commands. I am always a bit reluctant to answer this because the treats I use may not be successful or even healthy for other parrots. People assume that if they would use the same treat that I use, they might achieve better success training their parrot but this may not be the case. So really this question should be split into two distinct questions:
What treats do you use to train Kili & Truman?
What treats should I use to train my parrot or parakeet?
Before I answer the first one, I'm going to explain the answer to the second instead. I don't want people to fixate too much on what treats I use because they may not work for a different parrot. So instead I'm going to teach you how to choose treats for your parrot instead. I will start by categorizing parrots into two categories:
A) Small parrots and parakeets (Budgerigar, Cockatiel, Green Cheeked Conure, Parrotlet, Lovebird, etc). B) Most other parrots (Senegal Parrot, Sun Conure, African Grey, Cockatoo, Amazon, Macaw)
I'm leaving out parrots with specialty diets (Lorikeets, Eclectus, and others) because what they consume as a treat may be more species specific and really up to the research of the owner to understand their diets. So for most parakeets and small parrots selecting a treat is actually really easy: millet spray. Budgies, Cockatiels, and other tiny parrots just go bonkers for that stuff. The seeds are nice and small but so are their beaks so its a match made in heaven. These birds have rapid metabolisms so it's not much time until they are ready to have some more. Most of the time withholding their normal in the cage food for 3 hours should lead to sufficient motivation for training for millet spray.
Millet Spray is a very effective trick training treat for Cockatiels, Budgies, and other parakeets
Millet spray has its pros and cons as a treat. A really good aspect is that the individual seeds are very small and not that filling unless eaten in large number. You can vary the value of the reward by the amount of time you give the parrot the opportunity to nibble on the millet seeds. A very good job could be rewarded for 5 seconds of nibbling on millet while a normal reward may be just a bite of a seed or two to maintain hunger for more training. Another benefit that is great for beginner trainers or new birds is that you can vary the length of the stick of millet you use. Normally millet spray is sold in long strands. Use a scissor to cut off anywhere from 1-6 inches from the end. In the beginning a longer stick may give enough buffer between trainer and parakeet to give both the confidence they need to interact (parakeet that it won't get harmed and trainer that he won't get bit). When you are really proficient at training, breaking off a single ball of millet will work to your advantage because you can hide it from sight when the bird needs to focus on the task at hand rather than the lure.
You can hold a stick of Millet Spray to maintain adequate distance from your parakeet
The main downside of millet spray is that it is very messy. Little seeds and husks will shed like the falls of Niagra. This is bad twice over. Not only will it make a mess requiring cleanup but it will also distract the parrot while it tries to pickup seeds off the surface rather than train. Keeping a handheld battery powered vacuum and using it frequently is a must if your parrot is not sitting on a tall training perch away from the surface. Always make sure that the millet spray you are using is fresh because it does spoil if sitting too long. Lastly, if it isn't already obvious, don't put millet spray into the parrots cage so that you can maintain it as a trick training treat. If it eats it in abundance in the cage, it won't work as hard to earn it in training. Virtually all parakeets are introduced to millet spray from the store/breeder but if yours really has no clue what it is, then leave it in the cage initially until it is eating it with confidence. But once it is familiar, only use it as a treat. There may be some other treats you can use for small parrots and parakeets so consider some of the following advice for larger parrots as well.
Now onto treats for most other parrots. The thing is, parrots come in so many different species and are such complex creatures that no single treat is universal. This is why I suggest a method for establishing treats for each individual parrot rather than suggesting a specific food. First off, it is important to realize that many parrots have not tasted all possible foods that could be treats. So if the breeder, store, or past owner had never offered a certain food to a parrot, it won't know that it wants it. Don't be surprised that offering an almond or sunflower seed to a new parrot brings no response. People think that by giving their parrot the same things I give mine they will earn its trust but it is completely possible that the parrot doesn't even know what that food is!
Before you can even discover what treats will be effective for your parrot, you have to begin by giving it a chance to taste each one and evaluate what it likes. The easiest way of doing this is to offer lots of different foods in the parrots cage for a few days/weeks. You don't want to overload it with treats to sample or it won't eat anything healthy so a good way of doing this is to feed it a normal healthy diet and only when it finished eating to put in a few treats to try (and offer different ones each day). At the end of this article I will mention what treats I use for my parrots so you can use those as a starting point of things to try. But short of chocolate (including chocolate chip cookies and anything containing it), avocado, coffee, alcohol, and anything toxic to humans, most foods can be tested as treats. You may be surprised at what they like. Just bare in mind that the unhealthier the food, the less often you should offer it as a treat no matter how much the parrot likes it. If you're looking for advice on getting an already tame parrot to taste new foods that it may not want to try (but you think it would like), take a look at how I taught my parrots to eat pineapple.
Nuts and Seeds are a good starting point as treats for training parrots
In the beginning a parrot may not eaten certain foods but don't automatically assume it doesn't like them. It may just be scared of them. Only if it rejects them consistently while favoring other foods is it a good indicator that this is not a suitable treat. Don't rule out trying these foods again some time down the line if you think they are good treats because sometimes a parrot will start to like something it didn't before. Once the introduction of various foods is complete (or at least under way), you can begin to observe which foods are the favorite when offered together with others. Let's say you want to see whether your parrot likes banana, sunflower seeds, or almonds the best. Put a few little pieces of banana, couple sunflower seeds, and couple pieces of almond in the same bowl. Put this in the parrots cage (or offer from your hand if it is already tame) to see which ones it eats first. If there is an evident pattern (for example eats all banana pieces first, then sunflower seeds, and leaves all almonds), then it is likely that is the order of preference the parrot likes those treats. If it eats them randomly, then either it likes them all about evenly or hasn't developed stronger preferences yet. If there is a pecking order of preference for treats, keep it in mind and use the most favorite treats more sparingly as a super reward for break throughs in training.
There are two ways to use variety of treats to your advantage. Either use a complete variety in each training session starting from the least preferred treats in the beginning to the most preferred treats at the end or use the same treat the entire training session but change treats between training sessions. There is an advantage to each of these methods. By using a variety of treats in a single training session, you can maintain motivation longer by improving treats as the parrot becomes less hungry, more tired, and hopefully improving behavior. On the other hand by using a different treat each day you can save on effort/waste (cutting up 10 different fruits could be costly and ineffective for every training session). Since it may be a week or more since the parrot got to have that kind of treat, it will be motivated to train for that taste/nutrient even if it isn't as hungry or the best treat. I have definitely noticed with my parrots that by bringing out a treat that hasn't been used in a long time, that they will work harder for it even if they weren't made as hungry by food management.
Establishing treats for parrots depends as much on what you don't give as what you do as part of the normal diet. By not serving things perceived as treats in the cage as part of meals, you improve the desirability of treats for training sessions. However, since treats only account for 5-20% of the parrot's daily meals, the blander cage food should still remain desirable. Besides the health benefits of getting a parrot off of a seed and onto a pellet diet, training is another great reason to do this. If a parrot is eating seeds in the cage all day, good luck trying to get it motivated to train for seeds. If there is no way you can get that parrot onto a pellet diet, the least you can do is to go through its daily rations and pick out every single favorite seed and put them aside for training and only feed secondary seeds in the cage. Ideally though, a healthy pellet diet will both balance the less healthy treats you give and make them that much more desirable. I limit cage food to pellets and vegetables only. Everything else I use as treats both for nutritional balance and training reinforcement. This works very well because it ensures the parrots don't get too much of what they don't need and I get all the credit for the pleasure of those foods.
Foods you eat yourself can often be as motivating as treats specifically for parrots
Without getting too much into food management, I want to point out that if a parrot is hungry, even ordinary cage food can be rewarding for training. How hungry the bird is will play a large part in how hard it will work for certain foods. It is requisite that the parrot at least be slightly hungry to work for any kind of treats. Imagine having such a big meal that there's just no room for desert no matter how good it is. Well don't train your parrot in that kind of state. Once again, without getting into advanced food management, the very least you gotta do is train the parrot before it goes over to the food to eat. You can safely remove the food from the cage for 3-6 hours prior to training for any kind of parrot, do the training with treats, then put the parrot back into the cage to complete its meal. So my point is that if you can't come up with any treat that is better than what the parrot already eats as its staple diet, it can be used as a treat with sufficient hunger. On the other hand, no matter how good a treat is, it won't be effective for repetitious training if the parrot is not hungry at all.
Keep in mind that as your parrot discovers new foods, times change, and hormonal changes occur, effectiveness of treats may vary. For example going into winter and declining in home temperatures, more fatty treats may be most desired while going into summer sugary things may become preferred. Pay attention to this by checking the vigor with which the parrot eats certain treats or which treats it is willing to work for.
Lately I have been finding that for continued training (but not necessarily for initial training) just using a treat that hasn't been used in a while can be sufficient motivation instead of more aggressive food management. How much the parrot desires the taste of a specific treat vs how hungry it is for eating anything are important factors in training. I would suggest sticking to the favorite treat method (as long as parrot is hungry enough that it would like to eat) unless greater motivation is required for more advanced training behavior. Remember that motivation/hunger is only one side of training. Just because a parrot isn't learning a new trick does not necessarily indicate that it is not hungry or doesn't want the treat. The parrot may be distracted or just doesn't understand what you want. You can test motivation by cuing an already known trick to compare. If the parrot eagerly performs other tricks then motivation is not the issue.
As the parrot becomes more accustomed to the treats and the concept of training, try to use smaller and smaller treats. This increases the value of each treat and prolongs the amount of motivation you can get out of every training session. While at first you may be giving an entire almond or slice of apple, eventually you should be able to cut these into bite sized pieces. Not only will you save on time between tricks for eating, but you will be able to get more repetitions for the same amount of food. A good indicator of size is a treat that the parrot does not need to life its foot to chew. If it can swallow the treat in one piece, you are ready to continue immediately. Unfortunately seeds can't be broken down and the parrot will take more time to work on it.
Now onto the question that is on everybody's mind, what treats do I use for my parrots? I will break this down to 4 parrots (2 deceased) and ballpark order the treats based on effectiveness as motivators for training.
Kili - Female Senegal Parrot Sunflower Seeds Apple Banana Saflower Seeds Walnut pieces Peanut pieces Almond pieces Oatmeal Grape Pasta Popcorn Dried Corn Other Seeds Pellets
Truman - Male Cape Parrot Almonds (especially whole) Walnut Pecan Mango Grape Apple Pineapple Peach Banana Sunflower Seeds Corn Pasta Popcorn Pellets Other Seeds
There may be some other foods I did not mention but they do not play as major of a role in training as the above foods do. Sometimes the chance to taste a table food never tasted before can go a long way. I don't like using manufactured treats like newtriberries and other things. First of all they are way too big, the parrot will fill very quickly on one or two of these treats. Further they mix everything together. I can get a lot more effectiveness from dividing up the effective ingredients and offering them as treats individually. Don't forget that not all rewards must be food. Toys, scratches, attention, shoulder time, or getting to check out what you're doing can all be used as effective rewards for behaviors such as recall. For more basic information about how to begin taming and training a parrot, refer to my taming article.
Kili and Truman enjoy getting a whole nut for a job well done
As a trainer I really like to use nuts and seeds as treats. They are easy, don't spoil quickly, and highly motivating. The good thing about seeds is that you can easily buy a mix cheap and eating it as a complete experience for the parrot. I think they enjoy breaking them out of the shell as much as the taste. However, they may take a while to work on and leave a mess of husks. This is why my favorite treat to use for training is nuts. I'll crack an almond, walnut, or peanut and keep the nut between my fingers. Then I break off pieces prior to each reward depending on how much I want to give. I can freely walk around without having to return for more treats. The birds can eat it without dropping anything or making a mess. I break the pieces small enough that they usually swallow it in a single bite and are ready to continue training. However, by using a treat I'm normally too lazy to use (fruits or stuff I'm eating), I can sometimes get unbelievable boosts of motivation. Perhaps I won't get as many repetitions as a normal training session but I think it helps lock the behavior in as more memorable for the awesomeness of the treat it earned like a whole kernel of popcorn. But I never give my parrots food "just because." They need to know that getting special treats depends on their good behavior. So at the very least I recall them over or have them do a trick for the special food.
Nearly a year ago I took a trip through West Africa and got to visit the native habitats of Senegal Parrots, Rose Ringed Parakeets, and Brown Necked Cape Parrots. I've already posted footage of the limited sightings I've made of wild parrots during the trip. Unfortunately most of my contact with parrots during the trip was not with them in the wild.
The only Senegal Parrots I saw in Senegal were a pair of wild caughts for sale at the side of a road in the capital city of Dakar. As we were driving through heavy traffic, the seller of these parrots walked up to the car sticking the cage up to the window offering both of them with cage for 20 euros (approximately $30 USD).
Before reading/looking further I must warn you that images, videos, and descriptions are very graphic and you may well not want to see/read this. If seeing images of animals suffering is unbearable to you, stop here. You won't regret missing what I experienced.
People have been asking me why I did not buy them to keep or release. First of all, I was traveling on vacation with no interest in actually buying a parrot. Taking them out of the country may be problematic but bringing them into the US would be absolutely illegal. Buying the parrots to free them would first off encourage capture of more parrots for sale. Since the parrots were likely caged as such for a long time with no ability to exercise, they were most likely malnourished with atrophied muscles. They would not be able to evade predators or humans if freed and most likely eaten or captured for sale again.
As I explain in parrot training, it is important not to positively reinforce unwanted behavior. And in this case paying for the capture of wild parrots would simply encourage them to do more of this. For all of these reasons I did not do any of this and (besides recording) simply ignored the seller by not offering to pay. Those two parrots are doomed no matter what. They are doomed if they get sold, doomed if they aren't sold, and just as much if they are released. The best thing I can do is not to be a participant in this industry.
The seller was bargaining insistently trying to get us to buy them so to ward him off we asked to see the documents for the parrots which immediately changed his desire to try to push us to buy.
During the trip I spotted wild caught Senegal Parrots and Rose Ringed Parakeets held captive on several further occasions including in a small aviary in a hotel garden. Some of the wildlife reserves had cages with confiscated wild caught parrots that they were rehabilitating for release back into the wild.
I visited the forests of Sierra Leone to which Cape Parrots (Poicephalus Robustus Fuscicollis) are endemic but did not have the chance to see any. The local people have different names for the parrots so it was difficult to explain. But when I showed a picture of Truman, rather than saying where to see them in the wild, they said you can find those for sale on the market from time to time. The Cape Parrots are definitely far less common than the Senegal Parrots. On the other hand, the Rose Ringed Parakeets seem quite plentiful.
During the last segment of my trip in Bomako Mali, I was taken to see the local parrot market. Scattered on the side of the street under cover of trees were about a dozen vendors and many cages. At least as many other kinds of local birds were offered as parrots. Parrots came in two varieties: Rose Ringed Parakeets (Psittacula krameri) and Senegal Parrots (Poicephalus Senegalus).
Atop a garbage pail was a small round cage housing nearly 20 parrots and parakeets. The condition of the cage was so crammed that some of the parrots had to cling to the cage bars or stand on top of other birds. The poor condition of the parrots was evident through plucked feathers, missing eyes, missing limbs, and weak stance. Tossed on the bottom of the cage amidst feces was chicken feed mainly consisting of corn. Despite their tragic lives, the Senegal Parrots still gave off that typical parrot curiosity and watched me as I approached.
Rose Ringed Parakeets were available in abundance and very cheap. The seller offered a pair of them for $15 including the cage. The Senegal Parrots were just a bit more expensive at $10 each. Most of the parrots were not captured in Bomako but brought in from Segou, Mali. How shocked the sellers would be to know that the parrots they are selling for $5-$10 a piece often carry a price tag of as much as $600 in the US. Of course there's no comparison; the American ones are carefully domestically bred and raised while those were snatched from the wild.
The market parrots were mostly being sold to local people (often as decorations for offices and hotels) but some to smugglers to be taken abroad. To show a parrot to perspective customers, the vendor opens a small door on the cage and reaches his arm in. The parrots immediately go into a frenzy and start jumping over each other to try to evade the approaching hand. Meanwhile he starts grabbing and pulling by their wings until they can no longer hold on and fall into his reach.
I alone cannot do anything about the situation. Buying, releasing, arguing, or anything else would not have solved anything. However, I feel that by sharing this with everyone, people may develop a differing view. Whether you travel to Africa or some other place with native parrots for sale, do not under any circumstances buy them (whether to keep or release). Discourage others from buying wlid caught parrots as well. Adopt parrots from rescues, other owners, or buy parrots from domestic breeders. Unfortunately there is little that can be done about the capture of wild caught parrots for sale to locals. However, as long as foreign trafficking of wild caught parrots ceases, the populations in most cases should be sustainable. It is not an easy problem to solve but it's easy not to be a part of it. And finally, just remember to take good care of your own birds and help out birds at rescues so that our descendants of those wild caught parrots can have a better life.
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.
Truman the Cape Parrot lining up to play some football. Set...
...Hut! Truman snaps the football
It's a fumble! Quick, recover the ball!
Ok, let's play it safe and go for the field goal! Cartoon of parrots kicking a field goal.
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