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:
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