How To Teach Your Pet Parrot Tricks
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Parrots are very intelligent birds and tests have shown that they do in fact have the intelligence of a small child. The funny part of that proof is that a parrot needs almost the same attention that a small child does. Spending time with a parrot and teaching it several parrot tricks will keep it occupied, will help with its sociability and will give it the interactive communication that it desires. Doesn’t all that sound the same as the needs of a small child?
When a parrot has all these needs met it will be a happy parrot and will make a wonderful pet. If it does not have these needs met then it will most likely become a ‘naughty parrot’ and before long it will show bad behavioral habits. It will start being aggressive to attract attention and it will start biting. Does that sound familiar?
If you are serious about training your parrot to do some fun things and enjoy each other’s company, then set up your training time with care. Plan the parrot tricks training time so that you are both concentrating on the job at hand, that you are both in a positive mind set and that there are treats for the parrot when he does the right thing.
Another point to remember so that you get the best results is to keep the parrot training time short so as not to frustrate either yourself or the parrot. Short training periods will help maintain a positive attitude for both the owner and the parrot and should produce much better results than longer sessions will. Because the sessions are small, repetition is the key. Teach the same trick 4 or 5 times a day and the parrot will very quickly pick up what it is supposed to do.
Tricks to teach your parrot.
One of the first tricks to teach a parrot is to “step up”. This is simply getting the parrot to step onto your finger (or arm if it is a larger bird). Extend your finger in front of the parrot’s feet and ask it to “step up”. Repeat this several times in a calm, soothing voice so as not to frighten the bird. If necessary, hold some food in front of the bird, out of reach so that it will move forward. When the bird does what it is supposed to do give it a small treat.
“Turning around” is another trick that birds will learn quite quickly. The idea is to get the parrot to do a full turn on the perch. To start this trick, hold a piece of food to the side of the parrot so that it has to turn its head. Ask it to “turn around” and as it reaches for the food move it behind the bird so that it turns completely around on the perch. When it does turn around give it a treat.
Teaching the parrot to talk
One habit that a parrot can have which is a common annoyance is continuous screeching. A very simple way of preventing this is to teach the parrot to talk. When a parrot has developed a vocabulary it is quite happy to chat away rather than do the continual screeching. Also, once a parrot has learnt to talk you will find that family members will tend to interact with it more and this is just what the parrot needs to keep him happy.
Teach it to talk by slowly repeating one word which more often than not is “hello” the first time. When it starts to make a noise even a little bit like the word you are saying give it a treat and this will encourage it to keep trying. As the bird learns how to vocalize words it will extend its vocabulary and be a lot of fun to talk to.
With a lot of care and attention you will find that your pet parrot will really become one of the family and both the family and the parrot will have a very happy association. You will find that the more parrot tricks you teach him the happier he will become and the less behavioral problems there will be.
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