Trick training!!

[joel1234]

Hey, just a quick question!

I have recently tried to begin trick training my birds this week I have two male irns and one female! I know it's only been a week and I am not expecting much success already but my main question is; what do u do if ur parrot is not motivated by food treats?? I have tried all different treats and nothing seems to be working. Almonds, sunflower seed etc. I've tried everything I can think of.

I also read somewhere that some parrots may be motivated by affection, I.e head scratches and cuddles etc. my birds all love cuddles but now that I have been 'cuddling' them for to long now to make it a size able reward for them.

Please help! Will they eventually begin to become more motivated for these food treats or is there something else I can do?

Thanks, all help appreciated.

[ellieelectrons]

Firstly, you need to find the "right" treat. Give them a bowl of all different foods and see what they eat first. It may be different for each bird. Remove those items from their regular diet and use that only in training. When you do the training make the items as small as possible so that the birds don't fill up too quickly.

I would also recommend increasing their foraging and that should make a difference. Read more here:
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... 01&p=69400
http://www.indianringneck.com/forum/vie ... =4&t=13466
http://www.parrotenrichment.com/ - this site has some free ebooks to download

I hope that helps.

Ellie.

[joel1234]

Thanks a lot, I will give it a try!

[ellieelectrons]

Also wondering, do you work with them individually or together? I imagine working with them together could be a bit difficult? I have two and always work with them together but I had one of mine for a year before getting the second one so she already knew what this training caper was all about. It can, however, be difficult working with two at one time, so I can't imagine how difficult it must be to try working with three.

I can't bring myself to leave one locked in the cage while the other is out free (it just doesn't seem fair!), though, so I just keep working with the two at the same time.

Ellie.

[joel1234]

I try to work with them one at a time. But I am the same as you, I can't leave the others in their cages while the other has all the fun. I generally just put the others on a play stand in the same room. (although sometimes they make it hard to concentrate when their flying around landing all over me) then work with each individual bird on another perch.

Thanks for all ur help. You seen to know ur stuff as well haha. I'm sure ur birds live extremely happy lives!