tricks

[~*Gwennie*~]

how can I teach lou to do some tricks? What is something simple to start with?

[kyria]

really easy thing to teach, that I happened across with kai.

One day he picked up a little plastic lid, the top off a drink bottle. Big enough for him to get his beak into. when he held it in his beak, It looked like he was holding it out for something. So i dropped a treat in it. He grabbed it with his hand and removed the treat (melon seed). Then grabbed it with his beak to go on playing and biting the lid.

I dropped another treat into it. After a while he realised that this lid meant getting a treat. I would ask him to .. "Bring Your Cup"! .. Soon I had him walking across the stand or the floor with the cup in his beak, just to get a treat.

Now he will go and get his cup whenever he wants a treat, or if I ask him to go and get his cup, he will go and find it and bring it to me, holding it out just for a treat.

Not much of a trick I know, but Its so cute to see him running up with his cup in his beak all excited wanting a treat, or responding to me when I ask him to go get his cup.

So, to begin with, you could simply show your fid a little cup with a treat in it, give it to him and work from there.

[Mikaela]

That is exactly what I do:

Use something they do naturally and turn it into a trick like high 5 or waving.