Training Your Pet Parrot

Parrots are wonderful pets. You will quickly find that these birds are extremely smart and their ability to learn makes them fun to train. Keep in mind that any animal that shows signs of high intelligence can easily get bored, so your job is to train your pet parrot and spend the time it takes to make your bird into a wonderful pet. It takes time and patience to train a parrot, but with the proper training, your parrot will provide you with many years of friendship and entertainment. African Grey Parrots are the easiest parrots to teach to speak, although mom and dad have a grey cockatiel that is over 28 years old that has a vocabulary of more than a hundred words. He learned to talk from sitting on dad’s shoulder as he read the newspaper and talked to the bird. No formal training was ever undertaken with him.

Here are some tips to help you train your parrot. Whenever “school is in” for your parrot, it is always best to remove your parrot from his or her cage and train it in a small quiet space. Your parrot is more likely to remain attentive and retain information when it is in a new environment. The next thing you have to do is eliminate all distractions in your home. If your parrot becomes distracted during training, it will not learn what you are trying to teach. That means that you need to turn off the radio, television and perhaps even the telephone. Also, remember that parrots are a lot like children. They have short attention spans, so short training sessions are recommended.

In addition, try to plan your parrot’s training time around their schedule, not yours. After mealtime is always a good time for training, because your parrot will be content and will pay attention. Your parrot will also appreciate plenty of praise. Even if you find that you are not very successful, do not let your parrot see your stress levels rise. This makes it an unpleasant experience for your bird and you will have a harder time getting your parrot interested in learning in the future. Try to make learning fun for your bird.

When you are ready to teach your parrot a new trick, your pet parrot will respond well to treats and praise. Remember that all animals respond better to praise than punishment. Try to avoid punishing your parrot, even if he or she is acting naughty. Ignoring this behaviour is your best bet when training your pet parrot. Parrots do not understand punishment or negative reinforcement. In fact, if you respond to your parrot’s bad behaviour, your pet may actually see this as positive attention. Keep in mind that while your parrot will love food treats as rewards, try to accentuate the positive and encourage good behaviour with lots of praise and play time. Otherwise, your parrot may only perform the tricks you want him to when some kind of food reward is available.

Repetition is the key to successfully training your pet parrot. Repeating these basic steps until your pet “gets” the trick is the best way to train your parrot to perform. This works well for basic commands and advanced tricks. If you have just gotten your pet parrot, start out with very simple tricks, such as teaching your parrot to sit on your finger on command. Find a word for each trick and use it every time you train. Most of all, never force your parrot to train. If you find your parrot is tired or uninterested, then stop and try again another time.

As your parrot learns more commands and tricks, you can begin moving your training session closer and closer to the bird’s cage. As he gets better at his new skill, he will feel comfortable performing in his cage and in the hustle and bustle of your household. Some birds can learn quickly and sometimes just by listening, which may cause embarrassment to you if they learn something inappropriate. One parrot mom and dad had learned things from watching television. Cisco, mom and dad’s cockatiel, learned from dad talking to him. Every night when they were ready for bed, they would say, “nighty night” to him, turn out the lights and go off to bed. After a couple of weeks of this, he would respond, “nighty night.” Now when mom can’t sleep and sits at the table reading, Cisco will put up with it for a little while and then he loudly pipes, “nighty night” until she goes to bed.

Training a parrot can take a lot of time and patience, and sometimes, like mom and dad’s parrot “Bertsie,” an Orange-winged Amazon parrot, they never learn to talk. Mom and dad no longer have any parrots of their own, but they do baby sit a friend’s African Grey parrot several times a year. “Paco” has a large vocabulary of words and sounds that he says. The interesting thing about him is that when he says something, he uses the voice of the person he learned the word or phrase from. If he learned from his “mother,” he mimics her voice and if he learned what he is repeating from this “father,” he mimics his voice. The funniest thing he does is go through the sound of a ringing cell phone, the sound of the phone being clicked open and then he says “Hello” and carries on a conversation…then he says “Well I have to go now, Goodbye”…then you hear the sounds of the cell phone being closed. He’s really funny, but when he makes some of his really loud noises he scares me, so I’m nervous when he is here. You must love your bird and have a lot of time and dedication to make this partnership worthwhile. With patient training and love, you will end up with a fantastic and well-behaved pet that will be with you for a very long time as the average lifespan of parrots is from 50 to 80 years, with some living over 100 years. They are truly unique pets. Whether they learn to talk or not, they are great to have around, as they will give you hours of pleasure watching their natural antics.

Until next time,

Teia

Budgerigars Frequently Suffer From Scaly Face

Pictured to the left is a healthy male Budgerigar.

Scaly face is a common condition in birds caused by a mite called Knemidocoptes. This scaly face condition is seen mostly in budgerigars and by knowing what symptoms to look for you will be able to provide treatment for your bird much earlier in the onset of an infestation. If the mites are not identified early, the damage could be severe.

Knemidocoptes is a burrowing mite that can cause disfiguring changes of the beak, legs and feet of birds. The mite has a three-week life cycle and stays on the bird the whole time. The mites burrow into the skin and feather follicles around the cere, feet and face where they feed on keratin. As the mites burrow, they leave characteristic honeycomb lesions. The mites are transmitted from bird to bird by close contact.

Although this mite most commonly affects budgerigars, many different species of birds are affected. This mite can affect all chickens, turkeys, finches, canaries, parakeets and parrots. Although the clinical signs of this mite can vary between species of birds, the basic lesions are the same.

Knemidocoptes occurs mostly in birds that have a weaker immune system. Lesions to look for include scaling, crusting and grayish lesions on the skin around the beak, eyes, legs and feet. The mites burrow into the skin leaving large tunnels resulting in the characteristic honeycomb lesion.

In severe cases the beak will start to grow malformed and it might become hard for the bird to breathe. Also, the legs and feet will also become malformed and the bird will become lame. Swollen nail beds and misshaped nails can also occur.

Both male and female budgerigars may be affected, but the disease is most commonly seen in fledglings and younger adults. The lesions usually appear over the course of months and the progression of the disease is slow.

Normally the first lesions to appear are at the corners of the beak. In most cases the condition is confined to the base and top of the beak. Normally the condition does not cause itching in the birds. The fact that the condition does not cause itching is why the honeycomb lesions and the location of the lesions will help your veterinarian determine that this condition is scaly face.

Your veterinarian will usually do a skin scraping of your bird to help confirm the diagnosis. Treatment usually consists of Ivermectin or Moxidectin. Either of these drugs can be given to treat the mites. These drugs can be given in varying forms and doses, so consult your veterinarian before treatment.

By knowing what signs to look for in your budgerigars, you'll be able to catch this condition in its early stages to hopefully prevent further damage and prevent further infestations.

Until next time,

Teia