I was introducing a new trick to Kiki, the Toss Ring Trick. It’s no easy task. Kiki was extremely scared of the props for the first time. Whenever i tried to bring props near her, she starts to drift far away from the props. She showed no curiosity about the new items. I spent the whole morning coaxing (yeah again with her favourite “candy” - Millets) her to touch the new props. From this I can forsee she will take definitely more than 2 weeks again to master this new trick. Oh gosh. Definitely hard work for her and also hard time for me. Haha.

After couples of short sessions of 10-15mins, Kiki is now able to lift and bring the ring near to the stem prop. That’s something encouraging and a big improvement for her. But here comes a big problem, she hardly managed to toss the ring onto the stem prop, instead she drop outside the stem prop. Every time, I’ve to assist her and guide the ring onto the stem prop and that’s when she complete the trick successfully. Whenever it’s only her to do it, the ring is always out of the stem prop (and this means no “candy” for her, seems a little demoralizing for her). I have to let her know, that only successful tries onto the stem prop, she then can get her favourite “candy”.

Unexpectedly during my last session of the day during the evening, she started to show frustration after failing to bring the ring onto the stem prop for nearly 5 times. She start to walk away from the prop and scream. Whenever I asked “Ring”, she started screaming. She started behaving like naughty little kids, she’s giving up. No choice, I’ve got to terminate the session immediately. I’ve got to do the “pampering” procedures to calm her down. Got to cuddle her, give her scratches on the neck and head, it’s when she stop the screaming for time being. And her favourite pastime, cuddling on Mum’s shoulder and under Mum’s hair (perhaps she likes the warmth). That’s my girl, my beloved Kiki with weird needs.

Over this few months, Kiki had learned quite a number of tricks. I’ve decided to conduct a mini revision test to cover the tricks that she had learned. I got my brother to capture the video of Kiki doing her tricks collection. The collection consists of tricks and commands like:

1. Up / Down Command
2. Turn A Round Command
3. Nod Command (Nodding Head)
4. Fetch Command (Fetching/Retrieving)
5. Wing Command (Wing Flapping)

The test is a major success and Kiki passed my standards with flying colors. She’s definitely done me proud.

Kiki in actions…

Related Kiki’s Tricks Collection Postings:
Kiki doing the Fetching Trick
The Wing Flapping Trick
Kiki performing the Turn-A-Round Trick

I’ve managed to upload another video to YouTube today. Thanks Brother for helping me to capture Kiki doing the Fetching Trick. I have to admit this is one of Kiki’s favourite trick. Whenever she sees this Yellow Lego Brick on my desk when doing work, she will go over pick the Brick and bring over to my hand. She never fails to do that.

I must admit that Kiki’s favourite toy is gonna be this Yellow Lego brick, and it’s also my favourite toy during my childhood day. It’s definitely lot of childhood memories ,when seeing Kiki plays with it.

Bro’s on leave today, so got him to capture this video when I get Kiki to perform the trick. It is a fairly simple trick that any parrot can master within a day (I taught Kiki this trick on 20th October 2007, and she mastered the trick within half-a day). But again PATIENCE please, don’t push your parrot too hard when teaching the trick.

How do I teach?
I hold Kiki on my right hand. Whenever I tilted my right hand backward, this will force Kiki to flap her wings. The moment Kiki starts to flap her wings, i will use my verbal cue “Wings” and my own hand cue together, and also reward her favourite “candy”. I repeat these cycle several time, until Kiki is comfortable. Slowly I move on with showing the hand cue and verbal cue (I stopped tilting the hand to force the flapping), and waiting for her to do the flapping. When she does the flapping herself, i reward her favourite “candy” again. That’s how i teach my Kiki.

Personally i think this method is only possible for smaller parrot like Lovebirds, Budgies, Parakeets or Cockatiel. I don’t think is possible to do it on a big parrot!

This morning when I woke up, I checked out the cage lining. I can see quite a number of non-moving red dots. I think the mite spray is taking effect. I guess I just have to repeat the process a couple of times.

During the afternoon Kiki helped herself at teabreak with her Sluis Seed Mix. She loves the dried fruits, raisins in the mix. I went pouring her some fresh water for her. In the end she dunked herself into the fresh water happily bathing and playing the water. So happy to see her doing this again. *Smile*

See how wet the surrounding. Oh mind. That’s my Kiki.
Have to end up wiping the table dry myself. *Mad* *Haha*

Kiki had been preening and scratching excessively lately. I can see quite a few small feathers at the bottom of the cage. It’s not a good sign and this made me real worried for her. I can feel her itch and I’m suspecting she suffering from mites attack. I placed a white sheet overnightm, and morning i can see tiny red dots moving around.

OMG! I can feel the itch! So gross and my having goose bumps everywhere. I guess that’s the psychological effect. *Haha*

I went to the nearby pet store to buy the mite spray and i got the 8-in-1 Mites and Lice Spray for Caged Birds. Since the shop owner recommends using the spray, why not giving it a try. I do think Kiki’s condition can’t be delay. I also don’t want the infestation starts to worsen. I think there’s reasons to Kiki having mites on her feathers. Recently she has not been taking bath frequently, like what she usually does, dunking herself into the bowl of water. I guess the rainy weather also stop Kiki from bathing too.

But to stop the infestation, I have to force Kiki for bath. Hope she doesn’t hate me for doing so. I doing that for her own good. After the bath, I left her on the T-Stand to allow self preening process. Seriously I do enjoy looking at Kiki preening herself. So cute. I captured a short video clip, when Kiki’s preening happily.

Kiki preening after bath…

I got mum to help me hold Kiki and getting a towel to cover her head. This is prevent from Kiki fidgeting and also to protect her from getting mite spray solution into her eyes. I made a few short bursts of mite spray on her back and tail wing. Let’s hope Kiki will recover soon!

After a few lessons for Kiki, I’ve decided to post some of the tricks that she has mastered over the months. The Turn-A-Round trick was the second trick that i taught her after mastering the basic step up and down commands. This trick is consider as a basic trick, suppose to be possibly learned within a day, but unfortunately my dear, Kiki took nearly 12 days to learn. Remembering that 17th September 2007 was when i introduced this trick to her, and mastered on 27th September 2007 Oh gosh! I’m almost going to label her as slow learner. Haha.

Anyway as long she master the trick, who cares how long she took to learn. I must admit you sure have to be extremely patient with this feather friend. I’ve gotta treat her like 3 years old kid learning to walk and play. In fact, i pretty excited every time she did this trick whenever i cued for it.

Anyone can train your parrot, is a fairly simple trick. Most important you need a T-Stand and your parrot’s favourite treat (For Kiki, she adores millets. Millet is not in her daily diet, so she will be more motivated when doing tricks), before you can start training your parrot.

How do I teach her?
I trained Kiki by placing her on the T-stand so she can concentrate without fidgeting around. My verbal cue for the trick is “Turn-A-Round”, you can think other shorter word depending on your preference. I start off by holding the treat to the side of Kiki (her right-wing side). When she start moving to the side, i bring the treat to her back. This lured her to the back. Next i bring the treat to her left-wing side, and she’s turned to the side. Finally bring the treat back to front, so she returned back to front. This way she completed one full cycle, and i rewarded her with the treat. Don’t forget to praise her. For me, i never failed to praise Kiki, “Good Girl!” when she did the right thing.

I continued to train her this way for several times of sessions of 10-15mins each. Once she’s comfortable and doing the cycle hesitation upon my verbal cue, and also without holding the treat on my hand to lure her, I start to bring the hand cue further. Slowly enhancing my hand cue, to only by turning my hand in circular motion.

Always remember to be patient to your parrot. Although it may seems to simple easy trick and shouldn’t take up too much time, but your parrot might surprise you!

Kiki took 2weeks to learn this treat!