I’ve yet to post new video clips on Youtube. Several viewers from Youtube have messaged me complimenting about Kiki’s achievements and they have yearned to see Kiki performing new tricks. Thank you for your love and support for Kiki. She’s doing well now. She still preparing and training for new tricks. She still needs more time before she can submit her first progress report on the new tricks she learned. This time round, I’m slowly guiding Kiki in learning some complex tricks, which requires some basic tricks that she learned and then chaining these behaviour as one performance. It’s definitely going to take long as compared to previous tricks she learned. She’s progressing pretty well, but for sure definitely there’s glitches and mistakes. With the continuous training and hard work from her, she’s able to meet that goal soon.

Here’s some summary on what she’s learning:

1. The Shell Game Trick

I’ve introduced to her since last Sunday. It’s a trick where Kiki has to open the right pink shell to locate the red lego that I placed in. That’s definitely a tricky one that she learned. She’s able to open the shell and retrieve item within the shells. But the probabilities of opening the right pink shell that contain the red lego still remains low. Really hope Kiki will master this fun trick based on an old game that’s commonly found at funfair & carnivals.

2. Through the Hoop (A component for an Advanced Trick)

It’s quite funny that I’ve never teach this basic trick to Kiki when she first started training. It’s a fairly simple trick, which Kiki understands immediately in a 5mins training session. The objective is whenever I cued “Hoop”, Kiki will have to go through the hoop and exit from the other end. It’s one basic trick that I do recommend teaching your companion parrots. Fairly simple and fun. Kiki does enjoy this simple “game”. The hoop trick that Kiki learned is a component of an advanced trick that I intended to teach Kiki in future. But one step at a time. A simple trick learned now, will benefit for her in future.

I will be uploading the candy shots during the training session to Youtube soon, only when my brother a.k.a cameraman able to capture the moments this weekend. So do stay tune!

Lots of love from Kiki and me!

I’m not out on the street meeting client again today. Sounds like good news for Kiki, a full day attention from me. Lots of fun again and lots of trainings too. This late afternoon, I offered the special treats that I offer usually during weekends. What so special about the treats? It’s definitely not the usual seed mixes but a customized seed mixes with extra dried raisins. I think it isn’t that bad offering raisins since its a source of potassium, thiamin, niacin and phosphorous. These are great vitamins to ensure Kiki remains healthy and strong.

Kiki does has her unique taste from other birds. She never really enjoyed Sunflower nor Safflower seeds. In her thoughts, these seed are just toys for her to unhulled and left there untouched and eaten. Ever since my first introduction of some dried raisin to her usual “tea-breaks” during the weekends, she always yearning for more. She can simply ignore most of the seed & millets in her food dish and concentrate her enjoyment on these raisins. She sure need some exotic sensations to her taste buds.

Based on studies shows parrots have poor sense of taste of around 300-400 as compared to humans’ sense of taste of around 9000. But studies also shown that even though parrots have poor sense of taste, flavors of food does affect their choice and quantity consumed. That’s very amazing isn’t it! So why ill treating our lovely companions with only one kind of food in their daily diet? Just imagine you yourself eating only cereals everyday, aren’t you be bored? In fact, I’m still continue to expose Kiki to different kind of food. As long they are not toxic or unhealthy, I’m willing to give Kiki a try.

For the past Trick Trainings that Kiki learned, I used to believe in the usual method of the PRT (Positive Reinforcement Training), by holding the treats to lure them to do certain behaviour, to be the most effective way to train them. But soon, I noticed I have to correct this statement. Especially when training them in performing Advanced Trick which involve several steps chaining together. Holding treats as cue to lure them to do certain actions can be a big mistake.

I notice whenever I do my fingers (where index fingers and thumb together) in the manner where I’m holding a treat, Kiki will be lured over to both my fingers. Many might ask what’s wrong about luring her to the fingers? They don’t see any big issue to that. But I foresee many possible problems ahead:

Problem 1:
Kiki may thought there’s treat within my fingers and lured over. She may start with some nip to “dig” out any possible treat within my fingers (where there isn’t any in this scenarios). Trust me birds are different from human beings, I’m not saying that they are really stupid and dumb, but just that recognize certain distinct hand or verbal cues for certain things. Like Kiki, she already recognized this as a kind of hand-cue for treats. So whenever she sees this and start “digging” out the treat within my fingers and find out there isn’t any, this might stress her up and I’m asking for a nasty bite from her. I’ve encountered that couple of times when she failed to get what she wants. I think in a long run might not bring any good for Kiki. I believed that might be the possible cause which contributes to Kiki’s recent nippy behaviour.

Problem 2:
There are really disadvantage by holding treats in our hands. Like the past trainings that I did for Kiki, I noticed she’s more willing to “dig” out the treat from my fingers rather than paying attentions in completing the actions that I cued for. It does affect the performance and the attention given during the training session, especially when teaching introducing new tricks.

I soon come across knowing about Target Training from a few animal taming books (like about Dogs and also Parrots of course). Many might asked what is Target Training aka Targeting? Targeting is believe to be the most useful behaviour and the most basic foundation skill a parrot bird must learn. Targeting actually saying that your bird will follow the target and touch it that you ask for. The target can be anything, a stick or a pen, as long it can serve as a pointer. Make sure that this item that you used as a target stick must be unique and never be left to allow your bird to play freely, this will defeat its purpose. Do take note!

I started my Target Training for Kiki yesterday. I DIYed a special stick (actually just a normal stick with green tape at the stick so Kiki won’t be confuse with normal dowel poles) as my target stick. I held the stick in front of Kiki and asked her to “touch”. Whenever her tongue touched the stick, I praise and reward her. If she tried to chew on it, I will quickly remove it and added with a firm “NO”. In fact, Target Training is like a very basic treat, Kiki managed to understand with 5mins. Touch the stick = Reward. But I just don’t stop the Target Training after 5 minutes, I continued to train her for a few more sessions. The objective is to drill the idea of touching the target stick to get the reward deep into her thoughts.

After the Target Training, I started to try out the effectiveness of my target stick. I was totally amazed by the effectiveness of the target stick, Kiki never hesitate going to the location that I point with my target stick. She even touched the purple toy car (that she afraid all the while) that I pointed with my target stick instantly. In my opinion, Target Training is definitely an effective alternative not only to introduce an unfamiliar prop or object, teaching new behaviors and tricks, but also an indispensable way in the bird’s taming process.

Mum’s back home early today, and spent most of her time lying on the couch watching TV. As expected, Kiki definitely climb up the couch and look for Mum. Apparently she appears to seek Mum to play with her. But NO, Kiki’s doing it again. Yeah, she’s caught napping in Mum’s side pocket again. She climbed all the way up to the couch and tucked into one of Mum’s pocket. Oh gosh! She’s really adorable cuddling in there. I think she does have a tired morning when she went through a new trick training session with me.

Too bad all of my shorts that I wear at home are so call “pocketless”, I wonder how it feels like Kiki cuddling inside one of my pocket. I guess it’s time for me to go down store to buy a few shorts for myself. Definitely with pockets this time round!

Related Posting:
Caught Napping in Pocket

This few days, the weather definitely have been very wet and cold too. Very nice comfy weather to hibernate ourselves in our bed. Even Kiki loves doing it that too. She will make her way and0 cuddle herself in Mum’s pocket and takes a short nap in there. That’s a favourite spot, nice and warm, a get away from windy breezes from the windows. Lately I’ve observed that she has been sneezing quite often. Luckily there isn’t any nasal discharge from her sinus. Hope she doesn’t fall ill during this rainy season.

Kiki is back with her silly acts again. When me and mum was watching TV on the couch, we soon noticed that Kiki was missing. She was suppose on the armrest of the couch, but without a single sound she just vanished like a ninja. Soon mum noticed some movements underneath the couch cover at the other armchair. It’s totally amazing that Kiki burrowed underneath the cover simply like any pet rodents. Silly Kiki! *Haha*

Isn’t that fascinating? Although it’s really silly, but she amused everyone in the family. She never fails to make people laugh! Earlier on Mum worried that she won’t be able to come out by her own and stucked underneath the cover.

Too much of the worries. Kiki’s really smart that she’s able to find her own escape route out of the couch cover. Finally back outside with some cool fresh air!

Kiki’s back in action again. This time she recently picked up a new sport that I introduced to her, Basketball. She’s definitely doing well and understand the basic game rule and objective - which is to place ball through the ring. Till now she tend to miss a few shots, but I’m already impress with her performance. She still has lots of training to undergo to perfect her skills. With her talent and intelligence, I’m sure she’s able to make it to the PBA tournament (PBA aka Parrots Basketball Association). *Haha* Just Kidding.

She still attending the frequent Basketball training, hopefully by the next progress report she’s able to meet the perfect scoreline. Ganbatte Kiki! Don’t disappoint your readers and supporters!

Related BasketBall Trick Posting:
Making of the Basketball Prop

I’m scheduling Kiki to learn how to play basketball. Before getting her to expose to game, I need a decent props. I had been shopping around to different pets stores and even toys retail outlets to find a suitable basketball stand and ball for Kiki, but to my disappointment I couldn’t find one suitable for Kiki’s size. Either it’s too tall or too big. This motivated me start some DIY work. Yesterday, I went to a nearby hardware store to buy the necessary materials for my DIY project.

My Shopping List:
1. Acrylic Plate
2. Wooden Stick (with diameter of around 2cm)
3. Cable Tie

I’m planning to use the cable tie to form the ring of the net. The wooden stick to be grounded on to the pre-cut acrylic plate, and the cable tie affixed to the stick forming a basketball stand just like the one show in the picture below.

It’s a fairly simple project, which it only took me around 30 minutes in the morning to complete. Most of the items that I purchased from the hardware store were pre-cut, so basically my primary task is to assemble them together. Seriously, don’t you think it look more like a Netball stand rather than a BasketBall stand. *Haha* Who cares as long there’s a ring for her to dunk the ball in.

The Ring can be easily remove from the stand, so making storage of the prop easier. Keep finger crossing, if Kiki snapped the ring. I still able to redo the ring and fix back on to the stand. Now, I’m still on a lookout for a suitable object as the ball for the game. Wish me luck! Hopefully Kiki will be able to start learning this game.

I wasn’t working on project today, and have a whole day with Kiki. I decided to give me a try on teaching Kiki the waving trick. It sounds to be an easy trick, but I met some obstructions during the training session with Kiki. Days ago and even now, I’m still training Kiki to offer her right leg for the Hand-shaking trick. The progress is good, but with a major problem. Kiki tends to nip my cueing fingers first before performing the hand-shaking trick. I’m trying now to eliminate this negative action in the trick. This worries me alot when I teach Kiki the waving trick.

How do I teach?
This trick is rather simple all you need is one simple T-stand and a stick (I use a empty pen case, but a RED one because I used a BLUE one on my previous somersault trick for the trick, I’ve wash it thoroughly before use, so it’s perfectly safe). Later I will explain why a stick is required for this trick. First I bring Kiki over to her familiar training ground and placing her on the T-stand. Usually before starting any teaching I will give her some warm-up exercise (like Step-Up/Down Commands and Turn-A-Round Command), so to ensure she has full concentration and attention on me. First I introduced the stick to Kiki (for me which is the empty pen case). It’s important to have the stick for this trick, initially I used my fingers to train, but the attempts are less effective and confusing. Why? Kiki mistook my cue as Step-up, she tends to hop on to my fingers instead of lifting her legs. That’s why with the use of the stick prevent the confusion.

As soon as Kiki is comfortable with the stick, seeing her playing and mingle with the stick. I kick of with my first phase of the training session. First objective is to get Kiki to lift her left high (because I holding the stick using my right hand - later on transforming my right hand as cue. If you intend to cue using your left hand, then train her left leg), to do this I hold the stick near her. Make sure don’t the stick too near, the stick has to be out of reach. Kiki will try every means to touch or grab hold to the stick. She tends to use her beak trying to nip on the object, every moment she did that, I remove my stick immediately. Whenever Kiki lift her foot slightly trying to grip onto the stick, I immediately treat and praise her. To let her understand that she’s doing it correctly. I continued to repeat this until she’s totally comfortable, lifting her legs without hesitation.

Then after, I started to introduce a verbal cue to her to do the trick. I use “helllloooooo”. I usually get Kiki to perform tricks with verbal and hand cues together. I noticed it’s far more effective this way. So whenever I bring the stick near her and cue “helllooooo”, she will lift and wave her leg. Once she’s totally comfortable and doing the trick without hesistation, I moved on with the finally phase of the trick.

Finally phase, Objective is to fade off the presence of the stick and introduce a new hand-cue to the trick. I used my right hand, index finger in waving motion to cue Kiki to do the waving trick. I try training with the verbal cue and the new hand-cue, whenever she successfully perform the trick, I treat and praise her accordingly. Wah-lah, that’s how I got Kiki to do the wave.

Helllooooooooo! Kiki!

Oh yah, if any of you have problem getting your parrot to perform the wave with your new hand-cue, try moving a step back and use back the stick again to cue for the wave trick. Once your parrot is comfortable, try slowly fade off again.

Recently everyone in my family started to regard Kiki as the ultimate climber. I agree with that, the name really suits her alot. Kiki usually is free to roam and walk around the house as long under my family members supervision. But there’s definitely one part of the house, she loves to go and that’s my bedroom. She loves to come into my bedroom and climb up to the lack wall-selving through extension cables. I guess she regards the cables as her makeshift playground.

Kiki in action…

Please don’t get your parrot to try this at home. Kiki did this within my supervision, I ensure all the power outlets are off and if she happen to nip on the cables, I will remove her immediately. This is to prevent from resulting any fatal injuries or damages. Safety comes first!