Merry Christmas to everyone! It’s a festive season when everyone get to enjoy and relax during the holiday, but someone refuse to let me ease off during the day. Surprisingly when I got back home after lunch and going to the room to check out how’s Kiki doing, soon I noticed something is not quite right. Look at what Kiki had done!

I found the 2 parts of the chains and the bell handle were detached and dropped to the bottom of the cage. I have to admit Kiki is really getting on my nerves, she really testing my patience! Getting it fix was a challenging task, the chains of the bell are way too tiny that neither my tools in the toolbox are able to fit. I had to end up borrowing a tweezer from Mum’s sewing kit. What a Christmas gift from Kiki!

Lately I received couples of feedbacks and emails asking me what kind of food that I offered Kiki as treats during her training session, and leads me to a decision to write a post on incentive treats. I do hope it will be a useful information to all parrot owners.

First to begin, I need to define what is a treat and make it clear to everybody the purpose of a treat. A treat is something out of the parrot’s daily diet, which means it’s not a common food that he or she can find it his or her food dishes. Next the treat to be simple and small in servings, why? Small servings will not make our feathered friends feel too full, and making them yearning for more! Parrots are like humans, just imagine when you have lots and lots of packs of French Fries at one go, and later on someone offered you another pack. I’m sure you will definitely stop and not go on as you are full and rather sick of French Fries at that very moment.

Treats to be simple as in the parrot doesn’t have to waste time and effort to hull or crack open the treat (like nuts, sunflower, safflower seeds, peanuts) to enjoy. I’m sure you will not want to see your feathered friend losing interest in your trick training program and indulged in cracking open the treats, this way most of the productive and quality time spent in the training will be wasted. To avoid this from happening, and if you need to use sunflower, safflower seeds or nuts as treats, do ensure they are hulled or cracked open.

Most parrots, in fact I should say ALL parrots preferred seeds as their favorite food. They are naturally “programmed” to like seeds, I guess is probably part of their instincts. Thus selecting seeds as incentive treats will ensure that you will never gone wrong. Type of food possible as treats: Millets, Sunflower Seeds, Safflower Seeds, Peanuts, Peanut Butter. Most importantly is to find out what your feathered friend likes to eat. Kiki enjoys millets, it’s like candy to her. She can never find millets in her daily food diet, she can only expect them from me either through tricks training sessions or when performs a positive behavior. This way it creates a form of motivation for our feather friends to work hard in order to exchange for the treats. They soon will know that treats don’t just come in easy, there’s always a price to pay.

I missed Kiki alot without seeing her for about three days. I’m glad on the day I got back home from Thailand, she welcomed me with her high-pitch chirps. I’m totally elated by her overwhelming welcome “cheer”. Mum told me she has been well-behaved and eating well for the past few days. I’m glad that she lose appetite when I’m not around.

I’m also surprised she’s able to perform well all the tricks that she learned before, even for the past three there isn’t any training for her. It’s totally like a 3 days off for her from her trick trainings. I’ve conducted all the tricks accordingly and she did it with flying colors:

1. Turn-A-Round Trick
2. Hand-shaking Trick
3. Waving Hello Trick
4. Wing Flapping Trick
5. Fetching Trick
6. Ring Tossing Trick
7. Basketball Trick
8. Open and Fetch Trick (A Shell Game Trick Component)
9. Through-the-Hoop Trick
10. The Bell Trick
11. The Somersault Trick
12. The Coin Depositing Trick

Kiki crawling into the pocket again…

After dinner at 6.30pm, she started to cuddle in mum’s pocket again to take a short rest. She’s one lazy bum. *Haha* I think she truly enjoys herself today, especially when she completed the Coin Depositing and Ring Tossing Trick within a very short time. She’s really FAST! She really break her usual record for tricks.

Related Posts:
Pocket Love
Caught Napping in the Pocket

I decided to conduct a Simple Revision Test on all the Basic T-Stand Tricks that Kiki has learned. I got my brother to capture the revision test and compile it into a tricks collection. The collection includes Kiki performing:

1. Hand-Shaking Trick
2. Waving Hello Trick
3. Wing Flapping Trick
4. Turn-A-Round Trick

Kiki in action…

Overall Kiki absolutely did a great job. The results of the revision test are definitely a successful one as shown in the clip above. I received a few emails and questions posted on YouTube asking me what are the first few tricks to be introduced to their birds. The tricks in the Basic T-Stand Tricks Collection performed by Kiki, are the ones that I really recommend. No other special props required in the training, all you need is a quiet and dimly lit room and your bird’s T-Stand. I believe these are relatively easy tricks that any birds can do, even many training books recommended these as the first few basic tricks to introduce to birds with totally no trick training experience.

As I always say in my posts, PATIENCE!
Patience is definitely the key to success!

Related Posts:
Hellooooo! Kiki’s Waving Hello Trick
Kiki performing the Turn-A-Round Trick
The Wing Flapping Trick
Kiki’s Trick Collection

Lately, I have been moving on introducing real basic tricks to Kiki. Earlier on was the “Through the Hoop” trick and now the Bell trick. I just don’t want to make things hard for Kiki, but still let her constantly learning new things and enjoying the moments with me. The thought of bell trick recently just come across in my mind, when I was packing Kiki’s extra toys and spotted this untouched little bell in a plastic box.

It’s a real simple trick that Kiki learned almost immediately. She has to shake the bell a couple of times and land back to the ground properly and not toppling it. I’ve only demo in front of her once, then later whenever I cued for bell, she’s able to pick that up and shake for a few times before letting go. I really enjoy seeing her doing that. I was wondering getting her to perform to my friends during our Christmas events. Who knows she might end up getting a couples of Xmas “Candies” from my friends? *Haha*

Kiki in action…

How do I teach her?
As I said earlier on, it’s a relatively easy trick all is required is a normal bell with a simple notch (this allow Kiki to use it as the handle of the bell) on top. First the objective is to introduce the new props to Kiki, possible techniques are placing food treat near the prop to encourage her to touch. For Kiki, I used the target stick instead as she had been target trained. I used my target stick to tap on the bell, whenever successful touch or grab the bell, I will praise and reward with her favourite “candy”. Once she’s totally comfortable with the new prop, I started to move on with my actual training.

First I did a demo in front of Kiki to let her understand the purpose of the game. The moment I placed the bell in front of her, she immediately grab hold and shake it. I’m totally amazed she make a successful attempt on the first time. I praised and reward her to let her understand that the behavior I wanted for this trick. Whenever she threw or drop the bell immediately without any shakes, I will ignore and refrain from giving any treat until she achieved the action I wanted. I continued these procedures and still yet to perfection, but overall I’m satisfied with her performance in her first training. Good job, Kiki!

If you met training scenarios that your parrots doesn’t pick up the bell shake, be patient. First encourage them by praising and rewarding them when they touched the bell. Then after a few rounds, try hold off the treat alittle longer until they started picking up the bell. If they achieved that, praise and reward them accordingly. Soon after a few rounds, you will be seeing them shaking the bells before letting go to the ground. Thumb rules: Give them time, have patience!

Related Post:
New Training Coming On

I was informed by my friend that Bryan’s Angels and Kiki are featured in an Australian Bird Forum named “Aussie Birds Friendly Forum“. We are featured in the following posts in the forum: Another Lovie Site and Introducing Target Training.

Howdy Australians!

Kiki and I are very happy that our weblog have been introduced to all fellow Australians. Many thanks to the forum moderator, Robert for the introducing Kiki and me to your fellow members. Thank you for all the support and love for Kiki. I do hope that Bryan’s Angels has provide essential information about parroting, taming & training tips that are of good use to all Australian Parrot Lovers. And I do hope everyone has enjoyed Kiki’s trick performances on YouTube. I’m sure Kiki will continue to work hard and bring more actions to everyone.

After letting Kiki exposed to so many advance and difficult tricks, I’ve decided to take a step backwards in teaching Kiki something relatively simple and straightforward. I introduced to her a simple trick called Through The Hoop Trick. It’s a really simple trick that Kiki took only a couple of minutes to understand and master it. It’s a simple trick and anyone can try (including you, the fans of Bryan’s Angels and Kiki, of course) training your birds, and all is needed is just a Hoop. A hoop that is just big enough for your bird to go through. As for me, I couldn’t find a decent hoop in the market for Kiki, so I ended up DIY a customized hoop for Kiki using plastic coated metal wires from hardware store.

Kiki in action…

How do I teach her?
It’s a relatively simple trick for Kiki, as I said she mastered it all within minutes. But time spent on the training might varies on any other birds, especially birds that have never undergone any serious training before. As per normal whenever before I start introducing new tricks, I will let Kiki attend some warm-up session (running through some basic commands and tricks like Turn-A-Round, Wing Flapping & etc). This is to ensure that I gain full attention from Kiki, and it does make training session easier and manageable. Usually the training progress seems to be much more better and effective.

Once Kiki is ready for the new lesson, I start off introducing the new prop which is the hoop to her. For this trick, I used my target stick to introduce the hoop to her. She immediately accept the hoop, and started playing and nibbling with the prop. I started my actual lesson immediately after the introduction was completed. First I placed the hoop on one hand and the other hand holding my target stick at the opposite exit of the hoop. This is to lure Kiki to go through the hoop and touch my target stick. Every successful try through the hoop, I will praise her and reward her with her favorite “candy”. There will be situation where instead of going through the hoop, she went over to nibble the hoop. When I see this, I immediately remove the hoop, this is let her understand refraining from biting the hoop for this trick. I repeat the procedures for a couple of time, until Kiki is totally familiarize with the proper behaviour for the trick.

Finally is add in the cues and fade off the presence of the target stick in the trick. For vocal cue, I used “Hoop” and my visual cue is basically done by knocking the hoop to the ground. You can consider other cues for your birds, as long they recognize and are comfortable with. I still get Kiki to perform the trick with the presence to the target stick but with the add-on of my vocal and visual cues. This is to let Kiki understand whenever she sees these cues, she will have to go through the hoop. I repeat the procedures for a couple of time again. Soon after she’s comfortable, I started removing the presence of the target stick, and Wallah! She doing the trick upon my cues.

During your training, if your birds aren’t ready to response just to your vocal or visual cues. Don’t worry, take a step back and repeat the procedures with the presence of the target stick. Then try fading off the target stick again in the trick. Always remember the thumb rule - Patience!

Related Post:
New Training Coming On

On my previous post, I’ve covered that Kiki is learning The Shell Game Trick. She’s now progressing fairly well. I’m really lucky that my brother was around and he assisted me capturing Kiki during training. I’m here to present you the latest video of Kiki performing a chained trick - Kiki’s Open & Fetch Trick. In fact to be correct, it’s not really a complete trick but just a component of segment in The Shell Game Trick that Kiki was learning since last Sunday. The Youtube video that I’m sharing, featuring Kiki opening the pink shell upon cue and fetch the red lego brick hidden within the pink shell.

As I said earlier on, it’s a chained trick which comprised of two behaviors that Kiki had learned earlier on: The Retrieve Trick (Fetch Command) and The Opening Shell Trick (Open Command). Kiki has totally no problem in executing the retrieval of the red lego brick, as she has performed the fetching trick of his favorite yellow lego brick. With the target stick introduced during Target Training, Kiki was able to accept the red lego brick almost immediately, and this further shorten the time spent in introducing new props. My primary concern in the Open & Fetch Trick was to let Kiki understand the concept of opening the pink shell.

Introducing of the pink shell was fairly straightforward and easy for Kiki with the presence of the target stick. I have to do a few demos in front of Kiki on how I open the pink shell (without the presence of the lego brick). After a couple of times of guiding the motion with Kiki, on the opening of the pink shell, she soon understand the concept and gradually improved in her technique. What I can say about Kiki, she’s really smart and a fast learner. She amazingly surprises me of mastering this trick component within 30 minutes. That’s an achievement! Well done Kiki!

Kiki open the pink shell and retrieve the red lego brick…

Below is the breakdown process on how I step-by-step guided Kiki in achieving the current Open & Fetch Trick. These are very simple steps that I will into various sessions to allow Kiki have enough time to progress, and this reduce any possible chances of stress or frustration during training. Kiki was able to complete the whole breakdown process and understand the Open & Fetch Trick in no more than 30 minutes.

The Breakdown Process of the Open & Fetch Trick

1. Introduction of New Props (The Pink Shell & Red Lego Brick)
2. Learning How to Hold Pink Shell from the handle
3. Learning How to Open the Pink Shell in correct motion (Open Command)
4. Learning How to Retrieve the Red Lego Brick (Fetch Command)
5. Step-By-Step Chaining Process: Open + Fetch
6. Full Training of the Chained Trick

The Progress Checklist for The Shell Game Trick

1. Introduction of Trick Props Done!
2. Learning How to Open the Pink Shell Done!
3. Learning How to Retrieve the Red Brick back to my Hand Done!
4. Chain Process 1: Open the Shell and Retrieve the Red Brick Upon Cue Done!
5. Identifying of the Correct Shell with the Red Brick Hidden (Fixed Positions) Done! But Correct Probability 50%, More practise Required!
6. Identifying of the Correct Shell with the Red Brick Hidden (Random Mixed Up Positions)
7. Full Process Dry Run

Kiki definitely still has a lot of work to do in complete learning the full process of The Shell Game Trick. With her current progress, I’m already very delighted and satisfied. She has done a great job again. I’m looking for her to graduate from this Shell Game Trick “course”.

Related Posts:
New Training Coming On
Introducing Target Training
Kiki doing the Fetching Trick

As the flock leader of Bryan’s Angel, I’ve been busy lately on projects and busy training Kiki with new tricks. I was suppose to post a Youtube clip featuring Kiki during training of the new trick, but I couldn’t as my cameraman - my dearest brother was apparently unavailable. I do hope I will be able to share the clips to everyone real soon.

Anyway today, I caught Kiki doing something really fantastic. I left Kiki back to her cage for her dinner as 6.30pm as usual and I went for a shower. Soon after I was back from the shower and standing in front of the cage, Kiki started to hop down to the cage door and started her amazing attempt. She trying to lift open the cage door. I swear that no one has ever taught her on this, everything was self-taught by her own. I’m totally impressed, I immediately grabbed hold of my handy-cam and captured this brilliant moment.

Kiki in action…

Although her attempt to lift open the cage door and get out of the cage was unsuccessful, but I totally impressed! Really awesome. I’m sure soon she will figure out her way to open the cage door and make way out of the cage. Anything can be possible.

This really convinced me that my decision in securing those doors with cable ties when I’m out, was totally sensible. Kiki’s a really smart girl and she has undergone various tricks training, I’m sure with enough time she will be able to figure out her own way.