Kiki has coming to 11 months old and soon be turning 1 year old by late June this year. Kiki was merely with us since August 2007, with a short 9 months companionship she had learned a surprising numbers of tricks.

Last night, I was updating the “About” section, suprisingly I notice I’ve taught 16 tricks and commands in total. Till date, she’s able to perform each and every tricks and commands with no problems at all (although at certain occassion there might be hiccups here and there, but minor mistakes can easily be fine tuned).

I do hope her enthusiasm in learning tricks never ends!

Kiki’s back again with her new trick. Although it is not possible for Kiki to drive a car, but I’ve managed to teach her how to pull a car instead.

It’s definitely fun watching her so into doing this. It’s like Kiki cruising around with her own Formula 1 Race car.

How do I teach?
The Pull a Car Trick is rather a simple trick, that any parrot owners can teach their parrots. The trick share the similar principle of a Retrieval or Fetching trick, the only difference is the prop. Kiki easily understand the whole concept mastered the whole trick after 2 sessions in a day.

First Step, like I always do for a new trick training, props introduction for Kiki. Kiki totally had no issue of accepting the red ring, but I met some problems with the purple race car. Kiki was totally fearful and frightened by the Purple Race Car, perhaps due to the irregular dimension of the object.

With the help of the target stick and treats, I managed to get Kiki to overcome her fear factor. She soon willing to touch and play with the 2 new props.

I moved on with teaching Kiki on how to retrieve the red ring only. She had no difficulty in achieving the task, because she had learned the Retrieval/Fetching trick some time ago.

As she had achieved on the retrieval of the red ring, I then tied the string to the red ring and the purple car. I began the training with a short distance right in front of the prop. Upon my “Fetching” cue, Kiki retrieved the red ring and place back on my hand. I praised and rewarded her immediately. I repeated the sequence several time.

I slowly add-on the distance at every session to add challenge to the training. Now, Kiki is able to perform and retrieve the car that is few inches away. It’s definitely exciting enjoying the sessions.

I’ve highlighted the breakdown of the steps below on how I guided Kiki on to accomplishing the Pull a Car Trick:

The Breakdown Process of the Cups Stacking Trick

1. Introduction of New Props (The Red Ring & Purple Race Car)
2. Learning How to Retrieve the Red Ring only
3. Learning How to Retrieve the Red Ring tying with the Purple Race Car
4. Continue training Retrieval of the Red Ring with the Purple Race Car

I probably going to teach Kiki on how to flag raise on her next trick training. Good luck to me and Kiki!

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Kiki’s new F1 ride

After so long, I finally manage to upload to YouTube and share with everyone Kiki’s Cups Stacking Trick. That’s definitely a long wait, but hope this is a worthwhile one and everyone should enjoy watching the trick performance.

It’s fairly simple trick for Kiki. There isn’t much difficulty for her to understand the whole sequence and master the whole trick.

How do I teach?
Before I can really introduce Kiki into this trick, she must be able to master some of the basic trick component like the Retrieval/Fetching Trick.

Kiki had mastered the Fetching Trick and the Coin Depositing Trick, thus it’s definitely no difficulty for her to complete the task. The only differences is the prop. Like I always said, the first thing to do before moving into actual training, is to introduce the props.

Once proper introduction of the props have been conducted, the actual training commenced with teaching Kiki to pick up the cup upon cueing. When she achieve that, I slowly added another cup labeled with a green label identifying it as my master cup. The objective is that Kiki have to stack the cup onto the master cup.

This portion of the training can be the most challenging one, as Kiki had no idea how to stack the cup. Thus I had to conduct a live demo in front her, thereafter when she holding the cup I had to guide the cup slowly push it onto the master cup. Once she achieved it, I praised and rewarded her. I continued to assist her and complete the sequence several times until she truly understand that she had to stack the cup in order to be rewarded.

At the stage when she’s able to stack the cup on her own, I moved on adding 2 other cups to add challenge to the training. Every successful tries of stacking the cups, I praised and rewarded her.

Below I’ve highlight the breakdown sequence on how to train Kiki to accomplish the whole trick.

The Breakdown Process of the Cups Stacking Trick

1. Introduction of New Props (The Cups)
2. Learning How to Hold/Lift the Cup (Restrict to one Cup)
3. Learning How to Stack the Cup (Restrict to 2 Cups)
4. Add-on of 2 others cups into the training (Total of 3 Cups to stack into the master cup)
5. Full Training Sequence

Remember always be patience, be consistent in your training. Some parrots might take quite a while to understand and master the trick. Good luck to all parrot owners!

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The Cup Stacking Props
New tricks for new year

All parrots deserve a 10-12hours of total darkness and undisturbed sleep every night. Parrots having a proper sleep and rest throughout a night can prevent possible health problem and behavior problems.

Currently, there are all sorts of cage covers available in the market. Some owners may like the idea of covering the cages, some may not. It’s much more depending on each individual preference.

For me, I use cage covers on Kermit’s and Kiki’s cage. Personally, I find the cage covers essential and useful especially in a busy household during the night. I live in a small apartment in Singapore and sharing a common space with my elder brother, thus space is pretty much limited. Worst I can’t provide a dedicated bird room for Kermit and Kiki.

The cage covers come in handy ensuring Kermit and Kiki have total darkness during bedtime, while family members and me still staying late night. This ensure Kermit and Kiki can easily sleep without the disturbance due to the bright light.

Many might wonder what wrong about birds sleeping under bright light, as long they get their rest what’s to worry? All birds and parrots are photosensitive creatures, a longer daylight may trigger them into breeding mode, potentially lead to behavior problems and health issues. Thus we should always limit the number of daylight hours, thumb rules ensuring at least 10-12hours of darkness and undisturbed sleep will prevent these potential problems.

Kiki did it again! Remember on my last post, I mentioned that Kiki is a boy when “she” was caught doing “that thing” again. Perhaps the right word to use to explain “that thing” should be MASTURBATION!

Last Evening, I caught “her” on tape, doing “that thing” to a face towel. “She” has been doing that so frequently, partly due to maturity and triggered into breeding behavior. High sexual drive and simply hard to stop for “her” from doing it, I guess. “She” just one horny freak!

Till now we still assume “her” as a female and still calling her Kiki, although should be time to rename “her” to boyish name. We are so used to calling “her” Kiki. I’m also sure that “she” is already conditioned to the name, Kiki for so long. Changing to a new name, will just make “her” more uncomfortable.

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Kiki might be a Boy!

The first ever Formula 1 night race will be held in Singapore at the late quarter this year. The Formula 1 fever is rising, and everyone is excited!

Kiki is also looking forward for the race too, so I got her a new ride! It’s a purple race car, and Kiki loves it so much!

In fact it’s not really only a new “toy” for Kiki, and a prop for Kiki’s new trick. I’m planning to teach Kiki to “drive” a car, or should rephrase it as pulling the car!

Lately I haven’t manage to teach Kiki a new trick, partly because I’m running out of ideas of new tricks and she’s undergoing a molting for the past weeks and months. I wouldn’t want to stress her too much either.

With the new trick being introduced to her, I’m sure it will once again unleash her deep passion and enthusiasm in learning new things. I will say the trick is of not much difficulty to Kiki, as she had learn fetching, the retrieval trick.

The Car Pulling trick is of the similar concept in the retrieval trick, the only difference is the retrieval object is used as a pulley to car. Whenever Kiki is cued to fetch the retrieval object which is the red ring, the car will be pulled along during the fetching process. It’s gonna be fun and entertaining.

I’m looking forward to share the Youtube video with everyone real soon! Stay tune!

I personally do offer Kermit little chopped garlic clove and he enjoys garlic as I do. I’ve always know that garlic provide numbers of healthy minerals and also known as a natural antibiotic. Offering our feathered pals garlic can promote another healthy element to their diet and can possible prevent any fungi infection.

Until recently, when I happen to come across a health magazine indicating the possible impact to human health when overly consumed. I stopped offering garlic to Kermit.

This does bring to my concern pondering whether is it safe to offer Kermit garlic clove. Will this lead to possible health problem in Kermit just like what may happen in human beings? There isn’t much information around highlighting that garlic or onion can be harmful. This leads me to research and find more about the possible impact of onion or garlic in the daily diet.

In a health magazine, it highlighted that when over consuming of raw onion or garlic can cause anemia. Anemia is actually a health term referring to low red blood cell count. It does sounds quite bad to our health.

I began to search through the web to find articles indicating the possible health problems caused by garlic consumption by birds. Interestingly, I found that onion and garlic contain a kind of sulfur compound which result in a health condition known as Heinz Body Hemolytic Anemia. This result in low red blood cell count which garlic or onion cause the red blood cells to rupture.

Possible symptoms of birds suffering from Heinz Body Hemolytic Anemia:

• Appear weakness (Frequently and easily fall of from perch/Weak foot grip)
• Lethargy
• May appear increase in heart rate.

Although small amounts of garlic clove or garlic powder to enhance flavor in the daily diet is possible, but I guess is to totally avoid so we do not put on feathered pals’ health at risk.

Kiki is a real talent in becoming one of the best Escape Artist. Don’t be surprise, she’s able to open the cage and free herself in less than 20 seconds. Totally no joke, I caught her on video this afternoon doing the stunt:

She still challenging herself in setting a record of shortest time to free herself. Not only is a challenge for her , but also a challenge for me and my mum, because we have to be extra careful to ensure the cage is fully secured with an additional lock/cable tie before leaving the home for work.

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Kiki’s attempt to lift open the cage door

The weather has indeed changed a lot due to global warming. Not only the entire human race has realize the changes in climate, but animals like parrots also notice the big difference.

The frequency of water bath taken by Kiki has seems to gradually increase from one to twice daily. It’s a natural instinct, that Kiki will dunk herself into the water bowl once in the morning and the other time in the late afternoon. I have to change her water bowl frequently, couple of times a day, to ensure she has clean water all time.

I happen to capture Kiki bathing in action during the late afternoon after her “tea-break” treats to premium seed mixes.

Kiki initially was water bathing in the water bowl at Kermit’s play-stand. Soon after she was chased off by Kermit, and she gladly returned back to her own ceramic water bowl continuing her water bath.

I’m sure the water bath helps to cool down the rising heat. Kiki must have enjoyed it.

I can strongly feel how much Kiki appreciates her roosting box that was erected for her two months ago. Basically it’s made out of a plastic container (widely available at any tupperware store, even a used ice-cream tub is suitable), with a cut-out at the top lid as entrance.

I’m planning constructing one for Kermit. Of course, this round it won’t be made of a plastic container, because of the vast different in physical size between Kiki and Kermit. Most probably, I will need to customize a roosting box that is with a dimension of 9-10inch square base and 15inch in height. The following dimension should be sufficient enough for Kermit to move without much limitation. More research has to be done, before commencing the DIY Roosting Box project.

Many might wonder: What’s the different between a roosting box and a nesting box? What’s the need of furnishing the cage with a roosting box?

The difference between a roosting box and a nesting box, is that the roosting box appears to have a bigger entrance. The bigger entrance will allow sufficient daytime within the roosting box, thus this will reduce the possibility of triggering breeding behavior of the parrots.

Next, there are so much benefits of having a roosting box. A roosting box provide a place for parrots where they can withdraw and hide whenever they feel threatened. This gives parrots a sense of security and does build up their confidence in a way. It’s a one-stop in providing shelter, warmth cozy spot for parrots during cold weather. It can be an ideal solution to “block off” disturbance and noise from the household environments, thus I guess it perfect way to ensure our parrots, doing in busy households, have uninterrupted sleep throughout the night.

I’ve ever come across with an article written by a well-known ornithologist indicating that providing a roosting box in the cage is one effective method in combating excessive vocalization. Parrots will not make any loud vocalization or scream excessively whenever they are inside the box. I totally agree with this fact. Kiki seems to be rather quiet most of the time.

Since there are so many advantages, why not let our feathered pals have a roosting box of their own. I believe they will gladly appreciate it, rather than politely rejecting it.