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

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!

Kermit, my Senegal Parrot is back in action with his nasty destructions again.

This afternoon, I was drinking Iced Water from my cup with a straw, when Kermit suddenly dashed over targeting at my straw.

He’s attracted to this new “toy”, look at how bad the damages done to the straw! The straw was simply useless, and I can hardly slurp up my drink with this badly shaped straw.

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

Have you ever thought of why parrots love to wipe their beaks on their perches and other hard objects?

I happened to capture another a short clip of Kiki, my lovebird wiping her beak after a water bath earlier on. It’s really funny to see her doing it.

All parrots do this. It’s a normal behavior and a natural thing to do, usually happens after eating and bathing. Wiping their beaks on the perch will help them wipe off foreign objects (like food) that stick on their beaks. They also do that to wipe off excess water when their beaks are wet.

I had read before an article highlighting that wiping of beaks can be an indication to mark territory for some parrots. It usually happens when parrots are introduced to new faces and new bird in their area.

Never knew that such simple action of beak wiping can interpret so much meanings.

By the way, did you notice something at the end of the video clip, when Kermit, my Senegal Parrot in the background?

He doesn’t seem happy at all, because the food bowl on the play-stand belongs to Kermit. Furthermore, Kiki is happily rewarding herself with the premium seed mixes on the play-stand. You can’t blame him for giving the stare. Poor thing!

What a deliberately “hijacking” of the food bowl by Kiki. That’s really daring stint from her. However, indeed an adventure for a hot sunny afternoon!

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Warmer Climate = Frequent Water Bath

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 always identify Kiki as a female because of her aggressiveness and feminine behavior (like shredding papers in thin strips) which are more resemblance to the natural characteristics of a female lovebird. My mum always think that way too!

A recent footage of Kiki doing some actions might prove that my assumption might be wrong all while. Below is the footage that was taken this morning before Kiki’s breakfast. Just to warn you, this footage might not be suitable for minors!

Kiki has been rubbing her vent or maybe I should use HIS vent on HIS preening toys lately, and has been very frequently too. If I’m wrong, Kiki might be already triggered in breeding mode. Does that means it’s time to get a girlfriend for him?

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!

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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!

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New Training Coming On