Small Parrot Bird Trick Toys

Imagine little Parakeet, Cockatiel or Lovebird shooting hoops like a pro! Or, bowling a strike?

Most bird trick toys are made for medium to large parrots. But, we’ve found a new source for petite and small bird trick toys. Basketball, Bowling and Skeetball. Gosh, your small pet bird just might make the Parrot Olympics cut!

Parrotlets, Parakeets, Cockatiels and Lovebirds can be trained to perform tricks just like their larger cousins. Most people underestimate these tiny, little parrots since they are designated as “beginner” birds. All that really means, is that small pet birds and parrots are not only better domesticated, they of a size that makes troublesome instinctual behaviors much more tolerable! Chatter, nipping and mess.

But, these little pet birds are still pretty darn smart. Did you know that the American Parakeet is one of the best talking parrots around? Or, that the loving Cockatiel is not only a cuddler, but a wonderful whistler and companion. Whatever the species, birds and parrots survive best in a flock. Pet parrots and birds see their guardians as their flock. A well loved parrot that is properly trained using positive bird training techniques will come to crave performing tricks on command simply to entertain and bond with YOU. No matter the size of the little fellow.

That is why we find these new bird trick toys so important. Yes. These bird trick toys are affordable. But, more importantly, this new line of bird trick toys helps the pet bird guardian / owner to experience an unimaginable bond with their pet. And, what more could you ask for a small $5.00 investment?

Amazon Parrot Can't Shut Up!

Cheryl, of the UK, has reported that the family Amazon Parrot that was handed down from her great grandmother is driving her crazy. It is, essentially, a ghost whisperer! “He does all these voices of dead people from our family. The bird must be 80 – 90 years old and it remembers everybody that it has been around during that time,” she stated.

One night, when she forgot to cover the birds cage, she heard a strange voice saying, “I’m coming to get youuuuuuu.” It scared her so bad that she called the cops. And, then she realized that the bird was mimicking her dead Uncle Harry! He used to say that when she was very young before he’d pick her up. The police were not too happy when they arrived to check out the incident.

Amazon Parrots can be excellent talkers

Cheryl has realized that her great grandmother must have had a lot of boyfriends. Evidently, the parrot could be the voice over for porn movies as it tells the younger generation about granny’s romps. “I have to shut the door when any friends come over,” reports Cheryl.

If you’d like to teach your parrot to talk (appropriate language, please) check out the speech training CD’s at Chirp n Squawk Bird Supplies.  They’ve even got specialized CD’s for Cockatiels, Parakeets, and even in spanish!

One of my latest reads, ALEX & ME, was over-whelming in terms of my enthusiasm for animal parrot research but it is  also a love story.  I imagine that if you love parrots, you’ve heard of Alex, the African Grey Parrot.  Dr. Pepperburg has painstakingly devoted her entire life to show the world that animals are more intelligent than anyone has EVER imagined. (DONATE HERE)

Dr. Pepperburg’s research is part of a growing mound of evidence that parrots and many other wildlife are intelligent and cognitive creatures with the ability to communicate.

What color?

Let me introduce you to my flock of talking parrots.  I’ll go from largest to smallest:

Peachy is our 14 year old Moluccan Cockatoo. I got him when he was 3 years old. I had gone into the pet store to look for a Blue and Gold Macaw for my husband, but every time that I walked by Peachy, he’d say, “Hey, come here.” I visited him a couple of times a week over the course of a month while doing a lot of research on Moluccan Cockatoo’s to make sure he’d be a good fit in my family. The bird store personnel told me that he acted much more animated with me than with other customers. I guess he originally picked me. Peachy is a good talking parrot. He says: Hi, whatcha doing (whatcha doing doing!), hey come here, mommy, Max (my son), Hello, step up, and he is always quick to yell out our dogs names to scold them when they bark too much! – The correct name for the dog that’s barking.

Smokey is an 11 year old Congo African Grey. I got him as a young baby and I have to admit, he is pretty spoiled. He is out on his Parrot Tower Bird Stand a lot. When he is around me or others he is a whistler and beeper. He’s also quite the prankster. Several years ago he learned my husband’s cell phone ring. You can imagine how many times Jim answered the phone and no one was there. He also learned that my husband would call me “Hey, Diane!” and I’d answer. One time, I kept hearing my name called from upstairs. I’d answer and get no reply. This happened over and over again until I was starting to get mad! What the H#%** do you want!” Turns out it was Smokey! Other than Hey Diane, Smokey says hello, hi, step up, chow chow, Timmy, Sissy and more.

Timmy and Sierra are 6 year old Timneh African Grey Parrots. I got them both as a young babies and even hand fed Sierra. Sierra is also is a mostly whistler and beeper. She knows a lot of words but prefers to communicate with her people flock  in a series of whistles.  Timmy, on the other hand, is a serious talker.  He says so many things that I don’t have room to list them all. I’ll bet, Timmy can say at least 30 phrases. He also whistles “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.” One of the funniest (and embarrassing) things he often asks the dogs is “Do you have to go pee pee?”  I guess he is determined to keep our carpet smelling fresh!   

Mandolina a.k.a. Mandy is a 6 year old flighted Orange Winged Amazon. I hand fed her from the time she was featherless until she was weaned. The most popular talking Amazon Parrots are the Yellow Napped and Double Yellow Head Amazon’s. Mandy thinks she doesn’t need her cage.  She has an open playtop bird cage and so she goes all over the bird room and the basement.  Mandy does not speak as much parrots of those species, but she knows several phrases. She also has several whistles and coo’s that she uses routinely to determine my whereabouts in the house or to just let me know she loves being out and following me about in flight, as I go about my business. 

Skeeter is a 6 year old Red Bellied Parrot. She is also flighted. She had come from an abusive background but she totally loves me! It’s mutual. Skeeter loves to ride around on my shoulder and preen my hair. Her cage usually has an open door policy as does Mandy’s so they hang out together most of the time. Skeeter loves to explore and can be a little mischievous, too. She has a larger vocabulary than Mandy, probably having about 8 phrases that she says consistently.

  

Mika is a 3 year old Pacific Parrotlet. Unlike the other birds in our flock, who have their own bird room, Mika’s cage is upstairs. I’ve had a lot of customers who tell me that they have talking parrotlet’s, but I’m not sure if Mika talks or not. She tweets a lot, but her little vocal cords are so tiny that I can’t decipher if she is actually talking. Mika loves to ride around on my shoulder. She is pretty feisty and territorial. She’s flighted, too.

 So, how did we get so many talking parrots? One of the earliest things I learned in my friendship with parrots is how important it is to prevent problem behaviors including screaming and biting. Parrots that talk and whistle to communicate with you are much less likely to scream for attention. While not every parrot is a proficient talker, there are a number of things you can do to promote a talking parrot.

1. Develop a training schedule.  Parrots are quick learners with short attention spans.
2. Study Clicker Training techniques.
3. Learn to read Parrot Body Language.
4. Match your parrots voice inflection training in the same tones or vocal capabilities that your parrot has.
5. Teach bird tricks to your parrot.  Each new learning experience adds to the learning momentum.   The more you train your parrot the faster it will learn the next, subsequent trick.

Bird Training

It has been reiterated for years in the companion parrot literature…your parrot must obey the step up command! Obey and command. For me these words carry strong implications. I visualize a parrot with no desire to step up onto the hand being forced to comply. This usually involves maneuvers such as a hand pushing into a bird’s chest, quickly scooping a bird onto the hand, or peeling toes off of a perch. For a positive reinforcement trainer such as myself this is very unpleasant to picture. Why one might ask? Certainly the mentioned strategies can create the desired resulting behavior of a bird on the hand. However the process of training through force involves strategies that rely on aversive experiences. Pushing a hand into a bird’s chest, scooping or peeling toes are uncomfortable experiences for a parrot, no matter how minimal the aversive is.

Training is simply teaching. When we train an animal with positive reinforcement we give it information on what it can do to earn desired outcomes. What behaviors we choose to teach are limitless. In addition to training birds for entertainment, we can use this form of communication to address behavior problems, to manage birds on exhibit, to teach birds to cooperate in their own medical care and/or to allow us to facilitate captive breeding practices.

Training is Science Based
Although training birds in general is not a new concept to avian enthusiasts, understanding the science behind training is just recently gaining momentum. The science behind training is called behavior analysis. This science focuses on how organisms learn. And truly we are all students of this science on a daily basis whether we are conscious of our application of its principles or not. Current trends in animal training choose to focus on using elements of this science that focus on kind and gentle strategies to create desired behavior and reduce undesired behavior. This includes avoiding the use of positive punishment and negative reinforcement. In its place, trainers learn the art and skill of applying positive reinforcement to gain cooperation.

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Peachy, my 14 year old Moluccan Cockatoo has taken up a new hobby. SCREAMING! It’s not the usual and expected morning screaming. Not the when I leave the room screaming. Of course, Peachy is a healthy, normal male M2 so we are used to talk between flock mates. Peachy has recently started loudly vocalizing at about 30 second intervals during his routine bird stand play time. Peachy has several hours of bird stand play time each day.

My first step to extinguishing this behavior is to recognize what has changed for Peachy. It’s pretty easy to pinpoint. We’ve had some family challenges lately and Peachy is well aware of the tension. This makes him uneasy and aggitated. Secondly, I went on vacation with my son to must see Puerto Rico recently and Joe, my boyfriend provided reinforcement when Peachy screamed. Thank goodness this is a new problem which we can solve. Neither of these changes are Peachy’s fault.

So where do we go from here. Two words. Good Bird (by Barbara Heidenreich). If you haven’t stumbled upon this professional avian trainer and educator let me introduce you! She is an extremely valuable resource for all things parrots. Bird behavior issues, parrot enrichment and more.

Now that I know that Peachy is screaming as a reaction to household attention and recent reinforcement for screaming, I’m ready to extinguish what I’ll call Reactive Screaming.

1. Actively reduce tension in the home.
2. Everyone in the home will use the same extinguishment techniques.
3. Ignore screaming. Whatever it takes, we all need to NOT RESPOND to Peachy when he screams.
4. Reward quiet behavior. For me, that would be whistles, singing, talking and silence. Since Peachy had been screaming at extremely frequent intervals, I decided to reward silence of 10 seconds to insure results. Peachy LOVES fresh banana’s. I just happen to have a couple on hand! He also loves sritches, which is not a problem at our house.
5. Model appropriate vocalizations. Peachy loves to sing with us. If I whistle a tune, he can repeat it. As I make appropriate vocalizations it plants a seed in Peachy’s mind that that is how I want him to communicate with us.

UPDATE: I only started using Ms. Heindenreich’s Good Bird recommendations yesterday. But, even today, I notice a drastic improvement in Peachy’s screaming. Of course, Peach had not internalized his need to scream and our little household crisis has diminshed in size, but never the less, the techniques described in Good Bird really work! (As a clinical social worker, I had no doubt; hence, I seriously advocate Ms. Heindenreich’s work.)

Peachy is now using words to yell at the dogs as opposed to screaming in an irritating pitch at me. He is singing, whistling and talking. I can’t say that I love that hip hop stuff that my son teaches him, but it is a heck of a lot better than screatchy screaming. He just said his favorite phrase; “Whatcha doin’ doin’?” The dogs got a good chewing out every time the door bell rang today. But, Peachy’s inappropriate and unacceptable screaming was SIGNIFICANTLY less today. Thanks Good Bird! And, gosh, thank goodness for banana’s!