# What tricks does you 'tiel know?



## CaitlinT (Jan 21, 2011)

I'v heard quite a few people who own larger parrots say that smaller ones like budgies, alexandrine parakeets & cockatiels are stupid or not worth training.
I'm sure everyone here will be with me on this one and say that it's simply not true but even so I don't hear much about trick training for cockatiels or other small parrots.
From the few videos I'v seen of advanced cockatiel trick training I know that these birds are capable of some pretty awesome stuff and I'v been atemping to get my bird to some of the stuff.
So far s/he can turn around, wave and come when to me with gesture or verbal cue aswell as copying wolf whistel, dog barks, hello ect. My current project of getting Lunar to pull different coloured rings off pegs by a verbal cue on colour is going pretty well and s/he can identify green, red and yellow and will pull them off the peg in order if in a good mood.

So I'm wondering what can your 'tiel do? and do you have any advice/good tricks to teach them?


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

I haven't taught them anything but iv seen some on youtube which is really amazing


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## Belinda (Oct 9, 2010)

Wow, you must have a very clever tiel! videos please! and tips 

Arnella is learning to wolf whistle but because she's a girl she's not very good at it... she also knows how to target with clicker training, but unfortunately that is all we've done so far. I would love to teach her to wave!


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## Debbie05 (Feb 9, 2010)

I have 6 tiels. Spike says "where's Tony" "then "gone fishing" He is very funny. Mr. Green say "are you a pretty bird" and "Mr. greens a pretty bird". He says a lot of things and loves you hold a cleanex and wave it around. They both will whistle. I have been trying to teach them to whistle jingle bells and happy birthday. Hopefully they learn happy birthday for my daughters birthday in June.


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## lperry82 (Aug 2, 2010)

Debbie05 said:


> I have been trying to teach them to whistle jingle bells and happy birthday.


Iv been trying ages but i give up lol:wacko:


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## Duckybird (Sep 13, 2010)

My first cockatiel, Dixie, was a pied male that talked a LOT. He was good with prompts and could usually give a scripted (and funny) answer. "Are you a good bird, or a bad bird?" "Good bird!" He also knew his name if you asked him, stuff like that. Ducky, my current boy tiel, is pretty smart but not as vocal. He's also not quite as hyper as Dixie was. But Ducky knows his name, occasionally answers, and comes when called. He doesn't really know any tricks though. When I get the chance to actually teach him something, he seems to comprehend very well what I want. I'm working on advanced handling and harness training. We were doing great, but he started going through puberty and not wanting to be touched a whole lot.


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## CaitlinT (Jan 21, 2011)

I thought my bird was a girl at first but I think it's a boy now as it is vey vocal as has learnt to talk - it's a pearl and just startig to moult out so I should know soon.

Clicker training is defo the way to go and once they get idea it's really impressive how quickly they can learn. It's difficult to get step by step stuff on cockatiels but it works the same with all parrots, the props just need to be smaller. I used some videos with conures and larger parrots aswell as a really good book called 'The Click That Does The Trick' along with some common sense.

As for the wave, it's quite a easy trick in concept but it's quite difficult to get them to lift the foot to start with. Lunar will step-up if you put a finger out infront of him; so the way I did it was to gently nudge him just above the foot or on the shoulder and out of habit he would raise his foot to step on. As soon as that foot left his perch(even just a little) I would sound the clicker and say 'wave' at the same time then give him the reward. I just kept doing this(keeping session to 5-10 mins a day) and within the second session he did it when I put my finger side ways near his chest XD. After that I kept saying 'wave' whenever I initiate the behaviour with my finger and by the thrid session he did it on only a verbal cue and has done since.
But the same goes for all tricks; you break them down into smaller chunks, and slowly bulid up into the desired behaviour. And always click and reward when they get it right and just ignore when it's wrong.
I hope your bird gets the hang of it and I'll post a vid or picture of him doing it soon.


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## Belinda (Oct 9, 2010)

haha, the trouble I find with clicker training is that if I ignore Arnie when she does something wrong, she doesn't understand _why_ it's wrong and I why won't give her the treat (she is fixated on the reward). She gets frustrated and chucks a tanty and storms off, or attacks the toy (I tried to train her to retrieve a toy). So I gave up for a little while. I also want to harness train her but she knows what the harness is for and runs away as soon as she sees it now - doesn't help I bought a red one which is a 'danger' colour *sigh* lol.


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## roxy culver (May 27, 2010)

Haha silly girl, she'll come around. Cinnamon will fly to me and I didn't even train her she just does it of her own volition. Fuzzy does an "uppie" signal which his is way of saying pick him up so I guess you can say my birds have trained me.


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