# train female cockatiel?



## Hunter (Jul 28, 2017)

ive had coco for 4-5 weeks now. but she doesnt know any tricks. she doesnt sing or whistle either because shes a female, males are the ones who sing and all that which is why im looking for a male cockatiel. can i possibly train coco to do any tricks like how theres video of tiels flapping their wings or doing a somersault or something? she can step up onto my finger but thats a pretty basic move. all she does is peck at my lips kissing me or trying to find food on them. it sucks that she cant sing but i can take the time to try training her. i tried once but it was pretty hard, i tried to get her to spin in a circle by making her follow the spray millet in a circle but she just wants the millet. i got no clue how to train. any help would be appreciated


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## Shockadine (Sep 2, 2014)

She can absolutely learn tricks. I've posted this video before, but I'll post it again. This is one of my tiel girls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b24afzggt4

For the spin, I find it easiest to train while they are on a perch. All you have to do is the put the millet behind her, and you've already got half of the spin. Then just get her to follow it back the other way. Once she's made the full turn, mark her success, either with a clicker, or just a word, like "good" or "yes". Make a big deal about it, and let her have some of the millet. Just be patient with her. If she messes up just ignore it, and try again. Don't start giving her a cue until she follows the millet, correctly, consistently 

Once you can consistently get her to follow the millet in the circle, or she starts spinning on her own, start giving whatever cue you chose to use ("spin" or use a hand gesture or whatever). Continue what you were doing previously, with the addition of the cue. I say that it should be easy to get the bird to make the circle before introducing the cue, because if you want consistency, cues should only be given once, so make sure you are setting her up for success the first time. Cues given multiple times lose meaning. Think of the guy at the pet store you see tell his dog to sit 20 times, and it never bothers to pay attention until he finally makes him do it. Repeating it during the reward is ok ("good spin")

If she seems to be doing well, you can try only doing the cue, and see if she does it on her own. If she doesn't, go back to helping her out. After another few repetitions try again, and repeat until she picks up on what the cue means. 

If she's just starts spinning like a mad bird, whether you told her to or not, just make sure to only offer the reward when you asked for the behavior. One cue, one trick, one reward. Don't actively discourage her from doing it extra times though. Anticipation is a good sign. She'll figure out that the reward only comes when you asked.

You don't want to burn her out. Some birds get burned out faster than others. If you notice she stops paying attention to you all together, you've gone too far. Give her a break and try again later. A lot of people say to keep training sessions around 5 minutes, but some birds are more than happy to go longer. Selk, my bird in the video, was fine with 15 minute sessions. She learned the wave in a 15 minute session, and spin in a different 15 minute session. Then I've had other birds get sick of it after a few minutes. Just pay attention to her. If she shows any signs of losing interest, stop. Take note of how long she was interested, and stop a little earlier the next time. Stopping before they are burned out keeps the idea of the training session positive, and that's what you want.

I've never trained somersaults to a cockatiel, but it sounds interesting. Cockatiels usually don't like flipping upside down. I do have a few that like hanging and climbing upside down. I would think they probably could be trained something like that without too much stress. I have mostly trained cockatiels, wave, recall, spin, and kiss. I had Selk doing the ball in the hoop (cup) trick for a while. I haven't done that with her in a while though. 

I started training birds with an african grey and a macaw. I kind of didn't think cockatiels would perform as well, but I was wrong. They do very well with learning tricks, and in many cases, just as well as the big birds. Good luck!


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## Hunter (Jul 28, 2017)

Shockadine said:


> She can absolutely learn tricks. I've posted this video before, but I'll post it again. This is one of my tiel girls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b24afzggt4
> 
> For the spin, I find it easiest to train while they are on a perch. All you have to do is the put the millet behind her, and you've already got half of the spin. Then just get her to follow it back the other way. Once she's made the full turn, mark her success, either with a clicker, or just a word, like "good" or "yes". Make a big deal about it, and let her have some of the millet. Just be patient with her. If she messes up just ignore it, and try again. Don't start giving her a cue until she follows the millet, correctly, consistently
> 
> ...


thats the exact video i watched where i got the idea to make this post LOL
but thanks, ill try my best
there's also one trick i saw called the big eagle but that seems even more hard to do


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