Wiki's Budgie Tricks

[friend2parrots]

absolutely wonderful and adorable. Wiki has amazing focus.

I actually bought that zoo-max puzzle earlier this year myself - it looks pretty neat. I'm hoping one day to train my GCC to do some color identification exercises with it.

[janetafloat]

Wow, Wiki is a star! He seems very happy doing his thing....you're a talented trainer. I've been clicker training my tiel with a similar toy to the puzzle one you're using. It has 4 different shapes that go over a post. I've been trying to get him to put them in my hand for ages (it feels like). He's very happy to pick them up and toss them around but he's just not grasping that they're supposed to go in my hand.Your Wiki videos have inspired me to keep going....

[Wiki]

Thank you for those comments! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Wiki's such a happy little fellow (perched on my foot right now, chirpling happily) and he does focus well, you're right - except for when I don't keep up with him and he drops things on my head We've got the other zoo max puzzles, but they're definitely at the more "work" than "play" stage for Wiki, so I have to break it up a bit. He obliges me as long as I oblige him with a few slinky runs.. He can't get enough of that thing..

Actually, we're pretty excited - I've given props a rest for a bit to work on another behaviour, as I've long wanted to do the "wings" trick. We've been working at it, because the method Michael uses so successfully with Kili & Truman just wasn't working for me - Wiki would just step up if I tried to poke him under the wing pit.

So it was a case of stash the clicker and rewards near the places he was most likely to stretch and then reinforce natural behaviour and cue - here's where we've gotten up to: http://youtu.be/I6Lj0N6kQes

[marie83]

Excellent work as always Wiki is very smart.

[Andromeda]

Wow, I am so impressed with both you and Wiki! I knew you could train a budgie but I didn't know you could train them to do so many things! That is really cool!

I noticed in your last two videos that you have "The Percher" and I have that, too; I love that convertible perch.

Good progress on the "wings" trick, I taught my brown-headed parrot "wings" (I call it "eagle" because he was confusing it for wave) using capturing as well.

Awesome videos, I look forward to seeing any of Wiki's new tricks in the future.

[Wiki]

Thanks! It was Michael's videos of Duke that helped open my eyes to what was possible, then the great circus performances of Norman Barrett sealed it for me. I have two Perchers now - they're great for toilet training

You can give them pretty much anything the bigger guys can do, the only caveat is that they're so darn fast, and that they're really beak focused - they never eat from their claw, so using props with a foot is not really something that comes naturally.

Oh yes - I saw your "eagle" and was interested that you had the same thing as me! I stopped verbally cueing, as soon as I did it based on hand signals alone, he improved. Then I could introduce the verbal back again.

I do love how you've got both wings opening laterally! Wiki just doesn't do that - it's all one lateral, two back. We might fluke it one day

[Andromeda]

Thanks! It was Michael's videos of Duke that helped open my eyes to what was possible, then the great circus performances of Norman Barrett sealed it for me.

I had never heard of Norman Barrett but I went to YouTube and watched some videos and wow, he does some really impressive stuff with budgies! He has such awesome props!

Wiki's tricks are just as impressive, I especially like the flighted fetch and "fetch blue." I have that same ring puzzle and I want to use it with my GCC but we are working on "play dead" now so it's something I will do in the future.

I stopped verbally cueing, as soon as I did it based on hand signals alone, he improved. Then I could introduce the verbal back again.

I do love how you've got both wings opening laterally! Wiki just doesn't do that - it's all one lateral, two back. We might fluke it one day

I tried a hand signal but even though it was totally different than the one I use for "wave" Jimmy thought I was cueing "wave" so I gave up on the hand signal. Now that he knows the trick I might add one later, though.

Jimmy only did one lateral, two back. He never did a full lateral open prior to this trick. His "wings" started with two back and it looked just like Wiki's. After he was doing that for three weeks I tried shaping and all I was trying to do was get him to stretch a tiny bit but instead he suddenly surprised me with a complete lateral stretch and I made a huge deal out of it and gave him loads of treats and he offered it again pretty quickly. It only took him about five minutes to figure out the lateral stretch was what was getting the treats now and he stopped offering the two back.

[marie83]

Wow, I had never heard of Norman Barrett but I just googled it too. Very impressive working with so many at once.

[Wiki]

Norman's a bit of a star - maintains two "sets" of working birds and brings them all into his trailer at night. Now THERE'S an alarm clock for you

[Wiki]

Tme for an update, so here's all Wiki's tricks (well most of them) strung together, in a one-take warts and all - starring a Parrot Wizard portable nu-perch, which I've found a great help!