An easy way to train a bird?

Question

My daughter used to have 2 parakeets. But one died unexpectedly. And she got so upset and she wanted another bird before so she could train it to play with her. We didn't realize until we bought the birds that they will bond with eachother and not you.
IS there ANY way to train a bird that has no bond with you and so you can bond with eachother?

Answer 1

Ok;
First of all do not listen to "magic one".
You do not chase your bird around.
You can train a bird to do many things.
But the easiest way to get your bird hand tame && listening to you.
Is the "step-up" command.
Once you have started the "step-up" command.
Don't ever pick your bird any other way.
You can say "step-up" or "up-up".
Either way you have to be consistent.
Dont say both.
Don't let your bird just come out of the cage.
This can create territorial issues.
Always use the step up command to have them come out.
The way to do this is to say "step-up" while gently pushing up on thier chest.
Once they have done it.
Reward them with affection.
Such as an energetic "Good Bird".
Do not get scared if your bird looks like it is going to bite when stepping up.
Birds use thier beaks like a third hand.
Also if your scared of biting then wear a glove for the first couple sessions.
But sooner or later you will have to take the glove off.'
Try making the bird step up for about five minutes.
If they bird has a good session.
Reward it with seeds or millet spray.
Dont take your bird out for hours and hours of the day.
Instead take it out for little bits at a time.
Birds require alot of attention.
So instead of taking them out once for along time.
Take them out for maybe 10 a time.
Do this throughout the day.
Always let them break between training sessions.
Also maintain your dominance,
Let them know you are the boss in a gentle way.
Dont hit your bird or any kind of physical discipline.
Instead, if they are misbehaving, try putting them in time out.
Put them back into the cage for a period of time.
Always remain serious.
Assert your authority by saying "NO" or "BAD BIRD" when misbehaving becomes a problem.
&& do not let your birds nibble you.
It may be cute when they are babies.
But nibbling turns into harsh bites when older.
Always discipline when nibbling occurs.
But don't mistake preening for nibbling.
Once your bird knows the step up command well.
You can try other tricks which must be treated in the same way as the step up command.
You can come up with your own tricks.
Training is a way to bond with your bird. <3

Answer 2

I assume that you would like the bird to sit on your finger, shoulder, etc. To accomplish this, take the bird to a small room, like a bathroom, where you can reach it no matter where it goes. (You may need a broom or pole to help you if you are short.) Let the bird out. Do not let the bird land anywhere except on your finger. If it tries to land somewhere else, make it move. Ideally, have a second person help you if you want the bird to bond to you. Just have the other person keep disturbing the bird every time it lands somewhere other that on you. Eventually it will be tired out and sit quietly on your finger. After this initial break in, you can use treats to reinforce the lessons, feeding the bird little bits of its favorite food.

Answer 3

I like to think of it as developing their personality, and their inborn instinct to preen, and show off. As far as training, he will with time and effort on your part, step-up to your finger or hand, and naturally want to perch(hang out) on your shoulder. After that nature will take it's course, and he will bond to you quickly. This process will happen nearly immediately, if you keep him with you as much as you can. In the wild, they spend their whole life, either beside their mate, or within eyesight. Practice this and he will bond firmly with you instead. Never close the cage door, and he will seek your shoulder for his security, and safe-haven. The love and trust develops quickly, thereafter... Birdman

Answer 4

2 ways: spend time talking to them, and leave the tv or radio on for them while u are out. they learn to talk through repitition, so it will work for sure. remember to separate the birds once in a while for short periods, 1 to 2 hrs. Hope this helps.

Answer 5

Pet the bird alot take it out of the cage once and a while but make sure you close everything first.

Answer 6

The African Gray Parrot, the Yellow Naped Amazon, the Double Yellow Headed Amazon, and the Blue Front Amazon.

Answer 7

Here's some training you should do it does take patients.
Training:
Hand Training a Parakeet
How To Tame a Budgie

Parakeets are EXTREMELY smart and friendly. It always breaks my heart to see a parakeet stuffed into a cage, never let out, never interacted with. Parakeets are flock birds! They thrive on being cuddled, being nuzzled, having that physical interaction with their flock. And if there is only one parakeet in the cage, that flock is you! Hand training is a critical part of owning and raising a happy parakeet.



If you have already Bought a New Parakeet and Gotten the Parakeet Used to your Home it's time to now start hand-training it. You can't let a parakeet out to fly around the room until it understands that your hand is safe, and that your finger is a perch it should hop onto when you say "UP". So you need to work on this next.

If your parakeet was hand-raised, this is probably easy. Your parakeet probably already knows the command "up". Simply put your hand SLOWLY into the cage, talking nicely to it. Then gently press your finger against its chest and say "UP" in a gentle but firm voice. She should step up onto your finger. Keep it still and say things like "good bird" in a soft, soothing voice. If your parakeet does this easily, then you're already ready for it to come out and enjoy a bit of flying around.

However, let's say you had to buy your keet from a Bin O Budgies and it is very skittish. You have to train it that you are a friend and to be trusted. Follow the step by step instructions below, and in a few weeks you will have a parakeet that will be your loving companion for years and years. DO NOT SKIP A STEP. Be sure to fully be complete with a step before moving on to the next. This is very important in having this training work properly!

STEP ONE - TRUSTING THE HAND
In step one, you simply get your parakeet used to your hand being in the cage.


STEP TWO - PERCH TRAINING
In step two, you train your parakeet to step up onto a perch on command.


STEP THREE - FINGER-PERCH TRAINING
In step three, you show your parakeet that it's OK to step on a perch that also has a finger attached to it.


STEP FOUR - FINGER TRAINING
In step four, still staying just in the cage, your parakeet learns that your finger is a safe perch to sit on.


STEP FIVE - OUT-OF-CAGE FINGER TRAINING
In step five, the parakeet learns that her trusted finger is safe to sit on, even if it's outside the cage.


The more you interact with your parakeet, the friendlier he will get! Soon you'll find he loves hanging out on your shoulder while you do things, nibbling on earrings or necklaces. When I work at my computer, my parakeets hang out on the curtain rod right next to me, chirping down at me.

Remember, none of this will happen instantly. If you bought a hand raised parakeet it might all happen on the first day - but people who buy budgies out of large bins are in essence buying wild birds. It can easily take several weeks to get your budgie used to you as a trusted person. You have to be patient and work on this every day, to let your parakeet learn about you and learn to trust you. It can't be rushed. Parakeets are extremely intelligent and need to learn to trust you on their own time.

Parakeets do NOT BITE unless they are being threatened. So as long as you are quiet and gentle and friendly with your parakeet, you will have a quite loving companion!

Biting Problems
How To Tame a Budgie

Parakeets are relatively small creatures with very little in the way of defenses. They don't have stinky odors like a skunk, or razor-sharp claws like a tiger. All they have to defend themselves with is their beak. If they feel afraid, that is the only way they have to defend themselves. And since the original word for budgie in Australian aborigine means "good to eat", there are a lot of creatures a parakeet had to defend itself against!

Usually a parakeet that is biting is feeling afraid. And usually that's because you're jumping ahead in your interactions with the parakeet. You are the owner, you are the one "in charge" that has to get your pet used to his new surroundings. You have to first give him time to settle into his cage. You then have to move slowly through the hand training instructions, not going too fast. Make sure the parakeet is thoroughly accepting one stage before you move on to the next stage.

Most cages can be cleaned without putting your hands into the cage. Many modern cages even let you change the water and food without putting your fingers into the cage. Think of the cage as the parakeet's safe sanctuary. Let's say you were in your favorite treehouse, where you were safe. Now say a gigantic hand came reaching down for you from the sky. You'd try to defend yourself in your treehouse, right? That's all that the parakeet is doing. You have to teach him, slowly, patiently, to trust you. But it won't just happen in days, or even in weeks. Especially if you have an older keet or one from a bin-of-budgies, it might take months. But you will be developing a friendship that will endure for years and years.

Really, the essence of not being bit is to not put your fingers near a bird that is afraid. If your bird is not hand trained, your hand should not be near it. Talk quietly and soothingly to your bird. Keep the stress levels down, by not introducing new birds until the birds are thoroughly familiar with each other (in separate levels) and letting the bird have a full 8 hours of fully dark, quiet sleep each night. Just like humans, birds get cranky if they don't get enough sleep, or if they are harassed while they are awake.

If your bird does bite, NEVER hit it. That will only make your bird more afraid, scared, and feeling threatened. Don't use water sprays (like some people do on cats) - water needs to be a healthy, normal thing for your bird. Just say NO in a loud, firm voice, and put a blanket over the cage to hide him from his world. That will both help him calm down and make him feel lonely, which is the punishment birds enjoy the least.
The key to teaching a parakeet to talk is to have the parakeet think it's part of the "human flock", and therefore that it needs to communicate with its human friends. If you have a mirror in the cage, or other parakeets, it will see parakeets around it and want to talk like them (i.e. chirp). So step one is to have your young parakeet on its own, surrounded by humans that talk to it.


Training your parakeet to talk:

The younger the better, as in all things that involve learning. Get a hand fed parakeet if you can, at a very young age. That is when it's still learning how to communicate, and talking "human" will be a valid option for it. While male parakeets tend to talk better than female parakeets do, both can certainly talk!

Birds learn best in the morning, when their mind is fresh and ready for new information. If you use a towel or cover over your bird's cage, talk to them for 1/2 hr before you remove it each morning. Repeat the same phrases loudly, slowly and clearly. Parakeets do best with hard letters like K and T, so the traditional "hello" is actually sort of hard for a Parakeet. "Cutie" would be much better! Parakeets tend to mumble and to talk quickly, so the more slowly you talk, the more normal it will sound when the bird starts to repeat it.

Have patience, and eventually your parakeet will start to answer back to you! Once they get the hang of it, they'll learn more and more quickly as you go. While you can try taping yourself and playing the tape, the parakeet really needs to learn that this is a way for you and it to talk to each other. So it works best if you physically talk to your parakeet, and that you do it often.

Parakeets can also learn to mimic other sounds around them. They can learn to chirp like a cell phone, whistle a short tune, and much more! I've taught my parakeets to sing like chickadees, which drives the chickadees outside the windows crazy :)

Hand Training a Parakeet
Interacting with your Parakeet
Many people who are new to parakeets have some very unusual ideas about how they are going to interact with their parakeets. Some thing they will sleep with their keets. Some imagine taking them out for walks. Some think keets will be petted, like a cat or a dog.

It's important to remember first that you can do NOTHING outside of the cage with your keet until it is fully hand trained. I have complete step by step instructions on this site on how to hand train your keet. You have to work at it daily, to fully build the trust of the keet in you. Hand training isn't magical or mystical. It is solely about the keet learning to trust you as a person that he can rely on. It's not something you can "trick". Trust is something that is earned.

Once you have built up that bond of friendship and trust, your keet is NATURALLY going to want to be with you. It's the same as you and your best friend. It's not that your best friend "tricked" you. It's that you two spent time together, you learned to like each other, and now you voluntarily choose to spend time with each other. The same is true with a keet who has learned to love you. The keet WANTS to be with you and actively flies to you to be near you.

This level of love and affection doesn't spring into being in a day or a week. You build it up over weeks and months. Remember, a parakeet can live to be 15 years or older! You will have years and years to spend with your keet.