Do you own a parrot that bites? Would you like me to share some proven principals for getting your parrot to stop biting? If so, you’re about to discover how to get rid of your parrot’s biting, using a strategy I call “Target Training”.

Never heard of target training? I’m not surprised. Most so called parrot behavior “Gurus” have been so busy standing on their soapboxes, preaching to everyone that “if we just loved our parrots more, they’d start to be nice” – what a bunch of garbage! And what they’re preaching couldn’t be further from the truth.

Let’s face it. When most people buy a baby parrot, it’s just been hand fed, it’s still a baby, not yet strong enough to bite, and it’s the cutest, cuddliest little thing in the world. And they actually stay that way, for several months & even years.

But then every parrot eventually comes into what I call their “Teenage Years”. It’s basically puberty for your bird. Its hormones are a wreck, it starts wanting a mate, and just like your teenage kids, parrot’s tend to become a bit troublesome during this time, and there’s no amount of love that can turn their behavior around. Instead the magical fix is to do what every therapist says to their emotionally challenged clients when their relationships are in a mess – “work on strengthening your communication”.

And that’s exactly what “Target Training” does. It develops a level of communication with your bird that both of you can understand.

Here’s how it works. You train your parrot to understand simple commands from you, or cues. Then you teach your parrot that whenever he follows these cues, he gets rewarded – usually with a really tasty treat! The more commands you teach your parrot, the better the level of communication and the more your parrot will trust you, and cease to bite you.

The very first and most basic level of target training is teaching your parrot to touch the end of a small wooden stick, or wooden dowel. You reward your parrot every time he touches the end of the wooden dowel by giving him a treat each time, even if when he touches it, he’s lashing out at the dowel.

And with time, the parrot realizes that you’re calling the shots, and that you’re actually opening up a new level of communication to him that he never knew existed. He’ll start to realize that if he follows your cues, and touches the end of the stick like you’ve asked him to, that you’ll reward him… and reward him well.

Your parrot will start to trust you so much, that a well target trained parrot, can be known to actually be trained to do whatever it takes to touch the end of that stick, even by flying or walking over your entire house, just to obey your cues.

By focusing on training your parrot to “Target” or touch the end of a stick, you’ll open up that level of communication it takes to get your parrot to realize you really are a nice person and that he doesn’t need to bite you to get what he wants after all. Making your parrot training efforts MUCH easier!

By: Dave Womach

About the Author:
For more information on target training, or other tips and tricks for teaching your parrot to stop biting, sign up for Chet Womach’s “Parrot Training Newsletter” where you’ll get free videos and monthly tips for fixing the behavior problems in your parrot.

Looking to get your Quaker Parrot talking?

One of the most appealing features of a Quaker parrot is talking. These friendly birds can hold conversations and imitate sounds quite effectively how.

However, they don’t always do it the way we want. Many people attempt to teach their parrots to talk through the use of tapes or discs. Often, they’re disappointed. While small birds, such as parakeets and cockatiels, can learn to mimic these recordings, larger birds, such as Quaker parrots, don’t start talking, even though they’ve heard hours and hours of what sounds like human speech.

The reason that using recordings to get a Quaker talking isn’t very effective is because parrots aren’t just mimics. They repeat sounds we make in an attempt to communicate with us. In the wild, this kind of mimicry allows them to feel like they’re part of a flock.

At home, we’re the only flock they have, so they try to talk to us. Since a tape doesn’t impart any meaning to the parrot, he or she recognizes it only as unusual background noise. A more effective way of teaching your parrot to talk is by helping him or her attach meaning to specific sounds.

Talk to your young Quaker as though it were a baby or young child, and you’ll find that you get better results. The best talkers are the ones that are spoken to as though they are expected to learn language themselves.

Of course, the meanings that your parrot attaches to words aren’t always the ones you’d like it to. Parrots react to the words and sounds that get a reaction out of you (creating entertainment for them), or that have meaning to them (getting out of the cage, receiving a treat, making a request). This is why so many parrots pick up swear words and other undesirable phrases when they talk. If the word makes you excited, they reason, it must be a good one.

One method that can work for getting Quaker parrots talking is modeling. A human or another bird performs the action that’s desired in front of your parrot, and gets a reward. This can teach your parrot that it wants to do that (and get the treat), too.

This works best for tricks based on natural behaviors, such as wing-spreading and foot-lifting, but can be used to model desired phrases or sounds. Remember that, like small children, Quaker parrots have short attention spans. This means that you should keep all training sessions short (less than fifteen minutes) and have them occur more often, rather than trying for a few long sessions.

By: Blake Allen

About the Author:
Get your Quaker parrot talking, learn more tricks, and find out everything you’ve ever wanted to know about parrots by visiting: http://www.train-parrot.com