If anyone watching this video feels like sharing your favorite youtube parrot training videos, I’d love it if you’d share them with me by leaving a comment with a link to them below.

Parrot Training Myth #1: It takes a long time to train a parrot.

Almost every parrot I’ve personally worked with that belong to our clients and customers, have been able to show improvement, progress and success immediately within beginning training.

Most parrots show positive results from training within their very first training session! And most basic behaviors can be taught within a couple days to a bird. I’ve been able to teach the “wave” to a bird in less than two minutes! Success happens fast with parrots and they love training once they’re opened up to the world of it.

It’s best to keep training sessions SHORT and end the session before the bird does. This will leave you both wanting more! Most training sessions are only a few minutes long, and shouldn’t exceed 15 minutes.

Parrot Training Myth #2: You can’t train a bird without getting bit.

Super basic training techniques like “touch training” and the “power pause” are techniques you can use and never have to worry about being bitten by your bird.

These are techniques you can use with your bird still INSIDE their cage, and yet see positive results within minutes. The Power Pause literally takes 15 minutes with most birds while touch training happens even faster.

Parrot Training Myth #3: Some birds are just too old to train.

A bird is NEVER too old to start training, and neither are you! So don’t let your bird’s age stand in the way of its success. A client of BirdTricks.com taught her 87 year old macaw to be quiet on cue and it had never learned anything before. Anything is possible, no matter what your bird’s age is.

I taught a 35+ year old blue fronted amazon how to freefly outside safely. You can watch a fun video of him here, he’s famous for being the “Interrupting Parrot”.

When it comes to parrot training, age doesn’t matter.

Parrot Training Myth #4: I can’t get near my bird, therefore I can’t start training it.

If your bird has an issue with you getting close to it, we have techniques you can use. We focus on all areas of fear with birds, as well as aggression. We even worked out these strategies LIVE at our Seminar in Florida and talk about the “3 Phases of Fear and Mistrust” and how to find out which phase you’re at, so you can have success with your bird.

A very common phase is the “Getting Closer Phase” where you can’t even get NEAR your bird without it lunging, attacking, screaming or running away. Both fear and aggression play a role in this phase and it’s something you really CAN work through.

Parrot Training Myth #5: Training parrots is hard.

It’s doesn’t take a rocket scientist to be able to train your parrot. Techniques are easy for you to understand and apply and we make it as easy as possible for you apply the techniques you learn to your bird for the ultimate success.

There’s no fancy lingo that you can’t understand, we put it very basic so you aren’t overwhelmed (and neither is your bird) instead training is made fun and interactive for you and your bird and you don’t have to spend all day working on it, either!

A few minutes a day is all your parrot will want to train anyway, so you can still maintain a social life. Though whether or not you choose to after discovering the fun filled world of parrot training… is up to you.

The hardest part? Getting started. For a variety of training tools and fun bond building games to get you started, check out the parrot training store.

So many people have heard the old saying, “can’t teach an old dog new tricks” and assume it applies to older parrots too. But I have news for you – it doesn’t!

No parrot is ever “too old” to learn new tricks.

In fact, old parrots is where BirdTricks.com was founded with Tiko (pictured above) a 15 year old blue and gold macaw and Linus, a 10 year old umbrella cockatoo. Tiko had been a trophy pet all his life, and never handled since the age of 2. His owners were people who didn’t know better… Chet and Dave’s parents, and one day when the two brothers thought about making a magic parrot video to incorporate the birds into Dave’s magic act, they found something very cool…

When they began training and mentally stimulating these birds, the birds became nicer. They began to become handle-able and social.

And that is why we here at BirdTricks.com recommend trick training SO much. We like to think we beat it into your heads to do it. And this is just one reason of many.

If you have the courses, you will find Tiko on the cover of Volume 2 and Linus on the cover of Volume 1. Along with Chet and Dave. They use those birds in all the demonstrations to show you real, untamed birds going through the same training you’re about to endure. Just to prove to you how fast and easy it can be. You see the successes, you see the failures and everything in between so you learn from everything they did.

So when you hear someone say an old bird can’t learn new tricks, think again. Our trick training courses are proof they can, not to mention the thousands of testimonials of people having success with their birds too from one year young to 87 years old (yes, a macaw that old was taught how to be “quiet” on cue).

It is NEVER too late to start training your bird.

Who said Budgies couldn’t wave? If a budgie can be taught to wave, then I am certain that so can other parakeets, lovebirds, parrotlets, and cockatiels. Here are the top three reasons why it may seem impossible to teach these small birds to wave:

1) Their feet are really small

2) They often hop onto hand rather than step up

3) They aren’t as agile with their feet as larger parrots

I’m not even going to get into people thinking the birds are too dumb to learn tricks or that they are too wild to learn. That is complete rubbish and it’s the owners fault if they actually believe that. While the wave is considered a very elementary entry level trick for larger parrots, it is actually a fairly advanced trick for the smaller birds as you will see here. I would recommend at least teaching a few easy tricks beforehand like target, turn around, and go through tube before attempting to teach the wave. I’m not going to explain teaching the wave trick but rather will focus on how to apply typical techniques for training the trick and modifying them to work for a smaller bird.

Now I will address the issues with training small parrots to wave. Their feet really are small and much harder to get to than even medium sized parrots let alone big ones. While you can hold a macaw’s foot in your entire hand, you have to use just your smallest finger to handle a budgie’s foot. Initially when I began training the trick, I really wanted to use precision about lifting one foot rather than hopping or stepping up, so I used a pen for the bird to place its foot on. Later on I regressed to using my small finger. The issue with hopping can often be solved by using better precision about the foot lifting motion by directing it with a thinner finger or stick.

Finally, the last issue is that they are not so agile with their feet. I know for certain that budgies and cockatiels are ground feeders so they don’t have a need to eat out of their feet as the perching parrots do. Therefore they do not have as developed leg muscles and are not used to picking them up so high. This is probably the biggest problem with training them to wave because they just aren’t strong enough to pick their foot up high enough to make the trick even if they comprehend the cue. For this reason it took a whole month to train the wave trick to satisfaction to Duke.

He got the basics of the trick down within a few days that it had something to do with moving one foot around. The problem was that he just wouldn’t lift it very high. This is where patience and persistent training for over a month came in. We trained him twice daily with a big emphasis on wave trick to exercise his leg so he could lift it higher. It took a while before we started seeing results but it really worked. Training was more like physical therapy than training. He knew what to do but just wasn’t physically fit enough to do it. So the foot lifting exercises he received paid off and he learned to wave. His wave is still very quick and you will miss it if you blink. But hey, budgies do everything faster, it’s how they live.

So if you own a small bird, now you know that it can be taught to wave. You just have to have the patience and persistence to practice with the bird enough that it can strengthen its leg to be able to lift so high. I don’t want to see any more videos on youtube of the so-called “shake hands” trick where the owner basically grabs the bird’s foot and lifts it up and down. I want to see more people take the time to work with their bird so it could do a full wave by itself!

I taught my Senegal Parrot Kili to do the bat trick right out of parrot magic. It was fairly easy to teach it to her because she was already very hand tame. Getting her head down out of the fetal position was a bit more work but nothing unmanageable. Just like the play dead trick, the bigger challenge and most time consuming part was to get her to put her head down. Teaching the basics of the trick does not take more than a few days but then getting the bird to stay still and keep head down during trick is what takes months of perfection.

I even went so far as to teach my parrot to do the inverted fetch that you can see at the end of the video. This took zero training because the bird is so smart that it totally figured out to fetch her ball and drop it in the bin (from the bat position) the first time I tried it. She made the connection and it is just super cool to realize the bird is so smart.

We even taught our budgie to do the bat trick. I told my girlfriend that I didn’t think a budgie could do it but she liked the trick a lot and wanted to try anyway. Unlike the Kili, Duke the budgie wasn’t very hand tame and definitely did not like being held upside down. When we started teaching the trick, Duke would bite and try to get out of our hands. Although it took a few weeks to train the trick, by the end of training, he was a far tamer bird and would tolerate being held in just about any angle and way. Hands on trick training is also a great way to tame your bird to hands and make it less bitey. If a budgie can be taught this trick, I cannot imagine any parrot being unable to do it.

The word enrichment means to enhance and make fuller.  It has become a very popular word among bird owners.  It’s a wonderful thing that humans are considering ways to improve their parrots lives.  I usually hear the word enrichment used in connection with toys and foraging opportunities.  These are huge ways to better a parrots life, but there are SO many other applications.

Enrichment means maintaining or improving health through diet and exercise.  When our finicky eaters turn their beaks up at the new food you have introduced, do we give up and say:  “Well, he just doesn’t like kale”, or do we find new ways of preparing it to spark an interest?  Have you tried winding it into the cage bars, weaving it into their hanging toys, or mincing it and adding it to mashed banana? Are we really looking at and managing their diets to include the nutritional balance they need? For the bird that is content with lounging on his perch all day, you will have to point out to him that this is not the life. If they don’t feel well, or are fat and lazy, they are not enjoying their lives.

Enrichment means opportunities to learn.  Birds love to learn.  It speaks to their very nature.  They explore every inch of their cage looking for fun, new developments.  They try to explore every inch of your house.  Training with your parrot makes them think and reevaluate decisions and strategies, and the experience stays with them long after the session has ended.

Enrichment means proper socialization.  Your parrot should be taught to enjoy all people, not just you.  A parrot that will only tolerate handling by one person is in for trouble.  At some point in your life, you will have to be away from him, whether it be for illness, vacation or business travel.  He will be miserable and resentful when left in the company of someone he doesn’t like or know.  It’s unfair to let that happen, no matter how nice his preference for you might secretly feel.

And yes, enrichment means lots of toys and foragers.  Parrots love a good challenge.  Work and play are the same thing to them.  The harder they have to work for something, the more they seem to enjoy it.  Often, though, they have to be shown that there is fun to be had.  You can’t simply put a forager into the cage that has a bolt and a wingnut and expect them to know what to do with it.  Show them how to manoeuvre the nut off the bolt, to lift the cap and see that there’s a treat waiting for them when they accomplish that.  They will learn how to do it just by watching you.  Let them watch you play with their toys and see what the possibilities are.

Enrichment means you.  Your love, your time and your attention to detail is the most important enrichment you can offer.