Here’s the posting about Kiki’s new trick - Coin Depositing Trick. I promised on my earlier post to share about Kiki learning the new trick and also to upload the video clip to YouTube.

I’m indeed surprise that Kiki managed to learn this intermediate trick within a day. I’m really proud of her, she has never disappoint me. She’s attentive and learned everything, the move yesterday - 1st November 2007. The objective of the trick: She has to dump all the 3 coins into the black box. It isn’t difficult for her to master the Coin Depositing Trick, as she learned to perform the Fetching Trick earlier on. Basically I just have to teach her to place the objects into the black box.

How do I teach?
For this trick, I will need some props (a box and 3 coins) to allow Kiki to perform. During my first session with Kiki, I introduced Kiki the items. This is to ensure she’s not afraid and do not hesitate to play with the items. When she’s comfortable, I commenced my formal lessons.

I started off with a coin and box first, this is keep things simple and not to stress her up. My first objective was to get Kiki pick up the coin. It’s not a difficult task, as she has learned to pick up object in her Fetching Trick. She met my first objective. My second objective is to teach her to drop the coin in the box. To let her understand the concept, I do a simple demo in front of her. After the demo, I cued for her to pick up the coin and bring the box near her so to allow her to drop the coin. I gave her the treat which force her to drop the coin into the box. I repeat the similar step a couple of time, until she can automatically drop the coin in the box herself. I then tried bring the coin further away from the box and she completed the task as expected. I treated and praised her accordingly.

Finally I added a few more coins for her to pick and drop off in the box. Whenever she completes the full cycle by picking and dropping the coins into the box, I treated and praised her. Walah! With more practices and encouragement, she’s able to perform confidently without glitches.

You can try teaching to your parrots. It’s real fun teaching them new things.