Don’t worry if you missed Kiki’s performance at The Best Trick Competition, one of the segment in the National Day Parakeet Competition 2008 held at Lim Chu Kang, Farmart.

I’ve managed to get hold of a short preview of Kiki performing one of her favorite trick - Pull a Car Trick, in the event. Apologised for the poor quality and fuzzy images of the video.

As I mentioned on my previous post that Kiki’s agility level during the event was pretty low. Apparently in the video, you could see slight delay in the performance, but she managed to accomplish the task I cued for.

Thanks Karen for providing the video.

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Kiki won 3rd in Best Trick Competition
Kiki will be in National Day Parakeet Competition

Hi Everyone! I’m back again bringing updates about Kiki.

Many had read about Kiki participated in the Best Trick Competition 2 weeks ago, and were really excited to know whether Kiki manage to secure an award for herself.

I’m please to announce the good news, Kiki won herself the 3rd Position in the Best Trick Competition in the National Day Parakeet Competition 2008 Event held at Farmart last Sunday. Here is the list of the winners in the National Day Parakeet Competition 2008.

Here are the lists of Tricks & Commands that Kiki performed:

1. Up & Down Command
2. Turn-A-Round Trick
3. Fetching Trick (a.k.a Retrieval Trick)
4. Wing Flapping Command
5. Coin Depositing Trick
6. Ring Tossing Trick
7. Somersault Trick
8. Waving Hello Trick (Left Leg)
9. Open & Fetch Trick (A Component of Shell Game)
10. Cups Stacking Trick
11. Pull a Car Trick
12. Basketball Trick

Although the agility level on the day wasn’t pleasing, but she managed to perform the tricks that I cued for with some slight delays. Personally I felt that Kiki had already done very well on that day. With scenarios like new environment, crowds, strangers’ stares and interference (from the microphone, vocalizations from other parrots), these greatly affect Kiki.

Remembering the moment when I brought Kiki to the event venue, she was really nervous. It took me quite a while to really calm her down.

Anyway, Kiki really deserved to be crowned the 3rd position. She really met strong competitors like Sunshine, the Sun Conure who is the winner of the event and Darling, the Sulphur Cockatoo placing second.

Although Sunshine and Darling only performed two to three tricks in the competition, but they all performed with great agility. Both of them really deserved winning the placings. It’s also a great pleasure for Kiki to meet them and catch their performances in the event.

Notice the two pictures in the post? The picture on top is the 3rd Position Winning Badge to be placed on Kiki’s Cage. Kiki also received a Bronze Trophy (picture on right), new cages, parrot diets and electrical appliances (the appliances are more applicable to the owners) from the event sponsors.

Kiki surely has done us proud!

I will be sharing more pictures of the event on my coming post, so do stay tune!

Related Post:
Kiki will be in National Day Parakeet Competition

Back to the basics again. This round no fancy props, but common empty paper towel roller that can be found in almost every household. So what Kiki going to perform this time with the empty roller?

Just like what the title says, it’s her own Tunnel Trick. A relatively simple trick, but interesting and fun trick that able to kill any boredom and motivating her to continue to learn new things.

Kiki mastered this trick within minutes. She had no difficulty in understanding and performing the trick, because she had did something similar before. Remembering the hoop trick that I shared with everyone on my previous posting. Both are actually the same, the only difference is the prop. The hoop trick is with a metal wire hoop whereas the current Tunnel trick is with the empty paper towel roller.

When I was updating Kiki’s trick list, I found something shocking and surprising. With Kiki mastering this trick, I can humbly highlight that she has mastered a total of 17 tricks and commands. Impressive? I guess it can definitely be an alarming figure for a small parrot like Kiki.

Thus a pea-brained is not necessary stupid. The size of the parrot not necessarily denote the intelligence and the ability of the parrot after all.

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Kiki’s Through The Hoop Trick

I’m back again to share with everyone a new trick from Kermit. I’m proud to present to everyone Kermit’s very own Somersault Trick.

As Senegal Parrots are very acrobatic by nature, thus the trick shouldn’t post much difficulty to these african queens. Kermit learned the trick almost instantly.

Basically I used the similar steps and techniques that was used when teaching Kiki, my lovebird, the somersault trick. The only difference is that I used a wooden dowel pole as the hand perch, soon after Kermit was able to perform confidently under my hand and vocal cues, I replace the hand with perch with my right hand. Kermit progress really well during the trick training.

Any parrot owners interested in teaching this trick to your parrots, can refer to my previous post labeled Kiki’s Somersault Trick. The post highlighted the clear steps on how I guided Kiki into doing the somersault flip.

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Kiki’s Somersault Trick

Finally got to showcase Kermit, my Senegal Parrot’s first prop trick, the Kermit’s Retrieval Trick. Compared to Kiki, Kermit took a longer time to understand and master the trick, but he didn’t disappoint me in the end.

In comparison, Kiki seems to be a fast performer in her retrieval trick whereas Kermit seems to be a little laid back, slow but steady. Overall I’m still impress with Kermit’s performance, it’s already a big step and great progress in his trick training.

This round, I used the usual training techniques and similar teaching concept that was enforced on Kiki, instead of using the clicker method. Initially, I planned to use the clicker method on Kermit for this prop trick, but I found it rather difficult to manage. Difficult as in, I will appear to be “handicapped” during the training. A use of clicker in the training means an additional hand required in the training, thus I decided to use back the usual training techniques I’m more familiar of.

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Kiki doing the Fetching Trick
Introducing Clicker Training
Clicker & Target Training for Kermit
Introducing Target Training

Kiki has coming to 11 months old and soon be turning 1 year old by late June this year. Kiki was merely with us since August 2007, with a short 9 months companionship she had learned a surprising numbers of tricks.

Last night, I was updating the “About” section, suprisingly I notice I’ve taught 16 tricks and commands in total. Till date, she’s able to perform each and every tricks and commands with no problems at all (although at certain occassion there might be hiccups here and there, but minor mistakes can easily be fine tuned).

I do hope her enthusiasm in learning tricks never ends!

Kiki’s back again with her new trick. Although it is not possible for Kiki to drive a car, but I’ve managed to teach her how to pull a car instead.

It’s definitely fun watching her so into doing this. It’s like Kiki cruising around with her own Formula 1 Race car.

How do I teach?
The Pull a Car Trick is rather a simple trick, that any parrot owners can teach their parrots. The trick share the similar principle of a Retrieval or Fetching trick, the only difference is the prop. Kiki easily understand the whole concept mastered the whole trick after 2 sessions in a day.

First Step, like I always do for a new trick training, props introduction for Kiki. Kiki totally had no issue of accepting the red ring, but I met some problems with the purple race car. Kiki was totally fearful and frightened by the Purple Race Car, perhaps due to the irregular dimension of the object.

With the help of the target stick and treats, I managed to get Kiki to overcome her fear factor. She soon willing to touch and play with the 2 new props.

I moved on with teaching Kiki on how to retrieve the red ring only. She had no difficulty in achieving the task, because she had learned the Retrieval/Fetching trick some time ago.

As she had achieved on the retrieval of the red ring, I then tied the string to the red ring and the purple car. I began the training with a short distance right in front of the prop. Upon my “Fetching” cue, Kiki retrieved the red ring and place back on my hand. I praised and rewarded her immediately. I repeated the sequence several time.

I slowly add-on the distance at every session to add challenge to the training. Now, Kiki is able to perform and retrieve the car that is few inches away. It’s definitely exciting enjoying the sessions.

I’ve highlighted the breakdown of the steps below on how I guided Kiki on to accomplishing the Pull a Car Trick:

The Breakdown Process of the Cups Stacking Trick

1. Introduction of New Props (The Red Ring & Purple Race Car)
2. Learning How to Retrieve the Red Ring only
3. Learning How to Retrieve the Red Ring tying with the Purple Race Car
4. Continue training Retrieval of the Red Ring with the Purple Race Car

I probably going to teach Kiki on how to flag raise on her next trick training. Good luck to me and Kiki!

Related Post:
Kiki’s new F1 ride

After so long, I finally manage to upload to YouTube and share with everyone Kiki’s Cups Stacking Trick. That’s definitely a long wait, but hope this is a worthwhile one and everyone should enjoy watching the trick performance.

It’s fairly simple trick for Kiki. There isn’t much difficulty for her to understand the whole sequence and master the whole trick.

How do I teach?
Before I can really introduce Kiki into this trick, she must be able to master some of the basic trick component like the Retrieval/Fetching Trick.

Kiki had mastered the Fetching Trick and the Coin Depositing Trick, thus it’s definitely no difficulty for her to complete the task. The only differences is the prop. Like I always said, the first thing to do before moving into actual training, is to introduce the props.

Once proper introduction of the props have been conducted, the actual training commenced with teaching Kiki to pick up the cup upon cueing. When she achieve that, I slowly added another cup labeled with a green label identifying it as my master cup. The objective is that Kiki have to stack the cup onto the master cup.

This portion of the training can be the most challenging one, as Kiki had no idea how to stack the cup. Thus I had to conduct a live demo in front her, thereafter when she holding the cup I had to guide the cup slowly push it onto the master cup. Once she achieved it, I praised and rewarded her. I continued to assist her and complete the sequence several times until she truly understand that she had to stack the cup in order to be rewarded.

At the stage when she’s able to stack the cup on her own, I moved on adding 2 other cups to add challenge to the training. Every successful tries of stacking the cups, I praised and rewarded her.

Below I’ve highlight the breakdown sequence on how to train Kiki to accomplish the whole trick.

The Breakdown Process of the Cups Stacking Trick

1. Introduction of New Props (The Cups)
2. Learning How to Hold/Lift the Cup (Restrict to one Cup)
3. Learning How to Stack the Cup (Restrict to 2 Cups)
4. Add-on of 2 others cups into the training (Total of 3 Cups to stack into the master cup)
5. Full Training Sequence

Remember always be patience, be consistent in your training. Some parrots might take quite a while to understand and master the trick. Good luck to all parrot owners!

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The Cup Stacking Props
New tricks for new year

The first ever Formula 1 night race will be held in Singapore at the late quarter this year. The Formula 1 fever is rising, and everyone is excited!

Kiki is also looking forward for the race too, so I got her a new ride! It’s a purple race car, and Kiki loves it so much!

In fact it’s not really only a new “toy” for Kiki, and a prop for Kiki’s new trick. I’m planning to teach Kiki to “drive” a car, or should rephrase it as pulling the car!

Lately I haven’t manage to teach Kiki a new trick, partly because I’m running out of ideas of new tricks and she’s undergoing a molting for the past weeks and months. I wouldn’t want to stress her too much either.

With the new trick being introduced to her, I’m sure it will once again unleash her deep passion and enthusiasm in learning new things. I will say the trick is of not much difficulty to Kiki, as she had learn fetching, the retrieval trick.

The Car Pulling trick is of the similar concept in the retrieval trick, the only difference is the retrieval object is used as a pulley to car. Whenever Kiki is cued to fetch the retrieval object which is the red ring, the car will be pulled along during the fetching process. It’s gonna be fun and entertaining.

I’m looking forward to share the Youtube video with everyone real soon! Stay tune!

Many of friends asked me how do I train Kiki and Kermit to be an ultimate performer? There’s no secret on how train them to be like one. Many parrot owners will suggest best to start training since young. Does that mean if I have a adult bird, the bird will never be an ultimate performer?

Many experienced trainers and even parrot books suggested to start off training from a young age. Frankly speaking, age is not the key issue to parrot training. Even an African Grey which is in its mid-20s is still learning new things. But it’s always good to start training early, as it’s one best method to prevent and eliminate behavioral problems.

When I got Kiki and Kermit, I started basic training as soon as they get settle down to the new environment. To date (based on 18th April 2008), Kiki had already mastered 14 parrot tricks and Kermit mastered 4 basic parrot tricks. That’s an achievement! Both of them are still learning new things, so I expect the figures to grow!

So start off quickly with some simple training like step-up command. This is the first basic command, that I introduced to my parrots when I first go them. Then from there, add-on with other basic tricks like Turn-A-Round. Always be consistent with your training and train daily.

It’s always good to allocate a specific time when to conduct training session. Both of my parrots have their own specific time for training, once in the morning and the other at the evening. I always try to allocate 2 training sessions per day, although the morning slots are usually optional. You can have training sessions as much as 3 per day of 10-15 minutes, but no longer that.

Conclusion, the golden words to the success in parrot training:

1. Start training early
2. Be consistent in training
3. Train daily
4. and Patience!

Good luck and happy training your parrots!

Related Posts:
Kermit’s First Basic Tricks Collection
Kermit’s Turn-A-Round Trick
Introducing Clicker Training
Clicker & Target Training for Kermit
Introducing Target Training
Kiki performing the Turn-A-Round Trick