Have you ever thought of why parrots love to wipe their beaks on their perches and other hard objects?

I happened to capture another a short clip of Kiki, my lovebird wiping her beak after a water bath earlier on. It’s really funny to see her doing it.

All parrots do this. It’s a normal behavior and a natural thing to do, usually happens after eating and bathing. Wiping their beaks on the perch will help them wipe off foreign objects (like food) that stick on their beaks. They also do that to wipe off excess water when their beaks are wet.

I had read before an article highlighting that wiping of beaks can be an indication to mark territory for some parrots. It usually happens when parrots are introduced to new faces and new bird in their area.

Never knew that such simple action of beak wiping can interpret so much meanings.

By the way, did you notice something at the end of the video clip, when Kermit, my Senegal Parrot in the background?

He doesn’t seem happy at all, because the food bowl on the play-stand belongs to Kermit. Furthermore, Kiki is happily rewarding herself with the premium seed mixes on the play-stand. You can’t blame him for giving the stare. Poor thing!

What a deliberately “hijacking” of the food bowl by Kiki. That’s really daring stint from her. However, indeed an adventure for a hot sunny afternoon!

Related Post:
Warmer Climate = Frequent Water Bath

I wasn’t working on project today, and have a whole day with Kiki. I decided to give me a try on teaching Kiki the waving trick. It sounds to be an easy trick, but I met some obstructions during the training session with Kiki. Days ago and even now, I’m still training Kiki to offer her right leg for the Hand-shaking trick. The progress is good, but with a major problem. Kiki tends to nip my cueing fingers first before performing the hand-shaking trick. I’m trying now to eliminate this negative action in the trick. This worries me alot when I teach Kiki the waving trick.

How do I teach?
This trick is rather simple all you need is one simple T-stand and a stick (I use a empty pen case, but a RED one because I used a BLUE one on my previous somersault trick for the trick, I’ve wash it thoroughly before use, so it’s perfectly safe). Later I will explain why a stick is required for this trick. First I bring Kiki over to her familiar training ground and placing her on the T-stand. Usually before starting any teaching I will give her some warm-up exercise (like Step-Up/Down Commands and Turn-A-Round Command), so to ensure she has full concentration and attention on me. First I introduced the stick to Kiki (for me which is the empty pen case). It’s important to have the stick for this trick, initially I used my fingers to train, but the attempts are less effective and confusing. Why? Kiki mistook my cue as Step-up, she tends to hop on to my fingers instead of lifting her legs. That’s why with the use of the stick prevent the confusion.

As soon as Kiki is comfortable with the stick, seeing her playing and mingle with the stick. I kick of with my first phase of the training session. First objective is to get Kiki to lift her left high (because I holding the stick using my right hand - later on transforming my right hand as cue. If you intend to cue using your left hand, then train her left leg), to do this I hold the stick near her. Make sure don’t the stick too near, the stick has to be out of reach. Kiki will try every means to touch or grab hold to the stick. She tends to use her beak trying to nip on the object, every moment she did that, I remove my stick immediately. Whenever Kiki lift her foot slightly trying to grip onto the stick, I immediately treat and praise her. To let her understand that she’s doing it correctly. I continued to repeat this until she’s totally comfortable, lifting her legs without hesitation.

Then after, I started to introduce a verbal cue to her to do the trick. I use “helllloooooo”. I usually get Kiki to perform tricks with verbal and hand cues together. I noticed it’s far more effective this way. So whenever I bring the stick near her and cue “helllooooo”, she will lift and wave her leg. Once she’s totally comfortable and doing the trick without hesistation, I moved on with the finally phase of the trick.

Finally phase, Objective is to fade off the presence of the stick and introduce a new hand-cue to the trick. I used my right hand, index finger in waving motion to cue Kiki to do the waving trick. I try training with the verbal cue and the new hand-cue, whenever she successfully perform the trick, I treat and praise her accordingly. Wah-lah, that’s how I got Kiki to do the wave.

Helllooooooooo! Kiki!

Oh yah, if any of you have problem getting your parrot to perform the wave with your new hand-cue, try moving a step back and use back the stick again to cue for the wave trick. Once your parrot is comfortable, try slowly fade off again.