How to.

[Birdieboy]

I have a parakeet. I have had him for 7 months. I have tried to target train him but he still hasn't gotten it. Is there any way to teach him recall with out target training. The only trick I am trying to do is recall right now.

 

[Quantumcat]

Sure, I never target trained my bird and she comes when called almost every time. First of all think of a whistle or a word you want to use to call your bird. Then get a treat he likes (Scarlett loves sunflower seeds, but you might try peanut butter or a grape or something) and stand a metre or so from his cage, and show him that you have the treat. He should fly over (if not, wait until he hasn't eaten for a while!). As he flies, make the whistle. Keep doing this but try and anticipate when he's about to take off and make the whistle just before he flies. Then when he's quite reliable at coming, make the whistle before you can see he is about to take off. Then stop showing him the treat but give it to him if he comes after you call him. Then you can try standing further and further away. That's it! Also a hint is, if you can see by his body language he isn't interested in coming, don't ask him to come, doing so may make him start to believe that your whistle is just random background noise and should be ignored.