Questions about clicker training

[Smokeyandjake]

I've been working on clicker and target training smokey, and at first I was using yogurt covered pellets from the aviain pet store in my town(they don't have much besides birds and chew toys) buts smaller then a sandwich bag and cost $13 with how many we use it's just not realistic. So I read online allot of CAG like unsalted sunflower seeds and will work for it if it's not in their regular diet, Smokey and jakes regular diet was a mix of sunflower seeds, pumkin seeds, small seeds that I don't know of and pellets, I also give them 4 nutraberries with this twice a day, and in between the day they eat apples, bannas, pasta, corn, broccoli and carrots. Sometimes a piece of whatever meat I eat for dinner. If I'm eating a donut or something sweet, that doesn't have chocolate I ussualy give them a little piece,it makes them,happy. ( is this a bad diet? Its what he was being fed before and I just added the nutraberries.) but I've removed the sunflower seeds from Smokey's diet starting last night how long should I wait before I start using them to clicker train him? Can I start right away? Will it mess it up that I started using another treat?

 

[Dinosrawr]

I advise to give as little sugary, salty, or fatty foods to your feathered friends as possible. There have been incidences where "a little here and there" turned into a very serious case of obesity or cholesterol problems for parrots. Once in a blue moon, I don't think it's so bad - live and let live. But I know personally I don't feed my parrots much of any of the bad stuff I eat, unless it's a bite of a sandwich or a little taste of frozen yogurt.

As for clicker training rewards, it's really about using differing levels of "reward". For example - with Avery, her favourite treats go as follows: Sun flower seeds (unsalted) > Banana > Almonds > Pine nuts. For Shiko, it's Nutriberries > Almonds > Millet > Sun flower seeds.

It takes some time to determine which treats work best, but ideally you use treats to reflect the level of accomplishment. If Avery performs a trick she does well and often, I will rarely reward with a treat, instead I use my voice. When I do give a treat, I use a lesser valued food. If I'm getting her to do something I REALLY want her to do or if she's learning a new trick, then I use her high value rewards (banana/sun flower seeds).

If your birds receive something often, it won't be considered high value. For me, snow crab is my high value treat. I rarely eat it, and when I do I savour every bit of it. If I lived on East coast though, chances are I'd be eating it pretty often and it'd lose its value to me as a "treat". It's that kind of perspective.

 

[GaleriaGila]

I admire you for undertaking training. I really do!

I have (some would say "alas") taken the opposite approach, which is to give my little free-flighted, fearless demon free rein... resulting in a household run by him, not yours truly.

Just saying: it's an option.

But I salute you!

 

[Smokeyandjake]

We have had Smokey for about a year and a half and that's pretty much how it has been with Smokey. He has gone from a very very mean bird ,to being a nice bird 80% of the time(to me) I completely let him come to me, I talked to him and mocked his movement(if your having a hard time bonding with your bird, they love this! It's helped me bond with smokey<CAG> and jake<BFA> both very aggressive older re-homed birds.) Eventually Smokey just crawled down and came to the armrest and out his head down to let me pet him(after months and months of talking by his cage and mocking his movement) then he slowly let me get from on top from the cage and now I can get him from inside his cage whenever I want. Also whenever we are home the cafes are open and they are crawling on top of each others cage and talking with us. Smokey likes to crawl off the cage and sneak to the bathroom and he sometimes gets aggressive in the bathroom. Sometimes as soon as I pick him up he will bite me, or sometimes I'll pick him up and get him to the mirror and mock him before he gets the chance to bite me, and he will calm down. Hoping to avoid this we bought a stand with a bunch of branches and he can't climb down from that but he sometimes will fly down. He also sometimes gets mad that he's on there because he can't get down. I can't have him down just walking around because he will chew up everything he can. I don't get mad at him for it, I know that's what his beak is for, but we rent and can't have him just chewing everything up! Also eventually I want to train him to play basket ball and bowling and to do puzzles. I already bought all these things.. Is that unrealistic for older birds? Smokey was 19 when we adopted him an already had a large vocabulary when we got him and has learned new words such as "what are ya doing?" "what's a matter" "whatcha looking at" "c'mon dixie" "sweet dreams" every time I move my mouth he moves his lol Smokey really loves spending time with me and I really think if I can train him with the clicker and target I will be able to teach him the harder tricks and games. I know it will take allot of time but I'm very dedicated to my beautiful birdies.

 

[Smokeyandjake]

Also thats a very good point about cutting out the sugary/salty/fatty foods I want them to live long healthy lifes!

 

[wrench13]

What do you mean "mocking" them? Example?

 

[Smokeyandjake]

Like I just completely Nick their movement, if they move their head I move mine, if they blink I blink if they raise their hand I raise my hand. In sure I look crazy but I'm telling you they get really into it and start moving their head up and down really fast, or blinking with each eye. It's allot of fun lol

 

[Smokeyandjake]

I meant mock not Nick lol dang autocorrect!

 

[wrench13]

LOL, I don't think mock is quite the right word either. Mock to me would be like saying to the bird "Look at you eating your food like that, you look like a chicken". Mirror? Ape?
Copy?

 

[TitanCi]

LOL, I don't think mock is quite the right word either. Mock to me would be like saying to the bird "Look at you eating your food like that, you look like a chicken". Mirror? Ape?
Copy?

I think he means to mimic their movements


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[Smokeyandjake]

Yeah I definitely mean to mimic. I always thought Nick was to copy. I'm a girl just btw, my birds names are Smokey and Jake.

 

[Smokeyandjake]

Mock, I don't know why auto correct keeps doing it or why I continue to not catch it.