Teaching My Conure To Ride A Bike

Mlh120

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Oct 16, 2021
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Does anyone have any tips for getting my Conure to move the peddles of the bike? She does get on it and has moved the petals a little but not enough to make the bike move. I’ve tried putting the bike “on blocks” at first, but she seems to do better without the blocks/box. I’ve looked online and found videos of parrots riding bikes but none specifically showing the steps to how they trained the parrots to actually move the petals! Any help is greatly appreciated!
 

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foxgloveparrot

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You said she moves the pedals a little bit? Good. I would capture whenever she does it and give her a big reward, a favorite treat and plenty of verbal praise. I can't give much more advice because I do not know about this trick, but I hope you can manage to get her to move the bike by capturing. If not, I'm sure someone else can help you out.
 
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Mlh120

Mlh120

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Does anyone have any tips for getting my Conure to move the peddles of the bike? She does get on it and has moved the petals a little but not enough to make the bike move. I’ve tried putting the bike “on blocks” at first, but she seems to do better without the blocks/box. I’ve looked online and found videos of parrots riding bikes but none specifically showing the steps to how they trained the parrots to actually move the petals! Any help is greatly appreciated!
 

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Birds lover from Hawaii

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What about use your finger to gently hold each leg and slowly move the peddle to show him it can be moved that way. Repeat the motion by going back and forth very slowly and let go one finger to see if he got the message? If he does, of course, reward time!!

On the other hand, not sure if his legs are strong enough to move the peddles. Also, he needs to know how to keep the balance or else he may hurt himself by flipping onto one side or lost control.
 
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wrench13

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I am teaching my Yellow Shoulder Amazon, Salty, to do this trick too. It's a very hard trick to learn! The way I am doing it, is first I taught Salty to STAY, or station himself on the pedals, with his feet only on the pedals - that took a while for him to learn. We use the "Stay" command in another trick, so he understands that part of it. Once he realized his feet can only be on the pedals, i started to lead him with a treat in one hand and helping the bike to move forward with the other hand, in the back of the bike. Thats where we are now or maybe a little more than that. He remains planted on the bike with his feet on the pedals for about 2 revolutions of the pedals (which is about all the room I have for the trick) and occasionally I will remove my hand from the back of the bike and he propels the bike with his feet. As I said, this is a really hard trick for them to learn. We dont practice this one every night, maybe once or twice a week, because I rotate the tricks every night so Salty doesn't get bored. I would get the "Stay" part down really well before moving on.

Some general tips for trick training:
Be consistent - always ask for the trick or action the same way every time, so you don't confuse the parrot. I use both verbal and hand signals with Salty for most tricks.
Be immediate - have the treat ready in one hand, so you can reward immediately when there is any progress, no matter how small.. Immediate, so the parrot can associate the action with the reward
Be patient! Parrots can be stubborn little mules sometimes. I took me a whole year+ of training every night with Salty to get him to the point where he putts his harness on without a big fuss. But, once they understand that training time is learning time, it becomes much easier. Not easier to do a given trick - that depends on the trick and the dexterity needed, but they will understand what you are asking them to do.

Other tips:
Try to begin and end each training session on a positive note, with tricks he loves to do and does well. That's a biggie, because you want training sessions to be something he looks forward to every day.

I set aside 15 minutes every day, at the same time, for training. We usually only do a given trick once in each session, or twice, if he really likes doing it. Training treats should be the parrots very favorite treat and used only in the training session. And it should be something he eats fairly quickly, so the session moves right along. Salty likes pine nuts and walnuts equally, but the takes his time eating walnuts, so we use pine nuts ( tiny pieces of them, maybe 1/3 or less of a pine nut) as his training treat.

Good luck! I think trick training is a great way to strengthen the bond and develop trust with your parrot.

AND lastly - where did you get the bicycle from? I like the design on yours a lot! Mine is made similar, but in aluminum and has a chain drive. The aluminum is heavy, the edges could be better rounded off and smoothed and the chain drive always makes me nervous he could get his foot or toe meshed into it.
 
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Mlh120

Mlh120

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I am teaching my Yellow Shoulder Amazon, Salty, to do this trick too. It's a very hard trick to learn! The way I am doing it, is first I taught Salty to STAY, or station himself on the pedals, with his feet only on the pedals - that took a while for him to learn. We use the "Stay" command in another trick, so he understands that part of it. Once he realized his feet can only be on the pedals, i started to lead him with a treat in one hand and helping the bike to move forward with the other hand, in the back of the bike. Thats where we are now or maybe a little more than that. He remains planted on the bike with his feet on the pedals for about 2 revolutions of the pedals (which is about all the room I have for the trick) and occasionally I will remove my hand from the back of the bike and he propels the bike with his feet. As I said, this is a really hard trick for them to learn. We dont practice this one every night, maybe once or twice a week, because I rotate the tricks every night so Salty doesn't get bored. I would get the "Stay" part down really well before moving on.

Some general tips for trick training:
Be consistent - always ask for the trick or action the same way every time, so you don't confuse the parrot. I use both verbal and hand signals with Salty for most tricks.
Be immediate - have the treat ready in one hand, so you can reward immediately when there is any progress, no matter how small.. Immediate, so the parrot can associate the action with the reward
Be patient! Parrots can be stubborn little mules sometimes. I took me a whole year+ of training every night with Salty to get him to the point where he putts his harness on without a big fuss. But, once they understand that training time is learning time, it becomes much easier. Not easier to do a given trick - that depends on the trick and the dexterity needed, but they will understand what you are asking them to do.

Other tips:
Try to begin and end each training session on a positive note, with tricks he loves to do and does well. That's a biggie, because you want training sessions to be something he looks forward to every day.

I set aside 15 minutes every day, at the same time, for training. We usually only do a given trick once in each session, or twice, if he really likes doing it. Training treats should be the parrots very favorite treat and used only in the training session. And it should be something he eats fairly quickly, so the session moves right along. Salty likes pine nuts and walnuts equally, but the takes his time eating walnuts, so we use pine nuts ( tiny pieces of them, maybe 1/3 or less of a pine nut) as his training treat.

Good luck! I think trick training is a great way to strengthen the bond and develop trust with your parrot.

AND lastly - where did you get the bicycle from? I like the design on yours a lot! Mine is made similar, but in aluminum and has a chain drive. The aluminum is heavy, the edges could be better rounded off and smoothed and the chain drive always makes me nervous he could get his foot or toe meshed into it.
Thank you for the tips. I have to work on the “stay” trick. I was able to teach her the following tricks:
Bowling
Colored rings on pegs
Coins in treasure chest
Basketball
Putting groceries in shopping cart and pushing it
Stacking cups
Puzzle pieces ( still working on this)
Walking through hoop
Hand shake
Wave and spin around.
I wanted to try something new for her so I thought the bike would be good. But I couldn’t find any instructions on how to train her to ride it.
I bought the bike on Amazon. The reviews said that conures should ride the large bike so I ordered the large and i thought it might be to heavy for her. So I ordered the small size which is what I’m training her on. Please keep me updated on your progress and how you manage to get your bird to ride.
 
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Mlh120

Mlh120

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Cinnamon Green Cheek Conure
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What about use your finger to gently hold each leg and slowly move the peddle to show him it can be moved that way. Repeat the motion by going back and forth very slowly and let go one finger to see if he got the message? If he does, of course, reward time!!

On the other hand, not sure if his legs are strong enough to move the peddles. Also, he needs to know how to keep the balance or else he may hurt himself by flipping onto one side or lost control.
Thank you. I will try that. She doesn’t like when I touch the peddles while she’s on it and she tries to bite me. But I will work with her on that. Thanks so much.
 

wrench13

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Oh very cool, if your parrot does all these, he is well on his way to being able to do more complex tricks! The more they learn the more they WANT to learn. Check out some of Salty's videos for more ideas.
 
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Mlh120

Mlh120

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Oh very cool, if your parrot does all these, he is well on his way to being able to do more complex tricks! The more they learn the more they WANT to learn. Check out some of Salty's videos for more ide
Oh very cool, if your parrot does all these, he is well on his way to being able to do more complex tricks! The more they learn the more they WANT to learn. Check out some of Salty's videos for more ideas.
Where would I find Salty’s videos?
 

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