Trick Training Can Be Valuable

I taught Maui, my sun conure, to stick her tongue out when we were both super young. I’ve had Maui most of my life, over 15 years. Maui and Noel (my meyers parrot) are the two I bought as babies before I knew about bird rescue. Since I was a very young kid when I got her, I taught her some fun tricks. Now, most of my training is for cooperative care, like syringe training and acceptance of aversive tastes, voluntary nail trims, flight training indoors only, so on and so forth.

But that doesn’t mean trick training isn’t important. Trick training can be fun and for rescues can make a bird more adoptable. Tricks can be really cute, like who doesn’t like seeing a bird tongue, but it also shows adopters that they are trainable, as most people believe older animals can’t be taught new things. That is a big myth, it’s like saying “your grandparents can’t learn anymore because they’re over the age of 60.” It may sometimes be easier and quicker to train a young animal since they’re still developing and don’t have many habits, but it doesn’t mean it’s impossible or something you shouldn’t try to do.

If you need training aid, feel free to contact me so we can set up an online or in-person behavior consultation.