How to train a parakeet

Parakeet Training

Read on for how to teach your parakeet to talk, teach your parakeet to step up, how to tame a parakeet, teach your parakeet tricks and games and more.



Teach Your Parakeet to Talk
Parakeets can be taught to speak, whistle tunes, and play with humans. Both male and female parakeets sing and can learn to mimic sounds & words. Both singing and mimicry are more pronounced and much more perfected in male parakeets. As a whole, female parakeets rarely if ever learn to mimic more than a dozen words or so. Male parakeets can very easily acquire vocabularies ranging between a few dozen to a hundred words. Generally speaking, it is the pet parakeets and even more so the ones kept as single pets which talk the best and the most. - modified from the Budgerigar article on Wikipedia

Our parakeets love this toy! Mirror Mate Recordable Training Mirror and Feed Cup Combo You can record words you want your parakeets to learn and the mirror is motion-activated so that when the parakeets land on the mirror perch the mirror plays the sounds you recorded. Click the image for ordering information. Mirror Mate Recordable Training Mirror and Feed Cup Combo

As with foods, the key with parakeets is persistance. Repeat the words you want your parakeets to learn over and over every day. Soon they may pick up the words and incorporate them into their everyday speech. This works best with male parakeets and when you have just one or two parakeets. You are their flock so they will learn your words and will make up new sentences and word combinations with the words. If there are many more parakeets in the flock, they tend to revert to parakeet speech and forgo the language you have taught them.

How to Tame a Parakeet
I've said it once, I'll say it again: persistance! When you first bring home your parakeet, for the first few days just sit beside the cage and softly talk to the parakeet, sing songs, read from books, make eye contact. Let your parakeet get to know you slowly. When you change out the food and water, speak softly to your parakeet and tell them how pretty they are, how glad you are that they are going to share your home, introduce them to your home and to you. Then, begin just placing your hand inside the cage - don't try to touch the parakeet, just place your hand inside and let it rest there so your parakeet can see that the hand is not a danger. Then go to the next step down - teach your parakeet to step up. Once you have your parakeet stepping up you can then do more bonding rituals like holding a piece of millet on your chest and let them fly to you and land on your chest and eat the millet. Once they come to know that you are not a threat, they will land on your head, play with your jewelry, sit on your shoulder and step up on your finger when you provide a finger and ask them to step up. Always appear sure and confident. Don't hold your finger too far away from them - they shouldn't have to step too far to get on. Never draw your finger away when they are stepping up or they will lose trust in you. If they are unsure and want to test the safety and sturdiness of your finger, they may first reach out with their beak to test. Do not be afraid. They are not going to bite, just touch with their beak. If they do ever bite, whatever you do - don't respond. If you yell or scream or flail they may get excited and think it a fun game and continue to bite you. One way to get them to stop biting while on the hand is to shake your hand gently like an "earthquake". Never ever hit or yell at your bird for any reason. They are sensitive and will lose their trust in you and only react scared and defensive and will fly away from you and not want to be around you. This is exactly the opposite of what you want. It is important to always approach them as happy and loving and non-intimidating. As they are prey animals and you are a predator with 2 eyes looking forward, at first - just look at them with one eye - so they will not be afraid. For your first attempts of bringing your parakeet out of their cage - a small safe parakeet-proof room is best - like a bathroom - with the toilet lid down and the mirror covered - someplace where you can easily retrieve the parakeet if he flies away.
Teach Your Parakeet to Step Up
One of the first things you should teach your parakeet is how to step up. When the parakeet is in their cage, hold a wooden dowel gently against their belly - just above their legs and say "Step up". Be sure to say "step up" each time so that they learn the command. Be consistent. Use millet to lure them onto the stick. Be sure they get a treat each time they do what you are trying to get them to do and praise them in a happy high pitched voice. They will hop onto the dowel and you can move them to a different perch in the cage. Practice this over and over every day until they are unafraid. You can then bring the dowel out of the cage (in a safe room - free of parakeet dangers like open windows/doors, un-curtained windows, open bowels/pots of water, other pets, etc) and practice step-ups there.

Once your parakeet has mastered step-ups onto a wooden dowel, you can move on to teaching them to step up onto your finger. Hold the dowel with your finger pointing out onto it, getting your finger closer and closer to the parakeet's feet each time you do it. Once the parakeet is getting onto your finger on the dowel, you can begin trying to get them onto your finger, holding out your index finger in a point just as you did with the dowel.