If you’ve never owned a parrot before, starting the process of training your new parrot can be a bit overwhelming. You can start by teaching your bird a few basics, and this is true whether your pet has been with you a few days or a few years. One of the best ways to get started with training your parrot is to teach it to step up to your hand on command. So by following the instructions in this article, you will be able to tell your parrot to “step up” and it will immediately step onto your finger or hand.

So why is the step-up command the first thing you should teach your parrot? It makes it easier to take your bird from its cage, for one thing. Another is that parrots sometimes climb up on shoulders whether you want them to or not, so step-up makes it easier to get them off of a shoulder. When being removed from a shoulder, a few parrots may attempt to bite. However, with the step-up command this becomes less of a problem. And if you ever find your bird in a dangerous situation, the step-up command could literally be a life saver. Plus, it teaches the parrot to cooperate with you, which as you can imagine is an important advantage as well. In summary, teaching a parrot to step up is a great behavior to begin its training with.

Teach Your Parrot to Step-up

It is generally very easy to teach a bird to step up to your hand. You simply place your finger in front of the bird’s feet and say “step up.” Your parrot won’t know what “step up” means at first, so you might need to press your finger gently against it’s lower breast area so that it feels a little off balance. As you give a gentle nudge, your bird should willingly step onto your finger. Be sure to enthusiastically praise your bird when he steps up correctly. You can then practice a few more times asking your bird to step-up from finger to finger.

Parrot Still Refuses to Step Up

Some birds grab a hold of the perch and won’t let go for anything. Who knows what is going on inside their heads, but this is how you handle this situation. Keep your finger in front of the feet as described above, but take your other hand and move it around behind the bird like you are going to scoop it up from behind. What you are doing is giving your bird a choice of stepping up to your hand or being picked up from behind (which most birds don’t like). For most parrots, the choice is an easy one since it would rather step up than be picked up in this manner. Remember to praise your bird when it steps up for you.

Continuing Education

Keep practicing step-up with your bird on a regular basis. Practice daily at first, and then do semi-regular practice sessions throughout the bird’s life to reinforce this behavior. If you do this, you’ll find your bird is easier to handle and it won’t be nearly as bad when the “terrible twos” hit. And just think - you are now on the path to becoming an expert in training your parrot.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 at 5:35 am and is filed under Birds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comments and pings are closed.

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