In the current global situation where many bird owners find themselves at home with their birds and a bit more free time than usual it’s a great time to take some time for training.

A lot of people say that they don’t have enough time in the day to spend training with their birds. This is the perfect time to train some basic behaviors that can both help with husbandry and enhance your bond with your bird.

Some easy things to train include:

Step up

Turn around

Present feet for wellness checks (wave)

Work on in and out of cage voluntarily

Retrieves

Wings up

There are so many “tricks” you can train that will help you in the overall care of your bird. Just remember to try to keep that behaviors natural as those are the easiest to train. You can work fun cues into tricks but keep the behavior you’re asking for natural; something the bird might do anyway just not on cue. I’ve never seen a bird in the wild riding a bike so why would I train that? Wings up is natural, looks stunning and allows you to visually inspect feather condition. Retrieves can use cute props but will also teach your bird to drop things in the event that they get a hold of something they shouldn’t have.

Building the relationship you want with your bird is so very important. Training allows you to add more tools to your toolbox for positive engagements.