To be the lucky owner of pet parrot can be a stressful experience. Whether you have parrots, macaws, conures, parakeets or any other type of pet parrots, you will need to train them to some extent. So far you may have experienced a lot of problems with your pet and you might even have been bitten or attacked by it. Maybe it hasn’t been you but someone in your family or guests that came by that upset the bird when they got to close to the cage. This is a normal reaction but it doesn’t have to be.

Parrot birds are originally wilds animals living the the great forests of the world. Their instincts have are making them behave in a certain way. But it is no more than that… A behavioral pattern that can be changed through the right form of training. Unfortunately there are many parrot owners that never go as far as to start that training. They believe that because the parrots are originally wild animals, then it is okay for them to scream all day and even bite if you come to close. Let me tell you this: It is not okay!

Most pet parrots are born in cages and have never had to use their natural instincts to survive. They have been around humans all of their lives and have never had to be aggressive in any way. The reason that a parrot starts behaving this way is due to a lack of training. That means that the cure to behavioral problems like biting and screaming is no more that intensive training that will learn the parrot to be disciplined. Parrots are clever animals and they are easy to learn new ways of behaving.

You will find that once your parrot have calmed down and are no longer aggressive towards humans, it will become a much happier and balanced bird. You can actually see the mood change and the correlation between you as a pet owner and the parrot as a pet will improve greatly.

So How Do You Train It?

They were first thing you will need to work on is your own attitude and mood. Just as you can influence other humans in a negative way by being stressed or angry, so will you also experience difficulties training your pet if you are not in a good mood. You’ll find that your parrot will often tend to copy the mood you’re in so be sure to stay happy, open and willing to give it your all. When you are well rested and in a positive mood you can begin the training of your parrot.

There are three basic training steps that you should always start out with. There is no right or wrong step to begin with so just start with one of the three. The key here is not that things are perfect but rather that you act and that you do it continually over a longer period of time. Repeating the training process every day until you get the results you want is the secret to success.

If your parrot doesn’t trust you when you first start out you will need to build on that trust first. You can’t teach a parrot that doesn’t trust you anything. Start out with the three exercises in a slow and gentle way so that trust can be built or restored.

The 3 Secret Steps to Success

Giving Treats by Hand: When offering your pet parrot a treat you have to make sure that you more your hand very slowly towards it. Make it feel that you are a person that it can trust and that you won’t do it any harm. Remain positive, certain and strong. At first your parrot might scream at you or even try to bite you. If it bites, go get a thick pair of gloves so that you won’t be affected by its biting. Train this exercise several times a day for as many days as it takes to have your parrot accept and even enjoy that you’re giving it treats.

To Step Up: You will want to learn your parrot to feel comfortable with you and the easiest way is to learn it to step up into your hand. When practicing this step you have to say the words "step up" in a repetitive stream so that the parrot will learn that the words "step up" means that it should automatically step into your hand. Starting out (wearing gloves if it tends to bite), press your hand against its belly in a clear and slow movement. Press towards the birds belly until it is forced to step into your hand. Do it gently and as many times as possible. Repeat the process daily for as long as it takes and don’t stop until you have your parrot stepping voluntarily into your hand on command.

Talk to Your Bird: Parrots are talking birds and many of them can get quite good at it. Start out with the word "hello" and keep repeating it until your birds has learned to say it in a clear tone of voice. DO not move on to other words until it has learned the first one. Take one word at a time and only move on to the next when it gets it right. Remember to reward it with treats and positive words and gestures. It is actually no different that when teaching children how to talk. Be patients and it WILL come.

Use about 20 minutes per lesson and only one or two times a day for two weeks will produce incredible results. It doesn’t take that much effort as the key is in the repetitive process. I wish you the best of luck.