Caring for your African Grey is very important; in fact, it’s critically vital to owning a happy African Grey Parrot. Proper African Grey care means you change their water daily, feed them fresh fruits and veggies, give them plenty of toys, and let them play in a stimulating environment.
Again, this is all excellent African Grey care, but you can be an expert in caring for your African Grey. Yet, when his hormones start to change when he becomes of breeding age, you’ll be up a creek without a paddle if you haven’t bothered to learn anything about African Grey training.
African Grey Parrot Training Tips
Training Your African Grey Parrot means teaching your Grey a language and helping it discover a way to communicate with you. It’s very much like dealing with a two-year-old. Parrots have been likened to having the same mental capabilities as a 2-year-old, and if you’re a parent, you know what the terrible two’s means.
Parrots are the same as a two-year-old toddler regarding the reasons they act out because they cannot communicate their wants, needs, and desires. Just like when a child can’t express their wants, conditions, and desires quickly and effectively, they throw a tantrum and so will your parrot.
And that’s what African Grey parrot training aims to do – give you and your Grey a language to communicate his needs and desires that you can understand, causing him to not lash out in frustration.
African Grey Obedience Training
“Obedience training” is a term that has been used in animal training since the dark ages. It is not a preferred term as it indicates owner dominance over an animal, which is not the ideal training scenario or mindset. However, since the term “obedience training” does not seem to want to go away, and has perhaps led you to this page, understand that our version includes positive reinforcement and mutual respect.
African Greys are a beautiful species of bird with exceptional abilities to verbalize. So complex is their speech that, over the years, the scientific community has had to “eat crow” and admit that the cognitive abilities of the African Grey extend far beyond what was believed possible for a “mere” bird. This bird does much more than “mimic”. As we dig deeper into the mind of the incredible African Grey, we have to take much more into consideration of their environment than our other domesticated pets like cats and dogs.
Some Interesting Facts About African Grey Parrots
Because an African Grey is so intelligent, it has more complex emotional needs. And if these needs are not met, African Greys can become especially prone to feather plucking and aggressive behaviors. In addition, an African grey needs to be continually entertained with toys and activities (especially in the cage) to avoid bad habits resulting from boredom and discontent.
The African Grey species is ranked as the 2nd most likely species of bird to develop feather-plucking problems (and is way up there for ending up in rescues by owners who were in over their heads.)
With the African Grey’s huge brain power comes a considerable advantage in training. Trick training can be a fun way to provide your Grey with the daily interaction and the mental stimulation to keep it from getting bored.
If you are seriously considering the purchase of an African Grey, let me make a couple of recommendations for you.
You must be willing to take the time to give your African Grey the attention he deserves. Just a few minutes a day of one-on-one time, training, or engaging him in a mutual activity is all needed to solidify your relationship and keep him active mentally. Hanging out together is fun, but it isn’t the interactive time he craves. When you expose yourself and your bird to the wonderful world of training, you’ll notice a much happier bird who is eager to spend more time with you! Biting out of aggression and screaming for your attention will no longer be part of your daily routine.
The best training sessions are the ones that are short and sweet – and the ones that always end on a positive note leaving everyone wanting more. This might mean 2 five minute sessions a day – sound doable? We can show you how. Then you can both kick back and enjoy a good movie together.
It’s that simple to have a well-behaved African Grey parrot who you can’t wait to spend some time with and who can’t wait to be with you.