Keeping a Parrot can be one of the most exciting and amazing experiences. You have a new feathered friend you are eager to spend lots of time with, introduce to the world, and share lots of special memories together with.

One of the most frequent questions Parrot trainers get asked is: ?How do I tame my Parrot??

There is lots of different advice offered in books, on forums and online, so it can be really confusing for people to know what to do. Most of the advice is often outdated or just plain wrong. So it?s really important to see if the advice sits right with you. Is the advice helping you build a relationship or just forcing one with your bird.

It?s very easy to have high expectations and get carried away with it all too, as you want your bird to do all the amazing things you see online.

However, the experience of joining a household can be a very scary and uncertain time for a Parrot. It?s the equivalent of us moving to a totally different country alone and mixing with an unfamiliar culture in unfamiliar places. It takes time to adapt and find our feet (or wings) in this strange new world.

So the first step in building a bond with your bird is allowing them time to settle in. Give them space, let them get used to their new cage or aviary and time to adapt to this strange new world they find themselves in.

There?s nothing wrong with checking in with them or being close by, but it?s best to just let them be for a day or two so they can feel confident that nothing too scary is going to happen. We call this passive bonding. You?re there, you?re around them but you aren?t directly interacting with your new bird. It just allows a little confidence that their new human flock mates aren?t going to do anything too wild.

Something else that?s very useful is observing your Parrot. Just watching them, observing their unique habits and learning their different behaviours can be really helpful in bonding with and taming them. Even watching videos online of their species may give you some good indicators to look out for when doing bonding work. Every bird is an individual too, so you may notice unique quirks or be able to adjust how quickly you work on bonding by watching them.

Once they have settled in, one of the best ways of building a bond with any Parrot is through treats and food. The way to a Parrot?s heart truly is through their stomach! It helps to find out what their favourite treats are by dropping a few in an empty bowl in the cage and viewing which ones they tend to favour most. You can then repeat this test and use the favourite treat to begin linking you with good things!

The next step is to offer a treat through the bars and at a distance, this may strain your arm a little initially, but if you keep your hand still and make the treat easy to get to it will often tempt your new feathered friend to come over and take it from you. If they don?t want to come and take the treat, you can simply drop it in a bowl and walk away. This is very useful for more nervous birds and works really well to link you to good things too.

Once you are able to, regularly provide treats and your Parrot is starting to see you as a giant human sized flock mate rather than something scary, you can begin working on more formal training and bonding work.

Many trainers recommend starting with target training. Target training involves encouraging your bird to touch the end of a small stick lightly in return for a treat. It may sound super simple, but it opens up so many doors to you and your bird. It can be done through the bars, it allows distance from potentially scary hands, it allows you to direct them to places and it can even help teach them tricks.

After target training you can move onto step up training, trick training, recall, stationing and so many other great and fun activities for you and your Parrot. It?s really important to take things one step at a time and let them make the choice to come to you.

The key to taming or building a bond with any bird is allowing them space, letting them make the choice to come to you, using the highest value treats and being consistent. The more you use these four elements over time the more likely you are to build a lasting bond with your bird.