How to Train a Senegal Parrot

Senegal parrots are wonderful pets, but with any bird training, teaching and taming a Senegal parrot can be frustrating at times. The rewards make it worth it to learn all that you can. Imagine the fun when your Senegal parrot learns to talk and can mimic the things you say in your household. What a conversation piece your pet Senegal will be when inviting friends and family over. There are a few things you can do to help this process.

Instructions

    • 1

      Learn about the individual traits in a Senegal parrot. All parrot species can be different in their personalities, voices, habits and training time. A Senegal parrot is a much calmer parrot than some of its relatives. It can be by itself but will need daily training to tame and teach and will need time every day spent on training and acclimating to its new home. They are social birds and love being with their new family. Since their life expectancy can be up to 50 years, you will need to make a long-term commitment with your bird.

    • 2

      Spend each day with your bird. A Senegal parrot can mimic sounds that it hears such as the TV or microwave. However, to have a well-trained bird that can learn things from you, you’ll need to allow your parrot out of its cage each day to interact with you or your family as well as to get the much needed exercise.

    • 3

      Repetition is something you need to learn to use. You will need to learn patience and to use repetition to train your bird to talk or do any kind of trick, since those are the key elements with training a Senegal parrot. If there is a particular word or phrase that you want your parrot to learn, repeat it to him often, and always in a voice that is pleasant. This will let your Senegal be at ease and want to mimic you. One thing that can help out is a recording that has special phrases or words on it. You can play this for your bird even if you’re not home, however a human voice in person is better. Even just leaving the radio or TV on can let your Senegal parrot hear things that he’ll want to repeat eventually. They’ll pick up more on words that are repeated often such as “Hello” when you enter the room.

    • 4

      Use rewards to benefit your training. Always reward your parrot after he has done something pleasing to you. This enforces the idea that you are happy with what your parrot has done, making him want to do it again and again. Never punish your parrot if he does something to displease you. This will only frighten him and hinder your training, causing him not to trust you and you always want your Senegal to trust his trainer.

    • 5

      Use short training episodes. It is more effective to use multiple training sessions that are short rather than tiring your bird and causing him to lose interest. Pick a time or times that he is interested instead of times when he wants to eat or sleep.