G'day!

[bec]

Hi',

I'm Bec, happy owner (though I sometimes wonder who owns who lol) of a rainbow lorikeet called Peanuts. Peanuts was a birthday gift from a friend so I'm unsure if Peanuts is a he or a she, I'm also unsure how old he/she is, though the beak still has some black.

I'm hoping to get some advice on training Peanuts to talk and do some tricks..we think he/she is already begining to imitate the cat.

I look forward to getting to know you all!

[avinet]

Hi Bec and welcome to our Forum. Hope you enjoy visiting and we look forward to lots of photos of Peanuts

Life will certainly not be dull with a Rainbow - hyperactive is their middle name

I suggest that you have a read of an article at web.archive.org/web/20091017225526/http://www.mooloolabapets.com.au/html/lorikeets.html (do not click on the URL - copy the whole URL that is in bold and paste it into your browser - it is an archive of an article on my old web site and the extra http: in the link can confuse the Forum and some browsers)

One thing that all Rainbows will do at some stage is give a painful bite and the article will help you understand and work around the problem.

Regarding training to do tricks I suggest you buy the DVD by Barbara Heidenreich at www.birdkeeper.com.au/bird-dvds/dvd88-parrot-behaviour-and-training-an-introduction-to-training - an excellent introduction to trick training - a video is worth a thousand words!

Talking is something that not all Rainbows will do - I suspect the males are better than females, but I have heard some good females talk. It is only worth doing talk training when the bird is relatively quiet and not excited - it needs to concentrate on what you are saying. Only one person should train it to say a particular word or phrase - if two people try to teach it the same thing it can get confused between the two voices and ends up getting nowhere. As long as it is paying attention repeat the phrase or word several times - make sure you are looking at the bird and it is looking at you. Leave a few seconds between each repeat and do it for a couple of minutes several times a day, and keep your fingers crossed you have a bir dthat wants to talk - by no means do all Rainbows talk.

cheers,

Mike