Drinking from a Water Bottle
I decided it would be wise to teach my two caiques to drink from a water bottle as well as a dish, since they go on multi-hour car trips with me several times a year. I've also been trying to think up behaviors that might come in handy in an emergency and teach them those things now - taking liquids from a syringe, being toweled, being held around the body, traveling in various carriers, etc - and this falls into that category.
I bought a glass pet water bottle and put it in their cage. Both birds completely ignored it. Hmm.
Since I clicker train them, I tried using the target stick to get them to focus on the nozzle, and clicked/treated for touching their beaks to the nozzle. No dice. They would go around the nozzle chasing the target stick. I guess I've target trained them too well for my own good!
Then I had a flash of insight: Why not use the nozzle itself as a target stick? I removed the bottle from the cage and started click/treating for touching the nozzle. I only did this with one of the birds (Icarus) for one short session, then I put the bottle back in their cage.
The next day, my partner noticed the other bird drinking from the bottle! They now prefer to drink from the bottle (although I leave a big water dish in their cage for bathing), and the water level goes down rapidly during the day. Success!
(x-posted to parrots101 and clickertraining)
I bought a glass pet water bottle and put it in their cage. Both birds completely ignored it. Hmm.
Since I clicker train them, I tried using the target stick to get them to focus on the nozzle, and clicked/treated for touching their beaks to the nozzle. No dice. They would go around the nozzle chasing the target stick. I guess I've target trained them too well for my own good!
Then I had a flash of insight: Why not use the nozzle itself as a target stick? I removed the bottle from the cage and started click/treating for touching the nozzle. I only did this with one of the birds (Icarus) for one short session, then I put the bottle back in their cage.
The next day, my partner noticed the other bird drinking from the bottle! They now prefer to drink from the bottle (although I leave a big water dish in their cage for bathing), and the water level goes down rapidly during the day. Success!
(x-posted to parrots101 and clickertraining)