Prim - Tube Training (in just 2 sessions!)

Treats I’m using for Primrose my parrotlet: Blueberry’s Seed and Grain Mix.

As you can see in the video, I started out trying to use target training but it was frustrating both of us equally so I ended up using luring instead (placing the seed mix into the tube and allowing her to go in to eat it).

I’m bridging as she finds the treats inside and eats them. This is so that she associates being in or near the tube with a click and treat which takes this behavior closer to training vs staying in the lane of luring.

For whatever reason, Prim really wanted to put her foot on the tube (maybe because the last thing I trained her was to put a foot up on my finger…)

I made some modifications to this tube: I cut it all the way down one side and opened it, and taped it open so that she could fit through. When I tried before (in case you missed that video) she did not fit through the tube! So I didn’t want that to be a reason she avoided going through  this time.

In the beginning of this training I am not picky about which way they enter the tube. You can train this where they only ever enter from a specific side but for me, I don’t mind which side they use so I was not specific.

The biggest thing you wanna be aware of with training this behavior successfully is trying to ensure everytime the bird enters the tube, they go all the way through without backing out! Do whatever you can to ensure this type of success most of the time.

If you heard Dave talking for Prim, that’s often what we do for clients (lol) so they they understand the bird’s perspective.

Hopefully you got to see me work through what it took to train this to Primrose so you can take this home to your own birds.  We teach this trick to our budgie Blueberry (RIP) in our budgie course and our lovebird Monet in our budgie course if you’d like more tutorial based training examples.