How To Teach Your Parrot To Spin – For Beginners

Not only is spin a super cute trick but, it also serves as a way to get your bird to turn its back to you incase you need to look at their back or tail feathers. For example, if your bird is bleeding and you need to figure out why the bird is bleeding and stop the bleeding it is much easier to make your bird think it is doing a trick than having you try to turn the bird and not stress it out in an already stressful situation.

Where To Start

Once your bird is target trained this is a very simple thing to teach. I encourage you to go read my page on – The foundation of trick training for parrots! The Foundation Of Trick Training For Parrots! – How To Start – Optimal Avian if you are unfamiliar with target training. Target Training ensures you are not in a position to potentially get bit if this is one of the first tricks you are teaching. As stated in that post too, it creates a common language so your bird can understand what you are trying to communicate as well as allow your bird to communicate to you.

It’s very common to see people trying to teach their bird to spin through luring. Luring is when you use the treat to make the bird move but then don’t reward the bird for each step. In my experience luring is a less ideal way of training because it is teasing your bird, and will get them grouchy and not wanting to work because in their eyes they never do enough.

Steps

Starting on a training stand

Target the bird to touch target on the other side of the stand – going from bird facing you to bird turning its tail feathers to you (making the bird need to do a 180-degree turn ) you will click and treat this immediately, it may take some time for your bird to figure out what you are asking but stay patient do not move the target stick once you have asked them to touch it. then ask them to turn again, so they are back facing you, click and treat.

Once your bird starts doing this breezy you will target the first 180-degree turn so they are facing the opposite direction do not treat then target back to the original spot click and treat

Once that becomes easy you can start by doing a slow circle and only allowing the bird to touch the target once it does the full turn, click and treat.

Eventually you will phase out the slow circle as the bird learns the trick and it could become you pointing or whatever you phase the cue into.