I want to train my pigeons to come in and out of the loft and all the necessary things of course. I was just wondering though out of interest if anyone had trained pigeons in the same way (some) people train parrots eg. to step up onto your hand, fly to you, sit on your shoulder when you're out and about, do tricks etc.?
The reason for my enquiry is I have an ambition to train parrots. The reason is, we currently have a tragic situation of people getting parrots (which I personally believe shouldn't be kept as pets, but that's just my opinion), and then they can't train them so the poor bird stays in a cage. I think parrots should be trained to be able to free fly as the main aim of the game when having a parrot, like you do with a bird of prey. However there are no parrot trainers in the UK and perhaps thousands of neglected parrots and parrots being cared for by charities. There are also no parrot sanctuaries as far as I know.
I thought if I could learn to train a pigeon, that might give me the litmus test on whether I could adopt a parrot and try to rehabilitate it. Pigeons are smart but I don't know how easy they are to train in this way, for example with clicker training.
The reason for my enquiry is I have an ambition to train parrots. The reason is, we currently have a tragic situation of people getting parrots (which I personally believe shouldn't be kept as pets, but that's just my opinion), and then they can't train them so the poor bird stays in a cage. I think parrots should be trained to be able to free fly as the main aim of the game when having a parrot, like you do with a bird of prey. However there are no parrot trainers in the UK and perhaps thousands of neglected parrots and parrots being cared for by charities. There are also no parrot sanctuaries as far as I know.
I thought if I could learn to train a pigeon, that might give me the litmus test on whether I could adopt a parrot and try to rehabilitate it. Pigeons are smart but I don't know how easy they are to train in this way, for example with clicker training.