BLACK HEADED CAIQUE FOR SALE

The Black Headed Caique  is not only one of the most colorful birds in the parrot family, but has a delightful and comical personality. They are very intelligent and quick to learn tricks. They can mimic many environmental sounds but Caiques in general are not known to be good talkers. Being quite social and outgoing, they are affectionate and inquisitive, and they love to show off.

A distinguishing characteristic of the Caique is a lovely ruffled looking white breast and belly. This gave rise to it’s name. ‘Caique’ is a term used to describe a full-dress, white shirt, with a ruffled front.

Social Behaviors Black Headed Caique

Caiques enjoy human interaction as well as interaction with other birds. In the wild the Black-headed Caiques are very social birds usually seen in family groups or flocks of up to thirty birds. They are highly social birds with a very active nature.They will require a lot of interaction with either you or from another companion.
But despite this overall affectionate nature, the Black-headed Caique can get rather grumpy and nippy and can be aggressive to other birds. They should never be left unsupervised with other pets

Housing: Bird Houses

Bird Cages:
Their bird cage should provide room for lots of movement as well as space for perches, food dishes and a variety of playthings. Size wise a cockatiel cage, a minimum of 24″ wide by 24″ high by 24″ length (60 x 605 x 60 cm) is okay for as a minimum size for a Caique, though the bigger the cage the better.
A chew resistant metal bird cage is important, as a wooden cage will easily be destroyed. Horizontal bars on the sides are nice as they love to climb.

Bird Perch
Provide two perches, sized between 3/4″ to 1″ (2 – 2.5 cm). Place one bird perch up high for roosting and one low by the food and water dishes. Caiques love to chew and will gnaw on the perches. Natural perches from willow, poplar and fruit trees are good for the bird’s feet and for it’s beak.
Place the cage where it will be away from harmful fumes and drafts. To provide you pet with a sense of security, you can cover the cage at night.

Playpen and Bird Toys
When Caiques are housed in a small cage they will need to be out daily for exercise and play. A playpen is a great option for this. Playthings can be such things as climbing ropes, chains, bells, parrot swings and wooden or other bird toys.

Aviary
An outdoor or breeding aviary needs to have a protected shelter that can be heated and cooled where necessary. It should be no smaller than 59″ – 79″ (1.5 – 2 m) high with a floor space of 39″x 39″ (1 m x 1 m) and have an attached flight cage. The flight should be 79″ – 118″ (2 – 3 m) long with a perch at each end. A climbing branch and a bird bath are nice additions too.

Handling/Training

Black Headed Caique (for Sale) is very intelligent,sweet and lovely. They enjoy learning tricks and then showing off, however, they are very strong willed individuals. You will need a firm hand when taming your pet to establish dominance. If they are handled timidly they can become aggressive so are not considered a beginners pet. When raised correctly, Caiques can become wonderful companions.

Taming Basics:
To be able to handle and train your parrot depends first on trust, so go slowly and be consistent. You should give a new arrival a few days to get use to you, your voice and its cage before trying to handle it. A handfed baby will not need much taming and can often be handled right away, as it is use to human attention.
Caiques, like other parrots, are most receptive to training in the evening (as well as when you are entering or leaving the room).

Initial Training:
Your first goal is to get the parrot to accept a treat from you, which will lead to it allowing you to gently scratch its head. Once you have his trust and are able to pet his head, then you can begin to work on getting your parrot to step up on your hand.
Depending on the tameness of the bird, these two steps can be instantaneous as in a handfed baby or take several weeks or longer for an untamed bird.

Advanced Training:
Repetition and frequency are the keys here. Almost every parrot can learn at least a few words or sounds. Caiques in particular do better at mimicing environmental sounds rather than human voices.
Remember that taming and training a bird takes patience, never ‘punish’ you parrot! This only serves to destroy the trust you’ve spent so much time building.

Vocalizations

The black headed Caiques are recognized for their loud shrieks and alarm calls, and they are exceptionally vocal birds. Trills, songlike sounds, and toots are among their vocalizations. Kleeek calls are part of the courting behavior.  Pet birds make Soft low growls sounds. Their capacity to communicate is limited; nevertheless, like many parrot species, they may learn sounds from their surroundings, including wolf whistles.