Young Senegal - Sharp beak!

[nightjars]

Hi all,

I have a question that I hope somebody can help me with. My wife and I have a young Senegal parrot - about 5 months old. He's very friendly, he loves everybody he comes into contact with. He's never bit in an effort to hurt. The problem is that he has a particular mood where he becomes frantic about chewing the world apart, including fingers, skin, and anything else he can get his little beak on. 90% of the time I can distract him with a destructible wooden toy or something similar, but sometimes, nothing but the taste of tender flesh will satisfy his cravings. He's not being aggressive. He's not trying to hurt anybody. I try telling him to stop, but in this particular mood, he seems to not be thinking or responding at all, he's completely absorbed into wanting to destroy the world with his beak. If I try putting him down, I can't get him to willingly come off my hand - and I don't want to do anything too aggressive to force him to come off my hand, since I am afraid this might teach him to actually become aggressive (I don't know if this is a true concern or not, please correct me if I am wrong on the best approach). Most of the time, he is not in this mindset, and is perfectly friendly, responsive, talkative (he's a chatterbox when he's in a good, friendly mood - clicking, talking, making strange noises, etc). He's the most adorable, friendly bird ever. I just don't know what to do when he goes crazy like this. Anything people have found to be particularly effective for this kind of thing?

[janetafloat]

I have an 8 month old Senegal who is, generally speaking, a sweetie, but he gets a wild hair in him sometimes and there's nothing to be done with him, so I feel for you, that beak is sharp! I've become a great believer in target training, all birds seem to love it and it's really useful in situations like you're describing. For instance, if Alfie's in one of his 'beaking moods' and he's beaking my fingers too strongly, any attempt to get him to step off would only cause him to grip more strongly. Targeting him onto something else like his training perch or play area works every time. Once there I can keep him occupied by doing some more targeting or trick training. After a bit of that often the wild mood has passed. If not, I'll work with him for a bit then put him back in his cage and get him out again later when the mood has passed. Again, if he's in a wild mood he may resist going back in his cage (he's usually fine with that) but targeting him in works every time. And it's not just 'waiting for the mood to pass' - even though I'm managing the behaviour, not punishing, tbe effect is that any attempts to interact with me in those ways that I don't want are cut short, and positive interactions occur instead, so over time the young bird is learning to behave in a way that gets attention ('good behaviour'). Even though you understand that your bird is just a baby and that he's just behaving like a youngster, it's important that he doesn't get a biting habit and you need to develop strategies for managing his behaviour now, while he's still young.

[nightjars]

Thank you so much for that suggestion. I tried interrupting this behavior with some target training, and it did momentarily get him to stop, and i was able to get him off me without resorting to pulling his feet off my finger, which is exactly what I was wanting to be able to do. As soon as he touches the stick, he'll go right back into shredding mode, but at that point he isn't shredding my finger..

[janetafloat]

Keep doing the target training in short sessions, 2 or 3 times a day, giving lots of praise as well as a treat each time. If he wants to chew the end of the target stick click & treat just before he reaches it.Target him on & off your shoulder (if he's allowed there) and on & off your hand so he's used to that exercise which will make it easier when he's having one of his funny five minutes.

[GreenWing]

I wonder if your Sennie is also "beaking"? Beaking is a way juvenile birds explore, but also --
Sennies can get a little too excited during play... my own little Sennie hen gets that like and accidentally may bite me as she's playing with a toy that I'm holding. Watch your fingers and be careful when your Sennie gets really excited because they will bite when excited as they do when angry. These beasts react in the moment. And when they feel intensely, no matter what kind of mood it is -- excitement or anger -- they may react the same way with a bite.

[nightjars]

Beaking is a good way to describe some of what he does. Mostly, he only ever bites when he is very excited and doesn't seem to be thinking clearly. Putting him down when he gets like this has helped a lot, and the problem is already getting quite a bit better. He'll proceed to shred whatever he has available, and when he calms down, he's ready for some head scratches or other non-biting activity. He's exactly as you describe - very very intense into whatever he is doing at the moment - and very hard to distract if he sets his mind on something.

All in all, I have to say he has an awesome personality and is an awesome bird though.. He just is a bit excitable. The fingernail removing has gotten better since I found ways to "hide" my fingernails when he gets in that mood. When all fingernails are gone from view, he'll easily settle for a stick of wood or something similar and shred that instead..

[nightjars]

Howdy, have a follow-up question about this...

Sometimes he will get excited and will bite in order to get you to go away. I know the best solution is to recognize when he is getting this way and getting your hand away from the situation. What I am wondering is in the case that this doesn't happen, and he gets a good nip in, what should the response be? I am reading conflicting information - but the main information point that I am seeing is that if a bite makes your hand go away, he will learn that biting is a good, direct way to make a hand go away. I don't want him to learn that the best way for him to show his desire to be left alone is by biting.

I've heard these approaches:

1) Say "no bite", put in cage for a couple minutes for them to calm down, etc.
**Notable concerns: if bird wanted to go to their cage, they'll learn that biting is the way to ask for this. Also, a verbal "no bite" can be interpreted as positive reinforcement.

2) Completely ignore the bite, keep hand exactly where it was.
**Notable concerns: Unsure, except for the bird getting frustrated that you're not going away when it wants to be left alone, and of course, the possibility of getting bit again.

3) Completely ignore the bite, remove hand from situation after bird lets go.
**Notable concerns: Bird will learn that bites make hands go away.

4) Give dirty look, ignore the bird, etc.
**Notable concerns: Unsure

Probably other approaches, as well. With differing opinions, I am not sure what to do - in the very moment of getting nipped, and there doesn't seem to be a clear consensus. My main concern is I do not want to reinforce learned biting. I've read that once a bird learns that biting is the best solution to a given problem that the behavior is extremely difficult to reverse.

[janetafloat]

I was puzzling over your question - my Sennie can be quite nippy but I couldn't think of a time he would bite to make me go away and I realised that of course he just flies away. Is your bird clipped?

[nightjars]

Unfortunately, he is. He came from the breeder that way. I'm not sure when his next molt will be, but he'll get some flight feathers back someday. He isn't too aggressively clipped - he can still fly a good 20-30 feet through the house, but he only seems to do it when he wants to fly to either me or my wife.

[janetafloat]

Well, the wisdom as received from Michael (or my interpretation of it) is ideally to anticipate whatever actions of yours provokes a bite and, whenever possible, avoid them. Failing that, do not react, do not say 'no', do not change what you're doing because to do so would reinforce the behaviour. I, being a frail human, cannot always avoid making some reaction such as 'OW!'. Usually, in the case of a significant nip, I will target Alfie away from my tender body onto his training perch or play gym and engage him in some trick or target training. If he starts to play on the play gym I'll leave him alone for a while. To be honest, he might want me to stop exactly what I'm doing in the moment but he almost never wants me to leave him alone. If he persists in being nippy I'll ignore him for a short while (as he's flighted ignoring him for more than a few minutes isn't an option as he'll be back on my shoulder whether I like it or not ) If he persists in his nippiness I'll put him back in his cage & try again later.