Stop my senegal from getting on my shoulder

[spiral71]

yeah that i amn me phase is impressive i am going to give by bird a bath now fingers crossed she doesnt get my ears again.

[spiral71]

i did not get bitten while she was bathing but she did get me wet

[Weka]

[Finds relevant thread instead of starting new one]

So now I have a problem. Sort of. For the last few training sessions Skeeter has been doing great with working on a free-standing perch, but now he has learned to hop onto my chest and quickly climb up onto my shoulder(!) Seeing as we're still working on stepping up, I've figured the best thing to do is to gently go to the ground, and let him walk off my back. Once down there, he will then gingerly step up onto my hand, only to attempt going back up to the shoulder again. He REALLY wants to be there, so today I made a sort of compromise by getting him to sit on top of the couch near my head, but not on my shoulder. After a few minutes of cautious exploration, he moved closer in for some head scritches and personalized attention (awwww) and then...he tried to scramble up the shoulder again.


It's apparently an ingrained behavior, and I'm debating whether I should allow it. I want him to feel safe with me, and safe with finally being out of his cage, but at the same time nearly everything I've read says don't make "shouldering" a regularly allowed habit. But seeing as he's a second-hand bird, living with someone else for the first 8 years of his life before being in a bird shop for another two years, I've no idea what he's accustomed to; I don't want to break the trust he's placed in me as a guardian.


Thoughts?

Weka

[Pajarita]

People will give all kinds of advice and most times, they are just repeating something they read somewhere. I allow all my birds to perch on my shoulder. It makes them very happy and I am not one to be shortchanging them of anything that gives them pleasure. People talk about parrots biting their faces and necks while on the shoulder but, to tell you the truth, I've never had a single aggressive parrot try to get on my shoulder to bite me. Not one! If they wanted to attack me, they would fly out at my head but they never perched on a shoulder. My male Senegal, which attacked me relentlessly and furiously every single day for 3.5 years would, after the third year, perch on my shoulder next to Tobita, his beloved and the major bone of contention between me and him, and he never once bit me while perching there! I think that most people have birds that are not 100% in terms of out of cage time, light schedule, diet, etc and that makes them uncomfortable, insecure, frustrated... basically, a bit unstable (kind of like with a real bad case of permanent PMS with drastic mood swings) and so they would sometimes react the wrong way... either that or people were not reading them correctly because I know for a fact I don't have the magic wand or even train them and I never have had this problem.

So, if you ask me, I would say let the poor bird have his pleasure.

[Weka]

Aw, I would dearly love to have Skeets on my shoulder. The only concern is, he's still quite unsure of stepping up onto my hand and I haven't forced the issue. (Getting treats or scritches from hand = no problem. Hand coming over for stepping up = hesitant behavior) Until we have that level of understanding, I'm a bit wary about reaching up beyond where I can see to give him a lift on or off, as he might bite out of fear and I am sadly NOT the nerves of steel type that won't flinch if that happens.

We did the sit-down-on-the-couch session again today. This time he crawled over and sat just below my chin, "preening" my hair, murmuring softly and looking around to make sure he was safe. He was reluctant to go back towards his cage, but in the end he let me target him back in with a treat. (That's how I'm currently getting him back in -- bribery.) I do hope he will eventually learn that my hands are okay in all situations; if only I knew exactly what happened to him in his previous home and at the shop, to make him so nervous around hands but not shoulders...



--Weka

[Michael]

Going on my shoulder is a reward. They gotta do something good first to get the chance. Of course that also presumes preventing them from getting on my shoulder when it isn't meant to be granted. I also trained mine to step off my shoulder with no hassle. All important stuff. Why waste a great "free" way of providing positive reinforcement to a parrot for good behavior?

[Pajarita]

Oh, geez, Michael, I can tell you are NOT a parent -LOL