Taming/Training One Bird with Two People?

[Weka]

Hi all --

I have good news and bad news about Skeeter's re-taming process.

The Good: As of Friday, he finally stepped up for me! It only took three weeks of very careful acclimatizing via positive reinforcement. I was soooo happy! We were able to do it several times, each time quicker and more confident than the last.

The Bad: My husband, who has also been working with Skeeter in his cage some mornings and on the weekends, went and eagerly tried to replicate the results the next day while I was sleeping in upstairs. I woke up to the sound of the bathroom sink, and Mr. Weka asking calmly, "Do we still have any of that antiseptic cream?" He had blood oozing out all over his arm. Apparently Skeeter had badly bit him 6 or 7 times. Yikes!!

I asked what happened, and Mr. Weka explained he put in the "step up" perch that I'd put together, and, as he did with me, Skeeter came right down, stepped up onto the perch, then target-stepped up onto his left hand...but instead of reaching for the treat, he went directly for Mr. Weka's tucked in thumb knuckle. Mr. Weka relates that he said, "No, Skeeter" and attempted to dislodge the bird by putting him back onto the perch....upon which the presumably frightened Skeeter latched on even harder in that typical "pit-bull" grip one reads about. Then, when Skeets did let go he simply latched his beak onto Mr. Weka's uncovered forearm and then worked his way upwards for a few more bites.

Needless to say, I've recommended that my husband leave the step-up training to me for now, but after seeing the damage done, I have to admit I'm a little concerned about this break in their relationship.

I've read Michael's and other's advice on "one person birds", but I don't think this is the situation...at least, not yet. I think it was just a bit of misunderstanding and lack of built-up trust. Simply put, Skeeter knows me better, because I work from home and have been directly training him for at least 20 to 40 minutes each day.

Any ideas on what level to keep Mr. Weka involved in Skeeter's training? Over the last couple of days I've had him bring Skeeter his food dishes and do some light target training inside the cage, and I've stepped back my one-on-one time a bit. Other than that, I don't know what else can be done to prevent Skeets from becoming a "little puncture wound generator", as my other half affectionately calls him now.


Thanks,

Weka

[cml]

I think youve already answered your own questions . Your husband took the tameness for granted, without first building the trust himself. When he then said no and removef (grabbed?) skeeter he made it worse, which likely lead to what you described.

Take a step back, both of you , and work on building up trust again. Them slowly try it again when you are ready.

[cml]

Needless to say, I've recommended that my husband leave the step-up training to me for now, but after seeing the damage done, I have to admit I'm a little concerned about this break in their relationship.

Also, dont make this a bigger deal than it is. I understand that it was unpleasant as it was your first situation with parrot bites and blood, but it's going to happen again. Dont worry, and dont get upset ! If your husband doesnt want to be involved because of it, you need to talk it through and make him realise that this is normal, and that he has to work for Skeeter's trust.

I've previosuly worked through an aggressive phase with lots of biting from our amazon, Stitch. We did a few mistakes when we got him, which lead to the biting so the blame was on us. The biting was reinforced by saying "no", and removing the bird when he bit, just like you described in your post. Keep that up and you will have a biter for sure , and I am not saying it to be rude, I have been through it myself!

Take my word for it; it does NOT work.

Positive reinforcement and ignoring bad behaviour is the way to go, and will give you the best results.

It took me months and countless of bites which all drew blood to "untrain" the biting. I still have plenty of scars from it.

Untraining behaviour is a LOT harder than training it, so it's better not to get into those situations. It is possible though, and for the past year or more Stitch has been a complete cuddlebug, with only very very occasional biting, and when that happens its always my fault. Its even more rare that he draws blood.

Best of luck with Skeeter, I think you will both do great with him . Having parrots is a never ending learning experience, and I think that you have got off to a great start from what I've read in your other posts. Dont let this dent that achievement, its just the reality of parrot ownership. Also, learn from it and stop with "no" and "removing" the bird!
(Although, its okay imo to remove your hand from the bite, just dont jerk it back and scream, you want as little of a reaction as possible).

[Weka]

Thanks so much for your experienced input, cml!

Mr. Weka has taken the bites in stride (he's a very relaxed, unflappable individual) and he still wants very much to be a co-trainer for Skeeter. We'll just have to work on getting Skeets more comfortable around him, and that takes time.

One solution I'm thinking of implementing is having Mr. Weka work with Skeeter to target from his current training perch to the top of a kitchen chair and back. (I just worked on doing just this with Skeets this afternoon, to make sure he understands the idea) That way, they both can maintain interaction time and no bare flesh will be directly involved. I talked to the bird shop lady earlier, and she recommended Mr. Weka use a towel over his hand. She is very knowledgeable, but after seeing how stressed out Skeets gets around towels I don't know if that's the best course of action for our particular bird. We'll see how things go without one...

Thanks again for the encouragement,

Weka

[Weka]

Oh, and I forgot to mention Mr. Weka did not attempt to grab Skeets during the altercation, but simply tried to carefully scrape him off his arm and onto the perch inside the cage. Don't think he'll be trying that method again anytime soon...

[KimberlyAnn]

I'm sorry about the bite! Welcome to the chapter of your marriage called, "Who does the bird love more?"

Lol jk. We joke around about it a lot.

I agree with cml on how to handle it. I think having your husband continue to train like you said, is a wonderful idea.

[Weka]

We tried again today, and it started out well. However....

I got Skeeter out for his training session, worked with him for a couple of minutes, then handed it over to Mr. Weka to just do some basic target training on the perch. This went on successfully for about five minutes or so; but when I sat down on the couch to watch their progress, Skeeter fluffed up his feathers, opened his beak, and before my husband could back away he jumped from the perch, landed on his forearm and immediately began tearing into his long-sleeved shirt. Seeing that there wasn't much of a reaction, Skeets then went down to Mr. Weka's hand and quickly got in two deep bites before I distracted his unbridled fury and scraped him off with a hand perch.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. Skeeter really, really wanted to bite my husband on purpose. It's a bit puzzling, as he has been doing extremely well with targeting inside his cage this week...

We will try one more time, but perhaps in a different room. If Skeets attacks Mr. Weka in an unfamiliar space, we'll know that it's more of a "rival" thing than "territorial" thing and we'll have to figure out where to go from there.



--Weka

[GreenWing]

Uh oh, Weka...

Has Skeeter made any courtship gestures with you? Because pois can be one-person birds, they can attack whoever they perceive as a threat to a potential mate.

Have you seen Skeeter lower his wings while making a whining sound at all, with you?

[cml]

On the phone right now so short reply, but back off from the training and let your husband train with skeeter for a while, at least a couple of days, without you in the room.
Sounds like he is becoming attached to you and that your husband needs to work more with him, prefferably many sessions a day!
He needs to get skeeter to understand that he is worth spending time with.

[Wolf]

Agree with cml