Parrot testing boundaries

[KimberlyAnn]

What's worked well for us as far as landing spots go, we have made perches with vet wrap which is a sponge type bandage that are often used for horses. Emmi loves to land on these surfaces insead of the lamp, the shelf, or whatever else she decides is a good landing spot. They feel good on her feet and have that extra padding for when she's coming in for a fast landing. We just watch where she likes to land most and put a perch up. I also do flight training between all these perches so she sees these perches as her only landing spots. We have several in the living room and one to two in each of the other rooms. It works out really well and since she's potty trained, she always has a place to go quickly so we don't have accidents.

Emmi also has a jealousy of the phone, but only with me. I have just learned to talk in a different room while someone else keeps her occupied or if I'm alone, I just grab some berries to keep her mouth full and walk away. It has also helped that I hold her in front of me and look at her when I'm talking so she thinks I'm talking to her. She will talk back and I get a lot of different and funny reactions from people on the other end of the line. Lol

For your love bird's cage, is there a way to cover the top with something so that an accident won't happen? For my snake cage, I have double screened it so there is no way Emmi's toes will come in contact with the snake. I also don't make this an area of interest. Or any area I don't want her to be in...I ignore her completely. She gets no attention if she flies to areas I don't want her in. This has worked well because all Emmi wants is attention. This makes these areas useless to her and she just has no interest in landing on them anymore. Bird safe areas get tons of attention. Telling her no and showing her boundaries has not worked for anything, but biting. In fact it's done the opposite of what I wanted.

But try the perches. It just might work for you. I made them about the height of the places she had started to land on and I've had no problems, besides the fridge...but that's another story and human error.

[GingerBird]

That is a great tip! I have to find this stuff in the Netherlands so I need to find a proper translation first. Unfortunately we don't have really bird-specialized stores, only general pet-stores so it might be hard to find the right stuff.
But, in worst case: I could try to import it from USA.

[Wolf]

Look for an equine feed or supply store or alternatively look for a horse boarding facility or even a horse rental place. I f they don't have any that they would sell you they can tell you where to get it. There is a human version of vet wrap but it is much more expensive. Also you may ask at a vets office about where to buy a couple of rolls of it.

[Pajarita]

I don't know where you saw examples of dominance on this video, I watched the whole thing and there were not any. The one that you referred to specifically (at 8:45) is not dominance, it was just one male wanting to scare off the other ones that were feeding the female. That's not dominance (dominance implies a hierarchical order where one aimal or a pair is at the top and makes all the decisions for the rest of the animals in the group which 'submit' to its or their authority, like gorillas with their harem of females or the alpha pair of the wolves pack) and, this particular one is a behavior only typical of this species where each female is fed by several males during breeding - this is mostly because the female might end up staying up to 11 months in the nest, a behavior unique to ekkies, as it is the multiple husbands and the fact that males flock with males and females with females. Parrots recognize physical superiority, as in stronger, bigger, younger, better adapted, etc as in the stronger/larger/better adapted bird getting the choice mate, nest, food (it is, after all, the basis of evolution -adaptation and natural selection) but they don't understand the concept of obedience.

You cannot really 'set' boundaries with birds because that implies obedience to rules that make no sense to her (why would perching or chewing on one thing be bad when it's OK to perch and chew another one?) but you can re-direct and make the alternative more attractive (like KimberleyAnn suggested with the vet wrap, which, by the way, it's used by all dog and cat vets and comes in different widths and colors -see here:http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=vet+wrap&qpvt=vet+wrap&FORM=IGRE)

As to training her, I use a different command when they go where I don't want them to and when they nip too hard. For the 'bad' place I say: "Go home!" (it means go back to your perch, branch, place or cage) and, for the rough nips, I say "Gentle, gentle, gently" I think it's easier for them if we use words or commands that are specific to a certain action instead of grouping several under "No!"