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kasiko the african grey

Discuss the methods and techniques of clicker training, target training and bonding. These are usually the first steps in training a young parrot.

kasiko the african grey

Postby danamaynah » Thu May 19, 2016 5:16 am

hello everyone,

i was given an African grey parrot when i was around 9 years on now after 17 years he is still with us, hes a talker but unfortunately i was too young when i got him and he was a big bird probably a few months at the time. there were many times where i tried to train him to step up but he used to bite everyone into quitting.

when my sister in law came to live with us he instantly fell in love with her, regurgitating for her and allowing her to scratch him, but that changed after she had her kid i think that made him jealous.

the last time i attempted to scratch him he gave me a nasty bite, i tried not to react to it while he was biting, he scraped the skin off my finger and i could tell that it shocked him that i didn't seem to be in pain he just froze and looked at me for a while .

anyways i have moved away from my parents house while he is still there everyone talks to him but no one can touch him, he gets out of the cage and sometimes tries to follow everyone and bite them . weirdly he wouldn't harm the cats lol he actually bowed to one of the cats i used to have .

he also did that to us occasionally but once we think its ok to touch he would bite us .

i would say hes around 17 years now so does any one think he can still turn to a friendly parrot?
danamaynah
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Location: bahrain
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: African gray parrot
indian ringneck
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Re: kasiko the african grey

Postby liz » Thu May 19, 2016 6:57 am

When the bird is a baby it will mouth you a lot and sometimes bite to hard. When a bird gets in trouble and you get bit while trying to help it you can get bit. I think these are the only two times that I stay quiet.

When one of them bites down too hard while mouthing me I tell them "owe" so they know that it was too hard. They understand "owe" and adjust what they are doing.

My Aunt Betty is an unusual person. She exaggerates everything. If I poke her with one finger she will scream as if she is being tortured. Rambo and Myrtle both know this. They like to make noise. They like any noises. They like the noise Aunt Betty makes when they do something to her.

Do you intend to reclaim this bird when you get home? Are you ready to give the time?
Start from the beginning as if he was a new rescue. You don't know what all he felt when he was being aggressive.

Most people call it taming the bird. Instructions are all through this forum and with many variations. If you are ready to recover him then the forum can give you instructions. This forum is world wide with many people. Most believe you have to show your bird respect as well as love. You have to try to think what he is thinking.

The last thing we want is to have him live out his long life in a cage.

Tell us much more about him so we can try to understand and we will try to help you understand him.
The last thing we want is that he live his life in a cage. That would be abuse and neglect.
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liz
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Flight: Yes

Re: kasiko the african grey

Postby danamaynah » Thu May 19, 2016 7:34 am

I moved out of my parents house so I don't have enough time to train him but ill try and get someone at home to do that.

he gets out of his cage sometimes on his own he learned how to open the door by himself and we allow him coz he remains there but he has access to his cage when ever he needs to go in and if at times we need to keep him in we just lock the door so he wont be able to open it .

I think he enjoys the sounds we make after he bites us coz when ever he tries or he succeeds sometimes he would make the exact same noise that we do, and I read that parrots like that reaction and we soon leave him after we get bit so we should not react to their biting and ignoring it that they feel it doesn't work anymore and they stop their biting, in my case it just got shocked although I didn't continue much after that coz he peeled the skin off.

ill find someone that can give him training at home got a big home and a big family ^_^
danamaynah
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 47
Location: bahrain
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: African gray parrot
indian ringneck
Flight: Yes

Re: kasiko the african grey

Postby danamaynah » Thu May 19, 2016 7:35 am

I forgot to mention that when we offer him treats at times he would accept it and at times he would act like he's gonna take it and aim for our fingers
danamaynah
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 47
Location: bahrain
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: African gray parrot
indian ringneck
Flight: Yes

Re: kasiko the african grey

Postby Pajarita » Thu May 19, 2016 12:20 pm

Yes, even old parrots can become friendly, it depends entirely on the person he lives with because parrots are highly social birds so they actually NEED the interaction, closeness and love they get when they are 'friendly'.

We can tell you what needs to be done but I think you need to identify who is going to be doing the work because it would be easier if this person posts here their questions and concerns (if we did it through you it would be like the game children play "broken telephone" or something like that :lol: )

I don't believe in the theory that people should not show they are hurt when a parrot bites them. I think it's stupid. No parrot is going to stand there and allow another one to bite him without a reaction so why would a person doing this make the parrot stop biting? I also do not believe that parrots enjoy people expressing pain - they are too empathetic and smart to either enjoy anybody else's pain or to confuse an exclamation of pain with one of joy.
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Re: kasiko the african grey

Postby seagoatdeb » Thu May 19, 2016 1:21 pm

Yep I second what Pajarita is saying, with baby parrots you do ignore the bites and speak gently to them and teach them about pressure. With older parrots, its best to handle it close to how a parrot would. There is lots of information on training a parrot from Michael in this group. For my young Meyers, who is feeling the breeding season, and has done his first complete moult, when he gets nippy, I ususally know when that will be. It is when he thinks i might be going to put him back in the cage. So I approach him by talkng to him, he needs a bit of charming..lol I touch his beak a lot he likes that and it has the benefit in my case of being able to touch his beak when he gets nippy and it settles him down.

In your case since he has been nippy for so long, he will know exactly who is feeling afraid or intimidated by him, and they will be the ones who get the bites usually. So the human neeed to change their behavior. Someone who is wiling to spend the time training him who lives in the house is a great idea.
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Re: kasiko the african grey

Postby liz » Fri May 20, 2016 7:14 am

Myrtle does fly bys on Aunt Betty just to hear her scream.
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liz
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Gender: This parrot forum member is female
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Location: Hernando FL
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Types of Birds Owned: DYH Amazon Rambo
BF Amazon Myrtle
Cockatiels: Shadow Tammy Flutter Phoenix Jackie
Andy Impy Louise Twila Leroy
Flight: Yes

Re: kasiko the african grey

Postby danamaynah » Wed May 25, 2016 8:19 am

thanks and yes its was pretty silly of me letting him scrape the skin off my finger lol I still have the scar for it :lol:
danamaynah
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 47
Location: bahrain
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: African gray parrot
indian ringneck
Flight: Yes

Re: kasiko the african grey

Postby Wolf » Thu May 26, 2016 8:10 am

If I remember right, Kookooloo was about13 yrs. when I got her. She was plucked naked and had chewed three large holes in herself and she would not allow anyone to touch her. Today, although she did pluck herself again, they are coming back in again, lots of pin feathers and some down feather growing back. She still does not allow anyone other than myself to touch her and if a single bite is not enough to convince them to leave her alone she resorts to full attack mode, which after seeing the beginnings of once, I sure will be more than enough to convince a human to leave her alone. She will actually attack me if I hold a phone or remote control in my hand and she can get to me, still, I think that she is holding back some because she just want me to leave that damned thing alone, she literaly hates it. The only other time that she actually bites me is when she get hormonal and from what I have read about Grey
s breeding in the wild the practice of mating can become a bit violent, but only have read that once or twice. So am not sure of it's accuracy. But they are not big on being touched. Greys and touching remind me of the old Brylecream commercials ... A little dab will do you. This is not to say that they don't want or crave affection because they do and are very loving birds and also very protective of their human, no one can touch me when she is on me, and if their are new people in the house she sees her place it to be on my shoulder, the one closest to the new person, so that she can defend me. It took me two years to get her to allow me to hand someone something when she is on my shoulder. And another year to get her to toss a plastic ball to the neighbor's nine year old kid. He knows not to try to touch her or even get too close because she will bite.

One last thing is that Kookooloo, accepted and appeared to have bonded with me upon first sight. It may not have been that actually bonding but, she gave me her heart as soon as she saw me and this has only grown stronger over time, despite my repeated infractions of handling these other parrots or her having less time with me when I get sick from my meds.

Now the point of all of this is to provide you with some insight into the mind of the Grey parrot via my experiences with Kookooloo.

All birds will eventually respond to the right treatment and Greys are no exception to tis. But it is best that the person in your family who decides to take this on actually likes this bird and is willing to respect and love this bird for the next 50 yrs or so. If they do not have this in their heart and mind, I can pretty much promise that you Grey will know this and reject that person. You might think that you can lie to this bird and you can, but the bird knows when you do, you are not fooling it.
If no one is ready to make this kind of commitment with this bird, then it is honestly better to find someone that will and only if this bird accepts them right away. It is not a matter of the human choosing this bird, it is letting the bird choose the person. I would watch the reactions of the bird when that person is there and of the best three or four that he appears to like bring them all together and let him out with them and sit back and let him again make his choice. This bird deserves to be able to be as happy as it is possible.

You do what you think is best and regardless of whether I agree or not I will be here and do my best to be as helpful as I can be, but at least you know what I think.
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Re: kasiko the african grey

Postby danamaynah » Wed Jun 01, 2016 6:13 am

a great protector u have may I ask if she gets jealous of your partner.

I have noticed his reaction to some of the ppl at home he will attack my dad as if he hates to even listen to him speaking, he would freeze if I go next to him and like I said he would pay a lot of attention to my sister in law but I know she is not able to train it .

I'm discussing with my partner of bringing him to my place but we haven't agreed on it yet
danamaynah
Lovebird
 
Gender: This parrot forum member is female
Posts: 47
Location: bahrain
Number of Birds Owned: 2
Types of Birds Owned: African gray parrot
indian ringneck
Flight: Yes

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