Drop Your Bird To Prevent Biting

[SlaveToAParrot]

Is this a good method of dealing with a biting Senegal? I haven't done it at all because it seems that it would lose your parrot's trust. Currently I'm trying to retame Cody and keep things as positive as I can. I was told on by some people that this would teach the bird that biting is not acceptable if you just dropped your hand and let it fly to the floor.

I've got a lot of issues with myself and my parrot to work out but that method doesn't seem right to me. What do you think?

[skeetersunconure]

i dont think this would work. some birds may like that you never know what birds like so by biting they get a fun ride and it may have wanted to be alone and thats what it got to be by itself on the floor. it also lets them know taht you acknowledged him it gave him attention and he knows that you reacted to it. i just ignore skeeter when he bites i think thats the way tog o to just ignore him. thats what i read from everyone else on here

[Michael]

Ok, here's the thing. That advice is coming from people who have a good relationship with their parrot (which you most likely lack, not in an offending way but a trust way). So if Kili gets nippy and starts nipping me for no reason, I'll just shake her off of me or chuck her away. This is a small punishment for her, mostly that she doesn't get to be on me any more and I avoid any more nips. She's not going to get scared of me for this, she can easily fly away so this isn't going to make her hate me. Most of the time she comes back to me herself anyway.

However, doing this to a scared, aggressive, or clipped parrot is BAD! This will make the scared parrot even more scared of you because you are unstable and it was probably making a bite out of fear in the first place. The aggressive parrot will become more aggressive because you are riling it up and increasing the competition energy. The clipped parrot will feel that you are not a safe place to be because it will fall off or lose its balance (flighted parrots don't worry cause they can fly off if they have to). So while I believe advanced trainers with a strong bond with their parrot can use this technique to their advantage, it is ABSOLUTELY NOT a technique to use for any beginners or people who have initial problems with a new bird. The better way to do it is to teach them behaviors through positive reinforcement so that they can start to learn to like being around you and not be scared of you. As always, the step up and stop biting article is the place to go for the positive reinforcement approach to tackling this problem.

[SlaveToAParrot]

Ok, I understand it now. I was confused about why some do that. I've read that article you linked me to a few times already but will read it again just to see if I'm tackling it properly or not.

Cody is either scared/anxious, aggressive or excited a lot of the time due to how the rest of my family interacts with him. I am his owner but it doesn't help that I am not his favourite person either. I had been reading the article on training out the one-person bird as well. However the favourite person(my dad) doesn't seem to want to listen to me nor take part in the taming and training. My mom has been willing to help me out but she is so nervous about the bird biting her again that I've really only been the one who can do all of this taming and training.

So it has been very challenging for me and I know Cody picks up on our moods, I will continue to work on it though because I really want to understand him better. He had his wings clipped a few months back and it appears his flight feathers have come in again. He will allow me to pet his head usually but that is as far as it goes for me. I got him use to the clicker and targeting and he took to that quite well. I will need to rethink my taming sessions though.