Training to NOT do things

[DLC]

Kalki has done a great job learning to fly and can now make his way confidently around our apartment!

We now need to train him to NOT chew on/attempt to destroy our laptops/books/cell phones. He's very interested in whatever we are holding or paying attention to, and can rip off laptop keys at a rate of about three per second. This is preventing us from giving him as much out-of-cage time as we'd like since if we are working on something he has to be inside.

How do we teach him to NOT do these things?

[entrancedbymyGCC]

You can't, really. Chewing on things is a natural behavior. This is one of the reasons we don't have fully flighted birds.... trying to bird proof an entire house is a big task involving a lot of compromise on the part of the humans and any other pets. And while you may be able to dissuade one or two specific behaviors using some degree of aversive, that's something you want to keep at an absolute minimum. While the use of any "punishment" (the technical term for teaching "not") at all, ever, is controversial, it's pretty much universally acknowledged that using reward to build desired behavior is highly successful with birds.

Your best bet is probably to train them to do something else instead. For example, get a really cool playgym/tree with lots of interesting stuff and rotating toys and foraging opportunities. In addition, make a habit of reinforcing them for staying there. If you are working on your laptop and your bird is peacefully playing on his or her tree, tell him he is good and give him a treat! You can also train the bird to come to you on command, so if you see the bird chewing on a cord across the room you can recall it to you.

If a wing trim is something you'd consider, it may make it easier since it is harder for the bird to get as much distance from where he or she has been placed. You still need to reinforce them for amusing themselves, but the situation isn't a delicate. However, the common sentiment on this forum is for flight, so I'll be far in the minority and probably demoted to finch for saying so!

[born2fly]

I on the other hand do not agree that clipping is the answer.

Once you clip your bird now you have a bird that can't(fully)fly and can't chew because it can't get there. What has the bird learned? Nothing.

You can't teach it NOt to chew, but you can teach what to chew.
You are better of doing recall flight training and getting him his own toy to destroy. If keyboards are his favourite get him a keyboard.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18vPfYkJMws

[Shani]

If keyboards are his favourite get him a keyboard.

I can't agree that getting a parrot a keyboard is a good idea. Wires (even if not plugged in it can't be good to chew those), very small plastic buttons (may vary depending on the keyboard), and the flimsy plastic stuff you can see if you take off the keys - fairly sure that could damage a bird if he/she decided to chew on it. Plus, keyboards aren't particularly cheap, and you'd have to replace it very regularly.

As for what you can do, I'd suggest this

Your best bet is probably to train them to do something else instead. For example, get a really cool playgym/tree with lots of interesting stuff and rotating toys and foraging opportunities. In addition, make a habit of reinforcing them for staying there. If you are working on your laptop and your bird is peacefully playing on his or her tree, tell him he is good and give him a treat! You can also train the bird to come to you on command, so if you see the bird chewing on a cord across the room you can recall it to you.

[Michael]

I mostly agree with entranced, except the clipping part. However, simply creating a fun place to be isn't the complete answer. Sure the parrot will spend 10 minutes, maybe even a whole hour there but it will eventually still want to go places. Punishment is unlikely to work and will most likely make things worse. See the article about punishment for many reasons not to use it.

Then check out my recent post about flying the heck out of my energetic parrot to tire him out of exploring so much.

But overall the key is prevention. It's important to not leave things out and to not give the parrot opportunities to get to break new things. It's much easier to keep a parrot from chewing keyboards if it has never gotten to play with one than if it knows it got to play with it once in a while.

[captwest]

Here we go!!! i think he wants what has your attention. Try sub-ing a chew toy (that you really show a lot of interest in )(oh look how pretty!!) etc, for what it is of yours that he wants, you might have to spend a minute or two too convince him and it might only work for a short time but give it a try, see what happens. I know my pets sometimes don't want to share my attention with other things and just need a minute or two. Richard

[DLC]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. I think we will keep him in his unclipped state...even if he is clipped, whenever he is near electronics, he wants them. I think the playgym is a great idea. His existing one in on top of his cage, and I think it would help if he had a second one to go to.

I'll try reinforcing alternative behavior with rewards, though its a bit hard to figure out what the right substitute is. If I have success I'll post about it.

D

[skeetersunconure]

when Skketer chews on something I dont want him to, i give him something else like right now he is trying to destroy the button on my jeans so i gave him my empty Nerd box I just ate hahaha it works